Gems for Death

Gems for Death is a generic role-playing game adventure published by The Companions in 1983, the final installment in the five-part "Islandia Campaign" series.

John Wheeler, through their company The Companions, had previously published four adventures in the "Islandia Campaign": The Curse on Hareth (1982), Plague of Terror (1983), Brotherhood of the Bolt (1983), and Streets of Gems (1983).

[2] In the July 1985 edition of Dragon (Issue #99), Arlen P. Walker called this adventure "the model of organization", noting how the description of each room is divided into how long the characters spend inspecting it: Entrance (cursory glance), Rapid Glance, Detailed Look, Brief Search, and Thorough Search.

He also liked the organized descriptions of non-player characters, including a section called "Rationale" that gives the gamemaster enough background information "to accurately portray actions and reactions."

He did warn that this was a thinking person's adventure, saying, "If your players are accustomed to a great deal of (dice) roll-playing rather than (character) role-playing, this module might cause problems."