Rating: 
Summary: Toadkiller Dawg says "Smart, challenging and fun!"
Review: At first thought, the original WPM would seem to be a poor candidate for a "modernized" sequel. Contemporary players would probably laugh at Lawrence Schick's 1980 classic as an archaic dungeon crawl full of over-complicated traps and large, deadly monsters that sit in tiny rooms with nothing better to do than wait for a group of PCs to come along and (hopefully) provide some much needed feed. Which, of course, is exactly what WPM was, but it was loads of fun nonetheless. Revisiting WPM and injecting a more logical and realistic story framework without destroying the familiar aspects of the original is a daunting task, but the Silver Anniversary edition succeeds beyond any expectation.RTWPM starts by detailing many of the mysterious NPCs and strange locales that were only hinted at in the original. Thingizzard and her potions, the cursed ruins of Castle Mukos, the Great Swamp and the dracolich Dragotha finally get their due and Keraptis' infamous Indoctrination Center plays a central role in the scenario. While these details are entertaining in their own right, the strength of RTWPM is a central plot device involving "sentient magic" that is not only consistent with the events of the original WPM scenario, but is exceedingly clever in its own right. It wouldn't do to reveal the secrets of the story here, but the execution is a brilliant example of how to create a subtlety challenging and wildly novel situation for the PCs without violating the spirit of the D&D game, using heavy-handed DM tactics or requiring a substantial rework of any existing campaign standards. The NPCs are wonderfully sketched and run the gamut from sturdy locals to deranged gnomes and rebellious efreet. Hardened veterans and green novices alike will be entertained by ample doses of humor, danger and drama that culminate with a surprise ending. Flaws are few and minor in nature. The map are pleasing to the eye but have been printed on the inside front and back covers which means that the DM cannot refer to the map and text at the same time, but must flip back and forth. One area (the old inverted ziggurat) has a monster that should have been encountered and destroyed by the existing denizens long before the PCs come on the scene and the answer to the feasibility of feeding and keeping happy a large number of creatures in a relatively small number of caves doesn't seem entirely adequate. While the nostalgic aspects may be lost on the half-dozen or so players who didn't play the original version in their youth, RTWPM will definitely entertain all comers in high fashion. Although WPM was originally set in Greyhawk, there really isn't any setting specific material here and the scenario can easily be dropped into any campaign world. Best of all, RTWPM is a veritable bargain combining a relatively low price with enough high-quality material sufficient to keep the average group of players busy for several sessions. RTWPM deserves the highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Simply a Great Module!
Review: In my opinion, Return to White Plume Mountain is one of the very best adventure modules out there! It features a very clever central plot, realistic encounters, logical combat situations, and several opportunities to roleplay and interact with the dungeon's inhabitants. This supplement provides very clear and detailed histories for both Keraptis and White Plume Mountain. The plot is unique, realistic, and intriguing. The effects of roleplaying and of interacting with the non-player characters is outlined. In addition, the dungeon crawl itself is not linear at all, allowing the players to roam at will. And the maps look great! Although a lot of information is presented, the module can easily be altered or customized. There is no setting specific material, so White Plume Mountain can easily be inserted into any ongoing campaign. However, no addition work is needed to fully enjoy this adventure. I have run this module with 3 separate groups of players, experiencing 3 very different, yet wonderfully memorable, adventures. Do yourself a favor, purchase Return to White Plume Mountain - it is worth every penny!
Rating:
Summary: Simply a Great Module!
Review: In my opinion, Return to White Plume Mountain is one of the very best adventure modules out there! It features a very clever central plot, realistic encounters, logical combat situations, and several opportunities to roleplay and interact with the dungeon's inhabitants. This supplement provides very clear and detailed histories for both Keraptis and White Plume Mountain. The plot is unique, realistic, and intriguing. The effects of roleplaying and of interacting with the non-player characters is outlined. In addition, the dungeon crawl itself is not linear at all, allowing the players to roam at will. And the maps look great! Although a lot of information is presented, the module can easily be altered or customized. There is no setting specific material, so White Plume Mountain can easily be inserted into any ongoing campaign. However, no addition work is needed to fully enjoy this adventure. I have run this module with 3 separate groups of players, experiencing 3 very different, yet wonderfully memorable, adventures. Do yourself a favor, purchase Return to White Plume Mountain - it is worth every penny!
Rating:
Summary: Intense puzzle-solving adventure for veteran heroes
Review: On the long, bitter-sweet journey through life, can you ever go back home? Sadly, no. But you can plop down and stay at some really cool motels, replete with cable, mints, and mini-fridges, on your wayward jaunt into the unknown. Such is my mundane, quasi-philosophical revelation after DM'ing this adventure. No, it's not quite as profound as the "Belarius maturity conundrum," but hey, it's enough for a few weekends' worth of glorious casual play. Which is all we really need sometimes! Old-timers (*hack, cough*) on the Greyhawk scene will probably be most enthusiastic about the adventure's detailed "world" trappings, more so than with the actual plot. Remember Erol Otus' cryptic, enchanting pictorial map of the Mountain's environs, in the original S2? Now, we actually get to meet Thingizzard (and find out why her potions are something to be wary of!), hack our way through the Twisted Thickets, and perhaps even fall into the beguiling clutches of Dragotha. But, once the adventurers venture into the shadows of a cave known to hundreds of thousands as the Wizard's Mouth, everything changes. And that's where both the problem and the beauty lie. Anyone looking for a mere re-tread of the original spectacle of Lawrence Shick's magnum opus is bound to be disappointed. It's a new age. Now, monsters need food, logical housing, a reason to live, and a reason to die. (I guess Belarius wasn't the only one psychologically scarred 20 years ago.) Dungeons need architecture. And adventures need a conclusion, answers to questions, and yes, sadly, a plot. If you can detach yourself from the nostalgia of the original, and appreciate this work as an entirely separate entity, you'll be absolutely thrilled with the sheer ingenuity of Bruce Cordell's story. I can virtually guarantee that no veteran AD&D'er will be able to figure out what's going on until they're well in over their heads. Keraptis' ancient experiments, it seems, have left quite a magical legacy; a new, mutated form of meta-magic, nearly sentient, has evolved in the dungeons below White Plume Mountain, with horrifying (and extremely amusing) repercussions. As the adventurers enter, several power-mad warlords are fighting desperately to control Keraptis' dreaded Indoctrination Center, and the notorious weapons of the first White Plume module are being used as the primary symbols of power and destruction. (I'm being intentionally vague here, because if you haven't read it, get this module! You're in for a treat.) A few of the encounters are misplaced, or over-powered - Mossmutter, a corrupted great wyrm, may well wipe out all but the most experienced adventurers in an eyeblink, and Killjoy the efreeti is more of a cardboard cutout than a true, deep-thinking nemesis. But these are merely trivial concerns - the adventure is a joy to run (and experience!), the full-color maps of the dungeons are gorgeous, and veteran players will get a serious overdose of nostalgia as they slog through the original level and witness the cataclysmic changes two decades of chaos and mayhem have wrought. New players may be overwhelmed by the colossal challenges and Byzantine intrigues awaiting them on the Indoctrination Level, but nevertheless, a great time will be had by all - and hey, if you have to lose a character, what could be cooler than having his soul schlorped into Blackrazor? Minor reservations aside (which are fixable anyway with an hour's worth of fine-tuning), Return to White Plume Mountain is easily the 2nd-best adventure of 1999. (Only Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is better.)
Rating:
Summary: Intense puzzle-solving adventure for veteran heroes
Review: On the long, bitter-sweet journey through life, can you ever go back home? Sadly, no. But you can plop down and stay at some really cool motels, replete with cable, mints, and mini-fridges, on your wayward jaunt into the unknown. Such is my mundane, quasi-philosophical revelation after DM'ing this adventure. No, it's not quite as profound as the "Belarius maturity conundrum," but hey, it's enough for a few weekends' worth of glorious casual play. Which is all we really need sometimes! Old-timers (*hack, cough*) on the Greyhawk scene will probably be most enthusiastic about the adventure's detailed "world" trappings, more so than with the actual plot. Remember Erol Otus' cryptic, enchanting pictorial map of the Mountain's environs, in the original S2? Now, we actually get to meet Thingizzard (and find out why her potions are something to be wary of!), hack our way through the Twisted Thickets, and perhaps even fall into the beguiling clutches of Dragotha. But, once the adventurers venture into the shadows of a cave known to hundreds of thousands as the Wizard's Mouth, everything changes. And that's where both the problem and the beauty lie. Anyone looking for a mere re-tread of the original spectacle of Lawrence Shick's magnum opus is bound to be disappointed. It's a new age. Now, monsters need food, logical housing, a reason to live, and a reason to die. (I guess Belarius wasn't the only one psychologically scarred 20 years ago.) Dungeons need architecture. And adventures need a conclusion, answers to questions, and yes, sadly, a plot. If you can detach yourself from the nostalgia of the original, and appreciate this work as an entirely separate entity, you'll be absolutely thrilled with the sheer ingenuity of Bruce Cordell's story. I can virtually guarantee that no veteran AD&D'er will be able to figure out what's going on until they're well in over their heads. Keraptis' ancient experiments, it seems, have left quite a magical legacy; a new, mutated form of meta-magic, nearly sentient, has evolved in the dungeons below White Plume Mountain, with horrifying (and extremely amusing) repercussions. As the adventurers enter, several power-mad warlords are fighting desperately to control Keraptis' dreaded Indoctrination Center, and the notorious weapons of the first White Plume module are being used as the primary symbols of power and destruction. (I'm being intentionally vague here, because if you haven't read it, get this module! You're in for a treat.) A few of the encounters are misplaced, or over-powered - Mossmutter, a corrupted great wyrm, may well wipe out all but the most experienced adventurers in an eyeblink, and Killjoy the efreeti is more of a cardboard cutout than a true, deep-thinking nemesis. But these are merely trivial concerns - the adventure is a joy to run (and experience!), the full-color maps of the dungeons are gorgeous, and veteran players will get a serious overdose of nostalgia as they slog through the original level and witness the cataclysmic changes two decades of chaos and mayhem have wrought. New players may be overwhelmed by the colossal challenges and Byzantine intrigues awaiting them on the Indoctrination Level, but nevertheless, a great time will be had by all - and hey, if you have to lose a character, what could be cooler than having his soul schlorped into Blackrazor? Minor reservations aside (which are fixable anyway with an hour's worth of fine-tuning), Return to White Plume Mountain is easily the 2nd-best adventure of 1999. (Only Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is better.)
Rating: 
Summary: Caution: Weapons Change
Review: Overall, this is an excellent return to the famouse S-2 adventure with enough changes and expansions to make veterans of the original module keep on their toes and everyone will be entertained. However, for DM's who have incorporated the original adventure into their gameworld please take note that while the three weapons Wave, Whelm and Blackrazor reappear in this adventure, they no longer have their original alignments. Wave was True Neutral = Now Neutral Evil. Blackrazor was Chaotic Neutral = Now Neutral Evil. Whelm was Lawful Neutral and is now Chaotic Neutral. While this will have little affect on new campaigns, the hundreds (thousands?) of DM's who have already incorporated these weapons into their game world will have some editing to do.
Rating:
Summary: I like what I'm reading and I think you will, too
Review: The original S2 was one of the more clever and interesting A&D modules I ever read. Most of the others were just an excuse for hack and slash and grab the booty. The original adventure encompassed more thinking and even a little negotiation which was uncommon in 1st edition AD&D. So, that's why I'm happy to see a revision to the old module into a book form. This new edition has some very interesting twists and a big moral dilemma at the end which I thoroughly appreciate. It also has a method in it that potentially will ruin the lives of foolish PCs so DMs may want to be careful in playing this one out if their players aren't the thinking or cautious types. Overall, there's a lot more room for negotiations in this series. I like that as I'm trying to push more roleplaying in my players. Moreover, the storyline is set up with four warring factions; all evil but I plan to change that to a few neutrals since the PCs in my campaign are all good and would never negotiate alliances with evil groups. This game is great for an adventuring group from 7-10. I would add that they should be interested in thinking out possible traps and tricks and also be adequate (or better) at negotiations. The weapons may unbalance the game so make them either super evil, which means good PCs must destroy them, or have them destroyed at the climax (will make sense when you read it). Lastly, you may want to give the different warlords more allies as the module gave them a skeleton crew of thugs.
Rating:
Summary: I like what I'm reading and I think you will, too
Review: The original S2 was one of the more clever and interesting A&D modules I ever read. Most of the others were just an excuse for hack and slash and grab the booty. The original adventure encompassed more thinking and even a little negotiation which was uncommon in 1st edition AD&D. So, that's why I'm happy to see a revision to the old module into a book form. This new edition has some very interesting twists and a big moral dilemma at the end which I thoroughly appreciate. It also has a method in it that potentially will ruin the lives of foolish PCs so DMs may want to be careful in playing this one out if their players aren't the thinking or cautious types. Overall, there's a lot more room for negotiations in this series. I like that as I'm trying to push more roleplaying in my players. Moreover, the storyline is set up with four warring factions; all evil but I plan to change that to a few neutrals since the PCs in my campaign are all good and would never negotiate alliances with evil groups. This game is great for an adventuring group from 7-10. I would add that they should be interested in thinking out possible traps and tricks and also be adequate (or better) at negotiations. The weapons may unbalance the game so make them either super evil, which means good PCs must destroy them, or have them destroyed at the climax (will make sense when you read it). Lastly, you may want to give the different warlords more allies as the module gave them a skeleton crew of thugs.
Rating:
Summary: I like what I'm reading and I think you will, too
Review: The original S2 was one of the more clever and interesting A&D modules I ever read. Most of the others were just an excuse for hack and slash and grab the booty. The original adventure encompassed more thinking and even a little negotiation which was uncommon in 1st edition AD&D. So, that's why I'm happy to see a revision to the old module into a book form. This new edition has some very interesting twists and a big moral dilemma at the end which I thoroughly appreciate. It also has a method in it that potentially will ruin the lives of foolish PCs so DMs may want to be careful in playing this one out if their players aren't the thinking or cautious types. Overall, there's a lot more room for negotiations in this series. I like that as I'm trying to push more roleplaying in my players. Moreover, the storyline is set up with four warring factions; all evil but I plan to change that to a few neutrals since the PCs in my campaign are all good and would never negotiate alliances with evil groups. This game is great for an adventuring group from 7-10. I would add that they should be interested in thinking out possible traps and tricks and also be adequate (or better) at negotiations. The weapons may unbalance the game so make them either super evil, which means good PCs must destroy them, or have them destroyed at the climax (will make sense when you read it). Lastly, you may want to give the different warlords more allies as the module gave them a skeleton crew of thugs.
Rating:
Summary: All Around Excellent
Review: This is easily one of the best adventures for D&D that I've ever seen. It's very imaginative, well-written, and has plenty of information for DMs. It's got just enough story backing up the hack-n-slash to keep players interested, and the final encounter is monumental. It's great fun to play for both DM and PCs.
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