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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[happyhermit]

No one has commented on the page count yet.....really we have average of 35 pages per adventure. Seems pretty darn low. Given monster stats and other filler pages really it's probably 28-30 pages each. Really think 50 would make more fleshed out mini-dungeons but it's hard to say until I see the product.

From what they have said recently they are staying very true to the original modules. If you check the page count on the original dungeons, these make sense. They haven't indicated these to be "more fleshed out" versions (at least not much), or at least that's not the impression I got.

 

[Henry]

From what they have said recently they are staying very true to the original modules. If you check the page count on the original dungeons, these make sense. They haven't indicated these to be "more fleshed out" versions (at least not much), or at least that's not the impression I got.

Yep - keep in mind how 1st edition adventures listed monsters - very much the same way that 5e does. Unless there's something unique about a critter, most 1e modules would list the creature, possibly in bold, list its hit points, and that's it. The entirety of G1 was 8 pages long, as someone said - you could add more meat and still come in under 32 pages for all of G1 through G3.

 

[shamurai7]

I ran the hardcover version of TOH from 4th edition and that single adventure alone was 160 pages. Just makes me wonder what amazing things had to be cut to fit in this book. Will it be one of the memorable encounters or trap rooms my players loved? A boss room that nearly TPK'ed the party? I just hope these aren't turning a marriage into a speed-date.

 

[cfmcdonald]

Nothing will be cut from the 4th edition Tomb of Horrors, because this adventure will be based on the 1st edition Tomb of Horrors - which was, I believe, 32 pages, including the illustration book.

 

[flametitan]

Nothing will be cut from the 4th edition Tomb of Horrors, because this adventure will be based on the 1st edition Tomb of Horrors - which was, I believe, 32 pages, including the illustration book.

I looked through a pdf of it. Without the illustrations it ends up at about 12 pages, including the pregens.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yep - keep in mind how 1st edition adventures listed monsters - very much the same way that 5e does. Unless there's something unique about a critter, most 1e modules would list the creature, possibly in bold, list its hit points, and that's it. The entirety of G1 was 8 pages long, as someone said - you could add more meat and still come in under 32 pages for all of G1 through G3.

Well, a little more than HP, but very brief one line entries with core stats, yes. When I write my 5e adventures, I intentionally follow the same format because I think the core key stats should be right there for easy reference.

For some 1e examples:

There are a total of 22 normal hobgoblin guards here (AC
10 (5); MV 12” (9); HD 1 +1; hp 6 each; #AT 1 ; D 1-8 long swords)
and two sergeants (AC4; MV6”; HD2; hpl3each;#AT1; D1-8
long swords).

For NPCs:
Cari (AC 6; MV 15“; HD 2; hp 17; #AT 2; D by weapon and 2-7; S 16,
14, W 4, D 16; C 16, Ch 5)

And for creatures with special feature:
four soldiers (AC 3;
MV 18"; HD 3; hp 13 each; #AT 1; D 2-8; SA Poison sting (3-12
hit points of damage, 1-4 if savevs. Poison); SD Nil; MR Std; Int
Animal; AL N; Size S; xp 79 each; THACO 16; MM)

Interestingly enough, that last stat is from 1e's UK3 before 2e came out, but references THAC0. A lot of people think THAC0 didn't happen until 2e, but it's actually also referenced in 1e DMG towards the back in the big chart of monsters. The more you know...

 

[happyhermit]

I ran the hardcover version of TOH from 4th edition and that single adventure alone was 160 pages. Just makes me wonder what amazing things had to be cut to fit in this book. Will it be one of the memorable encounters or trap rooms my players loved? A boss room that nearly TPK'ed the party? I just hope these aren't turning a marriage into a speed-date.

The hardcover version of TOH for 4e is not "faithful" to the original, it is a reinterpretation based on the original module in the same way that Curse of Strahd is based on the original Ravenloft modules (of course Curse of Strahd is a lot bigger).

Wotc did release a relatively faithful 4e update of TOH as well, in PDF. This will probably be similar but in a hardcover with a bunch of other modules.

As other have mentioned they aren't "cutting" anything from the 4e TOH, because that isn't the source material.

 

[Henry]

Well, a little more than HP, but very brief one line entries with core stats, yes. When I write my 5e adventures, I intentionally follow the same format because I think the core key stats should be right there for easy reference.

For some 1e examples:

There are a total of 22 normal hobgoblin guards here (AC
10 (5); MV 12” (9); HD 1 +1; hp 6 each; #AT 1 ; D 1-8 long swords)
and two sergeants (AC4; MV6”; HD2; hpl3each;#AT1; D1-8
long swords).

For NPCs:
Cari (AC 6; MV 15“; HD 2; hp 17; #AT 2; D by weapon and 2-7; S 16,
14, W 4, D 16; C 16, Ch 5)

And for creatures with special feature:
four soldiers (AC 3;
MV 18"; HD 3; hp 13 each; #AT 1; D 2-8; SA Poison sting (3-12
hit points of damage, 1-4 if savevs. Poison); SD Nil; MR Std; Int
Animal; AL N; Size S; xp 79 each; THACO 16; MM)

Interestingly enough, that last stat is from 1e's UK3 before 2e came out, but references THAC0. A lot of people think THAC0 didn't happen until 2e, but it's actually also referenced in 1e DMG towards the back in the big chart of monsters. The more you know...

I'm talking about the earlier modules -D3 for example has "Bugbear Trackers (HP 17 each, AC 3 )" and in another place Drow fighters as "2nd level (HP 9 each, +1 chain mail, +1 buckler, +1 for 15 dexterity, for an overall AC of 1)" and goes on to describe weapons and spells, but when selfsame NPC types are referenced again later, only gives hit points unless something changes. Even a named vampire only gets Hit Points, AC, and only lists spells and items the stock vampire doesn't have.

Main point being, neither 1e nor 5e go into great detail, only describing something usually if it's different from what is listed in the Monster Manual. For the most part, most opponents in the early 1e modules are also found in the 5e monster manual, so not a lot needs more description than "there are 3 trolls here."

What will be different is numbers of creatures and gauging power level, because 5 1e frost giants in a room is a WAAAY different encounter than 5 frost giants in a room in 5e.

 

[77IM]

My hope is that they saved page space via inclusion of multiple giant full-color poster maps!

 

[Elderbrain]

Given the monsters that appeared in the original versions of these adventures, can we expect anything new to 5e? I mean, besides NPCs and bosses like Acererak, that is...