Tape some red cellophane over your helmet holes as Rediscovered Realms explores TSR’s only 2 Magic Viewer SOLO Modules, “Midnight on Dagger Alley” and “Mystery of the Snow Pearls” for Dungeons & Dragons!
Thanks for reading Rediscovered Realms! Subscribe & Consider Pledging to receive amazing weekly posts and Keep the Adventure Going Strong!
With (most of) the secrecy of invisible ink, but without the dried-out one-time-use markers, this red-coded technology was super-fun back in the day.
BTW: Rediscovered Realms covered the D&D invisible ink solo modules, too!
Remember the boardgames, “Outburst!” and “Password” with their special viewers?
Sometimes called, “Red-Reveal”, and used for hidden images or secret messages - this light-bending technique of obfuscating underlying text and pictures with red patterns appears to have been around for quite a while.
The original Password game was from the 1950’s and there appears to be books and other products from around that time or earlier that also used this crimson eye-trickery!
Getting back to D&D . . .
First up, from 1984 is “Midnight on Dagger Alley” with a distinctively cool cover illustration by Jeff Easley.
Who is that dagger-ladened shadow, I wonder?
The trappings would be considered standard fare if not for the obfuscating red pattern spattered over most of the items - a trifold cardboard cover with stats and various other game mechanic pieces; a large double-sided map; a modest instruction/game booklet (and I mean MODEST - it’s only 8 pages long!); and something else not standard at all . . .
. . . a “Magic Viewer” - a red piece of cellophane bordered by white (floral-patterned?) cardboard.
This is the key to opening the world of your solo adventure, for only with this crimson-hued hunk can you decipher the passages, creatures, treasures, and map areas you are tasked to explore.
Here’s the instructions (and if you think about it - 25% of the module!):
Not really much more to this module except for some cool character art by Easley on the trifold flap.
Oh, and this particular module is made for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. You get to choose to be one of these characters:
“Scarl Skagell”, Human 6th level Monk (Love the alliteration)
“Sobat Thantis”, Half-elf Killer 6th level Assassin (Ooh, not a fan of Half-elf Killers - If you’re going to kill them, don’t make them suffer and do it half-way, kill them all the way is what I say)
“Harl Hightree”, Elf “Filcher” 6th level Thief (The poem he’s given to memorize for the ingredients he must track is actually quite cool! Read it aloud (without the currency values) if you don’t believe me)
What’s fun about these types of modules to me is the solo play is really just another form of a gamebook, though this particular one does indeed seem to be short on passages (the double-sided map is huge though, with lots of potential exploring)
And that’s it for “Midnight on Dagger Alley” - the sun’s coming up red and it’s time for me to split before daggered-shadow-guy gets me and my Snow Pearls.
BTW: There’s a neat book out there, “Illuminature” that prints 3 different images on top of each other that uses 3 different lenses (red, green, blue) to reveal them!
Next up is 1985’s “Mystery of the Snow Pearls” with cover art by the incomparable Larry Elmore. (I sure hope Raistlin doesn’t catch a glimpse of that glowing orb the wizard is cradling)
This adventure is for the D&D “Companion” ruleset.
TSR Module Notation:
The “CM” in CM5 stands for “Companion” Ruleset (Basic + Expert + Companion)
The “MV” in MV1 stands for “Magic Viewer” of which “Midnight on Dagger Alley” was the only one!
I like how the trifold cardboard cover is a lot more visually interesting with treasure illustrations, character sheet for “Christov Yetta” 10th Level Elf, and colored hex-grid wilderness map.
“The name and deeds of Christov Yetta are acclaimed across the land-protector, forestfriend, tenslayer, wolfbane. You are also treebrother, only brother to your clan’s Keeper of the sacred Tree of Life” pg. 3, “Mystery of the Snow Pearl”
The module instruction/adventure book is BEEFY! 32 pages of full-on-red passage pages.
Another cool feature of this module is the optional ability to play with a group (basically, alternate monster stats by increasing their number). You don’t have to go it solo, Christov!
There are also a few fun internal illustrations by James Roslof.
And that’s it for “Mystery of the Snow Pearls”!
Overall, I dig both of these modules and look forward to playing . . . if I can just get some rest - and the red - out of my eyes.
Want to Make Your Own “Red-Reveals”? (I know I do!)
LEGO is releasing Barad-Dur from The Lord of the Rings! 5,471 pieces of towering awesomeness can be purchased on June 1st for insiders (and if you’re quick enough, you will get “The Lord of the Rings: Fell Beast” bonus set!).
I’m not sure what to think of this - but for some reason I know I will wind up watching it! “Ren Faire” is a 3-part HBO documentary about the battle for succession of who will be crowned the next King of one of the oldest Renaissance Festivals in Texas. Someone described it in the comments as “Medieval Tiger King”! 😂
That’s a (red) wrap, Valiant Explorer! See you next week.
“Red is the color of courage, be courageous in pursuit of your dreams and aspirations.” - Unknown (but if I were to guess, a bull probably wrote it! 🐂)
Would you like to support Rediscovered Realms and my mission to reignite the flame of Fantasy Fun, Imagination & Play back into the lives of grownups?
I have never seen one of the decoders, very impressive
How did you get your hands on this with the decoder? That’s impressive and what a great time it must have been to play this