The Keep on the Borderlands

This week, we take a look at the famed Dungeons & Dragons module B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands. We discuss how easy it is to find the module, even forty years later, the importance of beginner modules, the weird fact that it isn't an AD&D module and its inclusion in the 5E playtest packet. We also draw some comparisons to RuneQuest's Snake Pipe Hollow and make a surprising number of references to the 1979 cult classic film The Warriors before ruminating on human creativity. A little bit of everything, as ever.
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Stu owns three separate copies of The Keep on the Borderlands.
Corrections: Keep is for levels one through three. Bill Willingham does not have art in it - just Roslof, Otus and Diesel.
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Intro music by George Collazo.
The Vintage RPG illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter.
Tune in next week for the next episode. Until then, may the dice always roll in your favor!

[@AnotherMike2]

My group is playing Keep on the Borderlands now. We are using Old School Essentials and I love it. It’s better than 5e in my opinion. Gritty, dark and deadly dungeon crawls where your cunning is more important than your stats. No feats. No super powers. No cantrips. Also magic is rare and frightening to the average person. Magical spells and research are viciously coveted. Noble barbarian savages adventure along side noble knights. It is so fun.

[@paulwastney5134]

What a module. Played sooo many times. Still worth introducing new players to it

[@MIB000DG]

I'm running this right now and it's clear to me that the artifacts in the shrine of evil chaos turned adventurers into evil cultists and those cultists brought various humanoid chiefs into the cave and exposed them to the artifacts and their geas. That is why all the various humanoids do not constantly war with one another with the strongest driving the others out.

[@corporatemerger653]

The Keep On The Borderlands was the module I used to introduce my 9 year old to role-playing. Now he plays with my group every week.

[@corporatemerger653]

What are you guys referring too? Watch what series?

[@jben6]

I have stolen a cue from B3 with the giant ruby Eye of Arik and added another in the Temple of Chaos, in the form of that 1000gp ruby in the throne. That ruby is why so many disparate monsters have loosely allied to fight the Keep.

[@yodanno]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!

[@Raycheetah]

B5, "Horror on the Hill" (1983), by Douglas Niles has some similar aspects to B2, but is less of a "Disneyland" dungeon, if you will. Rather than simply presenting a dungeon with an assortment of goblinoids, it is a structured adventure with a story behind it. My takeaway as a player was of a well-presented faux-wilderness setting (the description of the terrain surrounding the actual dungeon left me feeling itchy and uncomfortable, as mud, bugs, and brambles initially bar the party's way), and of a place occupied by enemies who had reasons to be there. It includes one unpleasant, unavoidable (save by simply not interacting with it, as if) "trick/trap", which my DM told me later she had modified as a bit too harsh. Other than that, B5 was a well-crafted adventure, even if the home base, "Guido's Fort" was undeveloped (and it may be suggested that the "Keep" from B2 serve as a stand-in). Not nearly so broadly heralded, but still a fine romp for a low-level party. =^[.]^=

[@swirvinbirds1971]

B series of modules meant Basic D&D. X series of modules meant the Expert D&D rules. I'm not sure if that continued on with Champion rules and beyond though.

[@sullyb23511]

The first DnD module that I ever played. I'd love to return to it, today. I'm pretty sure that it's the first module for a ton of people.