JG The Black Ring Review - Old School Role Playing

The Black Ring is an adventure which was published in Pegasus Issue Number One. It was written by Dan Hauffe.. This adventure was intended for characters of 10th to 15th levels of experience. It was written for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition even though it never specifically states this. I know this to be the case because of the spells available to certain non player characters in the adventure.

This adventure involves an ancient artifact which is needed in order to restore the Sentinel of Time to it’s proper status.An ancient black ring has been shattered into three segments. These need to be gathered and then reforged in order to bring the Sentinel into balance again. The reason that the Sentinel is not in balance is that an evil wizard brought another ancient artifact, a skull, and placed it near the Sentinel. Until this is removed and the ring restored things will continue to go badly in these lands.

This adventure takes place on four little islands which are “keys.” Each has a mini dungeon which will need to be explored. This adventure is 36 pages including the covers and maps. This adventure, technically, takes place in the City States of the Wilderlands campaign setting but could easily be placed anywhere in any realm.

What I like about The Black Ring

It is a fairly high level adventure for 1st Edition. When you go back and look at what was published by TSR and by Judges Guild and other publishers you will not find very many that are higher than 10th level. So that alone makes this one a rarity.

This one has a Lich. I am quite fond of these and used one as the primary villain in my own campaign. This one is not nearly as powerful as the great Malcon the Firebringer from my own campaign. But he is still powerful. And he has an interesting selection of spells and a well planned strategy laid out for using them. This encounter alone should be worth using this adventure.

This adventure contains an artifact. Not one of the artifacts from the DMG. But one that is useful and will die with this adventure. It will not be a campaign breaking addition like so many other artifacts can be.

There are some clever tricks in this one. Most of the encounters are fairly in line with the experience levels these adventurers will be. And combined with these tricks some will be quite challenging.

What I do not like about The Black Ring

Because this was published as a piece in the magazine Pegasus it might be hard to get a “legal” copy of the original. There are editions of the magazine out there so it is possible.

Also because this was a magazine submission it does not have all of the art of the other Judges Guild products. But there is some. And it is about even in quality to most of the other modules. Why they did not sell this as a separate adventure later is a mystery to me. It would have been successful I believe.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

Yes. I would. It will play well with characters in this level range. And it could easily fit into any campaign. It will not add any artifacts or magic items that should break a campaign. And there are plenty of good challenges and combat encounters.

Would I run The Black Ring with my own players?

Yes. I might. I really enjoyed reading this one. And it would play well with a reasonably high level group. Unfortunately my own players just restarted their characters after a total party kill. It may be a while before they get to these levels again.

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