Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Keep on the Borderlands - your experiences?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3888915" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Ran it twice. The first time as a kid not long after getting the basic set. I don't have alot of memories of it except that it involved alot of huge fights, and lots of resting between fights. I remember the players holeing up in the secret room between orc caves, and lots of fleeing the dungeon with hordes on thier heels. The goblins especially are designed to dump thier whole tribe down on the PC party immediately - and then call in help! The kobold fight at the pit entrance is pretty enormous as well. I think we started with like 8 characters and lost seven or eight PC's over the course of the module, finishing with like 4 or 5 survivors - who then went on to face X1. </p><p></p><p>I ran it the second time as a more mature DM using a redone map*. Still had a tendancy to turn into huge slug fests, but since most of the monsters are really weak very quickly they lose the ability to hit anything. Still killed off about half of the initial party but almost all that was before the players got platemail, magic shields, etc. Unarmored classes just don't survive. </p><p> </p><p>I personally think its a pretty poor module, that encourages extremely tedious largely undifferiented mass encounters with limited largely featureles terrain. That each tribe has a different alarm system is about the most creative thing about it. Even ran as well as I could manage with conspiracies, betrayal, mature maps, mini-bosses, etc. - looking back it just doesn't seem like alot of fun. Of course, the funny thing about that perspective is that the players always seem to enjoy the heck out of it. Whether that's due to the fact that its often their first experience with D&D, or whether its because simple hack-n-slash really is the heart of D&D, I don't know. I do know that I don't regret having the module basically memorized, whereas some of my other favorite modules to run (or play) I wish were still fresh and unspoiled so I could play them again.</p><p></p><p>Of course, as primitive as the module seems to me now, its light years better than any of my first few attempts to make my own adventure. There are things I think you can learn from the module, but I don't think I'd ever run it again.</p><p></p><p>*Map changes: Break the caves into levels with the goblins and kobolds on the first (lowest level) and so forth. Added new content between 'levels' (a gatehouse with bandit gaurds at the entrance of the ravine, an arena where the tribe resolve thier differences midway back, and a lesser temple complex in the rear where the demihumans are indoctrinated into the cult), and shifted the map so that the Minotaur's maze gaurded the entrance to the greater temple.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 3888915, member: 4937"] Ran it twice. The first time as a kid not long after getting the basic set. I don't have alot of memories of it except that it involved alot of huge fights, and lots of resting between fights. I remember the players holeing up in the secret room between orc caves, and lots of fleeing the dungeon with hordes on thier heels. The goblins especially are designed to dump thier whole tribe down on the PC party immediately - and then call in help! The kobold fight at the pit entrance is pretty enormous as well. I think we started with like 8 characters and lost seven or eight PC's over the course of the module, finishing with like 4 or 5 survivors - who then went on to face X1. I ran it the second time as a more mature DM using a redone map*. Still had a tendancy to turn into huge slug fests, but since most of the monsters are really weak very quickly they lose the ability to hit anything. Still killed off about half of the initial party but almost all that was before the players got platemail, magic shields, etc. Unarmored classes just don't survive. I personally think its a pretty poor module, that encourages extremely tedious largely undifferiented mass encounters with limited largely featureles terrain. That each tribe has a different alarm system is about the most creative thing about it. Even ran as well as I could manage with conspiracies, betrayal, mature maps, mini-bosses, etc. - looking back it just doesn't seem like alot of fun. Of course, the funny thing about that perspective is that the players always seem to enjoy the heck out of it. Whether that's due to the fact that its often their first experience with D&D, or whether its because simple hack-n-slash really is the heart of D&D, I don't know. I do know that I don't regret having the module basically memorized, whereas some of my other favorite modules to run (or play) I wish were still fresh and unspoiled so I could play them again. Of course, as primitive as the module seems to me now, its light years better than any of my first few attempts to make my own adventure. There are things I think you can learn from the module, but I don't think I'd ever run it again. *Map changes: Break the caves into levels with the goblins and kobolds on the first (lowest level) and so forth. Added new content between 'levels' (a gatehouse with bandit gaurds at the entrance of the ravine, an arena where the tribe resolve thier differences midway back, and a lesser temple complex in the rear where the demihumans are indoctrinated into the cult), and shifted the map so that the Minotaur's maze gaurded the entrance to the greater temple. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Keep on the Borderlands - your experiences?
Top