RPG Retro Review: A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slavelords

[@truepatriotlove5724]

Man I love these videos!!!! Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is still an absolute classic!

[@trioofone8911]

Crater Lake, in the state of Oregon, has a secondary island out in the middle. It's called "Wizard's Isle" or something to that effect. These things are actually more a feature than a bug, feom what I understand

[@garicb9271]

I love how you present the module and then suggest variant ways to play it. I wish board game reviewers did that more.

[@sfrink1425]

Another location that has an island in the middle of a volcanic lake is Crater Lake, Oregon. Lots of good images of it online and the island of decent size. In addition, it’s ironically known as “Wizard’s Island.” :)

[@davidleonard8547]

The thought just struck me that Paizo borrowed the idea of a city in a volcano for their 3e Shackled City adventure path. Old adventures are truly an inspiration, aren't they?

[@erikmartin4996]

It’s awesome to see you review more material with the lockdown

[@DwDrake2000]

Good Job. I love downloading and watching your reviews during downtime at work.

[@mikesands4681]

The next one A4 was epically monumental in my memory. Please comment on how it influenced the whole “escape room” genre of later adventures. I mean, wakining up naked and without all their gizmos and most of their spells, the next A4 reduces characters back to their wits and has a potentially classic erupting volcano exploding island finale, doesn’t get better than that. And it must be played tournament mode. I liked to shake the table with a timed musical background getting more and more ominous.

[@kennethdickinson2591]

The location of the Slavelords’ complex makes me think of a bit from an inscription about Hanno the Navigator of Carthage: “Sailing thence along the torrents of fire, we arrived after three days at a bay called Horn of the South. In this gulf was an island, resembling the first, with a lagoon, within which was another island, full of savages.”

[@chillinlee]

This was the first module I ever DM'd, and it really influenced the way I ran campaigns for several years to come. It took me that long to realize that the design was way too linear and combat heavy. So whenever I ran campaigns, they were very much on a one way track with lots and lots of fights, like Diablo in table top form. It wasn't until I started seriously playing with other DMs did I realize that D&D could be about immersive world building.

[@thethoughtcriminal8786]

By the time me and my friends got to A3 we were getting use to gaming. They burned through this module really fast. They were learning to follow my subtle hints and had stopped running in and killing everything all the time. When they finally faced of with the slave lords they were ready, and they won the fight with only two of the five players unconscious. I knew the players well enough that they would go looking for treasure afterward, and looking for the slave princess they were sent to retrieve. I had created three extra slave commander who intended to take over and actually used the party to kill the slave lords. After finding their treasure and the princess, the party were lead into the court yard by the princess, she stabbed one of the characters and he died instantly. The rest of the party was in shock and surrounded by forty archers and spear men along with the remaining three slave lords, and three commanders. Only one of the characters was strong enough to fight, so the rest of them surrendered. The player whose character was kill was pretty pissed off. His death felt cheap to him, so I had him alive in A4 along with the rest of the party. He had a tendency to have a thing for damsels in distress and I felt it important to believe that not all damsels are in distress.

[@michaelstronghold3550]

I just ran a group through the white teranslucant bubbling goop and it was a highlight of those entrance tunnels lol

[@Friedlandbe]

The five exquisite slave lords minis by Gale Force Nine are a wonderful addition to this module.

[@Aaron-mj9ie]

I need to go back and watch A1 and A2!

[@captcorajus]

Please do!!

[@haveswordwilltravel]

I loved A3. Suderham was my model for all cities when I was a neophyte DM. I am really looking firewrd to your review of A4.

[@mattinthehat3]

Another great review of a classic module series.Great job as always.(like that's a surprise).Stay safe Captain.

[@earlthepirate5806]

Awesome video! I hope to dm this module series eventually

[@captcorajus]

Thanks! Let my know how it goes. Hope this video helps.

[@drewwill6497]

Looking forward to the conclusion. Great as always!

[@toddrohrer8680]

Great review as always can’t wait for next week ..:: sorry about the mix up on your last review it was just a miss understanding 😜

[@captcorajus]

No worries!

[@ronniejdio9411]

Another fantastic review. Love this module and absolutley hate the finale a4..looking forward to your review

[@davidleonard8547]

I love the old stories, but as you said, the execution was spotty at best. I cannot say that I'm a fan of the dungeon layouts of the day, or the monster motel aspect of a great many of them (granted, when playing back then, they were just mazes, and I didn't give them a second thought. That said, this really is an epic story arc, despite the 4 being penned by different writers. It's a miracle that they mesh as well as they do. I'm really looking forward to A4, probably my favourite classic module.

[@williamst.romain7393]

I always considered this one the weakest of the four. The biggest problem is that this module makes major promises regarding A4 which it fails to live up to. Most notably the Keep which it specifically says will be detailed in A4, but it isn't. The killing off 'off-screen' as it were of most of these slave lords is also a negative.

[@captcorajus]

Agreed!!

[@fulminatus6241]

O captain, my captain! Yes i'm standing on my desk.

[@anthonyjgreene]

I’ve been looking forward to this since you did A1

[@Bondanalloy]

this new release schedule is great! one good thing about the situation we're in.

[@captcorajus]

I'm trying to make lemonade out of lemons. :) Thanks for the kind words

[@johnhe0414]

Great video, when you mentioned a real location I was thinking the same (The Philippines).

[@MrRourk]

There has been actual OSR Games going down in Roll20 the last couple of weeks.

[@ricardoblikman2676]

Dunno first game a ran was with a group of experienced players in kara-tur. The where lvl 1 and found a slaughtered village. They where snooping around looking for loot and did not pay attention ran into an ambush Vs a handful of lvl ,1 ninja noobs. I used open rolls they panicked killed a few and ran into another ambush running around and got slaughtered. I gave a resurrection option but I really pissed them off and they did not wanna play anymore

[@Johnny_Nitro]

Great Video Cap! I am not a fan of railroad encounters. Many foes are more powerful certainly, but no opportunity to flee or negotiate? Any Kobiashi Maru situation is a lame contrivance that does nothing to develope player wisdom or character agency. If there is a party wipe, it should be due to poor choices or rolls and not because the narrative enforces or requires it.

[@captcorajus]

While that is absolutely TRUE, what is also true is that there are exceptions to every rule, and this is one of them. The entire POINT of the slavelords series is to get the characters to the point in A4 in the dungeons of the slavelords, WHERE the players may participate in a unique challenge to player skill. Of course, if I do my job correctly as DM the players will never know the 'game was rigged'. Further this is not a 'party wipe' as if a PC is killed, they will be resurrected in for the follow up adventure. Given the actually COOL scenario that is to follow, a little rigging the game is fine, as long as the DM doesn't make it a rule. This should be the exception. A one off. If handled with care and skill, the players will most likely enjoy the challenge, but each DM needs to evaluate their players tolerance for such things before even introducing the scenario.

[@Johnny_Nitro]

@@captcorajus Maybe my player PTSD is shading my perspective. I have been in several games where the DM says: "you walk through the door and X happens to your character" or "just as you are about to do X this happens instead." Not so much as a roll initiative or a spot check. I am a big champion of player agency over narrative.

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

@@captcorajus its also worth noting that Gygax had a measure of contempt for anything he thought of as "amateur thespianism". He was notorious for singling out those players for death. He was more of the wargaming mentality, an Us vs Them mentality that Knights of the Dinner Table does quite well. This isn't a knock - I loved his output - but especially as these are tournament modules you can see his mindset overlaying these

[@AdolphusOfBlood]

Overthinking it, A5's goo would likely be some sort of cornstarch soup?

[@ricardoblikman2676]

You can also just fudge not using the best skills or spells

[@XX-sp3tt]

5:50 Implying they have no escorts and are low level push-overs.

[@captcorajus]

Yeah. You're totally right. One would think rich merchants would have escorts with them. The module has the slavers as like basic common stats, which is fine. I just think it would be more fun to play it out. The players might even just come up with a completely different way to break into the city. Given the ending of the module I'd prefer to take things OFF the rails as much as possible.

[@XX-sp3tt]

@@captcorajus Could be just because the slave lords don't want highly trained squads of troops in their city who aren't on their pay roll.

[@JohnDretired]

For VTT play, the maps in this module are very rough... low resolution and fuzzy at the best of times.

[@captcorajus]

Yeah, I believe that Jon Pinter is working on maps for the Slavelords series

[@JohnDretired]

@@captcorajus That would be really great.

[@opa-age]

When I ran campaigns this module always used to be one of the highlights all my players looked forward to, mostly because of the battle royale at the end. I always let them battle it out and not do the precanned ending. Then we usually just skipped A4 altogether.

[@rickeymariu1]

You sound metallic in this vid

[@captcorajus]

Sowwwy

[@shockerck4465]

I played the Slavers series a few times. This is the weakest of the 4 in my opinion. Eventually I skipped it all together. The last one really throws players for a loop !( I won't spoil it )

[@palindromial]

"The players must believe that they lost fair and square!" As you say this, you are fully aware that you're saying "What I want to happen must happen but they can never find out!" and they can never find out because it's cheating, plain and simple. I'd recommend just playing D&D instead: If they lose, well, they lose; any that survive go to A4 and try their luck again, the rest are gone. But if they win, guess what? They won! Screw A4, this party will not have to endure it. They can just take their spoils and leave. Given them D&D and not a cheap TV show!

[@adampender2482]

More 2nd edition modules and accessories.

[@captcorajus]

I'll see what I can do.

[@adampender2482]

@@captcorajus awesome I always enjoy your reviews and agree for the most part.

[@Ulitemyfyre]

Why don’t people ever look up pronunciation guides. I love your videos I have been watching all of them from the beginning. But please look up a pronunciation guide for at least titles and names. Aerie is not like airy it’s like eerie. I know it’s pedantic, and I keep watching videos from you and others in the same space hoping you will pronounce it right later, but you don’t. It’s just constructive criticism.

[@captcorajus]

The first problem with your suggestion it supposes that one knows what word is not exactly being pronounced to your satisfaction, and the would take the time to look that up? I've pronounced Aerie the way I've pronounced it for 40 years. I can assure, that I will always pronounce it that way. 🤣🤣🤣 Perhaps you'd be better off watching another youtuber's videos. Have a great day.

[@Ulitemyfyre]

@@captcorajus I would never. I love your videos they are great, I have seen almost all of them.

[@captcorajus]

@@Ulitemyfyre The I guess you're kinda stuck with my little colloquialisms. 😃🤣