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Basic #B4
Lost City/Dungeons and Dragons
Game module
28 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 7, 2020
The Lost City is a classic that's still one of the best ever made, and one that many modern modules and books could take a lot out of. It's concise and well-written, not a single word out of place, packing in less than thirty pages more than three hundred could do today. And most importantly, it has factions and character motives.
December 5, 2010
Another evocative classic from Tom Moldvay, this one an homage to Robert E. Howard (or so I'm told). This adventure has considerably more role-playing than most of the other early adventures, as the players meet the strange Cyndiceans and must decide whether to ignore, ally, or battle them. I really like the open-endedness of the module, and in fact the last couple of pages about extending the adventure are fantastic. Zargon is also a classic Lovecraftian villian. For someone who is looking for a basic outline to come up with a whole campaign from, this is a 5 star module. The module does require some fixing, however, as access to and from certain levels doesn't make a lot of sense for the Cyndicean inhabitants. I'll definitely be running this sometime in the future, hopefully for some kids who I think will get the most out of it.
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January 19, 2016One of my favorite adventures: less a classic "rail road" adventure & more an open world with various weird factions. My goblin sniper PC blew up Zargon from the inside after being swallowed whole...good times, good times. --MK
November 18, 2021
Ever since my twins were little -- they are now seventeen -- we've been playing D&D in the same world I co-created with a friend from high school (way back in the '80s). By the time the twins were twelve their little sister had joined them, and now she has been playing with us for five years.
Thing is, we don't play D&D like most folks do, and I never have. As a teen, I was lucky enough to have played D&D with two actors (three if I count myself), an illustrator and now metalsmith, a couple of writers (again if I count myself), and some other smart and flexible folks who came into and out of our campaign from time to time. This all meant that we didn't just spend our hours rolling dice, moving little figurines around a map and killing as many monsters as we could. We rarely dungeon crawled, and we could have full eight hour sessions where all we did was role play, interacting as our characters by debating, politicking, nation building, or just drinking in a tavern. I carried this method of play on with my kids, and after years of playing together (admittedly with a couple long layoffs when their interest waned) the highest level any of our characters has achieved is 6th, and we've moved through our fantasy world slowly and methodically, doing everything from performing as an entertainment troupe at Maargold Station to paddling on the rivers of Mithae to delivering the body of a friend to his parents in the Tremblant to inciting a labour movement in Thaddeus to joining a movement to overthrow the Eye. But after years of slow role playing with the kids, I realized that we have done even less dungeon crawling than my friends and I did in the '80s. I thought it was time to change all that, so "Enter: The Lost City."
Once I decided to go back to an old D&D module so my kids could have the full D&D experience, however, I had to figure out how to let them use characters from our main world -- and the world's we've all been building independent of that one -- in a way that wouldn't disrupt the flow of our game and would allow the characters to go back to whichever world they had come from when we were finished. Here's what happened ...
From our main world came Lennart (a grey dwarf Priest of Gameroth), Viola (a human Ranger), Mitek (an elven Wizard), & Danen (a human priest of Valartin); from my youngest's world came Bethane (a half-elf / half-lizard man Thief); from my alternate-history USA came Lt. Brett Galvin (a soldier / gambler), and they were all eventually joined or replaced by characters from my son's worlds because some of this original group just didn't make it -- but we expected that.
The original party -- those I've named -- went to sleep in their worlds and awoke on the dunes outside the walls of the desert city where The Lost City begins. They found one another, bonded over their dreamstate-transportation to the sands of a strange world, made their way into the pyramid at the heart of the desert city, then after an arduous dungeon crawl (which took our family over six months to complete, playing once and occasionally twice a week) -- and after finding the titular "Lost City" and ignoring it in favour of the pyramid -- the party (those who remained and those who joined along the way) finally killed Zargon at the base of the pyramid and found themselves transported instantly back to wherever it was they had fallen asleep on that night they had found themselves on the sand dunes.
Along the way they met characters that Tom Moldvay created years ago -- like the warring brothers Demetrius and Darius, the Were-Fox siblings, the Wizards of Usimagarius, and the cult-like Cindiceans -- and they met new characters I added to enrich their journey -- like Seigrid the Gnome, the trader of the pyramid, and Ecumenziez the Blue, a blue dragon who I made a sort of menagerie keeper of the lowest levels of the pyramid (a much better way of explaining the presence of Were-Bears in a room just down the hall from Displacer Beasts). But that's really the beauty of Moldvay's module: it is so, so flexible; it provides a wonderful framework for adventure with lots of detail already in place, and it allows for a Dungeon Master's imagination to run free.
Don't be afraid to go back to these old modules, and if you are new to D&D and a fan of 5th edition definitely seek them out in their new adapted forms (which are ready for you to play with the new rules). The Lost City and all its kin are magical. And trust me ... you'll find a way to make it work for you and your players, and you'll have a blast. I promise.
Thing is, we don't play D&D like most folks do, and I never have. As a teen, I was lucky enough to have played D&D with two actors (three if I count myself), an illustrator and now metalsmith, a couple of writers (again if I count myself), and some other smart and flexible folks who came into and out of our campaign from time to time. This all meant that we didn't just spend our hours rolling dice, moving little figurines around a map and killing as many monsters as we could. We rarely dungeon crawled, and we could have full eight hour sessions where all we did was role play, interacting as our characters by debating, politicking, nation building, or just drinking in a tavern. I carried this method of play on with my kids, and after years of playing together (admittedly with a couple long layoffs when their interest waned) the highest level any of our characters has achieved is 6th, and we've moved through our fantasy world slowly and methodically, doing everything from performing as an entertainment troupe at Maargold Station to paddling on the rivers of Mithae to delivering the body of a friend to his parents in the Tremblant to inciting a labour movement in Thaddeus to joining a movement to overthrow the Eye. But after years of slow role playing with the kids, I realized that we have done even less dungeon crawling than my friends and I did in the '80s. I thought it was time to change all that, so "Enter: The Lost City."
Once I decided to go back to an old D&D module so my kids could have the full D&D experience, however, I had to figure out how to let them use characters from our main world -- and the world's we've all been building independent of that one -- in a way that wouldn't disrupt the flow of our game and would allow the characters to go back to whichever world they had come from when we were finished. Here's what happened ...
From our main world came Lennart (a grey dwarf Priest of Gameroth), Viola (a human Ranger), Mitek (an elven Wizard), & Danen (a human priest of Valartin); from my youngest's world came Bethane (a half-elf / half-lizard man Thief); from my alternate-history USA came Lt. Brett Galvin (a soldier / gambler), and they were all eventually joined or replaced by characters from my son's worlds because some of this original group just didn't make it -- but we expected that.
The original party -- those I've named -- went to sleep in their worlds and awoke on the dunes outside the walls of the desert city where The Lost City begins. They found one another, bonded over their dreamstate-transportation to the sands of a strange world, made their way into the pyramid at the heart of the desert city, then after an arduous dungeon crawl (which took our family over six months to complete, playing once and occasionally twice a week) -- and after finding the titular "Lost City" and ignoring it in favour of the pyramid -- the party (those who remained and those who joined along the way) finally killed Zargon at the base of the pyramid and found themselves transported instantly back to wherever it was they had fallen asleep on that night they had found themselves on the sand dunes.
Along the way they met characters that Tom Moldvay created years ago -- like the warring brothers Demetrius and Darius, the Were-Fox siblings, the Wizards of Usimagarius, and the cult-like Cindiceans -- and they met new characters I added to enrich their journey -- like Seigrid the Gnome, the trader of the pyramid, and Ecumenziez the Blue, a blue dragon who I made a sort of menagerie keeper of the lowest levels of the pyramid (a much better way of explaining the presence of Were-Bears in a room just down the hall from Displacer Beasts). But that's really the beauty of Moldvay's module: it is so, so flexible; it provides a wonderful framework for adventure with lots of detail already in place, and it allows for a Dungeon Master's imagination to run free.
Don't be afraid to go back to these old modules, and if you are new to D&D and a fan of 5th edition definitely seek them out in their new adapted forms (which are ready for you to play with the new rules). The Lost City and all its kin are magical. And trust me ... you'll find a way to make it work for you and your players, and you'll have a blast. I promise.
July 13, 2025
In my opinion, the best adventure out there for the D&D BEMCI system. The first three levels are mapped out perfectly, with well-throughout-out random encounters and rooms that draw on faction rivalries and the history of an underground city. Beyond the third level, the module provides maps and room contents, with more space for creative input from the DM. The underground city is also mapped out with area descriptions. The DM could choose to make this just a three-level adventure, but there is enough information here to design a complete campaign.
July 9, 2016
This is my favorite "old school" Dungeons & Dragons adventure. I have played it three times- two as a player and I am currently running it as a 5th Ed. adventure (with modifications of course). While there is some railroading and the classic "kick in the door, fight the monster, and repeat" sequence that was present in many of the older modules, it is a great adventure for bringing a new party together- a massive sandstorm scatters a desert caravan and the characters (members of the caravan) become lost and find the entrance to the great pyramid as their only way to possibly finding food and water. Another thing that is great about this adventure is that there are factions of Non-player characters that the party can potentially interact with and develop these factions as allies, gain new characters as replacement characters, and gives the DM some ways to introduce further adventure plots to help restore the city of Cynidicea to its former glory if the players and DM wish to make this an ongoing campaign (and the author provides several ideas for possible plots toward this). Lastly, the main monster, Zargon, is a great villain- creepy, unique and can potentially come back to haunt future games in the same world or return for revenge on the PCs if the campaign goes long enough.
January 27, 2025
This adventure module did not pop up on my radar until recently when Professor Dungeon Master put together a video detailing the tactics a dungeoneering party used to successfully navigate this module. It was released during the 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons era and I was more heavily into Dungeons and Dragons during the Basic and 1st Edition era.
It has a number of my favorite tropes (epitomized by Robert E Howard's Red Nails) such as a Lost City, different factions vying for control of the lost city, and the lost city is of course haunted by various horrible creatures.
It has a number of my favorite tropes (epitomized by Robert E Howard's Red Nails) such as a Lost City, different factions vying for control of the lost city, and the lost city is of course haunted by various horrible creatures.
January 16, 2010
Lost civilizations are always fun. Good classic dungeon crawl.
July 26, 2017
A puzzle dungeon in a step pyramid with an underground city and Zargon!
August 3, 2025
I never played B4 onwards in my basic DnD days as I moved briefly into Expert (playing X2) before AD&D. It carries a good reputation as a step up from the more traditional dungeons of B1-3 and a big opportunity for playing onwards past L3 and with some great RPG opportunities.
The story is fun: lost in a desert the players stumble upon a ziggurat and take cover in a secret room right at the top. They descend the tiers looking first for food, then treasure, then a way out. En route they encounter the inhabitants of a hidden city who have ascended into the ziggurat: some are in organised cults, some are just bonkers and there for mainly amusement value. The PCs can ally with particular cults/factions with some fun RP opportunities (unusual in this era of basic/expert) and effects on encounters with other factions.
As they descend there are tougher fights mainly with undead and monsters and a finale where they clash with a priest of Zargon possibly after a possession. The DM is given lots of advice and material to expand it into Expert, to level 6-7. The expansion material is mixed: Zargon is cool, the underground city and mission ideas are great, but the underground tiers are sketched out with increasingly illogical monsters (a blue dragon in a 40ft square room with normal corridors around it???). I appreciate this was an era of straight up monster in dungeon but it contrasts with a certain logicality of the upper tiers, and also their own advice about fleshing out the lower tiers with reasons monsters are there.
The module is undoubtedly written with the assumption you'll expand past level 3 as there's no way out: the doors are blocked with sand, and if you don't play onwards the stairs and trapdoor to tunnel are also blocked. It's easy to change that, but shows a certain assumption that would be easy for them to write a paragraph about a L3 ending.
A minor gripe. It's great stuff: fun, clever, and quirky and I see how it gained its reputation. Without personal nostalgia and cognisant that there were better AD&D modules at the time evolving the roleplay and story-based aspects of the game, I'd say it's a solid 4 stars but not quite 5 for me. A last note is that art is sublime: I love Jim Holloway. (chef's kiss)
The story is fun: lost in a desert the players stumble upon a ziggurat and take cover in a secret room right at the top. They descend the tiers looking first for food, then treasure, then a way out. En route they encounter the inhabitants of a hidden city who have ascended into the ziggurat: some are in organised cults, some are just bonkers and there for mainly amusement value. The PCs can ally with particular cults/factions with some fun RP opportunities (unusual in this era of basic/expert) and effects on encounters with other factions.
As they descend there are tougher fights mainly with undead and monsters and a finale where they clash with a priest of Zargon possibly after a possession. The DM is given lots of advice and material to expand it into Expert, to level 6-7. The expansion material is mixed: Zargon is cool, the underground city and mission ideas are great, but the underground tiers are sketched out with increasingly illogical monsters (a blue dragon in a 40ft square room with normal corridors around it???). I appreciate this was an era of straight up monster in dungeon but it contrasts with a certain logicality of the upper tiers, and also their own advice about fleshing out the lower tiers with reasons monsters are there.
The module is undoubtedly written with the assumption you'll expand past level 3 as there's no way out: the doors are blocked with sand, and if you don't play onwards the stairs and trapdoor to tunnel are also blocked. It's easy to change that, but shows a certain assumption that would be easy for them to write a paragraph about a L3 ending.
A minor gripe. It's great stuff: fun, clever, and quirky and I see how it gained its reputation. Without personal nostalgia and cognisant that there were better AD&D modules at the time evolving the roleplay and story-based aspects of the game, I'd say it's a solid 4 stars but not quite 5 for me. A last note is that art is sublime: I love Jim Holloway. (chef's kiss)
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January 1, 2022A decent dungeoncrawl with some nice faction interplay, but probably the more interesting content is towards the back, the sections of the dungeon and the underground city that are less fleshed out, providing more general descriptions and vaguer plothooks, explicitly done to teach DMs how to create adventures, giving them a framework but making them fill in the details.
But both parts of the book are solidly middle-of-the-road, I think, neither awful nor amazing. None of it's boring (the encounters with the mad Cynidecians are particularly noteworthy), but none of it grabbed me in the way Moldvay's work did in Isle of Dread and Castle Amber.
But both parts of the book are solidly middle-of-the-road, I think, neither awful nor amazing. None of it's boring (the encounters with the mad Cynidecians are particularly noteworthy), but none of it grabbed me in the way Moldvay's work did in Isle of Dread and Castle Amber.
April 1, 2020
This old-school module reminded me of how brutal original Dungeons & Dragons was, with a large variety of "save or die" poison enemies and other types of deadly encounters for a low-level party. No wonder it expected up to 10 players, I would think the attrition rate was very high. However, it does a good job of packing an entire 10-level dungeon crawl into a 28-page book, with new monsters and hooks to future adventures. Probably a classic at the time, more of a curiousity today.
September 15, 2021
This was the best module that I ever DMed. Players loved it. Character interaction was great. Lots of interesting NPCs to interact with. Playing factions off against one another. Interesting traps. This module had everything. One player even rolled up a crazy Cynidicean to play as a PC. And then the showdown with Zargon at the end. Simply awesome.
March 13, 2023
This adventure is full of great social, role playing opportunities. I especially love Moldvay's random tables which can really bring the story and NPCs to life.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews