Valerie Valusek - Interior Illustrations for Dragonlance Legends I: Time of the Twins (1986)

456. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragonlance Legends Volume 1: Time of the Twins (1986)

The first book in the second trilogy of Weis and Hickman novels, coming out 6 months after the conclusion of the Chronicles trilogy, this series picks up on some of the same characters from the Chronicles but manages to feel like a very different kind of book.

While the Chronicles series feels very much like a novelization of a campaign (which is really what it is, even if it's a pretty good one), the Legends books feel a lot more focused and centred on the emotions of characters. Instead of a large party of main characters the number is whittled down to just 4 main characters, 3 of which we already know (Caramon, Raistlin and Tasslehoff) and a new one with the Paladine cleric Crysania. Not only is the scale of the characters reduced, it's a book that cares a lot more about the inner states of these characters than the cut and thrust of adventuring and battles. 

Yes, there are huge events happening in the background of the story, as the characters time travel to just before the Cataclysm that changed the face of Krynn forever, but we are with out characters personal stories the whole time and even then, they spend much of the book separated from each other, as Raistlin attempts to fulfil his nefarious plans and Caramon gets sold to a gladiator ring. A great start to a new trilogy, it marks a satisfying change of pace for the Dragonlance novels. 

Jeff Easley, David Sutherland III - Interior Illustrations and Maps for OA1: Swords of the Daimyo (1986)

455. David "Zeb" Cook - OA1: Swords of the Daimyo (1986)

The first module set in the Oriental Adventures world of Kara-Tur (which would eventually be integrated into the Forgotten Realms, but those don't officially exist yet) is actually more than a simple module. It has three loosely interconnected adventures and a Province Book of Miyama which works as a detailed campaign setting. 

Although the original Kara-Tur setting was in the Oriental Adventures hardcover book, the adventures in this module are set in Kozakura, the OA equivalent of Japan, and specifically in the island province of Miyama, so here we get detailed information both about that province and the Kozakura setting more generally. This works as a kind of supplement to the Oriental Adventures, but it also gives DMs enough information to flesh out the world where this is set.

The three adventures are interesting and the first two are very clearly based on popular bits of pop culture. The first adventure which is supposed to use "western" AD&D characters who take a boat to Kozakura, feels very much like the popular book and TV series Shogun (yes there is a new one on Netflix, but there was one in 1980 with Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune). The second adventure where you get to defend a village from bandits is very much a take on Seven Samurai. Unfortunately, this is again an Asian inspired setting and adventure with no input from Asian writers or advisors, which makes it trade in stereotypes and superficial knowledge of the cultures portrayed. Still, this was good value with three adventures and a detailed setting.

James Roslof and David C. Sutherland III - Illustrations and Maps for N3: Destiny of Kings (1986)

454. Stephen Bourne - N3: Destiny of Kings (1986)

Another entry in the sparsely populated N series which up until now has had a new module every couple of years (Against the Cult of the Reptile God in 1982 and The Forest Oracle in 1984) this is year another adventure aimed at new players (N stands for Novice in the series numbering). 

This is a pretty interesting one as it gives players a variety of locations to explore during the adventure and a strong politics infused plot where after a king is murdered the party is tasked with the quest to find the missing prince and heir to the throne.

In the process of finding the prince there will be plenty of obstacles to overcome, but the plotting of dukes is as damaging as monsters and assassins. So the party has to navigate both physical and political dangers, which leads to a good variety for a game aimed at novice AD&D players. 

453. James M. Ward - 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks #5: Dragonsword of Lankhmar (1986)

Another one of James Ward's 1 on 1 Gamebooks, but this time we have special guests in the shape of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, the main characters in Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series of novels and stories, which have already been adapted to AD&D modules and as a campaign setting.

So here we have a gamebook based on AD&D which is then based on Leiber's work. This has the advantage of giving Ward some pre-established characters to work with, which already come with inbuilt depth and personality, which was something missing from previous entries in the series. 

In this game one player plays with the legendary team of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser while the other player basically plays antagonists to throw in the path of the adventurers in the form of the Thieves' Guild Assassins. This seems pretty fun, and the reputation of this gamebook is pretty good, even if I didn't get to play it myself.

Larry Elmore, Tom Darden - Interior Cover Art and Maps for CM7: The Tree of Life (1986)

452. Bruce Heard - CM7: The Tree of Life (1986)

A pretty unique Companion Module, this is the first party module which is racially segregated... no... no that way, fortunately, I mean it is a module that only uses elves for player characters in large part due to its story which involves Elves of the Feadiel Clan being sent out of the clan lands to discover what is wrong with their Tree of Life.

It's interesting that this module fleshes out the elves of the Known World (what Mystara was known as) seeing as up until now the setting for BECMI D&D has been pretty slight. It's also interesting that it is Bruce Heard doing that as he will be instrumental in reimagining and fleshing out this world properly very soon. 

Another uncommon thing about this module is how, due to the racial level limitations of BECMI, it's the only companion module, at least up until now, which uses characters lvl 8-10 (lvl 10 is the cap for Elves), while Companion adventures are usually for levels 15 to 25. Maybe that's why this adventure says that you shouldn't have more than 10 (!) player characters... still it seems like a fun adventure, a bit more story focused than many other BECMI modules, which is always good for variety.  

451. James M. Ward - 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks #4 - Challenge of Druid's Grove (November 1985)

Another of the James Ward gamebooks of 1 on 1 battles this one and, for the first time, the series explicitly declares itself as an AD&D gamebook on the cover, justifying its entry in this list, even if it is coming in a handful of months late.

The story of this one involves a Wizard and a Druid (who curiously are adorning the wrong covers of the books, with the Druid in the Wizard's book and vice-versa) who need to fight a great evil, while at the same time trying to capture each other.

Reviews of the book on gamebooks.org state that it is more of the same as previous installments with little in terms of plot or character depth, but if you enjoyed previous entries you are also likely to enjoy this one.

450. James M. Ward - 1on 1 Adventure Gamebooks #3 - Revenge of the Red Dragon (September 1985)

Another post to fill in the gap with these 1 on 1 books by James M. Ward, this is the third in the series, we skipped the second which wasa science fiction one, and in this volume we return to a more familiar Fantasy setting.

By this point these fantasy settings, although clearly inspired by D&D still didn't have that label, but they would soon, as we will see in the next volume in the series. Again this is a two-player game, with each player taking on a character, here one is a Knight and the other a Red Dragon.

I haven't read any of these, so I'm going by the descriptions in the invaluable Demian's Gamebook Web Page at gamebooks.org, which lists these and many others. It seems like a fun time even if it is a little unbalanced with the Dragon being a lot more powerful than the single knight.   

449. James M. Ward - 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks #1 - Castle Arcadia (April 1985)

One in a while for the sake of completion, I have to make some of these posts, tracking back to an earlier period to fill in some D&D related items that got past me. This will be the case with the next three posts where I catch up on this 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks series that started coming out in 1985 but which I didn't notice. Oh well.

So, the first of these comes from D&D legend James M. Ward, who unfortunately left us just last month and who was there from the start of D&D contributing work for the game as early as 1976, with the Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes supplement and also creating early TSR games such as Metamorphosis Alpha and co-creating Gamma World. Later on he would write the Pool series of Forgotten Realms novels as well as design Spellfire, the TSR CCG which showed up as TSR's answer to Magic: The Gathering. More recently he went on to produce really cool stuff for Troll Lord Games. He will be missed.

Moving now to these books, these were an interesting concept, and although this volume doesn't explicitly mention D&D, it was clearly inspired by that game, and later volumes will be openly using AD&D, Dragonlance and so forth logos. The idea here is a boxed set with two little books where you and a friend each take a book and assume a character who will compete with each other until one comes out the winner. An interesting twist on the gamebook concept as we will see! 

Gary Williams - Illustrations for Endless Quest #32: Prisoner of Elderwood (1986)

448. Bruce Algozin - Endless Quest#32: Prisoner of Elderwood (1986)

Yet another volume in the now long running and pretty successful Endless Quest series of gamebooks, Prisoner of Elderwood continues a trend of adult protagonists for the series as you start off as a prisoner of an evil king that even while he is evil loves his daughter enough to release you if you should retrieve her.

In the process of playing you get a smorgasbord of varyingly annoying sidekicks until you inevitably manage to succeed in your quest. The most interesting thing about this is the ambiguousness of the main villain, who seems to have a more complex moral compass than most cardboard BBEGs.

The highlight here is in the illustrations, both Jeff Easley's cover and some of the interior illustrations by Gary Williams (who is a bit hit and miss, but the hits are really good). Tune in tomorrow for more of William's illustrations! 

James C. McGonigle and Marcia Honz - Illustrations and Maps for CA2: Swords of Deceit (1986)

447. Stephen Bourne, Michael Dobson, Steve Mecca and Ken Rolston - CA2: Swords of Deceit (1986)

The last in the CA series of Lankhmar set adventures, this module brings together 3 adventures set in the City of Adventure, with some cameos (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, of course) and a stellar group of adventure creators. Ken Rolston would eventually be the lead designer for a couple of little games called Elder Scroll: Morrowind and Oblivion. Curiously the Lead Designer for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Bruce Nesmith, is also a TSR alum that we have mentioned before and will again.  I suppose that just shows the D&D pedigree of the Elder Scrolls series. 

A bunch of fun little adventures then, set in a well fleshed out world, with quite a lot of accessory material, some of which I will post here tomorrow, so stay tuned! There's a bunch of maps, including a really good full color map of Lankhmar for you to appreciate.

There weren't that many modules set in Lankhmar, although TSR would keep supporting the setting well into the 1990s, with new versions of the main campaign setting coming out for future editions of the game. Unfortunately, even with its literary pedigree as set in the world of the successful Fritz Leiber books, it would never be as popular as other D&D settings such as Greyhawk, Mystara, Dragonlance or the upcoming Forgotten Realms. 

Jeff Butler, David Sutherland III and others - Interior Art, Maps and Game Tokens for DL11: Dragons of Glory (1986)