Pyramid Review
Dark Tower (for d20)
Published by Judges Guild through RPG Realms
Written by Paul Jaquays with Bruce Runnels
Illustrated by Jason Millet, Steve Bryant & Chad Fidler
$16.95
The advent of the d20 System and its associate Open Gaming License has launched a plethora of new publishers of adventures and supplements for Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition. Indeed it seems as if there are too many to count -- and the list keeps growing. Once it was not so, and there were only a few names that published for AD&D 1st Edition or the original D&D other than TSR, with even less producing material for the 2nd Edition. Yet of those few, one stood head and shoulders above the rest -- for whatever reason -- and that was Judges Guild.
Long-time gamers may shake their heads ruefully and smile nostalgically when they consider the output of Judges Guild. Whatever game they were writing for, which for a time included supporting D&D without TSR's permission, their material could be best described as rough 'n' ready, or even cheap 'n' cheerful. At worst, it was dreadful dross, agruably not worth the paper it was printed on (which is not saying much, as Judges Guild always used the roughest of paper stock). Of course, some of their books captured the imagination, and many have achieved the status of desirable collectibles. Notable among these is City-State of the Invincible Overlord, but this was not Judges Guild's most popular and best-selling title. That honor fell to Dark Tower.
Originally released . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 9, 2001
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