The Background seems more clearly geared to be read to the players, with expressions like “your map shows” and “you must all exercise great care”. This is definitely a development and a refining from the previous modules
First module to have a map which shows multiple levels superimposed on top of each other – this can at times be a little confusing and is very rarely used in future. See those dashed lines? – those are to indicate a 10 foot wide passage underneath the top level
Art
DCS III front and back cover
Most internal art by DCS III but quite a few by Trampier as well
After the sequence of back covers for the G’s, and D1 showing the main 3 monsters, the back cover of this one just shows the players encountering a rust monster – an odd choice, considering rust monsters are only in the random monster tables. Again, the Australian version doesn’t have a third panel – instead the back cover is the hex map
General
There were two and half pages of random monster tables in D1. This module ups it to three and a half pages.
The 2 minor encounter areas on the way to the main area are quite interesting – Gygax seems to be adding more and more flavour as he does more and more design – names and motivations for the monsters, and descriptions of various reactions depending on what the players do
The massive main temple room is something else! I mean, the main cavern in D1 was big, but the jaggedness of the edges gives it a smaller feel. In this module, the players enter on to a gigantic 260’ x 270’ room with a huge statue at the centre – it’s pretty awesome as a set piece
I haven’t got much else to say. Rather than a bunch of random monster cupboards, the layout of the Kuo-Toan city makes a decent amount of sense. The main question I have is “why do they have money?” It’s not like they have any shops or anything…
The two and a half pages just for Kuo-Toans is the most extensive monster description yet
There’s an article in the October Dragon mag, #19, that details how they scored the tournament with a little commentary about this module
