Curse of Xanathon is an adventure in which the Duke of Rhoona begins issuing unusual decrees, such as ordering that the people must pay their taxes using beer instead of money, people must ride their horses backwards, and that dwarves must have their beards shaved and their bodies stretched to make them "presentable to human sensibilities".[2] Duke Stephan is suffering from a curse which was brought upon him by Xanathon, chief cleric of the Ethengar Khanate immigrants living inside Rhoona's walls, and Stephen's own treacherous guard captain, Draco Stormsailer.
The player characters must discover the nature of the Duke's affliction.[2] They will need to end the curse on the Duke so that he can lead his forces against an army of invaders.[3] To do this, they need to find the antidote for the curse. They must battle Xanathon, Draco, and their minions to achieve this goal.
Lawrence Schick, in his sourcebook of roleplaying games, Heroic Worlds, describes the module as a town adventure in which the players are tasked with solving a mystery in order to remove a curse.[3] The cursed town is threatened by a dwarven army, and the player characters must save the town.[4]
Publication historyedit
X3 Curse of Xanathon was written by Douglas Niles, with art by Tim Truman, and published by TSR in 1982 as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder.[3] The module was designed as an adventure for 5th-7th level D&D characters.[2] It was developed by Douglas Niles and Alan Hammack, and edited by Deborah Campbell Ritchie.[5]
Receptionedit
Doug Cowie gave the module a positive review in Imagine magazine.[1] He called it a "welcome addition to the list of Expert Set modules",[1] but nevertheless had some problems with it. The detective-style module requires the player characters to proceed in an orderly fashion through five scenarios. Cowie noted that "No party of players that I have known ever does what they are supposed to, in the right order, through five different adventures."[1] The players are railroaded by a non-player character who "pops up whenever the party is going astray"[1] and three of the five adventures are initiated by an appearance of the ducal herald. In spite of this, Cowie thought that "this is a good module to play",[1] and he specifically praised the way the town is presented. He finished his review by calling it "a module rich in character and invention",[1] and "although it is unlikely that any party will follow through the story line [...] without a lot of guidance, if the DM can avoid making the players feel over-manipulated, there will be much enjoyment to be had."[1]
The module received 7 out of 10 overall in a review by Jim Bambra in issue No. 48 of White Dwarf magazine. He called Curse of Xanathon a "detective adventure", though he said that it was "very much a programmed affair" and "players move through a series of distinct and logical stages, discovering clues as they go."[2] He noted that if the players fail to follow the clues, the Dungeon Master must direct them to the next encounter, which cuts down on the amount of freedom available to them. Bambra deemed the module to be not as good as the contemporaneous releases for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but said it was superior to the two modules preceding it in the series, Isle of Dread and Castle Amber.[2]
curse, xanathon, dungeons, dragons, adventure, module, designed, douglas, niles, with, expert, published, 1982, designed, player, characters, level, cover, x3codex3tsr, product, code9056rules, requiredd, expert, setcharacter, levels5, 7campaign, settingmystara. Curse of Xanathon is a Dungeons amp Dragons adventure module designed by Douglas Niles for use with the D amp D Expert Set It was published by TSR Inc TSR in 1982 and is designed for 5 8 player characters of level 5 7 1 Curse of XanathonThe cover of X3CodeX3TSR product code9056Rules requiredD amp D Expert SetCharacter levels5 7Campaign settingMystaraAuthorsDouglas NilesFirst published1982Linked modulesX1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 X13 XL1 XSOLO XS2 Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Publication history 3 Reception 4 References 5 External linksPlot summary editCurse of Xanathon is an adventure in which the Duke of Rhoona begins issuing unusual decrees such as ordering that the people must pay their taxes using beer instead of money people must ride their horses backwards and that dwarves must have their beards shaved and their bodies stretched to make them presentable to human sensibilities 2 Duke Stephan is suffering from a curse which was brought upon him by Xanathon chief cleric of the Ethengar Khanate immigrants living inside Rhoona s walls and Stephen s own treacherous guard captain Draco Stormsailer The player characters must discover the nature of the Duke s affliction 2 They will need to end the curse on the Duke so that he can lead his forces against an army of invaders 3 To do this they need to find the antidote for the curse They must battle Xanathon Draco and their minions to achieve this goal Lawrence Schick in his sourcebook of roleplaying games Heroic Worlds describes the module as a town adventure in which the players are tasked with solving a mystery in order to remove a curse 3 The cursed town is threatened by a dwarven army and the player characters must save the town 4 Publication history editX3 Curse of Xanathon was written by Douglas Niles with art by Tim Truman and published by TSR in 1982 as a 32 page booklet with an outer folder 3 The module was designed as an adventure for 5th 7th level D amp D characters 2 It was developed by Douglas Niles and Alan Hammack and edited by Deborah Campbell Ritchie 5 Reception editDoug Cowie gave the module a positive review in Imagine magazine 1 He called it a welcome addition to the list of Expert Set modules 1 but nevertheless had some problems with it The detective style module requires the player characters to proceed in an orderly fashion through five scenarios Cowie noted that No party of players that I have known ever does what they are supposed to in the right order through five different adventures 1 The players are railroaded by a non player character who pops up whenever the party is going astray 1 and three of the five adventures are initiated by an appearance of the ducal herald In spite of this Cowie thought that this is a good module to play 1 and he specifically praised the way the town is presented He finished his review by calling it a module rich in character and invention 1 and although it is unlikely that any party will follow through the story line without a lot of guidance if the DM can avoid making the players feel over manipulated there will be much enjoyment to be had 1 The module received 7 out of 10 overall in a review by Jim Bambra in issue No 48 of White Dwarf magazine He called Curse of Xanathon a detective adventure though he said that it was very much a programmed affair and players move through a series of distinct and logical stages discovering clues as they go 2 He noted that if the players fail to follow the clues the Dungeon Master must direct them to the next encounter which cuts down on the amount of freedom available to them Bambra deemed the module to be not as good as the contemporaneous releases for Advanced Dungeons amp Dragons but said it was superior to the two modules preceding it in the series Isle of Dread and Castle Amber 2 References edit a b c d e f g h Cowie Doug June 1983 Game Reviews Imagine review TSR Hobbies UK Ltd 3 15 a b c d e Bambra Jim December 1983 Open Box Dungeon Modules White Dwarf review Games Workshop 48 10 ISSN 0265 8712 a b c Schick Lawrence 1991 Heroic Worlds Buffalo NY Prometheus Books p 149 ISBN 0 87975 653 5 Livingstone Ian 1982 Dicing with Dragons An Introduction to Role Playing Games Revised ed Routledge ISBN 0 7100 9466 3 preview Niles Douglas Curse of Xanathon TSR 1983 External links edithttp www rpg net reviews archive 10 10780 phtml Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Curse of Xanathon amp oldid 1183142480, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
