Pyramid Review
Rappan Athuk, The Dungeon of Graves: The Upper Levels (for d20)
Written by Bill Webb and Clark Peterson
Published by Necromancer Games
40 pg; $9.99
The d20 system added numerous elements to the Dungeons & Dragons game that promote roleplaying over roll-playing, such as a wider range of non-combative skills, the addition of feats, and the ability to customize characters with non-class skills. Now D&D gamers can play a paladin with a roguish past (and accompanying skills) or a wizard who is an expert with a sword. Paradoxically, the same rules revision has brought about a return to the unapologetic "dungeon crawl," that most sacred of Munchkin adventures. The editors at Wizards said that "one of the goals of 3rd Edition is to take the D&D game 'back to the dungeon' (Dungeon #83, p. 168)." The Sunless Citadel and The Forge of Fury, the first two official Dungeons & Dragons adventures from Wizards of the Coast, certainly bear that philosophy out. But not until Rappan Athuk: The Dungeon of Graves has the 3rd Edition dungeon crawl been embraced with such glee.
"Why is the dungeon there? No one knows. Why do the monsters usually fight rather than talk? We aren't really sure. Why are there 16 trolls in a cave with a jug of alchemy? No one cares. What do all of the monsters eat? We don't know that either (although adventurer probably tops the menu). And we don't have to know these things. This isn't an ecology experiment; it's a dungeon—the quintessential setting . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 20, 2001
Copyright © 2001 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.