Engineering Dungeons and Towers of Adventure

Dagger · Post by **Dagger** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:39 pm

Towers of Adventure seems like a pretty cool product based on the description. How does it compare to Engineering Dungeons? I already own the latter and at first glance it seems that there is some overlap between the two products (both are dungeon building toolkits). Are they just different flavors of the same thing or are they mutually exclusive?
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gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:47 pm

Towers of Adventure is not so much a generator toolkit as it is a series of pre done buildings. Engineering Dungeons is far more generic.
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:52 pm

But Towers of Adventure has the kick-butt digest-sized box set! I've already made the decision that every tower in ToA is going into my C&C White Box campaign! Oh, I'll work them all in there, baby.

-O
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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:59 pm

Yeah, towers has prefab towers based on purpose (lonely wizard tower, ruined faerie tower, orc tower, etc.) that are then fleshed out with NPCs from book 2 and populated with treasure from book 3. Book 2 has low mid and high level NPCs, adventure hooks, low mid and high level monsters, and demi humans along with a section on services that may be provided by inhabitants of the tower. Book 3 has themed treasure based on class and amount of treasure the CK wishes to distribute (fighter themed treasure for example, generous, sizeable, substantial, or huge). Also several traps are there for distribution throughout the tower (mechanical, creature, magical, poison, and sound traps). The tower levels can be mixed and matched if you prefer, or run directly out of book 1. You can photocopy the tower page you wish to use and it has a numbered section that corresponds to numbers placed on the tower map. These numbers can be services, combats, traps, useful NPCs, or treasures.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:59 pm

Omote wrote:
But Towers of Adventure has the kick-butt digest-sized box set! I've already made the decision that every tower in ToA is going into my C&C White Box campaign! Oh, I'll work them all in there, baby.

-O

That kicks ass, chief! Deploy those towers along the countryside, points of light style!

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:26 pm

That is actually a great idea. Incorporate the towers of TOA into a Points of Light style game. Hmm. Now you have got me thinking about another, whole new campaign based on these mythical 20 towers spread throughout the land...

-O
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:34 pm

If you've ever played Wild Arms and survived the Millennium Towers, then you have a pretty good idea how I'd use these.

I don't think there is a tremendous overlap between Engineering Dungeons and Towers of Adventure, though they can be used together for some really neat results.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:49 pm

Omote wrote:
That is actually a great idea. Incorporate the towers of TOA into a Points of Light style game. Hmm. Now you have got me thinking about another, whole new campaign based on these mythical 20 towers spread throughout the land...

-O

Very nice concept, run with it! Some of the towers could be like waystations along the road providing much needed services while others are trap laden nightmares loaded with treasure if the players can survive long enough to loot them! Hell now youve got me thinking about putting several of them in my game as plot points to further the main campaign story... and the Vampire Tower pic on p.16 has got me thinking about a tower sprouting up from the crater of an ancient meteor that shrouded the region in darkness millenia ago.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:05 pm

See, bam there you go. Fuel for the creativity. What about a so called "lost land of twenty towers." Each tower supposedly containes a secret why the entire land was lost. These towers were once used as bastions to protect those from the cursed lost lands. Now, some of these towers have fallen into dark hands. Who can stop the darkness that gathers in the Land of the Lost Towers.

-O
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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:15 pm

Heck yeah. What about this: The aforementioned tower that sprouted from the crater. The meteor was actually a gateway to the abyss that was locked within layer upon layer of rock by dweomercrafters from a now-dead world in a final act of desperation attempting to save their world from the entities pouring out of the gate. It was too late for them, the world exploded in a fiery conflagration hurling the trapped gateway into the depths of space until it crashed upon this world. The magic of the dweomer is finally beginning to fade and the tower is the first outpost of the abyssal entities to spring into existence upon this world.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:23 pm

Sounds great. Sounds like a fantastic basis for an entire campaign and/or campaign world. Bring it on, my dice are ready.
-O
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Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:25 pm

Sounds pretty much identical to what I said before, about Wild Arms.

Just add in some Aces and Eights and its good to go.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:30 pm

Never played wild arms, so you've got me at a loss on that one, Robert. Im trying to figure out what that is, unless you mean the old video game?

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:36 pm

This sounds like a pretty nifty product. Definitely gonna check it out. Hmmm....I'm thinking it could be used to detail the Towers of Hithel mentioned in A0: The Rising Knight.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:37 pm

Im thinking that a tributary of the river Styx has sprung up beneath the tower and while the Abyssal General marshals his forces along the stygian causeway, the boatman slowly delivers the entities to the subterranean entrance of the tower.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:45 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
This sounds like a pretty nifty product. Definitely gonna check it out. Hmmm....I'm thinking it could be used to detail the Towers of Hithel mentioned in A0: The Rising Knight.

DEFINITELY a nifty product, and a damned fine idea as well on the Towers of Hithel!

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:47 pm

Wild Arms is a series of console games akin to Final Fantasy, but its like fantasy western with robots, big guns, and magic.

Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:58 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
This sounds like a pretty nifty product. Definitely gonna check it out. Hmmm....I'm thinking it could be used to detail the Towers of Hithel mentioned in A0: The Rising Knight.

Son of a gun, DD. I was thinking about this today, but figured nobody would know or remember that bit of trivia.

Great minds think alike.

Good for you!

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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:06 pm

Robert, ok, that's kind of what I was thinking. Ive never played it but I remember it from back in the day.

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:07 pm

Rhuvein wrote:
Son of a gun, DD. I was thinking about this today, but figured nobody would know or remember that bit of trivia.

Great minds think alike.

Good for you!

Hell yeah Rhu. I've always been enamored with the idea of the Towers of Hithel ever since first reading A0.

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Engineering Dungeons and Towers of Adventure

Engineering Dungeons and Towers of Adventure

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