Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil: An Adventure taking Characters From 4th to 14th Level

by Monte Cook

"The Temple of Elemental Evil" is one of the most well-remembered adventure series from the early days of the "Dungeons & Dragons" roleplaying game. Now, veteran designer Monte Cook revisits this legendary setting in an all-new adventure written for the" D&D(r)" game. Players will enjoy countless hours of play as they race against an evil band of priests attempting to unleash the dark god upon the world.
"Return To" products are tremendously popular adventures that revisit the most infamous dungeons from the early days of the" D&D" game. Seasoned" D&D" veterans will enjoy the nostalgia of returning to the games they played years ago, while newer players will appreciate the chance to play in these legendary settings.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.

The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.

The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.

Reviews

[Igor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This campaign book has been one of the best adventure I played with my team, so much that I bought the 5th edition adaptation from a 3rd party and played again with another team more than 15 years later.

The story takes from the original adventure Temple of the Elemental Evil, although it takes some unexpected turns, forcing some lore changes compared to the original adventure. Nonetheless, if you can cast aside this or simply want to enjoy a nice adventure from Monte Cook, you will be satisfied.

Recommended to anyone new to the story, either 3rd or 5th edition adapted. Recommended with prejudice if you played TotEE and are a bit of a lore stickler.

[Psychophant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first adventure I got for the then new 3rd Edition D&D game. I had not played the original 1st Edition module, but as many others I made some early forays into the Moathouse in the early 80s.

This is an excellent module both by its scope, filling a whole campaign, and by its detail, requiring minimal work to make it playable. It also recovers the adventure spirit of the 80s, as intended, but that also becomes its main weakness, being concerned more with the evil guys hierarchy and combat tactics than offering character development and leisure time opportunities for the players. There are a few potentially non-violent interactions, but most of the time it is kill, kill, kill, with enemies so despicable that no compromise is possible.

The writing style is clear and enjoyable, the information complete and most possibilities are covered. An excellent giant dungeon romp in four episodes.

[Caleb Wachter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I bought this, but I've never actually run anyone through it. There's good material here, but as I read and re-read this clearly well-designed and detailed module, I kind of got the feeling like one does when watching fifty year old movies and not quite appreciating what everyone else purports to see in them. In the end, I chalked it up to a case of 'You had to be there to understand.'

Still, as I said I am glad that I bought this book, but I don't foresee using more than snippets in my own future campaigns.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun but it required heavy editing to be a playable adventure. The early bits were sort of missing a motive for the cultists to be poking around at the moathouse; with my group we improvised that they were retrieving the lost Water Orb. The later bits climbed too high in difficulty, too quickly. I tried to roll with it by handing out extra experience, but really a better solution would have been to rewrite and decrease the level of the later stuff.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well written adventure, but very basic in its parameters. Lots of random monster encounters and battles with thugs/evil priests/etc., but light on puzzle-solving and plot and character interaction. As a super-sized dungeon crawl, it hits all the right notes, but as a story I was hoping for more.