Into the Borderlands

by Chris Doyle, Tim Wadzinski (Converter & Editor)

Original Adventures Reincarnated 1 : Into the Borderlands
A Fifth Edition Conversion & Classic Homage
B1: In Search of the Unknown / B2: The Keep on the Borderlands

The Borderlands. An untamed wild region far flung from the comforts and protection of civilization. A lone fortified Keep is the only bastion of Good desperately striving to maintain the forces of Chaos at bay. But Evil is everywhere, lurking in dark caves, fetid swamps, and forlorn forests. Bands of cutthroat brigands and ruthless tribes of humanoids eager to clash with the forces of Good rove the region. The Borderlands hold many secret wondrous locations, and the opportunities for fame, prestige, and fortune are plentiful. But equally abundant are the perils, risks, and challenges to those brave enough to explore the wilds.

Sharpen your swords and axes. Purchase your iron rations and tinderboxes. And don't forget at least one 10-foot pole. Adventure awaits those with the mettle to confront Chaos in the Borderlands!

This tome is an homage to the origins of Adventure that began decades ago with B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Herein you will find high-quality scans from multiple printings of the original first edition adventure modules, plus commentary by such gaming luminaries as Luke Gygax and Mike Mearls. Full fifth edition conversions of both adventures are included, as well as brand new additional adventure locations to further expand and develop the Borderlands. This is a fully playable mini-campaign to start off your new fifth edition adventures, with a distinct old-school vibe.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume recreates the first D&D “basic” modules from the late 1970s, and so is a huge nostalgia piece for geeks of my generation – those of us who first encountered one or both of these adventures at a tender age. For me, it was B2: “The Keep on the Borderlands,” but this also includes B1: “In Search of the Unknown,” about which I’d heard for years, but never actually read. This is a nice piece of “gaming archaeology,” because it includes reproductions of each of the editions of each module, so you can see how they evolved over time. Most of the changes are very minor and will only interest fairly extreme grognards, but it’s great to have the opportunity to geek out over them. There are also some nice introductions, written by folks involved with the hobby then and now, and to judge by them most players seem to have come to the game the way I did, through B2. B1 has the interesting feature that it was published without defining the monsters and treasures found in each room, but instead providing lists of options, allowing the GM to design aspects of their own dungeon, and this is reproduced for the reader as well.

The final section, devoted to the Fifth Edition conversion, is probably of the most interest to most current buyers, but I find the most to criticize in it. First, a lot of superfluous extra encounters have been added, and given the speed with which characters advance in level, this means that players will rapidly be too strong for the dungeons, designed for levels 1-3. Second, they have added a whole storyline to B1, rather than allowing the DM to design their own details, and even have linked the dungeons with an extra encounter area. All of this is admittedly fascinating, but takes away from the authenticity of the conversion. It would have been nice to see a “straight” conversion, with the extras offered in an appendix. Instead, the appendices have been devoted to stats blocks for monsters and magic items, which really should be in the text of the adventure to avoid having to flip back and forth during play. Finally, I found much of the artwork in the Fifth Ed section to be inferior and cartoonish, taking away from the charm of the package. There is a brief color section at the back which reproduces the original covers, however, which makes up for this a bit.

Despite these criticisms, I hope that new generations of players will discover and enjoy these excellent adventures through this source, perhaps correcting and redesigning as they go.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really amazing piece of work, presenting the classic D&D modules B1- In Search of the Unknown and B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands in both their original formats (2 printings of each) and with 5th edition D&D conversion. There are all kinds of other goodies too, like essays about the classic modules, their artwork, their histories, etc., and a gallery of the original covers and maps. It's beautiful, it's functional, and now I want to run these classics again, maybe using the 5th edition rules!

[Benjamin]

How? Randomly found at the library.

What? Goodman Games has a few of these "Original Adventures Reincarnated" Dungeons & Dragons adventures, which (a) reprint the old D&D adventure, (b) update the adventure to the current 5th edition, and (c) expand on the material. This book reprints B1 "In Search of the Unknown" and B2 "Keep on the Borderlands", which is maybe the most common D&D adventure since it was included in the Basic red box.

Yeah, so? I like this comment from a reviewer: this is for gamers "old and new, but given the nostalgia value of this book, mostly old". I own "Keep on the Borderlands"; I have probably DM'ed that a few times. I see no reason for this book to exist in the current form. The essays from people about what these adventures mean to them -- eh, that's mostly not going to help me play. The old reprints -- eh, it's interesting to see some of the old stuff again, to see what people were trying to do. But this is all historical about the growth of the hobby.

The 5th ed conversion and expansion stuff is fine, except for the fact that these original adventures are... not really worth revisiting? Like: these two adventures are sort of explicitly put together to teach gamers -- who back in the 80s had never seen RPGs before -- how to play. Why would I want to run someone through this now? If you want modern adventures that have this shaggy, random encounter-table feel, there's plenty of OSR stuff that throws back to this but is also more modern.

But too, I am old and seeing the fight on the cover reminds me of when I was young, and this therefore is a good book because it lets me pretend I am not old. Oh no, I am nostalgia-ridden!

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well done. There are multiple editions of the originals which seemed a bit much, but the 5e conversion and. The additional story elements are great.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard not to love the wonderful overkill of the Goodman Games "Original Adventures Reincarnated" series. Transforming the slim cardboard-and-paper folios from forty years ago into a lush hardcover volume (with ribbon!) is appropriately decadent and meets with my full approval ;)

And better still, the authors have added additional content that fleshes out and brings additional coherence to the original settings for the two adventures included in this volume. Coupled with abundant new illustrations, this extra content really brings the old material to life while paying homage to the work of original authors Mike Carr and Gary Gygax.

[Eran Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a heavy volume, and mostly a history lesson. The original adventures are a glimpse into how the earliest creator of D&D saw what D&D is, and how you should start playing them.
There's also a 5th edition conversion, but it doesn't make for a very good introduction to 5th edition, because it's so different. Also, who would start their D&D experience with this?

Overall, a great product if you're interested in the history of D&D, but not the best campaign book. Yes, it's long enough to be considered a campaign.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodman Games is giving you the best of both worlds here. For your old school Dungeons & Dragons players. You are getting the original B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on The Boarderlands reprinted in high quality. Then you get a full 5e conversation with added content and interviews and retrospectives from the creators and writers.

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great product and service for the rpg community. One gets several versions of two of the earliest adventures ever written! There is also an updated versions for the 5th edition, with a lot of nice extra stuff.

The only real grievance I had, was the huge size of the book.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very happy on what they did to bring the adventures I grew up on to life in a 5E setting so I could share the joys of these adventures with a new group of players.

[Michael Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent revision of two classics with a ton of quality extra material thrown in. I'll definitely use it as the basis of a mini-campaign.