Elminster has been murdered.

And to make matters worse, the player characters who helped save Shadowdale from the armies of Zhentil Keep in Shadowdale (FRE1) have been sentenced to death for killing the old sage. They’re innocent, of course, but in this time of troubles in the Realms, truth and justice are not always served. Imprisoned in the Tower of Ashaba, the heroes must escape if they are to survive!

Later, when the heroes start their quest for the first of the mysterious Tablets of Fate – mighty artifacts stolen from the overlord of the gods himself – they come up against an even greater peril: Bane, the God of Strife, and his ally, the God of Death, have set in motion a plot to capture the heroes and their companions. You must face deadly assassins, nightmarish monsters, and violent storms on your way across the Dalelands. And the worst threat of all is an unexpected one – the man who helped you earlier has now joined the side of Bane and the forces of Zhentil Keep.

Perhaps it’s the rushed ending of Shadowdale, but the blurb for Tantras doesn’t nearly seem as appealing as the one from the previous module did. Maybe it’s because of the whole “sentenced to death” line – the last module ended with the PCs being accused of killing Elminster, but not sentenced. One would assume that Lord Mourngrym, a fair man who the heroes had a chance to speak with in the last adventure, would give them a just trial. But if we’re really starting off with being sentenced to death, it looks like the opportunity for the PCs to defend themselves will never really get realized. A shame, as trials in RPGs can be amazingly satisfying when done well.

Chapter 5 of Shadowdale is essentially the insurance chapter to make sure the PCs are following the plot. It’s even got events planned specifically to keep them on the intended course. As always, in order to actually create a story of their own, the DM and players have to rely on random encounters.

I’ve suggested that these modules are the worst ever, but I guess in a way they could be seen as the perfect modules – not in terms of fun, but in terms of defining the difference between AD&D 1st and 2nd editions. 1st edition was all about exploration and dungeon crawling. There was very little in terms of an overarching plot and the world was built slowly. A lot of times, folks would play without a setting at all – just a dungeon and a loosely-defined home town. 2nd edition is the edition for those who love campaign settings. The Forgotten Realms hit the height of its popularity then, and innovative settings such as Dark Sun and Planescape came about. The adventures became more about heroism on an epic scale. But, at the same time, the settings got routinely demolished by novels, which TSR ranked as their big money-makers. Dark Sun was totally redesigned in the span of five books that came out immediately after its release. The Realms got wrecked numerous times, so much so that it became a tradition that remains even today.

Even when the PCs pursued these epic adventures, TSR’s official canon was constantly determined by novels. Case in point: Dead Gods, a Planescape adventure. The PCs, if they win, prevent the resurrection of the demon lord Orcus…except that later publications established Orcus’ resurrection as canon. So even if the PCs saved the day, the official material for D&D undoes their achievement.

These modules are a bridge between AD&D editions in more ways than one. They’re meant to provide a transition rules-wise, but they also highlight the shift in publication style for TSR in this era. The random encounters have a number of different solutions to them and can be a lot of fun, a la the old dungeons of 1st edition. But they don’t have any effect on the plot. The actual plot events are rigid – the PCs can’t change them, largely because they’re based on novels that became a part of the official Forgotten Realms canon. They’re effectively the more story-based adventures of 2nd edition, taken to such an extreme that the PCs have no leeway at all.

That synopsis is probably not fair to 2nd edition AD&D, which I do think was a legitimate improvement over 1st edition system-wise and flavor-wise. But the edition happened to occur in the era of Lorraine Williams’ run as CEO of TSR, during which time she regularly produced products that took a big ol’ dump on long-time gamers and ran the company into bankruptcy as a result. 2nd edition had great ideas, but often poor follow-up…a lot like these modules.

Personal rant aside, let’s get back to Shadowdale…if you dare.

Think the first three chapters have been a railroad? Chapter 4 is worse. There are three events, and the PCs get to do absolutely nothing during any of them..

Chapter 2 of Shadowdale allowed some actual adventuring, but even still almost everything that has happened so far has come through random encounters. When it comes to the plot, the PCs have had no power whatsoever. They couldn’t help Midnight, they had to take Caitlin’s quest, and they had to allow Midnight to travel with them. Chapter 3 brings the PCs to Castle Kilgrave, which is such a hilarious name that I don’t think I could read the flavor text straight. (In other words, it’s perfect for D&D.)

But the castle provides the adventure with a dungeon, which is great for breaking up a plot railroad. Once you get in the dungeon, you’re in control to at least some extent. You choose which rooms to go into, when to look for traps, and what route to take.

Well, you normally do that. But not in this adventure, as we’ll soon see.

Chapter 2 of Shadowdale opens with the PCs actually being given the quest that will get the game moving. For those keeping score, it starts on page 12. The adventure part of the module runs 36 pages. So we’re almost at the 1/3 point in the story, and the only action the PCs have seen is in whatever random encounters the DM threw together.

The year was 1989, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was hitting its second edition. The game was being sanitized–no more demons or devils, no more half-orcs and assassins. And the focus of the game was shifting from exploration-based adventures to epic stories about heroic adventure. To make these changes work in the popular Forgotten Realms setting, TSR launched the Avatar Trilogy. The series of novels would cause the gods to fall and forever change the face of the Realms. But why stop there? As a tie-in, TSR decided to create a parallel set of adventures that allowed the PCs to play a role in the cataclysmic Time of Troubles. What could be more fun?

Considering the final product, anything.

For reasons I will harp upon over and over again, the Avatar Trilogy was a huge bust as an adventure. It took everything away from the PCs, reducing them to tourists on a grand tour of the Realms. It also highlighted everything that sucked about the setting and went out of its way to screw certain player types. And, because I have too much free time, I’m going to go over all three modules, chapter by chapter. So let’s jump right into the first module, Shadowdale, and witness the trainwreck!