The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Forsaken Elves

Dwarf Hold

Okay, I'm been gaming a while, moved into those more sophisticated genres, thought I'd put my dungeon crawling days behind me. But, after reading a batch of "Knights of the Dinner Table" (from Kenzer&Co) my friends and I were motivated to do an old-style AD&D game. And lo, I happened to have some Pulp Dungeons around to review.

I was skeptical. Sure, they were cheap, but where was the gaudy art and pretentious fiction that we've come to expect from new games? Still, I pulled out the first one to run, "The Forsaken Elves."

And, put bluntly, it rocked! These suckers are great! Enough of the old-style hack-and-slash and trap hunting, with a surprisingly clever back plot. The first one was an excellent module, set in a repossessed underground Asylum. There, mad cursed elves block out the light and keep their healthy children captive. The band of do-gooders has to rescue them.

Pulp Dungeons use a simple mechanic-adaptable way of describing things, in terms of hits. One hit is whatever the average hit die/damage die/stat die/whatever in your system is. This worked well for our AD&D run, and I can see it working equally well for any system.

The flavor text was short and succinct, the variation of encounters was robust, and the overall cohesion of the adventures made sense. And it was fun, a nice mix of puzzles and combat. It really brought back those older years, but with enough meat to appeal to our experienced palates (yea gods, it even brought back my love of mixed metaphors.)

Looking for flaws, well, the maps have no scale, so describing them to a mapper was tricky. The juxtiposition of creature states with encounter descriptions was a little oddly placed, and sometimes you had to flip around to see what they'd encountered. For a pulp, they did require a decent amount of guesswork if the party doesn't follow the most likely course of action. None of these are showstoppers, though.

So, for $4, it was great! We had a wonderful time, enough that we picked up the game with the next module (leaping into #3, actually, because module #1 has hooks into all of the first series.) Though only halfway through this one, the party has had a good time. This one concerns a dwarven hold, taken over by no-good-niks. The party is there, as dwarf-friends, to clear the place out (and loot it a bit, one presumes.) Unfortunately, our party thief was, well, a little surlier and a lot greedier than even a beleagured dwarf can manage, and they lost out on some initial clues and were nearly wiped out. Their verdict? "I can't wait to go back and clear that place out!"

I think we're sold on the idea. Pulp Dungeons-- well worth the low low price they ask for, and a lot of fun. I can't wait until we finish all four of the first series.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Pulp Dungeons: S1A1 and S1A3
Author: Timothy Brown Category: game Company/Publisher: Destination Games Playtest Review by Sandy Antunes on 09/08/97. Genre tags: none	The Forsaken Elves Dwarf Hold Okay, I'm been gaming a while, moved into those more sophisticated genres, thought I'd put my dungeon crawling days behind me. But, after reading a batch of "Knights of the Dinner Table" (from Kenzer&Co) my friends and I were motivated to do an old-style AD&D game. And lo, I happened to have some Pulp Dungeons around to review. I was skeptical. Sure, they were cheap, but where was the gaudy art and pretentious fiction that we've come to expect from new games? Still, I pulled out the first one to run, "The Forsaken Elves." And, put bluntly, it rocked! These suckers are great! Enough of the old-style hack-and-slash and trap hunting, with a surprisingly clever back plot. The first one was an excellent module, set in a repossessed underground Asylum. There, mad cursed elves block out the light and keep their healthy children captive. The band of do-gooders has to rescue them. Pulp Dungeons use a simple mechanic-adaptable way of describing things, in terms of hits. One hit is whatever the average hit die/damage die/stat die/whatever in your system is. This worked well for our AD&D run, and I can see it working equally well for any system. The flavor text was short and succinct, the variation of encounters was robust, and the overall cohesion of the adventures made sense. And it was fun, a nice mix of puzzles and combat. It really brought back those older years, but with enough meat to appeal to our experienced palates (yea gods, it even brought back my love of mixed metaphors.) Looking for flaws, well, the maps have no scale, so describing them to a mapper was tricky. The juxtiposition of creature states with encounter descriptions was a little oddly placed, and sometimes you had to flip around to see what they'd encountered. For a pulp, they did require a decent amount of guesswork if the party doesn't follow the most likely course of action. None of these are showstoppers, though. So, for $4, it was great! We had a wonderful time, enough that we picked up the game with the next module (leaping into #3, actually, because module #1 has hooks into all of the first series.) Though only halfway through this one, the party has had a good time. This one concerns a dwarven hold, taken over by no-good-niks. The party is there, as dwarf-friends, to clear the place out (and loot it a bit, one presumes.) Unfortunately, our party thief was, well, a little surlier and a lot greedier than even a beleagured dwarf can manage, and they lost out on some initial clues and were nearly wiped out. Their verdict? "I can't wait to go back and clear that place out!" I think we're sold on the idea. Pulp Dungeons-- well worth the low low price they ask for, and a lot of fun. I can't wait until we finish all four of the first series. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Pulp Dungeons: S1A1 and S1A3

The Forsaken Elves

Dwarf Hold