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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[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[DEFCON 1]

I would guess that 80-90% of the work on this book was already done before they decided to make it.

And yet... when people on the boards complain that there are no short adventures for 5E and then other folks mention the completely reasonable assertation that converting all the old classic modules on DMs Guild is actually fairly easy... the standard refrain is that they just don't have the time or desire to do it. "I'd rather pay WotC to do it!"

So guess what? This product is PRECISELY those people's fault. They were the ones constantly complaining that all WotC's 5E adventures were Paths, but yet were too lazy to convert old adventures for themselves when they needed them. "Give us shorter adventures! And not 3rd party or Adventurer's League stuff! Fully checked and playtested WotC adventurers!"

So now WotC's now just given them what they kept demanding because they wouldn't accept anything else. The lesson of course being... be careful what wish you for.

 

[Celebrim]

No, let's be 100% clear. We are both relating our personal experiences.

Let's be 100% clear. You are NOT relating your personal experiences. You are making claims that you are neither backing up by evidence or anecdote. I'm the only one that has made reference to the text of either module, or any details of personal experience. Despite claiming to be insulted by my finding your claim no more credible than you found mine, you have still made no attempt to relate personal experience.

You are making rather exciting claims that are somewhat hyperbolic (first level characters are totes doing Tomb of Horrors!), but whatever.

That claim is so not hyperbolic that it isn't a major plot point of a mainstream novel ('Ready Player One', soon to be a movie by Steven Speilburg). In the story, a character (granted, he's familiar with the text of the module) does exactly that with a 1st level character as a major plot point of the story. I'd say that proves that by this point, my claim is neither exciting or hyperbolic. It wasn't particularly exciting or hyperbolic when I made it 10 or more years ago, and it's even less now.

(Side note, how many of you were put off by 'Ready Player One' because in the story he not only does it as a 1st level character, but a 1st level character with no help and no magic items, and you knew that some of the traps can only reasonably be by passed with a either a magic item or two or more players cooperating. Worse, he doesn't even explain the interesting part of how he does it - he just asks the reader to accept that it could be done solo by a 1st level character - which sort of suggests the writer isn't as big of a geek as he claims.)

(Side side note, how damn awesome is it that we'll get to see the interior of Tomb of Horrors in a major motion picture?)

It happens that my personal experiences are in accord with the majority of experiences that other people have had...

Again, asserted without evidence. It's not like this topic hasn't come up before at EnWorld. Search up a few threads. Lots of people were much more successful than we were (as 7th and 8th graders) their first time through the Tomb. I've never had a good discussion of beating C1 in a reasonable fashion first time through, and frankly even if you know the text it would be really difficult. And, it's less linear than S1 and you have no chance at clues.

I like it. It's a good module, and a forgotten gem (although others really dislike it). OTOH, S1 is a stone-cold classic.

All of that I agree with, but it has nothing to do with the fact that C1 is much harder than S1.

 

[Jer]

And yet... when people on the boards complain that there are no short adventures for 5E and then other folks mention the completely reasonable assertation that converting all the old classic modules on DMs Guild is actually fairly easy... the standard refrain is that they just don't have the time or desire to do it. "I'd rather pay WotC to do it!"

I think this is actually perfectly fine. And Wizards will be able to see to a degree how large that audience really is.

To a degree because I suspect that the "Nostalgia Factor (TM)" on this book will cause it to sell quite well outside of that audience. Heck I own 6 of the 7 adventures in that collection in their original forms and have even run one of them as a 5e conversion already and I'm still probably going to end up getting a copy eventually. I'll wait for some reviews and the opportunity to flip through it myself to see how its done but chances are it'll end up being a sale unless they screw something up. So even this book might not give Wizards a good feel for how large the audience really is.

And honestly I've long had the stance that it was stupid of TSR and later Wizards to not keep some of these things in print even back in the day. There's no reason why they shouldn't have re-released Against the Giants with a second edition conversion, for example and kept it in print. Wizards has finally hit on the idea that maybe some adventures really are "evergreen" and they should be making some money off of them edition to edition by keeping them in print instead of just letting the secondary market have that money. (Though to a large degree keeping the PDFs "in print" on DMsGuild accomplishes most of this. I wonder what those sales figures look like...)

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Prakriti]

So guess what? This product is PRECISELY those people's fault.

Just to be clear, I'm not one of the complainers. I'm looking forward to this book, and unlike with previous releases, I know exactly what I'm getting.

But it's possible to eagerly await this release AND acknowledge that it's low-effort.

 

[Greg Benage]

I don't want to escalate the argument, but do want to participate because Hidden Shrine was my introduction to AD&D in 1980. I really had no idea what the game was or what to expect. We come into this clearing in the jungle, there's this crumbling pyramid and a hole in the ground, and the other players start hauling out ropes and torches. I realized "the game" was that we were going to go down into that hole and explore. I was hooked!

Anyway, I won't claim to remember all of it, and I haven't played the module since, but we didn't TPK. My first, general thought is: You gotta have a cleric. Maybe more than one. This is probably a fair statement for every difficult module in AD&D.

Let's assume both play as written.

The key differences between the two are:

1) 'Hidden Shrine' has hideous time pressure. In 'Hidden Shrine' you are under a horrific clock. The poisonous gas will kill the whole party in a few hours. You can't take a single rest. You have to race to get out of the lower levels or you will die. 'Tomb of Horrors' has no time pressure. You can explore, use spells, and rest and reset as needed.

Slow poison reduces the damage a lot (1/turn?) and gives you plenty of time -- the spell lasts for one hour/level. I recall we had some scrolls with slow poison, but since it was my first session ever, I don't know how or when the PCs obtained them. It's entirely possible the DM let the PCs acquire them in a nearby village. Without the spell, you're taking several hit points of damage per turn, but you can overcome with healing potions and scrolls both coming in and discovered within the dungeon. Really, I see this as a problem you have to solve, rather than something you're going to let kill you.

It's a different matter in tournament play, I suppose, but there the point is just to accomplish as much as possible in the allotted event time. The time limit will end your run before the poison does.

2) 'Hidden Shrine' has vastly tougher monsters relative to party level. The 'Will O' The Wisp' alone is more dangerous to a party of the suggested level than every single monster in Tomb of Horrors is to the party of its suggested level (sans Acererak, who is a special case) combined. It's AC makes it almost unhittable. It's electrical damage is brutal. 'Wisps' are one of the single most dangerous monsters in 1e AD&D. To have one in 'Hidden Shrine' for low level poorly equipped characters is more brutal than anything in Tomb of Horrors, because there is just no answer to it.

The will-o-wisp doesn't want to fight you -- it wants to "lure" you into a trap (though I can't imagine any will-o-wisp ever actually succeeded at doing so). As I recall, it showed up when we were in the sand trap. The trap was bad enough, and I remember thinking this should have been a TPK. But it turns out the wisp doesn't attack unless and until you're about to escape the trap, and then flees if it takes any damage. So one magic missile will send it on its way.

Anyway, I just wanted to weigh in because this module will always be my "first love." When Raiders came out the next year, I was like, "Been there, done that." I expect the experience of all these old modules varied widely from one DM and group to the next.

 

[GarrettKP]

The reason this is "low effort" is more for us than for them. They know that their Adventure Paths are long and people are still playing through older ones like Out of the Abyss, much less recent ones like Storm Kings. This is a light break for players and DM's to give them time to digest the material they already have released.

As to why they decided to remake old adventures rather than make new ones? Sales. 5th Edition is made to get people playing D&D. Old fans that left or stopped playing, new fans that never played, any and everybody. By remaking sure fire hits they guarantee sales will be positive. Sure some will complain, but a lot of DM's, old and new, will buy it regardless to have the conversions.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Celebrim]

I don't want to escalate the argument, but do want to participate because Hidden Shrine was my introduction to AD&D in 1980. I really had no idea what the game was or what to expect. We come into this clearing in the jungle, there's this crumbling pyramid and a hole in the ground, and the other players start hauling out ropes and torches. I realized "the game" was that we were going to go down into that hole and explore. I was hooked!

Cool. However, this sounds like the easier 'top down' version suggested when not using the module for tournament play, where you go into the module from the temple at the top. You get to start on the surface with knowledge of the exit. The tournament version starts you at the bottom of the dungeon after a cave in leaves you trapped there. It's much easier to survive the module 'top down', but I have never run it that way.

Slow poison reduces the damage a lot (1/turn?) and gives you plenty of time -- the spell lasts for one hour/level. I recall we had some scrolls with slow poison, but since it was my first session ever, I don't know how or when the PCs obtained them. It's entirely possible the DM let the PCs acquire them in a nearby village. Without the spell, you're taking several hit points of damage per turn, but you can overcome with healing potions and scrolls both coming in and discovered within the dungeon. Really, I see this as a problem you have to solve, rather than something you're going to let kill you.

Without slow poison, you take 1d6 damage per (noncombat) turn. That alone will kill characters of the suggested level in only a few hours, and if you start at the bottom, you can't rest to recover spells or hit points. There just aren't nearly enough potions and such in the dungeon to counter the damage. Even with slow poison, which is not a given, taking 1 damage per (noncombat) turn is still enough to ensure low level characters are on a pretty hard clock, and at the very least don't have much of a cushion of hit points in any of the encounters.

If you already start with the exit, so that when you need to, you can go back out and get some fresh air, I think this explains why you didn't TPK in and of itself. Also, many of the traps/encounters, are oriented so that they are harder from the bottom than coming down from the top.