The Forgotten Isle is a 66 page monster concerning exploration of Maladar, a mysterious island shrouded in legend. In many respects, it reminds me of The Isle of Dread, one of my all time favorite modules, and the structure is basically the same. The party finds clues that lead them to the island’s location and the ancient ruins that populate it.

Where Scott departs from that scenario is the amount of time spent gathering clues to the island's whereabouts beforehand. Ample opportunity for great role play here to balance out the exploration of an ancient civilization and what remains. The stuff of D&D, indeed.

Illustrations and cartography are again dominated by Santiago Iborra. While the cover illustration doesn’t grab me the same way the cover for Dark Raiders did (too many pastels for my taste) it does bring to mind that freaky ghost ship in Poe’s Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. Still, it’s better than a lot of mainline stuff from WOTC and associated publishers.

There’s not much more of the module’s material I can tell you without spoiling the surprise. Scott’s prose reads much better in this previous module than it did in Dark Raiders. He uses boxed text in this one as well and again pulls it off nicely without slowing down the game.

Scott has thrown in two new magic items that are of some interest and can be handily used in any game: the Orb of Geruvoj and a Cloak of Desire… both well thought out items. Lastly, he’s returned to the old practice of including pre-generated PCs for that player caught without his character sheet. It’s a practice I think I’ll also re-introduce in my future works.

Ultimately, I like this module better than Dark Raiders because it provides more useful material. Dark Raiders of Misty Ridge is good for a one shot evening adventure; The Forgotten Isle can easily become an involved scenario for your players that will span several evenings. I think I’ll work this one in with my next group of up-and-comers.

The Forgotten Isle is priced at $7.99, and for its size that’s a good price for this PDF.

For those who don't know, OSRIC is an open-content version of the First Edition Advance Dungeons & Dragons rules. Its an effort to give publishers the ability to produce new products for the old game system, and one that has found a small but enthusiastic place in the modern gaming community.

The Forgotten Island is a module originally written in 1991 and ran at a convention called U-Con. This is an updated and revised version. The adventure spans some seventy pages and is divided into three parts. The art is pretty good throughout. There are a number of handouts and visual aids. Some of the art is really good. The illustration on page 44 of part three is a particularly cool piece of black and white art. The layout, on the other hand, is a bit amateurish. It looks a lot like something created in the pre-desktop publishing era of the 1970s. While this is consistent with the first edition products that inspired it, the module's presentation could have used some freshening up.

The adventure is, by default, set in Magique Productions' house setting: the Realms of Arkonus Fantasy Campaign Setting. Its not tied too tightly to the setting, however, and should be usable in just about any typical fantasy setting.

Part one details a small port city and gives the PCs an enemy in a group of rowdy pirates. There are a number of things to see and do in town, and I could see a party spending a lot of time wandering around there. I think one of the strengths of first edition shines through here. With the rules-light nature of OSRIC, more focus can be placed on the kind of details that aren't governed by rules. PCs sneaking around the warehouse, for example, might run afoul of one of the tough dockworkers. The rules-light nature of the system means that only about two lines of text are need for the dockworkers' stats, leaving the rest for description of the area.

Part two covers a journey on the high seas in search of a mysterious island. There are a series of planned events here that play out something like a timeline. The GM will have to be careful here to control the pacing of this section, lest it play out like one long section of flavor text. After their journey, should they survive the dangers, the player characters reach the island and the next phase of the adventure begins. There is a vast ruined city here, filled with a wide variety of monsters, tricks, and traps. There is plenty to explore and a number of dangers to face. In the end, the players must make a decision that could have world-wide effects.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like old-school adventures, and the Forgotten Isle certainly falls into that category. The wide variety of locations, from a city to an ocean to an undead-filled ruin keeps the adventure feeling fresh throughout. There are lots of handouts to help the GM run things smoothly. When the PCs find an important map, for example, the GM can simply hand the players the map handout. These sorts of things aren't necessary, but they're very welcome.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Backstory is important in an adventure, to be sure, but I think that the Forgotten Isle suffers from having a little too much epic background. The Isle itself isn't that hard to insert into a generic fantasy world, but the backstory might be another matter. I think that the designers would have been better off leaving a little more to the GM to flesh out. The end result feels a little clunky to me. Some parts are given too much detail, while others are kind of hand-waved away. The Forgotten Isle really relies on having a good GM to make sure things run smoothly and work for the players.

I also had a bit of trouble finding things from time to time. The organization of the product, while not bad, could use a little attention. I also found the conclusion lacking. If the PCs make the wrong decision, it could have apocolyptic consequences. Unfortunately, the book glosses over the details and gives a few sentences to the effect of bad things happen and the world ends. I exaggerate, but not much. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>