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*

 

[Greg Benage]

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.

We didn't go in from the top. We climbed down into the newly collapsed hole, which I believe is the same as the tournament entrance. Googling the map, it's labeled "Tournament Entrance or Dungeon Expansion." The difference is we weren't trapped in there from a cave-in, though I don't recall leaving in any case. Granted, it's been so long I really don't have a clear recollection. I'm not sure why you'd run the module with the cave-in for a home game, but yeah, a TPK would be much more likely if you did.

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 portions 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.

You're not that "low level" by AD&D standards. I believe we were a party of four 6th-level characters. You should definitely have some resources at that level in AD&D. I'll say it again: I really think the poison gas is a problem to solve when you play the dungeon in a campaign. It shouldn't TPK you. If you don't have a cleric, yeah, that's likely going to be a problem, and not just because of the poison gas.

In any case, I have no doubt you could have used the module to TPK us. I'm just reporting that we did not, in fact, TPK.

 

[robus]

Out of curiosity I just had a look at an ancient PDF of "Hidden Temple" and one thing I have to say I love is some of the adventurer's eye view renderings provided and something I think is missing from the 5e books. While there are a few flavor images in the 5e adventures they're not showing key images from the point of view of the adventuring party. It would be great to have some renderings of some of the key visuals in the adventures we're running (available as a pack of images that we can hand out in the session....) If this book includes updated renderings of those I could become quite intrigued...

Perhaps this is why I'm drawn to the Art of M:tG books. While there are no maps the flavor I get from the plentiful images is quite inspiring.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Oh sorry, I forgot to drink the Kool Aid this morning before I came on.... my mistake

No worries, but please don't let it happen again if you can avoid it.

 

[Celebrim]

We didn't go in from the top. We climbed down into the newly collapsed hole, which I believe is the same as the tournament entrance. Googling the map, it's labeled "Tournament Entrance or Dungeon Expansion." The difference is we weren't trapped in there from a cave-in, though I don't recall leaving in any case.

That would be a cool way to run it, retaining the difficulty but allowing the party an exit if they wanted one.

I'm not sure why you'd run the module with the cave-in for a home game, but yeah, a TPK would be much more likely if you did.

Almost all the time we played, we played homebrew campaigns with stuff we wrote or at least heavily modified. However, from time to time we'd have a guest DM (usually an older player, such as a college aged cousin or a high schooler that heard about our table), or we'd want to try the challenge of a published 'competitive' module to see if we could beat it. In those cases, we ran run shots using either pregenerated or one off characters. My first introduction to both modules was ran by older DMs for us as a favor for the 'munchkins'.

As such, we weren't using our 'primary' real 'earned' characters. And while I know because I know the text of the module now that the DM of 'Tomb of Horrors' pulled at least one punch, by and large both DMs were 'out to get us'.

You're not that "low level" by AD&D standards. I believe we were a party of four 6th-level characters. You should definitely have some resources at that level in AD&D. I'll say it again: I really think the poison gas is a problem to solve when you play the dungeon in a campaign. It shouldn't TPK you. If you don't have a cleric, yeah, that's likely going to be a problem, and not just because of the poison gas.

There is actually very little clue that you are having a poison gas problem except for a vague hint about the unhealthy air. It certainly won't be obvious to everyone that they are taking damage because they are being poisoned, so it might take a while to stumble on the solution to the problem. And even then, it's a nasty problem. A 6th level AD&D cleric doesn't have that many spells, and must prepare them in advance.

In any case, I have no doubt you could have used the module to TPK us. I'm just reporting that we did not, in fact, TPK.

LOL. I believe you, because you are actually describing the circumstances and explaining some things that would otherwise be inexplicable (exit is available, stack of slow poison scrolls), and you know details of some of the encounters and are willing to tell your tales. And I'm certainly not arguing that C1 can't or hasn't been beaten, only that its much harder to beat than S1.

Can C1 be beaten first try, even ran in 'hard mode'? Yes, I think it can, but the way it's set up, there are a lot 'left/right' style coin flip decisions that parties have to make, and there are very little clean paths. If you had 64 tables with no knowledge of the text, I'd expect a couple to randomly walk the right paths, get to the second level and then the winner (in a tournament) would be determined by scoring those few remaining tables. Once you get up to the second level, the dungeon isn't necessarily easier, but its a whole lot fairer and more straight forward. Whereas, if you had 64 tables with no knowledge of the text playing S1, I'd expect more than half to get to the Hall of Pillars, and most of those to the Mithril Vault. Acererak isn't really beatable with any of the pregen parties, but several groups that got that far would be smart enough to not try. The thing about S1 is that by and large Acererak 'plays fair', a fact so obvious that it was a major plot point of 'Return to the Tomb of Horrors' (which, ironically, doesn't play fair and is tougher than the original).

 

[SkidAce]

If the 1st level party has a few low level potions or scrolls it is quite doable. How few they need is a matter of debate, but possibly as little as one potion of flying would be sufficient for a 1st level party to complete the module.

How does a 1st level party with no fore knowledge deal with...

[sblock]The first false entrance that collapses for 5d10 damage no save? (page 3)[/sblock]

Just looking to see your view on this and understand.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Not sure when the product page for this was updated or if I just missed it when reading it the first time, but it is going to be 248 pages and include each of the seven adventures in full, not just the main dungeons pulled out and thrown into a new book.

Also, from Twitter, new Mike Schley maps!

 

[Celebrim]

How does a 1st level party with no fore knowledge deal with...

[sblock]The first false entrance that collapses for 5d10 damage no save? (page 3)[/sblock]

Just looking to see your view on this and understand.

Most obviously, by not entering that entrance.

They either randomly choose the middle one (or find it first) or they open all three and decide that the more interesting looking one with an obvious way forward is probably the real one, or they come up with some way to trigger the trap without being underneath it.

In particular, as a low level party, the first thing I would (or would have) paid attention is to the cobwebs on the ceiling, which I would assume hide monstrous spiders (typical low level D&D trope). We'd want to burn the webs without getting spider bit, so we wouldn't even go into the room without a plan for burning the webs. But, as a side effect of burning away the webs, we'd see that the ceiling was unstable. We'd then try to see if we could trigger the cave in without being underneath it, such as by prodding with a long pole while standing in the entrance arch. A low level party that proceed like that would get very far into the module without much difficulty. There is one place though were you need at least some magic so that you can do things without touching the floor. But even as much as a 'Tenser's Floating Disk' (a 1st level spell) might do the trick, so yeah, 1st level party can do this.

(The aforementioned punch pulling was with the much worse sliding block trap on the other side, where we got our trapped PC out with 'stone shape', which I've since learned according to the text is not one of the approved methods. Not knowing what the 'approved methods' are is one of the harder parts of the module as written. So far as I can remember, that's the only time the DM pulled any punches with us (although, I wasn't aware of it at the time).)

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Greg Benage]

That would be a cool way to run it, retaining the difficulty but allowing the party an exit if they wanted one.

Okay, I went and found the PDF. I'm going to read the whole thing now (swoon).

The DM may decide between the 2 entrances into the ruins - the more conventional route through the pyramid-temple or the drastic tournament method entrance. The first entrance will require that the party dig their way in; while the latter, since the ground is unstable, will result in a cave-in 75% of the time.

It may happen that a party may wish to leave and re-enter the ruins, perhaps several times. A cautious party may want to replenish their spells or obtain special equipment. A party may also decide to retreat on encountering the poison gas. If this happens, the DM should restock some of the cleaned-out areas with new creatures.

So it seems like my experience was a pretty normal way for it to be run as a home game. I don't know if we got lucky avoiding the cave-in, or the experienced players took precautions (they were taking a lot of precautions!), or the DM just cut us some slack (I doubt it...Mike wasn't that guy). I do know we didn't climb the pyramid.

Also:

The gas is a thick amber color and affects flame, causing it to sputter and glow redly only a pale ember of itself. Any light source caused by fire will have an effective range of only 10'."

No fair if the DM gives you undetectable poison gas!