Tales From The Yawning Portal - 7 Classic Dungeons Updated To 5E!

Coming in April is WotC's next official D&D product, Tales from the Yawning Portal. This hardcover book contains seven classic dungeons updated to 5th Edition, from adventures such as Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain. This is, presumably, the product previously codenamed Labyrinth. It's set for an April 4th release, for $49.95.

When the shadows grow long in Waterdeep and the fireplace in the taproom of the Yawning Portal dims to a deep crimson glow, adventurers from across the Sword Coast spin tales and spread rumors of lost treasures.

Within this tome are seven of the deadliest dungeons from the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Some are classics that have hosted an untold number of adventurers, while others are newer creations, boldly staking a claim to their place in the pantheon of notable adventures.

The seeds of these stories now rest in your hands. D&D’s deadliest dungeons are now part of your arsenal of adventures. Enjoy, and remember to keep a few spare character sheets handy.

For use with the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, this book provides fans with a treasure trove of adventures, all of which have been updated to the fifth edition rules. Explore seven deadly dungeons in this adventure supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game:

• Against the Giants
• Dead in Thay
• Forge of Fury
• Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• Sunless Citadel
• Tomb of Horrors
• White Plume Mountain

Find it on WotC's site here. Forbes has an interview about it here. Mearls says "We're announcing a new D&D product, a book coming out this spring. It is called Tales from the Yawning Portal(out March 24th in local game stores and April 4th everywhere else) It's a collection of seven of the most famous dungeons from Dungeons & Dragons history. They're all collected in one hardcover book. The idea behind it is not only do you want to capture some of the most famous dungeons from the game's history, but we also wanted to give a selection of adventures that you could in theory start at Level 1 with the first dungeon and play all the way up to Level 15 by playing the adventures one after another."

Cover Image

Gibbering Mouther

Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan



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[blancaberlin]

Sadly WotC rebrews the Same old teabags again and again with almost every storyline. Is there nothing new to toll with the help of 5e .revenue exceotations of Hasbro seems to be very high and money to invest intolerant something new not be granted

 

[Sammael]

So I was listening to Dragon Talk, and they've explained why they chose the Yawning Portal name for the book.

Apparently it's because the Undermountain is the most likely way for adventurers to be dropped into other settings from the Realms, meaning that the Yawning Portal is almost certainly going to be where these stories are told to Realms based adventurers. So these adventures are most definitely not in the Realms, but the Realms is still there as a framing device.

Interesting. I disagree, because The Wild Goose (AKA The World Serpent Inn) in Arabel is far more likely to serve as a nexus point for adventurers to visit other settings.

 

[flametitan]

Interesting. I disagree, because The Wild Goose (AKA The World Serpent Inn) in Arabel is far more likely to serve as a nexus point for adventurers to visit other settings.

Problem is Arabel is in Cormyr, not the Sword Coast. It doesn't sound like wotc really wants to move away from the Sword Coast just yet.

 

[Eubani]

Considering how much effort in the rule design went into capturing earlier edition feeling and courting grognards is it actually a surprise that so much 5e is rehash? Don't get me wrong I loved the earlier editions and the adventures.....BUT......they already exist and are still mostly available, and I already own nearly all of them. So what I want to see from WotC in the future is less looking backwards and more looking forwards. New rule ideas/methods, new creatures, new heroes/villains, new adventures, new player options (as in uncovered ground), etc. I know it may be risky as some of the fanbase needed a time machine not a new edition and that doing new stuff is more difficult than rejigging old material but it needs to happen. I understand many who sight 4e as to what happens when you introduce new into D&D but I think the issue in that case was too much too far in one go, But incremental change is required for a healthy game. I apologize if any of my thoughts above are a bit scattered or seem like some sort of attack.

 

[GarrettKP]

Sadly WotC rebrews the Same old teabags again and again with almost every storyline. Is there nothing new to toll with the help of 5e .revenue exceotations of Hasbro seems to be very high and money to invest intolerant something new not be granted

I don't understand this line of thinking. Tyranny of Dragons wasn't a remake, Out of the Abyss wasn't a remake. Storm Kings Thunder wasn't a remake. Hell even the 2 adventures closest to being remakes (Princes of the Apocolypse, Curse of Strahd) weren't actually remakes. Are their adventures inspired by older adventures? Sure. Are they wholely unoriginal? Absolutely not. This is the first book that seems to be a full remake of a classic module, and it is remaking 7 of them. I see no issue with this and I don't see how WotC has been "rebrewing old teabags" for every book they have released.

 

[Obvious_Ninja]

Oh... Sweet! Must have...

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I am cool with this.

I kind of wish that they would go to three APs per year with one product devoted to small adventure nostalgia, one very Realms story focused and one more forward looking and trying out new things and genres.

I might be willing to let go of the "plus one" non-AP product if each AP had an appendix of setting fluff, monsters, magic items, spells and player content if the player content was available for free PDF download.

 

[Arilyn]

Considering how much effort in the rule design went into capturing earlier edition feeling and courting grognards is it actually a surprise that so much 5e is rehash? Don't get me wrong I loved the earlier editions and the adventures.....BUT......they already exist and are still mostly available, and I already own nearly all of them. So what I want to see from WotC in the future is less looking backwards and more looking forwards. New rule ideas/methods, new creatures, new heroes/villains, new adventures, new player options (as in uncovered ground), etc. I know it may be risky as some of the fanbase needed a time machine not a new edition and that doing new stuff is more difficult than rejigging old material but it needs to happen. I understand many who sight 4e as to what happens when you introduce new into D&D but I think the issue in that case was too much too far in one go, But incremental change is required for a healthy game. I apologize if any of my thoughts above are a bit scattered or seem like some sort of attack.

I agree completely, but WOTC is doing well, catering to nostalgia, at least for now. This product announcement is creating a lot of excitement, so I assume most people are happy with the direction WOTC is going with their adventure design. Personally, I think a book of shorter adventures is a great idea, especially if they can be strung together, or used individually. I am not a fan of dungeon crawling, or those old classics, however, so it's not a product I will be buying. I prefer way more story in my adventures. Fortunately, it isn't difficult to convert adventures from other sources to 5e.

 

[Parmandur]

So, the non-Thay modules come to 196 pages for $30 on DMs Guild right now; unsure what % of the 107 pages of Dead in Thay are looking to add to that, but ~256 for the final count is probable. Not clear how much value-add they can do for these modules versus just running the 1E version on the fly from a $5 PDF...

 

[Parmandur]

[MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] just addressed that on Twitter: 5E stats and full color art (so, new art, one presumes, by and large).

Seems a hard sell, except for those of us who don't have any of the modules.