Dwellers of the Forbidden City

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Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Code I1
Rules Required 1st Ed AD&D
Character Levels 4 - 7
Campaign Setting Greyhawk
Authors David Cook
First Published 1980

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module was published in 1981 by TSR, Inc. for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.

Dwellers of the Forbidden City was written by David Cook with cover art by Erol Otus and interior art by James Holloway, Jim Roslof, Harry Quinn and Stephen D. Sullivan. The adventure was first used as a tournament module at the Origins Game Fair in 1980.[1][2].

Contents

[edit] History

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is the first of a group of mostly unrelated and unconnected I (Intermediate) series of modules designed for characters of levels between 4 and 8. The module was originally intended to bear code S4[3], but this code was re-assigned to Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth before Dwellers was published. As published, the adventure bears the code I1 (Intermediate). This was also one of the first adventures written by David "Zeb" Cook, and an early version of it is attributed to him being hired at TSR[4] Cook would later go on to contribute material for the 2nd Edition of the AD&D rules and the City of Villains MMORPG.

Dwellers of the Forbidden City received an average reception on its initial release. While Different Worlds described it as "a good buy",[5] White Dwarf critically reviewed the adventure in its "Open Box" feature and gave it a rating of only 5/10, but comenting that the presentation of the module was quite good (8/10) it just seemed to be thrown together.[6], though RPGNet gave it a slightly more favorable rating of nearly 6.8 (“Good”) [7]. Dwellers of the Forbidden City was ranked the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004.[8]

The adventure was instrumental in terms of introducing the Yuan-Ti as a new species of antagonists[1]. Much like the Drow from the GDQ Series, the Yuan-Ti have gone on to be featured in a number of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition books for the D&D game, and is one of the few species that Wizards of the Coast did not keep open for the Open Gaming License[9]. The Yuan-Ti have also been expanded from this introduction to other game worlds, in particular the Forgotten Realms [10][11].

The module was also used to later add detail to the Greyhawk continent of Hepmonaland in future Greyhawk supplements [12].

[edit] Table of Contents

  • note there was no actual table of contents printed in the module.
Chapter Page
Background 2
Notes for the DM 2
Notes for tournament play 3
Start 4
The Forbidden City 11
Lair of the Treemen 13
Court of the Master 14
Bugbear Brigands 17
Ruins of the Mongrelmen 18
The Bullywug Stockade 20
The God of the Bullywugs 21
The Swamp Horrors 22
New Monsters 24

[edit] Credits

Design: David Cook
Development: Harold Johnson, Lawrence Schick
Able Assistance: Jon Pickens, Mike Price, Jean Wells
Editing: Harold Johnson, Allen Hammack, Roberta ReilLey, Edward G. Sollers, Steve Winter
Cover Art: Erol Otus
Interior Art: James Holloway, Jim Roslos off, Erol Otus, Harry Quinn, Stephen D. Sullivan
Playtesters: Helen Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, Jeff Klinzman, Tom Moldvay, Lawrence Schick, Jean Wells, Skip Williams
Typesetting: Dianne J. Burke Key line: Joyce A. Kress, Laura Roslos , Mary Hendryx photography: Joyce A. Kress

Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd.

ISBN 0-935696-33-4

[edit] Cover reads

Somewhere in the heart of the steaming jungle lies the answer to the whispered tales - rumors of a magnificent city and foul, horrid rituals! Here a brave party might find riches and wonders - or death! Is your party brave enough to face the terrors of the unknown and find - the Forbidden City! Parts of this module were used in 1980 for a major East Coast convention tournament. Information is presented here to reconstruct this exciting tournament and even more has been given to expand play. Here characters may adventure several times in a unique and interesting mini-campaign. Included in this module are background and tournament notes, referee's keys, new monsters, pre- generated characters, and eight different maps.

[edit] Notable nonplayer characters

[edit] New monsters

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Decker, Jesse; David Noonan. Monsters with Traction, Part 2. Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ Intermediate Series (I1 - I14). Acaeum D&D Index. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  3. ^ "D&D Clones" (April/May 1981). White Dwarf 24. 
  4. ^ Lawrence Schick. Heroic Worlds.<ref>{{cite book | first=Lawrence | last=Schick | year=1991 | title=Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games | publisher=Prometheus Books | location=Buffalo, New York | id=ISBN 0-87975-653-5 }}</li> <li id="cite_note-4">'''[[#cite_ref-4|^]]''' {{cite journal |title=Dwellers of the Forbidden City |journal=Different Worlds |volume=16 |year=1981 |month=November}}</li> <li id="cite_note-5">'''[[#cite_ref-5|^]]''' {{cite journal |title=Open Box - Dwellers of the Forbidden City Review |journal=[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]] |volume=40 |year=1983 |month=April}}</li> <li id="cite_note-6">'''[[#cite_ref-6|^]]''' {{cite web| title = I1: DWELLERS OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY | publisher =RPGNet|url =http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2476| accessdate = 2007-12-21 }}</li> <li id="cite_note-7">'''[[#cite_ref-7|^]]''' {{cite journal|author=[[Erik Mona]]|coauthors=[[James Jacobs]], and the ''"Dungeon Design Panel"''|title=The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time|journal=[[Dungeon (magazine)|Dungeon]]| volume=116|publisher=[[Paizo Publishing]]|month=November|year=2004}}</li> <li id="cite_note-8">'''[[#cite_ref-8|^]]''' {{cite web |url=http://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm |title=Frequently Asked Questions |accessdate=2007-02-23 |publisher=D20srd.org}}</li> <li id="cite_note-9">'''[[#cite_ref-9|^]]''' {{cite book| last =Wyatt| first =James| authorlink =James Wyatt| coauthors = Rob Heinsoo| title = Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn| publisher = Wizards of the Coast| date =2001| isbn = 0786918322}}</li> <li id="cite_note-10">'''[[#cite_ref-10|^]]''' {{cite book| last =Greenwood| first =Ed| authorlink =Ed Greenwood| coauthors = Eric L Boyd, and Darrin Drader| title = Serpent Kingdoms| publisher = Wizards of the Coast| date =2004| isbn = 0786932775}}</li> <li id="cite_note-11">'''[[#cite_ref-11|^]]''' {{cite book | author=[[Gary Holian|Holian, Gary]], [[Erik Mona]], [[Sean K Reynolds]], and [[Frederick Weining]] | title=[[Living Greyhawk Gazetteer]] | publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] | year=[[2000]]|isbn=0786917431}}</li></ol></ref>

[edit] External links