
The Temple to Athena

The Temple to Athena is a fantasy role-playing game adventure published by Dimension Six in 1980.
Contents.
"The Temple to Athena" is an "generic" adventure (one that was not designed for a specific game system such as "AD&D" or "Tunnels & Trolls") set at a temple in the middle of a big swamp. Although it can be played as a stand-alone adventure, it can also be treated as the direct sequel to another Dimension Six adventure, "Mountain of Mystery". In this case, the player characters are teleported from the Mountain of Mystery setting directly to the temple in this adventure.
The adventure involves a series of quests that the adventurers agree to do for various groups and characters they meet on the way to the Temple to Athena.
Reception.
Reviews were mixed, with all reviewers remarking on the amateurish typewritten pages and low productions values.
In the October 1980 edition of "The Space Gamer" (Issue No. 32), Lorin Rivers gave it a thumbs down: "All in all, a waste of [money]. Not recommended."
In the October–November edition of "Different Worlds" (Issue No. 10), Anders Swensen "found the actual adventure to be poorly done." He believed there was a germ of an idea in the adventure but "While it is possible to work up an adequately detailed adventure from the material in "The Tenple to Athena", it would likely take as long as starting from scratch." He concluded, "If the level of [fantasy roleplaying] hobby aids is to be improved, the very bad must be remarked upon, and overall, "The Temple of Athena" is very bad, indeed."
In the February 1981 edition of "Dragon" (Issue 46), Tony Watson mentioned the low production values: "As a general rule the artwork is acceptable, but varies greatly in quality and craftsmanship. Several maps are included, of varying clarity and usefulness... The printing, art, etc., varies greatly." Watson also noted that because it was a generic adventure, it was "very general in spots. To make [this work] flexible enough for use with different systems, there have been a lot of minor details omitted that will have to be added before play begins." However, he concluded with a qualified recommendation, saying "There are several outstanding traps and rooms here, and the adventure is worth the price just for these."