D&D 5E Quests from the Infinite Staircase: How Is It?

[Paul Farquhar]

One thing that surprised me was the inclusion of a Yentl mountains overland map in Tsojcanth. It’s 40 years since I last looked at it, but I think it’s more detailed, and certainly more colourful, than the original. But the Temple of Tharizdun is still lost. The random encounter list is shorter than I remember (also true for Pharaoh) but I think some of the encounters are the same.

 

[Parmandur]

The Barrier Peaks ship map looks like the same crashed ship, at least on a quick inspection of the images above. But apparently there were some changes?

Two major changes: it is now a 4 Lecel structure, rhe original is 6 Levels, and each Level is smaller. Most of the significant encounters are intact, and the vibe of the ship is fairly similar just less awe-inapiringly colossal. Unlike the other 5 Advebtures, they even have a sidebar explaining "rhiania fundamentally a rewrite of the original:

Original maps for comparison:

 

[Parmandur]

One thing that surprised me was the inclusion of a Yentl mountains overland map in Tsojcanth. It’s 40 years since I last looked at it, but I think it’s more detailed, and certainly more colourful, than the original. But the Temple of Tharizdun is still lost. The random encounter list is shorter than I remember (also true for Pharaoh) but I think some of the encounters are the same.

Looking at photos of the old overland map, seems roughly the same with more detailed cartography.

 

[TerraDave]

Looking at photos of the old overland map, seems roughly the same with more detailed cartography.

Lost Temple of Tharizdun was in the same mountains and had a linked map, with friendly gnomes who could host the party between the two adventures.

I did run both, albeit in Transylvania (or technically the Carpathians).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Lost Temple of Tharizdun was in the same mountains and had a linked map, with friendly gnomes who could host the party between the two adventures.

I did run both, albeit in Transylvania (or technically the Carpathians).

Friendly gnomes are an wilderness encounter in this version of Tsojcanth.

 

[OB1]

Apologies for the thread necro, but...

Hit me in our session on Friday that it's been almost a year since our group started playing QFtIS ( there has been player turnover and long breaks) and we just started Pharaoh. Been using the Nafas hook (which made it easy to replace 4 PCs who left along the way) and have expanded the Censor of Dreams a bit to something almost city sized, and plan on introducing bastions for the PCs after Pharaoh. Eventually, the plan is to move on to Eve of Vecna as long as I can figure out how to tie that threat to Nafas and the staircase.

At any rate, just wanted to say that these adventures, which are new to me, have been amazing. Easy to run without a lot of prep (I use DDB Maps for my tabletop), easy to adjust on the fly, and best of all, rewards player creativity in wonderful ways. As far as I'm concerned, this book is the new gold standard for adventures in 5e (surpassing Strahd). If Dragon Delves is close to as good as this, I'll be elated.

We left Friday's session with the party having just gotten to the Maze of Mist in Pharaoh and a wonderful scene with Phase Spiders and a magnetic ceiling, leaving the PCs worried about what's to come next.

 

[Parmandur]

Apologies for the thread necro, but...

Hit me in our session on Friday that it's been almost a year since our group started playing QFtIS ( there has been player turnover and long breaks) and we just started Pharaoh. Been using the Nafas hook (which made it easy to replace 4 PCs who left along the way) and have expanded the Censor of Dreams a bit to something almost city sized, and plan on introducing bastions for the PCs after Pharaoh. Eventually, the plan is to move on to Eve of Vecna as long as I can figure out how to tie that threat to Nafas and the staircase.

At any rate, just wanted to say that these adventures, which are new to me, have been amazing. Easy to run without a lot of prep (I use DDB Maps for my tabletop), easy to adjust on the fly, and best of all, rewards player creativity in wonderful ways. As far as I'm concerned, this book is the new gold standard for adventures in 5e (surpassing Strahd). If Dragon Delves is close to as good as this, I'll be elated.

We left Friday's session with the party having just gotten to the Maze of Mist in Pharaoh and a wonderful scene with Phase Spiders and a magnetic ceiling, leaving the PCs worried about what's to come next.

They did a really good job juggling a couple big things here: preserving the parts thwt made these original modules memorable, translating them to playable 5E mechanics, and updating the really rather dated parts (Pyramid was changed quite a bit, with the help of an Egyptologist consultant for sensitivity). A real highlight of the entire 5E line, IMO.

 

[el-remmen]

I just finished running UK4 - When a Star Falls for my in-person group. . .well, I started with the original module and the QftIS came out about halfway through so I used some of that as well - though, as usual, I also added a bunch of my own stuff to make it fit setting and campaign. Anyway, I do like the adaptation, but put me in the group that prefers the old maps. Those Expedition to the Barrier Peaks ship maps do look frickin' cool though, but I have not looked at the original in decades.

I will say, as a general complaint as someone who rarely uses contemporary D&D adventures, I hate that despite designing a game based on 5 foot squares that the do the maps at a 10-foot scale. I always end up having to redraw maps as part of prep so I can more easily copy them onto the wet-erase battle mat or recreate with dungeon tiles without having to double everything on the fly and make mistakes. It also means that when I do scan a map for use in uploading to a VTT (owlbear rodeo), I have to fidget a lot to double its size for proper scale (no way I would buy something twice). I can accept having to do this when converting 1E and BECMI adventures (which I do a lot) but it should be default thing in any edition past 3E. (Bring back fold out maps, if it is a space issue!)

 

[Parmandur]

put me in the group that prefers the old maps. Those Expedition to the Barrier Peaks ship maps do look frickin' cool though, but I have not looked at the original in decades.

I do like those old blue-print maps quote a bit...but it makes sense to me that they chose to go with flasher maps for this release, as a vakue-add for people who still had the originals.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, in particular, is interesting, because they are really just entirely new maps: massively changed, much smaller and more focused, though moat of the memorable keyed encounters are retained.

 

[Zaukrie]

These maps are a million times better for VTT use ..I do wish there was a gridless version.