mordrin wrote:Not familiar with this at all, but it's the type of 'tone' I enjoy. What else can you/others tell me about them?
dathon wrote:I corresponded with Wheeler a number of years back via e-mail and he said Sacrifices to the Orc Lord was never published; it was just planned. It's too bad because the title sounded pretty intriguing.
Badmike wrote:mordrin wrote:Not familiar with this at all, but it's the type of 'tone' I enjoy. What else can you/others tell me about them?Well, I can give a pretty good mini-review of Plague of Terror since I just finished re-reading it, the others I'd have to re-read before attempting a summation. .
Badmike wrote:Does anyone else enjoy these as much as I do? Just reread Plague of Terror the other night because I came across it in a box of stuff I want to sell. These came out in the early 80's, and for the time they were really worth the money. Each product contains a ton of gaming info, with a small densely packed font that is sure to cause eyestrain. All the plots are interesting in that they went far beyond what TSR proper or even JG was publishing at the time in terms of "grim reality" with lots of no-nos like torture, rape, poisoning, abuse, etc. Gems for Death and Streets of Gems deal with child abuse and slavery....I ran these once and I remember there was a high motivation to take out the bad guys due to the depravity of the crimes committed by the bad guys, the baddies were so evil that I don't even think the adventurers took time to gather treasure after they took out the slavers, they were so focused on making the bad guys suffer! Likewise, Plague of Terror has some graphic torture sequences with a half-orc baddie kidnapping village women who once rejected him to make them suffer. There is also a woman accusing the party of rape (it's a false accusation, a con meant to seperate them from their items and treasure), and other adult situations. I guess that's why I liked these so much, at the time I had more of a "high fantasy" type campaign, reading these made me realize that my campaign was truly "my" campaign, that if I wanted to make the bad guys really, really bad, or inject some adult situations into my adventures, the TSR D&D police weren't going to show up at my home to confiscate my campaign materials. Through the years alcoholism (the mentor of a PC mage started hitting the bottle way too heavily), blood lust (an NPC who enjoyed torturing captives) and rape (a NPC tavern wench was attacked by a party NPC) made appearances in my campaign and were the themes of many well-played out roleplaying adventures. All due to The Companions series making me realize I didn't have to "toe the line" in terms of subject content. But if you haven't read these I don't want to leave the idea these were sado-sicko fantasys....one thing all the Companions modules have in common are very well detailed NPCs, intricate plots, and interesting situations. Nothing predictable or boring about any of them. BTW, has it conclusively been determined that "Sacrifices To the Orc Lord" was never published? Neither myself or anyone connected with gaming has ever seen a copy. If someone does have a copy, please contact me here or private email, thanks!Mike B.
fletch wrote:I had the opportunity to experience the Companions modules while I was in high school. A local DJ who had moved to town recently recruited a group of us to play D&D and he used the Islandia modules. I loved them! In fact, I liked them so much, I bought all of the modules they published. Unforunately, in moving over the years, I misplaced two of them - Street of Gems and Gems for Death. I have yet to find a replacement for those. The interesting thing is that the guy who was DM'ing for us said he knew the creators and actually helped playtest the modules. Based on some of the things he knew and some of the things he had, I believe that. Apparently, the Companions actually planned on releasing a game where the players were taken from various times in our past and retrained to fight in the world of Islandia. This never happened, but it sure was an interesting pretense.I would love to see them publish some of their old work again. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to see that.
dean2918 wrote:I played Islandia series back in High School with fletch (also posted on this board). Great stuff, way ahead of it's time. I've got everything they ever produced, thanks to Ebay. I think I got some of my collection from badmike actually. However, I can't seem to find the page from Chilling Chambers which features the 25mm map of the Lord's Hall or Great Hall? Anyone got this? Can I get a photocopy? Do you have a copy badmike?Also, I have a good deal of the actual Islandia gamesystem that was never officially released. I don't believe for a second that if it exists, Sacrifices doesn't. Someone has it, if only in the rough out there.
burntwire wrote:We will be listing all of our Companions stuff Sunday night. Just a heads up to those who are looking for these items.Happy collecting,burntwire