Thursday, January 5, 2017

D&D 5E: Tales from the Yawning Portal

Dungeons & Dragons' next 5th Edition release in April will be Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a break from the super-module format, and provides seven classic modules from various editions revised and retooled for 5th Edition D&D. Here's the list of modules being updated:

Against the Giants
Dead in Thay
Forge of Fury
Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
Sunless Citadel
Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain

So: four 1st edition modules, two 3rd edition modules, and one D&D next module that's been available as a stand-alone PDF on dmsguild.com but not available in POD. I believe some of these (like Tomb of Horrors) received some adaptation during the 5E playtest period, too.

The guess seems to be these modules are all going to be revised and set in the Forgotten Realms, which is interesting of course because technically six of them were set in Greyhawk. The reason poor Greyhawk never gets any love anymore is for exactly this reason: most people never actually use the Greyhawk modules in the actual Greyhawk world, instead adapting them to FR or homebrew settings. I've actually run six of the seven modules, but all adapted to one of my own game worlds (Realms of Chirak is the home to Tomb of Horrors, Forge of Fury and Sunless Citadel; Keepers of Lingusia is home to an alternate reality Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, and Against the Giants.) Only Dead in Thay is not a classic, but the actual module looks pretty interesting.

The modules are being arranged to allow for a level 1-15 campaign if you run them consecutively. That sounds about right to me.....the level sequence based on the originals works out something like this:

1st: Sunless Citadel (level 1)
2nd: Forge of Fury (level 3)
3rd: Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (level 3-5)
4th: Dead in Thay (level 6-8)
5th: White Plume Mountain (levels 5-10)
6th: Against the Giants (levels 8-12)
7th Tomb of Horrors (level 10-14)

No need for level 15+ adventures, the Tomb of Horrors will see to that.

Anyway, here's what the cover looks like:



2 comments:

  1. The guy on the cover seems kinda modern for D&D... like a fellow from a Western or maybe some tale of Victorian exploration. Which gets me thinking how those old modules might play out in such a setting.

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    1. I'm imagining a future Forgotten Realms which has a Victorian/wild west theme going on....the scenarios played out over a range of "old world" Sword Coast and "new world" colonial Maztica. Hmmmm....I'd play that....

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