Keep On The Borderline

[Jmarso]

Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is an excellent iteration of the KotB. And I have used Mendel the slaver as a link to the Slave Lords. He worked really well as a tie-in. I based Kendall Keep on the edge of the Lortmil Mountains and then used a couple of one-shot adventures (thanks to Dungeon Magazine) to link through Verbobonc and then Safeton out on the Wild Coast and Scourge of the Slavelords.

I got the idea for doing that right here on this site, I think. The campaign where I was going to use it, unfortunately, had a TPK in an unrelated encounter, and the game picked up in Saltmarsh with new characters. So it's still dangling out there, waiting to be used...

 

[S'mon]

So true about the death traps! I'm running Against the Giants now. One giant barely fits in a typical hallway. They just "300" themselves to death.

If running in 5e, note that Huge creatures can move through spaces occupied by Medium creatures, and vice versa...

 

[GuyBoy]

I’ve played KotB back in the day, DM-Ed it back in the day, cannibalised bits of the Caves of Chaos to insert as lairs in various campaigns, DM-ed Return to KotB for the Silver Anniversary and even revamped the Keep with detailed backstories as the homebase and introduction for a Rappan Athuk campaign (yes, @TheSword I’m looking at you!).

It is of its time, it’s far from perfect, but it sure as heck is both fun and a big part of the game’s history.

 

[Marc_C]

Owned it with the Moldvay Basic starter set. Read parts of it, grew bored and never DMed it. Even today I wouldn't DM it. I like the concept of the module but not the execution. I prefer The Secret of Bone Hill.

 

[David Howery]

I can remember running through it as a player; my thief PC, relegated to the back rank, was one of two of the party to not fall into that pit trap in the kobold lair. When I ran it as a DM, I put it in the Cairn Hills near Greyhawk, and had the Keep near Quasqueton, Horror on the Hill, and a bunch of homebrew stuff... the PCs spent a lot of time in the Keep...

 

[TheSword]

I’ve played KotB back in the day, DM-Ed it back in the day, cannibalised bits of the Caves of Chaos to insert as lairs in various campaigns, DM-ed Return to KotB for the Silver Anniversary and even revamped the Keep with detailed backstories as the homebase and introduction for a Rappan Athuk campaign (yes, @TheSword I’m looking at you!).

It is of its time, it’s far from perfect, but it sure as heck is both fun and a big part of the game’s history.

Keep on the Borderlands is and was a great base camp setting. I believe it was the first official base camp in a D&d product.

To be honest @GuyBoy when you ran that I had no idea it was part of a 30 year old module. The base camp element of it was excellent.

The caves are a monster lair. nothing more nothing less. Easily replaced by other stuff, as you did excellently with Rappan Athuk.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, nice necro.

I've just finished up a 5e version of the 4e rewrite of KotB. The Chaos Scar series from 4e Dragon. Actually went really, really well. It fits with 5e easily and because they broke up the "caves" and made each one a sort of stand alone location spread through a much larger sandbox, it really made for a fun campaign. I added in some of my own stuff and a couple of other modules as well.

I would highly recommend it.

 

[niklinna]

Heh, nice necro.

I've just finished up a 5e version of the 4e rewrite of KotB. The Chaos Scar series from 4e Dragon. Actually went really, really well. It fits with 5e easily and because they broke up the "caves" and made each one a sort of stand alone location spread through a much larger sandbox, it really made for a fun campaign. I added in some of my own stuff and a couple of other modules as well.

I would highly recommend it.

Wow, I'd never heard of the Chaos Scar series; it looks pretty cool. (The only 4e campaign I was in was a homebrew that ran over several years.)

KotB was in my Holmes box set (which I bought from a mail-order novelty game company). Fond memories, although I never actually played it. My high-school group nearly always did one-shot dungeon crawls.

 

[Dausuul]

I think worrying about PC or NPC motivations in B2 is a category error - the module rests on the premise that (i) the players will take their PCs on the adventure, and (ii) that the rest of the world is largely a backdrop to that adventure.

That said, here are two very different takes on B2, one closer to the OP's post, the other closer to the first paragraph of this post: Mike Mearls and Luke Crane.

Damn, 1997 Mike Mearls did not pull his punches.

 

[LordEntrails]

As a pre-teen I knew it sucked. But not why or what might be better. Not for some time after it. Ho D&D did so well with this as the introduction for so long is a testament to imagination and the strength of the core game concept. I also see the negative effects this module has had on decades of RPG play.

But we are getting past that now. Here's to the future.