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.

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."

Cover Image

Gibbering Mouther

Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan



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[buzzardoftheages]

Hmmm.. I'm worried that the originals might drop off DMsGuild while this is in print. I might have to get them.

I doubt it. The original Ravenloft is still for sale there.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

A few of us have already played in a 5e Undermountain. Believe me, Halaster is alive and, well...

I think we'll be seeing more of him sometime soon.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Yeah, that is my main thought after reading the interview - I'm sure that lots of work went into this (art, playtesting the encounters in 5e, rewriting them to be modern, etc) but it doesn't really seem to be a "storyline". I guess that the Neverwinter MMO will be doing their own interpretation of one or more of the dungeons to tie in, but otherwise it seems thin on the ground for narrative tie in.

Also Mearls says explicitly that they use monsters from Volo's, but reprint them in full. Core books and current adventure is apparently an important threshold for them, which I can see the merits of.


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[Greg Benage]

If I were an ex-publisher of a skeptical bent I'd suspect that "Undermountain-Themed D&D Open + This Title + This Content = Big Project Went Sideways and Now We Have to Fill the Release Slot." Even if I were that guy, I'd still be looking forward to this.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Six of the seven set in Greyhawk, but it sounds like they are moving all of them to Forgotten Realms.... hopefully they have at least a paragraph about Greyhawk in there somewhere.

The product page even says that some of the tales are "from across the planes", so no doubt other settings will get their due. And anyway I bet we'll be given information how to adapt adventures to various settings, as is normal in the adventure books.

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[TerraDave]

From the interview, order of play seems to be:

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

He notes that Tomb is for 13th-14th level characters.

 

[Delazar]

I don't understand... is this just a collection of old adventures, updated to the 5e rules? That's... it?

I'm a huge fanboy, really, DnD can do no wrong for me... but this is just... lazy?

Maybe I got it wrong?

 

[Luchador]

I don't understand... is this just a collection of old adventures, updated to the 5e rules? That's... it?

I'm a huge fanboy, really, DnD can do no wrong for me... but this is just... lazy?

Maybe I got it wrong?

Won't know for sure until it comes out, but the sense I got from the interview is that these have been over-hauled so much as to be basically new.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

The Forbes article also says that there will be new to 5e monsters in the book:

"There are a number of monsters that haven't shown up in Fifth Ed before that are in those adventures and those have all been updated. A number of the NPCs have been updated, especially the Third Edition adventures. They tended to use a Duergar wizard as a an enemy, things like that. We've updated those guys to Fifth Ed and converted them all over."

 

[BMaC]

I don't understand... is this just a collection of old adventures, updated to the 5e rules? That's... it?

I'm a huge fanboy, really, DnD can do no wrong for me... but this is just... lazy?

Maybe I got it wrong?

The proof will be in the pudding. For us old-timers having these iconic modules (that's what they were called) re-released and upgraded for 5th edition is like putting Keoghtom's ointment directly on a mid-life crisis rash.