Troll Lord Games

Hi all,

I've been poring through C&C's Core Rulebook, and generally like what I've found although I have some minor concerns which I'll withhold judgement on until I can actually play the game.

I'm interested in the Umbrage Saga Box set, but I admit that I tend to get annoyed with inconsistencies, sloppy editing, and logical holes: all of which I found in a 1st edition "Assault on Blacktooth Ridge".

Examples:
General typos: at least 1, sometimes more per page. Some creatures were shown in the wrong places, stat blocks had quite a few typos in places.
Inconsistent naming: Characters are often given 2, even 3 different spellings, sometimes in adjacent sentences! Grakmuk/Gakmuk, Maglerod/Marglerod/Maglerd, etc.
Logical holes: Green, moss like plant... in a dungeon. I doubt it. Fungi I can accept, anything that requires sunlight (ie, green plants) not so much...

Then there was the door by the dungeon entrance. The warning makes no sense on two levels. The first level is that even when I knew what the reason for the warning was, I couldn't see how anyone would guess what it meant. The second, is why would whoever wrote it give that warning at all? Anyone who was supposed to come to the dungeon as a friend certainly would have been told to not attack the demons. And anyone else... well, it would be like giving a cryptic message above your door to any prospective burglar to go around to the back door to avoid the house alarm.

Yeah, the above are nits... But I have a large number of modules which are both high quality adventures and don't have the issues I describe. So, my question is: is the boxed set (which has the 2nd edition of Assault on Blacktooth Ridge), better quality that the 1st edition of the module in question?

Well...first off, quality is sort of a person by person opinion. A good number would say that the quality of the Umbrage saga is more than just editting issues. It is my understanding that some additional editting has been done, but not everything is caught. Given the nits you picked I'm afraid you would find many of the same in the follow up adventures. However, despite such issues, others would agree that it is worth the $$ for this product.

I will point out that I found the setup interesting and generally well done... otherwise I wouldn't be asking. But I appear to be genetically incapable of passing a nit without being annoyed for a couple of minutes...

All the adventures in that set have gone into a second printing. A greatly expanded second printing in the case of A1. I'm sure the price is reasonable for that box set, but you might be better served going with the new printings instead of the old ones.

So does that mean that the box set has the first or second edition modules (I know it's one book, but just checking whether it's based on the first or second edition stuff)?

There are still a number of small typos in the Umbrage box, gambler1650. If this sort of thing grates, you will likely be best served passing on it. Some really good adventuring in there once you get past these, however.

You'll need to ask the Trolls to verify this, but based on the table of contents for the box set available in a pdf preview on drivethrurpg.com, the adventures appear to be using the text from the second printings of A0-A5. However, I cannot be certain, as I don't have that box set. I have the individual modules, all second printings.