Monday, May 21, 2018

Back to B2

Lady-love wanted to play some D&D this weekend, something quick and dirty without much prep. So she rolled up a gnome wizard botanist/inventor and I dusted off good ol' B2: Keep on the Borderlands.

I don’t remember the last time I ran this module. It was absolutely back in the 20th century. Shock and surprise: it holds up really, really well. I considered giving it an early Iron Age feel but didn’t pull the trigger on that; might still, but might not, also.

The opportunities for RP are excellent. Our PC fell in with a certain visiting priest and his two acolytes; if you know the adventure you know the fellow I’m talking about. Plot-balls are already rolling nicely.

The adventure badly needs a set of player maps. Of course the first thing PCs with access to the sleep spell are going to do is capture some goblins and interrogate them. It could also benefit from some NPCs or NPC generators. But maybe not; I’ve got access to so many of the things they’re hardly necessary.

The bare-bones structure also creates minor issues. The Caves of Chaos are insanely close to the Keep; even with my saying the CoC crew plans to take over the Keep and move in, the distance is frightfully small. There are some questions about the diets of the monsters, where they came from, how the location calls out to them, but if you’re a halfway decent DM that’s just opportunities for world-building. Ditto with the lack of names and interior details.

All-in-all, I’m really happy with how it runs even after all these years. We’re using 5e and not having a hard time at all with the conversion. Once again I’m tempted to run an old-school game with Moldvay/Cook built on old published adventures. Maybe if we find a group after the upcoming move.

4 comments:

JB said...

Huh. I’ve run B2 more than half a dozen times over the years, both with children and adults, and I’ve never seen ANYONE capture a goblin for interrogation. Ever. Sleep spells have been used plenty, but no one ever woke up from it.

Interesting.

Tedankhamen said...

I ran it once and had the caves hidden in a chaotic mist.
Only characters with an amulet of chaos could navigate it.
Lots of fun, very creepy vibe.

Ruprecht said...

I ran it once and separated the caves because I was too literal to handle the hostile monsters being so close together. Of course that removed the opportunity of players pitting factions against each other. That didn't occur to me until I read folks on the internet years alter.

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