(TFT) Half assed review of the Island of Lost Spells

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi everyone,
   I have GM'ed a group thru the Island of Lost
Spells and want to put up an early review.  We 
did not get to every paragraph in the adventure,
but we did see ~90% I would estimate.  (We did
get down into the dungeon under the estate and
found most of the big treasure I believe.)

   First impressions were very favorable.  You 
charter a boat to take you to an island where
a powerful (dead) wizard had a manor and magical
library.  You fight monsters and loot the place.
There is a bit of money, but most of that is 
long gone.  The best treasure is spells.

   Their version of TFT has several new spells,
so it can be a bit of a thrill to get a spell
that the GM and players have never seen before.
I have my doubts on if I want some of these 
spells unaltered in my campaign, but I have 
allowed my PC's to keep them for testing 
purposes with the understanding that the spells
may someday mutate or simply vanish.

   The adventure does a good job of giving out
a fair bit of treasure AND making it feel like
it is reasonable that this treasure could 
logically still be there.  A nice trick.

   The system that they have for moving thru
rooms and corridors is excellent.  Their
system uses fewer paragraphs for moving about
than does Death Test.

   There are some typos in their book.  For
example in the town they refer you to the
alchemists but no paragraph exists for that 
location.  Other paragraphs are identical which 
I feel is almost certainly an error.  I spotted 
a couple other small errors.  Their website did 
not have any errata for these errors.

   However, the adventure is at its foundation 
a move into a new room and fight.  It does this
well but... does it have flair?  Almost.

   I should likely reserve final opinion on 
this product until I have played thru the final
10% but neither my players or I feel any 
pressing desire to do so.

   I would rate this product a B+.  (This would
be higher than all the Metagaming Microquests
with the exception of Grail Quest, and perhaps
Orb Quest.)  

   Others who have played both adventures, what
do you think of this one compared to their 
first adventure?

   I feel that the product is well worth the $15 
or so that it cost.


   Regards, Rick.
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