gordon@alberta.UUCP (Gordon Atwood) (11/25/85)
Last week I picked up a new dungeon by Gygax. It is WG6, Isle of the Ape. I beleive the level was 16 and up, or 18 and up. It is the highest, reasonable dungeon I have yet to see. It is also, in my opinion, a thinly disguised rendition of King Kong, but that's okay. The major features of this dungeon are 1) There is only 1 way off the island, magical means. You can get off the island, but you are trapped in an alternate universe, and eventually you must return to the Island. 2) The major antagonists are dinosaurs, lots of them. Dinosaurs are not wimpy creatures, just take a look at MM1. Furthermore, if you treat them with the same respect that Dragons are due, as per suggestions from the Dragon articles, they are down-right dangerous. 3) The King of the island is, of course, a gigantic ape. (What else?). The introduction for this dungeon indicated that many of those intrepid gamers who started it all many years ago, entered this dungeon, and opted to leave before solving the riddle of the island. The dungeon is equipped with several nasty traps, some physical, some magical. None of them are as obscure as those encountered in Tomb of Horrors. In my opinion, a group which is reasonably thoughtful, devious, and careful, should have a resonable chance of survival. Also, there was one dungeon in Dragon recently (like in the last two years) featuring the Hut of Baba Yaga. Although I can't remember the details, I believe it was quite high-level, or at least had high-level potential. On a final note, Dragon has some good articles on Illusionist spells, and their use. If anyone is really interested, I can try and dig out some information. G.H.A.