D&D General Red Wavy Lines

[tconnolly88]

There is a D&D adventure map with red wavy lines. Can anybody tell me the meaning? Am I allowed to post a very-close up picture here? Thanks.

 

[Distracted DM]

There is a D&D adventure map with red wavy lines. Can anybody tell me the meaning? Am I allowed to post a very-close up picture here? Thanks.

Post a pic so we have some idea, yes go for it.

 

[Mannahnin]

There is a D&D adventure map with red wavy lines. Can anybody tell me the meaning? Am I allowed to post a very-close up picture here? Thanks.

Totes. Do!

 

[Koloth]

And some more background. Adventure name. Approx publish date. etc.

Someone might have the entire thing and can reference a legend.

 

[Lanefan]

If the red wavy lines obscure the map to the point of unreadability it might be one of the 1e-era SOLO modules (there's a BSOLO, two MSOLOs, and an XSOLO), which came with a special glass that when you looked through it removed the red so as to reveal the map as you explored the dungeon as both DM and player at the same time (i.e. you played it alone, or solo).

 

[Mannahnin]

If the red wavy lines obscure the map to the point of unreadability it might be one of the 1e-era SOLO modules (there's a BSOLO, two MSOLOs, and an XSOLO), which came with a special glass that when you looked through it removed the red so as to reveal the map as you explored the dungeon as both DM and player at the same time (i.e. you played it alone, or solo).

TSR tried out several different methods for solo adventures.

BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle, XSOLO Lathan's Gold, and XS2 Thunderdelve Mountain used the Choose Your Own Adventure-style system of having paragraphs of content shuffled out of order through the module, so you couldn't read them straight through, but had to follow the numbered prompts from one to the next.

MV1 Midnight on Dagger Alley and CM5 Mystery of the Snow Pearls used the transparent red plastic "magic viewer" you're thinking of, to read the hidden text and map sections by the red plastic "eliminating" the red wavy lines which hid the concealed text and map sections.

M1 Blizzard Pass and M2 Maze of the Riddling Minotaur used invisible ink with a marker to reveal it, which massively reduced replayability and meant the text of the original modules has largely faded out of original copies. I understand that foreign language editions used the red plastic magic viewer gimmick instead, so those are still playable. PDFs and PODs sold now online also just have regular text, so no invisible ink pen is required.