There's going to be a tricky section here with the next few "editions". After some debate, the module that makes the most sense as the "into" to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. It's obviously an odd duck, being a competitive tournament module, very different from the standard mode of play. The timing is right, though, and although the adventure is in some ways odd it is what TSR released to market these strange new "advanced" rules. I'm going to go with this as the representative cover illustration.
And what a cover it is. A psychedelic work of monochrome art, at first glance primitive but with surprising skill...I love the shadows being cast on the walls, the way that stream of fire is the central source of illumination for the whole piece. In immediate contrast to the monster-free In Search of the Unknown cover, here we have a monster front and center, engaged in violent conflict. And the monster...a weird bat-gargoyle thing that has no immediate mythological or pop culture antecedents, it's striking and strange and ugly. I'd say it's not particularly menacing-looking, but it's engaged in straight-up killing the hapless magic-user, with that aforementioned shadow adding some real weight to it. It's a great monster. The adventurers are interesting, here, because even though they're engaging in combat, there's nothing heroic about how they're portrayed. I'm assuming the Meso-American gentleman is actually a fighter for the party, but his stance is actually ambiguous, turned almost to smite the luckless magician with his glass sword. The heavily armored lady adventurer is also turned away from the monster, rearing back in dismay at her companion's immolation. The magic-user is at least doing some visible damage to the monster, although the contest is clearly one he's losing...the poor guy even gets a bland pageboy cut and an average build next to the Barbie and Ken proportions of his companions. Nobody on the player side is empowered by the art...they look like they should have run away, or figured out a better method of fighting that doesn't involve frontal assault. I love the disaster depicted here. What we can conclude from the Hidden Shrine cover is that while there are more weird, exotic, and strange threats here in this new AD&D, this still isn't a game about heroes conquering evil villains. The monster is weird and ugly, but it doesn't look like an existential evil threat to the world...in fact, it's clearly living where it's supposed to live, it's the adventurers who are trespassing on its home. We're still safe from any world-saving quests, it's just gotten a lot more dangerous and exciting, and you can still expect to be dying.
1 Comment
squeen
3/10/2023 04:42:04 am
Village of Hommlet is the quintessential AD&D intro adventure. Without a doubt. Beautiful Trampier cover that tell a story.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWeblog of Ben Gibson, the main writer and publisher of Coldlight Press. Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|