D&D General Rank the Goodman Games Reincarnated series

[Jack Hooligan]

So, of the current six available I’ve only ever owned Lost City. I’m considering jumping in and collecting these even if I only ever just read all the extra content for some and not play them.

With that in mind, how would you rate the 6 adventures and additionally how would you rate the 6 as historical artifacts (the interviews, added backgrounds, etc).

Also more general, do you feel the conversions allow for a good, old school game with 5e rules?

Thanks!

 

[aco175]

I'll post them so people know what is being talked about.

I have not played or ran any of these, but want to run Keep on the Borderlands. Not sure if any at my table remember it. My father ran it when we first got into playing but I do not think he would remember it. I would likely put it in FR maybe around Phandalin and turn it into a larger campaign.

 

[Tutara]

I have both Castle Amber and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. They are handsome, weighty tomes with useful and practical additions and adaptations given as well as the original texts (sometimes to the point of redundancy).

The only slightly wonky bits are that some of the 5e conversions aren’t very elegant - if I do run this I’ll probably have to fix some of the stats and abilities as a few are a bit out of whack with the 5e standard.

I probably prefer Amber over Barrier as an adventure, but both are good stuff.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Fourth picture doesn't display for me, let me try:

 

[Cadence]

I have 1 (Borderlands), 3 (Barrier Peaks), and 5 (Amber), but have only run the Borderlands.

I'm running the Borderlands for the second time with this, and had run B2 several times before with other editions. For the B2 part I wish the blue maps had more contrast and that the black updated ones were bigger. Otherwise its a pretty faithful adaptation, with a couple small new things that I like and a nice connection between B2 and B1. I had never run B1 before but it seemed to work fine. I did change the area map for when I've run it with this version D&D 5E - Reshuffled B1-B2 Borderland Map and overlaid a 5x5 grid on the Caves D&D 5E - Caves of Chaos map divided into 5' Squares for 1:60 Play .

For B5, I wish they had redone the maps to have a scale that made sense and had printed them in a standard over-head view. Haven't run it yet.

B3 has lots of pictures! But that's as far as I've gotten.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

I have 1 (Borderlands), 3 (Barrier Peaks), and 5 (Amber), but have only run the borderlands.

I'm running the Borderlands for the second time with this, and had run B2 several times before with other editions.

I’m leaning towards running Into the Borderlands as it was the pack-in module back in the day, but still open to maybe one of the others.

About how many sessions did it take your group to complete it? Did it play well for modern gamers?

 

[GuyBoy]

I own Borderlands and initially bought it to scratch the nostalgia itch of both playing and running the original decades ago. In the event, I’ve ended up running it as an old school “filler game” for my face-to-face group in the event that someone can’t make a session. It’s gone down really well with the other players, none of whom are old enough to remember the original.
I’ve bought and read Elemental Evil. Love it but haven’t actually used it yet.

 

[DND_Reborn]

About how many sessions did it take your group to complete it? Did it play well for modern gamers?

When I ran it we played it for 6 sessions (for the caves of chaos). A party of 6 PCs were level 5 by the end of the caves of chaos. However, our sessions are 10+ hours typically, so I would expect 12 +/- 3 sessions if you do 4-5 hours.

However, we then played in the region another 8 sessions (probably another 15 "normal" sessions), reaching 7th level by the end. This includes the woods north of the keep, the swamps, and other adventures I made up (including a black dragon which was almost a TPK and tombs for Zelligar and Roghan).

I've always enjoyed KotB a lot and found the 5E version pretty good. Everyone in this group was completely new to D&D and began with 5E, I was the only one with prior experience in D&D at all.

Hope that helps.

 

[Cadence]

I’m leaning towards running Into the Borderlands as it was the pack-in module back in the day, but still open to maybe one of the others.

About how many sessions did it take your group to complete it? Did it play well for modern gamers?

It took quite a few three or four hour sessions iirc for the first group, and would have been longer if they actually tried cleaning out all of the caves instead of negotiating with some of the denizens. I want to say it was at least a dozen sessions for the whole thing - and it would have been more except that they didn't clear out the caves (they made some deals with the denizens for information and the like).

 

[Jack Hooligan]

How practical are these big books during play at the game table? Do they stay open? Are they bound well for the rigors of play?