Review - The Lost City

Muffin Reviews The Lost City, dungeon module B4 for Basic D&D and Goodman Games Original Adventures Reincarnated Volume 4.
The Nostalgia Trade in D&D: • The Nostalgia Trade in...
B4 The Lost City: www.drivethrur...
Basic D&D Rulebook: www.drivethrur...
Expert D&D Rulebook: www.drivethrur...
D&D Rules Cyclopedia: www.drivethrur...
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[@SimonAshworthWood]

Now THIS is what I like to see in my KZbin notifications: a Willy Muffin D&D review! :D Thanks for making this one, Ian! :D

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you, Simon! I hope you find it useful!

[@jamesrickel3814]

Glad to see a new post, I was slightly concerned something negative had interrupted your life.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

I was concerned too. Ian, I thought you were unhappy about your videos not being as popular as you wanted and had given up on making them. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. 😀

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Definitely not negative - well, from a life point of view. So far. It's just absorbing a lot of time during these early weeks! But thank-you for your concern 🙂

[@iainmcdonald9764]

Enjoyed the review. This is one of my favourite adventures of all time.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Mine, too. Not my absolute favourite, but floating around!

[@williammoore9794]

Great review! Makes me think this should be my next purchase... Your ideas for future videos sound very interesting. Looking forward to the next one 🙂

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you - I'm glad you found it useful!

[@Cynidecia]

One of my favorite Modules.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

It's a good one!

[@philcarter371]

Excellent review. Avidly watch your channel, thank you for making this amazing content.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you!

[@RodBatten]

There was a later Lost City retrospective/adventure: Masque of Dreams. I plan to use that as the lead-in to a campaign ending showdown with Zargon. I managed to set it up so the PCs fled the Lost City, vowing to return to slay Zargon (the 3e version). In between I stuck in Veiled Society, Halls of Tizun Thane, and Castle Amber. A nostalgia roadtrip to run a bunch of stuff I've always wanted to bring to the table.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Sounds like fun to me!

[@BX-advocate]

This is my favorite module of all time. I've heard it is based on the Conan story Red Nails. Also I agree Moldvay is a great writer I wish he made more modules.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

He did some fantastic work, may he RIP. Also - read Red Nails! You'll see the similarity. Gutenberg has an ebook of it: www.gutenberg.org/files/32759/32759-h/32759-h.htm

[@BX-advocate]

@@WillyMuffinUKI ordered a comic of Red Nails

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@BX-advocate Cool - enjoy 🙂

[@rossm7346]

Hi Willy. I wasn’t around when this came out, I hadn’t been born yet. I’ve come from 5e a few years ago and loved B/X among other things. Love your videos. Here’s some of my B4 perspective from someone who can’t have nostalgia about it. 1. I agree about story. I’d say the story *emerges* from the elements in the adventure instead of being given my exposition to the referee or NPCs to players. The seperate random tables with the Cynidiceans, requiring the referee to go to the back of the book for example. One group was carrying something like a cantelouope on a stretcher with a face drawn on it, and all of them had different animal masks. They begged the party to “heal their friend.” Another group all crouched around acting like crows until someone died then carried the body off. It was clear something was going on with the Cynidiceans. I did nothing more than skim the module before reading it, and came to the conclusion they had “degenerated”. It was all very sword and sorcery bordering on weird fiction/space fantasy. The players discovered how to manipulate the “god mouths” at the top of the temple and began speaking as the gods, allying with the Warrior Women, and staying the men. Quite a story arose, and it definitely didn’t lend itself to murder Hoboism! This was all a group of modern players playing straight from the TSR version and using OSE (B/X)

[@WillyMuffinUK]

One of the best things about the old modules was that the story was left for individual groups to figure out - in 8, 16, 32, or sometimes 64 pages, the author laid out the scaffolding for all that fun to build upon.

[@patrickmullen9485]

I actually become filled with joy every time my feed tells me that a new Willy Muffin video has appeared.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Bloody hell, let's not get carried away 🤣

[@anthonyisback]

This is such an underrated channel especially dms who like to dig through older stuff on drove thru or dms guild. My only bit of feedback is I would like him to go through the overall story line of the modules,

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I try and not give too much in the way of spoilers, but perhaps a separate synopsis type of video?

[@awaytoanywhere699]

A good review, thanks. Another video idea: a walkthrough of d&d art over the years, perhaps covering some of the works of Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson etc. - if it has your interest, of course.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Good idea. I've only met two TSR artists - Elmore and Easley - and they were thoroughly nice people. I might expand the idea to cover RPG art across the board, though. For example, the work of Angus McBride and his own influence on how I visualise certain things in my head is right up there among the TSR and WotC arty folk!

[@SimonAshworthWood]

Michael Moorcock? Yes, I’m interested in that video, too. Edition wars? Yes I’m interested in what you want to say about that, too, Ian. 😀

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Me too! Anyone's guess which will be finished first.

[@patrickmullen9485]

How about Moorcock AND Stormbringer RPG?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

The brief is: * Who he is * His major works * His influence on gaming (eg, D&D alignment) * Adaptations (eg Stormbringer/Elric, Hawkmoon, D&D appearances) * Recommended reading

[@stevenkennedy4130]

@@WillyMuffinUK Bring it!

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@stevenkennedy4130 I sort of did already! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXbMaYawrKuhjLs

[@venusboys3]

Hmmm... I love DCC and Goodman Games approach to RPGs, but I'd had NO interest in these 5e conversions. BUT... I think you've got me interested in picking this one up, since it looks more Goodman-esque than WOTC-esque... and as you mention, most of the 5e stuff is in the back and could be ignored. Also, I only know of this adventure, B4, by your description, but it reminds me a bit of Lovecraft's story The Mound (underground city of mutated humans) and, much more recently, Prince of Nothing's great adventure 'The Palace of Unquiet Repose', which B4 must have been at least partial inspiration for.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

It is one of those adventures that seems to have been influential - or maybe it's just one of those themes? Regardless, it is a good one. I'm glad I piqued your interest for it.

[@midnightgreen8319]

I love the Palace of Unquiet Repose! Fantastic adventure! The Lost City is my favorite Basic adventure, it's brilliant, this was the first of the Adventures Reincarnated that I got ahold of. I now own 4 😂

[@midnightgreen8319]

This is my favorite of the old TSR adventures. I run these with DCC instead of 5e. Works out well.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Whatever works :)

[@midnightgreen8319]

@@WillyMuffinUK I love this adventure though, Moldvay really knew how to write one's that last!

[@WillyMuffinUK]

No argument there! His work was great.

[@swirvinbirds1971]

My favorite as well. Played it in the 80's as a teen.

[@lloydbrown2713]

I chase down every 1e KZbinr I can find, and most of them have very poor understanding of the RAW. They also tend to be bitter old people who hate everything that isn't their favorite edition of D&D. I appreciate your positive attitude, your mastery of the craft, and your candid reviews. You have immediately moved to the top of my list! You did not discuss the sheer amount of content in this adventure. I think in terms of play time, this adventure provides the biggest bang for your buck. It's also filled to the brim with loot! I have all of the Goodman Games conversions; I think they're fantastic. I would love to see an adaptation of Dwellers of the Forbidden City because it has so much room for expansion.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you! Part of the reason I do things the way I do is I'm also fed up of content that's just moaning. Goodman have done a fantastic job around filling out the OARs. Yes, certainly a huge amount of material to work with. Dwellers is an undervalued module. If Goodman did pick it up, I'd hope to see that mysterious underruin of the yuan-to - as well as some good jungle encounters surrounding the city chasm.

[@lloydbrown2713]

@@WillyMuffinUK There are few yuan-ti present in the module for it being their first appearance. They need a bigger role. Also, there's a section of "Additional adventures" at the end of the module that could be fleshed out into another 250 pages or so.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@lloydbrown2713 Especially the temples mentioned. The yuan-ti are meant to be the sort of sinister unknowns in the background - Horan is only the tip of the iceberg. PCs that encounter them as wanderers won't necessarily grasp the true extent of their involvement - and when Horan is defeated, job done! ... or so they might think...

[@TheLordCrass]

Thanks mate! x

[@retrodmray]

Another good one sir! 👍

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank you!

[@schm00b0]

You are covering be-fore? Well, that's nice :D

[@JJM-jh9oh]

Moar traveller. Give Moar Traveller. (Thaks for all the awesome content

[@WillyMuffinUK]

There will be!

[@midnightgreen8319]

The illustration of Zargon where his stat block is located is absolutely terrible. There is a full page illustration of Zargon fighting an adventuring party earlier in the book that is absolutely spectacular, it's wonderful.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

You're right. Such things don't personally bother me, but you are right.

[@midnightgreen8319]

@@WillyMuffinUK Art is subjective, I get it. But that full page one really shows how absolutely alien and nasty Zargon is.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@midnightgreen8319 Ah, main reason why it doesn't bother me is... I'm more bothered about the words in a game book than the art. I'd take a great adventure with crap art over a crap adventure with fantastic art any day. But as I said - no argument with your assessment. It's a great pic.

[@diekluge]

Isn't showing up at the tavern, figuring out where the nearest dungeon is, and going in and slaughtering everything pretty much the premise behind Temple of Elemental Evil?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

It depends how you play it. But at its essential, pared-down core - yup. By thst token, so is the original Ravenloft.

[@Dave_L]

@7:35 I suspect that this "concept of old school roleplaying" may have existed in pockets back in the day, but it is much more so a modern artifact of the "OSR" which itself badly misconstrues how games were played back in the day. In short, there is very little similarity between that new thing that the community has named "the old school" and the actual way people played back in the day… there is nothing really old about old school, it is rather a pointed rejection of D&D 3e (which has a lot more continuity with AD&D than OSR folks would be comfortable admitting). I personally don't care for either new D&D or the OSR movement… I just want to play the modules I owned as a kid in the 90’s simply because I spent hours pouring over them but actually got to play very few of them (childhood simply passes too quickly to do all the things you wanted to do as a kid)… it's a matter of unfinished business. I have no philosophical position of why TSR is better than OSR… Inevitably nostalgia plays a role, but I mainly just want to finish what I never could back then and experience those modules that I read over and over and imagined playing. What I do not want to do is spend more money on "reimagined" modern versions… they are just not the same modules I read over and over! I want to finish those same modules I read. In fact, I would say I have very little interest in the roleplaying "hobby" beyond that narrow goal and I wouldn't really consider myself a "gamer" at all. I do wonder if there is anybody out there like me, to be honest. Anyway, you may use this comment as the poster child for the kind of random, discontiguous, dyspeptic rants that you would like to discourage, if you'd like.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

You do you 😉

[@alanrickett2537]

I think I dm in a similar way to you what do you think of the adventure packs 1 and 2 modules for ADnD ?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Useful fillers and starting seeds. You can also add to those Tales of Outer Planes, Lords of Darkness, the various Books of Lairs, and the encounter/short scenario cards included in sets such as From the Ashes. All of these are very useful Lego bricks.

[@alhyde1269]

I can't seem to find the reincarnated (5e) version anywhere. It's out of stock in all bookstores. Not even the Goodman Games website has it listed😞

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Yeah, the relationship between Goodman and WotC that allowed it to be done ended. That affects Original Adventures Reincarnated 1 through 6. The Lost City is one of those slated to be in Quests from the Infinite Staircase, if that's any consolation.