Reception
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks received favorable reviews and was ranked the 5th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Judge Bill Slavicsek felt the adventure was a "classic clash of genres". It was not something he felt should be done often, but it made a "memorable diversion". Judge Mike Mearls described how he felt the first time he read Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. "I had this terrible, terrible conflict within myself to immediately tell my friends about it at war with a maniacal, desperate drive to keep it hidden at all costs." Judge Keith Baker was most impressed with the adventure's art. He liked that it came with a separate book of art; in particular the before and after illustrations of the carnivorous plant with a "built-in bunny lure". This was later featured in a Wizards.com "Ask Wizards" segment. According to the Dungeon editors, the adventure's defining moment was its froghemoth creature, and its full page color illustration.
Two gaming magazines reviewed Expedition to the Barrier Peaks in 1981. Reviewer Marcus L. Rowland said in White Dwarf #26 that he found the adventure "very enjoyable, with ideas and creatures eminently suitable for wider use". He gave it 9/10 overall, but complained that some of the maps were printed on both sides of the same sheet, making them useless as a Dungeon Master's shield (a visual barrier that allows dice rolls and other activities to be conducted without the players knowing the outcome). He recommended at least a week's study by the Dungeon Master before attempting to play it. He also notes that the cover "reveals the secret of the creatures". Kirby Griffis reviewed the adventure in The Space Gamer #36. Griffis noted that it is full of "surprises and new monsters", and felt that its one drawback was that Gygax presented standard D&D monsters as natives of other planets. In summary, he found it interesting and "full of spice and flavor"; recommending it to anyone interested in "something new" or wanting to include science fiction in their D&D game.
According to Creighton Broadhurst, author of Exemplars of Evil: Deadly Foes to Vex Your Heroes, the adventure is one of the most popular "old time" Greyhawk adventures. Game designer Daniel Kaufman remembers "the famous backward-firing guns" as one of the adventure's highlights, and Stephen Colbert, who played Dungeons & Dragons as a child, chose this adventure as his personal favorite.
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