D&D 5E Problems with Tales from the Yawning Portal

[Paul Farquhar]

I’ve wanted to run Hidden Shrine, but this conversion has too many problems (as outlined in the OP) and too many old school gotchas for my taste. I also found it too hard to integrate into any settings because of its psuedo-Aztec trappings.

As for White Plume Mountain, it’s just too old school random dungeon for my tastes.

The design of Hidden Shrine was that the party (of three pregens in the original) were not expected to survive to the end (time limited - if they ran out of time the poison gas got them) - they scored points based upon how many challenges they managed to overcome. I think it's a shame they didn't include the scorecard and pregens. When I ran it, my players weren't above pulling a few gotchas themselves: "poison gas? I'm an air genasi, I don't need to breathe". Since I put it on a mysterious floating island my players landed on following an airship crash, the cultural stuff wasn't a problem. I don't think the OP issues actually matter. The hermit crab, crayfish, slug etc are spelled out as special creatures - technically, they would be awakened in 5e, but it doesn't matter in terms of the adventure. The vampire? Doesn't matter what his stats are, since there is no way the players are waking him!

But for me, old school was the appeal, I ran them first in the early 80s.

 

[Zardnaar]

I've run Hidden Shrine and White Plume Mountain for nostalgia reasons. Hidden Shrine doesn't make any sense from a monster ecology perspective, and you need to be aware that it's supposed to be a frantic race against time. WPM, in 5e the players had too many tools and too much genre savvy to be troubled by the obstacles, but the effrit at the end are party killers, somehow becoming much tougher in the years since it was written.

My 2024 players murder hobbo an effreti plus minions level 6. Level 5 may be harder.

 

[Cistern]

I've been running Tales from the Yawning Portal nearly every week since May, 2019 with my group. They are in the Hall of the Fire Giant King right now. I've been using the Yawning Portal Campaign Guide from the DM's Guild this whole time to help integrate all of the adventures together. Yawning Portal Campaign Guide (Bundle) - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild. It's not perfect, but the outline works well enough to allow me to fill-in the blanks with little work. I figured someone may find it useful.