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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[Jester David]

Storm King, however, is intended as its own self-contained AP; here the G-series can be used together, as three stand-alones, as one-offs, or whatever; with much less effort required to strip out the story elements you don't want. And...Giants!

The thing is, five giant lairs (hill, frost, fire, cloud, and stone) can be used self-contained. They don't require any connection to the larger story. And really, the connections between the larger story of the AP (the Storm King) and the giant lairs is pretty darn tenuous. Even the connection between the lairs and the overall metaplot (the breaking of the ordning) is pretty weak.

Running those together or as one-offs would be effortless.

What do you mean by "conform to modern adventure design"? Designs both bad and good can be found throughout the whole history of D&D...and WPM is far from the worst. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's the very illogic of the thing that makes it memorable for the right reasons.

Lan-"I'd run WPM again someday if my players didn't already know it so well"-efan

There's a lot of non-ecology going on in the adventure. How do the various animals and humanoids eat? How does the wizard get about in his lair? Why did they build the crazy dungeon? How does he pay the guardsmen, where do they live, and how do they get to work?
The dungeon is really a giant carnival funhouse. Just one strange surprise after another. Until it literally becomes a carnival funhouse with the spinning room.

The plot of the dungeon is the wizard, Keraptis, steals three powerful artifacts and hides them. But then taunts the owners. Why? There's no motive. He achieves nothing. It's like this evil wizard is basically trolling the kingdom, tricking adventurers to their doom for the LoLs. And you don't even really get to fight him at the end. He's a non-entity. But based on how the dungeon is design, he should really sport green hair, white skin, and be voiced by Mark Hamill.

The thing about the module was it was written as a writing sample. The author penned it to show TSR he could write. It was an example of his imagination and skill rather than an actual dungeon designed for play. It was a giant buffet of as much crazy and wild brainstorming as he could cram into one module. It was literally a combination every every single crazy dungeon chamber idea he had one after another. And it shows. It's ten rooms of crazy in a five room dungeon.

Now, what makes it good is that, unlike Tomb of Horrors, this adventure is less... spiteful. There's a sense of whimsy that makes the whole experience - for a lack of a better descriptor - jolly. It has an "all-in-good-fun" tone that makes the experience less painful despite the madcap logic.

 

[Parmandur]

From what the WotC guys are saying, part of the point may be to throw the original G series into SKT, as they suggest doing with the Cloud Giant castle in Hoard of the Dragon Queen...

And sight unseen, the "mad house" style is pretty appealing...to me at least.

 

[guachi]

If mad house dungeon was what they were going for, X2 is the way to go.

Someone linked to an RPG.net play through with 3.0 rules from 2004 and it's hysterical. I plan on running X2 in about two months when my party is the right level. After four serious adventures I think a loony one is a good break.

But White Plume Mountain, for whatever reason, doesn't quite meet my threshold for acceptably crazy. Maybe if they give it an appropriately silly framing story.

 

[machineelf]

... 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....)

I fully agree. One of the things I loved from those classic adventures was the black and white art showing scenes from the adventurer's perspective. The art wasn't as flashy as modern art is in modern campaigns, but that was better because it wasn't overdone. It had a purpose and showed you what the insides of the dungeon looked like.

I also loved the simple blue and white dungeon maps. Not because they were blue and white (although those colors were pleasant), but because they were simple and clear (and again, not overdone), and focused on giving the DM a quick and clear understanding of the dungeon layout.

 

[machineelf]

I'm curious about how they are going to set this up, but what I might do is have my group create characters for a main campaign, and whenever they want a break from the main campaign they can go to the Yawning Portal to hear the barkeep tell stories he's heard of other adventurers trying to find wealth and greatness in various ancient, lost dungeons. As the barkeep begins his story, we transition to the players' other characters to begin their one-off session -- the story the barkeep is telling.

This way you can still keep the dangerous dungeons dangerous, and it can simply serve as a break from the main campaign. Anytime my players want to play a one-off, they can travel back to the Yawning Portal to hear a new story.

 

[pemerton]

If mad house dungeon was what they were going for, X2 is the way to go.

Someone linked to an RPG.net play through with 3.0 rules from 2004 and it's hysterical.

That was me.

I plan on running X2 in about two months when my party is the right level. After four serious adventures I think a loony one is a good break.

But White Plume Mountain, for whatever reason, doesn't quite meet my threshold for acceptably crazy.

I think that S2 is just crazy. But it has nothing else going on.

Whereas (as [MENTION=19857]Jer[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION] pointed out) X2, while (in my view at least) also crazy, has a sometimes sinister creepiness also going on.

That is, the two modules aren't just different in degree but I think in kind also.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[robus]

I'm curious about how they are going to set this up, but what I might do is have my group create characters for a main campaign, and whenever they want a break from the main campaign they can go to the Yawning Portal to hear the barkeep tell stories he's heard of other adventurers trying to find wealth and greatness in various ancient, lost dungeons. As the barkeep begins his story, we transition to the players' other characters to begin their one-off session -- the story the barkeep is telling.

This way you can still keep the dangerous dungeons dangerous, and it can simply serve as a break from the main campaign. Anytime my players want to play a one-off, they can travel back to the Yawning Portal to hear a new story.

You know - not to derail this thread too much - but that would also be a great concept for the upcoming D&D movie... different dungeons featuring different adventuring parties all stitched together by a master storyteller. It would avoid the need for some "epic" narrative while focusing on one of the key aspects of D&D and showcasing the variety of adventures to be had (and a wide variety of adventurers)

 

[SkidAce]

The plot of the dungeon is the wizard, Keraptis, steals three powerful artifacts and hides them. But then taunts the owners. Why? There's no motive. He achieves nothing. It's like this evil wizard is basically trolling the kingdom, tricking adventurers to their doom for the LoLs. And you don't even really get to fight him at the end. He's a non-entity. But based on how the dungeon is design, he should really sport green hair, white skin, and be voiced by Mark Hamill.

I have no problem with this.

Not for every dungeon, but a recurring "Joker" villain seems sweet.

 

[Mercule]

You know - not to derail this thread too much - but that would also be a great concept for the upcoming D&D movie... different dungeons featuring different adventuring parties all stitched together by a master storyteller. It would avoid the need for some "epic" narrative while focusing on one of the key aspects of D&D and showcasing the variety of adventures to be had (and a wide variety of adventurers)

A master DM could then take that "flashback" and use it as a jumping-off point for the main-line PCs. That might mean a low-level party that "cleaned up" some "missed treasure" from a higher-level group. It could be a matter of a now-wealthy-and-retired (or maimed-and-retired) adventurer handing the PCs a nugget of info or a map gleaned from his exploits. Or, it could be a party that comes ready for bear when they here about a (near) TPK from an earlier group.