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This is a pretty good scan of this product. A lesser cousin to B2: Keep on the Borderlands, B1 is still pretty enjoyable in its own right, with some decent beginner DM advice included. As an introductory product to Basic D&D, this product does the trick. There's a not much wasted room here, and there's plenty of room for customization as a DM learns their craft. If you're looking at a neoclassical gaming experience, this should run nicely with either the D&D Basic Set, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, or even Basic Fantasy RPG.
If you're just getting into this style and era of gaming, again I'd recommend picking B2 and B4: The Lost City up first, but don't overlook this product, either.
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Great story line, easy to follow, perfect introduction to 4e.
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A little forewarning, I'm not running a 1E game.
I got this product for the 5E game I'm running. (The January 2013 ruleset is what we're using right now.) I wanted some Underdark stuff and these books work great. The story isn't terribly deep at first. For the Giants books, it's basically, "You're an adventurer, some town wants you to kill/drive off all the giants that keep attacking." Then you get the, "our princess is in another castle," at the end of three successive giant fortresses. The drow stuff is pretty cool though. The map of the Underdark is pretty good and there's a lot of stuff to fill time in for your PCs to make a more real world. However, the encounters on the map span three books. They don't really line that stuff up very well.
I'm also not planning on having my party fight Lolth. The Underdark is just a place for them to stomp around and for that, the books are phenomenal.
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Dungeon Delve is a collection of thirty one-shot adventures, from 1st through 30th level. Each delve features three linked encounters, and is designed for five player characters. The delves are aimed towards beginning DMs, and the book includes tips for customizing and running the game. Dungeon Delve was originally released in 2009 as a now out-of-print hardback. Dungeon Delve has been extensively reviewed on the internet, so my review will be of the PDF itself.
Like many other book-to-PDF products, the PDF contains the same color art and page layout of the original hardcover. But, unlike the hardcover, the DM only needs to print out the pages of the delve he's running for the game session. No need to lug around yet another hardback! Dungeon Delve did not come with a map, so there's no map to awkwardly print out on multiple sheets on the inkjet. Huzzah for the PDF!
If you're a "battlemap and tokens" gaming group, you're set. However, if you must use monster miniatures and published tiles, good luck. The tiles used in the delves are from the various long out-of-print tile sets, not the boxed Master Sets. Given how much I've sunk into miniatures and tiles, I'm not too happy that I will still have to convert the encounters.
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Beautiful scan of the original B1 adventure. Very helpful to have especially since a GM fills out the rooms with monsters and treasures. Notes can be written on a page and the module can be printed again to allow a new group of players the opportunity to experience a dungeon crawl.
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The map is missing information. I paid $4.99 for a module with an incomplete scan. UNSAT!
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If not the best, very close to it, series for AD&D 1e. Not overloaded with fluff descriptions so flexible enough to make the modules work for any plot the DM sees fit to use.
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Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/01/30/tabletop-review-ravenlo
ft-the-created-advanced-dungeons-dragons-second-edition/
So here we are again with another of the first electronic reprints from the Ravenloft campaign setting. First Children of the Night: Vampires and now The Created. These are some odd choices to be sure, as neither was very well received in their day. I’m surprised things like the core campaign setting or books like Darklord and adventures such as Ship of Horror or Book of Crypts didn’t go live first. Still, it’s better to have some Ravenloft stuff back in print rather than having to scrounge on Ebay for the books.
The Created was originally written in 1993 by Bruce Nesmith, who video game fans might know as part of the Fallout 3 and Skyrim teams. Before that though, he was penning pen and paper adventures for TSR. The Created is designed for a party between Levels 2 through 4, although you might want to err on the side of caution with the higher levels. It’s a very odd adventure to be sure as it really doesn’t fit the “Gothic Horror” motif that Ravenloft was meant to imbue. Instead it’s more of a B-Horror Movie for kids as The Created tells a darkly twisted version of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket not included.
The biggest problem with the adventure is that is completely does away with all the mystery and ambience of the Ravenloft setting. In the course of the adventure, players are there when the land is first drawn into the Dark Domain and then end up killing the Darklord and getting out of Ravenloft. First, killing a Darklord and escaping Ravenloft are both meant to be nigh impossible. Crafting an adventure when you do both, and at such low levels, feels like an affront to the system. It’s doubly odd because Nesmith was the one who laid out much of the cardinal rules for the setting back in the early 90s and then goes right ahead and designs an adventure where you break all of them. It’s very jarring and it’s one of the reasons diehard Ravenloft fans look at The Created with a bit of disdain.
Another reason is simply the plot of The Created does not work for the setting it is designed for. This is an adventure that requires a very specialized DM as it’s very hard to play this adventure dark and serious. Anyone I’ve ever talked to who has tried has mentioned it has been a spectacular failure – and that includes people who have written for this very setting or other horror games like Call of Cthulhu and All Flesh Must be Eaten. In fact, the only way I’ve ever heard of the adventure working is by pulling it out of Ravenloft completely and making it a campy horror-comedy. After all, the entire adventure has you dealing with murderous puppets that take over an entire village. This of course is a huge red flag for any Ravenloft adventure because, if it inspires snotty remarks or outright laughter instead of feelings like dread or foreboding, it’s a failure. Now the core concept of the adventure isn’t a terrible one. Look at horror movies like Puppet Master, Demonic Toys or Child’s Play. Both used the concept of evil living murderous children’s toys…but at the same time they were played for equal parts laughter AND Gore – neither of which is the mood nor theme Ravenloft is meant to invoke. Think of this as the equivalent of the Blood Brothers adventures Chaosium used to put out for Call of Cthulhu Again, the adventure CAN work; after all, Pupaphobia is a real condition. I’ve just never seen nor heard of it working the way it was meant to. This is one of those cases where it’s probably best left in the hands of its creator or when your gaming troupe is made up of people who thought Silence was scary rather than terrible.
NOW, with all these disclaimers about The Created out of the way, I can say that the adventure is a finally crafted one. It’s well laid out, the adventure progresses nicely, and it’s balanced in such a way that adventurers should have an uphill battle to face, but not face a TPK (Total Party Kill) at the hands of puppets. I will say that the core enemy you encounter, the Carrionette, is worth far more XP than you expect and teams with mages and/or druids should level up handily in this thing. I also want to praise the art. I’ve always liked Dave Simon’s artwork and it was a big part of the Ravenloft draw for me in my childhood. The interior artwork in this adventure is still top notch and worthy of praise. The cover art by Brom is equally awesome and is easily the creepiest piece of this whole adventure.
So what is The Created about besides insidious puppets? Well, not much. It’s the Pinocchio story except in this case the puppet his desire to be a real boy makes him a homicidal maniac with magical powers and an army of evil miniature wooden doom instead of embarking of a light hearted romp with some furries and into the belly of a whale. Indeed, Maligno (the core antagonist) has only one goal in mind –to murder all the adults in the village of Odiare and then live happily ever after with the children of the town. All the puppets love the kids and vice versa for some reason – yet someone no one thought of the fact that children do eventually grow up? I guess if the PCs fail you’d have a Children of the Corn with marionettes ending.
The PCs end up coming to town the night of a huge puppet show. It’s also the night Maligno puts his insidious plan in to acting, drawing the attention of the Dark Domain. From the moment the adults are taken out, the party will discover they are in a different plane of reality where the old rules need not necessarily apply and some new horrible ones have taken their place. Plus, there is a small army of puppets taking to beat them up and possess their bodies. I will say that the adventure IS designed for the players to fail at first so there is a section that, much like some JRPG video games, the players cannot win despite their best efforts. I’m never a fan when this form of storytelling rears its head in any sort of game, as it puts the players in a passive role rather than the active one is was meant to be. Still, I can let it slide here, because it leads to a truly weird situation that, as I have previously mentioned, has never failed to elicit laughter rather than horror in everyone I know that has ever played this adventure. At least it’s a memorable occurrence even if it wildly misses its intended goal. From there it’s up to players to…resolve the situation and then find some way to kill Malignio and escape the Dark Domain…or at least this particular piece of it. I will say that I enjoyed that the adventure focuses more on thinking and stealth than hack and slash combat. In this regard, The Created should challenge gamers that are more used to roll-playing than role-playing. If you’re looking for a dungeon crawl…this is pretty far from that.
So yes, the adventure is completely playable and it’s an interesting one to be sure. Sure it doesn’t work AT ALL as an actual Ravenloft branded product and it does deserve its negative reputation for being open of several adventures where you actually KILL a Darklord (always a big no-no), but if you take the adventure on its own, either played for camp value or in a vacuum, it’s still a serviceable product that a group of gamers can have fun with.
Is The Created one of the lesser Ravenloft adventures from the Second Edition era? Yes, there’s no doubting that. It takes a very specific DM AND gaming group to make evil puppets work in any form remotely close to scary. Still, if you can find that right mix or you just want a weird adventure to make your friends laugh with, The Created isn’t a bad choice. Just know if you’re looking at things in terms of the Ravenloft branding, The Created is towards the bottom of the barrel. Here’s hoping DNDClassics.com starts putting up the high quality pieces the Ravenloft campaign setting was known for though as right now, all we’re getting is middle of the road pieces.
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I bought this and the expert set back in 1981 and it was my first introduction to the world of D&D. I still have the complete box set at home with the awful green dice that came with the game. Sadly, the crayon has disappeared. I decided to buy a PDF version so I wouldn't wreck my original copy. Definitely worth the cash and well worth the nostalgia. Can't wait for the expert rule book to come out through here. It is great that WotC has decided to release it all again after all these years. Now to get back to some good old basic gaming.
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My favorite module ever. I DM'd this back in the 80's at least a half a dozen times. I've got a near mint copy of the original at this is a very good scan.
My only comment would be to put the inside cover maps right after the cover instead of at pages 34+35 right before the back cover.
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This module is probably the best way to introduce new DMs and players to the game. This module is a great example for the new DM to learn on how to create a dungeon that was interesting for the players by all of the great descriptions of the area that they are in. I only wished that more modules were published in this style. I really liked the ability to change this up so that every time that it is run it can be different.
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Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/01/28/tabletop-review-ravenlo
ft-children-of-the-night-vampires-advanced-dungeons-dragons-
second-edition/
So this is a bit of an odd duck, considering Children of the Night: Vampires is roughly seventeen years old. Since January 22nd, though, Wizards of the Coast and DriveThruRPG have teamed up to bring us DNDClassics.com, a website where you can purchase long since out of print Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks, supplements, adventures and more – albeit in PDF format. Currently, there are eighty-eight products available for download, with more coming every month. I decided to start with Children of the Night: Vampires for four reasons. The first is that I have a soft spot for 2nd Edition AD&D. The second is that Ravenloft is my favorite campaign setting for D&D. The third is the inherent comedy whenever I write about vampires. The fourth is that, as far as Ravenloft products go, Children of the Night: Vampires is the most infamous and often subjected to a lot of scorn. Why is that, you might ask? Two words: Jander Sunstar.
Jander Sunstar is an elven vampire, and the protagonist of the very first Ravenloft novel, Vampire of the Mists, by Christie Golden. Jander is one of the most popular characters from the second edition D&D novels, forcing TSR and Ms. Golden to bring him back in three different prequels. Notice the word prequels. This is important, because Jander dies at the end of the novel. Don’t talk to me about spoilers – the book is over twenty years old. That’s like saying “Raistlin dons the black robes” is a spoiler. Anyway, this adventure collection brought Jander Sunstar back to life, via the dues ex machina of the Ravenloft Mists. That alone brought outrage from Ravenloft fans across the board. The icing on the cake, however, was that everything about the stat block was messed up. Not only did it not match the official stats released in the 1992 trading card set (which were, in and of themselves, subject for contentious debate), but what was presented as Jander Sunstar in no way shape or form matched the character from the novel. From a warrior who could stand toe to toe with the biggest Lord of Ravenloft and who even took on Tiamat herself… to a pale mockery that only had a single attack per round, a THAC0 of 1 and 68 Hit Points. That’s pretty bad for what was supposed to be what we would now call an Epic Level Fighter AND the oldest and arguably most powerful vampire in the Dark Domain.
Anyway, the whole Jander Sunstar section alone was ridiculed by fans and critics alike, and thus the entire book received a lot of scorn, even if much of the conversation revolved around whether the authors of Children of the Night had ever read Vampire of the Mists. I myself passed on the book back in 1996, as the bad publicity and the fact I was doing some writing for Vampire: The Masquerade and Call of Cthulhu at the time kept me too busy for D&D. Now, however, with the re-release of the book and the launch of DNDClassics.com, it was the perfect opportunity for me to pick up Children of the Night: Vampires and see if it really deserved the initial ire it brought about, or if it truly does deserve to be amongst the first Ravenloft titles for electronic distribution.
Children of the Night: Vampires contains thirteen different vampires, showcasing the wide variety of fanged undead Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had to offer. Along with each vampire was an accompanying adventure which highlighted the creature. The book does suggest not to play all of these adventures in a row, as any D&D party would get sick of vampire oriented adventures after a while. The adventures are also not presented in any sort of order. Indeed, some adventures that appear earlier in the book are meant to be sequels to adventures that appear later, which makes of an odd read. As well, adventures aren’t presented in any sort of level based order, meaning a high level adventure may occur in the book before a low or medium level adventure. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s worth keeping in mind as you read through the book. Finally, the book makes constant reference to other sourcebooks or supplements that are currently unavailable on DNDClassics.com. While none are necessary to run any of these adventures, owning or having read them (or even a 3rd/3.5 Edition version from Sword and Sorcery) will make understanding the ins and outs of both the adventure and the setting a LOT easier. Now, with all of that precursory information out of the way, let’s actually look at the contents of this adventure collection, shall we?
The book opens with Jander Sunstar and, admittedly, this section is truly as abominable as detractors have said for all these years. It really does seem like the authors were given a synopsis of the book and told to run with that. It’s bad. Let’s just leave it at that. The adventure “The Charnel House”, however, is a pretty fun one, putting the players in the middle of a subtle but deadly war between the elven vampire and a pack of vampyres (living humanoids that drink blood). It’s a fun adventure, and through it all, players who haven’t read Vampire of the Mists won’t know who to side with, although those that have will have to keep player knowledge separate from character knowledge. Sure, it’s silly that they brought the character back to undeath, but Jander was crazy popular in the 2e era, so it makes sense that TSR would try to make as much money off him as they could. So the bad news is the Jander Sunstar section does deserve its infamy, but the good news is this is as bad as the book gets, so everything gets positive from here on in.
The next vampire is Audun Beck, who is a Sea Vampire. I don’t even remember Sea Vampires as a possible variant, so I’m assuming it’s just made up for this book. Basicallym Beck lives underwater on a submerged vessel named the Illsongm along with his crew of sea zombies and jolly rogers during the day; by night, they rise as one to plunder and feed. The adventure, “The Rewards of Courage,” pits characters between Levels 5-9 against Beck and his crew after they sack a seaside town. Then it’s an attempt to hunt down the ghost ship and put it to rest. It’s an okay adventure. Sea-based Ravenloft adventures have never been very good, and Beck is a bit silly (giant vampire octopus form?), but a good DM can make this work.
Vampire number three is Lyssa Von Zarovich, who debuted in this book but gained a modicum of popularity in the tail end of 2e and through Sword and Sorcery’s version of the campaign setting that they put out for 3/3.5 Edition. Lyssa is the grand-niece of Strahd, and although she considers herself a bitter enemy of the count, he finds her more of a foppish amusement. Lyssa’s adventure, “The Turning Day,” sees Lyssa’s celebration of her undeath-day anniversary being interrupted by not just the players, but the devil Strahd himself, along with a curse that will become synonymous with all incarnations of Lyssa from here on in. A great introduction to the character and a memorable adventure.
We’re four vampires in now with the introduction of Moosha. This is a desert vampire (another new variant) who feeds not on blood, but the hydration of his victims. Moosha is a horrible scarred monster, accompanied by a legion of Jackals. He’s a very unique undead, and with his background and domain, you could design an entire mini-campaign around him. Indeed, the writers seem especially fond of this idea, giving you a host of ideas to make this possible. The adventure, “The Wild Child,” is basically an introduction to the domain of Sebua, Moosha, and his primary victims. PCs can end up with a retainer here if the play their cards right, and can experience a pretty dramatic adventure. The adventure really does feel like a set-up for a longer term experience, which is just fine, and depending on how the PCs react, the DM might just have a powerful recurring antagonist to throw at them.
Our fifth vampire, Myxitizajal, is perhaps the lowlight of the book, issues with Jander notwithstanding. It’s definitely the stupidest concept in the book, along with the worst name. Basically Myxitizajal (oh my poor spell check) is a vampire Ixitxachitl, which is a race of intelligent, sentient manta rays. Yep. I’m all for fantasy races, but this is just lame. The adventure “The Ritual Repeats,” however, is pretty cool. It’s akin to what would happen if the Dark Powers that govern Ravenloft watched the movie Groundhog Day and decided to do their own spin on it. Can the PCs stop the daily slaughter of islanders at the hands of Myxitizajal, or will they become doomed to take part in the recurring events themselves?
Our sixth vampire, Lady Adeline, is an odd one. I say odd because she’s meant to be a Silvanesti from Krynn, but the writers of her bio don’t seem to have the faintest idea of how the race OR the Dragonlance campaign setting is meant to be. It’s just terribly done. Maybe the writers just can’t do elvish undead? That said, the rest of the character is pretty awesome. You have a vampire that is somewhat gorgon-esque (or in D&D terms, Medusa-esque) which makes for an interesting opponent, along with a shocking reveal once you see what she looks like under her veil. It also helps that Lady Adeline is an ally of Von Kharkov, who is one of the most under appreciated Darklords in Ravenloft. There’s a lot of storytelling potential here with this elven vampire. The adventure “Maze of Thorns,” unfortunately, isn’t a very good one. It has Lady Adeline luring people into a HEDGE MAZE OF DOOM. Right, I know. It’s a silly concept and who in Ravenloft would be silly enough to enter a mysterious maze next to a town of deformed people? It’s not something most players, and thus their characters, would fall for. Pass on the adventure, but a good DM can definitely make excellent use of the character.
Don Pablo is our seventh vampire, and no, he doesn’t have a chain of Mexican restaurants. Despite the bad choice of names for this man, he’s a very interesting antagonist. In fact, he’s not even a vampire. He’s a vorlog, a person who was in the midst of a change into a vampire when he was “saved” by someone killing the master vampire. So basically, he’s a human with an aversion to sunlight, budding fangs and a few vampire abilities, like enhanced strength and charm powers. The odd thing is that Don Pablo is listed as Chaotic Evil, but he is not even remotely portrayed as that in his bio or the accompanying adventure. Maybe True Neutral or Chaotic Neutral, but he’s not really evil as much as he is despondent and slightly mad. It’s an interesting idea for a character, although not one with a lot of replay value, if you know what I mean. Dan Pablo’s corresponding adventure, “The Victim,” is a really good one, perhaps the best in the book. It completely flip-flops who you think of as the monster, with a human being the actual bad guy in the adventure while the Chaotic Evil monster is actually the sympathetic victim. It’s a nice way to mix things up while staying true to the spirit of the Ravenloft setting.
Number eight in this collection is Alexi, who is a very weird but very well done vampire. First, he is Vistani, which really shakes things up. Second, he’s very young and impressionable. This means he is not evil and that if the PC’s do a good job, they can inspire the youth to be a force for good… or as much of a force for good that a vampire in Ravenloft can be. Third, he’s a big coward. Seriously. He’s an immortal undead with power beyond imagination, and he’d run away from a gully dwarf if it shook its fist at him. That’s a gold mine of roleplaying opportunities right there. The adventure that showcases Alexi is “To Conquer Fear,” and it’s meant to help the PCs see that not all vampires are evil. In it, Alexi is still firmly under the thumb of his cruel master, and it’s up to the adventuring party to free Alexi and, perhaps more importantly, make Alexi want to be like them rather than his evil sire.
The ninth vampire in Children of the Night: Vampires is up there with the undead manta ray as the stupidest in the book. Jack Bequick is a vampire clown. Yes, you read that right. Even worse, he’s a permanently invisible evil clown that can only be seen, and thus drink blood, when his victim is afraid of him (perhaps he should be incorporeal but the book repeatedly uses invisible so…). It’s just a really terrible concept all around, and I have to wonder if there was a bet going on between the writers as to who could make the worst vampire. Unlike ol’ Myxitizajal, who at least has a quality adventure to go with him, “Jack’s House of Horrors” should only be run by a DM who wants his players to hate him. It’s an EEEEEVIL FUNHOUSE complete with mimes and goblins. Ick. Stay away. Stay far, far away.
Number ten brings us into the home stretch. Lady Heather Shadowbrooke is one of my favorites in this collection. She’s a vampire druid who can only feed on animals and trees. She drains sap instead of blood in that case, you see. Now you’re probably thinking, “Wow. That’s pretty easy compared to how other vampires have it.” Remember though, she’s a Druid with a capital D, so animals and plants mean more to her than humanoids. Plus, her bite instantly kills. Still, she tries to be the best druid she can be, even though she’s gone completely crazy and has a were-warthog and a blood sucking shambling mound for allies. Her adventure “The Missing Druids” has you looking for, well… you can probably guess from the name. In it, Heather allies herself with your party to help out. She makes for an interesting ally, but unfortunately, you find out that she is what happened to the druids, and conflict inevitably ensues. The end result is doing battle with a tragic but insane antagonist that may or may not become a recurring enemy if the DM handles things appropriately.
Ezra is the eleventh vampire, and he’s the closest to your stereotypical vampire. At least for D&D that is. He runs a Thieves’ Guild, which makes sense due to vampiric powers like Spider Climb. The adventure that revolves around Ezra, “Guild of Thieves” is also your run of the mill dungeon crawl for characters between Levels 7 and 10. However, there’s a catch, as it leads into the next vampire and his adventure, which can, if the DM is kind, provide a way out of The Dark Domain and back to wherever they came from… or someplace else. Who knows? Adventurers can try to infiltrate the Thieves’ Guild, or go for an all out assault. This whole section is standard fare, but sometimes that’s a good thing.
Mulger D’Ajust is the penultimate vampire, and get this – he’s a dwarf. Even weirder, he’s a dwarven sage with a penchant for all things magical. This was pretty outside the box for Second Edition AD&D, where Dwarves could only be Fighters, Thieves or Clerics. He’s also a dwarf that used magic to break free from Azalin’s control, which is pretty damn impressive. As you can imagine, Mulger is a pretty bad ass vampire… even if his stats don’t support his bio. Still, he’s a great concept and one that could make for an interesting recurring character for the PCs, perhaps even an uncomfortable ally. The adventure, “The Way Out,” gives players a chance to escape Ravenloft. Unfortunately, the gateway is in a mine controlled by Mulger and his crew, who are currently doing some excavation work in there. You can imagine what happens next. This is another mid-level dungeon crawl, and one with a potentially huge rewards – perhaps too big for a throw away encounter like this. As such, you may want to do some building up for it. Unless, of course, your PCs are just sick of the Dark Domain. Then this doesn’t need to be a culmination.
Unfortunately, the last vampire in the book joins our manta ray and invisible clown in the triad of terrible ideas. Marla is a Penanggalan, which is meant to be a female vampire whose head can detach and become a flying four foot long snake with a human head. Yes, it’s as stupid as it sounds, and this is one of those times where something that is supposed to be horrific in a high fantasy setting will instead inspire laughter. It’s just a bad all-around idea. Marla’s adventure, “Love Lies Dying” is an uninteresting affair where a pair of lovers are eloping and, together with the PCs, spend the night in a creepy monastery where the quasi-vampire tries to pick them off one by one. So the book ends as badly as it begins, but at least the middle is quite nice.
As we look back, we see I enjoyed eight of the thirteen vampires and nine of the thirteen adventures. That’s a quality rate of 65%. That means roughly two-third of the book is good, which is far better than one would have expected, considering the infamous reputation this title has. What this shows me is that one huge mistake was enough to overshadow the good bits of this book, at least in the eyes of Second Edition Ravenloft fans. In my opinion, even though the Jander Sunstar issue does live up to its infamy, the good in the book outweighs the bad. The PDF is a bit pricey (ten dollars compared to the fifteen dollar price tag the book had when it was in print), but it’s still one old school Ravenloft fans might want to pick up and see what they missed all those years ago. Who knows? They might actually come to appreciate what’s here.
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It was this adventure as well as the blue rule book ('Holmes Basic') that accompanied it that set me off into the Gaming (and ultimately creative) life that I lead today.
Looking at it from a pure design sense reminds me of how incredibly lean and mean these early modules were: Not an inch of page space is wasted, and it does in thirty-six pages what would take a 'modern' RPG probably over a hundred! More than one game publisher could learn from studying this module closely!
The print quality is rock-solid, although you get that 'second-hand' feel you get from almost all PDFs that began as printed media....There's nothing that can be done about that however, so I'm not holding that against it.
This classic is once again available for a new generation of gamers to see and learn from it. Well done WOTC!
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One step forward, two steps back...
I bought the original scan of Keep On The Borderlands from DrivethruRPG years ago, and I was really looking forward to the release of a higher quality version. While the new scan is indeed better in some ways, it’s worse in others, and overall I’m disappointed.
On one hand, the interior pages of the module that contain the descriptions of The Keep and The Caves are much higher quality then before. The fonts and layout were all over the place in the old version, and the maps of The Keep and the surrounding countryside were darker and blurrier. It’s great that WOTC cleaned up the main part the module, but unfortunately, the front cover and maps are much worse in this version.
For some reason the front cover was cropped sloppily, and if you enlarge the preview thumbnail above, you can see that the letter “F” in “FOR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS BASIC SET” is missing from the upper left corner (By the way, there’s a similar issue with the covers of C2, T1, and G1-2-3). The cover image itself is a bit fuzzy and suffers from compression artifacts, which is unfortunate because even though the file size of the new PDF is about six times bigger than the old one (23.1 vs. 3.5 megabytes), it’s still a small file in the age of broadband internet. So as long as file size wasn’t a concern, I wish they would have included higher quality cover art and maps.
Unfortunately, the map of the Caves Of Chaos from the inside cover is the new scan’s biggest problem. It’s really yellowed and stained compared to the clean white pages of the module itself, and three rooms on the left side have been marked with pen.
Worst of all, part of the map is missing! It’s split in half over two pages, and a narrow but important section has been lost from the middle. Cave entrances “C” and “F”, room 41 from the bugbear lair, and room 20 and area “g” of room 21 from the goblin lair were all on the missing part of the map.
The Keep On The Borderlands deserves a five star rating for it’s content, but the sloppy presentation of this PDF really bothers me, and I don’t think I’ll be buying more of the re-released D&D PDFs until I can be certain that they don’t have these kind of problems.
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I'm running a game in the Points of Light setting, and was able to adapt Khyber's Harvest with minimal effort. I centered the cult around Torog, the evil deity of torture and imprisonment from the default 4E setting. A little bit of reskinning, change an NPC's race (orcs aren't generally peaceful outside of the Eberron setting), and add appropriate foreshadowing involving a cult of the "God That Crawls," and I had myself a fun adventure.
I ran this adventure early in my group's campaign. They were still getting used to the mechanics of a tabletop RPG (these were all newcomers to the hobby). I found Khyber's Harvest to be appropriate for my group. It was darker than my previous adventure, highlighting that D&D is capable of supporting multiple sub-genres. It was pretty straightforward, but had a nice skill challenge early on. The skill challenge was well through out, in that it didn't actually *feel* like a skill challenge. My players simply told me what their PCs were doing during an investigation, made some appropriate dice rolls, and I kept track of successes and failures. They passed the skill challenge, but if they'd failed, the adventure describes how the PCs "fail forward" (to borrow a term from 13th Age), progressing the story, but causing a setback.
Being a free download, you certainly can't beat the price. I recommend that you give it a try if you're interested in a low-level D&D adventure that's not your run-of-the-mill goblin/kobold-slaying fest.
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