Dwellers of the Forbidden City

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Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Cover of Dwellers of the Forbidden City (art by Erol Otus)
CodeI1
Rules requiredAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
Character levels4-7
Campaign settingGreyhawk
AuthorsDavid Cook
First published1981
Pages28 [1]
ISBNISBN 0-935696-33-4
Linked modules
I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6, I7, I8, I9, I10, I11, I12, I13, I14

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is an adventure module, or pre-packaged adventure booklet, ready for use by Dungeon Masters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The adventure was first used as a module for tournament play at the 1980 Origins Game Fair, and was later published by TSR in 1981 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module was written by game designer David "Zeb" Cook, who partly ascribes his hiring by TSR to his work on this module. The module was ranked as the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004.

Plot summary

The adventure begins when the player characters hear reports of bandits waylaying and attacking caravans in the southern jungles. Most of the ambushed merchants and guards have been killed, but the few who returned alive told fantastic stories about deformed plants and beasts in the jungle. The stolen goods taken from the caravans provide an impetus for the characters to enter the jungles in search of this lost treasure.

After a long and perilous journey, the player characters encounter some friendly native people and are invited to stay in their village. The characters learn from the village's chief about the dangers of the yuan-ti and their servants, the tasloi, and that these creatures recently kidnapped the chief's son and took him into the jungle. The chief and village shaman tell the player characters about the "forbidden city" in the jungle which they believe houses the ghosts of their dead enemies, and they supply the characters with guides to show the party the way to the forbidden city.

The adventuring environment in this module allows for both action and intrigue. Clever players can recruit allies from the various power groups and factions within the city, namely the bugbears, mongrelmen, or bullywugs or else help pit these factions more directly against each other for their own gain.

History

Dwellers of the Forbidden City was published in 1981 by TSR for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module was written by David "Zeb" Cook with cover art by Erol Otus and interior art by James Holloway, Jim Roslof, Harry Quinn and Stephen D. Sullivan. The adventure was first used in Dungeons & Dragons tournament play at the Origins Game Fair in 1980.[2][3]

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is the first of a group of mostly unrelated and unconnected I (Intermediate) series of modules designed for characters at levels between 4 and 8. The module was originally intended to bear code S4,[4] but this code was re-assigned to Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth before Dwellers was published. As published, the adventure bears the code I1. This was also one of the first adventures written by David "Zeb" Cook, and he attributed an early version of the module to his being hired at TSR.[5] Cook would become the lead designer for the second edition of the AD&D rules which debuted in 1989, and years later he became the lead designer on the City of Villains MMORPG.

The adventure was instrumental in introducing the yuan-ti as a new species of antagonists.[2] Much like the drow from the Queen of the Spiders Series, the yuan-ti have been featured in a number of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition books for the D&D game, and is one of the few species that Wizards of the Coast did not keep open for the Open Game License.[6] The yuan-ti have also been expanded from their introduction in this module to other game worlds, in particular the Forgotten Realms.[7][8] Other new monsters introduced to the game through this module include the aboleth, bullywug, mongrelman, tasloi, and yellow musk creeper.[9]

The module was set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting, and was later used to add detail to the Greyhawk continent of Hepmonaland in future Greyhawk supplements.[10] In The Scarlet Brotherhood accessory by Sean K. Reynolds, the Forbidden City was named Xuxulieto and the mountain range it lies in is called the Xaro Mountains.

Reception

While Different Worlds described it as "a good buy",[11] RPGnet gave it a slightly more favorable rating of nearly 6.8 ("Good"). [12] Latterday D&D writer James Wyatt described it as the first "Super adventure", and laments that with another hundred pages of fleshing out, it could have been as memorable as the landmark Temple of Elemental Evil.[9]

Jim Bambra of White Dwarf reviewed the adventure in the magazine's "Open Box" feature and gave it an overall rating of 5/10, commenting that while presentation of the module was quite good (8/10), it seemed to be thrown together. It received playability and enjoyment ratings of 5/10, and skill and complexity ratings of 6/10. He felt the adventure was "mundane" and lacked "cohesion". Bambra notes that parts of the adventure were created for tournament play. The tournament section deals with getting into the city, and he felt the rest of the module was tacked on. He did like the mini-campaign included in the adventure, and the ideas included on how to expand on it. However, he felt that any DM who used Dwellers of the Forbidden City would have to expend so much effort to make it more than "just a series of encounters," that they were better off "starting from scratch".[13]

Dwellers of the Forbidden City was ranked the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004. Judge Eric L. Boyd described it as a "classic adventure" where Cook created a "lost city jungle in the great tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs". The players "battle their way into the city through a labyrinth of traps and monsters or find their own way into the sprawling, jungle-cloaked ruins... Cook provides a host of backgrounds to motivate exploration of the city, but the map itself is motivation enough." Judge Wolfgang Baur, editor of Dungeon magazine, described the adventures thus: "This adventure may be best remembered for its monsters -- it was from Forbidden City that D&D gained the Aboleth, the mongrel-man, the tasloi, and the yuan-ti. The aboleth that guarded one of the entrances to the city was worshipped by the local mongrelmen as a god."[14]

See also

Template:D&D portal

References

  1. ^ "Dwellers of the Forbidden City". Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive. TSR Archive. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Decker, Jesse. "Monsters with Traction, Part 2". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 2007-12-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Intermediate Series (I1 - I14)". Acaeum D&D Index. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  4. ^ "D&D Clones". White Dwarf. 24. 1981. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  6. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". D20srd.org. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  7. ^ Wyatt, James (2001). Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0786918322. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Greenwood, Ed (2004). Serpent Kingdoms. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0786932775. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b Wyatt, James (2008). Dungeon Masters Guide (4th ed.). Wizards of the Coast. p. 138.
  10. ^ Holian, Gary; Mona, Erik; Reynolds, Sean K; Weining, Frederick (2000). Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0786917431.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Dwellers of the Forbidden City". Different Worlds. 16. 1981. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ "I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City". RPGnet. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  13. ^ "Open Box - Dwellers of the Forbidden City Review". White Dwarf. 40. 1983. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  14. ^ Mona, Erik (2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon. 116. Paizo Publishing. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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