Listing Gamma World module GW10 Epsilon Cyborgs for sale today, I noticed that the map of Harlan Quade’s Base looked very familiar. I pulled out my AD&D module S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and sure enough, those circular ship maps are (mostly) the same!
It’s not a 1:1 match. Quade’s Base in GW10 has only 4 levels, while the alien spacecraft from S3 has 6 floors. And the GW10 maps are rotated 180 degrees.
But it’s close enough that these represent different models of the same space craft. The similarity here is very gameable. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Gamma World were connected all the way back to the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, where conversion rules were included on pages 113-4.
Imagine a veteran AD&D table group playing through Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for the umpteenth time, entering the complex… and finding themselves in Harlan Quade’s Base instead!
I’ve got the maps photo’d further down this post, side-by-side.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (S3)
1980 … Gary Gygax … TSR 9033 … ISBN 0935696148
DriveThruRPG (PDF)
Epsilon Cyborgs (Module GW10)
1987 … Kim Eastland & Larry Elmore (artist) … 48 pages + poster map (“Frozen Lands”) … TSR 7513 … ISBN 0880384778
DriveThruRPG (PDF / Reprint)
Level 1 is the closest match I think. Note the access card type are the same!
Level 2 has some modifications. The S3 map has a more open layout. Also, it has a literal Easter Egg in the south… “EGG” which is for “E. Gary Gygax” of course. The EGG was obscured in the GW10 map, part of the mid-80s TSR purge of all things Gary Gygax.
Level 3 is slightly altered for the circumstances of Epsilon Cyborgs, most notably the entrance ramp.
Level 4 actually corresponds to Level 5 of the S3 map.
See Also:
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.