Editing XL1: Quest for the Heartstone

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'''XL1: Quest for the Heartstone''' was a brazen cash grab by TSR to tie in with the Warduke<sup>TM</sup> and other LJN action-figures. 	Michael <strike>Bay</strike>Gray sullied his résumé with this one, in 1984.

You get your party, who are the Good Guy series of trademarked LJN toys featuring Strongheart<sup>TM</sup>, to fight monsters ineptly scattered around a wilderness and a (haphazard) dungeon, to earn treasure. The monsters are also toys. Among these is a HD 12 version of the infamous [[roper]] - which, you'll note, neither [[Tom Moldvay]] nor [[Frank Mentzer]] had wanted for the Expert Set at any level.

Graham Staplehurst's review for ''[[White Dwarf]]'' March 1985 remains a model takedown of this bullshit. Someone should post the whole of it here but in the meantime, you can go to Wikipedia's excerpts.

Thank Saint Cuthbert, there never was an XL2. XL1's protagonists do wash up in the [[Mystara|Known World]]'s Ierendi for [[Desert Nomad series|X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield]] - where they are pompous asses played for comic-relief. That was the best Dobson could do since he was stuck with this stinker as canon.

The good pre-gen characters reappear in 5th Edition's The Wild Beyond Witchlight as the "Valor's Call." Still led by Strongheart and Elkhorn keeps his now even more garbage strength score of 9. Also making an appearance is several of the evil pre-gen characters as the "League of Malevolence." Warduke even keeps his awesome helmet.

[[Category: Modules]] [[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Mystara]]