RPG Crawler Reviews - OAR #4 The Lost City
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2020
- A review of Original Adventures Reincarnated: The Lost City, a 5th edition conversion of a classic dungeons and dragons basic module, from Goodman Games.
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I grew up on mid-80s D&D, and stopped playing until this year. One of the DMs at our local game shop is going to run a new DM workshop, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm thinking of running the 5e conversion of Desert of Desolation which I drooled over as a kid. This would be a fun precursor to this, and a cool way to introduce some younger RPGers to some retro material. Thanks for the review!
Love this series of books
The Howardian Story that mostly relates to The Lost City in my humble opinion, is Red Nails. There are also elements of Moorcock's Imrir (or however you spell it, I have little respect for Moorcock), and some the Howardian Story A witch Shall be Born.
You had me at “goblin pole-dancing”.
Hah yeah, it's so goofy, but somehow so fitting for that particular area.
Used the original and 3.5 material back in 2007 and now running for a new group in the original B/X. Love the factions as it helps invest characters of different backgrounds and classes into the action, turning a typical hack-and -slash into a story-based adventure. Thanks for the review!
Thanks for watching it!
I have the Goodman Games Into the Borderlands and Castle Amber release and I am quite pleased with them. I could tell what a labor of love they where. This one seems to be on that level and I'll be picking it up at some point in the near future. Cheers!
Thanks for the view! And yeah that's been my take on the entire series so far. Mind you, there's some mild variation in focus, but they've all turned out 'good' in my experience, just different degrees thereof. Can't wait until the ToEE one lol.
Thank you! I found this and your other OAR reviews really useful. I’m planning on running a long campaign through a selection of the best of the old TSR basic and expert modules using the Moldvay Cook rule set. So your reviews have been really helpful.
I'm glad that you found them useful! Good luck with the campaign, that sounds like a blast.
I'm gonna run this and make it a partial campaign.
It would very much make a great first quarter or first half of a good 5e campaign.
Thanks for a very thorough review of both the mechanics and the spirit of the revisions and additions. I will be buying it, and likely making changes similar to what you envisioned at your own table. Cheers!
Glad I was able to be informative. Good luck with it!
GREAT module!
Good video. Much better than the previous one i viewed, no intro, and the focus is on the product, which i prefer over looking at some dudes face. your calm style really appeals to me, its very listenable when im doing other things. keep it up, it was very informative
Thanks for watching! And yeah, I was still adapting my review style at the time of the prior review you'd commented on. As things go on I tended to shift to a very straightforward, almost formulaic style. I figure it's best to give people the information they may need and let them decide for themselves, since so many different groups might find different materials appealing to them.
Into the Borderlands doesn't have color art or the bookmarks in the stitching. Text layout isn't a trope. =D Great episode.
Thanks and yeah, I think they were still figuring out what to spend the money on on Into the Borderlands. Also looks like it's printed in a different way than the newer ones. I kind of do like the way they're going with the series, even if I think that the interview material is getting a little on the light side as the series goes on. Can't wait to see what they do with ToEE.
I've been curious about this, because the quality of these "Classic adventures revisited" books by Goodman Games have been all over the place. Some of them have been good, others have been trash. This one looks pretty alright.
Yeah, a lot depends on where your focus is. It seems with each release they tweak a little bit in one direction or another, either in the background info, the new material, or the conversion itself. Experimentation does lead to that sort of effect.
Pole dancing goblins. Sounds like Monday night local tryouts at the local peelers.
lol. it reminds me of some of the eccentric gremlins from the 2nd movie...
Great review!!
I wish there was a 5e only, as I don't care for the reprint.
The history is interesting, but could be on a web page.
Also, this would lower the price point and possibly move more units. Just my two cents. :)
The reasons I’m interested in this are everything but the 5th edition info. BECMI D&D is more realistic and immersive in its healing rules and its variety of encounters (some monsters it’s best to run away from, or sneak past).
Excellent review, thanks. I really feel confident about the content and quality now. I'm curious if you think that this module warrants 300-ish pages, and a $60 price tag ? The original was about 40 pages and $8.
Glad I could help, and I should have a castle amber review up soon enough.
The extra pages include not only scans of the original module, but additional background material and maps/illustrations, as well as the additional playable expansions. Furthermore, the typeface is of a larger, more readable size for the actual conversion content, so it does take up the full page count comfortably, with little to no padding. I'll say that I felt comfortable with the page count for the what the product's going for. It'd be a bit different if it were just a straight conversion with no additional material.
As for the price tag? Good question. I got it from amazon for around $40 USD at the time, which is more reasonable, although still a hike. I'll say that there's a few ways to look at it. If you compare it to modern 1st party modules, I'd say that it offers about as much content as you'd find in a modern wotc hardback, in terms of playable stuff, at a comparable pricing. Whether that makes it worth the price tag, that'd be up to the individual. If you're a collector/interested in the history of the module, it's well worth the value. IF you're just looking for a 5e conversion of the original content and aren't interested in any of the extras, it's definitely not worth it , since you can already get conversion guides for free/much cheaper.
As for whether I personally would pay 60 bucks for it? Probably not, though it'd be close. It does feel more like a genuine campaign rather than a one off module, although less so than the first two in the original adventures reincarnated series (which I'd say were definitely worth the price).
Comparing 1980's prices to 2020 is kinda pointless.
Thank you for the review. I was excited to get this, strictly for the new material (which looks fantastic, aside from the "pole dancers" and non-Nihilist approach to a decadent society crumbling from within) , but I have found enough old school resources on the internet, so I will forego getting this one.
Thanks for watching! And yeah, it's one of those hit or miss ones. Content's good, if you're looking for a one-stop all in one, but there's enough expansions for the lost city already tooled for OSR material out there that it's kinda not as worth converting as some of the other OAR releases I've seen.
Thanks for the review. But since I'm a AD&D 2E DM I'd like to know how difficult it is to convert the expanded adventure to a previous iteration of the game. Thanks!
Converting from 5e to previous editions is a little bit touch and go, but not as bad as converting from 3.x or 4e. Most of the new monsters listed are available in prior editions as is, although many of them in earlier versions (Basic and AD&D 1e) rather than 2nd ed. So if you're comfortable converting from say, BECMI to 2e you're good. As far as traps and hazards and the like, a lot of the damage on those is similar, one would only have to figure out what saving throws one wants to use, or use the 2nd ed version. On most of the monsters, it's as easy as using the earlier edition version, although that does still leave a few in need of converting, or a few as 'monsters with class levels' kind of a set up. Treasure-wise, the new content does use the 5e treasure scaling, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue given the more flexible nature of AD&D 2e treasure hoards. So while it's not >easy< to convert it's not exactly difficult either. It just requires a bit of care and work. A couple afternoons reading through it and making notes/decisions.
@@rpgcrawler thanks again for the answer. It seems it's worth the effort, and I guess I'll give it a try.
I'm curious as to the origin and reason for the decision to change the theme from a sword and sorcery style decadent and failed city to a more standard theme of a population being forcefully held in thrall by an outside influence.
Most of it comes from material produced earlier. This version makes use of material produced in one of the BECMI era gazeteers, as well as a 3rd edition article from Dragon. While those didn't add the maps and other additional material covered in here, they did add the storyline about the populace being influenced by an outside toxin. And the main reason I gather from that is that the BECMI era mystara gazeteers did tend toward a more simple 'heroic' style of story, and then the 3rd edition material ushered in the lowest common denominator kind of storytelling, which shifted away from a classic sword and sorcery feel to a more 'you can do anything, heroic fantasy' style.
First! Also looking to get this within the next month or two.
It's pretty solid, my disappointment at the included material notwithstanding. I haven't regretted buying a single volume of this series yet, and I'm looking forward to how they handle ToEE.
I love the original and had questions about the product. I think I'll skip this even though it looks wonderful. Thanks!
Hey no problem, glad to help, and thanks for the view.
Is there a PDF of this anywhere
Sadly it doesn't look like there is a legit source for one. I'd keep my eye on both the goodman games site itself and drivethrurpg for it at some point.
@@rpgcrawler Thank you!
I don't think the Goodman OAR series is allowed to have PDFs due to the agreement with WotC, unfortunately. Think I read or heard that from someone at Goodman.
WotC being a pain, per usual.
@@NefariousKoel, yes, you are correct. No PDFs because by order of WotC. This is why OAR #7 (Dark Tower) and #8 (Caverns of Thracia), being both Judgles Guild and not TSR modules, will have PDFs.