D&D 5E Temple of Elemental Evil is the next Original Adventures Reincarnated

Goodman Games has announced the next in its line of Original Adventures Reincarnated - -and it's The Temple of Elemental Evil, in late 2020 or early 2021.

"Like all of the Original Adventures Reincarnated line, this release will contain both the original material scanned in and cleaned up to present it as it originally appeared, along with a full, new 5E translation in the second half of the book. The new material is being designed by a creative team led by Chris Doyle with contributions from Rick Maffei and others, all of whom are seasoned veterans of Dungeons and Dragons across its many incarnations.

Unlike the previous five volumes in the OAR line, the sheer size and scope of this module requires something new: OAR #6: The Temple of Elemental Evil will be released as a two-volume hardcover slipcase edition. The two volumes will also contain expert commentary about the original modules and their history."

Here's the back cover text:

EVIL BORN ANEW

The Village of Hommlet thrives again. Years ago, this quaint village nearly fell prey to a great, neighboring evil. The nearby Temple of Elemental Evil, a grand edifice of wickedness, was defeated after a great battle and thrown into ruin forever … or was it? Bandits have started to ride the roads again, and there are other ominous signs afoot. It is whispered that the demonic evil at the heart of the Temple was not truly conquered but merely imprisoned. Even now, agents of evil, malevolent beasts, and far worse creatures are conspiring to return the Temple to power and enslave the surrounding lands. Hommlet and the neighboring ruins may hold clues, but not everyone is to be trusted. Surely danger lies hidden in this idyllic region.

Sharpen your swords and axes. Purchase your iron rations and tinderboxes. And don’t forget at least one 10-foot pole. Great adventure awaits those that dare confront the Temple of Elemental Evil!

This book collection is an homage to the origins of an adventure that began decades ago with T1: The Village of Hommlet and T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil. Herein you will find high-quality scans from multiple printings of the original first edition adventure modules, plus commentary by gaming legends. Full fifth edition conversions of both adventure books are included, as well as brand new adventure material that adds new wilderness encounters, expands the Village of Nulb, fully details the evil Elemental Nodes, and provides fifth edition updates of many original magic items, monsters, and spells. This is a fully playable mega-dungeon and mini-campaign—many hours of classic-style adventure await you!​

 

[Schmoe]

There use to be all sorts of advice online...how to find it all these years latter I wonder.

What is this mysterious solution you might be referring to?

At any rate, old messageboards turn down, threads are lost to forum crashes, etc. The information decays over time, regardless of how effective search might be.

Moathouse and Nulb are very good. One advantage of the scope of the mines is that it is very open and can be pretty PC driven. You do need to strongly hint that its not about "clearing", its about finding ways to move forward. Its best if most of the CRM are not used/explored, if that makes sense. Also, make sure you are generous enough with XP to resist that clearing urge and ensure confidence to advance.

Thanks for the suggestions. That sounds like a good start.

 

[Schmoe]

The old school impulse to stock every room in a complex doesn't mean any of it is important or necessary. Intelligent dungeon denizens know what places are important, and so there should likely be more foot traffic to important areas, more lit torches, and general maintenance along those routes.

If players can't pick that up on their own (aided by DM descriptions, of course), the player characters should be able to question captives about what's going on in the complex and where there objectives are. Smart players should be able to make most of an old school (or OSR) dungeon optional that way.

Great general advice, and I'll keep it in mind, thanks. I'm a little worried that my players (who are mostly fairly novice) have a completionist streak in them, which does not bode well for the mines. Plus, my read of the way the mines are organized requires them to trudge through at least half of the mines to piece together some very specific components of a key to move on, and even deducing that requires some play skill on the part of the players, as it's easy to miss and not exactly clear.

 

[gyor]

Based on Ghosts of Saltmarsh, WotC has their own plans there.

I'll point out that ghosts of saltmarsh isn't just Greyhawk adventures updated, I believe the also mixed in adventures from Mystara did they not?

 

[gyor]

Based on Ghosts of Saltmarsh, WotC has their own plans there.

It could be a joint project like they did with Wildemount.

 

[gyor]

Goodman's preferences, from their old 3E DCC modules, to the DCC RPG today, to this line, seems to be focused on TSR between the dawn of the BD&D/AD&D era through just before Dragonlance dropped, when things got a lot more glitzy, polished and commercial.

I would be surprised to see the Desert of Desolation modules in this line, since that series doesn't really have the rough edges Goodman loves.

On the other hand, I think it's an excellent possibility for a Ghosts of Saltmarsh type product, assembling a bunch of desert and fantasy ancient Egypt adventures (probably all set in the Forgotten Realms) together. I also think a Ghosts of Saltmarsh style product is why we haven't seen anything from the old Slavers series since it was republished (and expanded!) in the 3E collectors edition series.

The one issue with that is any update to Desert of Desolation is likely to be a sequel, instead of simply updating it 5e rules because Desert of Desolation is well over a hundreds years in the Forgotten Realms past.

So Goodman Games do an update to Desert of Desolation while WotC creates the modern sequel.

Heck maybe Goodman Games will get the Old Empires region to do an official regional setting update the way Baldman Games got the Moonshae Isles and Gamehole con got Border Kingdoms.

 

[Jharet]

This would be worth getting for the reprinted material alone. A 5e version will make it easier to convert to other systems too.

 

[The Glen]

I'll point out that ghosts of saltmarsh isn't just Greyhawk adventures updated, I believe the also mixed in adventures from Mystara did they not?

Isle of the Abbey was written using the BEMCI or RC rules originally, so it was slotted in the Mystara setting. the rest are Greyhawk or system generic.

 

[Parmandur]

I'll point out that ghosts of saltmarsh isn't just Greyhawk adventures updated, I believe the also mixed in adventures from Mystara did they not?

As @The Glen says, there is one magazine module in the book that was tenuously set in the Known World by default, but is Setting agnostic. Ghosts of Saltmarsh does, however, provide sidebar guidance for setting material in Mystara, Eberron or the Forgotten Realms as well as Greyhawk.

Mystara is not a usual choice for 5E in that sort of sidebar, but it does dovetail nicely with the Isle of Dread reprint that came out shortly before...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Isle of Despair sounds like an amazing creepy horror-inflected companion to the Isle of Dread.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I have 1-2 sessions left of TOEE. This has been a highly memorable 2-year campaign, and I've gotten tons of positive feedback from my players. I convert it to 5e on the fly using a cheat sheet (or used to; I've practically got it memorized now). Here's my general advice.

1. Giving XP for loot is essential. It took a while for my players to adjust, but once they really understood that slogging through the killing fields is mostly a waste of time compared to finding a treasure hoard, it completely changed the dynamics of the game.

2. Slow down the leveling pace. I use the AD&D Thief XP chart for everyone. First of all, if you don't do this, they'll be going through the later areas like a hot knife through butter. Second of all, it changes the mentality from "We Leroy Jenkins through this in a couple sessions once we level up" to "We need to find a way to deal with this other than Leroy Jenkinsing our way through it."

3. You really, really need to add your own color to the monsters. They shouldn't all just attack on sight. I used the Reaction roll from the AD&D DMG. Some monsters were friendly, some were cunning, some hostile, some dissatisfied with their employment and open to a better offer...the last thing Temple should be is one room after another of smash-door-kill-orc. And don't forget to have the denizens react rationally to incursions, recruiting new help, setting up traps and fortifications, moving treasure to more secure locations, etc.

Here's an example from my run of the game: the Earth Node has a pair of adult dragons, and that's about all it says. I left them adult for the fun of it, named them Steve and Carol. Carol is an overbearing nag, and Steve is a hen-pecked husband who jumps on any excuse he can to get out of the cave. So when the party approached the cave, they could hear Carol barking at Steve to go outside and check out that noise...at which point Steve lazily flew out, clearly noticed the party, and called back that he couldn't find anybody, but he'll keep looking. The party cautiously approached Steve and, to make a long story short, negotiated not being killed and eaten in exchange for helping the dragons escape the node. They made their way out through the fourth floor, with the dragons making short work of the ogres and bugbears in their way. Steve and Carol, of course, are still evil dragons, so they attacked Burne's tower and grabbed some treasure, and they are now terrorizing a remote area of Veluna, and will need to be dealt with at some point. (If this story sounds familiar, I have told it with the details changed to throw my players off my online scent.)

The stories and events you hang on the tiniest hooks will be what makes this adventure memorable, and why no two runs of Temple are really anything alike. Your players will swear it's one of the best adventures ever played, and be astonished to learn that the past several sessions grew out of, "There are six bugbears in this room."

In my campaign, the last year has been almost wholly unscripted. They accidentally released Zuggtmoy, and there is no guidance in the book for what to do afterward. I have had her gradually taking over the Gnarley Forest, and the party has been working double time to try and stop her. Next session is the moment of truth: can they put this genie back in the bottle, or will the country succumb to fungal rot?

4. Don't worry about having too many magic items. Temple is hard. There are a lot of monsters. Even with everyone at this point having a Ring of Protection, a magic weapon, some kind of magic armor, and so on, the fights are still tough.

5. Yes, if somebody dies, they come back at level 1. Tough crap. Death needs to be a massive setback. I have found that in storybook adventures where you always come back at the same level, players get pretty reckless. In Temple, the cost of death makes them a lot more cautious, and a lot more interested in negotiating. The one thing I do majorly differently than AD&D is that you buy XP with gold; you do not just get it for finding the treasure. The gold stays with the player, not the PC, so if they die, they can use unspent gold to buy their way back up a few levels. A player who is broke tends to be a lot more cautious than a player with stacks of cash in the bank, believe me.

6. Prep? Ahahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaaaaahahahahahahaaahahahahaaaha! Get really good at flying by the seat of your pants, because the undirected layout of the Temple means your players can and will end up in places you absolutely did not expect, and turn back from the door to you carefully crafted experience at the last second. They'll do this approximately every single session.