Unfortunately, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part starts by committing a cardinal sin. It leaps straight into the set-up for the Player Characters with a lot of exposition and absolutely no explanation for what is going on for the Dungeon Master. Nevertheless, it quickly moves to the action with a strange encounter just off Governor’s Island. A Septopus—a seven-tailed Octopus—will approach the boat the Player Characters are on and it will await their reaction. If they attack, the Septopus will respond and then descend into the depths never to return, but if they are receptive to communication, it will tell them some of the secrets about Governor’s Island and give them some keys to doors on the island and some treasure. The treasure is nice enough, but cannot be used in this scenario. It is a nicely done encounter and rewards the Player Characters with a little useful information.
After this first encounter, though? There are some truly pointless encounters in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The second encounter is with a beached pair of adventurers, the last survivors of an encounter with the first encounter, the one with the Septopus that the Player Characters have just survived, either by driving it off or by actually learning something useful from it. Both of them want to leave Governor Island and will negotiate with the Player Characters for help in getting to the ship that the Player Characters arrived on. This, though, is not before both adventurers explain to the Player Characters what happened to the rest of their comrades in what is a detailed splurge of exposition that takes up two pages, and apart from this, neither adventurer has anything useful to tell the Player Characters. The encounter will either show the Player Characters what would have happened if they got the first encounter right or show them that they were not the only ones to get it wrong, but how exactly does this help either them or the story? Logically, perhaps this encounter should have been first, with the adventurers clinging to wreckage rather than washed ashore, thus foreshadowing the encounter with the Septopus, rather than the illogical four pages devoted to it to no purpose.
There is a mad goblin who is dressed as a bridegroom and will beg for news of his bride, and when he does not get it, he will attack the Player Characters. He knows nothing that will be of any help to the Player Characters and although there are the scraps of a torn letter to be found in the same room, there is no explanation as to what contents of the letter actually means. Another room consists of a paddling pool in which floats a rubber duck and which contains surprisingly deep water at the bottom of which is a locked gate. There is nothing else in the room. The adventure states that there is no way to get to the gate and the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the gate is unreachable at this time”. Which begs the question, when will it be reachable and what does it actually add to the adventure? It is bad enough that the description of the room fails to mention its exits—one obvious, one secret—but having the central feature of a room do nothing and add nothing…? Another has two ‘Apocol-imps’ that walk around in a circle each wearing a sandwich board and declaring the end is nigh and again, there is no explanation as to how this relates to the plot, if at all.
Continuing the pointless encounters with containers of water is a room with the magical artefact known as the Bucket of Fish. Its waters contain visions of ethereal figures swimming in the mist and if a Player Character stares into waters and fails a Saving Throw, he will see the ‘partner of his dreams’, is cursed, and loses points of either Intelligence or Wisdom until the curse is removed. According to legend its appearance is a terrible omen, but an omen of what? If the curse is lifted, and that is a challenge all of its own, the person lifting the curse automatically knows where the Bucket of Fish is and knows that he must return to the Bucket of Fish his beloved from the bucket. Further, the Player Character who suffered the curse, will lose half of his wealth, including his possessions and any treasure gained from the adventure. So doubly punished for failing a Saving Throw. Lastly, if a player states that his character is going to ‘kick’ the Bucket of Fish, he has to make a Saving Throw versus Death. He does receive a bonus, because as the adventure states, “[T]he writers of this adventure aren’t complete dicks.” However, if the character does die, the writers do give permission for his player to be teased by his fellow players. Which is fine, because as the adventure states, “[T]he writers of this adventure aren’t complete dicks.”
The encounter ends with further advice that, again, the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the Bucket of Fish cannot be affected by your actions at this time” as the bucket cannot be moved or damaged by their characters. So again, what is its purpose? The only thing it can do is punish the Player Characters and not only punish the Player Characters, but also a player too, all for asking to do the most obvious thing that you would do with a bucket.
There is another hint as to what is going on some twenty-four pages into Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. After saving Heiress’ best friend, she will tell them that she came with Heiress to Governor’s Island in order to save her friend, Crikpaw, and she will also explain where the love-besotted Goblin came from. This is from the Bucket of Fish, which begs the question why did it work differently for Heiress and her best friend than for the Player Characters?
The scenario comes to an end with a big fight with a demon, the discovery of a sealed letter that the Player Characters are not expected to read, but give to their employer, and the Player Characters failing to find Heiress, Crikpaw, or the signet ring of the house of Ukoh An. They do see a ship sailing off, presumably with Heiress and Crikpaw aboard, but ultimately, everything is fine, the Player Characters’ employer is angry, yet he will still pay them despite their failure.
Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is designed as the first part of an eight-part series, so obviously, in later parts, the Player Characters will find Heiress and Crikpaw and presumably find out what is actually going on. This though, does not excuse or stop Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part from being a frustratingly stupid adventure. To begin with, the Dungeon Master does not learn the identity of the actual villain until after the adventure has finished and worse, even if she had known at the start of the adventure, it would not have affected the running of the adventure. It certainly would not have affected the plot, as effectively there is no plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part and even if there were, there is nothing that the Player Characters can do to affect it. So, it almost does not matter that nowhere is there an explanation of the overall plot to the series, let alone this single adventure. Except, of course, such an explanation might have persuaded the Dungeon Master to want to look at the sequels to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part.
Further, only three encounters matter in the whole of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The first is the encounter with Septopus, which will provide the Player Characters with some useful information; the second is with the Heiress’ best friend, who will tell them a little of what is actually going on; and third, discovering that Heiress and Crikpaw have already left. Between the first and last encounters, it does not matter what the Player Characters do in this linear dungeon. In fact, the best thing that the Player Characters can do is touch nothing and just get to the end as quickly as possible, because almost everything they encounter is either pointless or designed to punish them, if not both. The last thing that these encounters are designed to do is engage in the plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, putting aside the fact that there is actually very little plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part.
Physically, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is not a bad looking product. It apes the classic booklet in a card folder with a white on blue map on the inside format of many of the modules from TSR, Inc. The map is incredibly large given that it has to depict twelve locations one after another. The scenario needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is decent and it is tidily laid out.
There are encounters in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part which are interesting and playable—the encounter with the Septopus and another with some Leaf Spiders. They suggest that the authors can write encounters that are either interesting or playable—or even both, but two interesting and playable encounters out of twelve do not make for a good adventure. The rest really are dreadful, often managing to be just randomly pointless and punishing, taking up time until the Player Characters can discover that all of their efforts have been to naught. To be fair, that is often the way of stories, the protagonists failing to achieve their objectives in this part, but making another attempt in a later part. Yet that failure should be interesting in itself and the protagonists of the story—in this case, the Player Characters—should learn something that will help in the subsequent parts. Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part fails to do this. It also fails to tell the Dungeon Master its own plot, let alone that of the series as a whole. So, it fails to sell the whole series too.
Lastly, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part costs $35.
Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part does not provide the purchaser with $35’s worth of entertainment. As to the amount’s worth of entertainment it does offer, it is difficult to determine how much this exercise in frustration and pointlessness is actually worth.
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