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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[gyor]

Another product I have no interest in.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Some people just can't be pleased.

"I am tired of APs, I want shorter adventures."
WoTC: "Here is a book of 7 shorter adventures."
"I didn't mean those shorter adventures."

I am one of those who wanted smaller adventures. But yeah, I was not hoping for a re-hash of old ideas. It makes reading the adventures more work than pleasure, and it's less likely that I will buy them.


I was hoping for something more modern, like Reavers of Harkenworld, which I think is the best 4e adventure out there. A cool plot and pretty sandboxy feel to it. Easy to modify on the fly when your players don't follow the expected path of the adventure.

The book is probably a good fit for new DMs and there are bound to be a lot of those if one looks at the 5e sales. It just doesn't look like a good fit for me.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

I initially thought it was guild product as well.
People were wanting different things (Eberron/Planescape). I was hoping for something new . . . oh well.
That being said, I can see the appeal and presume this is going to sell like gangbusters. It has way more appeal to me than 1 huge adventure.
Giving Deadlands Reloaded a shot for a while, might be back to 5E by the time this is released, would definitely pick it up!

 

[Staffan]

I prefer cheesecake myself

YOU might, but the goblins of the Sunless Citadel clearly don't.

 

[timbannock]

I am one of those who wanted smaller adventures. But yeah, I was not hoping for a re-hash of old ideas. It makes reading the adventures more work than pleasure, and it's less likely that I will buy them.


I was hoping for something more modern, like Reavers of Harkenworld, which I think is the best 4e adventure out there. A cool plot and pretty sandboxy feel to it. Easy to modify on the fly when your players don't follow the expected path of the adventure.

The book is probably a good fit for new DMs and there are bound to be a lot of those if one looks at the 5e sales. It just doesn't look like a good fit for me.

Hopefully that comes next (maybe not like "the next product released" but very soon in the pipeline) if this sells well. I think Curse of Strahd's strong showing probably spoke to them as, "hey, this stuff sells well, and if we can make a few modern tweaks or update some monsters, that's a bonus." It's low-hanging fruit to convert something and get some cash-flow to then divert towards something else that can be a bit more experimental and new.

Considering the nostalgia surrounding D&D as a whole, and the ease of this new edition for conversion, I think the idea that Tales can bring a whole new generation up on these classic adventures, as well as opening them up for Adventurers League play so easily, means that Wizards will get a lot of great feedback on really dungeoncrawl-centric adventures, which might be really useful towards to their future releases, too. Whatever player book they have in the works might benefit from some of this feedback, too, in terms of sussing out class option balance in a dungeoncrawl environment.

/conjecture

 

[mankyle]

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!!!!

 

[Blackbrrd]

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

 

[Demetrios1453]

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!!!!

Hmmmm, that's a pretty good bit of speculation!

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

 

[Jester David]

Considering your whole post was a complaint... I don't think...

No. my post was a childish whine, not a complaint.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*