Clockwork Mage
AD&D Module

Game Review

Review by Michael Dawson


Written by S. Stone and M. E. Allen
Mayfair Games PO. Box 5987, Chicago, IL 60608
Released- February, 1985
Catalog No. 728
Price: $6,00
Complexity: Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability, None
**

Clockwork Mage is an Advanced Dungeon & Dragons compatible module that tries to create something that doesn't look like a dungeon, but still plays like one. Set in the manor house of a medium level wizard, the adventure for 4-6, 2nd to 5th level characters revolves around attempts to free the wizard from an elaborate practical joke, rescue magical items for another wizard who is also the victim of a practical joke, or simply loot the house while taking advantage of the situations that the two mages find themselves in.

Practical jokes are the rule of the day in this scenario, and the silly nature of things going on in the house seems to oddly jar against the straightforward and serious manner in which the scenario has been presented. In a way, Clockwork Mage has the right idea -- anything as ludicrous as a dungeon should be played strictly for laughs.

The single 32-page book is put together well and has a very slick three dimensional map of the villa printed on heavy card stock. On the back of this map is a hex map of the area surrounding the manor and the practical jokes tables that will be used often in play. Unfortunately, the layout on the map is wrong for use as a ref screen, a job that it could otherwise fulfill since it is of such heavy material.

Even if the referee was willing to look at the map sideways, the other side has the joke tables on it which the players should not see. Interior art is amateurish. Perspectives are clumsy and the figures are wooden.

The nonsensical nature of the manor house that is the location of the adventure strains one's disbelief to the limit. It seems unlikely that any sane mage would ever think of constructing such an amazingly wasteful place as Humbert's Manor. The level of mastery necessary to create dozens of permanent specially keyed teleport spells, rooms bigger on the inside than the outside, and half a dozen permanent force walls defies the player's understanding. For such a low power magician to have succeeded so well at creating five or six new races of beings as well as mastering the creation of five different types of mechanical/ magical servants is just too strange to believe. Humbert is too low level a mage to have accomplished so much in his career.

For all its magical complexity, the manor is a surprisingly poor place to go for loot and while the risks of adventure there can be minimized by careful thought and picking the right friends, the rewards are likely to be disappointing for the average player. This is a surprising contrast. Most dungeons with this much magic around are much more likely to load up the characters with magic and loot if they are successful. In Clockwork Mage, even a "best case" game for the players will not get them much magic.

The scenario can supply a welcome relief from too much serious dungeon delving in a campaign that is made up mostly of beating up the monsters who own the gunnysacks full of gold pieces. A Gamemaster (GM) would need to sit down beforehand, however, and really take a look at how to play each situation for the best laughs. There is potential here for funny sitnations, but the authors or editors suffered an over-abundance of seriousness in putting Clockwork Mage together.

The idea should have been to face the player characters (PCs) with a difficult to solve puzzle in a situation where they would have to try hard to get themselves killed. The scenario comes close, but should have been played for more laughs.

To be fair, Clockwork Mage has its moments. There is something inspirational about having an encounter with a dangerous and ill tempered set of bagpipes. But to balance that out, there are too many encounters with things that don't really belong in the manor. A thief who has taken up residence but not yet stolen anything worth mentioning, vampire bats in secret passages, and guests that haven't left even though the host has been missing for weeks can all, inappropriately, he found in this scenario.

Of course the major encounter in Clockwork Mage is with the highly touted new monster class, the Sims. These mechanical/magical servants of the mage who owns the villa are really nothing more than an excuse for having a functioning household in the absence of the host and other real people. Their pre-set programming keeps them wandering about and seeing to the needs of the various denizens of the manor (thus explaining the presence of blink dogs in the dining room), but their uniform nature keeps the task of describing real, individual people to a minimum; however, it also keeps any possibility of role-playing at a minimum.

The presentation of the material is straightforward and organized room by room following a brief introduction and insufficient scenario hooks to get the players involved. The writers seem to take for granted that the players will want to investigate the manor, and they have no reason to look the place over other than the old mainstay of looking for adventure. The room descriptions are for the most part adequate and arranged in a convenient "this is what the characters see, and this is what is there" format that keeps the task of description to a minimum. However, some rooms are glossed over with lines like, "There is nothing in this room that can help the adventurers with their guest." Since a clever PC can make almost anything important to a guest, this kind of description is annoying.

The only layout flaw noticeable in the book is rather major. In the room that contains Humbert and the practical joke he is caught in, the last line says that if the PCs successfully free him, see the section titled "The Return." No such section exists, making it difficult to determine exactly what will happen when Humbert is freed. A more minor organizational problem is the way that the teleportals can easily separate a party, or get them jumping rapidly from one area to another, making a mess of the room order as presented.

Luck plays a major part in this scenario, but it is not necessarily fatal to have bad luck. There are several different ways to get all the clues necessary to solve the puzzle and complete the scenario, and only a few ways that the PCs can really destroy their chance to free Humbert. if anything, the clues are too obvious, and there are too many people trying to push the players into fixing things.

Clockwork Mage is OK for AD&D players and GMs who enjoy basic dungeon crawling. It will make a good change of pace from more deadly scenarios. Nevertheless, there is little to recommend it to players of other games, or D&Ders who prefer roleplaying to treasure hunting.

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