B2: Keep on the Borderlands

[darjr]

It was my first adventure I ever ran. One of those kids I ran it for was a good friend and neighbor that I lost touch with 25 years ago who recently got a hold of me over Facebook to reconnect and to say thanks. I'm thinking of trying to meet up again at GenCon and running a session of that adventure.

 

[David Howery]

I can still remember the last time I ran through this as a player; I was shepherding a group of new players into the game, and as the 'old man' of the group, I ran a thief character (because no one else wanted to). I'd been through the module before, so I kept quiet and let the others find their way through it all. Amusingly, they stuck me in the back, 'because thieves suck at combat'. Naturally, I knew the pit trap in the kobold lair was coming up, but couldn't say anything. Naturally, everyone else in the party fell into it. So, the DM had to let me sneak around and find the lever that opened the trap; I think he moved it to another room though. And naturally, the thief stole everything that wasn't nailed down, and when his companions finally crawled out of the pit, the thief presented them with a chest full of copper pieces and said, "Hey, look what I found, guys!"...

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I really should try B2 again, preferably with RC or a similar ruleset. When I ran it, I was 15 and still learning how to DM. The poor PCs suffered a lot, but it was ok, because the players were having fun learning as well.

My memories of it are more as a "learning to DM bootcamp," which is probably not really fair to the module. I am one of those that likes to jump in an learn something with the real stuff going on. B2 let me make a lot of mistakes, rapidly--and thus get them out of the way.

 

[Hussar]

I didn't find this an issue; but then again I've had loads of practice at deciphering old-school modules.

All true, but I'll cut the writers a lot of slack in that they didn't have the 30+ years of trial and error we've got now when it comes to what represents good adventure design.

Were I to redesign it now, I'd put some of the caves closer together and have more of them lead in to (and out of) the Minotaur's maze with the wonderful confusion effect...but I'm evil that way.

I don't mind all the different monsters at all - better that than have 'em be all the same.

Lan-"I've been lost in a maze for years"-efan

I'm not sure about cutting them slack though. Like I said, I pointed to B4, which only comes out a couple of years after B2. Then again, I'm a gushing Lost City fan.

But, I totally agree. None of these things are breaking points for me. It's a fun module. I think Sepulchrave II nails it perfectly for me.

 

[haakon1]

What are your experiences with B2? Did you play it or run it "back in the day" or more recently? Do you hold it in high regard? Does it play as well as (I think) it reads? How many campaigns did it launch, and how many fizzled?

I first played it as my first experience with D&D, in the summer of 1981.

Of the 4 most recent campaigns I've launched, 2 started with variants on the Keep on the Borderlands. On campaign died of natural causes (moves, kids, etc.) after about 6 years. The other one is still going on (on email) and is now it's 11th year. So, no fizzles.

I think it's a great, great module, if you like classic rock D&D. I'd also recommend taking a look at Return to the Keep, a 2e version, which adds some interesting takes on the setting. Some people think it's a sacrilege, but I think it's actually pretty good.

 

[haakon1]

I think if I were to run it again, I'd devise a timeline with a countdown to the attack on the keep, led by the evil clerics and their humanoid army. And run it for 3rd-5th level characters.

I did precisely that, the last time I ran it (for my still running, 11 year old PBemail campaign). That fight was the best thing in the campaign -- took about 220 rounds, all told.

The party was only about 2nd level, for the most part, during that fight, but I kept them alive with a plentiful supply of healing potions -- and the players did their part to use the Keep's defenses, doing things like tossing alchemist fire from behind battlements at the approaching zombie horde!

The fight ended in the Great Hall of the main building of the keep, with undead coming in the bashed in doors, and players and NPC's preparing for their stand . . . but the enemy ran out of undead before the PC's ran out of potions. The ending was like the ending of "Platoon", desolation everywhere, but they somehow mostly survived!

BTW, not that it matters, but my version of the Keep was in the World of Greyhawk, an outpost of Bissel in the lower reaches of the Yatil Mountains. This was towards the beginning of the war between Bissel and Ket in my variant version of the Greyhawk Wars. The clerics were of the Baklunish deities, which in my campaign are Greek -- Hecate, the goddess of evil magic and Ares, the chaotic evil god of war and mayhem. The PC's have puzzled ever after as to whether the bandits, various tribes, and necromancer in the Caves of Chaos were supporting Iuz, Ket, or some other faction . . .

In the end the PC's made a peace deal with the king of the Goblins, which has lead to peace in the area . . . and gives me an unorthodox way to bring in the Red Hand module if I ever want to, with a warning from the goblin king.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've used KotB several times over the years, in several editions, set in Mystara, Greyhawk, and the Forgotten Realms. It is a tremendously flexible setting for the opening of a campaign, responsive to player choice, and suitable to kick off all manner of plots. It's still one of the best D&D adventures ever designed in any edition IMO, and in the top two (with B4) for BD&D.

I've found the "Return" adventure most useful to flesh out the denizens of the Keep further without too much work. The combination of base town, wilderness, and large dungeon complex is what makes it such a great starting point (one that I tried to capture on a smaller scale when writing Raiders of Oakhurst for 4E).

 

[Endur]

I think Keep on the Borderlands is a fantastic adventure. It is more of a campaign setting than the usual 4e/pathfinder/rpga railroad adventure.

If you are running the original, you might also look at the Return module and the Hackmaster module to gain some different perspectives.

A lot of items in 1e adventures are left up to the DM ... names, motivations, etc. Let your imagination run wild to fill in the blanks.

 

[Firebeetle]

I ran KotB several times back in the day. It was my "go-to" module for players. My brother ran that dungeon, Send the kids from Canada, and my friend Eric Six. My favorite was the minotaur labyrinth and the kobolds, who drove the PCs out of the caves once when they tried a "let's run in" strategy and met the main horde head on. I've been doing variations of the evil priests for years now, at one time I had personalities for all of them.

That's why I was so pleased to see the concept resurrected in the Chaos Scar campaign. For those who don't know, the actual Keep has been ported wholesale into 4e (I can't even use the word update here, no significant changes other than stats.) and placed next to the Chaos Scar, a huge crater made when an evil meteorite (only in D&D could you have an evil-aligned rock) landed attracting all sorts of foulness to it.

I run the DM support group on Wizard's Community, so I'm definitely a fan.

 

[Azgulor]

KotB was the first module I ever ran. I ran it faithfully as a campaign starter for at least 4 different groups over the years. While it certainly had its share of rough spots (at least by today's standards), it also did a fantastic job of showcasing the site-based sandbox concept -- in many more recent modules, the keep would have been reduced to a few paragraphs and nothing more.

Sadly, my copy of B2 was borrowed or lost along the way. I still have a lot of my early B-series modules which I'm now adapting to Pathfinder, and am gearing up for a conversion of the Lost City.