SJ Module Review & Conversion: Into the Darkness Part 1 of 3

SJ Module Review & Conversion:  Into the Darkness

This "3e demo adventure" can be found at:
http://wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20020121x1#adv

This adventure is an introduction to not just the 3e D&D system but
also the D&D game.  This is not a negative factor in the module itself
but must be taken into account before use.  The module is nearly
complete, however, with counters provided for the characters used in
the 3e core rule books in a .pdf document that you can print out (which
has extended usefulness beyond this module for anyone that wishes to
use those counters in further adventures).  I say nearly, because there
are no stats for the characters you're supposed to use (I presume,
based on the included spell lists and counters given).  You must have
the 3e PHB and a computer (so you can access its CD) in order to play
this adventure as the beginning adventure it was intended to be.  Since
the adventure appears to predate the appearance of the PHB required to
play it (it has an advertisement for the PHB as the last page of the
.pdf saying August 2000) this would be a problem at one time.  It no
longer is.  The rest of my review will be divided into 3 sections:  a
look at the separate map, counters, and spell lists, a review of the
module as an introductory adventure, and a suggested SJ conversion.

The Additionals:
The module comes with a separate .pdf which is the map, a set of spell
lists for the PC spell casters (at 1st level, of course), and a set of
counters for both monsters and PCs.  The counters are nice for those
who wish to use such items and the fact that it gives you counters for
skeletons, kobolds, half-orcs, humans, half-elves, elves, druids, etc.
means they can be reused time and again in a variety of situations
(Need to represent elves?  Just use the counter for the elf PC.  Need
barbarians?  Use the counter for the PC barbarian.).  With that said,
there is a serious disconnect between the counters and the map:  they
are not to equivalent scale.  Now if the map were not its own .pdf I
would not have a problem with this (though including a page of the
module that is a simple grid to the scale of the counters would be
nice) but since the map is its own .pdf file, why is it not to the
scale of the counters?  According to my Adobe Acrobat Reader, it isn't
even a full sized 8.5 x 11 page (it's 11 x 7.5 or so).  All this means
is that the new DM will have to do more work to make this useful.
        The spell lists are nice for beginners.  They have chosen your spells
for you and provided the full descriptions in nicely printable sheets.
Give sheets to the appropriate players and they can mark out spells as
they cast them while both DM and PC have everything they need right
there.  For more experienced DMs, perhaps these sheets are useful in
that you can print out some spell descriptions without first having to
type them up yourself.  The question does arise, however, why doesn't
the primary foe in the module (Holg, a cleric) have a spell sheet of
his own for the DM to reference?  In all, the additionals are a mixed
bag that neither make nor break this module as an introductory
adventure or as a stand-alone module.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free
http://sbc.yahoo.com