Welcome to Mystara: Keep on the Borderlands

[@azmendozafamily]

Heavens! That opening monologue rounded like a foreword to a memoire of a Vietnam vet describing how Tex, Brooklyn and Slim died in the bush, but the jungle would not give an inch that you didn't take from within that open maw.

[@danielchristensen374]

Your commentary warms my flinty black heart. Well done, sir.

[@juancholo7502]

Oh, man. This was the only module that ever defeated me. Back in the late 90s Me & a friend decided to play some of the old D&D modules. I ran 4 characters while he DMed. One of the rules we had was if a character dies, it gets replaced with a 1st level character. Unfortunately, hiring henchman/hirelings was just something that wasn't done with any of the gaming groups I had been in. Looking back it would have made adventuring so much easier. I soon had assaults on the caverns planned out like a war campaign with fall back positions & hidden caches of supplies with food, drink, oil, ammunition, spare weapons & supplies. Oh, I did hire one npc to watch our pack animals, I should have learned from that. I got to a point where I only had a badly wounded 2nd level cleric dragging back an nearly dead 1st level halfling back from the last encounter that had killed the rest of the party. The DM rolled the random encounter & we were stopped by the bandits in the area. The bandit leader looked at the remains of the party & with a smirk threw a small bag of coins at us & said we needed the charity. At that point I realized that the lowest level monsters left to fight were the gnolls. I would be replacing my losses with 2 more 1st level characters. I looked at the DM & said I don't think I can win this one. The DM agreed & wanted to move on to another module. Looking back I can see the mistakes I made. Not hiring help was a big one.

[@sebbonxxsebbon6824]

War Dogs are 25 gold pieces. Brutal.

[@verpalorian310]

Tip- BECMI's Charm Person spell works on Ogres.

[@jeffweskamp3685]

In my version of this module's scenario, the Caves of Chaos were essentially a forward operating base for the various humanoid tribes. There were no humanoid children, and the non-combatants simply were not there. The caves were an outpost, not a permanent home for these creatures (except for the Ogre, the Minotaur, and the Owlbear). The Chaos Cult was actually leading the humanoid bands and urging them to attack the civilized lands.

[@DolFan316]

That's how I always pictured it too. It's really the only sensible explanation as to why there's this large random multiracial group of monsters just hanging out by a keep but never actually doing anything. They're actually an advance force whose purpose was to secure a beachhead for when the main army arrives. The troops in the keep don't bother attacking them because 1. their orders are to defend only and 2. the monsters aren't actually attacking so they're not currently a threat as such. The PCs are there under orders from some government member (maybe Stefan Karameikos himself although he wouldn't really be involved with characters of such low level directly) to scout/clear out the caves. The most ignored aspect of the module IMO is the lizardmen tribe. Everyone gets caught up in the mad hermit and forgets that in this iteration of D&D lizardmen are officially neutral, which means that clever PCs can convince them the monsters are a threat and get them on the PCs side.

[@patrickbuckley7259]

7:38 Well I'm sold. -The Idealistic Cleric with a thousand yard stare. (Though mine is the result of having to constantly pull a bards finger out of metaphorical light sockets.)

[@ericfountain1807]

Thank you, You have made me wanna find a group and run this again.

[@robdefibaugh1781]

Omg, I still have that. Love it.

[@GrimGoblinLives]

I already know how to use this - put on horror music, play all monsters as horror encounters, add stress mechanics for inexperienced PCs feeling their first stress of combat. In other words, turn it into the Darkest Dungeon

[@Candid1ify]

First and most loved module I ever played broke my Dming teeth om this. We made every mistake pointed out and still had a lot of fun. People got to play a huge number of classes, and die a lot.

[@ReadingDave]

My first two attempts at keep on the borderlands were without a mage, third attempt I played a magic using elf and I cast sleep I was amazed at how effective that was compared to the hack and slash that we were use to.

[@MrSteveK1138]

In a previous campaign, I called the keep Morgansfort (from Basic Fantasy) and commanded by a former adventurer, Morgan Ironwolf.

[@jayscheer5529]

tears came to my eyes listening to this!

[@georgeanderton9741]

9:39 In my Keep on the borderlands Adventure I thought about the Humanoid children dilemma and I have an NPC named Stromboli who is a member of the Iron Ring who is prepared to buy them up from the party. Bonuse points to who can guess the Disney movie who the NPC was inspired off

[@redfeildre349]

I clicked so fast it did not even make it to notifications.

[@markwalker4485]

I have great memories of this module. I still remember stalking the tunnels with my 2 handed sword. Still use the same character to this day

[@haveswordwilltravel]

How many brand new 1st level character went straight into the minotaur cave and got waxed?

[@AlVainactual]

I converted this to 5e for my group of completely green to RPGs players. They lost three characters before getting to the Caves proper. One to the Hermit, one to the traitor Clerics that accompanied them and one to the Owlbear that nested in the end. This is a meatgrinder, but a fun one.

[@korge1184]

Started running this. Players are starting asking questions. Like where is my halfling from and just blurted out five shires. That is all I know of Mystara. I need help.

[@garyledford2901]

OMG I loved your rreview of this!

[@scottmcley5111]

Great video!

[@pentegarn1]

Given the namby pamby society we live in today....that was the most cold hard truth I've consumed in one sitting in a long time. lol

[@Tabletop_Epics]

I, too, recall the horrors Chris Brown wrought from his cave within that module.

[@elvoria]

I just played this on DDO and I love it.

[@death2all79zx]

This is part of a Dungeons and Dragons online? In eberron?

[@elvoria]

@@death2all79zx Yes. With the help of the gatekeeper, u are able to travel to the Borderland. DDO already got Ravenloft, Eveningstar of Cormyr in Forgotten Realm and even temple of elemental evil, I would not be surprise they include Mystara.

[@davezenz]

Solid!

[@DolFan316]

This is the sort of module that would leave today's coddled, spoiled, pampered millennial PCs curled up in the fetal position sobbing. Therefore, it's awesome.

[@xavierp7658]

I think you mean Gen Z. Some Millennials are in their 40s now. I’m a millennial and I love this kinda stuff

[@death2all79zx]

@9:39, lies. Its always been acceptable, even encouraged.

[@johnbalk6091]

Agreed. They’re humanoids. They’re supposed to be killed.

[@DolFan316]

As far as the kids are concerned, if ya can't kill 'em, then groom 'em. (Rim shot.)