'B1' Series: The Hidden Serpent

The ‘B’ series, the series of modules published by TSR, Inc. for Basic Dungeons & Dragons did not begin with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That much is obvious, but there is no denying that it feels that way. This is not surprising given that it was packaged with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set between 1979 and 1983, it is estimated that more than a million copies of B2 Keep on the Borderlands were printed, and for a great many gamers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was their introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. Yet before this, there was another scenario, also part of the ‘B’ series, and also packaged with Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set until it was replaced with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That module was B1 In Search of the Unknown.

First published in 1979 as an introductory adventure for the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set that had appeared the year before, B1 In Search of the Unknown set out to provide an adventure that could be run by the novice Dungeon Master and played by novice roleplayers, both just setting out on their first foray into the world of dungeoneering. Thus it is designed to challenge Dungeon Master and players alike and to be instructive for both, but it is not designed to be particularly deadly as a dungeon for experienced players might be. Yet where in the decades since its original publication B2 Keep on the Borderlands has been visited and revisited, from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands to the Keep on the Borderlands series for the Encounters Program for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, the fact is that B1 In Search of the Unknown has been all but ignored by both TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. Instead it has been third party publishers who have revisited the first entry in the ‘B’ series. Most notably and recently, of course, by Goodman Games with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands. In 2002, Kenzer & Company had published B1 Quest for the Unknown as an adaptation for its own retroclone, HackMaster, Fourth Edition, but another publisher has revisited B1 In Search of the Unknown since then—Faster Monkey Games.

No longer in operation, Faster Monkey Games is best known for titles such as Skull Mountain and the excellent In The Shadow of Mount Rotten, both still available from Catthulhu.com. In 2010, Faster Monkey Games published The Hidden Serpent. This is a dungeon crawl adventure, designed for four to six characters of Second to Fourth Level, written for use with Labyrinth Lord. Most notably—and despite the title—The Hidden Serpent is actually a homage to the classic B1 In Search of the Unknown. Unlike that scenario, The Hidden Serpent is complete and ready to play, and does not need the intervention of the Labyrinth Lord in order to populate it with either monsters nor treasures. It comes as a 7.53 MB twenty-six-page, full PDF with really nice colour cover, its maps and handouts being including separately for ease of use by the Labyrinth Lord.

From the start, The Hidden Serpent comes with a solid background story and hooks to get the player characters involved. The backstory casts Zeglin the wizard and Rogar the warrior as former adventurers who have established a band of mercenaries willing to fight for any employer, whatever their alignment, whether that involves destablising local governments or actively suppressing dissent. In the process, the former adventurers have grown rich and this has paid for the expansion and development of their hidden cavern base, which they have called ‘QUAZKYTON’. For years they operated in secret, but recently, the arrival of a young woman at the caverns has disrupted the situation in QUAZKYTON. Brought to the complex by Rogar, Meli the courtesan found life there unpalatable and fled, taking both Rogar’s previously loyal lieutenant, Captain Karov, and much of his wealth, with her. As Rogar goes after the traitorous Meli and Captain Karov, and Zeglin leaves to fulfil another commission, QUAZKYTON will be left in the hands of their other subordinates, which will have profound effects upon the underground complex when the player characters come to explore it.

The Hidden Serpent offers two hooks to get the player characters involved, both being predicated on their being in a frontier town. The first is to confirm that someone is making use of slaves in the nearby foothills and the second is to locate a relic said to be hidden there. The Labyrinth Lord is free to use either or both of these and is given a wilderness map for the player characters to traverse, along with a few encounters they can have along the way. Neither the town nor the location are named, but ostensibly, The Hidden Serpent is part of the Eastern Valnwall setting, based on the Known Lands in Labyrinth Lord. That said, both town and dungeon are easy to slot into whatever campaign setting the Labyrinth Lord is using.

The encounters do allow the Labyrinth Lord to give her player characters a bit of a runaround, but eventually they will find QUAZKYTON. Another benefit of the encounters is that they give the opportunity for the player characters to enter and explore the complex by guile rather than force. The complex itself resembles the Quasqueton of B1 In Search of the Unknown, but on a much reduced scale. This does not mean that the notable features of Quasqueton have been lost. So the Fungus Garden and the infamous Room of Pools—here as the Chamber of Cauldrons—are present. Physically, the design of QUAZKYTON is not as compact and more clearly organised, with discrete sections dividing the complex into quarters and facilities for the mercenaries and then suites of rooms for Zeglin and Rogar. These are almost mini-dungeons in themselves, especially Zeglin’s quarters where both the Fungus Garden and the Chamber of Cauldrons are, located as they are behind a series of magically trapped doors.

The second level or caves of QUAZKYTON is also smaller. The cave are also radically different. Instead of being under development as in Quasqueton, here they have been sealed off to present their current denizens from getting loose. Primarily this is a band of undead that were former Dwarven miners that Zeglin left here to die. Not only does this confirm that the wizard is evil, it adds an element of horror to the scenario.

Another difference between B1 In Search of the Unknown and The Hidden Serpent is their time frames. In the former, Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown disappeared years ago, unlikely to return, and Quasqueton is all but abandoned. (Indeed, this is explored further in Pacesetter Games & Simulations’ B1 Legacy of the Unknown.) In The Hidden Serpent, QUAZKYTON is a working environment and this can be of benefit to the player characters. If they are roleplayed as mercenaries, they may be able to look around the facilities with some ease. Yet it can also work against the player characters, for if the remaining garrison realises that they are intruders, they will defend the complex. The other possible issue is whether or not Zeglin and Rogar are coming back—and if so, when? In reality, this is more of a threat than an actuality, since the player characters are unlikely to be able to defeat either Zeglin or Rogar. It is thus a story element, though one that the Labyrinth Lord may need to make more explicit, serving to push the player characters to act rather than taking too much time in exploring the complex. What this means though, is that The Hidden Serpent is not really the exploration dungeon that its inspiration was.

The real difference between The Hidden Serpent and B1 In Search of the Unknown is not one of size, even though The Hidden Serpent is smaller and more compact, but one of story. In B1 In Search of the Unknown, the story is implied, waiting to be found amongst the artefacts left behind by Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, telling who they and Melissa are, and perhaps what has happened to her at least. In The Hidden Serpent, the story is more overt—the escaped slaves who have made it as far as the town in the first plot hook, the evacuated QUAZKYTON as Zeglin goes off to undertake a commission and Rogar goes after his ex-girlfriend, the tensions between the human and Demi-Human mercenaries left behind, and the mystery of the undead in the caverns… This gives the Labyrinth Lord a lot of story and plot elements to play with and the players to dig into, perhaps making it easier for the Labyrinth Lord to run and for her players to get involved. That said, perhaps the tensions between the human and Demi-Human mercenaries left behind could have been made more of.

Physically, The Hidden Serpent is well presented. It needs a slight edit here and there, but it is well written and whilst the artwork consists mostly of filler pieces designed to break up the text, they are decent filler pieces. The maps though, are nicely done and the cover is attractive.

When The Hidden Serpent was published in 2010, B1 In Search of the Unknown was not available. Indeed, Wizards of the Coast would not make it available until 2013. So when it was released, The Hidden Serpent represented a proper alternative and choice for the Labyrinth Lord and her players to experience something similar. Yet, The Hidden Serpent is not as ‘Old School’ as B1 In Search of the Unknown. This is obvious in its emphasis on story over simple exploration, but it is still a challenging, sometimes deadly scenario. And as much as it is a homage to B1 In Search of the Unknown, the story elements means that it is going to play differently too. Overall, The Hidden Serpent is an enjoyable tribute to B1 In Search of the Unknown, but with its emphasis on story, more ‘new school’ than ‘old school’.

B2 Series: B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet until the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and then Goodman Games with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands, it would be other publishers who would revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Kenzer & Company visited it not once, but twice. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with the scenario, JN1 The Chaotic Caves, written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. 

Much B1 In Search of the Unknown, few publishers have explored what happened next after B2 Keep on the Borderlands. The exception is Pacesetter Games & Simulations. For B1 In Search of the Unknown, it has published two sequels, first B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown and then B1 Legacy of the Unknown. Similarly, it has also published a pair of sequels to B2 Keep on the Borderlands—B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

In the classic set-up of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, the various Demi-Human races being marshalled at the Caves of Chaos by the evil priests of the Shrine of Evil Chaos, ready to strike at the nearby Keep and bring disorder and destruction that one step closer to the frontiers of civilisation. Except of course, the player characters intervene, making a name for themselves as they discover the Caves of Chaos, strike at the various tribes one-by-one, and ultimately disrupt the plans of the evil priests. So the evil priests and the Bugbears, Gnolls, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, and Orcs never get to attack the Keep, but in B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland, somebody else does!

Designed for eight characters of Second to Third Levels, B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland is written for use with the ‘First Edition’ game rules of your choice. So of course, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but more recently, OSRIC, short for Old School Reference and Index Compilation and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. Just sixteen pages in length, it comes as a 6.65 MB PDF with a full-colour cover, and comes with everything needed to run the adventure.

B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland is a direct sequel to B2 Keep on the Borderlands. The player characters are resting at the Keep after their forays in the Caves of Chaos and their ultimate victory when a blizzard strikes and the Keep is enveloped in snow. Everyone is sheltering from the weather when disaster strikes and part of the wall of the Keep shatters. Fortunately, a quartet of Dwarven stonesmiths are staying at the Keep and can repair the wall, but the stone has to be quarried. For that, the stonesmiths and labourers will require guards, which is where the player characters come in. The castellan of the Keep hires them to escort the Dwarven stonesmiths and the labourers and so make the very cold and snowy trip to the quarry. Of course, the quarry is occupied, and here the player characters may find clues to the fact that something is going on. Fortunately, their charges will be able to cut the stones necessary and so everyone can return to the Keep. Yet even as the repairs are affected, the Keep comes under attack and the player characters are forced into helping defend some very frosty attacks on the frontier fort. If they are successful, then they may be able to track the villain of the piece back to his lair.

Physically, B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland is well presented. The writing is good and if the cartography is somewhat rough, the cover is excellent. The map simply plugs into the wilderness map in B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but much like the scenario, is easily relocated to the castle and wilderness setting of the Dungeon Master’s choosing.

B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland is a short and punchy scenario. It throws the player characters into perilous situation after perilous situation and allows the Dungeon Master to make the weather a danger as much as the enemy threats to the Keep. It also very nicely put the evil threat to the Keep and its inhabitants on the front foot, making it much more active—a very welcome change from the original B2 Keep on the Borderlands. If the Dungeon Master was looking for good sequel to B2 Keep on the Borderlands, then B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland is highly recommended.

B2 Series: B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet until the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and then Goodman Games with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands, it would be other publishers who would revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Kenzer & Company visited it not once, but twice. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with the scenario, JN1 The Chaotic Caves, written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. 

Much B1 In Search of the Unknown, few publishers have explored what happened next after B2 Keep on the Borderlands. The exception is Pacesetter Games & Simulations. For B1 In Search of the Unknown, it has published two sequels, first B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown and then B1 Legacy of the Unknown. Similarly, it has also published a pair of sequels to B2 Keep on the Borderlands—B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos and B2.5 Blizzard on the Borderland.

One of the elements in B2 Keep on the Borderlands that has vexed and intrigued Dungeon Masters and players alike over the decades is the boulder-filled passenger to be found leading off the Shrine of Evil Chaos. Where did it go? What was at the end of it? The option given in the B2 Keep on the Borderlands is that might eventually lead to the Caverns of the Unknown, that is, B1 In Search of the Unknown. Pacesetter Games & Simulations provides a solution of its own with B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos. Published in 2015 and designed for four to eight characters of Fourth to Sixth Level using both Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and OSRIC, short for Old School Reference and Index Compilation, B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos is set in the publisher’s Misty Isles campaign setting and specifically on the Isle of the Star Witch. That said, a Dungeon Master can easily add it to the campaign of her choice, plus there are potential links to a classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons scenarios as well.

Having cleared the barricaded tunnel, the player characters discover a black, marble obelisk rests in the middle of the passage. It is marked with a single rune—the sign of the dread arch-mage Hilgdred, a renowned storm wizard—warning them not to proceed further. Of course, this will not impede the player characters and after three days they will reach the end of the tunnel where they will find an enormous cavern all but filled by a cold lake. By this time, the player characters will be far underground, in the ‘Deep’ as B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos terms it and from a second pillar, have discovered from a second pillar that the ice prison of Harkafael lies beyond. It comes with an obligatory and deadly warning to anyone wanting to free him.

The banks around the lake are inhabited and there are some interesting features. The main inhabitants include an outpost from the Lake Legion tribe of Hobgoblins and an Ogre shrine to their god. The outpost for the most part is a run-of-the-mill den of Demi-Humans, but the shrine is a nasty encounter with devout Ogres and their divine magics. This is a nice little twist to the reputation of Ogres as being more brawn than brain. Where B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos gets slightly more interesting is simply another tunnel. Now although the player characters will not know it, this leads into the underground territory of the Drow and there is a chance that the player characters might meet them should they meddle unnecessarily—which is likely to happen given that they are player characters.

The focus of B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos is not so much the ice prison of the Frost Giant, Harkafel, as getting into it. This is not immediately obvious, or indeed obvious at all. This is in part because the means to get into the prison is actually in the lake, but the structures in the lake are similarly not obvious. So this may lead to a frustrating experience for the players as their characters are not able to locate the means or clues that they need. There is a solution though in the form of a wizard’s telescope which everything viewed through quite close. The Dungeon Master may want to add that if looked at through the telescope, that the contents of the lake are visible. 

Yet for their efforts, exploring the lake will not yield very much in terms of reward or necessarily game play. B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos is just not that exciting an expansion to B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but surprisingly, it is an interesting one, and that is because of two denizens that the player characters might encounter. One is the Frost Giant, Harkafel, the other are the Drow. Now it is possible to run B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos as a possible prequel to Pacesetter Games & Simulations’ G3 A Cold Day in Hell, but the inclusion of Frost Giants and Drow suggests links to TSR, Inc.’s classic G1–3 Against the Giants or even JN3 Saga of the Giants for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. Were the Dungeon Master to run B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos prior to either of those, then the player characters may well find themselves with an interesting ally when it comes to playing them.

Physically, B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos is reasonably well written and laid out. The artwork all feels a bit familiar, and some of it is not all that good, and the cartography is pedestrian at best. The cover is fantastically striking though.

As a direct sequel to B2 Keep on the Borderlands, the truth is that B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos is not that interesting or exciting. Part of the issue is that it does not necessarily link back to B2 Keep on the Borderlands and it does not answer why there is a long tunnel leading from the Shrine of Evil Chaos to the lake cavern or why the tunnel was collapsed. Part of the issue is that there is no hook beyond curiosity to explore the area. As an interlude, B2 Beyond the Caves of Chaos has potential to link to other scenarios, but as a sequel, it underwhelms.

'B2' Series: JN1 The Chaotic Caves

The reputation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its influence on fantasy roleplaying is such that publishers keep returning to it. TSR, Inc. of course published the original as well as including it in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which is where many gamers encountered it. The publisher would also revisit it with Return to the Keep on the Borderlands for its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the module would serve as the basis for Keep on the Borderlands, part of Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Encounters Program’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Yet until the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and then Goodman Games with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands, it would be other publishers who would revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Kenzer & Company visited it not once, but twice. First with B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands: An Introductory Module for Characters Level 1–4 in 2002, and then again in 2009 with Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure. Another publisher to revisit B2 Keep on the Borderlands was Chris Gonnerman, with a scenario written for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game.

The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a retro-clone based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Expert Dungeons & Dragons from the early eighties, but with some changes. Most notably, they include d20 System-style ascending armor class and the separation of character race and class. The fantastic thing is that the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is free to download, as are the various scenarios available for it. Further, even in print, both the roleplaying game and the scenarios are inexpensive, so that for £10, a gaming group can have a copy of the core rules and one or two scenario books, representing numerous sessions of play. Arguably, the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game offers one of the cheapest options for getting into the Old School Renaissance. JN1 The Chaotic Caves: A Basic Fantasy RPG Adventure Series For Characters of Levels 1-3 is one such scenario. It is written by J.D. Neal and is an adaptation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands to the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, who would later revisit X1 Isle of Dread with JN2 Monkey Isle—itself recently adapted to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in Original Adventures Reincarnated #2: The Isle of Dread and G1–3 Against the Giants with JN3 Saga of the Giants.

JN1 The Chaotic Caves: A Basic Fantasy RPG Adventure Series For Characters of Levels 1-3 presents a very familiar set-up: a bastion of civilisation on or just beyond the frontier, a wilderness area home to various threats, most notably an outpost of evil.  In B2 Keep on the Borderlands, these are the eponymous keep and the infamous Caves of Chaos. In JN1 The Chaotic Caves, they are an unnamed town and the eponymous Chaotic Caves. In fact, much like most of the NPCs and monsters in B2 Keep on the Borderlands, those in JN1 The Chaotic Caves also remain unnamed. Similarly, the town is not named either. The town itself is a rough, though not lawless place. Behind its wooden barricade—a stonemason has been hired to replace it with a stone wall, but in the meantime, the town is vulnerable—it maintains a garrison of troops and is home to farmers and smallholders, lumberjacks and hunters, traders and craftsmen. There is even a tax collector and a barber. What with that and the number of widows, maiden aunts, and even old coot with a penchant for telling fanciful stories, the town does not really feel like a fantasy town. It has the feel of a town in the Wild West. All it would need is the addition of a coffin maker and that impression would be complete! In fact, with a tweak or three, the unnamed town in JN1 The Chaotic Caves would work well with Pelgrane Press’ Owl Hoot Trail.

Beyond the town’s wooden barricade, JN1 The Chaotic Caves provides a large area map, covering over two thousand square miles. The area is not overly populated, there being an encounter table, plus six locations, ranging from an abandoned Halfling burrow and bandits on the road to a man bothered by a boar and a ruined castle. These are all quite restrained in nature, but offer a nice mix of roleplaying, exploration, and combat encounters. Of course, the area being fairly large means that there is room enough for the Dungeon Master to add more locations as she sees fit. One of these is the Chaotic Caves. Some eight lairs are detailed as running off the narrow valley containing these caves, their being home to Bandits, Bugbears, Goblins, Gnolls, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Lizard Men, and Orcs, as well as an abandoned cave system. Noticeable amongst this list of lair dwellers are the Bandits and Lizard Men, their being included as denizens of the Chaotic Caves in JN1 The Chaotic Caves rather than living elsewhere in the wilderness surrounding the town, as in the original B2 Keep on the Borderlands.  

In comparison to the town, the Caves of Horror are quite well detailed. In particular, there is a lovely, if underplayed, nod to the cover of the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition; there are potential roleplaying encounters too, whether with wily Goblin priests, surly bandit prisoners, and prisoners of all sorts to be found and released; and the various locations are decently described. There is much here that will be familiar to anyone who has read or run B2 Keep on the Borderlands, so for example, the Kobolds are reviled as little more than vermin and the Ogre’s brawn is available for sale. There are though, two notable omissions. The first is the adult tone of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and its later iterations, so as written the Lizard Men lair is strewn with bones, but the bones of animals rather than the skulls, femurs, and ribs of humans and other demi-humans. This is because JN1 The Chaotic Caves is written to be child friendly in play, but for the Dungeon Master there is the suggested option to include them. The second is the exclusion of the Shrine of Evil Chaos which lies at the heart of B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

Instead, there is an Abandoned Manor. This sits to the west of and above the Chaotic Caves—just off the map—and actually has the feel of the keep from B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but on a much smaller scale, inhabited by forces preparing to fall upon the nearby town and ransack it. As the finale to the campaign, this is neither as evil or as constrained as the Shrine of Evil Chaos. The latter consisted of a relatively small number of rooms, but this is a large, fortified manor, manned by several fighters and is the headquarters of the bandit forces looking to build their own empire in the region. They are evil with a small ‘e’ rather than the ‘EVIL’ of the Shrine of Evil Chaos, but rather mundane and not as interesting as the priests, acolytes, and artefacts of the Shrine of Evil Chaos. The inclusion of the bandits and the abandoned manor does not readily and clearly explain the reason why the various Demi-Human species are residing cheek-by-jowl in the Chaotic Chaos—learning that simply from exploring the abandoned manor is not as interesting and not as easy. That said, the inclusion of the abandoned manor and its inhabitants is in keeping with the toning down of the ‘adult’ tone of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, which was done earlier in the module with the Lizard Men.

The constrained nature of Shrine of Evil Chaos in B2 Keep on the Borderlands made its exploration more measured, but in JN1 The Chaotic Caves, the likelihood is that the player characters will come upon the abandoned manor, get attacked, and wonder why… Then when they go to investigate further, the inhabitants will quickly react to their intrusion, making this a potentially deadly encounter.

Physically, JN1 The Chaotic Caves is well presented and well written. A nice touch is that like all monsters and NPCs for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, those for this module have their Hit Points marked in boxes for the easy marking of. It is lightly illustrated, but what artwork there is, is decent. The one real issue, physically, is the size of the map of the Chaotic Caves is too small to read with ease.

JN1 The Chaotic Caves: A Basic Fantasy RPG Adventure Series For Characters of Levels 1-3 certainly packs equally as much adventure into its pages as B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but with room enough for the Dungeon Master to add her own. Much like the original, it does suffer from a lack of story to pull the player characters into the adventure and in part, the replacement of the Shrine of Evil Chaos with the abandoned manor and the bandits does not help in that, since ultimately, the motivations at the heart of the adventure are somewhat opaque. Nevertheless, JN1 The Chaotic Caves is a charming homage to B2 Keep on the Borderlands, offering an inexpensive means to play the classic adventure.

'B1' Series: In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook

The ‘B’ series, the series of modules published by TSR, Inc. for Basic Dungeons & Dragons did not begin with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That much is obvious, but there is no denying that it feels that way. This is not surprising given that it was packaged with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set between 1979 and 1983, it is estimated that more than a million copies of B2 Keep on the Borderlands were printed, and for a great many gamers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was their introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. Yet before this, there was another scenario, also part of the ‘B’ series, and also packaged with Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set until it was replaced with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That module was B1 In Search of the Unknown.

First published in 1979 as an introductory adventure for the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set that had appeared the year before, B1 In Search of the Unknown set out to provide an adventure that could be run by the novice Dungeon Master and played by novice roleplayers, both just setting out on their first foray into the world of dungeoneering. Thus it is designed to challenge Dungeon Master and players alike and to be instructive for both, but it is not designed to be particularly deadly as a dungeon for experienced players might be. Yet where in the decades since its original publication B2 Keep on the Borderlands has been visited and revisited, from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands to the Keep on the Borderlands series for the Encounters Program for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, the fact is that B1 In Search of the Unknown has been all but ignored by both TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. Instead it has been third party publishers who have revisited the first entry in the ‘B’ series. Most notably and recently, of course, by Goodman Games with  Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands. In 2002, Kenzer & Company had published B1 Quest for the Unknown as an adaptation for its own retroclone, HackMaster, Fourth Edition, but before the publication of Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands in 2018, B1 In Search of the Unknown was revisited by the fans.

Much like the fans of Masks of Nyarlathotep co-operated in producing the eventual mammoth Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion for Call of Cthulhu, in 2009, fans B1 In Search of the Unknown decided to collate all of the new material that had appeared about the module on sites like Dragonsfoot and elsewhere. The result was the In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook, available from the Zenopus Archives. The results is a collection of reviews, interviews, thoughts, and more, all available to download for free.

It opens with a review of B1 In Search of the Unknown by the former doyen of the Old School Renaissance, James Maliszewski, at his blog, Grognardia. It provides as much an introduction to the module as it does both an opinion and a recollection of it being run, providing the first of numerous personal takes upon B1 In Search of the Unknown throughout the In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook. James Maliszewski’s Grognardia is also the source of the sourcebook’s first interview. This is with the artist, Darlene, who provided the front and back covers of the module, but is perhaps best known for her classic map of the World of Greyhawk and the graphic design of The Guide to the World of Greyhawk. Her influence over the look of TSR, Inc. in its early days cannot be ignored and this is a fascinating interview, especially about her time at the company as one of the few female employees during this period. What it nicely showcases is just how good Grognardia was at exploring the early history of the hobby as it was at exploring the early history of Maliszewski’s involvement in the hobby.

Surprisingly, the one person not interviewed in In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook, is actually with Mike Carr, the designer of B1 In Search of the Unknown. Instead, ‘Q&A with Mike Carr’, Geoffrey McKinney collates a series of questions put to the author at the ‘Original D&D Discussion’ forum. The answers cover where Quasqueton might be in the World of Greyhawk (or not)—a subject that the In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook returns to in some depth, what the designer thinks of the module’s artwork, how he worked as the ‘TSR Games & Rules Editor’, and how he got started playing Dungeons & Dragons. Now reading it, the piece does not quite flow as the later interview with Darlene does, but there are some good questions here and Mike Carr really takes the time to give fulsome, interesting answers.

Author Rob Kuntz looks back at another artist involved in the production of B1 In Search of the Unknown with ‘Memories of David C. Sutherland III’. This is a lovely reminiscence as much about Sutherland as a friend as an artist and it is fascinating to read of his connection to Professor M.A.R. Barker and Tékumel. Surprisingly, the second review In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook is not of B1 In Search of the Unknown. Instead, Bill Silvey’s ‘Review: Holmes Basic’ looks at the ‘blue book’ version of Dungeons & Dragons. This is important because this edition, which pre-figured Basic Dungeons & Dragons, was the boxed set in which B1 In Search of the Unknown first appeared.

The website for collecting Dungeons & Dragons, The Acaeum is the source for the sourcebook’s complete printing history of B1 In Search of the Unknown. It strengthens the authority of In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook, so it feels a little not to appear further forward in the supplement. The supplement then takes a more theoretical turn with ‘Unknown Designs’ by Demos Sachlas, which explores and traces the history of the elements that make up B1 In Search of the Unknown. In particular, its design as an exploratory dungeon rather than as a ‘storytelling’ dungeon which would emerge later as the dominant form, for example with U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and DL1 Dragons of Despair. It also examines the nature of Quasqueton’s construction as a home as much a dungeon and then the nature of the threat faced by Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, which explains why they have been missing from their home for all these years. Here Demos Sachlas draws from the works of both Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber to look at the place of barbarians as the other. Much like Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, these barbarians are very much off-screen, although modules like B1 Legacy of the Unknown do explore both. 

‘Unknown Designs’ is the first of several contributions by Demos Sachlas. The next is ‘Prosopographies’, which applies classical rhetoric to draw forth information about a figure—or in this case, figures—who is not present. Of course, those figures are Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown and here the author has examined clues, signs, and objects left behind by the duo in their underground home. Most obviously in the tapestries, paintings, and frescoes to be found in their private quarters, but Sachlas extracts quite a lot of information about the pair. He continues his examination of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown with ‘The Question of Alignment’. Now the alignment of the pair is a matter of some debate since it is hinted at in B1 In Search of the Unknown that they might be evil, but then they actually stopped a threat to the nearby civilisation by thwarting the barbarian invasion. The various actions of the men are looked at and compared with Dungeons & Dragons’ Alignment system, from the horned, evil idol they keep in Quasqueton to their rescue of Melissa, the author goes back and forth over what their alignment might be, but much like the debate itself, the author cannot come to any conclusion. The history and backstory to the two men is presented in a literary essay by Jenni A.M. Merrifield. ‘Module B1: Updated for a Mystara Campaign’ which really works as a source of research for the player characters, perhaps before they set out to Quasqueton for the first time. It focuses in particular on the trio at the heart of the module, the idea being to provide background enough from which the Dungeon Master can develop story and roleplaying hooks, with various further rumours being provided to that end. In this, the article is notable for being the only one in the sourcebook to be critical of B1 In Search of the Unknown, even if only ever so slightly. To be fair, the article is written with hindsight of several years experience playing and development in terms of scenario design and play.

The placement of Quasqueton comes into question with another pair of articles by Demos Sachlas. ‘Quasqueton in the World of Greyhawk’ presents a mini-gazetteer of where the dungeon might be located in Dungeons & Dragons’ first game world, whilst ‘The Continential Map: D&D Game Campaign Setting’ does the same for the Grand Duchy of Karameikos and its surrounds. Even though the World of Greyhawk came first and was the Dungeons & Dragons world when B1 In Search of the Unknown was first published, the Grand Duchy of Karameikos feels more appropriate given that it was included in the ‘B’ series collection, B1-9: In Search of Adventure, as the part of that campaign. That said, these articles are the longest in In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook and not only are they a little dry, they are really only for devotees their respective settings.

Gabor Lux—the publisher of the fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut—contributes ‘Dungeon Layout, Map Flow and Old School Game Design Part One – Quasqueton’ continues the sourcebook’s examination of Quasqueton’s design and how that shapes B1 In Search of the Unknown as an exploration dungeon. Now there is by very design an exploration element to every dungeon, since their layout and contents are meant to be unknown and the discovery of both is part of the game’s play. Lux looks at their design as a means to influence player decisions, working through simple layouts, from linear and linear with sidetracks to branching and circular, to show how each works. Then it applies this to B1 In Search of the Unknown to show how sophisticated the design is.

One of the features of B1 In Search of the Unknown is that none of its rooms are populated and it is intended that the Dungeon Master do so herself from the lists of monsters provided. With ‘The Caverns of Quasqueton I’, Geoffrey McKinney offers his own list along with extra little details, whilst C. Wesley Clough offers his own with ‘The Caverns of Quasqueton II’, which is designed for the later Basic Dungeons & Dragons. Aldarron provides ‘The Caverns of Quasqueton III’, which reworks the dungeon’s denizens to emphasise the fact that it has all but been abandoned. 

Whilst the ‘The Caverns of Quasqueton’ series offered options in terms of the dungeon’s contents, Arzon the Mighty, based on original artwork by ‘Mike of Dragonsfoot’ provides a new map of Quasqueton. This contains all of the same locations and rooms, but opens them up to make the map much easier to read than in its original presentation in B1 In Search of the Unknown. Lastly, Shadow Stack maps out and details a whole new area, that of ‘Quasqueton Tower’. In the original module, this has collapsed due to inferior workmanship. Consisting of nine storeys, the write-up of the tower follows that of the original module in not having any monsters given for any of its locations, the Dungeon Master being expected to add these. This is a nice addition, an option that the Dungeon Master can add should she want to expand the original module, if only to a limited extent and only upwards. Lastly, with ‘Remembering Quasqueton’, numerous players and Dungeon Masters give their recollections of playing and running the module. This adds a lovely, personal touch to the end of the supplement.

Physically, In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook is a fifty-page, 11.29 MB full-colour PDF. The layout is clean and simple, the supplement reads well, and the artwork, much of it sourced from the original module is decent.

In many ways, the publication of Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands by Goodman Games has superseded the In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook, whether that is in terms of interviews, reminiscences, suggested monster options in terms of stocking Quasqueton. Yet, there is an earnest, honest charm to the amateurish nature of In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook. This is fans examining a module after years of having played it, thought about it, and talked about it and then telling us their ideas and suggestions as what it is about and how to make it better. Above all, the In Search of the Unknown Campaign Sourcebook showcases how appreciative they are of B1 In Search of the Unknown, and there can be no better tribute than that.

'B1' Series: B1 Legacy of the Unknown

The ‘B’ series, the series of modules published by TSR, Inc. for Basic Dungeons & Dragons did not begin with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That much is obvious, but there is no denying that it feels that way. This is not surprising given that it was packaged with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set between 1979 and 1983, it is estimated that more than a million copies of B2 Keep on the Borderlands were printed, and for a great many gamers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was their introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. Yet before this, there was another scenario, also part of the ‘B’ series, and also packaged with Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set until it was replaced with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. That module was B1 In Search of the Unknown.

First published in 1979 as an introductory adventure for the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set that had appeared the year before, B1 In Search of the Unknown set out to provide an adventure that could be run by the novice Dungeon Master and played by novice roleplayers, both just setting out on their first foray into the world of dungeoneering. Thus it is designed to challenge Dungeon Master and players alike and to be instructive for both, but it is not designed to be particularly deadly as a dungeon for experienced players might be. Yet where in the decades since its original publication B2 Keep on the Borderlands has been visited and revisited, from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands to the Keep on the Borderlands series for the Encounters Program for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, the fact is that B1 In Search of the Unknown has been all but ignored by both TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. Instead it has been third party publishers who have revisited the first entry in the ‘B’ series. Most notably and recently, of course, by Goodman Games with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands, which covered both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but before that though, in 2002, Kenzer & Company published B1 Quest for the Unknown. What few publishers have done though, is visit the aftermath of either B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands, though it could easily be argued that Kenzer & Company’s B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands is a sequel to B1 Quest for the Unknown. The exception though, is Pacesetter Games & Simulations.

Published in 2012, B1 Legacy of the Unknown specifically explores what happened the two men who constructed Quasqueton as their home, Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. According to B1 In Search of the Unknown, they left for the north on a great quest, but were never heard from again, leaving their home under what turned out to be poor supervision. Exactly how long ago is not quite clear, but definitely years rather than months. In B1 Legacy of the Unknown, both Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, along with the former’s girlfriend, Melissa, disappeared some thirty years ago. Having played through B1 In Search of the Unknown, the player characters will have discovered a map and several vague references in Zelligar the Unknown’s journal, all clues pointing to the direction in which the trio travelled and why—a barbarian treasure horde that lay hidden within a ruined city, home to the god which the barbarians worshipped. Except of course, that there are no such clues in B1 In Search of the Unknown, which until its inclusion in B1-9 In Search of Adventure, the collation of the first nine modules in the ‘B’ series, was very much a self-contained module. Those clues, at least hinting to the location of where Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown went, if not why, are to be found in B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown, which is designed to be run as part of B1 In Search of the Unknown and before B1 Legacy of the Unknown.

Both B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown and B1 Legacy of the Unknown are designed to be run with the ‘First Edition’ game rules of your choice. So of course, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but more recently, OSRIC, short for Old School Reference and Index Compilation and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown is designed for eight characters First to Second Level, and as well as bridging the story between B1 In Search of the Unknown and B1 Legacy of the Unknown, is designed to ensure that the player characters are of at least Second Level. That said, B1 Legacy of the Unknown is a challenging adventure, and perhaps may even be too tough for characters of Second Level in the numbers suggested, which is between four and eight. That said, B1 Legacy of the Unknown includes several encounters on the trail of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, which the Dungeon Master can use to bolster her player characters from First to Second Level. Further, there is no reason why the Dungeon Master cannot add further encounters to the player character’s journey from Quasqueton to the final fate of both Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown.

The encounters along the way include one with a rabid hill giant, some giant snakes, a group of ‘friendly’ Dwarves with their own agenda, and an ancient outpost which is now home to a nest of spiders. Of these, the encounter with the Dwarves is the most detailed and the most challenging, involving a nasty trap. In fact, it might be too tough a trap so early on in the scenario, and the Dungeon Master might want to tone down its lethality. Otherwise, this is a fun encounter, which is actually illustrated on the scenario’s front cover. Hopefully, by the time the adventurers have completed these, the player characters will have accrued enough Experience Points to achieve another Level.

Following the journal and map found in Quasqueton and B1 In Search of the Unknown will get to the ruined city of Shard—also known as the ‘Ruined City’, the focus of the scenario rather than the journey to it. Several millennia old, Shard is actually a satellite of the City of Spire, as detailed in the publisher’s ‘C’ series of modules. Shard is octagonal in shape, divided into eight roughly triangular, walled  sections all the same size, around a central location in which stands a single spire. Although of the same size and shape, each of these eight walled-off sections—or zones—is of a very different character. Some of the zones are occupied, in turn by tribes of Goblins, Gnolls, and Orcs and a band of cultists, whilst others have been left to be taken over by wilderness. Each of the eight zones is discrete physically and in terms of its character, so the Orcs reside in a network of residential towers, the cultists in a repaired and maintained temple, another zone consists of warren after warren of giant rats, and so on. Further, the Demi-Humans are well-organised and disciplined, almost constrained in their actions—unless, that is, they are invaded, and who on earth would do that?

Now there is good reason for this discipline and the constraints upon the various city factions, and that is a Druid—whose name the player characters are likely to recognise—who has imposed order upon Shard through fear. She has also forced them to co-operate to some degree, especially over guarding access to the city of Shard. Interestingly, there is the option here for the player characters to join this set-up, take over one of the empty zones and use it as a base of operations. This though, this is not the point of B1 Legacy of the Unknown, which is to follow in the footsteps of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown and get into the ninth, central area. To do that though, the player characters will need to explore the various surrounding zones, gathering information and the means to get into the central location. The discrete nature of the zones means that the player characters can strike at each, relatively unhindered, each one essentially working as mini-dungeons in their own right. Overall, the city of Shard, its set-up and its various denizens should provide the player characters opportunities aplenty for combat, stealth, roleplaying, and more.

The finale for B1 Legacy of the Unknown will come once the player characters find their way into the central zone and get into the Great Tower that stands there. Inside they can make their way down—somehow—to the Forgotten City and the Dead Temple where the player characters will learn the final fates of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. The Forgotten City itself feels somewhat superfluous as it does not really add much to the adventure, being more of a transition location. The Dead Temple though offers a grand climax, the player characters being offered the chance to fight alongside the mighty heroes against the villain that brought them low thirty years before...

Physically, B1 Legacy of the Unknown comes as a seventy-two page, 23.92 MB black and white PDF with a colour cover. The scenario needs another edit and the artwork varies in quality. Some are a little cartoonish, but there are some really nice illustrations too, for example, an encounter with a pair of Carrien Crawlers and another with a Naga are both well done pieces. The cartography is excellent though. One issue with the writing is the degree of reputation between the area descriptions, so there are an awful lot of barracks, for example, which have the same description, repeated over and over. Much of this could have been edited for clarity and repetition.

As written, the primary issue with B1 Legacy of the Unknown is its hook, what gets the player characters involved in its events, to go on the trail to the lost city and discover what happened to Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. As a standalone adventure, B1 Legacy of the Unknown lacks a sufficiently strong enough hook to pull the player characters along said trail and into the adventure. It needs the Dungeon Master to really write one. Yet even if B1 Legacy of the Unknown is run as a sequel to B1 In Search of the Unknown with B0.5 Secrets of the Unknown between, then the Dungeon Master may still need to do so as there really is insufficient sufficient information here in terms of a hook given. 

Although the journey to adventure’s main area may need additional content in order to provide the player characters with sufficient Experience Points and be of strong enough Level to face some of the challenges it presents, B1 Legacy of the Unknown is a solid adventure, unique in what it offers. B1 Legacy of the Unknown stands out because it is no mere reiteration or adaptation of B1 In Search of the Unknown, but a genuine sequel, one that explores what happened to the NPCs at the heart of the backstory to B1 In Search of the Unknown.