As D&D continues it's downward spiral of dumbing down gaming with it's "back to the dungeon" manifesto, it only reinforces the legitimacy of efforts like Ritual of the Golden Eyes. A generic fantasy adventure written before the Open Gaming License, Ritual is the second part of the epic Wolfmoon adventures series by Inner City Games Design (begun
in A Challenge of Arms).
It gets off to a semi-promising start when you first flip through it. While the cover art is only average, the interior art is occasionally much better and the maps well designed. There are over 20 handouts for players, a very nice touch which shows effort to provide value for the consumers money. I was also impressed with the 18 page bestiary at the
back, which contained some intriguing NPC's (the one armed thieves guild leader The Arm; his lieutenant Brain Fry, whose scalp is horribly scarred by burns; and the mysterious woman known as Fog) and interesting new monsters (flame spiders; phase snakes, which
can pass through solid objects; and the bane of dwarves, the tunnel hunter). Finally, there is a comprehensive XP summary at the back, a useful tool when the adventure runs 108 pages like this does.
But soon enough, the book degenerates into another poorly conceived dungeon crawl. There were some problems with the initial entry in the series, but there was enough there to suggest Inner City Games was on the verge of a solid fantasy campaign. Besides improving the artwork marginally, they have not taken that next step forward.
The adventure features the railroaded player characters trying to locate the missing princess of Arglond, who has a birth defect known as "golden eyes". Apparently, any member of the royal line with this mutation can be turned, via an arcane ritual, into a shewolf-were, a progenitor of the evil race called the Fang Queen. Characters have 2 days to locate the princess before the wolfmoon, when the ritual must take place.
It's an epic and exciting premise, to be sure. But author Christopher Clark, with development aid by Gary Gygax (whether having this rpg pioneer aboard is a boon or a hindrance is a matter of much debate), makes little apparent attempt to translate this cool
premise into an exciting adventure. Characters are shown an ancient door leading to an underground dungeon and told "that's gotta be where the princess is. Go get 'em, tigers". Players have little real option but to accept: "If the party refuses at this point....several
days later a raiding party of 60 (that's 6-0!) wolf-weres will attack the party while they are encamped at night. Fight it out, and make their deaths as gory as possible!". If you look up railroading in a rpg dictionary, there will likely be a reference to this adventure.
I'm not a fan of dungeon crawls. They have their place, but no-where in fantasy fiction do the heroes go mucking about endless underground fortresses, clearing out rooms in endless monotony. But, for those that like this sort of game session, Ritual of the Golden
Eyes delivers. There are some flashes of originality in here, with some devious traps, interesting puzzles, and notable encounter areas. It's just that it feels more like a tactical exercise than a Role-Playing session.
While not for those interested in story driven adventures, Ritual fits right in with D&D 3E's anachronistic "back to the dungeon" philosophy, and complements their current trend in adventure design. While it still lacks the polish that Wizards of the Coast boasts,
dungeon crawlers MIGHT want to look into this adventure series
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)