Dungeons & Dragons Provides Guidance on How to Run Heroes of the Borderlands As More Traditional Campaign

A new D&D Beyond article by the designer of the Heroes of the Borderlands set provides guidance on how to tie together various parts of the starter set into an overarching plot, which seems to be a direct response to some of the main criticism leveled at the new D&D starter set. Today, Justice Arman posted a new article providing guidance on how to run the Heroes of the Borderlands starter set into a more traditional adventure. The article contains some new narrative read-aloud text, some additional guidance on how to start playing through the adventure, and some guidance on how to emphasize the Cult of Chaos as the overarching antagonists of the adventure.

Heroes of the Borderlands is based on the 1979 adventure Keep on the Borderlands and utilizes a sandbox-style campaign, where various encounters and plots are provided to DMs, but an overarching plot is left for the players to draw out on their own. There are narrative threads that tease various encounters present in the booklets, but there's not a traditional storyline compared to the other Starter Sets. Several reviews, including our own, criticized the design of the adventure, saying that it wasn't advantageous to new DMs. Part of the reason for the narrative freedom, according to the D&D Beyond article, was to allow every player a chance to DM without spoiling the story.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This.

But also, the starter set specifically suggests different people take turns as a DM.

You can't have an overall plot if you swap seats unless you want to spoil it for everyone.

Or simply play the game again as you would a regular board game.

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean, using a turnip with a coal in it is the earliest way to make a jack-o'-lantern, but I wouldn't call it "more traditional" than the pumpkin version...

I would, but I see what you mean. Traditions evolve and “traditional” can mean according to current custom as much as it can mean according to original custom.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I really feel like it wouldn't have killed them to include a little more connections between encounters. I've only run the wilderness part so far, and only two branches of it, but the lack of any cohesion between scenes just felt like it was missing something. I had a lot of "so what" moments in the two games I ran. In many cases, a sentence would have done it.

For the caves, it doesn't look like the characters have any real information to steer them from one cave or another, including caves that might kill them outright if they wander in. Isn't that the definition of false choices? Choose caves A through J but there's no real difference you can see?

I could have missed something though.

 

[Desdichado]

That's a ... funny ... use of the word traditional.

 

[Desdichado]

I mean, using a turnip with a coal in it is the earliest way to make a jack-o'-lantern, but I wouldn't call it "more traditional" than the pumpkin version...

Neither would I. Because that's not a tradition that anyone in living memory has celebrated, making that another ... funny ... use of the word traditional.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Neither would I. Because that's not a tradition that anyone in living memory has celebrated, making that another ... funny ... use of the word traditional.

I remember carving a turnip when I was a kid (they are very hard). It was illuminated with a candle, not a coal though. Couldn't really get pumpkins in 1970s Liverpool.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I really feel like it wouldn't have killed them to include a little more connections between encounters. I've only run the wilderness part so far, and only two branches of it, but the lack of any cohesion between scenes just felt like it was missing something. I had a lot of "so what" moments in the two games I ran. In many cases, a sentence would have done it.

If so, why wouldn't you just make up that sentence or two? Are you trying to test it "as written" or something?

For the caves, it doesn't look like the characters have any real information to steer them from one cave or another, including caves that might kill them outright if they wander in. Isn't that the definition of false choices? Choose caves A through J but there's no real difference you can see?

I would expect their approach to be to poke around each cave entrance, where the DM can give hints about what might be in there.

I don't think that they are expected to randomly pick from A to J and get stuck going there.

I could have missed something though.

When I demoed it, for expediency, I just told them that the Caves roughly ascend in difficulty. Sure, it's metaknowledge, but I didn't have any groups that thought that it meant that they HAD to go A-B-C.

It's actually not quite that linear, difficulty-wise, AND the Caves aren't easily accessible in that order. Those three factors make their choices meaningful enough (in my mind) that it works.

 

[Clint_L]

Shame they didn’t instead provide more aid and explaination on how to entice the party to develop an emergent story based on their interaction with the encounters.

In our first game, the characters met and traveled together to the Keep, getting to know each other on the way. Then they interacted with the guards (I've tweaked Bartho to be a secret cultist, and connected to the vandalism at the temple), picked up a few rumours, and then proceeded to the tavern. They were quite taken by the drinking competition, which they lost in hilarious fashion (having a bit of a tense interaction with the local champ), and then went to the inn to sleep. They stayed in the common room and, being cautious adventurers, decided to investigate it thoroughly. One rolled a natural twenty, so I improvised that his character found a clue to some sort of overarching plot (the Cult) in a pouch found beneath a intentionally loosened floorboard. Several party members decided to skip their long rest to keep watch, and eventually they caught Bartho checking the loose floorboard. They questioned him, with one using the suggestion spell, released him, since they still aren;t sure what's up, and made plans to invstigate this temple situation next game.

That was it...and they loved it! Almost all of the story came from them, there was no combat at all aside from one grapple roll to seize Bartho, and by the end they were invested. So, for this group, at least, there was plenty to provide ermergent story, and they only visited three locations!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There’s something very amusing to me about the idea of trying to make an adaptation of Keep on the Borderlands - one of the earliest D&D modules, and famous for mostly just being a sandbox full of monsters with no real plot “more traditional” by giving it an overarching narrative.

Content creators finding things to complain about to generate clicks is pretty standard MO.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For the caves, it doesn't look like the characters have any real information to steer them from one cave or another, including caves that might kill them outright if they wander in. Isn't that the definition of false choices? Choose caves A through J but there's no real difference you can see?

Yeah, that's a perennial problem with the Caves of Chaos. I intend to have one of the guards know generally about the danger levels of the caves, having been an adventurer before he ... well, you know.