A First Real Look At The Reincarnated 'Into The Borderlands'!

Goodman Games has posted a whole pile of photos of its 5th Edition conversion of Into The Borderlands. First announced in March 2017, these books were available for pre-order in January of this year. Now, the pre-orders are shipping very soon, and photos abound! This is the first in a series of "Original Adventures Reincarnated" line. (Thanks to Jeremy for the scoop!)

The hardcover includes:

· Restored scans of two complete printings of the original B1: In Search of the Unknown. Specifically, the second and sixth printings, one featuring the original monochrome cover and the other featuring the later color cover by Darlene.
· Three complete monster and treasure assortments for stocking the dungeons of In Search of the Unknown (which are “un-stocked” in the original 1E edition).
· Restored scans of two complete printings of the original B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Specifically the second and fourth printings. These are distinguished the change in monster stats between the two printings (Dexterity scores were included in early printings). The later printing also features six interior illustrations that were not present in earlier printings.
· A complete, “pure” 5E conversion of In Search of the Unknown, including tables for stocking it with creatures.
· A separate chapter with a few new encounters for the Caverns of Quasqueton, all inspired by references in the original work.
· A complete, “pure” 5E conversion of The Keep on the Borderlands.
· A separate chapter with a few new encounters for The Keep on the Borderlands, all inspired by references in the original work.
· Appendices with 5E stats for newly introduced monsters, hirelings and followers, and magic items.
· A chapter of introductions and testimonials.

You can read the full interview with Chris Doyle on Goodman Games site.

 

[The Big BZ]

Got my copy at my FLGS yesterday and it is amazing. I know people complained about the price and value for money but it cost me €45 and frankly I'd have paid a lot more than that. It's hard backed and genuinely huge. It's the perfect combination of a coffee table type book or one that sits of your shelf and you can dip in and out of and a proper functional official D&D campaign. Essays, game play advice etc it's great! I know the pdf is available on the DMsguild etc and I can convert it myself etc but with the slow release schedule this really hits the spot as a high quality physical product! Hopefully w won't be waiting too long for the next one!

 

[PyroArrow]

Goodman Games 1st supplement for "Into the Borderlands" is a set of 5E Pre-Generated Characters, which can be found by clicking a link on this page here:

http://goodman-games.com/blog/2018/04/27/pregen-characters-for-into-the-borderlands/

 

[Remathilis]

Goodman Games 1st supplement for "Into the Borderlands" is a set of 5E Pre-Generated Characters, which can be found by clicking a link on this page here:

http://goodman-games.com/blog/2018/04/27/pregen-characters-for-into-the-borderlands/

Cool Easter egg; eight of the pregens are the NPC henchmen from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands from 2e (Third, Cob, Opal, Martin, Jess, Mouse, Aseneth and Dubricus 'd Amberville). Third and Dubricus are references to B4 and X2, respectively.

 

[mach1.9pants]

They appear blank on an iPad in safari , yay heaps of blank sheets

 

[BMaC]

Cool Easter egg; eight of the pregens are the NPC henchmen from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands from 2e (Third, Cob, Opal, Martin, Jess, Mouse, Aseneth and Dubricus 'd Amberville). Third and Dubricus are references to B4 and X2, respectively.

Could this be a hint about which modules will be in he second volume in the series?!

 

[Remathilis]

Could this be a hint about which modules will be in he second volume in the series?!

I wouldn't read that much into it. The references to Third being a Cynidicean (from B4) and Dubricus being a 'd Amberville (of the same family as X2's titular Chateau) was baked into Return to the Keep on the Borderlands in 1999 (the module also has a sly reference to L2 The Assassin's Knot; and probably a few more I've missed). Unless Goodman is going to base its module line on a bunch of obscure references from TSR's Silver Anniversary line, I wouldn't give it much weight.

It was cool though to see the 8 NPC henchmen you can hire at the Keep from RttKotB make a cameo though.

 

[Wrathamon]

I got the book and wow it's a big book.

My major gripes are formating.
It's not a great format for reading, since its all over the place.
I hate the coupon card stuck in the middle of the book. If I remove it the collector in me gets annoyed and if I leave it in the usability becomes annoying.
It took me a bit to see if it is really a 5e conversion ... I dont think that is very apparent imo. I still not sure if it is a great conversion. I need to read more of it.
I like the idea of the extra "new" content but need to read it more.

The Pros for me is the nostalgic feeling and the history it has. I think it was worth getting.

 

[TerraDave]

I feel that some of the comments in the thread are potentially misleading: its a big book with a lot in it.

Its true that it is for lovers of B1 and B2. I also wonder if there might a wider audience for the 5E stuff, and importantly all of the various things for starting DMs, as I don't imagine too many novice DMs will splurge on this.

But in any case I am certainly glad I got it.

I ran some of the bonus material today: Zelligar's Sanctuary. Fun stuff, and very much in the spirit of the original.

 

[MNblockhead]

I feel that some of the comments in the thread are potentially misleading: its a big book with a lot in it.

Its true that it is for lovers of B1 and B2. I also wonder if there might a wider audience for the 5E stuff, and importantly all of the various things for starting DMs, as I don't imagine too many novice DMs will splurge on this.

But in any case I am certainly glad I got it.

I ran some of the bonus material today: Zelligar's Sanctuary. Fun stuff, and very much in the spirit of the original.

While I like the book, I have to say that I could have done without the two older versions. I would have been happiest with just the 5e conversion, the essays, the color pages and the extra content. I want a classic module that is 5e ready, along with some nolstalgia-inducing artwork, and the essays and interview. The book would have been a more manageable size and perhaps less expensive. And it still would have been great.

 

[PyroArrow]

I'm glad they put in the different versions of the older modules, as my copies are getting shot, plus you get to see the differences and different artwork and use them in your games.

Though, if anything I expected them to fix things with the original modules as well, you know the usual spelling & grammatical errors, typos, layout formatting, fixing artwork blunders, restoring previously edited out or censored content, (this could have been in another part of the book even).

They need to put out a pdf version of this, which will make it easier to print out the artwork for the players for example.

Another supplement that is also a Virtual Table top pack with, semi-real maps and tokens would be nice.