Temple of Elemental Evil Interview
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Q: The Temple of Elemental Evil was a freaking huge campaign. I remember playing it back in the day and I don't think we ever got through it all. How do you even approach something as big as this campaign and keep it in perspective enough to remake it in digital form without going completely overboard and trying to add too much?
A: Well, one reason I picked the module was because it was so huge. If you are going to make a CRPG, you can't just have a simple dungeon and spray down some monsters and treasure. We have a lot of fun making extra side quests and writing dialogs based on little hints given in the module. For example, in the Hommlet tailor's description, it mentions that he is not in the town militia because he is too short. So I wrote his dialog around him pining to be in the militia, and then came up with several ways that a PC could fulfill his wish. So this one line in the module because a multiple solution side quest spread over 2 or 3 NPC's.
We did this kind of thing a lot. I don't think we went overboard, but we did want a big game. And we got one.