Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Judges Guild Citadel of Fire

Citadel of Fire
More Judges Guild goodness, this time a reprint with new material by Goodman Games. Judges Guild published the original in 1978. I only have the recent reprint and it's a beauty.  The cover is heavy cardstock rather than the paper cover that probably came on the original...most Judges Guild products back in the day had a color printed paper cover that often didn't last too long with heavy game table use as I recall. Flipping through the book, I see a couple hex maps for exploring the surrounding area, several random tables full of potential surprises, floor plans and room descriptions. All the expected goodness that Bob Bledsaw and company usually packed into each of their products.  For a novice referee like I was when this product was first published, this would have been both teaching tool and ready-made fun for the gaming group. An adventure such as Citadel of Fire revealed some of the "how-to" for a referee through teaching by example. Here you have a tower to explore and some underground dungeon levels both aimed at higher level player characters. The surrounding countryside is also mapped out. So with Citadel of Fire the referee has an adventure module ready to run for the group and a template for the novice showing how it can be done. Inspiration can come from a lot of places, novels, comics, movies, published modules, random tables, conversations with friends or just day dreaming. The mechanics of turning an inspired idea into something playable is a skill learned mostly by doing, but having an example, or two or three, to follow is quite helpful in the beginning as I recall.

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