This was originally written as a tournament module for Gen Con Indy 2005, and so comes complete with scoring information and pre-generated characters... so it's ideal if you are looking for a one-off adventure or happen to need an adventure to run at a games convention. Or, of course, you can run it with an existing party as part of your ongoing campaign... however the results from when it was played at Gen Con make grim reading in terms of survival rates!

The adventure itself concerns an upstart dragon called Myrkjartan who has raided the ancient and long-undisturbed Vault of the Dragon Kings in a bid to establish the rule of dragonkind (or at least, himself) over all sentient beings. There's plenty of background material to get your teeth into, covering the original Dragon Kings and the vault they built when they realised that their days were numbered, and how their passing gave rise to the multiplicity of dragon types found in the world today... and how Myrkjartan is not quite the villain he appears. Maybe. There are notes on how to involve the party - and just as importantly, notes on what they don't know! There are also notes on particular features of many of the traps in the Vault, of the perils of adventuring at high altitude, and of the mammoth scale the Vault is built to, seeing as it was made by and for dragons.

The adventure comes in three parts, corresponding to the three rounds of a tournament game. Throughout, there is plenty of help and direction for the DM, with sidebars reminding of applicable game mechanics as well as detailed room descriptions and notes for every encounter. There are some complex traps that will take smarts as well as brawn to circumvent. They look reasonably straightforward when you have notes on how to defeat them in front of you, but may well prove a lot harder for the party to deal with. There are hints provided, but will the party recognise them for what they are?

It's a tough and challenging adventure with both traps and combats a-plenty, but there are opportunities to interact with at least some of those encountered in the Vault... but the conversation might get cut short if tempers become short. There's a lot here, including some new monsters, spells, templates and other items. The pre-generated characters are provided as dense blocks of text, you'd better transcribe them onto character sheets if you intend to use them. There are some player handouts, to let them see what their characters see in certain situations, potentially helpful especially with the traps.

It's well presented, well laid out, and oh, so very challenging. A good adventure for groups who like high stakes, difficult challenges for both mind and body, and who are not afraid to lose a few characters along the way. Have fun!

A lot of companies have tried to use the d20 rules to recapture an "oldschool" feel, reminiscent of the classic 1st Edition AD&D Adventures, but few seem to grasp the essence of those early modules quite as well as Goodman Games and their Dungeon Crawl Classics line. These are adventures that eliminate all trappings of pretension and focus on the meat of the adventure: exciting encounters, interesting locations, and clever puzzles.

Vault of the Dragon Kings is something of a special adventure. It was used as a "tournament" module at GenCon Indy 2005. More than 25 teams of gamers tested their mettle against this perilous dungeon. This is your chance to follow in their footsteps. A scoring system and special tournament rules are included for those interested in running this adventure as a competitive event between several groups of gamers. For players looking for a more standard gaming experience, the normal d20 rules apply.

While Vault of the Dragon Kings in intended for 10th level characters, I have a feeling that a party of that level would suffer a lot of deaths. This makes sense, considering the tournament nature of the adventure. If I were running this for my home group, I'd probably wait until the party reached 14th level or so. The adventure was meant to be a challenge and PC deaths should therefore be expected, especially at the levels suggested by the authors.

Many of Goodman's previous selections have been full of puzzles and this adventure is no exception. Fortunately, the designers were smart enough to craft the puzzles in such a way that failure to solve them doesn't generally result in the adventure grinding to a complete halt. Stuck PCs might have to take on a difficult fight, or simply absorb a lot of damage, but they can still go on. One exception is a lever puzzle encountered early in the adventure. Even with the solution, I find the whole thing confusing. There are other puzzles that I do enjoy, so this might just be a question of personal taste.

Goodman has done a pretty good job with the adventure presentation. There are nice rules reminders throughout, cutting down significantly on the amount of times I had to crack open a book to see just how something worked. In an adventure this large and involved, little touches like this are greatly appreciated.

There were a few spots where the design could have used a bit of revision. Take, for example, the read-aloud text for area 1-4. Here the author devotes five paragraphs (some 290 words) to describing a large chamber. Granted, there is a lot to see here, but asking a group of players to digest that much text in such a big piece is a bit unrealistic. The handout illustrations help to alleviate this problem immensely, and Vault of the Dragon Kings contains a bunch of them.

I should also point out that the size and scope of this dungeon is really very large. There are certain items that have different effects in certain rooms, giving the PCs reasons to explore and re-explore their surroundings. This adds a nice level of depth to the adventure, and it rewards clever players who let themselves get into the dungeon's backstory.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Vault of the Dragon Kings is a great example of a large, classic style dungeon crawl. There's a lot of things to do here, an interesting backstory, glittering treasure, and a bunch of monsters to kill. Goodman Games lives up to the expectations, delivering something thoroughly modern with an old-school flavor.

The GenCon extras, which include the scores of the various groups and a piece of short fiction are a nice little bonus.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The backstory is fairly involved for an adventure of this type, which may make hurt Vault's portability. In addition, the adventure is both big and deadly, making it best suited as a campaign-concluding adventure for potent PCs.

Finally, because of the size of the place, there were a few areas that I just didn't care for. One room, in particular, contains what can only be described as magical medieval surveillance monitors. Not a game breaker, by any means, but enough to make me want to tweak things a bit before running them for my own group.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

There comes a time in every story arch?s life that an epic adventure is sought to bring about a proper climax. Dungeon Crawl Classics 30: Vault of the Dragon Kings is such an adventure.

Vault of the Dragon Kings is one of Goodman Games premium adventures. It is noticeably bigger at 132 pages, well bookmarked and complete with artwork, blueprint maps and plenty of player handouts. I?ve quipped in previous Dungeon Crawl classic reviews about the lack of handouts, apparently they were saving them all up for here.

The suggested level is between 10th through 12th, though I am taking my 14th level party through it and, unmodified, they are having a tough time with it (insert evil laugh track here). Seriously, if you are running this adventure tournament style and do not mind a high death count (or TPK) then you can run it at 10th, else I would suggest this as challenging for a 13th through 15th level group.

Again this is a Goodman?s premium adventure and they have certainly pulled out all the stops. The adventure is designed for the company?s big Gencon tournament and is complete with the team?s names, scores and deaths. Thus my advice in the previous paragraph.

The plot of the adventure is very intricate for a dungeon crawl. A silver dragon with good intentions goes on a quest to find information on his ancestors, the dragon kings. He is manipulated and overwhelmed by the ghost of an evil red dragon, Sunscreech. But the PCs do not know this. As a matter of fact, they believe that the four dragon kings are the ones whom are at fault. The dungeon is designed to provide clues that could lead to both hypothesis?s and there is quite a bit of mystery solving to find the truth.

Vault of the Dragon Kings contains the usual heavy combat action you would expect from Goodman games, but there are also a great deal more puzzles. The adventure does not bash you over the head with the puzzles, forcing players to become Rubik?s cube players though, and failure usually results in a combat as opposed to instant death. Most of the almost 30 encounters are very creative and go beyond the typical obligatory fight scene. Many combats can be avoided through puzzle solving, trap finding or role playing. The descriptions put you in the middle of the dungeon, yet leave enough room to add your own flavor. The plot is tight, but again, allows you to still add your own pizzazz.

For the DM This adventure is complete. It has the right amount of puzzles, traps and monsters and with the different types of encounters, your players will not be bogged down by one meaningless combat after another, instead they will be rewarded for using their 3.5 knowledge and wits.

The last encounter is one of the most amazing encounters I have seen. A fight with the incredibly powerful possessed silver dragon that tests the players intelligence more so than their character stats.

A small tidbit I wished they?d add to their other adventures is the predetermined rolls. Most of the rolls a DM would make, from damage to random rolls are already predetermined, allowing the DM to move quickly through a game as opposed to rolling continuously. I know a lot of DMs would not like this, but it would be a nice aid for the few whom want to skip out on some rolls.

The Iron Word Vault of the Dragon Kings is one of the best adventures produced in the Dungeon Crawl Classics series. It is the kind of adventure that makes me mad I did not sign up for it at Gencon. If you are looking for a climatic adventure, and do not want a very lengthy boring Dungeon crawl, Vault of the Dragon Kings will win you over. The rooms are very detailed, the puzzles are inquisitive but not overbearing and the unique amount of combat is amazing. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - the detail is pretty descriptive. The rooms come out at you.

• the predetermined rolls are nice if you want to skip some rolls
• there are plenty of handouts and unique monsters. There are also some really cool monsters.
• The balance of he adventure is perfect. Not once has my party seemed bored. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - It is designed for a tournament and is a bit too lethal at points. Not a 10th level adventure unless you want plenty of dead PCs (read the list in the front of the book. I would actually suggest 12th or higher.
• I was a bit confused why the ghosts of the Dragon Kings are usually not ghost dragons.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>