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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[Parmandur]

Other Twitter info: there will be guidelines for putting all these dungeons in other settings, Eberron is mentioned specifically, as is the Dead in Thay material getting setting conversion notes.

Part of the thinking is that there are enough storylines that people can't keep up in their home campaigns, so this material is to supplement that (throw G1-3 in the middle of SKT, maybe?)

 

[Olive]

I'm totally down with this - might be just the thing for running a campaign with the kids.

I'll probably run them all in my Middle Earth campaign.

Some grognard's head just exploded...

 

[CrusaderX]

I like the idea of stringing these adventures into a campaign, but I wonder if they will tone down the deadliness of Tomb of Horrors. I'm a fan of the original module, but it seems a bit cruel to have the ending of a long, hard-fought campaign consist of an adventure that will most likely result in several deaths, if not a Total Party Kill.

 

[Jester David]

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.

I don't disagree but "world serpent" is much more generic and might be harder to trademark. Which is something WotC has to do for these titles.

 

[TwoSix]

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...

I'll pay a premium for stats I don't have to convert, full-color maps (and other art), and a book I don't have to get printed myself.

 

[Sammael]

Book titles aren't trademarked, as far as I know. And honestly, "Tales from the World Serpent Inn" sounds a lot cooler than "Tales from the Yawning Portal."

 

[Olive]

Book titles aren't trademarked, as far as I know. And honestly, "Tales from the World Serpent Inn" sounds a lot cooler than "Tales from the Yawning Portal."

I think titles are copyright, not trademarked - just try self publishing a novel called A Game of Thrones...

Edit: actually, I'm mistaken: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/can-you-use-a-book-title-thats-been-used-before. But regardless, a more distinct title is stronger in terms of SEO and identity.

 

[NiClerigo]

Amazing news! Replying to a question I posed to him on Twitter about this product and setting diversity, Mike Mearls said: "The adventures include guidelines for setting each in multiple worlds. Including Eberron! #wotcstaff". Eberron is my favorite setting ever.

 

[bmfrosty]

I'll pay a premium for stats I don't have to convert, full-color maps (and other art), and a book I don't have to get printed myself.

This is my thought. This seems like a great product for all but horrible grognards that can't be happy. Probably pretty good for non-horrible grognards too.

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[darjr]

Wow, the scope of this release is genius.

Folks that are feeling like they are on a bit of a tread mill with AP's get a break, cause this can be used in existing AP's.
Folks who wanted high level things in AL get more high level things in AL.
Folks who, like me, are a bit of the grognard and want these classics updated get that.
Folks who are not doing AP's but just wanted 5e tested quality adventures from WotC get it as well.
Even folks that want a new AP can probably use it as such.

And it seems like an idea out of left field but kinda obvious after the fact, like many good ideas.


I wonder if the old school conversions on the DMSGuild inspired this a bit? I wonder if they were doing good enough to show WotC that this was a great idea?

I'm in the grognard and AP fatigue (only a little) camp, and the AL camp. I'm looking forward to this.