First published in 1982, the Warlock of Firetop Mountain was the very first of the Fighting Fantasy series of books. It combined the surprise of the "Choose your own Adventure" books, with the dice-rolling suspense of fantasy roleplaying. Myriador Limited has converted the Warlock of Firetop Mountain into a conventional d20 adventure, suitable for a small party of characters -- and with the Luck attribute. Will you survive Firetop Moutain?

The Look

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a 40-page adventure for up to four 4th level characters. It follows the standard color cover, black-and-white pages, and retails for $15.95 (ouch). The exterior and interior art are superb, and the layout is very well done. The adventure comes with additional mechanics for Luck; additional monsters, magic items, and spells; and four pregenerated characters. The party will have about fifty encounters.

Luck

The original Fighting Fantasy books had a Luck attribute. Myriador now makes it a d20 mechanic. Luck starts off as any attribute, including its modifier. (Eg. a Luck of 16 gives a +3 modifier.) Luck is usable in almost any situation: As a bonus to hit, increase in AC, damage reduction, skill check bonus, etc.. Essentially, BEFORE the dice are rolled, a player announces he will make a Luck check, and reduces his Luck by one. He then rolls a d20 and adds his modifier, against a Luck DC, typically 10. For every two points above 10, he receives a +1 modifier. But if he fails by six or more, he receives a -2 modifier. Luck can be regained through Luck-related magical items and normal regeneration of ability points. Like experience points, the GM may also award Luck. If you use a point-generation system for characters, they start off with an additional five points, since they now have an additional ability score. For existing characters, the GM can simply fiat that these five points go into the character's Luck attribute.

The Adventure Itself

Unfortunately, I can only say the adventure itself is average or below average. In hindsight, this shouldn't be too surprising, given that it was originally written in 1982. In general, the south half of the dungeon are humanoids, and north half of the dungeon are undead, but the encounters otherwise lack the "realistic fantasy" of today's adventures. Most of the creatures will just attack. Like the monsters, the "tricks and traps" lack a "method behind the madness". Why are there cavemen in only one room of the dungeon? Why is there a magical shopkeeper in the middle of a lair? Why is there a magical fountain here? Sure, this sort of thing didn't matter twenty years ago, but today's D&D audience demands, for better or for worse, a more sophisticated adventure.

Additional Material

The adventure comes with six pages of eight new monsters, from the mundane giant bat, to the exotic wailing spirit. New magical items and spells, related to Luck are included. The adventure gives suggestions for scaling the adventure to 3rd and 5th-6th PCs. A small town of ten locations (plus rumor table) is included for campaign play. The NPCs have the conventional stat blocks and superficial personality description. Specific listings and prices for items and tavern menus have been included, a nice touch. The village has a temple dedicated to Sindla, Goddess of Luck, a tie-in to the Luck mechanic. The village details the Festival of Luck, and, of course, the GM should have it coincide with the day the players arrive in the village! Since this is an adventure designed for small parties, four pregenerated characters are included. Again, as a tie-in to the Luck mechanic, they have magical potions that will restore Luck.

One thought is to make use of the Festival of Luck to introduce the Luck mechanic to the players. Have them engage in contests of skill and whatnot, using their Luck. Then, in the middle of the festival, have the Warlock's evil minions attack! Nothing like a bit of vengence to start an adventure...

Downloads

Downloads are available for the adventure. The downloads consist of four two-page pregen character sheets (the book's pregen sheets are half-page, double-sided) (about 3.5 MB each), twenty pages of one-page illustrations from the book (over 15MB), and two monster token sheets (about 2 MB each). I was somewhat disappointed by the tokens -- only those monsters which had art in the book have a token with art. The book illustrations, however, are quite useful as game aids (GM: "You see... THIS!!!" Players: "Aieee!"). The book's back cover also says full-scale battlemaps are available, but I didn't find them in the downloads section.

The download interface itself is irritating. You have to turn to page X of the book, look for encounter Y, find paragraph Z, then find the (hmm... running out of letters here...) the Nth word. And before you do this, you have to register to their forums. I understand the desire for a password-protected product, but, really, even software game manufacturers stopped using this sort of protection. Thankfully, after your succeed in logging in (it only took me four tries...), you don't have to do it again. Necromancer Games uses just a password, published in the book. I far prefer this method.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, with today's different, "realistic fantasy" standards, WoFM, as a conventional adventure, isn't as good as other adventures you could spend your $15.95 on. (My recommendations are Monte Cook's Banewarrens, Necromancer Game's The Tomb of Abysthor, and Keith Baker's Ebon Mirror.) I'm currently reading Myriador's second release, Caverns of the Snow Witch, based on the Fighting Fantasy book of the same name. It's much better themed, and ice caverns are certainly a change from the standard dungeon crawl.

However, if you did like the original adventure, pick up Myriador's The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Just don't let nostalgia influence your decision.

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