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<blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 7347631" data-attributes="member: 6716779"><p><strong>B2 Keep on the Borderlands</strong></p><p></p><p> KotBL is the other Basic module being converted to 5E by Goodman games. There have been fan based conversions of this module and it was used during the D&D Next playtest. Written by Gary Gygax himself the module is a perennial favourite in lists of the best D&D module of all time. Personally I think it is a bit over rated, its not even the best of the B series but it is probably the greatest selling D&D module of all time. If you stacked all the copies of this adventure sold togather and used in in a D&D trap it would probably deal 3d10 or 4d10 damage with a saving throw vs death for half damage. If you're reading this you are probably a 0 level human with 1d8 hit points and proficiency in D&D so you're basically dead even if you make the save.</p><p></p><p> This adventure a long long time ago was the 1st adventure for D&D I ever played back in 1994, at least in a campaign and we completed it. So what is KotBL? Its basically a big dungeon hack with some advice on how to run the D&D game, and unlike the playtest materials includes the map of the Keep that happens to be on the borderlands. Its still fairly early in the D&D lifecycle here, 1980/81. Technically D&D came out in 74 but this came out around the start of the golden age- very few people played OD&D relative to 1E and B/X. Due to its age it kind of gets a free pass on a few things like a lack of a plot and th adventure is designed for 6-9 players. The assumption was D&D groups back then were a bit bigger. Back in the day we had 6 players, but the DM houseruled a few things such as max hp at level 1 and I think we used 4d6 drop the lowest and -10 hit points vs 3d6 and death at 0. Poor old Andal my 1st level fighter had a 16 strength (+2), and +1 for con and dex scores. </p><p></p><p> Even compared with B1 there is also not much of a back story, our DM added a basic plot about the Clerics daughter at the keep being kidnapped by humanoids. A bit cliche perhaps but at least we did not meet in an Inn. There is a basic wilderness map, and some encounters but nothing that exciting to be found, most of the action is located at the Caves of Chaos an infamous D&D location perhaps beaten by the village of Hommlet and the Tomb of Horrors. This adventure is not an outright deathtrap like the Tomb of Horrors although bad things can definitely happen. One can stumble into the wrong cave at level 1 and get swarmed, come up against Ogres, Owl Bears, zombies etc. If you have played the D&D Next playtest you get the idea. Its not a favourite adventure of mine but I do not love it and regard it as a slightly above average adventure and a classic dungeon hack which I am not overly fond of mindless ones myself. </p><p></p><p> So how suitable is it to convert to 5E? Well since it has already been done for the playtest one would assume very easy/suitable to convert? Well the monsters in the playtest are a lot weaker than the final monsters that made it into the final version of 5E. If you are more or less running it as printed for 1st to 3rd level PCs you will probably have a TPK, if 20 kobolds do not get you the Orcs, Hobgoblins, Gnolls , etc probably will. By most accounts Goodman Games is converting it as is which I think is both lazy and probably catastrophic. It was designed for 6-9 PCs with vastly weaker enemies where things like sleep on an average roll will take out 18 kobolds (or 9 orcs/hobgoblins) vs the handful it gets now. Its more like level 2-4 if not 3-5 and you would probably want 6+ PCs and the right party composition and things like a light cleric will be very good for the AoE Radiance of the Dawn ability. This doesn't mean you can't run it without a lot of work, but I think it does require some amount of conversion or higher levels and/or a larger party and you will have to do some amount of work to convert it such as traps, encounters, and perhaps using milestones over xp as you level up a lot faster killing monsters in 5E than B/X. And there are a lot of Kobolds, Gobling, Orcs, Hobgoblins and Gnolls to kill along with undead, Ogres, Minotaurs, and an Owlbear.</p><p></p><p> Overall I would give it a 2.5/5, 3/5 as a teaching aid and 3.5/5 for a 5E conversion as it will require some work or running it at higher level than intended. Being a bit harsh perhaps I would wonder why bother as there are better adventures in the B series 2 of which are coming up very soon. Of course you could sex it up a bit, put a decent amount of effort into it and add something like a basic plot line and backstory, its not a bad adventure just more average and Gygax wrote better even at a similar time frame. T1 The Village of Hommlet for AD&D for example. Personally I would prefer to run it with a clone or the Rules Cyclopedia as originally intended as it requires less work and if you have a larger group it would run better than a 6-9 person 5E group. Unless you are a hard core fan of KotBL or have a lot of time on your hands there are better adventures for conversion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zardnaar, post: 7347631, member: 6716779"] [B]B2 Keep on the Borderlands[/B] KotBL is the other Basic module being converted to 5E by Goodman games. There have been fan based conversions of this module and it was used during the D&D Next playtest. Written by Gary Gygax himself the module is a perennial favourite in lists of the best D&D module of all time. Personally I think it is a bit over rated, its not even the best of the B series but it is probably the greatest selling D&D module of all time. If you stacked all the copies of this adventure sold togather and used in in a D&D trap it would probably deal 3d10 or 4d10 damage with a saving throw vs death for half damage. If you're reading this you are probably a 0 level human with 1d8 hit points and proficiency in D&D so you're basically dead even if you make the save. This adventure a long long time ago was the 1st adventure for D&D I ever played back in 1994, at least in a campaign and we completed it. So what is KotBL? Its basically a big dungeon hack with some advice on how to run the D&D game, and unlike the playtest materials includes the map of the Keep that happens to be on the borderlands. Its still fairly early in the D&D lifecycle here, 1980/81. Technically D&D came out in 74 but this came out around the start of the golden age- very few people played OD&D relative to 1E and B/X. Due to its age it kind of gets a free pass on a few things like a lack of a plot and th adventure is designed for 6-9 players. The assumption was D&D groups back then were a bit bigger. Back in the day we had 6 players, but the DM houseruled a few things such as max hp at level 1 and I think we used 4d6 drop the lowest and -10 hit points vs 3d6 and death at 0. Poor old Andal my 1st level fighter had a 16 strength (+2), and +1 for con and dex scores. Even compared with B1 there is also not much of a back story, our DM added a basic plot about the Clerics daughter at the keep being kidnapped by humanoids. A bit cliche perhaps but at least we did not meet in an Inn. There is a basic wilderness map, and some encounters but nothing that exciting to be found, most of the action is located at the Caves of Chaos an infamous D&D location perhaps beaten by the village of Hommlet and the Tomb of Horrors. This adventure is not an outright deathtrap like the Tomb of Horrors although bad things can definitely happen. One can stumble into the wrong cave at level 1 and get swarmed, come up against Ogres, Owl Bears, zombies etc. If you have played the D&D Next playtest you get the idea. Its not a favourite adventure of mine but I do not love it and regard it as a slightly above average adventure and a classic dungeon hack which I am not overly fond of mindless ones myself. So how suitable is it to convert to 5E? Well since it has already been done for the playtest one would assume very easy/suitable to convert? Well the monsters in the playtest are a lot weaker than the final monsters that made it into the final version of 5E. If you are more or less running it as printed for 1st to 3rd level PCs you will probably have a TPK, if 20 kobolds do not get you the Orcs, Hobgoblins, Gnolls , etc probably will. By most accounts Goodman Games is converting it as is which I think is both lazy and probably catastrophic. It was designed for 6-9 PCs with vastly weaker enemies where things like sleep on an average roll will take out 18 kobolds (or 9 orcs/hobgoblins) vs the handful it gets now. Its more like level 2-4 if not 3-5 and you would probably want 6+ PCs and the right party composition and things like a light cleric will be very good for the AoE Radiance of the Dawn ability. This doesn't mean you can't run it without a lot of work, but I think it does require some amount of conversion or higher levels and/or a larger party and you will have to do some amount of work to convert it such as traps, encounters, and perhaps using milestones over xp as you level up a lot faster killing monsters in 5E than B/X. And there are a lot of Kobolds, Gobling, Orcs, Hobgoblins and Gnolls to kill along with undead, Ogres, Minotaurs, and an Owlbear. Overall I would give it a 2.5/5, 3/5 as a teaching aid and 3.5/5 for a 5E conversion as it will require some work or running it at higher level than intended. Being a bit harsh perhaps I would wonder why bother as there are better adventures in the B series 2 of which are coming up very soon. Of course you could sex it up a bit, put a decent amount of effort into it and add something like a basic plot line and backstory, its not a bad adventure just more average and Gygax wrote better even at a similar time frame. T1 The Village of Hommlet for AD&D for example. Personally I would prefer to run it with a clone or the Rules Cyclopedia as originally intended as it requires less work and if you have a larger group it would run better than a 6-9 person 5E group. Unless you are a hard core fan of KotBL or have a lot of time on your hands there are better adventures for conversion. [/QUOTE]
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