Classic D&D adventure module review

The Keep on the Borderland, by Gary Gygax – Basic D&D, 1981

Introductory module for character levels 1-3

28 pages plus the separate cover with maps on the inside faces. The adventure has 64 numbered areas.

This module originally accompanied the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set (1981, edited by Tom Moldvay). The first four pages of this module is an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. There are notes for the Dungeon Master (DM) on reading monster and non-player character (NPC) stats in the module text, on running combats, on tracking time, and some general advice on how to be an effective DM.

The background on the setting of the Keep, and the starting set up, including a table of 20 rumors (true and false) the Player Characters (PCs) may know, begins on page 6. The information on the numbered areas of the Keep cover pages 8 – 12. Every structure in and about the Keep is described, and even each person statted out. It’s ironic that with all this detail, no one in the Keep is given a name—even the Keep itself has no name. Everyone from the innkeeper to the castellan is simply referred to by their job title.

The areas in the Keep are detailed down to the treasure hidden in personal rooms. The loan bank key includes the treasure stored in the cellar strong room—it’s full of valuable treasure, and would probably tempt most PC parties to at least consider a raid on it if they ever learned of it.

Pages 24 and 25 has a list of statted out NPCs, including personalities, advice for designing floor plans for buildings in the Keep, some tips for Players, and a glossary of non-game terms (like brazier and pot boy). Page 26 has a sample floor plan, (for the Keep Guild House), and pages 27 and 28 have a map of the Keep and the wilderness around the Keep, respectively.

Four wilderness encounter areas are described over a page and a half after the section on the Keep. The main adventure locale of this module is the Caves of Chaos, detailed on pages 14 – 23. The map for the Caves covers the entire inside cover of the book.

The dungeon complex is a moderately large set of caves in a ravine. Eleven entrances each lead to one set of caves occupied by different evil humanoid races, (kobolds, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears), a few individual monsters (ogre, minotaur, owlbear), and a temple full of undead.

Though some readers may have a difficult time accepting so many different and aggressively opposed creatures living in the same relatively small area, the arrangement does allow the invading PCs to take on small chunks of increasingly dangerous tribes, one at a time. If the PCs can determine what creatures live in which caves, they can choose to take on the kobolds first, then the goblins, then the orcs, etc., and work their way up to fighting the bugbear and minotaur when they gain a level or two. This is a good design decision for introducing novice Players to the game—they can encounter a wide variety of monsters in their first adventure. Some of the encounters consist of numerous enemies, and parties of less than the suggested six to nine PCs can find themselves in serious trouble.

Like many other adventure modules of this era, there is no boxed text to be read aloud to the Players. And like many other adventures by this author, the text is written in a stream of consciousness style, so the room description, monster combat stats, and treasure is all in the same paragraph with no organization. A DM must read through the areas before the game session to make notes and highlight information, because trying to read through it at the gaming moment will get confusing and will slow down the play.

All the monsters are listed in the “old school” stat block style: (AC 5, HD 2, hp 8 each, #AT 1, D 2-8, Save F 2, ML 8).

Overall, the adventure is broad selection of monsters for novice Players to experience. There is no stated or explained plot or specific background for the Caves of Chaos, so a DM will either need to make up something for his campaign, or else just hope the Players never wonder about it. With brand new D&D Players, it is quite possible that they may never think or care why there’s all these monsters in the caves, and why there’s a temple full of evil priests, skeletons, and zombies in the same locale.

But it is possible, maybe even probable, that the Players will ask for names of the various personages in the Keep. The author gives the combat stats for characters the PCs will probably never fight, but he didn’t give them names. The good thing about this lack of detail is that this module is generic enough to be truly modular, and can fit in just about any standard D&D campaign.

Bullgrit

My game group just started up a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It’s been almost a year since we last played D&D. Over the past many months, we’ve played some board games, Star Wars role playing game, and Marvel Super Heroes role playing game. As fun as those games are, I still like D&D best.

A while back, my wife and I were watching our boys play and we talked about how fun it would be to play like we did when we were kids. I commented that is pretty much what I do every Friday night, with my role playing games. I still play the games I started playing when I was 13, and those games are basically expansions of the core “let’s pretend” of an even younger age. So I sort of get to revisit my childhood play even as a full grown adult.

Of course the games have evolved, and I’ve matured, but the heart and soul and spirit of playing D&D and other such games is pretty much still the same as it was when I was 13 and 6 years old.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Classic D&D adventure module review

In Search of the Unknown, by Mike Carr – Basic D&D, 1979, 1981

Introductory module for character levels 1-3

32 pages plus the separate cover with maps on the inside faces. This adventure has 56 numbered areas.

Generally, this adventure is a basic dungeon crawl; there is no plot beyond general exploration and fighting and looting. The unique feature of this module is that all the room and area descriptions leave the choice of monsters and treasure placement completely up to the Dungeon Master (DM).

The first five and a half pages of the book cover lots of notes and guidance for new DMs: Notes for the Dungeon Master, Preparation for the Use of the Module, Time [how to keep track of], Computing Experience, How to be an Effective Dungeon Master. The next two pages cover the adventure location background, random legends (true and false) the PCs may know about the dungeon, and the general description of the dungeon environs.

The adventure background explains that the dungeon, named the Caverns of Quasqueton, was built by two adventurers named Rogahn and Zelligar, “a fighter of renown” and “a magic-user of mystery and power.” The two used the location as a base of operations for a while, but then they disappeared on their last foray. Their dungeon base has been essentially vacant for a time.

If only one had the knowledge and wherewithal to find their hideaway, there would be great things to explore! And who knows what riches of wealth and magic might be there for the taking???

The actual dungeon area descriptions start on page 8, after the wandering monster chart. To give you a feel for the dungeon inhabitants, here are the wandering monsters:

1-4 orcs
1-2 giant centipedes
1-6 kobolds
1-2 troglodytes
2-5 giant rats
1-2 berserkers

All the monsters are listed in the “old school” stat block style: AC 6, HD 1, hp 6, 4, 3, 1, #AT 1, D 1-6 or by weapon, MV 90’ (30’), Save F1, ML 8.

There is no boxed text for the DM to read aloud to the Players—the boxed text concept was still a few years from being conceived when this module was written and published. There is no real organization to the room description and information text, so to run the adventure smoothly, the DM would need to either memorize all the text or go through making notes and highlighting information he thinks he’ll need. Most of the rooms have lots of text in many paragraphs, so this lack of organization in the room keys is a weakness of the design. But it is also a standard style in most adventure modules of the time.

Each area description ends with “Monster:” and “Treasure & Location:” lines. This is where the DM is supposed to write in his own choice for monster and treasure. The list of monsters and treasures to place is near the end of the book.

In the monster list, there are 25 choices but a few are repeated with only the number appearing and hit points differing. There’s probably 15 to 20 different monsters listed. There are 34 treasures listed—no repeats—including coins, gems, jewelry, and magic items. The author says this, in bold, for the monster list:

Important: although there are 25 listings, the Dungeon Master should only use 16-20 of them in the dungeon, placing some on each of the two levels in the rooms and chambers desired. The remainder are unused.

And he says this, also in bold, for the treasure list:

Special note: Even though 34 treasures are listed here, only between 15 to 25 of them should actually be placed in the dungeon by the Dungeon Master. The remainder should go unused. When treasures are chosen and placed, a good assortment of items should be represented: some very valuable, some worthless, most in between.

The dungeon itself is large: two levels, each covering over 400 by 300 feet. There are 56 numbered areas, and almost every one has something interesting about it to give PCs something to look at, mess with, figure out, or just be confused by. There are numerous tricks and traps, secret doors, pools of liquids, statues, a maze of doors, a spiral corridor, and at least one of all the other standard dungeon gimmicks.

Pages 26 to 30 contain lists and information on pre-generated characters to be used as PC adventurers or NPC henchmen and hirelings. The only things really pre-generated are the character ability scores. Everything else, including personalities, equipment (including some magic items), spells, and levels is given in lists for random determination. It would probably be as easy to just create a character normally as to use the information in this section to determine and finish one of the pre-generated characters.

The last two pages is one full page of information for players including setting info, “Here is the standard background setting for all players to read prior to their first adventure,” and play tips. These play tips are great, and can be very useful even for today’s players: Be organized, cooperate, be on your guard, know your limits, etc. All good stuff.

Overall, this adventure is a good idea for new DMs and Players. The guidance at the beginning for DMs and the end for Players is solid and wise. Letting the DM place monsters and treasure is a good way to introduce a DM to creating his own dungeons. But the lack of organization for the extensive text makes this adventure very difficult to run without very thoroughly reading and rereading and making notes before the game. All adventures require, or at least need, the DM to read and understand it beforehand, but every room in this adventure is pretty detailed, with lots of information.

The gimmicks (tricks, traps, neat stuff, etc.) in this adventure is great for new Players to experience. Just determining what is in the glass and earthen jars of the wizard’s workroom can fill an hour of first timer fun. Experimenting with the various pools in the room of pools can entertain new Players for another hour. New Players and DMs can get a whole lot of fun and good times exploring this dungeon, but anyone experienced with the base gimmicks of a D&D dungeon may find this old hat. And anyone looking for a plot or story will find little in this adventure to entertain them. Some areas and gimmicks of the dungeon just don’t make sense; anyone expecting or preferring a dungeon layout to make sense for its purpose (current or previous) will find this dungeon frustrating.

Bullgrit

One of my gaming buddies brought this new game home from Origins (gaming convention) last week. He had played it a few times at the convention, but last night was our game group’s first chance to see and play it.

The board is an abstract map of New York City, with the five boroughs each divided into four neighborhoods. The players each control a team of Marvel super heroes:

– Avengers – Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk
– X-Men – Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey
– Fantastic Four – Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Human Torch
– Marvel Knights – Spider-Man, Daredevil, Electra, Doctor Strange

Each player also controls the nemesis of the player to his right:

– Red Skull is the nemesis of the Avengers
– Magneto is the nemesis of the X-Men
– Doctor Doom is the nemesis of the Fantastic Four
– Kingpin is the nemesis of the Marvel Knights

Already you see how complicated this game will be: each player controls five characters. The playing pieces are painted, plastic minis similar to (as good as or better than) HeroClix minis. But there are more parts of the game; lots more parts. There are six stacks of cards (not counting the character stat cards): Story cards, Villain cards, Resource cards, Scene cards, hero Power Up cards, and villain Power Up cards. There are also several varieties of markers to keep track of things. And finally, there’s the dice. Eight six-sided dice with hit and miss markers instead of pips or numbers.

The play of the game has five rounds of five stages. For each stage, the player has a choice of five actions, and each action can have several choices. Did I mention this game is complicated? You take on challenges, called “troubleshooting,” to earn Victory Points to win the game.

Troubleshooting is basically battling villains, sometimes including your team’s arch villain. Each player chooses villains and powers for villains to oppose the hero player whose turn it is. The hero player chooses one of three options for the battle, another player chooses options for the villain, and the results of the actions are determined by rolling the dice. These battles can be decided in one roll of the dice, or they can last several rounds of actions.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to set up a battle where your characters can handle a scene as a team. And even when you do get the team together, the game mechanics don’t really let you play the heroes as a single unit. It’s more like a tag team battle, where one hero fights the villain at a time. Most of the scenes we played in our first games had just one hero dealing with the villains at a time, usually with another hero in support position. The support position gives surprisingly little help in battles. The game mechanic feels more like moral support than any actual help. It seems that the best way to succeed at the scenes (defeating the villains) is to put in your hardest hitting hero and just slug it out by rolling lots of dice. The more subtle heroes aren’t as much use in troubleshooting the scenes.

The game is convoluted. There are so very many options and choices each round. And if you forget something in one stage of the round, it can totally screw up the following stages.

Fortunately the game does feel like a Marvel comic book story. The flavor text on the cards is right in the style of mighty Marvel action. In the abstract, the game feels like a comic book story. But in the specific mechanics, the game bogs down the play in a morass of choices and decisions. (I do see the irony of this complaint coming from someone who loves role playing games; RPGs usually have hundreds of pages of rules in hardback books.)

I would like to play this game again, now that our group is used to the rules and flow of the mechanics. It was taking us a long time to play each round (of five stages). Maybe the next times we play will go faster.

All in all, it is not a bad game. It has great feel for the setting, but it is very complicated—the complication of play goes against the grain of the feel. It’s not a game you can pick up and play in an hour or so. Just setting up the board, cards, and teams can take many minutes. But it’s not a great game. If it were only one-fourth as convoluted, it could be a great game.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com