OSR Commentary Adapting I2: Dwellers In The Forbidden City by David Cook To The Barrows & Borderlands Rpg

 Adapting David Cook’s 1981 classic I2: Dwellers of the Forbidden City for a modern, grit-forward system like Barrows & Borderlands (B&B) requires shifting the focus from "heroic monster-slaying" to "tactical survival and factional maneuvering." This blog post picks right up from 

OSR Commentary Adapting C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan To The Barrows & Borderlands Rpg

The Forbidden City is essentially a "megadungeon" turned inside out. Here is how to translate its pulpy, lost-world atmosphere into the mechanical rigors of B&B.

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1. The Core Atmosphere: Decay & Resource Scarcity

In B&B, inventory slots and light sources are life. The Forbidden City shouldn't just be "hidden"—it should be a resource sink.

• The Jungle Trek: Treat the journey to the city as a series of Navigation Checks. Failure doesn't just mean getting lost; it means losing Rations or taking Fatigue levels before even reaching the gates.

• Verticality: The city is a massive crater. Use B&B’s climbing and encumbrance rules to make descending into the city a literal "point of no return."

2. Faction Warfare (The Social Engine)

The strength of I2 is the three-way war between the Bugbears, Mongrelfolk, and Yuan-ti. In B&B, combat is deadly, so players should be encouraged to use the Reaction Table.

Faction	B&B Archetype	Disposition	Hook
Mongrelfolk	Scavengers / Outcasts	Skittish	Will trade secrets for "pure" food or scrap metal.
Bugbears	Heavy Infantry	Aggressive	Looking for "conscripts" (meat shields) for their next raid.
Yuan-ti	Eldritch Cultists	Manipulative	Will offer "blessings" (mutations) in exchange for live sacrifices.

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3. Mechanical Conversions

B&B usually scales lower than AD&D. To keep the "Forbidden" feel, monsters should be dangerous but predictable in their behaviors.

The Yuan-ti (The Apex Predators)

Don't just give them high HP. Give them Special Abilities that interact with B&B’s conditions:

• Hypnotic Gaze: Target must make a Will Save or be Stunned for 1 round.

• Toxic Blood: If a Yuan-ti takes Slashing damage, adjacent players must check vs. Poison or take 1d4 damage.

The Tasloi (The Nuisance)

These should be B&B "Minions." They don't do much damage, but they excel at Stealing Items. Have them target a player’s "Utility Slot" (potions, torches) rather than their HP.

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4. Hazard & Exploration Tweaks

The environment is as much an enemy as the inhabitants.

• The Great Swamp: Movement is halved. Any roll of a "Natural 1" on an attack or dodge results in being Mired (requires a Strength check to move).

• The Horrors in the Pits: Use the Ablative Armor rules for creatures like the Aboleth or Pan Lung (the oriental dragon). Players shouldn't be able to "swing" their way through these; they need to find environmental weaknesses.

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5. Loot & Treasure

B&B focuses on "Wealth vs. Weight."

• The Yuan-ti Hoard: Instead of just "1,000 gold," describe it as Heavy Golden Idols. They are worth a fortune but take up 3 slots each and impose a penalty on Stealth checks due to clinking.

• Ancient Tech: Treat any found magic items as Relics with limited charges. Once they're gone, the item becomes a "Curiosity" worth gold but no longer functional.

GM Tip: The "Forbidden City" functions best when the players feel like they are caught in a pressure cooker. Keep track of Time Turns. Every hour spent debating is another chance for a rival faction's hunting party to find them.

  

Since you’re leaning into the lethality, we need to ensure the climax at the Temple of the Yuan-ti feels like a "survival horror" event rather than a fair fight. In Barrows & Borderlands, a lethal boss isn't just a bag of hit points; it’s a force of nature that requires the players to sacrifice resources or limbs to survive.

Here is how to tune the final encounter for maximum tension.

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The "Final Boss": The Yuan-ti Abomination

In the original module, this is often a high-level priest. For a lethal B&B conversion, we’ll treat it as a Lesser Horror.

Stats & Dread Logic

• Aura of Cold Blood: Any PC starting their turn within 10ft must pass a Will Save or take a penalty to their next Attack roll as their lizard-brain triggers a freeze response.

• Multi-Attack: The Abomination attacks twice: once with a Scimitar (1d8+2) and once with a Constrict (see below).

The "Constrict" Mechanic (The Death Spiral)

If the Abomination hits with its tail, the player is Grappled.

• Automatic Damage: The player takes 1d6 crushing damage at the start of every turn.

• Resource Loss: To represent the ribs cracking, the player must choose: take an extra 1d6 damage OR permanently destroy one item in their Inventory Slots (shield shatters, potion vials break, etc.).

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Environmental Hazards: The Sacrificial Pit

The fight shouldn't take place on a flat floor. The Temple is crumbling.

• Slippery Blood/Oil: The floor around the altar is "Difficult Terrain." Any Dash action requires a Dexterity Check or the player falls Prone, granting the Yuan-ti Advantage on its next strike.

• The Snaking Pillars: The Abomination can use its move action to vanish into the rafters. If the players lose sight of it, the next attack is a Surprise Attack (likely targeting the character with the lowest Armor).

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The "Hard Choice" Victory

To make it feel like an authentic old-school module, give the players a way to win that doesn't involve "bonking it until it dies," but comes at a high cost:

The Sacrifice	The Mechanical Result
Topple the Great Idol	Requires 2 players to spend their full turn. Crushes the boss for massive damage but collapses the exit, forcing a dangerous escape through the "Unexplored Tunnels."
Ignite the Swamp Gas	If players have a torch, they can ignite the vents. Deals 3d6 AOE damage to everyone. The boss dies, but players must check for Permanent Scars/Burns.
Offer a Blood Debt	A player can "Accept the Mark." The boss stops attacking, but that player now has a Yuan-ti Taint, suffering a permanent penalty to Charisma and a future plot hook.

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Implementation Advice

Note: Do not hide the lethality. Describe the "piles of bleached adventurer bones" and the "unnatural speed" of the creature. In B&B, players should only engage in a lethal boss fight if they’ve failed to find a clever way to bypass it—or if they are desperate for the loot.

OSR Commentary- '84 One Set To Rule Them All With Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules

 Let's pick it right back up from here on the blog. Nineteen Eighty four was a huge year when the Companion Dungeons & Dragons boxset hit the stands by Frank Mentzer. The Companion box set hit like a ton of bricks bringing the levels of the BECMI Dungeons & Dragons PC level climb past fifteenth level. And this was a big deal on multiple levels because it brought domain level play into Mentzer D&D. And this was a big deal for those of us who had switched up our D&D game campaigns. 

 What Mentzer Companion rules brought to the game were new monsters, higher levels, treasures, warfare rules, domain play rules, and more. Suddenly player's PC's could and were expected to rule a kingdom or vassseldom. The player's PC's had kingdoms, church dominations, and more to worry about. And this was hands on rulership for the adventurers. This wasn't a mollycuddle set of rules. Instead the players were expected to have thier hands get dirty leading hirelings and NPC retainers of thier armies from the frontlines. 

The Companion rules box set was completely different from say Moldvay or Cook in the fact that it spelled out levels 15-25 for PC's. And heavy was head that wore the crown. The Wilderness adventures that were featured in so many Expert adventures & dungeons were the realms that the PC's controlled. Strongholds, wizard towers, temples, etc. became the PC's stock and trade. 
And the Gods themselves couldn't help you if your old adventuring partner's decided to turn on you. Because party dynamics were very much in vogue in Mentzer's Companion rules. Because the Companion rules set was actually a real step into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition if played right. 

Mentzer hit different because when going from Expert into Companion no longer was the X1 The Isle of Dread a place to be explored but a land to be conquerored! Companion had a whole cloth feel of something different because adventuring took on another aspect and marshalling your armies was part of the charm. 
Because D&D had gone so far mainstream it was a readily available rpg system. So  one could not only get it in '84 from hobby and toy stores. But it was becoming available through Sears & Wards toy catalog. 
Suddenly the possibilities opened up by the  Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules seemed within reach. Why have just a stronghold when you can have your PC's rule a kingdom! 

Tegel Manor - Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number Rpg -B6 The Veiled Society By David Cook

 "Dawn's light reached through the window to shine on the man who sat brooding in the chair. Cartha Radu, brother to Anton Radu (the leader of the Veiled Society), was thinking. "Today is the day," he said to himself. "Today is the day to bring my plan into action," Cartha smiled. Below his tower window, the cityfolk slowly awoke. Today was the Festival of Lucor. The goodwives flung open their shutters to the morning. Fishmongers and hawkers heartened their cries. Actors and jugglers filled the streets, up from their beds of straw in the stables." 

" On a dusty road a few miles outside the city, a small group roused itself. Some stretched their cramped bones, pained by a night on the damp grass. Others polished their swords and armor. With little ado, they packed their small camp and set out on the road once more. The excitement tingled among them, for today they would reach the city of Specularum — the home of their new fortune" 

So the other day I put up on twitter a picture of B6 The Veiled Society by David Cook. Now I've been thinking about this classic module for a couple of days. And there's been a crazy idea in the back of my head. What if  the city of Specularum was a part of an interplanetary society that has been cut off from the rest of the universe by some unknown indimensional event. Or alternative which we might go with is the idea here that the PC's from our Tegel Manor campaign find themselves with the manor shifting into the city of Specularum. The festival is coming up and the free familes are at it again & new prosepects are out to prove themselves. The Radu, The Torenescu, &  the Vorloi family are separate corporations and family run rivals who control the city. They each have thier own distinctive cybernetics and ways. The mega city has five thousand people within it's gates and is run with 'The Purge' style night of the 'Festival of Lucor'. The city of Specularum is situated within what used to be Italy or near the ruins of Europe. 
The inns, the encounters, etc. all remain the same because of the fact that atmosphere of B6 The Veiled Society was created as a tourist destination for the ultrarich. The fact that these families are at an urban war with one another has continued for generations. And this plugs into the ideas of Cities Without Numbers rpg cyberpunk asthetic. 

Our PC's are going to be dropped into the middle of the urban warfare as things are heating up between the families before the festival. Insults, fights, etc. all come into the mix within the city before the 'Festival of Lucor' kicks events off. And the PC's are put in the middle of this. And then there's fact that there could be a connection to The Barony of Horn & the events surround 'The Legion of Gold'. The PC's have the intel on the Legion and they have to escape the facility, get back to the mansion before it jumps, and survive the machinations of Tegel Manor. 

So this leads the PC's to taking on the machinations of the events of B6 The Veiled Society. And possibly forging new alliances. 

OSR Commentary- '83 'Into The Frying Pan' With Frank Mentzer's Expert Dungeons & Dragons set

 So let's pick it up from the other day's blog entry here. So the year is Eighty Three and the revamp of the Expert Dungeons & Dragons set hits the stands. And this was another rung on the ladder of Dungeons & Dragons. Not only do we have total reexamination of Dungeons & Dragons but the PC levels skyrocketed. And the Expert set increased the PC levels from four to fourteen! This was a big deal in '83. 

Mentzer Expert did a bunch of stuff all at once. One it expanded the monsters of Basic and built on those. Then we got new treasures, and magic plus an update with a Tim Truman cover of X1 Isle of Dread. And Expert also brought the Wilderness into a huge role in Mentzer Basic/Expert. This shift from simply dungeons into Wilderness adventures added a whole different dimension to the grand game. 

 And Mentzer further refined the B/X rules building on Moldvay/Cook while adding his own spin to the rules. Frank Mentzer brought a different feel to D&D. There was module and with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic set there was enough here to do a campaign that could last for years. 
And Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons had a different feel to it. There was lots of new blood in the hobby in '83. For us it meant that we could begin to carve out are own little niche of the Isle of Dread. As I said Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons was far more mainstream and no where was that more evident then in the Eighty Three Sears Christmas catalog where both Mentzer Expert & Basic were for sale. Soon we saw far more gamers enter the hobby. Expert had a alot going for it.

1. Expert was literally the next rung of the levels of Dungeons & Dragons adding levels four to fourteen. 
2. The Wilderness opened up to every group of players adding in a place where the monsters dwelled. 
3. Mentzer Expert D&D was easily understood by the average 12 to 50 year old. The rules were clear and concise. 
4. The stakes became higher in Expert with the introduction of X1 The Isle of Dread.
5. Mentze Expert  D&D  easy to design home brew adventures or use easily accesible modules for the game. This was because the PC's levels were on point with published modules. 

Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons preparred players for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. And this started a love affair with BECMI Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 

OSR Commentary - '83 Baptism by Fire Frank Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Set 1 Basic Rules

 Let's pick it up right from here on the blog. Eighty three was a very good year because it brought out Frank Mentzer's Basic Box set and this was a huge leap forward in some respects. Frank Mentzer built all of the parts & pieces that had been introduced within B/X as well as previous year's Dragon magazine articles. 

What Menzter Basic did was three fold, it cleared up and clarified the D&D rules. It took other existing material and edited it for a new generation of players. And it made Dungeons & Dragons accessible to the mass market. You might not think so but lots of new players in Eighty Three entered the hobby because of this box set. 
For us Menzter Basic was another incarnation of the grand game. And therefore another edition to play with. We had started with original Dungeons & Dragons. Mentzer was different ball of wax. The rules were a bit more streamlined and clarified. 
The set had a different feel then previous editions and character generation was slightly more consistant. These were observations of fellow gamers and hobbyists that I've talked with. 

Frank Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Set 1 Basic Rules were a completely different take then previous editions not in terms of content. But in terms of where the editions were available to us as gamers. I saw my first Mentzer set at a K&B toy store and was blown away. And I also saw a set at War & Pieces in West Hartford Connecticut. The grand game was now far more readily available then in previous years. Moldvay & Cook Dungeons & Dragons always seemed to be only available in hobbyshops & the speciality shop in Connecticut. Mentzer was in Sears Christmas catalog. 
Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons seemed to have several things going for it. 

1. Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons was readily graspable for the ordinary hobbyists or beginner. 
2. There were enough bones in the Basic set to get the player going deeper into the hobby. 
3. Mentzer D&D was easy to understand and therefore easily accessible by the beginning player. 
4. Mentzer D&D was the set up for the one two combo of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 
5. Mentzer D&D was also easy to design home brew adventures or use easily accesible modules for the game. 

Mentzer D&D was the gateway drug into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for so many of us. And this started a love affair with BECMI Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 

OSR Commentary - The Unholy Combination B/X & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Together

 When it comes to B/X Dungeons & Dragons I'm often left thinking about B/X Dungeons & Dragons. And this blog entry picks right up from here on the blog.  And the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons. Expert D&D expanded the horizons for players by several orders of magnitude from Basic. 

The PC options increased, the stakes became higher, the adventure possibilities climbed, and yet there seemed to be more. That more was the expansion of the wilderness with Expert. And within the wilderness were some epic level monsters. Dragon Turtles, purple worms, elemental threats, all of thes hinted at the wider universe within B/X. 
We literally used a combination of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition and B/X without any thought back in the early Eighties that these were separate games. And we had a blast playing with all of the dungeons we plundered. 
There's something so satisfying about creating your own dungeon and letting your players plunder it. I've used both B/X dragons & the various Dragons from the Monster Manual as boss monsters for entire regions in various campaigns. Because the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual is one of the most recognizable monster books ever made. And still get's attention at the table top. 

B/X is excellent for a quick beer & pretezels sort of mini pickup game & yet mixed with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition both systems compliment each other very well. And there are several reasons for this: 

1. Both B/X & AD&D first edition are easily intgrated into each other. The systems because of thier very mathmatics and systems fold into one another. 
2. AD&D is easily adaptable for both the players and the DM and this falls right in line with the design ideals of B/X D&D.
3. B/X is designed for adventure & campaign play as easily as it gets. And this one of these strengths of B/X that compliments Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 
4. AD&D has a ton of resources such as the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide that has  connotations for B/X. 
5. The adventures & modules of AD&D can easily be ported over to B/X and vice versa. 

B/X Dungeons & Dragon and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition combined allow the DM to have a solid system to easily have the players transition and move as the campaign play allows. 

Memories of the Past Into Modern Campaigns From B/X Dungeons & Dragons

 We have the weekend and it's been one of both play as well as reflection. The Basic & Expert Dungeons & Dragons sets were in my hands again. And one of the most handy things to have is a Lists of Dungeons & Dragons monsters by edition Seventy Nine Through Nineteen Ninety Nine.  This gives a definitive monster listing across the board for B/X and other editions of D&D. 

The Expert set was the big score for many of us playing Basic and the Expert was the big upgrade. Expert introduced a host of new monsters, rules and materials. The B/X set back in the Eighties allowed us to expand outward. And the module that came with this set X1 Isle of Dread was so instrumental in the old days. 
Today the B/X set allows the DM to do a 'beer & petzels' mini campaign very quickly. Isle of Dread has a bit of everything that I love especially my Pulp interests. 

By turning Expert on it's ear with X1 we can easily place it within a post apocalyptic campaign as is. The sweeping mysterious island, the prehistoric lifeforms, etc. it all fits the asthetic of a Gamma World or Thundarr The Barbarian campaign like a glove. 

An OSR Commentary - Monster Matters From B/X Dungeons & Dragons In Old School Campaigns

 So on the phone yesterday I had a friend whose a Gamma World dungeon master exclusively. Yes there are folks still running Gamma World first & second edition games forty plus years on. So the big deal here is that & I quote there are no creditable threats left on Gamma Terrestria. The answer of course is B/X Dungeons & Dragons with a good helping of AD&D supplements!

Because the parties have gone up on levels & their kingdoms have power armor artifacts & so forth. Man, I have seen this before & its very easily solved. A quick thumbing through the B/X rule books will reveal some very interesting monsters that can cause all kinds of havoc in a Dark Ages setting. When it comes to on line resources don't think that Wiki skimps on actual useful bits such as the handy list of Lists of Dungeons & Dragons monsters by edition Seventy Nine Through Nineteen Ninety Nine. Nothing like a purple worm or two to undermine the foundations of fortresses for a bunch of orc tribesmen with some mutations & an orc shaman to ruin the day of some adventurers. Things only get worse when the Expert rule book gets pulled out!


Dragon Turtles are especially good at taking apart cities & the like. These horrors are perfect monsters to throw at parties of so called 'high level' adventurers. Giant scorpions are another favorite to pull out for the old Saturday night fire fights. The best part is setting up a bit of a gateway to explore & then drop the party onto the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha first edition or a similar space craft.  This is a perfect opportunity to introduce some of the classic B/X undead in some of the cryo tubes of these space craft.


Another overlooked monster that can completely wreck a campaign is the not so humble doppelganger. This agent of chaos is perfect for taking apart a campaign from the inside out especially if said monster is among the royals or staff. Any of your puddings, slimes, & molds are great for taking out treasures & artifacts especially if they don't make their saves. Want to guard a temple or other exclusive set of ruins & don't want to spare a dragon or similar town wrecker?! Well the humble Basilisk is perfect for taking the wind out of the sails of adventurers!

Yes this is the Basilisk from the 1st Edition Monster Manual but its one of my favorite DAT pieces of artwork.

High level adventurers doesn't mean survival it means that the adventurers are bigger targets for many of the armies & powers around them. That means that just over the horizon might be an entire army of orcs, goblins, with hobgoblin generals on the march with a group of Minotaur warriors waiting to cut into your city.  A world in the grip of a Dark Age is perfect fodder for any demon lord & their armies looking to up the soul count on their plane of the Abyss. 



I haven't even gotten to the giant races & their kin but all of this actually from original Dungeons & Dragons plus bits of B/X thrown into the mix. Dragons are another whole blog entry but I've used both B/X dragons & the various Dragons from the Monster Manual as boss monsters for entire regions in various campaigns.



Ten Tips For Monster Placement In Old School Campaigns

1. Use common sense & look at the monster's environment but keep things exciting. The food source is important but a human population goes a long way for play. 
2. Monsters are adventures unto themselves they have lots of replay value & parleying with them can keep adventurers alive & offer more adventure opportunity for you. 
3. Artifacts & relics are often kept around to lure in more adventurers in old school campaigns & while a bit of a cliche it works. 
4. Monsters are often intelligent & should be played as any other NPC even if they are evil. 
5. Evil does not equal stupid & can be used to expand the PC's employment opportunities for taking out rivals. 
6. Dungeons are created & made, the lairs of monsters are often the dungeons themselves. 
7. Technology is not your friend when monsters can do a better job. Replace the security robots with orcs or goblins or kobolds. 
8. When it doubt add in kobolds, these things are ubiquitous for wastelands especially involving Arthurian lore. 
9. Dragons can control entire nations & should be feared! These things are directly rooted in the heroic mythologies of the East & Western civilizations there's a reason for this! 
10. Don't be afraid to hit the party hard & where it hurts in the pocket book! Many monster lords charge taxes & tolls!

OSR Commentary - Monsters, Law, Chaos, & B/X Dungeons & Dragons.

 Last night was a night of soul searching about several things when it comes to the recent Cowards of the Coast 1.01 debacle. It's got me remembering the Satanic Panic era & the evils of B/X Dungeons & Dragons.There were something about the monsters of Basic & Expert Dungeons & Dragons that everyone seems to forget. The monsters of B/X were Chaos & Law incarnate. 

According to a recent Wayne's Books article here the two rule books really do bounce off one another; "The Rulebooks echo each other strongly inside, differing only when their focus calls for it: Beginning characters in Dungeons vs. Higher-level characters exploring Wilderness. Basic is levels 1-3, Expert goes up though character level 14."
The B/X's rule books monsters have a raw feel about them. No unfinished mind you but the feel of creatures that with any opportunity would & will rip your PC's apart! And nowhere is this more reflected within B2 Keep on The Borderlands By Gary Gygax.

I've said this before a ton of times that 
B2 Keep on The Borderlands By Gary Gygax is ground zero for the war between Chaos & Law in B/X Dungeons & Dragons. This leads into the T1 The Village of Hommlet & all of the window dressing there. 
The keep is key to defining & defending the borderlands. The borderlands themselves were our campaign setting. Events may have happened in the wildernesses of Greyhawk & the Wilderlands. But it was the Borderlands that were our primary concern time & again.What defines this are the facts that B/X's rule books lent themselves so readily to these facets. And this is because of the nature of the monsters within the B/X D&D rules. Everything works like a well oiled machine to facilitate PC advancement. 
The wilderness that D&D Expert set talks about is all about the PC's. The Keep on the Borderlands is the literal base of operations & Hommlet is point of protection. The humaniod armies of B/X Dungeons & Dragons can & will take full advantage of the party the second that they can. 

There are more then a few reasons why the struggle of Law Vs Chaos is central to a good OSR campaign. 

1. B/X Dungeons & Dragons can be seen as a bit of a road map when it comes to laying down a convincing Chaos vs Law struggle campaign 
2. T1 & B2 are excellent wilderness outposts and can easily be worked into a Gamma World Rpg campaign. We've done this in the past with no one the wiser. 
3. Moving ahead with the events of the village Hommlet let's the DM ramp up the tension
4. Humanoid monsters as servants of Chaos makes PC's take notice really quickly. 
5. ACK's is a perfect transition rules set for a group of B/X players into the OSR. The Borderlands campaign fits easily into the background. 
6. B/X can give years of play before it's neccessary to move the PC's along. 
7. The wilderness is a great stand in for the 'lands of chaos' 
8. The Wilderness is also excellent as a bridge into a Gamma World 1st edition game. 
9. Struggling with a classic B/X game teaches the fundamentals of classic Dungeons & Dragons 
10. Hommlet is such a great counterpoint to the Keep from B2