Section VII My First Dungeon: Hippopotamus Through Jellyfish
Let's continue our whirlwind tour of the scenic Caves of Chaos with some more maps. We'll be meeting some incredibly clever bugbears, a ferocious (but tragic) minotaur, and some very festive gnolls.
The Bugbears of Cave H
The Minotaur of Cave I
The Gnolls of Cave J
The next installment is reserved entirely for the Shrine of Evil Chaos. With such a vague name, I have no idea what I'll find there, but it should promise to be something.
Here we come at last to the biggest, evilest, chaosiest cave in all of the caves of chaos. This is the lair of lairs, the dungeon of dungeons. This is the Shrine of Evil Chaos, where subtlety is sacrificed to the demon god Bluntlgrymm in service to Obvioso, the dark master of these evil cultists in their evil red robes. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Let me once again turn to the text of the module to set the scene:
A faint, foul draft issues from the 20’ wide cave mouth which is the entrance to this place. The worn path through the copse of obscenely twisted and oddly bloated trees gives those approaching along its length an eerie sense of unease, and as soon as they enter the cave mouth a dim awareness of lurking evil will pervade their senses. Red strata intertwines with bulging black veins running through the hewn rock walls beyond the entrance. The wide corridors and chambers are deathly still. A faint groaning sound, and a shrill piping may be occasionally heard, barely perceptible even if the party is absolutely silent and listening.
Whew. I hope you're ready, boys and girls. This chaos is about to get EVIL.
The Map of Evil Chaos
And thus we have concluded our tour of the Caves of Chaos. There are several other pages in the module, full of charts, player advice, and NPC personality tables, but I'm not going to go into all of that. I've had enough of these forsaken borderlands, and I'm ready to leave. And, since we've managed to purge every last living thing save for the Castellan-approved inhabitants of the Keep, the border-magpies will allow it!
It's definitely better than the 5E version. I think I'll do a wrap-up post about my overall opinions and impressions.
I definitely want to do another one of these. It was really fun to do and I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. I just need to dig through some of my old gaming stuff to see what I've got.
If anyone has any suggestions on what I should look at, I want to hear them.
tzeentchlingDoctor of RocksOaklandRegistered Userregular
I vote Dungeon Module A4, In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. Another classic: the PCs wake up, well, in a dungeon, with no gear (naturally, they got caught at the end of the previous module by an inescapable sleeping gas trap) and almost no spells. They need to escape and confront and defeat the slave lords who have all their stuff (and save the village, etc). Oh, and did I mention the dungeon is under a volcano that's going to be exploding/collapsing soon due to repeated earthquakes, so no extended rests to get things like clerical spells back? Oddly enough, none of the other denizens of the dungeon seem to notice or even care that the mountain is about to fall in on them. Also, the adventure includes Myconids, which are the best enemies ever!
I've often wondered how to redo the module to update for 4e - it would probably have to be done with inherent bonuses in a dark-sun style, since 4e tends to be all about your stuff and how awesome it makes you.
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AnialosCollies are love, Collies are life!Shadowbrook ColliesRegistered Userregular
Looking forward to the wrap-up post! Really hope you keep doing these, twas brilliant!
It's definitely better than the 5E version. I think I'll do a wrap-up post about my overall opinions and impressions.
I definitely want to do another one of these. It was really fun to do and I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. I just need to dig through some of my old gaming stuff to see what I've got.
If anyone has any suggestions on what I should look at, I want to hear them.
If you want a classic module that is full of incredibly wacky awkwardness then B4: The Lost City. Three different groups of weird ass cultists with their own crazy masks living inside a pyramid!
If you want a series centered around a genocidal deathmatch between the players and three entire civilizations of Giants then the AD&D G series (note: these were written for tournaments not for normal play so they have essentially no plot)
The original Ravenloft module would be cool. It was a single adventure for 1st ed before it was a full on campaign setting.
The first few Dragonlance modules (start with DL1) are just teeth-grinding cringe making bad. I can't even imagine actually running them.
And of course there is Spelljammer. Honestly I don't know that there is much room for your additions here. The game already features humanoid hippopotami with flintlock pistols.
When I set out on this little experiment, I had the goal of determining whether the original Keep on the Borderlands was better than the trimmed down 5E remake called "Caves of Chaos." I can now say - having plumbed the depths of the module and thoroughly mocked everything I found within - that it is in fact better.
That doesn't mean that it's good, because it's not. On it's own, it's a terrible adventure that is not shallow but hollow, a thin crust of stuff with nothing beneath the surface. As you've probably noticed in the commentary I've made, there are a plethora of things in this module that just don't make sense. For example:
Why are there comfortable chairs in the torture room?
Why are your footsteps loud enough to alert half the dungeon, but you can't hear anyone else moving around?
Why does that gelatinous cube suddenly appear, and why haven't the cultists gotten rid of it so that they won't accidentally be melted while walking around and making all their Move Silently checks?
The module is filled with such things, all of which left me wondering how a person (I know it was Gary Gygax) could sit there and actually write some of this stuff down. Climbing a tree to escape the minotaur? Super-wine that forces everyone to get drunk?
Okay, okay, I'm about to start making another list of absurdities. Let's get back to the subject of B2 vs. 5E. For all its lack of logic or depth, B2 has character, which is something that Caves of Chaos completely lacks. B2 is easily the better choice between the two, simply for the fact that it was actually written for the game and the time in which it existed.
And that, as they say, is that. I have finished my task, accomplished my goal, and made my jokes. This Let's Read is officially done. There is a 90% chance that I will make another thread for another piece of ancient gaming material in the next 3-8 (1d6+2) days. However, since it isn't prepared yet, you currently have no chance of finding it, EVEN IF YOU LOOK IN THE VERY FORUM IN WHICH IT WILL BE POSTED. It's concealed by a magic spell (or whatever...)
This was a good read. Makes me want to see if I can find my copy of X8 "Drums on Fire Mountain". That one had an island filled with orcs that were basically King Kong style drum-beating natives, and the main bad guy was a werepig. Gotta love the 80s.
There is a 90% chance that I will make another thread for another piece of ancient gaming material in the next 3-8 (1d6+2) days. However, since it isn't prepared yet, you currently have no chance of finding it, EVEN IF YOU LOOK IN THE VERY FORUM IN WHICH IT WILL BE POSTED. It's concealed by a magic spell (or whatever...)
Great work on this thing Denada, A+ would read again.
So did you have to be completely drenched in blood before the magpies would let you leave, or did you just have to have samples from 1d4+2 different species?
Or were they watching it all on CCTV? Bloodthirsty little fuckers.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Awesome, but I really wanted to see commentary on the personality tables... You know, having never seen them and having no clue how detailed they may or may not be.
How about Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, the remake for AD&D?
I haven't read the original you just read, but I have read RttKotB - and I found it okay, although it's a bit cheesy ("Zombire" and "Skeltar"?).
Made more sense than what I've read here (they handled the minotaur tunnels better, for instance).
The Keep setting is expanded and has some cool details.
But in mind that I suck at critical thinking.
Alternatively; the parody Hackmaster module Little Keep on the Borderlands.
Hitting the broken computer does not fix the broken computer. Fixing the broken computer, fixes the broken computer.
After much internal debate, I have decided that instead of reading another old module, I will be moving on to something else entirely.
Since I spent this thread making fun of something that other people felt nostalgic about, I've decided to spend the next thread making fun of something I feel nostalgic about. So, my next Let's Read will be of the Player's Book for TSR's Marvel Superheroes, circa 1984.
Thanks! There was a let's read for rifts done a while back by someone, though for the life of me I can't remember who. It was great while it lasted, but I don't think they made it through the whole book.
Posts
Also, that comment on the cup better than the captain's was hilarious.
My First Dungeon: Hippopotamus Through Jellyfish
Let's continue our whirlwind tour of the scenic Caves of Chaos with some more maps. We'll be meeting some incredibly clever bugbears, a ferocious (but tragic) minotaur, and some very festive gnolls.
The next installment is reserved entirely for the Shrine of Evil Chaos. With such a vague name, I have no idea what I'll find there, but it should promise to be something.
The Section of Evil Chaos
Here we come at last to the biggest, evilest, chaosiest cave in all of the caves of chaos. This is the lair of lairs, the dungeon of dungeons. This is the Shrine of Evil Chaos, where subtlety is sacrificed to the demon god Bluntlgrymm in service to Obvioso, the dark master of these evil cultists in their evil red robes. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Let me once again turn to the text of the module to set the scene:
Whew. I hope you're ready, boys and girls. This chaos is about to get EVIL.
And thus we have concluded our tour of the Caves of Chaos. There are several other pages in the module, full of charts, player advice, and NPC personality tables, but I'm not going to go into all of that. I've had enough of these forsaken borderlands, and I'm ready to leave. And, since we've managed to purge every last living thing save for the Castellan-approved inhabitants of the Keep, the border-magpies will allow it!
Because it should be.
I definitely want to do another one of these. It was really fun to do and I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. I just need to dig through some of my old gaming stuff to see what I've got.
If anyone has any suggestions on what I should look at, I want to hear them.
I've often wondered how to redo the module to update for 4e - it would probably have to be done with inherent bonuses in a dark-sun style, since 4e tends to be all about your stuff and how awesome it makes you.
If you want a classic module that is full of incredibly wacky awkwardness then B4: The Lost City. Three different groups of weird ass cultists with their own crazy masks living inside a pyramid!
If you want a series centered around a genocidal deathmatch between the players and three entire civilizations of Giants then the AD&D G series (note: these were written for tournaments not for normal play so they have essentially no plot)
The original Ravenloft module would be cool. It was a single adventure for 1st ed before it was a full on campaign setting.
The first few Dragonlance modules (start with DL1) are just teeth-grinding cringe making bad. I can't even imagine actually running them.
And of course there is Spelljammer. Honestly I don't know that there is much room for your additions here. The game already features humanoid hippopotami with flintlock pistols.
"Admiral Wubwub! I should have known you'd be behind all this."
"That's Agent Admiral Wubwub, Dr. Spiderman. And you've stolen your last atmosphere bubble."
In Which Judgement of the Past is Passed
When I set out on this little experiment, I had the goal of determining whether the original Keep on the Borderlands was better than the trimmed down 5E remake called "Caves of Chaos." I can now say - having plumbed the depths of the module and thoroughly mocked everything I found within - that it is in fact better.
That doesn't mean that it's good, because it's not. On it's own, it's a terrible adventure that is not shallow but hollow, a thin crust of stuff with nothing beneath the surface. As you've probably noticed in the commentary I've made, there are a plethora of things in this module that just don't make sense. For example:
The module is filled with such things, all of which left me wondering how a person (I know it was Gary Gygax) could sit there and actually write some of this stuff down. Climbing a tree to escape the minotaur? Super-wine that forces everyone to get drunk?
Okay, okay, I'm about to start making another list of absurdities. Let's get back to the subject of B2 vs. 5E. For all its lack of logic or depth, B2 has character, which is something that Caves of Chaos completely lacks. B2 is easily the better choice between the two, simply for the fact that it was actually written for the game and the time in which it existed.
And that, as they say, is that. I have finished my task, accomplished my goal, and made my jokes. This Let's Read is officially done. There is a 90% chance that I will make another thread for another piece of ancient gaming material in the next 3-8 (1d6+2) days. However, since it isn't prepared yet, you currently have no chance of finding it, EVEN IF YOU LOOK IN THE VERY FORUM IN WHICH IT WILL BE POSTED. It's concealed by a magic spell (or whatever...)
Great work on this thing Denada, A+ would read again.
Or were they watching it all on CCTV? Bloodthirsty little fuckers.
How about Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, the remake for AD&D?
I haven't read the original you just read, but I have read RttKotB - and I found it okay, although it's a bit cheesy ("Zombire" and "Skeltar"?).
Made more sense than what I've read here (they handled the minotaur tunnels better, for instance).
The Keep setting is expanded and has some cool details.
But in mind that I suck at critical thinking.
Alternatively; the parody Hackmaster module Little Keep on the Borderlands.
Since I spent this thread making fun of something that other people felt nostalgic about, I've decided to spend the next thread making fun of something I feel nostalgic about. So, my next Let's Read will be of the Player's Book for TSR's Marvel Superheroes, circa 1984.
The thread should go up in a day or two.
I know you picked your next read already, but if you can find the time to give, I don't know, Rifts a read, that would be great.
Which Rifts book? Just pick one, they should all leave you with plenty of material.
Looking forward to the next thread.
which isn't dead! i have plans for that