Tales From The Yawning Portal - 7 Classic Dungeons Updated To 5E!

Coming in April is WotC's next official D&D product, Tales from the Yawning Portal. This hardcover book contains seven classic dungeons updated to 5th Edition, from adventures such as Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain. This is, presumably, the product previously codenamed Labyrinth. It's set for an April 4th release, for $49.95.

Coming in April is WotC's next official D&D product, Tales from the Yawning Portal. This hardcover book contains seven classic dungeons updated to 5th Edition, from adventures such as Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain. This is, presumably, the product previously codenamed Labyrinth. It's set for an April 4th release, for $49.95.



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When the shadows grow long in Waterdeep and the fireplace in the taproom of the Yawning Portal dims to a deep crimson glow, adventurers from across the Sword Coast spin tales and spread rumors of lost treasures.

Within this tome are seven of the deadliest dungeons from the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Some are classics that have hosted an untold number of adventurers, while others are newer creations, boldly staking a claim to their place in the pantheon of notable adventures.

The seeds of these stories now rest in your hands. D&D’s deadliest dungeons are now part of your arsenal of adventures. Enjoy, and remember to keep a few spare character sheets handy.

For use with the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, this book provides fans with a treasure trove of adventures, all of which have been updated to the fifth edition rules. Explore seven deadly dungeons in this adventure supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game:

  • Against the Giants
  • Dead in Thay
  • Forge of Fury
  • Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
  • Sunless Citadel
  • Tomb of Horrors
  • White Plume Mountain

Find it on WotC's site here. Forbes has an interview about it here. Mearls says "We're announcing a new D&D product, a book coming out this spring. It is called Tales from the Yawning Portal(out March 24th in local game stores and April 4th everywhere else) It's a collection of seven of the most famous dungeons from Dungeons & Dragons history. They're all collected in one hardcover book. The idea behind it is not only do you want to capture some of the most famous dungeons from the game's history, but we also wanted to give a selection of adventures that you could in theory start at Level 1 with the first dungeon and play all the way up to Level 15 by playing the adventures one after another."

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Cover Image

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Gibbering Mouther

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Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan



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SkidAce

Legend
Supporter
Mmmmm

Maybe they are linking the seven dungeons with the different pieces of the "Rod of Seven Parts"TM???

This could be a plausible link for the different adventures. I mean.... one piece lies at the end of every dungeon. If you defy all seven dungeons you will get an staff of untold power!!!!

Ninja'd by nearly seven hours....hmmmmmm.

Coincidence? I think not!
 

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I think we all agree that this book is sort of lazy (for lack of a better word).

But I think that was by design. The upcoming mechanical expansion requires way more thought, input, and testing than the previous spring releases (Volo's Guide and the SCAG). They are giving themselves a little break this spring because they need that time to balance new subclasses and other mechanics.


I was about to say the same thing - I'm with this sort of product if it ensures that the quality of upcoming Big Book of Crunch is high. Granted, this in no way takes away anything from TftYP (hey, I think I'm the first to use the acronym!), since it does fulfill multiple requests (shorter adventures, non-FR adventures, updating classics, etc.) that various fan groups have been clamoring for...
 

So, since we know that it will have some monsters yet to be updated for 5e in it, would those more familiar with the modules be able to suggest which ones they may be? It's been years since I've read/played any of them (although I do have fond memories of college sessions of White Plume Mountain devolving into party infighting over the treasure)...
 

guachi

Hero
I'm glad there is more product coming out, always a good thing.

I am, however disappointed that it's rehashed stuff, i was hoping for something new. I understand that quite a large number of people have never played or run these adventures. I've run/played all of them except Dead in Thay.

The choices weren't terribly inspired either.

Dead in Thay was not a classic, not in the slightest.

Why not I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City? A far superior adventure to Shrine.

Why not Ghost Tower of Inverness? Great dungeon, and plays quickly.

Against the Giants? Bleh. As people said, we just had giants.

Lost Cavern of Tsojcanth?

How about Tomb of the Lizard King?

How about a trek through Undermountain to round it out at the end?

Tomb of Horrors is just tired. It doesn't make for super adventuring. The follow up 2nd ed boxed set and the 4th ed set were good as it expanded on the base story.

Why not see some basic or expert adventures converted too, just for the fun of it?

I'm sure it'll be a very good product, I'm just feeling it's fairly lazy on their part.
The upside is that a new generation will get to experience these classics (aside from Dead in Thay- NOT a classic :) )
So there's that.

I'm quoting your post in its entirety because most of your "why not this adventure" alternatives are adventures I thought of as well. I think Saltmarsh or Reptile God are better low level modules. That Isle of Dread would be a cracking fun adventure in 5e.

It's like one of those "Hits of the '80s!" compilations that has good songs in it but not the best songs.
 

Echohawk

Shirokinukatsukami fan
Yeah, it can probably sell well, especially with a show like Stranger Things basically being a promotion for it. ;)

As [MENTION=44909]barasawa[/MENTION] mentioned upthread, the movie version of Ready Player One is scheduled for release soon (originally December 2017 but shifted to March 2018 to avoid clashing with Star Wars). I have not been following the development of the movie very closely, but Tomb of Horrors is such an integral part of the plot of the book, I'd be surprised if it wasn't also featured in the movie. I think the fact that Warner Bros. are producing both Ready Player One and the new D&D film increases the odds of that even further.

WotC would be foolish not to have a 5e product on the shelves which incorporates Tomb of Horrors by the time the movie gets released, so it seems plausible that this was a factor in determining which dungeons to include in Tales from the Yawning Portal.
 
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Henry

Autoexreginated
I think we all agree that this book is sort of lazy (for lack of a better word).

But I think that was by design. The upcoming mechanical expansion requires way more thought, input, and testing than the previous spring releases (Volo's Guide and the SCAG). They are giving themselves a little break this spring because they need that time to balance new subclasses and other mechanics.
To be fair, Paizo's doing the same thing this year with the release of Starfinder - the other products are not as developmentally intensive so that a lot of extra attention can be paid to a later product this year.

So if we get a new rule expansion for 5e AND Starfinder in the same year, 2017 will be a banner year for me indeed! (Gaming-wise)
 

Henry

Autoexreginated
I'm curious if there's anything that Wizards of the Coast could do that would make you happy.

To be honest he did say what would make him happy right in the post - using Yawning Portal for Undermountain itself. I admit, that would have been an equally good use of this release, too, and world-appropriate, to boot. Even so, i'm not dissatisfied with the concept, there's some great modules in there.

HOWEVER, I'm one of the ones who hope that Tomb of Horrors keeps its meat-grinder reputation. If not, it loses the whole point of the module's existance. To expand on the comment of the person who said the 4e Tomb of Horrors take was fun, if a version of the Tomb of Horrors was fun to play, a designer did something wrong. ;) Keep the Tomb of Horrors just shy of unplayably tough, thank you!
 


Olive

Explorer
HOWEVER, I'm one of the ones who hope that Tomb of Horrors keeps its meat-grinder reputation. If not, it loses the whole point of the module's existance. To expand on the comment of the person who said the 4e Tomb of Horrors take was fun, if a version of the Tomb of Horrors was fun to play, a designer did something wrong. ;) Keep the Tomb of Horrors just shy of unplayably tough, thank you!

Not being a believer in bad wrong fun, I hope they keep it deadly for the heritage of it all, but have extensive notes for those who want to make it actually playable in an ongoing campaign...
 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
Not being a believer in bad wrong fun, I hope they keep it deadly for the heritage of it all, but have extensive notes for those who want to make it actually playable in an ongoing campaign...

The fun thing is that it's likely to be the last adventure in the package, so making it deadly isn't as much of an issue. :)

Cheers!
 

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