Rate B2: Keep on the Borderlands

[DragonLancer]

Its an ok module in my book. I've been looking at converting it to 3.5 but its taking some time to do.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

For me, with nostalgia removed, I rate it a 4. And it is one of my most favorite modules.

Wow. Tough crowd.

I gave it an 8. While I don't like the "monster zoo" aspects of B2, I think more modules should be written as open-ended as this one is. Gyagax designed this partially with the intent that not all areas would be explored simply because the PCs wouldn't stumble across it.

For reference, I gave Tomb of Horrors a 2. I'm no fanboy.

 

[SWBaxter]

I started before B2 made it into the basic set, so I didn't read it until several years later, and never actually started a campaign with it. So it doesn't hold the same nostalgia for me as many other gamers, and as a result I gave it a 6.

The old-school adventures I used (and occasionally still use) to kick off campaigns are the Village of Hommlet, the Cult of the Reptile God, and later on Under Illefarn. I'd rate 'em all higher than B2, but a chunk of that rating would be nostalgia I'm sure.

 

[Arnwyn]

In general, an adventure module improves with age in the minds of players. Consider all votes for it to include a +2 nostalgia bonus if it is over 15 years old. +3 if it is over 20 years old.

Unless, of course, we actually play (and enjoy) it today.

False statement.

 

[LostSoul]

I like this module a lot. In my opinion, it's not so much a module as an adventure skeleton that the DM dresses up so that it plays the right way for the group. It's like RttToEE in that way (but a lot smaller).

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Even re-reading this one (and it has been a couple of years since I have looked at it) I can see that this is the stuff adventurers cut thier teeth on. Massive caves filled with every imaginable bad guy. A recent delving had the death tally at 8 PCs and at least 20 NPC heirlings. Of course we were using Rules Cyclopedia D&D. I would love to run or play through this one again converted or not. One of the best modules ever made matched only, imo, by I6 Ravenloft.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

It was okay. There certainlre modules that I like better.

 

[Hussar]

I'm sure nostalgia played a factor, but, meh, screw it, I gave it a 10.

This really is somewhat different from what became the standard of a module. Little or no plot, it was really a snapshot of an area and it was up to the DM to create the adventures from there. Ultimately open ended, the party could do pretty much anything and go anywhere and be sure of finding something to whack when they got there. I've run it many times for many different groups and it's always been a blast.

Really, it's more like a mini-campaign setting than an actual module. IMHO, that's what makes it a fantastic module. Isle of Dread gets the same warm and fuzzies from me for exactly the same reasons. It's a location guide, not an adventure.

 

[Neo]

I gave it a 9, mostly due to nostalgia.. it is one fo the two modules I have the most fond recollections of playing when I first started playing (the other being the Village of Hommlet).

It had some nice ideas and the keep was great (And got used across several campaigns in later years), but was essentially just a combat fest for the most part.

Still it still gives me the warm and fuzzies thinking of it.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

I used it as the basis for this year's Masters and Minions AD&D tournament, "Horde on the Borderlands", in which the players discover that the Keep (qualifier round) & Caves (championship round) are overwhelmed by monsters from our books, each group of whom are at war with one another. The heroes each have their own conflicting agendas, and can make allies or play one side against another once they figure out what's going on.

It's great for this kind of thing, and now that I know how to use a mini-setting, this one is chock full of classic D&D goodness (much more so than T1, which is decidedly lacking in the dungeony, monstery department).

It was a terrible introductory module, though; the fact that the denizens of the Keep lacked names but had combat stats set the development of our players' roleplaying, and our characters' ethics, back by many years. ("This time, let's try taking out the orcs before we go up against the Keep...") And though I can see now that there are hints about how the monsters can be negotiated with, manipulated, given clever tactics, etc., I needed much more to go on when I was 10.