| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 16 Jul 2014 : 01:28:16
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/16823/FA1-Halls-of-the-High-King-2e?it=1
I loved this adventure. Maybe it's because I actually got to run it, instead of just reading it like I did so many other adventures, but I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the way it seemed to bridge the gap between the Moonshaes feeling like a separate setting and slowly integrating into the larger Realms, which seemed to be continuing the trend started at the end of the original Moonshaes Trilogy.
Unfortunately a lot of that integration was undone in the Druidhome Trilogy, but that's just a matter of personal taste.  |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Derulbaskul |
Posted - 09 Oct 2014 : 15:17:40
It's also a great source of FR-sounding names. |
| Tamsar |
Posted - 08 Oct 2014 : 21:35:35
Cauldyth is upon you!! Not read that module for years. But i remember that as one of his battle cries vivdly. Wierd how your memory works. Agreed this is a real gem of a module. |
| crazedventurers |
Posted - 25 Jul 2014 : 15:17:37
quote:
Originally posted by The Arcanamach
Halls of the High King is one of the best adventures ever published for the Realms. An interesting fact given that the Moonshaes weren't originally part of the setting.
Actually the Moonshaes are part of the Home Realms campaign - however Ed's Moonshaes were put aside to allow Doug Niles to shoe-horn his pseudo celtic/saxon/viking/Brittania into the Realms
And HotHK is the best single adventure/sourcebook produced for the Realms. You can run a whole campaign (or three) from the info Ed squeezed into that 64 page product, just amazing.
BTW Jeff Grubb and Ed on the Moonshaes - enjoy!
(paste http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/2566/ into the way back machine to get the excellent Yet Another Forgotten Realms Webpage up and running)
The Origin of the Moonshae Isles
[As told by Jeff Grubb on rec.games.frp.dnd]
Way back when Dragonlance was fresh and new and Forgotten Realms was just getting its start as a game product in design, there was going to be a "British Dragonlance" product from TSR. TSR UK was to produce the game material, and Doug Niles was to write the novel - the novel that became Darkwalker on Moonshae. They were supposed to work together.
Bad things happened, from a business side, and TSR UK stopped producing creative work (they let their designers go and reverted to merely selling TSR material from the states). The British DL never happened. Doug had a half-written book and no world to put it in.
At the same time, Ed and I were working on what would become the original "slate-grey" FR box. We had a world, but novels as yet. The appearance of Darkwalker made it possible to get an FR book out with the boxed set - in fact, to get the book out FIRST.
We looked at Doug's book and Ed's World. It was a good fit, both being rooted strongly in "traditional fantasy." Compromises were made. Doug took the name of extant island grouping in the Realms. Ed accepted the change of the appearance of the islands (they were an arching archipelgio as opposed to british-shaped chunk). The world was new and we had not published yet.
It WAS a good fit. Doug finished his tale in the Realms, the Realms itself launched with a strong book, and we established the Realms as a place of many visions - Doug, Bob, myself, Ed, and those who have followed.
[An addendum by Ed Greenwood]
The 'original' Moonshaes are akin to LeGuin's Earthsea: hundreds of little islands, long-extinct volcanic peaks that rise up out of the sea abruptly, are inhabited by fisherfolk (with a few larger islands that have forests, farms, etc.) nothing much above the rural village culture on most, with self-styled 'lords' on others...and like Earthsea, somewhat like the Celtic-era Hebrides...they occupy the same space as TSR's (Doug Niles's) Moonshaes, arcing from a 'wide spray' at the Sword Coast or eastward extent, curving and narrowing southwest and curving to south...in other words, a large area of 'perilous sea' with awash rocks, reefs, etc. and safe channels that only the locals know.
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| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 25 Jul 2014 : 00:13:32
Halls of the High King is one of the best adventures ever published for the Realms. An interesting fact given that the Moonshaes weren't originally part of the setting. |
| Ashe Ravenheart |
Posted - 18 Jul 2014 : 00:41:00
By the way, the PDF version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting has recently had an update on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow. The new version has had all the OCR text cleaned up so that it's not only searchable, but copies/pastes much cleaner. |
| Faraer |
Posted - 17 Jul 2014 : 21:02:58
The web page features one of Shannon Appelcline's product histories, which evidently draw on unpublished interview material and are worth browsing if you're interested in how various Realms books came to be. In FA1 Ed gave us a lot of material on the church of Bane and various other subjects in an adventure set in Doug Niles's Moonshaes, making a good-faith effort to work it into this world. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 16 Jul 2014 : 02:55:58
I loved it for how it showed that an adventure could still provide great background lore and detail.
-- George Krashos |
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