''Egg of the Phoenix'' is an adventure module published in 1987 for the ''

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Several different editions of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

Plot summary

''Egg of the Phoenix'' is an adventure in which the player characters (PCs) investigate a slaver ring, and must ultimately work to save the land of New Empyrea from the lords of Elemental Evil. The module includes dungeons, wilderness adventures,

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

, and extraplanar journeys.

Publication history

I12 ''Egg of the Phoenix'' was designed by

Frank Mentzer Jacob Franklin Mentzer III is an American fantasy author and game designer who worked on early materials for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. He was an employee of TSR, Inc. from 1980 to 1986, spending part of that tim ...

, with additional design, development, and editing by

Jennell Jaquays Jennell Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays, October 14, 1956) is an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' modules '' Dark Tower'' and '' Ca ...

. The module's cover is by

Keith Parkinson Keith A. Parkinson (October 22, 1958 – October 26, 2005) was an American fantasy artist and illustrator known for book covers and artwork for games such as ''EverQuest'', '' Guardians'', '' Magic: The Gathering'', and '' Vanguard: Saga of Hero ...

, and was published by TSR in 1987 as an eighty-page book, a twenty-page booklet, and an unattached outer folder. The booklet contains a map and pre-generated PCs. This module was a linkage of three formerly unlinked scenarios originally published in the

RPGA The RPGA (also called the Role Playing Game Association and the RPGA Network at various times), was initially part of the organized play arm of TSR, Inc and later of Wizards of the Coast. From 1980 to 2014, it organized and sanctioned role-playing ...

modules R1 through R4.

Reception

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company B ...

reviewed ''Egg of the Phoenix'' for '' Dragon'' magazine No. 133. He felt that the first three scenarios were "original, challenging, and entertaining, particularly in their exploitation of the peculiar logic of the AD&D game universe", but had reservations about the final scenario, which "despite having a plausible game rationale and logical self-consistency, strikes me as gross and overly busy rather than lean and elegant". He felt that assembling these tournament scenarios into an epic campaign was not very successful, because Mentzer had not designed them as a sequence, and they originally had nothing to do with one another. He said, "the narrative frame isn't particularly persuasive, nor do the supplemental encounters or transitions match the tone and theme of Mentzer's original tournament designs", and "the introductory motivations for involving the PCs in the epic quest are rather arbitrary". Rolston also noted some careless production errors, such as a number of typos in the first few pages, and that the text refers to the map book as a twenty-page center pullout. Despite his complaints that the campaign frame and the production quality were not satisfactory, Rolston concluded by saying: "There's some very good stuff in here: nine sessions or more of solid and occasionally brilliant material. The tournament-based adventures may be the strongest of Mentzer's peculiarly original AD&D game designs."

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egg Of The Phoenix Dungeons & Dragons modules Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1987