After Tegel Manor came Modron (1977 for the subscription version, ‘78 for this first standalone version, 1980 for a revised and expanded version which is probably better), which has nothing to do with the geometric critters that would pop up in Monster Manual II.

This one is an excellent example of how Judges Guild material bounced from genius to mediocrity rather frequently. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with Modron, but it is sandwiched between two pretty monumental releases. Its the equivalent of a filler track on a singles-focused album. It doesn’t help that this is an underwater themed adventure and I kinda hate those.

The module, which describes a village…and that’s about it. There is a river goddess and a rivalry with another water god, but, like, there is not a lot of imagination capturing stuff here in the way that Tegel Manor and City-State of the Invincible Overlord are overflowing with ideas.

Cool thing though: early Kevin Siembieda art work on the cover and inside. Maybe his first published art? He’d go on to do a bunch of work for JG before founding Palladium.