Thursday, March 8, 2018

Rappan Athuk Extras

If you got your copy of Rappan Athuk by investing in the Kickstarter, you may have one or more of the following extras.

1) Necromancer Games Note Pad.  Just a folio of blank pages with a silver Necromancer Games Logo and a title of "Frog God Games".

2) Rappan Athuk Player's Guide.  Although called a "Player's Guide", this supplement is really a 16 page folio of notes that canny GM's will introduce to the players when the time is right.  Most of the material is about the town and it's residents - and the stories they can tell to the PC's.

3) Rappan Athuk Bestiary.  This is a 32 page folio (although a couple of the pages at the end are blank so that a GM can put other creatures in). This folio contains 35 monsters that are unique to Rappan Athuk or the surrounding area.

3) Rappan Athuk - Cyclopean Deeps - Part 1: Down to Ques Querax.  This 24 page folio also has a couple of blank pages that cold be used by a GM to add their own touches.  Note that later, Frog God Games printed a =much= larger book for part one.  Pages three through ten are guides to wandering monsters, and mentions that these deeps are even below the usual range of such underground dwellers as Drow.   Pages 11 thru 16 are either maps, or keys to those maps.  Pages 17 through 20 are new monsters for these realms. 

4) Rappan Athuk - Cyclopean Deeps - Part 2: Cult of the Khryll.  Although on the cover, it says: "Part 2: Cult of the Khryll",  the real subtitle should be: "Eye of the Titan".  This 20 page folio lays out the basics of Underdark lands even below Rappan Athuk!  There are 11 pages devoted to the Eye of the Titan and the remaining four are devoted to catacombs even lower in the Cyclopean Deeps.

5) Rappam Athuk GM's Screen.  This is a four panel regular height GM's screen.  It only has a large picture that faces towards the players on the front - but, on the other side, is valuable info for the potential Rappan Athuk Gamemaster.  On page 1 is a map of the area around Zelkor's Ferry showing the river and other features, including the infamous Mouth of Doom. A rumor chart fills up page two with 66 rumors that characters can hear in the town.  The GM could roll a dice, but I feel they would be better advised to take the rumor that the players might follow up on.  The 3rd panel Shows all of the connections from one level to another including almost everything from Area 3 to area 15.  Finally, on the 4th page is a map of the area around, not just Rappan Athuk, but also of the wilderness fairly far away from the mega-dungeon.

6) Pregenerated Characters.  A comprehensive look at 12 possible characters that GM's could allow their players to use instead of their own.

7) The Battle Maps.  These are detailed maps of the lower areas of Rappan Athuk.  First, Area Zero has 1 page. Then area 1A-4 has 1, then area 3A-8 has 2 more, area 3C-30 has 2 more, then area 4-9 has six more, area 5-6B has four more, areas 7-3 and 7-4 come in two parts, area 9-C-19 has two, 9-D to area 9 K has three more.

Wait!  But there's more!

Area 10-19 has 4 more, area 10-C3 has 2 more, area 11-4 has 2 parts, as do 11-6.  Area 12-6 has 2, and finally, area 13 B8 covers B8-8, B8-9, and B-10, and concludes with area 13C.  Prospective GM's should copy these maps and put the related sections together before starting.  1" per square is the standard throughout.  The Chessboard,  BTW, has a Harry Potter like feel. as you move humanoid characters the correct way to defeat your opponent. 

The full kit also includes a dry erase map making board, and a large sized diagram of the huge mega dungeon showing the levels and how to get to them..

As I look at this super sized campaign, I am reminded of the fact that it grew from a series of three modules from the old "Sword and Sorcery" system - R1 - "The Dungeon of Lost Graves - The Upper Levels", R2 - "The Dungeon of Lost Graves - The Middle Levels", and R3 - "The Dungeon of Lost Graves - The Lower Levels".  The three modules, combined together, come nowhere near the total for the entirety of Rappan Athuk.  In the R3 series, there were only 224 pages.   But in the "final" version of Rappan Athuk, there are (counting the new improved Cyclopean Deeps) 1,284 pages!   BTW, there are two =more= booklets - "Level 7B" and "Rappan Athuk Expansions 1".

I cannot recommend this any higher!  My heartfelt congratulations to the whole Rappan Athuk team - and especially, its author, Matt Finch.  I know I'll be using this in my Pathfinder campaign, and Frog God Games is doing a Kickstarter for a conversion to 5th Edition D&D.  Absolutely one of my very highest recommendations!

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