DMs Guild The Ruined Tower of Zenopus 5E conversion on DMs Guild...Now with a dungeon map!

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My 5E D&D conversion of the original Zenopus Dungeon, from the 1977 "Holmes" Basic rulebook, is now live on DMs Guild. 18-pages, $1.99.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus (DMs Guild link)

Read more about it here on my blog, the Zenopus Archives.

The original dungeon (which includes the dungeon map) is available as a free pdf on the Wizards site.

Update: This conversion now includes a map of the dungeon suitable for use on Roll20. See 5/26/20 post below for details.

 

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News & a Review:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus hits Silver on DMs Guild

A review on the oldschoolfrp Tumblr:

"I bought this and gave it a first read-through. It is an excellent conversion of one of my favorite classic low level adventures, updated for 5e. There are some new monster stat blocks and minor magic items, a little town map on a peninsula (which makes it easier to locate the town on almost any coastline), options for expanding some areas, notes on factions, rumors, and ways to tie Portown to Saltmarsh, plus even 4 pre-gen PCs. Check it out."

 

[wicked cool]

Was there ever a followup to this? Do we know exactly what happened to Zenopus

 

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There has never been any official followup either by TSR or Wizards, or even the writings of Holmes himself. In fact, as far as I know the first official recycling of the adventure material is the Tower of Zenopus site included in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which includes some of the background and dungeon details from the original but does not include the full dungeon, and does not give any further clues regarding the fate of Zenopus.

Thus, the only clues we have are what is written in the original. Per the introduction, this doom involved unleashing "some powerful force in the depths of the tower" that result in the tower being engulfed in green flame. The coda to the adventure indicates that "depths of the tower" means "(undiscovered) deeper levels"; i.e., level(s) below the described first level of the dungeon.

Based on this description, I've speculated that the green flame was similar to the green flame in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Festival":

How Zenopus Met His Doom

Ghosts of Saltmarsh simply states that one night the tower was "engulfed in a fiery green aura", without specifying that Zenopus met his doom on a lower level.

 

[wicked cool]

maybe we can get WOTC to clarfy

 

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Another review:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus reviewed by Erik Jensen

"Finally had the time to read The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: https://dmsguild.com/product/301308/The-Ruined-Tower-of-Zenopus… @ZenopusArchives has done an AMAZING job with this 5e update of the Holmes sample dungeon, and now I'm going to tell you why."

Read the rest of the review at the link above!

 

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(updated image for the product page)

News:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus goes Electrum on DMs Guild!

 

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I have two new reviews of the Ruined Tower of Zenopus to share since the last update!


Review & Adaptation by An Abominable Fancy (a six part series!):

"So The Ruined Tower of Zenopus, a 5e conversion of Holmes' Sample Dungeon by Zach Howard of the indispensable Zenopus Archives, is pretty exciting.

The result is exactly what you'd hope for. Here's the fun gameplay of a classic old school dungeon, with the clarity of modern layout. There's plenty nice, thought-out additions so that you don't feel like you should have just saved your money and looked up 5e stat blocks yourself. These include some great resources that Zach has developed for Portown and the dungeon factions..."

Reviews from R'lyeh on the Ruined Tower of Zenopus:

"...The author though, does not simply update ‘Sample Dungeon’ to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. He also offers options to make the dungeon more challenging and adds a slew of monsters and magical items..."

 

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The Ruined Tower of Zenopus is currently on sale at DMs Guild for $1.59 as part of their current "Play It Forward" promotion. Many other items throughout the site are also 20% off.

Blog post about this: The Ruined Tower of Zenopus is on sale this week

Direct product link: The Ruined Tower of Zenopus at DMs Guild

 

[zenopus]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗭𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘂𝘀 is now a Gold Best Seller at DMs Guild!

As a reminder, it's on sale for $1.59 through this Sunday, May 17th.

I will soon be adding a map suitable for Roll20 to the product, see the blog post for more details and a preview.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus Goes Gold!

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com