View From the Bushes

After convalescing for the entire weekend, I'd say that I'm about 80% of full health. Which means I'm well enough to go and do the old 9-5 job, but not well enough to be productive once I get back home. I hope this changes, because I'd like to get enough done this week that I can justify buying a new computer game on Friday. I'm torn between buying the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide (no, I can't pronounce it either) or The Temple of Elemental Evil. The latter does carry quite a bit of nostalgia with it, since T1, The Village of Hommlet (the first adventure in the Temple of Elemental Evil series) was one of the first modules I owned and one of the few with a fully fleshed-out village (thus the name right?).

Since at the tender age of 11 I was unsatisfied with my own attempts at village building, (and judging from the reaction of the citizens of Lichtenstein my nation-building wasn't that great either) I used Hommlet for just about every campaign I ever ran. In those days, the covers of all the modules were detachable and they always had a map on the inside. The village was mapped on the inside of this cover and my copy had so many pencil marks with additional buildings, castles that the PC's had built, marks noting the depredations of evil humanoids, etc., that it was difficult to make out the original map. As such I have a deep and abiding affection for Hommlet and its citizens, which creates a double-edged sword. The computer game is suppossed to be a faithful recreation of the original module; will I be delighted to have a chance to play in the village I loved so much or will I be disappointed with their version of it, or perhaps bored with details and plot twists I already know?

Additionally, TToEE violates my primary rule of game buying, which is: wait. Wait for a couple of reviews, wait for all the bugs to be patched, wait for walkthrough's to come out on the internet (So when I'm too dumb to figure something out, some 12 year old can help me) and wait for the price to come down. So I'll probably get Shadows of Ugrentuolasplament, or however you say it. But regardless of how I go, I'll probably pick up the other one in November, though that's when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comes out and I may find it difficult to resist the first Star Wars CRPG.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross