I am working on incorporating the Keep on the Borderlands into the World of Weirth campaign. These classic original edition adventures are perfectly (and intentionally) designed for hacking and squeezing into a shape that fits your own campaign and playing style. So, this booklet is getting a facelift. Much like I did with the One Page Dungeon from Paths Peculiar (Paths Peculiar on Twitter – Paths Peculiar on Instagram), the Caves of Chaos will be getting a bit of an Eldritch Horror upgrade, with some additional foreshadowing of the signs of the Belowdark and the very first intimations of the third major faction in the campaign.
I have to say that I am really enjoying the research, especially the old blog posts by people that were thinking about this at the “dawn” of the OSR. There is a fantastic compilation of links at Dragonsfoot (B2 Keep on the Borderlands Index) with tons of smart takes on the Who What and Why of the Keep.
One of my favorite articles is this one from Jeffro Johnson about the rationale of the Keep on the Borderlands module:
“Tom Moldvay gives a clue as to how to develop an overarching premise for the adventure: in the Dungeon Master section of his Basic Rulebook, he states that module B2 is an example of Investigating a Chaotic Outpost. “This scenario has to do with a Chaotic invasion (either in progress or about to begin). The characters must enter the enemy outpost, find out the strength and plans of the invaders, and destroy the outpost if possible.””
Thus we are informed of the relationship between two important factions in the campaign world, get a glimpse of what the “bad guys” are up to, and have a chance to do something about it. Everything an adventure needs.
Keep up with the progress of the Keep on the Borderlands Project by following that tag. I will probably also be releasing more One Page Dungeons here, so stay tuned!
