Dungeonland: D&D Meets Alice in Wonderland | D&D Walkthroughs

Did you ever wonder how a Wonderland adventure would look like in Dungeons & Dragons? Well, we doubt you imagined it would turn out like this!
Welcome to "DM It All", where we look into old D&D books and tabletop gaming history. In this episode we cover Dungeonland, an unusual but deadly D&D adventure. Long story short: it's "Alice in Wonderland" except everything wants to kill you.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
04:09 Wonderland
19:03 The Looking Glass
31:33 Final Judgment
Music: Annen Polka by Johann Strauss, Village Dreaming by Visager
Clips: Cyberman65 (Kingdom Hearts), Ethan Gilsdorf (Gygax House), Collegehumor (Laundry Pods), Resonance of Fate, Ninety-Nine Nights, System Shock 2

[@VechsDavion]

You know. The more I explore modules from Gary Gygax, the more I think he was just kind of a sadist.

[@Talonisthename]

"

[@CarrowMind]

@Wonko Sane You have to remember that these where also tournament modules, and in a tournament the rules are different. DM vs Players makes way more sense for a tournament since that's the entire point, it works then. For a casual Saturday night Mountain Dew and Pizza or if you're older, Beer and Pretzels sort of game, Gygaxian modules aren't the best.

[@tomwisniewski8988]

@Wonko Sane I think he fully understood what he created but he didn't understand what people did with what he created. The TSR guys played their game their way. Things changed when it was let loose into the wild and people interpreted the rules their own way with their own group. With no internet each group thought they were doing it the "right way". By the time long reaching communities formed there were untold interpretations of the game well out of TSR control.

[@randomusernameCallin]

It seem that Gygax does not suffer fools. It seem is best stuff is about pushing the players with odd changes. The player needs to be on their toes and push everything their character can do as far as you can. Also talk a great deal but listen to what is said. Roleplay your character as the best you can and you have a good chance of getting far into a Gygax adventure.

[@Welverin]

@Wonko Sane You're getting at the root of it. D&D literally evolved out of wargaming, so the creators and early players very much had that kind of mind set. They went from war games, to Chainmail (a war game where each mini represented an individual instead of a unit), to proto D&D (chainmail with some character progression), to the formalized D&D rules that got published. Taking that into consideration, it's not at all surprising his early module are the way they are. They fit the mentality and style of play from the early years.

[@quinnpd]

play it as a fever dream, if they party wins they keep what they got. If they all die, the last one to die wakes up with everyone standing around worried about how sick they have been, nothing lost.

[@railbaron1]

When a trip though Wonderland Turns into Sherman's March to Georgia

[@frankg2790]

Sounds like a bitchin' Metal Single.

[@nicholasmays4257]

I hate to be that guy, but it was called Sherman's March to the Sea. He was in Georgia already and he marched his army from Atlanta to the coastal city of Savannah.

[@dfcsons]

As someone who was DM'ing 90% of the time, I was so excited when I was actually given a chance to play. It was Dungeonland that I explored. I do NOT have good memories of this adventure. As I recall, every encounter resulted in at least one death, and I think we maybe got 5 encounters in? Oh Gary, you sadist...

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

I begin too see where the whole murder hobo trend started. With Gygax himself as a DM.

[@Zeromegas]

And you are forggoting the King of the Murder Hobbos, Robillar

[@jaceross7648]

Duchess Van Hoof murder hobos are only a problem if the group isn’t all on board

[@supersam5802]

@@jaceross7648 dm included, you start killing npc's a dm cares about and took time on you might find it raining rocks

[@jesternario]

Well, here's the thing. Despite what is said here, this adventure isn't the biggest meat grinder at all. Every single encounter reads "Should the characters attack [the npc named], they will defend themselves to the best of their ability," which means that they won't attack unless the players strike first. The exception to this is cheshire cat, who is looking to a snack, the catterpillar, who's just a jerk, and the events in the courtroom trial, which the PCs are supposed to fight just enough to run from. And the mad hatter, but you can literally just leave the area before that happens.

[@suckmyassyoutube6011]

Yep

[@brendonestridge4573]

If anyone wants module that embodies the feel of Wonderland, I highly recommend you check out the OSR adventure The Gardens of Ynn. It is a dimension of seemingly endless gardens with lots of random generation that are designed to gradually become stranger and stranger the deeper you go in. Its a really interesting read, though I highly recommend generating the gardens beforehand instead of doing it on the fly as the book recommends. There are some really zany and fun stuff.

[@frankg2790]

Sounds like a great side story for Murderhobos.

[@daveledford2406]

reprint them all

[@ems6706]

Thanks dude, that sounds exactly like what my group was looking for! Appreciate the recommendation

[@VoidR]

In '85 I was in middle school and ran these mods in an afterschool wargamers club ran by my social studies teacher (Shutout to to Mr. Hayden RIP). This was the only time players from other tables stopped to spectate a game and offer commentary and advice to the players. Damn good memory. Thanks for jogging it!

[@jonathannelson103]

I ran these two about 30 years ago. It took me two weeks of tweaking to make it flow in an incoherent fashion. I had some conversations start in the middle, effects happening before their causes, that sort of thing. I also toned down the violence and made it more of a puzzle to figure out how to get out. One of my finest works.

[@theludonarrian]

They just floated down a tunnel and at the bottom is a small table with food and drink that says, "eat me" and "drink me" and you expect no one to figure out that it's Wonderland? Seriously?

[@kirbyculp3449]

"Eat me..." Dear Penthouse, you won't believe what happened to me and the paladins...

[@purpleboye_]

So who remembers Tandem's last ride? Anyone?

[@luketfer]

I remember...oh Spoony...what happened to you...obsessed with Twitter, lashing out at fans, posting like 1 video a year and doing just boring as hell Twitch streams...

[@purpleboye_]

@@luketfer He got pure Twitter injected into his veins.

[@BrawlerGamma]

@@purpleboye_ Is that what it means to be a blue blood these days? 🤔

[@Brejan]

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@Mrryn]

Countersong! Fucking COUNTERSONG!

[@Mordraith]

bummed out that i've already watched every episode of DM it All... I'd love to see an episode (or more realistically several episodes) on the B-series modules "In search of the Unknown", "Keep on the Borderlands" and "Palace of the Silver Princess". Palace was the first commercial module I ever played and has a special place in my heart.

[@RobbieJennings-cd6cp]

Do you still have your copy of Palace of the silver princess? Because I heard it was really valuable and if you still have it you might want to keep it as safe as possible Edit: that is, if you have the version with the orange color. If it's not that one then it's not as valuable. It's still valuable. But not as valuable

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

He now has an air-breathing bull's head, instead of a turtle head. Turtles breath air!

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

You know what was meant though. He has been made unable to stay underwater for a sufficient duration.

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

@@theapexsurvivor9538 Yeah, that's true. It was just poorly stated.

[@robinthrush9672]

Gygax seemed to have a very adversarial position with his parties.

[@RoyalFusilier]

Even though he admitted he got some details wrong in his memory, Spoony's Counter Monkey episode on Dungeonland was still just about the most entertaining thing. It's how I originally learned of the existence of this module, too. Also, this is the first video of yours I found and clicked on because of that bridging mental connection, and I'm definitely here to stay now.

[@Nemo2342]

That video was also how I originally found this series.

[@sanddry738]

I’ve never heard of this module before. Seems to really mash that “die die die!” attitude to players from the old days and the Alice stories in a decent design way. Gameplay-wise however, I can imagine like the Tomb of Horrors, if players fall into Dungeonland without foreknowledge it’s going to be a massive train wreck. Thanks for doing these informational video on D&D modules! I’m really glad I found your Channel. You put a lot of effort into these videos.

[@jesternario]

It's not really as bad as the Tomb of Horrors. With the exception of the monsters in the pool of tears and the Caterpillar, no monsters are actively hostile unless they're a random encounter (and those are just standard D&D monsters). Every encounter with a character specific to the stories, up until the trial of the Knave of Hearts, is not all that lethal unless the PCs attack first. It specifically states in every encounter "If the PCs attack they will defend themselves." So unless the PCs really go murderhobo, the adventure is quite capable of being played with no combat up until the last part.

[@RagnarLothbike]

I remember this module very fondly.

[@Bluecho4]

I first heard about this adventure when the Spoony One (Noah Antwiler) did a video about it, on his show Counter Monkey. And he had basically the same conclusion as you did about Dungeonland: don't play along, just kill everything. This adventure happened to mark the final hurrah for his then-favorite character, Tandem the Spoony.

[@Mrryn]

Survive all the way to the end, and then rocket off into space. Only in Dungeonland...I guess? lol

[@DanceSeek]

I might enjoy playing or running something like this, if it were less lethal and more whimsical. The original Alice was able to find helpers and allies in wonderland (and she didn't DIE), and I would want to reflect that. I'm also reminded of some monsters I found in the 2nd Monster Manual, and wondered what module they may have come from. These were the fairy dragon, the Cohee (I think), AKA elf dog, and an elf cat. There were also some other creatures that probably came from the same source.

[@XX-sp3tt]

"BUT WHY do you want to kill us? You're boring!"

[@SamWeltzin]

Was aware of this because of Spoony's discussion of it years ago, and it sounds like he remembered pretty correctly. His group learned stupidly fast that the best way to progress is just to kill absolutely everything. Was cool listening to how this worked in greater detail.

[@apex2000]

Yeah & you need to be beasts to survive.

[@Eyewarp]

Same. I saw this come up on my feed and my first thought was just "Oh, god, the thing where the march hare was a level 20 monk?"

[@sunsin1592]

Ahh, the roc was on the cover of the first module. Perhaps they accidentally switched the cover images?

[@LilNem0]

Just discovered your channel and I have to say you have a new fan in me. Very entertaining and well put together. Keep up the great work. I look forward to learning about all the old school modules from you!

[@orkishfury2321]

So, this is where Murderhobos dwell.

[@Bluecho4]

Dungeonland is the afterlife set aside for Chaotic Neutral murder hobos.

[@TheWonkster]

I actually did know about this one, I found the original module in an antique store stuffed on the bottom of a bookshelf. Also Spoony covered it a few years ago.

[@TheViperZed]

There is a trend of "rules above all thinking" here that is quite detrimental, the best example being the lack of understanding of the use of the monk stat block for the mad hatter and the march hare. At it's base the monk class is a statblock that works without weapons or armour to provide a challenge, obviously the two npcs aren't going to do eastern style martial arts. The intent is to portrait two enemies that, for example, get AC from being unpredictable, so change the flavour of the stat blocks to zany cartoon-esque antics and you have an interesting encounter.

[@jasonlee6062]

If this might be a bit intense for players to want to go through all in one go, what if you had some sort of item, place or ritual they could use to access it when they went to sleep? Then they could choose to enter it and spend a bit of time working their way through, and then they could return to the real world and continue with their adventure. That way, the instant deaths wouldn't matter because it would just kill them in that version of the dream, and you could instead implement a penalty (either in dream Wonderland, or in the real world main plot) and you could allow it to be more bizarre and non-linear, using dice like you suggested to decide on where the players ended up each time they moved on.

[@krispalermo8133]

Nightmare spell

[@phildicks4721]

This and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror were two of my favorite modules.

[@pakeshde7518]

Start as the lawful good paladin, leave as a murder hobo with a real distrust for anything living yet the GM will be considered the good guy *laugh*. Yeah Gygax had several adventures that you were best off murdering anything that talked to you and the three hidden objects that have not activated yet.

[@gmross02184]

I remember running these adventures for my group. They caught on to Wonderland immediately.

[@619ver1]

Well thanks, now i see where the game design model of "Better kill everything in sight, just to be save." Comes from.

[@stormd]

Not related to Dungeonland, per se, but the 5e module "Out of the Abyss" was also designed to be an homage to Alice in Wonderland, but is much more subtle about it.

[@kosherkhan7091]

Absolutely HATE the underdark. 5 minutes in: how exciting, can't wait to kill monsters. 5 hours: GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!

[@johngibson2884]

The craziest but most versatile module ever . Twiddle dee and dumb are DEADLY monks .....the carpenter and walrus helpful, and the Hag is a charming host . Proceed with caution...

[@KujoTV]

Played this one back in the 80's (I think just the mirror one) It fit with the personality of our group and was one of our favorites. The DM played it a little more "open sandbox" and the gnome was more of a major character. See if you can find the D&D adaptation of the movie (book) "The Keep", another favorite (weee time travel).

[@robertlong1733]

I acquired both these modules...but have never used them. Thank you for reviewing them. It may be interesting to have a party get plopped into Wonderland for a bit...I’d change it a little to be less deadly and more fun for the players.

[@freman007]

So, first things first. Grab the drink, food, and key off the table, open the small door. Everyone strips naked, puts all their clothing, weapons, armour and equipment into a Bag of Holding. Roll up the Bag of Holding and push it through the door. Take a small sip from the bottle to make sure it shrinks you. Push the cake through to the other side of the door. Everyone drinks enough to squeeze through the door. Gets to the other side, eats enough of the cake to return to full size, crushing most of the garden but like, who gives a damn? Open the Bag of Holding and retrieve your gear. On the other side, fully equipped, and hopefully with enough cake left to grow to giant size and crush the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen. Also, if you see something, kill it.

[@KiX-K4T13]

You had me at "get naked", but the rest of that is incredibly brilliant. Solid.

[@freman007]

Thanks. I suppose there's an element of metagaming there because a player who's read Alice in Wonderland will quickly get the gist of what's happening, but from the sound of things this a game where you want to do your best to break the game or the game will just stomp you. If you're going to do the "get giant sized, squash puny monsters" then you should probably take the bottle as well so you can shrink back to regular size. As long as it's small enough to fit through the door, and it should be, you just push it through once you've all shrunk.

[@nobody46820]

Nicely thought out!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@DmDango]

You are probably one of only 2 people I know that has ever even referenced Resonance of Fate, Cool looking module overall and agree that it lacks the spirit of Alice in Wonderland, really liking these videos overall keep at it.

[@MegaKemper]

One of the few old school games I never played. It took Gygax's love of death traps to 11, and just didn't look like it would be very much fun to play.

[@nobody46820]

I played both modules, they were a bitch and a half! Had a good DM, but lost much more than I gained after playthrough. Wouldn't recommend as either a PC or DM. F-

[@spunkyspaz]

20:37 I'm glad you used an image from the Jan Svankmajer version of Alice in Wonderland. In my opinion the best of the adaptations. Also 25:20 and 34:01

[@GeekMasterGames]

I actually ADAPTED Dungeonland and Beyond the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror into a single cohesive longer campaign module for Pathfinder 1E that was also "modular" with a framing device, in large part because of the big focus on the Wonderland creatures in Pathfinder's Bestiaries. It was an ABSOLUTE BLAST.

[@RockerMarcee96]

You also don't want your alignment to change because you lose a level (on top of some classes losing functionality or becoming unable to level up anymore). Plus Jack not only changes your alignment but when it happens your character also becomes an NPC.

[@nicholi8933]

When we heard Gary Gygax died, we decided to put our campaign on hold and play through the second one of this in his honor. We pulled all our ad&d books out and rolled up 9th lvl characters for it. This was a weird campaign with many laughs. I think my favorite was when we met tweedle dee and tweedle dum. We just got through some awful time with the chess board, and then these two appear. The first thing I did was cast hold person on them both. My dm rolled poorly and they were stuck. As we approached we heard the JubJub bird, and so we ran to their hut for safety. They died to it. Good times.

[@EnderWarlock]

I definitely want to do an Alice on Wonderland inspired session, reverse d20 rolls so a 20 is a critical fail and a 1 is a critical success and have past iconic NPC's appear as distorted/crazy versions of themselves or have a kinda Wizard of Oz theme aswell and have on PC go through a strange world having to find other PC'S who take on the role of the White Rabbit/Made Hatter/Cheshire Cat/Queen of Hearts and have to be convinced through battle or talk on who they really are.

[@caravanmaster5228]

FYI, The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (the second module in this series) is the only Gygaxian-era 1E adventure which had the legendary vorpal blade available to players (appropriately placed within a Carroll-inspired module, and almost impossible to use even if found). Make sure you have a LN character!

[@r1n8k]

joined the notification squad :) keep them coming, I'm loving this look into D&D past.

[@brutusmaximumus]

I loved Dungeonland, one of my favorites :)

[@sunsin1592]

We only played this once, but it was a lot of fun. We also ran the sequel.

[@meaculpamaxima9957]

Who will ever forget their first time running L1, Wrath of the Zap Lady.

[@CavTanker88]

When i saw that I just about spit my mouthful of tea...

[@golvic1436]

Dungeonland was my favorite AD&D adventure back in the day. It was nuts.

[@lindsaycastle3735]

I once ran a wonderland themed game of Changling: The Lost. Queen of Hearts was a true Fae, there was a drug called chrysalis that made mortals able to see through changlings meins, attacking them. A Jabberwocky was flying around and the players needed to find or make a vorpal blade to defeat it. Also had a side plot where a trusted special club was handing out pearls to changeling who became members. Then all the members disappeared as a walrus beast and a wood elemental tried to drag them all back into the hedge. Even had the players intercept a note from the walrus to the carpenter that said "The time has come". My players still havent forgiven me for that betrayal.

[@Sophia-vk5bq]

Gygax gets revenge on players for not getting royalties by ruining their childhood. lol

[@kevinsullivan3448]

I still have my original Dungeonland and the sequel. I used them, slightly modified, in a 2E Forgotten Realms game that took place during the Time of Troubles and they would enter Dungeonland in Sembia and come out about 1000 miles away in the general area of the fallen deity Milikii (as per the Time of Troubles) who is being threatened by another fallen deity Malar. The point of the campaign was to save Milikii, who is the Ranger's deity.

[@jonathonfreeman9233]

My own thoughts on "blind players v dungeons" (from own experiences) - if it's something to give strategic or mindset preparation: do spoil. that's stuff that can affect the outcome - if it's narrative or meta-approach influencing: don't spoil. Dungeonland, imo best played, would be half and half where: you let them know it will be deadly and dangerous ... but you don't let them know what the actual premise is until it's too late. Big reason in this case is you could truthfully warn them about the difficulty, but if they hear it's based on wonderland? They'll probably disregard it and assume you'll stick to the plot more strictly than you actually will ... because that's what gamers do. anyhoo, cool stuff! :D

[@suckmyassyoutube6011]

"Counter song fucking counter song" Tandem the Spoony

[@CCSPN]

Great video, keep em coming!

[@elgatochurro]

Old dragon turtle breath: petrify 5e: goes through heat resistance and even usable underwater

[@TheWonkster]

elgatochurro two-headed dragon turtle that can do both

[@-kenik9629]

31:50 For the Final Judgement. Enjoy!

[@garryame4008]

20:00 "wrath of the zap lady" lol, that's secret of bone Hill

[@patjacksonpodium]

No joke, this was the first D&D thing I ever played, or least the DM's 4e epic tier spin on it. It was definitely crazy and dark, and we did make it through despite all odds, but the thing I remember most was the realization that it was pointless to even try and talk to anyone. Just roll initiative because there was no upside to doing anything else. Even as a noob that dawned on me pretty fast. The meat grinder aspect certainly made it pretty monotonous by the end. Not the best campaign to start with, especially at epic level (dude wasn't a great DM) although it did produce my favorite character I ever played, the dwarf Artificer Baern The Thick. Good times lol.

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

Cheshire Cat = Smilodon. Slow clap.

[@razorflossrazor2937]

My dm ran this once and our ranger manged to tame chesire buy using a bullshit item the dm forgot he give us

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

@@razorflossrazor2937 Lol. "A dog wags its tail when it's happy and growls when it's angry. I wag my tail when I'm angry and growl when I'm happy. Therefore I'm mad."

[@KiX-K4T13]

@@cthulhufhtagn2483 That's some Pet Sematary shit, right there.

[@mitchellslate1249]

Not being able to remove the Crown of Delusion because it Delusions you into thinking you remove the Crown is a very original, beautiful, unique magic and really cool idea for an item! Yikes! That is impressive!

[@fl00fydragon]

Well the cheshire cat is bascially shrodinger's cat. Soooo it becoming a ghost (being alive and dead as an undead) is the only thing that actually makes any sense.

[@mrtopo8335]

You got me. I'm happy to find you in your origins!

[@mikeys2986]

As to the covers of the Hangman Tree on Magic Mirror and the Roc attacking on Dungeonland they're PURPOSEFULLY SWITCHED to add even more confusion for any players trying to guess the nature of the modules by seeing the covers. Another of Gygax's twisted tricks. He did love his puns and disrupting player expectations. WG6, Isle Of The Ape is another example of his subversion of player expections.

[@Domarius64]

My pet peeve - So many things that the players are "better off avoiding". So much wasted work. Why make it then?

[@nicholasapplebee2069]

Thanks for doing the research!

[@highgoat6474]

These 2 modules (EX1 & 2) were, and still are, fun to run and to play.

[@MarshalTennerWinter]

I ran this module so many times I've lost count. Classic.

[@GSE52]

Purchased both of these modules back in the day. Played through once and ran them myself several times. BRUTAL! Fun though!

[@lennyvalure5829]

I had a long-time player actually quit the campaign after the PC's finished these two. There were other contributing factors, but these modules totally frustrated him and broke his spirit. Both funny and sad.

[@TheMindofRa]

A must for that Caterpillar... a Bard in the group to counter song that fucker during his droning speech before he changes your alignment to true neutral and then you never leave

[@RandomAllen]

"THAT STUPID STUPID DORMMOUSE"

[@harley8047]

Dragon Turtle breath is deadly. Good thing he's got bull breath now XD

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Common sense will get you nowhere in Gensokyo- owait, I mean Dungeonland.

[@KiX-K4T13]

Sure it's all fun and games with the growth potions, until a larger player inserts a smaller player into themselves. Give you two guesses where they shoved my Cleric.

[@MrKezzerdrix]

Hmm... Imma guess.... Ear!

[@dlausactor6373]

They just needed a prostate exam.

[@logans.7932]

*spits out water* A fucking BEHIR? Whole ass year later and I'm still astounded that even the silly little caterpillar is a Behir.

[@XX-sp3tt]

30:18 "Well, if an illusionary spear can kill me in this version if I believe it super hard... shouldn't the mindless black pudding in the illusion of plum pudding be harmless if I believe it super hard?" "... That.... you.. logic... AHHH!" Breaks AD&D with its own mechanics with sheer logic.

[@Snarkknight5]

"Countersong! *Fucking* countersong!*"

[@pubcle]

Here's where I think there should be a caveat. Springing this adventure on them works if you are used to this kind of more competitive, crunchy, dungeon crawl format that was common. If everything already plays in a similar manner to this and is an old fashioned dungeon crawl with additional flavorings, you can spring this on them. If your group hasn't been doing games exactly like this for a long time though it's probably best to give advanced warning that this is something different. You don't necessarily need to explicitly state it's Gygax dungeon crawl Wonderland, but at least inform the style of it being a Gygax gauntlet. I personally would never run this probably, just not my type of adventure as interesting as it is. (Or adjust it to my system, since I play D6 over D&D, and am inventing my own system)

[@PhileasLiebmann]

"It could be interesting to run a more light hearted and whimsical campaign." Alice in Wonderland and light hearted? Yeah, sorry, those don't really match.

[@AGrayPhantom]

Sure it can! The party can do other activities like run a caucus race, save three little sisters from a treacle well, or recite poetry in a poetry jam.

[@briancorvello3620]

@@AGrayPhantom Alice in Wonderland has NEVER been light hearted and whimsical, as any fan of the original story can attest.

[@cataquackwarlord5389]

Alice in Wonderland isn't exact light-hearted, but it isn't grim either. The best sort of approach I've found, as seen in the Wonderland No More RPG setting, is something that retains the sense of danger that the original books alluded to at times, while still making the adventure whimsical and fun. For instance, the game can have you going from an epic battle against card soldiers to getting roped into doing a traditional-style duel on behalf of the Mad Hatter and March Hare (they were going to fight but then decided to go to tea together and have their seconds duke it out).

[@MrRourk]

It's called Gardens of Ynn however there is a darker and yet lighthearted Alice take called A Red and Pleasant Land

[@JoeEnglandShow]

The annotations are much appreciated.

[@genghisdon1]

gorgon breath petrifies (the dragon turtle is polymorphed into a gorgon)...but another great video

[@OWlsfordshire]

When you pickup loot from an adventure is it bound to your character or can you take it back to some kind of guild hall and pass it onto your other characters?

[@markusnavergard2387]

The novel/movie the last unicorn would make for a nice DnD adventure

[@Babbleplay]

Owned both of these. Never sure as a kid why Gygax got so much love. As an adult, I understand he not only made the game but put so much into it as a labor of love, but frankly, the early edition modules were rarely anything to write home about, with a few exceptions, and frankly, most of his were kiiiiiiind of garbage. Just like these, really, with just random "cool" set pieces thrown together with no rhyme or reason or cohesive story.

[@michaelarkangel518]

This module is fun as hell, but very deadly for lower level characters!

[@dlausactor6373]

8:37 Wait; that sounds oddly familiar... Oh no... *“COUNTER-SONG!!! FUCKING COUNTER-SONG!!!”*

[@jamesmerkel1932]

Surprisingly I just found your channel, definately some fun stuff! However, who here is up for re-writing this to closer match American McGees Wonderland? Have its entrance be a clever trap made by an ancient Lich to guard its lair, linking to a seperate plane where madness is the norm. I would cut back on the insta-death if using it in a campaign setting but as a one-off then ramping up the difficulty shouldn't be an issue.

[@TheMonyarm]

I might either have my players find a book which takes them to Dungeonland, or put the mirror in an abandoned house, still not quite sure.

[@SpaceManRD]

I think the Monks make a bit more sense in this context if you ignore the flavor text around the class and just consider it shorthand for "unarmed melee fighter"

[@AC-jj3ul]

Very late,but the Jubjub bird and Bandersnatch reappear in Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark". I think the details are loosely taken from there, except I would have imagined a Pt. 3 had Gygax known

[@travisweir2477]

Another poster here has reminded me of the most excellent Castle Amber. Please do a vid on this amazing piece of D&D's past.

[@EdgarBarrantes]

Yeah... This is a great channel, keep at it please! Will definitely recommend it.

[@mrPCEmilkman]

...as for the cover illustrations, if I recall correctly they were accidentally switched so the Dungeonland illustration actually goes on Magic Mirror and vice-versa

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

I swear my DM was the same way. He used to pull that stripped naked trick ALL the time. Every time our characters were captured by even semi-intelligent creatures they would strip our characters naked and take all our stuff. He also loved to make totally innocent and weak things deadly and have creatures/things attack suddenly, at the drop of a hat.

[@KiX-K4T13]

Me: So like, you promise this is just an orgy, right? 🤔 DM: Oh why, yes! It's just there are no weapons allowed in the brothel. 😁 Me: ...then why is the Slant Crowned King holding a crossbow and glaring at us pensively? 😕 DM: Oh...his...kink is intimidation. 🙄😬 Me: Okay. Cool. I'm just going to go outside with my stuff right quick to smuggle... 😞 DM: ...he locks the door! *sinister laugh* 😎 The Entire Party: Well fuck! 😨😱😵

[@nobody46820]

Yeah, that $hit go old at the speed of light!😤

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

@@nobody46820 If not faster than that. It got old so fast it broke the time barrier and ended up being old before it even happened. :)

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

@@KiX-K4T13 Sounds about right.

[@zacharygadzinski3147]

Not a D&D player yet, but this concept seems to be like the modern concept of the Feywild. Wonderland being part of the Feywild confirmed.

[@Gothyl]

Brilliant... Great Review!!! I ran these with a lot of adjustments in my Campaign. I made the entrance into Dungeonland through the Garden Room in X2 Castle Amber module. The answer to the mysterious disappearance of young Alice Amber was discovered by my PCs. They absolutely loved this combination of Modules. If you would... Please do a review of X2 Castle Amber module. Again thanks for this Wonderful review!!!

[@brianskelly4979]

Dungeonland and Land Beyond the mirror's covers specifically have images from the other module on it purposely.

[@TheRamsesII]

These modules (there were two in the series) were tough. But fun and cool.

[@benh2339]

No offense to Gary Gygax - he literally pioneered an entire hobby - but everything I hear about the way he runs dnd makes me think he wouldn't be fun to play with at all.

[@dracone4370]

I wonder what the two modules would look like if/when they are updated for a more modern take on everything. Monsters, treasures, and player options have undergone some progressive, yet major, changes since the Dungeonland and Through the Magic Mirror modules were first published.

[@therasslintheatre2960]

21:40 You forgot to mention he's the god of gunslingers and sherrifs He's literally the Arizona Ranger if he ascended to godhood

[@stewbacca2119]

One of my all time favorite modules was the 2nd edition Ravenloft. You should do that.