Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Some Questions / Observations on B1 - In Search of the Unknown


I'm away for the weekend, and the only things I brought in print with me that were gaming related were OSRIC and B1 - In Search of the Unknown. My intention is to start writing the introductory adventure for my AD&D campaign, and what better inspiration than Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Module B1? (Okay, one could argue B2, but it is what it is).

So, here's some observations from B1:

1 - Right on the cover it states "With only minor modifications, this module is also eminently suitable for use with ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS". Strangely enough, it seems with only minor modifications it is suitable for use with Dungeons & Dragons. More on that below.

2 - Non-player character clerics include Tassit, Servantjü of St. Cuthbert. The World of Greyhawk was casting a wide web back then.

3 - Fighting Men NPCs include Krago of the Mountains (Dwarf) with Str 18/54. Exceptional Strength was purely an AD&D concept as far as I can recall.

4 - I'm pretty sure thieves were restricted to Humans only in Basic Dungeons & Dragons, but there is at least one of each of the player races in the NPC list.

5 - I had forgotten that B1 was a "stock the monsters and treasures from list A and list B" type of adventure. Hardly easy on a beginning DM, but amazingly awesome for reusability of the adventure among the same group / intertwined groups. The room descriptions themselves dont change, but the contents do.

6 - It makes a point of introducing tricks and traps to the players and the DM - it's not a funhouse dungeon, but it has its moments.

7 - There is a list of potential hirelings and henchmen for the PCs to hire, but no town to actually find them within. We know they aren't hanging around outside the dungeon waiting for a job. I guess that's why they swapped this out for B2 in the later Basic D&D Sets.


5 comments:

  1. Exceptional Strength was in OD&D, introduced in the Greyhawk supplement.

    Holmes D&D wasn't meant to stand alone (or be a separate line), but simply be a starter set for AD&D, which wasn't finished yet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. But Holmes Basic didnt have Exceptional Strength, and this was meant to be played with Holmes basic

    ReplyDelete
  3. One of my all time favorite modules. I have run this time and again and it's always full of surprises.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tenkar: Another oddity is that there are elves that are either fighters or magic-users, rather than the standard combination of both found in Holmes. All of the oddities are found in OD&D, so there's been some speculation that the module was originally written by Mike Carr for OD&D rather than Holmes Basic. See here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've converted this adventure to both D20 and BFRPG and it's still fun..

    ReplyDelete