RPG Retro Review: A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 เม.ย. 2020
- This week I begin reviewing the slavelords series, starting of with A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity!
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Omg this one brings back memories. One of the rare times where player rolls were off the charts and our DM was actually rooting for us even while throwing good challenges at us. 🍕, 🥤, and potato chips while playing all weekend. Almost no sleep 😊
Ahhh that brings back memories. Certainly had a few weekends like that in my buddy's mom's basement.
Gosh I feel old now. The first Gencon I went to was Gencon 13 in 1980. I played the Slaver tournament at Gencon. And holding it at the college made it so fun. The rules were so much looser back then. There were people sleeping on the floor in the student union. I can't imagine a campus allowing people to run wild like we did any more. My friend and I camped out in a tent at a local Jellystone camp site to keep costs down since we were still in high school. Those are great memories.
What I remember from this module, back in the early 80s when I owned it, was the male dwarf on the cover. Then one day I realized it was a female dwarf with a beard.
Looks. Oh yeah, that's right, I remember that now! Good one!!
That's Elwita! The other two are Blodgett the halfling rogue and Dread Delgath the Mage.
I always considered the Slave Lord series as the perfect template for a cinematographic adaptation with the production value of Lord of the Rings. People love vengeance films and it does have a "low fantasy" plot in which you can progressively introduce weird elements as the film advances.
I play through this series as a kid, and had a blast.
As a Dm I am planning to run for a 5th edition campaign.
I DM’d this right after it was released...Oh so many years ago!
All hail the Aspis Queen!
One of my favorite module series.
Thanks Cap, you timed this perfectly! I've been running the U1-U3 Saltmarsh adventures and had been seeding stories of pirates and slavers marauding the Wild coast to the players throughout, in order to set up the A series as the next chapter.
LOVE your work. Please keep it up.
Your videos are incredibly informative and nostalgic; you inspire me, and help me be a better DM.
Wow, thank you! I'll do my best!
"Here in Maryland"... I thought I recognized the accent. ;-)
The Slaver Series is one of the few classic modules I haven't played, DM'd, or read with an intention to DM.
I highly recommend it. Obviously much customization is needed thou
One of the first modules I played as a young kid was in the Dungeons of Slavelords. My dad let me read some of it ahead of time....we still didn’t make it out lol. Great amount of fun.
Yep, it *is* hard, in some sense. The thief in party is supposed to receive invisibility - and since it only works once, you really have to resist attacking anything, until the LAST encounter. No one I gamed with ever rationed an invisibility spell.
A friend of mine in Boy Scouts, used this module to introduce me to AD&D, i played a Gnome Thief and i was able to avoid the traps and pitfalls from going in the back door! I agree that it is the weakest of the 4 modules !
The 4th module is a great idea and terrible execution. Running the 3rd one as the finale works better
Don't worry, I have some great ideas to share for the forth module. Its actually my favorite of the bunch.
@@ronniejdio9411 Yep. The forced enslavement and losing all your stuff never sat well, and the end is like Repeat End #3 part 2
@@cryptking6283 it's got many problems and that is def one
This was a popular module that everyone seemed to have in the 80's and was standard in many campaigns but I found it so hard to deal with. PC's got battered and bloodied so easily and so early on from constant melee, and back in those days it was hard to heal. You didn't just rest where you were standing for 8 hours and wake up at full hit points like now. It was especially bad if you honestly "rolled" hit points at every level without fudging it and there were like 5th level fighters with 13 hit points (although we always cheated).
Love your vids, they take me back almost 40 years now. 1st edition is the only edition to me!
Great video and review Cap. I totally agree with your scoring. Keep the good stuff coming.
Thanks, will do!
I’ve run A1 as the original tournament module scenario for at least two Gamedays, once as AD&D, and once as a 4th Edition conversion. It surprisingly held up in both times, and I probably want to one day run it as a 5e version.
I bought this module when it first came out and still have it 8)
I loved A2 The Slavers Stockade
That's coming up next!!!
I never played any of the Slave Lords modules in the old days. Thanks for this look at the first one. I really like your use of the adventure intro to start the video. I thought that was a nice touch.
Great review as always, Cap! I've modded this one for NWN too. My friends and I played through the whole Slave Lords saga back in the 80s over a week of living on pizza and rc cola lol.
Ooo, is it on Neverwinter Vault? I'd love to play through that. Might also be a fun one to DM on NWN!
@@captcorajus Yup! I got about half way though modding the Stockade before RL kicked in. JayAre probably made the best version. NolDrek made another good one. I'd be happy to send you mine - it's incomplete, but it plays through A1 completely.
Thanks for the memories and for connecting the dots about the reprints
Super job on an oldie!
Despite the tweaking I'll have to do I am looking forward to running this and the others in my setting. As always you had a great review and I'll be checking out your other reviews in the series.
Can't wait for the Paizo conversion of this. Fingers crossed!
I just started doing and this is the first story I’ve ever used so I’m exited
I just today acquired a copy of this module for $15.00 at my friends comic book shop.
Nice! Looking forward to the next 3.
Love your videos. You've got yourself a new patron.
Awesome, thank you so much!
As always, great review!
I love the art from this module.
We must have attempted to play the full sequence a dozen times. Only once did we make it through ToEE, the Slave Lords, and Against the Giants -- only to die in the Demon Webs. Rest of the time we would have to make 8th-level characters and start in Against the Giants. I found Slavers to be one of the better series as with the combined book there was enough backstory and the fact you met the villains repeatedly worked well. By the end of the series every player always hated them. Having the players defeated, captured, and their items taken away completely changed the game and made it more personal than the other series. I wish we played it more, but we seemed to always either to low-level or skip it for the Giant series.
Cool! I had no idea that the special hardcover edition has a bonus Skip "The Sage" Williams module in it.
A great module, I am currently running a Campaign for my group that is going through the Temple of Elemental Evil and will them move into the slaver series. None of them had ever been exposed to the old classics so I wanted them to have the pleasure finally.
Oh, that's awesome!! Yeah, the slavers series is the last series of modules for me to review and then I've reviewed every module in the Greyhawk Sequence.
I recently purchased the pdf of the hardcover slavers series and reread the adventure. It was much more convoluted than I remember.
Its always amazing the difference between the printed page, and the playing out of the adventure with a good DM will give you isn't it? :)
Excellent review
I've actually been waiting for your review of this one. For me A1 has a special place in my heart. It was the first module I ever played through while The Veiled Society was the first module I purchased but had no idea how to run...the module was incomplete and I didn't realize it initially. Ironically, I had a female noble woman who was captured by the slavers as the main goal to the characters. What the characters didn't know was she suffered from Stockholm Syndrome and when they rescued her at the end of A3, she stabbed one of them and killed him just before they were captured from the Slave Lords in A4. They were tortured slowly for months until the volcano erupted. I vaguely remember the modules A3 and A4 being a bit of a mess and remembering that I wished that I had read all of the modules before starting the whole campaign when I finally purchased and read A4. After that I wouldn't start a series until I read them all, I wanted the whole campaign to be more cohesive so that they would flow better. The A series taught me how to plan out and entire storyline, while allowing players to explore my sand box of a world that I borrowed from Gygax. Great video, as always. When it comes to D and D channels, you are my first, and still the best. You sparked my interest in Cthulhu. Here's a question have you ever played The Goblin's Lair, The Dragon's Den or The Haunted Tower? I found The Haunted Tower at a second hand store for five bucks a couple years back and it's still sitting on my shelf waiting to be played. My friends and I all wish we had the time to game but it will always be something we will do some other day. I sure miss gaming.
I have those modules, but never played them Always liked the boxed sets. Might just have to dust them off...
@@captcorajus I loved the cover to A1, I loved the idea of exploring and underground mine as a dungeon. The support beams and the players fighting insects wielding weapons, it was so cool. It got me into Dungeons and Dragons. It also reminded me of The Black Fortress in the movie Krull. There is always something about ominous and exciting about massive lairs filled with monsters that sparks the imagination. I remember in the scene in Aliens were they marines discover the organic looking alien hive and thinking "I wouldn't wanna go in there." In fact that was shortly before I started playing DandD.
Great and very informative video.
Thank you!
i ordered A0-A4 Against the Slave Lords (1e) from drive-thru rps, dungeon masters guild. i can hardly wait until it comes in.
It’s cool. A0 is a nice addition. You should also get a free pdf of Lowdown in Highport from Dungeon magazine.
I bought this one in the Against the Slavelords beautiful reprint from a couple years ago!
Yeah, I bought the Against the Slavelords reprint myself as well. Great book. I'll definitely be reviewing it!
Looking forward to a Slavers series!
Vincent Nadalini ditto
Never had a chance to run this. I think a good number of the early TSR adventure modules will all need some fleshing out, especially the tournament ones.
Loved this one. Cracked me up how the orcs have their "tech" blow up in their face on occasion.
This is definitely one for the more experienced DM and Player. In theory, the PCs have had several opportunities to prove themselves and if this is going to be run as part of an ongoing campaign (like I did) I had to sit on the module for a while until I could get my PCs into the areas affected and make some friends/necessary relationships so they have so.e investment in the outcome.
Due to the tourney nature, there was quite a bit of modification I did with regard to encounters and events. I could always imagine bad guys using some of these monsters as tools, throw them slaves and useless workers as food. There were enough evil clerics to keep the undead in control.
Thanks Cap, you have amazing insight to these modules and I love hearing your take on them.
Good video, and... Oops, like me (I also made the same mistake in my review video of the A1 Mod), you forgot to mention that the Temple Ruins Level map of the A1 Mod has a mistake. The Main Courtyard (rm # 16A) and Inner Courtyard (rm # 9) are not connected. "Scourge of the Slave Lords" fixes this mistake and has the two Courtyards connected, thus connecting the Left and Right Halves of the Temple Ruins Level. Funny thing is, WOTC forgot about this correction, and made the same mistake of not having the two rooms connected in their "Against the Slave Lords".
Hmmm, I did mention that the upper level is divided in to two sections at 7:13 but i didn't recognize that as a 'mistake' until I grabbed the Scourge of the Slavelords map and checked out the connection. Good one!
@@captcorajus When I did my review of the "Scourge of the Slave Lords", I wish I remembered that correction. So, I feel like I made the same mistake twice!
Having a copy of the individual A modules, and the A1-4 Scourge, I also saw the supermodule just cobble the 4 individual modules together, rather than fix the issues you mention. Ah well, some homework for the DM.
We ran this right after keep on the borderlands. Our DM replaced the ant-people with NEOGI because chaos and slaves (wink wink nod nod) and we then moved on to against the spider queen!
Played it once then ran it later when they repackaged it and put it in the series with Temple of Elemental Evil & GDQ. I even bought the recent repackage with A0 though I haven't gone through that yet.
If you had an evil druid,, evil cleric,, and evil wizard as the slave lords here, it would explain how they keep the monsters in line.
After hearing your Leather worker rendition, have you ever tried a Connery? I think you're almost there. Ha.))
There's a good possibility I have Trebeck! :p
I remember DMing this in 1982 I was 13 and probably did a poor job but man was it fun except for that wight early on. Tpk and then restarted
Back in the good ole days we used to play AD&D campaigns with a pretty predictable series of modules: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Village of Hommlet, Slavers series, White Plume Mountain/Dwellers of Forbidden City/Ghost Tower of Inverness/Hidden Shrine, Giants (possibly followed up by D1/D2), and finally Tomb of Horrors(where everyone dies so we can start over XD)
1:05 I admire your commitment to the role but it's a bit of a challenge to make out what you're saying.
6:03 I did some research into the pronunciation of D&D nomenclature if you'd like to check it out, I was mispronouncing 'basilisk' too!Thanks for the review I'm hoping to run this for my group but converting to post apocalyptic rpg
I have the super version of this module I ordered up on eBay years ago with the intention of running it in an old 2e campaign. Never got the chance to run the whole game.
I rmember when A1 scourge of the slave lords cost like 10 USD. back in the late 80s.
Less than that with my Other Worlds discount at Waldenbooks. 🤣
Yes, the temple map on the ground level is divided. This is a huge flaw. This pissed me off greatly as a young DM. And the stairs in the graveyard was also a big flaw. These flaws ruined this adventure for me, as again I was a very young, and very inexperienced, DM.
A1. where all it began, really, And obviously
They could just have an Evil cleric who controls and managed their undead lines of defense, undead don't need to be paid after all to stand guard.
Classic module
Wasn’t some of the interior artwork controversial? I could swear I read that there was some nudity that caused some parents to freak out.
Not exactly sure if THIS is the one with the controversial artwork. The only one I know if is "Palace of the Silver Princess."
I was going say that Jeff Dee (who I loved as artist for AD&D, Gamma World and V&V!) had the interior art with the orcs coming down into the watery corridor where there was Graffiti on the wall that said, "Elves are fairies". Not sure it was A-1, but probably more on the controversial side now than in the early '84 when I had the module. Times have changed on that note as Jeff's Mighty Protectors (V&V 3.0) allows for the full range of pronoun gender reference during character creation. Not wanting to start anything here, just an observation.
@@captcorajus the original Palace of the Silver Princess did, though apparently few people actually saw that.
I could swear that's the vision my friends had when we played in the 80s though. I'm not sure it's providence. They got it from a friend who had gotten it from his uncle who got it from somewhere else. Nor do I know what happened to it. I assume it was given or thrown away.
Have you see the Three Little Books Adventures from Rob Kuntz?
I don't even remember if I bought the Scourge of the Slave Lords booklet. I might have. It's been a few decades. I agree, the series isn't that great, ...due to it tournament nature.
The best thing about it is Jeff Dee's artwork. Finally(!) the Goblin orcs/goblins/ etc. looked realistic. I copied those pages and used those pictures for a few years as encounter pictures for the players.
I also remember how hard it was to get copies of these when they first came out. They had stopped selling D& D in my area because of the whole "devil-worshipping" scare sweeping the soccer-moms at the time.
Hi capt-c....where did you learn this from at 6:46 "Gygaxian naturalism, whereby one presupposes a world influenced by the things the rules suggest."
James Maliszewski, from the Grognardia blog coined the term.
@@captcorajus Got it, thank you... I have a similar idea that I expressed differently... i said to someone that the way they made the rules was by taking their war game gunk, converting it so that the tokens = one person instead of a whole squadron (or whatever), and then come up with mechanics that allow them to allow the "tokens" (player characters) to work in a game referee's fantasy setting and together make up fantasy stories like the ones they read....then i suggested that each fantasy setting (including the feeling you want to create in the players) require a separate rule set (at least house rules, if not more than that!)... the 5e guy did not like this idea ("I'm not gonna make rules for every world I play!") ... Well that's fine, but then you live with generic 5e rules that don't suggest wonder, awe and fear to me... and certainly don't really create a story in any specific fantasy genre. I think that Professor DM guy might agree with this sentiment I have, but I am not sure....Anyway, you keep doing you capt-c!!!
@@VioletDeliriums I don't think you NEED a rules set per campaign setting but, wow, it does make a difference. Case in point, Hyperborea, which is essentially old school D&D.. but character classes, the spells, down to the magic items reflect the setting, and makes for very rich experience.
@@captcorajus yes i think magic rules are especially important! i think traditional D&D (BX-5e, stuff published by TSR or WoTC) makes magic mundane because, other than the new people, everyone already knows all the spells and magic items because they are published in books that everyone reads. they already know what spells they want before they even make a character. They should just give DMs a way to create their own spells and magic items, so when the players see them, it is mysterious and scary. that gamma world artifact flowchart could come in handy -- technology in that game is like magic in D&D...i don't play much now, but next time i DM a campaign I will not use the traditional magic rules -- players are not going to have a list of spells. i will make them up as i go and they will discover and learn them more like scientists than video game players.
This is part of a trilogy isn't it ? update: 20:04 oh, a quadrology !
4:03 (Description of Highport) I love modules that provide a city -- esp. as a source of ideas to loot. Safeton looks useful, but i don't understand why humans would live in Highport, a city filled with goblins and orcs. And why would goblins and orcs let humans hang out with them? It makes no sense to me.
8:53 (Terrain at the Slave Pits) But, why would the characters go out into dangerous terrain (i.e., the beams) to fight when they could just used ranged weapons and wait for the fancy-pants ants to come to them?
17:47 (Presentation Rating) Yes, tournament info was always annoying. I remember back to like 9th grade looking at that stuff and thinking, "What do I need this stuff for?" It is definitely a problem with old AD&D modules that TSR should have though about when marketing stuff that was once used in tournaments.
19:16 Unfortunately, when i first started playing I was a very young teenager (13) and we didn't know how much prep you had to do regarding modifying stuff. So if we got something from TSR (instead of making our own), that was how it was. If there was nothing between the gate of Highport and the temple written down, then it amounted to just a description with no real action. You just pass through a city filled with orcs and goblins like it was a routine Star Wars cantina and then you're at the temple.
1) Depends on how things go in your world. If you read the slaver's supplement, the city is divided up into 'sections' with Humans, gnolls, orcs etc in specific locations. Realistically, if such things existed, necessity would result in alliances with like minded creatures.
2) Who said I was giving them the time? What if there's creatures coming from the other direction? What if they creatures have spell casters and archer's of their own?
Great comment! Thanks!!
@@captcorajus Sure -- all encounters may have more details. i was looking at the picture of some sort of multi-classed clown-fighter attempting to perform a trapeze act for the enjoyment of the bemused onlooking characters in order to engage Mr. Fancy-Pants Ant in some sort of awkward sword duel. I can't really see anything beyond the picture, and didn't think much about it. That said, it still doesn't seem like the best idea. If there are others chasing, then they have to find a position that makes them least vulnerable (maybe it involves crossing the beam, maybe not). If Mr. Fancy-Pants' ranged-attack buddy is over there shooting stuff at me, I am even less likely to try to cross the beam. In any case, I would be looking for a "something else" that we could try. Maybe if we got some Terro, we could lure one of them into it. He would bring it back to the nest. At first the problem would get worse, but after he brings it back to the nest and exposes others, their exoskeletons would decay and they would all die. I'd give them two weeks, tops. :D
We didn't enjoy these modules. I think eventually we had a total Party Kill when we tried it as a campaign. It was a little darker than I enjoyed.
It always felt like the solution to these Slavers was a military campaign by one of these countries' armies.
The party seemed woefully underpowered to deal with this.
We did enjoy the escape from the dungeon module but we played it as a one of and did end up in another total party kill.
Maybe it was just us.
I give this series an 8. I think maybe a ten for this module.
The weasel lord
Now I know what Donald Duck and Sméagol lovechild sounds like.
Where can you get a 5th edition conversion of this module?
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193356/Classic-Modules-Today-A1-Slave-Pits-of-the-Undercity-5E?&affiliate_id=118139
A friend of mine ran us through this as a one shot for 5e. It was cool
can u used 1e for 5e?
shane nice yes but there is something to the conversion I’m not sure how he did it but it worked well and we had a blast
Safeton?
A3 Assault on the Aerie of Slave Lords is worst of the series. The finale A4 is a bit different - very fun. The players start as prisoners.
I understand your critiques but at the same time they are easily resolved by an intrepid DM - especially the plot devices and motivation. A simple example would be to add a merchant or similar VIP captive in the pits for the PCs to rescue. Done.
Easily resolved? The DM has to develop an entire town and back story before this module begins. Not exactly "easily". As far as motivation, go back to 0:00 I'm pretty darn sure I suggested just that. :)
@@captcorajus Fair enough. I just wanted to point out that by their nature, most of the modules are disjointed from larger campaigns and might need some DM-specific adjustments to make them viable. That said, I think your criticisms of the Tournament nonsense are completely valid. Like you said, it's a dumb waste of precious space. Hidden Shrine of Tamochan does the same thing, I think.
@@captcorajus Is making a town all that hard? Take your Zenophus town, change around some names, and you're good to go. Or Village of Hommlet, etc.
I was specifially speaking of Highport. In order to get the flavor of an evil town run by orcs and humanoids you can't just shove in any old town. There are NPCs that need to be created, a map probably etc. Fortunately, the Greyhawk: Slavers supplement i mentioned fills in the details quite well.
Is it just me, or did this just start up in mid-sentence?
Nope... In media res, yes. I thought I'd start off with a teaser narration before jumping into the regular theme.
@@captcorajus, I dug it! Using the adventure hook as the video hook! Good stuff, as usual.
A1-4 also has a terrible piece of railroading before getting into the actual modules that will infuriate players, especially if this is being run as a continuation from the Temple of Elemental Evil super-module. I ran it back in the day, and it killed the campaign.
Was the 7th level thief given a name??? No, as you mentioned he was unnamed. Pathetic. And why giant weasels? Why were Aspis needed? Aren't Orcs sufficient as guards?? They are the quintessential guard in the fantasy genre. This was the weakest of the A1-A4 modules.
Please don't do that voice again :(
Whatever. It was cool.
It was trying to play this module that taught me that not all gamers are decent people. I was joining a game group in my HS and they conspired with the DM to kill off my character in the very first room. I never played with them after that.
I never found the premise of this module that bad. My primary problem is with the map. I am sure the wrecked half was supposed to link with the intact half of the temple somehow. How they drew it you were forced to go out through the damaged roof of the garden or the double doors near it and walk around the front of the building to reach the main gate. In which case -- why go through the secret entrance into the wrecked temple to begin with? I am also certain that the first staircase was originally supposed to lead to the basilisk den and not the sewer.
Sorry to hear about your poor experience. That's pretty terrible for them to conspire like that.
As far as the module goes, the active side of the temple is inconsequential. You can accomplish the goals of the module by simply entering through the secret door in the back, traversing the sewer levels and defeating the slavers in the slave pits area, and in room 21. There, the party discovers a map of caravan routes that will lead them to the 'Slavers Stockade'. You can free the slaves in the slave pits area, and that's it.
@@captcorajus I have never seen the point of rushing to the end of a module. I have always believed that the way to get the most out of them is to go through the whole thing, try to find everything and search everywhere. So much is in them beyond just the basic story. Many would be nothing if you just went through it the shortest way.
I'm glad u mentioned the flawed map. How ridiculous that the PCs WILL bypass half the ruined temple map including some neat encounters, just by taking the staircase down to the sewers. Indeed the two halves of thr top temple area are.not connected in any way. Ridiculous. This is an error which I believe was fixed in subsequent editions, though I may be wrong about that.