Dungeonland: Difference between revisions
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Acrofatic]]: The Tweedle siblings are monks, much like the Hatter and Hare, but chunkier.
* [[Adaptational Badass]]: ''Everybody.'' One often has to wonder if American McGee didn't draw at least some inspiration from Gygax when designing characters [[American McGee's Alice|his own]] [[Darker and Edgier]] version of Wonderland.
* [[Adaptational Villainy]]: Many. For example, the Caterpillar (who was somewhat friendly and helpful in most adaptations) is a behir. (If you’re not a fan of D&D, a behir is kind of like a dragon, with no wings and ten legs.) While he’s smarter than the average behir, his goals are typical (as in, he wants to eat the PCs) and worse, his hookah creates magical smoke that emulate the effects of several nasty spells, like stinking cloud, shocking grasp. He can even turn the smoke rings into snakes or tie people up with them.
* [[Alice Allusion]]: Obviously, although strangely, Alice herself is missing from the story.
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Many NPCs (including the March Hare and Mock Turtle) have had [[Body Horror]] conditions inflicted upon them by the White Rabbit; clearly, if the PCs somehow manage to kill him, they’re doing the community a big favor.
* [[Bad Samaritan]]: Much like in Carroll's work, one of the Knights volunteers to escort the Players to the final encounter; like in Carroll's work, this knight is not a very good rider and falls off his mount frequently. ''Unlike'' Carroll's work, this Knight might fall on one or more of the Players, and seeing as he ''and'' his steed are iron golems in this version, which makes him ''incredibly'' heavy. Players can sneak away from him or decline his offer, but without a guide they'll have to deal with a bunch of giant dragonflies, making the whole encounter another [[Morton's Fork]]
* [[Big Bad]]: The modules don’t seem to have much in the way of a main antagonist, although the White Rabbit is a big contender, seeing as a lot of NPCs are in bad shape because of him.
* [[Big Fancy House]]: If the second module is used as a stand-alone, the PCs enter the Magic Mirror Mansion, which represents the cluttered house Alice started her second adventure in. Gygax put quite a lot of detail into this place, which is odd, because if PCs survived the first module, they’ll likely steer clear of this place. Which may be for the best, as it’s haunted by a groaning spirit (what banshees were called back then).
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* [[Kill'Em All]]: Ironically, the PCs have more of a chance of getting through the adventure in one piece if they forgo any sort of negotiation with the inhabitants. None of them are truly friendly, and fighting them is the better option.
* [[Killer Game Master]]: You’d have to be one to put players through this, but then, Gary Gygax clearly fit the Trope.
* [[Nasty Party]]: Two in one story!
** The NPCs at the Mad Tea Party don’t bear any malice to the PCs, but all of them are hopelessly insane, making the place very dangerous. The Hatter continually tries to display his wares by throwing them at the PCs, and many of these hats are Executioner’s Hoods (monsters from the original Monster Manual 2 who try to clasp to a victim’s head and suffocate him). The March Hare is a brute cursed with Body Horror by the White Rabbit, which drove him insane. Should any player actually try to drink the tea, they find it to be a deadly poison. And if the players decide to flat-out attack the Hatter and Hare, they discover that both are mid-Level monks. Not an easy fight.
** The final encounter of the two modules is by far the most dangerous, and also fits the Trope.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Not as hard as ''[[Tomb of Horrors]]'', but still a brutally difficult "killer dungeon".
* [[Original Character]]: Jack-in-the Pulpit is an enemy that is not based on any Alice in Wonderland character, but he does seem to fit into Wonderland nicely (meaning he’s a complete dick).
* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: While the Hatter and March Hare are dangerous enough if the PCs pick a fight with them, the Doormouse is ''far'' worse. He's actually a wererat cursed by a spell that makes him lethargic, and the condition is ''contagious''.
* [[Priceless Paperweight]]: The tarts stolen by the Knave are not pastries, but expensive jewelry designed in tart-shape.
* [[Railroading]]: This module can fall into this a lot. For example, much like he does in Carroll's work, the Cheshire Cat disrupts the Queen's croquet game; if the players killed him the first time they meet him, ''his ghost'' appears instead. Not to mention there's no way to avoid the Mad Tea Party or the Queen's Croquet Grounds, as the path is very linear.
* [[Sequel Hook]]: The Knave’s boat, found by the PCs if they escape the Queen of Hearts, is meant to take them to the second part.
* [[Square Race, Round Class]]: It's hard to imagine ''any'' characters in Wonderland having levels in D&D character classes, but they do, and some are kind of bizarre. For example, the Hatter and March Hare are Monks. Seriously. Even less likely Monks are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. How these characters learned martial arts is a mystery best left unexplored.▼
* [[Schizo Tech]]: The Magic Mirror Mansion has some treasure that, by all rights, should not be in this setting, including the VCR, audio cassette tapes, and film projector. Yes, you read that right; this is still D&D, meaning the PCs will likely view this as advanced alien technology. The house even has electricity (although it is generated by a lightning elemental). This is all part of the greater Mythology Gag explained above.
* [[Square Race, Round Class]]:
▲*
** The chess-monsters in the second part are kinda weird. To give two examples, queens are [[Our Centaurs Are Different| female lion centaurs]], and the kings are Shambling Mounds.
* [[Trope Maker]]: This was actually the first module to use a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_map Hex Map] system for outdoor areas, a system that would be adapted for many other games, and is still used today.
* [[Villain With Good Publicity]]: The Prince, Jack of Courland, the module’s [[Expy]] for the Knave of Hearts. While he is the prime suspect in the theft of his mother’s tarts, he’s still got a lot of friends, and this makes it very easy to use the PCs (who are strangers) as a scapegoat.
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