RPG Retro Review: Tower of Zenopus

Comments · 110

• TR

  @trickyfinger3636 · 6 years ago

  Ah yes, 1978. The year that graph paper started disappearing at an alarming rate from the Science/Math storage closets in High Schools across the Country for some mysterious and unforeseen reason.

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• DE

  @DerekLippold · 5 years ago

  I love this format where you go through the adventure describing what happens and different ways you’d run it

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• AR

  @Argonova · 6 years ago

  This was the box set that introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons as a child. It's been over 20+ years since I even glanced at this module, but I still remember all of the rooms as you describe them!

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• TO

  @torenatkinson5708 · 2 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=695">11:35</a> - finally ran this for my group. In room F I had the petrified sailors all facing the direction of the secret door, which instigated the PCs to search there, successfully. It was night, so the room was empty. They went to the snake room, where the elf put the snake to sleep and the paladin performed coup de grace - but he yelled when he did it, and so when they went up to the kitchen level of the thaumaturge tower, he and the charmed veteran were waiting, and stuck the paladin in the face. The trap door was shut and they parleyed. To be continued next session

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• RP

  @RPGmodsFan · 6 years ago

  Love your miniatures setup of the Tower of Zenopus. &nbsp;This Adventure was also the first Dungeon I ever DM&apos;ed. &nbsp;:-)

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• TO

  @torenatkinson5708 · 2 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=384">6:24</a> the entrance/stairs<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=442">7:22</a> goblins in room A (working for the thaumaturgist?)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=490">8:10</a> giant spider in room J ... plus small mimic!<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=580">9:40</a> sarcophagus room with rat tunnels, skeletons, floating dagger<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=620">10:20</a> coffins and ghouls in room P<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=650">10:50</a> Room B - skeletons in the niches<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=675">11:15</a> Gloomy Room G - with giant rats<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=685">11:25</a> F a thaumaturgist has charmed a fighter + petrified victims<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=726">12:06</a> Spiral staircase leads up to trap door plus giant snake! An angry ape is further up<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=767">12:47</a> D the nexus... a demon statue pointing to the characters...a puzzle<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=800">13:20</a> H - a river runs through it <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=810">13:30</a> L a giant crab <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=825">13:45</a> I - a sundial and a bronze mask &quot;I&apos;ll answer questions, one no more, I&apos;ll not speak til it be four&quot; <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunexC96LSM&amp;t=907">15:07</a> a series of caves ...pirates and smugglers. Lamunda the Lovely, a potential ally. Plus a giant octopus

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• ST

  @stephen.clements · 6 years ago

  I just ran my group through an adaptation of this, and it proved a serious challenge. The way I played up the spider from NPC descriptions and flavor text of the room had them TERRIFIED of the thing. All told, they probably spent a full hour strategizing about how to fight the thing, and in the end it got away through an air tunnel I put in the roof. In the tombs, I put the ancient skeletons of lizard people and cat people that definitely added an impenetrable mystery that my players enjoyed as they tried to divine why these different people were buried together and what civilization they came from. In an empty room near the wizard&apos;s statue room, I placed a mirrored trap chamber where if a PC entered, the door would slam shut and the sound of cicadas would herald the arrival of Zargon! The monster would grab the PC and pull them through the mirror to a volcanic hellscape and there flay them until they hit 1 HP, and then drop them back into the room, where the party (if they had been trying to save their friend in the locked room) would have 1 last chance to rescue the tortured soul before Zargon could claim them forever!

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• TR

  @trollson66 · 6 years ago

  The Holmes blue book was my first D&amp;D. Took it on a week long geography high school trip (the week Pope JP2 was shot), and played the dungeon with friends, and bemused onlookers (the &quot;girls&quot; - mostly Susans). The highlight was the party befriending wandering Gnomes, but then physically throwing them into rooms to find out what lay beyond. We didn&apos;t know what we were doing, or how to play &quot;properly&quot; - but it was incredible fun, memorable, and had the girls in hysterics.

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• WM

  @WMTPromoter · 6 years ago

  My first DnD session I encountered was one I sat in on was in 1979: White Plume Mountain. My first book I read shortly after was the Greyhawk supplement (published in 1975). Shortly after I was able to get my hands on my first work - the famous blue box basic set. In it was the Tower of Zenopus - meaning my first module I read from a semi-DM perspective was this one. My first adventure I went through? What else? B1 - In Search of the Unknown. (I still remember Quasqueton fondly after all these years.) So this is a treat to revisit. ^^

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• SW

  @swirvinbirds1971 · 6 years ago

  A new upload by Seth and the Captain tonight.... Watching the Captain 1st. 😎

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• AN

  @andrewhaldenby4949 · 3 years ago

  Going to run this for a player new to rpgs next week

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• DE

  @demcrusher7086 · 3 years ago

  You have all the best toys cap!!

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