Mini OSR Fall Campaign Idea Using 'In Search of Adventure: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos Anthology (Dungeons and Dragons Supermodule B1-9)' & Some Free Old School Appendix N Downloads

"THRESHOLD! The northernmost town in the Duchy - and your last stop before your adventures begin. Threshold, the gateway to mysterious castles, lost temples, deadly caves and caverns. You have heard the stories and legends, now you wish to see for yourself. This product provides a complete campaign adventure that will take beginning characters from 1st all the way to 3rd level and possibly beyond, drawn from the first nine modules of the B-series adventures."



So one thing that that last night's Legion of Gold run through provided me with two things, 1. Folks are interested in a post apocalyptic setting for old school play 2. The mix in of D&D or retroclone material & or systems works very well together. But there was grumblings that B10 Night's Dark Terror By Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, Phil Gallagher might be a bit too hard  for a beginning group of adventurers.  What's an old school DM to do who wants to mix a bit of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea with a weird proto Russian pulp mythological feel?
Well you go back to basics & pull out another connected classic and in this case its B1–9

In Search of Adventure. B1-9 gives an over arching interconnected plot thread to a number of older modules for placement into Mystara. But it can also be used to build these into a post apocalyptic wasteland. This was something that gave an ex friend of mine fits and shakes.

"In Search of Adventure is a collection of parts of the first nine B-series D&D Basic Set modules, with a frame provided to fit the adventures into the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, the first country treated in the D&D Gazetteer game supplement series.^[1] The modules B1-B9 include: B1 In Search of the Unknown, B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, B4 The Lost City, B5 Horror on the Hill, B6 The Veiled Society, B7 Rahasia, B8 Journey to the Rock, and B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond.

The adventures in In Search of Adventure can be strung together in one of three new overarching plots using an adventure flow chart, depending on where the players head off from their starting point in the town of Threshold"
This gives the campaign old-fashioned dungeons by world-class designers like Gary Gygax, Doug Niles,&  Tom Moldvay. 

You can see the changes to these old school classics by the then staff of TSR in the Wiki entry. 

You've got secret societies, factions, adventure locations, political intrigue, and more.  This gives the structure & outline to a campaign setting & adventure flow to the whole affair. But that's only part of this now when we start looking into back tying this into Clark Aston Smith, A.Merritt, and the rest of the Lovecraft circle its Catherine Lucille Moore's Earth's Last Citadel which was reprinted in the July 1950 edition of Fantastic Novels that ties it all together.The weight of ages past & the weirdness of the Earth's Last Citadel echoes Clark Ashton Smith's  The The Tomb Spawn in many ways. Weird life forms living on the edges and fringes of Earth's last epochs.


Earth's Last Citadel is part time travel novel, part pulpy adventure, and has a style that echoes the William Hope Hodgson's Nightland without the hard bits to get through. There's a breezy pulpy style that mates up with Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycles of novels. The plot is pure pulpy goodness;"During World War II, four people (two belonging to the Allies, two to the Axis) find a strange vehicle in the Tunisian desert. It whisks them to the far future where the Earth has been conquered and mankind is nearly extinct."
You Can Download Earth's Last Citadel from the July 1950 edition of Fantastic Novels right here

All of this mates up with A.Merritts Dweller in the Mirage,the regions of Alaska in North America & Russia have rejoined we might have something very similar to the world of Night's Dark Terror & In Search of Adventure. The stars might have come right with the emergence of the horrors from the fringe & lost places of the world. There ages undreamt of before Zothique and that's when the events of this campaign are going to be taking place.
"THE MOUND" by H. P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop really does give the feel for these sorts of preserves where the true masters of the cults of Cthulhu dwell.   A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage first published in book form in 1932 by Horace Liveright gives full details about the faction that worships the evil Kraken named Khalk'ru.You can read Dwellers in the Mirage With The Happy Ending Here From Fantastic Novels v03n03 (1949 09)

So I'm working on factions, races, and more coming up for my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Fall/Winter campaign so keep those dice rolling!


 The above commentary & opinions are copyrighted & trademarked to the author.  The role playing systems mentioned in this blog post are copy righted and trade marked to their authors and companies this blog post is not an attempted to violate those trade marks this blog post is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

Mini OSR Fall Campaign Idea Using - B10 Night's Dark Terror By Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, Phil Gallagher & Some Free Old School Appendix N Downloads

"Barely one day's march from Kelven, the uncharted tracts of the Dymrak forest conceal horrors enough to freeze the blood of civilized folk. Those who have ventured there tell how death comes quick to the unwary - for the woods at night are far worse than any dungeon.

But you are adventurers, veterans of many battles, and the call of the will is strong. Will you answer the call, or are you afraid of the dark terrors of the night?Fall is almost on us & already I'm planning for the fall campaign season for my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaigns. I'm planning a series of one shots, extended mini campaigns I noticed something very interesting about Night's Dark Terror in the Wiki entry;"
Night's Dark Terror is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game written by British game designers Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, and Phil Gallagher. It was designed specifically for campaigns transitioning from the D&D Basic Set to the D&D Expert Set."
The fact that the module  specifically designed to translate between B/X & Expert makes Night's Dark Terror a perfect candidate for the weird fiction/ post apocalyptic treatment of Old Earth. There's  a weird proto Russian feel to Night's Dark Terror that we can exploit for campaign use here.



"Night's Dark Terror is a wilderness scenario in which the player characters travel by river and over mountains, from the Grand Duchy of Karameikos to the chaotic lands. The characters encounter a town under siege by goblins, a ruined city, and a lost valley"
There's a very interesting article by Andrew Theisen on  Mystara Modules and Placement which actually can be used to build a picture of where to place modules within a post apocalpytic wasteland as well.  This helps to build a picture of where monsters, peoples, etc. might go in the wastelands.

So right off the bat we've got traditional D&D monsters such as humanoids,boatloads of goblins,etc. that can be easily converted over to mutant humans. I'm sure there's already a bunch of purists having heart attack because there's no way that this whole module could be converted into a campaign. Well actually Night's Dark Terror could be set in the centuries  leading up Zothique's existence there were eons of other worlds in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953 some of this is outlined;"Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin."
So what lead up to this world being created? Were there ages undreamt of before Zothique? In my estimation yes and at sometime the stars came right. We get a hint of this theme in the Clark Ashton Smith story,'The Black Abbot of Puthuum.' 
But if the regions of Alaska in North America & Russia were rejoined we might have something very similar to the world of Night's Dark Terror. The stars might have come right with the emergence of the horrors from the fringe & lost places of the world.

"THE MOUND" by H. P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop really does give the feel for these sorts of preserves where the true masters of the cults of Cthulhu dwell. But there's another faction one that worships the evil Kraken named Khalk'ru. I'm speaking of  A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage first published in book form in 1932 by Horace Liveright.




The plot is straight out A.Merritt's work from the lost world, to the weird peoples, and a Lovecraftian god thing that wouldn't feel out of place from a post apocalyptic wasteland world preserve;"
The novel concerns American Leif Langdon who discovers a warm valley in Alaska. Two races inhabit the valley, the Little People and a branch of an ancient Mongolian race; they worship the evil Kraken named Khalk'ru which they summon from another dimension to offer human sacrifice. The inhabitants recognize Langdon as the reincarnation of their long dead hero, Dwayanu. Dwayanu's spirit possesses Langdon and starts a war with the Little People. Langdon eventually fights off the presence of Dwayanu and destroys the Kraken.
There are variant endings of the work. In the original, Leif's love dies, but the publisher inartistically has her survive. The original tragic ending has been reinstated in some/many recent reprints."
This one has a bit of everything including a tacked on happy ending but it also has a number of sword & sorcery elements to it. The plot is a perfectly preserved glass Lovecraftian mini world with added elements of super science & sorcery to boot. The perfect place to hatch a faction or two for a completely different take on Night's Dark Terrors.
. "The module begins in a beleaguered farmstead. The PCs then explore more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) of wilderness, with eighteen locations, including a number of mini-dungeons, a ruined city, a riverside village, a frontier town, and a lost valley, with the minions of the Iron Ring waiting for the PCs at every step." So is the Iron Ring one of the power blocks behind bringing back  Khalk'ru to the PC's dimension. The DM gets the best of all possible worlds with this approach. Several mini dungeons & devilishly delightful mini wilderness encounters along with a mini dungeon crawl at lower levels that set's everything in the heat of the moment with a Lovecraftian twist or two. 

You can read Dwellers in the Mirage With The Happy Ending Here From Fantastic Novels v03n03 (1949 09)

 The above commentary & opinions are copyrighted & trademarked to the author.

Another Mini OSR Campaign Idea Using - X1 Isle of Dread By David Cook & Tom Moldvay & Some Free Old School Appendix N Downloads

Hundreds of miles from the mainland, surrounded by dangerous waters, lies an island known only as the Isle of Dread. Dark jungles and treacherous swamps await those who are brave enough to travel inland in search of the lost plateau, where the ruins of a once mighty civilization hold many treasures - and many secrets!

Wiki has a good breakdown of the history of X1 Isle of Dread;"The Isle of Dread is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventure, module code X1, was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay, it is among the most widely circulated^[1] of all Dungeons & Dragons adventures due to its inclusion as part of the D&D Expert Set."



I know what your thinking, "Oh no not another X1 Isle of Dread commentary, this one is angled to the Weird Tales aspects of X1 so bare with me as I take this classic module in a completely different & pulpy direction." The basic plot has the PC's with their backs against some of the classic adventure elements of X1;"""The characters somehow find a fragment from a ship's log, describing a mysterious island on which many treasures can be found, and set out to explore it. Typically, the characters will first make landfall near the more or less friendly village of Tanaroa and after possibly dealing with some troublesome factions in the village, set out to explore the interior of the island. In the course of their explorations, they may find a number of other villages of unfamiliar intelligent creatures, numerous hostile monsters and the treasures they guard, and a band of pirates. Many prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, are prominently featured, especially in the original printing of the adventure. Near the center of the island is a hidden temple inhabited by monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as kopru; the characters may stumble across it or learn that it is a source of problems for the other inhabitants of the isle, and the climax of the adventure typically consists of the characters exploring this temple, battling its inhabitants, and uncovering its secrets"

There has always been a mystique around the X1 module, it is after all one of the most popular & recognizable adventures that was published during the classic or golden era of TSR. Yet today I spoke with several friends who have never once considered running the adventure as a part of A Gamma World or post apocalyptic campaign. Not only can this be done but it should be. The fact is that given the scope and diversity of the various OSR resources X1 is a prehistoric sand box of epic proportions. Because of the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Master Guide contains all of the conversions necessary to bring your mutants, outlaws, and adventurers into an age undreamt of by man. On the rpgstackexchange.com there is a great thread called Can I run The Isle of Dread with AD&D? It has some great background & options for DMing the adventure.  But what does X1 have to do with A. Merritt? Well if we look into his classic 1924 Appendix N pulp novella The Ship of Ishtar things become a lot clearer. The novella concerns a world out of time with two factions vying for control of their very existence similar to the factions of the Isle of Dread fighting for time out of eons survival. In fact one of the campaigns I played in had several of the priests of  of Nergal and his  minions on the Isle as NPC's along with a group of  Ishtar priestesses  and her female minions on the other side of the island. This is one of the beauties of X1, its flexibility as an OSR toolbox.


An epic version of the Island of Dread is available from the Vaults of Pandius here which might help to bridge the gap into a far more adventure where the PC's are interfering in the affairs of the divine.

A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar is available right over here as a free download 

 Alright let's get back into the time lost Bermuda Triangle aspect of X1 The Isle of Dread. Back in 1981 when X1 was published the Triangle, UFOs, Flying Saucers, ghosts, & space warps were still front page tabloid news.  It was a part of the pop cultural zeitgeist & what goes around comes around. So if we look towards another Lovecraft circle writer then we get another adventure element and possible setting where the isle of dread might be touching another world or time. Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis cycle of novellas and stories draws heavily from Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky. The very forces that sank Atlantis might have ripped a hole in the space time continuum allowing the isle to appear not to far from the "the last isle of foundering Atlantis" Poseidonis. This strange extra dimensional quality of the isle of dread means that many classic AD&D or Gamma World elements might appear on its shores & beaches. In fact 'The Last Enchantment' By Clark Ashton Smith implies that many of the weird & sorcerous elements of the wizard Malygris might provide a perfect cross point for X1 as some artifact provides the necessary push to send adventurers to their doom in the realms of X1.

"Now Malygris was old, and all the baleful might of his enchantments, all the dreadful or curious demons under his control, all the fear that he had wrought in the hearts of kings and prelates, were no longer enough to assuage the black ennui of his days. In his chair that was fashioned from the ivory of mastodons, inset with terrible cryptic runes of red tourmalines and azure crystals, he stared moodily through the one lozenge-shaped window of fulvous glass. His white eyebrows were contracted to a single line on the umber parchment of his face, and beneath them his eyes were cold and green as the ice of ancient floes; his beard, half white, half of a black with glaucous gleams, fell nearly to his knees and hid many of the writhing serpentine characters inscribed in woven silver athwart the bosom of his violet robe. About him were scattered all the appurtenances of his art; the skulls of men and monsters; phials filled with black or amber liquids, whose sacrilegious use was known to none but himself"


Then there are the inhabitants of the isle of dread themselves who seem right at home as much on Gamma Terra as they do in Expert D&D not to mention the pirates and other factions of the isle. The pirates should not be taken lightly even by Mutant Future or Gamma World adventurers. They are as deadly as they come.


The real equalizer is of course the dinosaurs and other prehistoric horrors capable of eating adventurers, pirates and cat people in one gulp. Prehistoric life is one of the real adventure elements that can ruin the day of any player. These horrors are all too real in the adventure setting of X1 where they provide yet another challenge. Cook and Moldvay both frequently pushed another aesthetic: pulp adventure which fits the design and writing aesthetic of X1.
These pulp and prehistoric elements really push the envelop on the isle of dread giving the PC's yet another reason to look over their shoulders.

You can have magick, technology, gun powder, ray guns its not going to matter. The PC's are still going to die in a monster's belly or at the end of trap's spike or other deadly accoutrements. X1 has everything just waiting for PC's to blunder into its clutches. The weird alternate-world fantasy of Clark Ashton Smith gives the perfect excuse to introduce serpent men adventure elements & artifacts, such as the ones seen in CAS's Double Shadow another tale that comes from the Poseidonis cycle. The fact is that originally the isle and its surrounding environs might have been a part of some vast laboratory of the serpent men or as a part of the former monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as kopru empire. Races such as the as the racoon-like phanaton and the cat-like rakasta give X1 part of its "Lost World/Skull Island laboratory feel'



This is something that I've talked extensively about before and one of the ways that X1 might be slotted into an old school campaign or a post apocalyptic campaign setting.
The Kopru, dreaming the restoration of their lost Empire might have been one of the ancient enemies of the 'Elder Things' left behind after the destruction of their own empire.Could X1 in fact be a last alien battle field that the PC's in fact have stumbled into? I think so we almost but not quite we get a very 'events have passed here before us into history feel' as we do with the classic 1933 King Film.

X1 Isle of Dread remains a classic for a reason and one of those is the classic plasticity of the module. A great little example of old school design & classic old school adventure writing. Remains an old favorite of mine and probably will for decades to come.

Commentary On Adapting The Expert D&D Module X1 Isle of Dread For The Adventurer,Conqueror, King Rpg System

There are deep waters in old school gaming, lost worlds where PC's can come to fates worse then death. Many souls have ventured here but few have returned.
Hundreds of miles from the mainland, surrounded by dangerous waters, lies an island known only as the Isle of Dread. Dark jungles and treacherous swamps await those who are brave enough to travel inland in search of the lost plateau, where the ruins of a once mighty civilization hold many treasures - and many secrets!

After going over my old campaign notes, talking with some friends, and dealing with the weirdness & flexibility of The Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg system. I decided to go with a classic to start the players out in the iconic X1 Isle of Dread for this upcoming hobby shop game. Isle of Dread which is one of the seminal adventures of  written by David "Zeb" Cook,^[2] and Tom Moldvay   way back in 1981.

There are several reasons for using X1:

• Flexibility & the DYI factor of Isle of Dread. 
• The variety of encounters and weirdness of the lost world of Isle of Dread 
• The old school feeling of the Isle and its environs. 

So after doing a review of Lairs & Encounters From Autarch on my other blog, I think that Isle of Dread is the perfect hex crawl test bed for this book. Of course this my style of DMing so there's going to be a twist into the weird with X1. Which means that the isle is going to be a part of a dimension hopping change of mini isles in my Ancient & Accursed Terra setting that's wrinkle one.

Wrinkle two is going to be a healthy dose of black powder mixed in via Guns of War with a healthy dose of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea thrown in for good measure. The isle of Dread is only the tip of the lost world setting as their is a whole country full of dinosaurs, jungle stink, rot, lost tribes, ancient ruins, lots of booty, weird cults, ancient technologies, and much more. There's also going to be a healthy dose of Dark Albion & Lamentations of the Flame Princess thrown in for good measure.


 I've also got a ton of surprises thrown into the mix for good measure that I'll put up here as play actually begins. I'm also going to be running the isle as a convention set up perhaps once a month with room for expansion as things develop. Threshold magazine issues three & four are a must for anyone wanting to use X1. They have so much material for expansion that its not funny. More as this develops folks.

Commentary On The Kong: Skull Island Movie Trailer, Lost Worlds, The Isle Of Dread, & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Filled with prehistoric beasts, weird lost world tribes, incredible dangers, and wild random encounters Isle of Dread might come off as the latest Hollywood blockbuster but it's actually a classic 1981 adventure module.Much of its gaming DNA has lots in common with the latest trailer release for Kong:Skull Island as we'll see.

 So last night I went to go pick up the wife from the bus station, and I was able to keep on top of the newest Skull Island movie trailer. This looks very well done with an ensemble cast & a complete set up for the new Godzilla vs King Kong movie that is going to be up coming. This trailer set's everything up for the film but there's lots of details in this trailer in point of fact too many in my opinion. Between this and the first trailer, we almost get a good solid overview of the entire assembled movie. But there are details that really struck me as an old school dungeon master.

There are lots of things that jumped out at me but it was the wonderful piece of cartography that is shown in the trailer of Kong's Skull Island. The map seems very similar to one that I'd study for hours as a kid, the map of the Isle of Dread seems very similar in point of fact. There are lots points of interest in both lost world properties that can offer an old school DM some great adventure hex crawling fodder.


This map is the latest incarnation of Skull Island & ties in closely with the set up of the 2015 Godzilla movie.  "King Kong vs. Godzilla (キングコング対ゴジラ Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira^?) is a 1962 Japanese science-fiction kaiju film featuring King Kong and Godzilla, produced and distributed by Toho. It is the third film in the Godzilla franchise and Showa series and the first of two Japanese-produced films featuring King Kong. It is also the first time both characters appeared on film in color and widescreen" This ties in with the land of monsters idea of the 'Monster Island' that was put forward in the Godzilla 60's, 70's, & 80's. The revival of the franchise ties in with the ideas that were put forward in the Isle of Dread in 1981;"The Isle of Dread is meant to introduce players and Dungeon Masters familiar with only dungeon crawl-style adventures to wilderness exploration.^[4][5][6] As such, the adventure has only a very simple plot, even by the standards of its time.^[7] The module has been described as a medium to high level scenario, which takes place on a mysterious tropical island divided by an ancient stone wall"  Simple plot, lots of factions of monsters & races, a much great threat, and an adventure location chuck full of random wilderness encounters. Basically I mentioned that the Isle of Dread is an adventure tool kit that can be customized as the DM sees fit.

This brings me back to the 1930's King Kong from which The Isle of Dread draws it's inspiration from,"Hundreds of miles from the mainland, surrounded by dangerous waters, lies an island known only as the Isle of Dread. Dark jungles and treacherous swamps await those who are brave enough to travel inland in search of the lost plateau, where the ruins of a once mighty civilization hold many treasures - and many secrets!" which sounds incredibly like Skull Island from the 1930's King Kong. How does this tie into Monster Island from Toho studios?


There's been much fan speculation over the years that both landmasses Skull Island & Monster Island once belonged to the same super continent that led to the fighting of both Godzilla's & King Kong's original species within their prehistoric world. This was something that the original Dell comic book speculated about way back in the 1960's.


One of the things that we never really see are the pulpy native factions who inhabit both Skull Island & Monster Island. These folks might be the remains of tribes Atlantis, MU, Lemuria or some other far older forgotten lost civilization. This is another commonality with the Isle of Dread. 
What makes the isle so unique is the number of small factions who exploit one another and the landscape all of the while back connecting everything around the pulpy elements of the adventure and yet it works in spades because of the attention to details that David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay have infused in this module. This makes running an adventure a snap with the right resources.
A solid resource for running a campaign in this area issue #3 of Threshold magazine. This issue is titled The Sea of Dread and contains a virtual ton of information and twists about the region of the sea, everything you would want to know is in there about this area of the Sea of Dread. This resource contains the inhabitants of the area, articles on minor islands in the area, the pirates, raiders &  merchant princes of the sea, a ton of background material ready to drop into your game and much more. This issue clocks in at two hundred and forty eight pages of lost world goodness. This makes it a very nice lost world bit to connect into a Swords & Wizardry game or another retroclone system.




All of this can be back connected into a retroclone system such as Dark Albion which has some edges of the map begging for a lost world adventure. The ramifications of a lost world in Dark Albion would be monumental especially for the political & resource driven nature of a domain level game. Imagine the in fighting & murder plots such a land would cause during the Rose War of Dark Albion. The bodies would stack up like cord wood as the economic fall out causes chaos at court. This might be one of the prime reasons to have an NPC occultist like John Dee

whose library might contain a vital map, artifact text, or some other piece of occult knowledge vital to the voyage.


If we take the other worldly or occult aspect further we could take Isle of Dread as a 'Bermuda Triangle' style lost island this allows the DM to hook it up with a sword & sorcery game such as Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. An island of lost souls & castaways which has claimed hundreds of lives over the centuries and the PC's are the latest victims of the other dimensional forces. With only three days to go on the AS&SH second edition Kickstarter I've seen several DM's scrambling  to get a campaign together for the game. A mixed game such as Isle of Dread allows a mixed party of adventurers of all stripes working together towards the common goals of escaping the island and its faction or ruling it. Because AS&SH works very well with Dark Albion the retroclone tableau is fairly open for all kinds of cross retroclone setting mayhem.  Several of the AS&SH adventures could also be used to fill in details as needed.

To take the adult gonzo route even further the Island of Purple Haunted Putrescence by Venger Satanis might be an option for the far more enterprising dungeon master but check with your group of players first. You could add in a dash of Carcosa by Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Alpha Blue for further pulpy weirdness.

For me the Isle of Dread is the perfect vehicle for mixing in several retroclone style adventurers who must work together against the island, the factions, and the various hidden menaces which abound in this classic Eighties module of lost world goodness. This is a theme that we see running continuously through various 'lost world' films including Kong:Skull Island. At this point I'm all in.

Commentary On The Free OSR Companion Adventure - Below The Isle of Dread By Jerry Stratton For Expert D&D As Well As Your Old School Campaigns

Welcome back kiddies, your uncle Eric is back with another free OSR resource and yes I can hear the groans from here. Not another optional resource to the classic sandbox lost world  island adventure. Well in a word, yes I happened upon a free adventure resource to lure back your adventurers back to the island again with a great hook. All the way back on March fifth I spoke about getting your adventurers to explore around the islands in the sea of Dread.
Let's take the classic back panel text from this classic adventure for a moment; ""The characters somehow find a fragment from a ship's log, describing a mysterious island on which many treasures can be found, and set out to explore it. Typically, the characters will first make landfall near the more or less friendly village of Tanaroa and after possibly dealing with some troublesome factions in the village, set out to explore the interior of the island. In the course of their explorations, they may find a number of other villages of unfamiliar intelligent creatures, numerous hostile monsters and the treasures they guard, and a band of pirates. Many prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, are prominently featured, especially in the original printing of the adventure. Near the center of the island is a hidden temple inhabited by monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as kopru; the characters may stumble across it or learn that it is a source of problems for the other inhabitants of the isle, and the climax of the adventure typically consists of the characters exploring this temple, battling its inhabitants, and uncovering its secrets"

GRAB BENEATH THE
ISLE OF DREAD ADVENTURE HERE

Near the center of the isle is a temple which is controlled by the weird Lovecraftian Kopru and that's exactly where Below The Isle of Dread picks up. "The Isle of Dread has some caverns on level three unmapped, with the note “so the DM can create his or her own special encounter areas”. I have to say, this is special. What’s going on, though? I’m guessing I knew at one point, although the complete lack of writing throughout the dungeon may belie that assumption. The dungeon appears to be old.* It appears to have both human and Kopru skeletons. There are lots of rock and crystal statues, and at least two quicksilver statues, giving it a sort of ancient technology feeling. This was well before Terminator, let alone the sequel’s liquid metal android. The feeling is increased because I seem to be treating the statues as robots, most of which are no longer in service." So what your going to get is a free six level sand box style dungeon ready to be customized and perfect for play to draw your PC's back to the isle with your own creations. The adventure clocks in at twelve pages of old school dungeon crawling fun for the David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay, Expert D&D set. This makes the adventure perfect as an excuse to get the PC's back onto the island and into the sights of some the prehistoric monsters and lost races waiting to meet and greet the PC's.

Races like the Phanaton who are a halfling-size race resembling racoons or monkeys, with prehensile tails and wing-like gliding membranes and can have a mean streak a mile wide. These guys are one of the factions that makes X1 rather unique. The sandbox approach makes the factions stand out and really gives the players some rather interesting challenges. It also gives the DM a blueprint for creating their own factions for later sandbox adventures. The real question is how will the dungeon beneath the isle change the climate and reactions of these factions especially the pirates if they're still are any around. Most likely some sea scum will come and replace those whom the earlier exploits of the PC's have sent to their just rewards.

 There are also several other aspects that the Isle of Dread added to the D&D Expert set roster these included; the fact that the adventure " introduced numerous creatures to the game for the first time, including the kopru and aranea, both of which went on to find a place in the Third Edition Monster Manual; the rakasta and phanaton, both of which would later appear as playable races in other Dungeons & Dragons products set in Mystara; and many others, including several types of dinosaurs." The dungeon master could take full advantage of this fact by introducing factional NPC's for this dungeon if they are inclined. The DM could introduce newer factions who have risen in the wake of the PC's freeing of the tyranny of the
as a location in the Feywild (a parallel plane dominated by faeries and unspoiled natural life. Shrug this might work for some campaigns but personally I like the fifth edition option which according to wiki; "
"The adventure was loosely based on King Kong,^[1] and came with a fairly detailed (for its time) map of a setting then called the Known World,^[1] showing at least fifteen distinct nations on the mainland to the north, as well as much of the Sea of Dread in which the Isle of Dread could be found.^[4] These nations each received a paragraph or so of description near the beginning of the module" This fact unto itself allows the DM to customize the Isle and its inhabitants plus the surrounding areas as they see fit and brand it as an alternative version of the Known world. So how is this possible? Well there might artifacts from the original inhabitants of the isle and the magic is still leaking into the reality of the island itself.
Want a map of the island that you customize yourself? We've got you covered with these downloads from http://pandius.com.

Isle of dread maps.
http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/updated/_...of-dread-4.png

http://pandius.com/iod_dm.jpg

http://pandius.com/iod_plyr.jpg

http://www.pandius.com/x1-isle-of-dread-6-1983.png

In the end X1 Isle of Dread remains one of the classics for a number of reasons and favorite of mine. Below The Isle of Dread By Jerry Stratton adds just another modification to a classic of Dungeons and Dragon Expert era. Happy gaming and watch out for the dinos!

The Other Islands In The Sea of Dread And More Hijinks With X1 The Isle Of Dread For The Dungeons And Dragons Expert Set For Your Old School Campaigns

X1 The Isle of Dread is a classic and today we're going to expand upon some of the other day's blog entry and your DM resources.

Alright so I've got to get into fulfilling a quick email request for more X1 Isle of Dread goodness. So after blogger decided to eat this post last night, I've had to do a quick Monday morning OSR quarterback move with this blog post. Let's begin with the last post which proved to be very popular is right here. 

So your PC's have just completed X1 and sailing away into the sunset and the PC's are ready to collect their experience points. So the adventure is over? Nope the campaign has only just begun. 

First of all embrace the old school weirdness and just run with it, this is an old school sandbox and there have been hundreds of thousands of players who have run through this adventure and its alright to have a blast with it. But how do I get my PCs to the island? Well, I'm glad you asked, the blog of holding has a really nice set of ideas to get your party of adventurers there. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD! 

There is plenty of action on the island to keep players and DM's busy as a mini campaign but what happens when you get your party of adventurers off the island? Surely there can't be more adventures waiting around the corner? Well, two things about the island first it marks the first appearance of the Rakshasa who are one of my favorite PC races to play around with. They have a weird blend of Native American and Persian to them. The module describes them; "The rakasta are a race of nomadic, cat-like humanoids. They walk erect, much like humans, but are covered with soft, tawny fur and have feline heads and features. The rakasta fight with special metal “war claws” fitted over their natural claws."  The Rakasta are a perfect avenue to expand the roster of humanoids that the PC's can form an alliance with on the island. A faction with room for lots of adventure opportunities if the DM wants to use them as a hook for future adventures but then again this is true of all of the races featured on the island.

They have a strange emphatic relationship with the saber toothed tigers of the island and in my campaigns were one of the prime movers and shakers on the island where they could leave at any time. This provided the PC's with charts and maps of the surrounding islands only after they had gotten done with the adventure and dealt with some of the islands bits of nastiness. Those charts, maps, and OSR resources came from the Vaults of Pandius website. 

To extend the islands in the sea of Dread there are more then a few options one of which is an island of cannibals. This both gives more opportunities for adventure and more lost world adventure bang for the buck.
 Another island inhabitant that I've switch out from the island is the dread Kopru 

which in my campaigns are a mid point monster between Deep Ones and Brain Lashers.

this brings up an important point. Another island that I've worked into the mix is the JN2 Monkey Isle from Basic Fantasy.  

This adventure has everything that you're going to need to work even more Lost World magic on your players. And this adventure can serve as a cross point into even more high weirdness which we'll get into tomorrow.

Even More Commentary On X1 The Isle Of Dread For The Dungeons And Dragons Expert Set For Your Old School Campaigns

 Everything in the Isle of Dread is keyed into created the perfect mini sand box of adventure for your players but why I'm talking about using this classic again? Isle of Dread features everything that pulp loving and lost world DM could want to throw at his players.  But surely they're can't be any new surprises to this classic?

This is a classic in every sense of the word and this module contains a boat load of useful material that didn't appear anywhere else in the expert set of D&D. From monsters, factions, and with equal pulp elements of pirates, dinosaurs, bits of King Kong and more. This module feels like a love letter to the pulp magazines of yesteryear.  And that's exactly what it is. Even the module's byline echoes that original pulpy goodness from another age;" Hundreds of miles from the mainland, surrounded by dangerous waters, lies an island known only as the Isle of Dread. Dark jungles and treacherous swamps await those who are brave enough to travel inland in search of the lost plateau, where the ruins of a once mighty civilization hold many treasures - and many secrets!" 

When it comes to classic modules that have a ton of utility they don't get much better then X1 The Isle of Dread. This classic lost world adventure has a ton of uses and this is one of my favorite mini sand boxes to use. Wiki's plot overview gives a good taste of what you will find in Isle of Dread;
"The characters somehow find a fragment from a ship's log, describing a mysterious island on which many treasures can be found, and set out to explore it. Typically, the characters will first make landfall near the more or less friendly village of Tanaroa and after possibly dealing with some troublesome factions in the village, set out to explore the interior of the island. In the course of their explorations, they may find a number of other villages of unfamiliar intelligent creatures, numerous hostile monsters and the treasures they guard, and a band of pirates. Many prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, are prominently featured, especially in the original printing of the adventure. Near the center of the island is a hidden temple inhabited by monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as kopru; the characters may stumble across it or learn that it is a source of problems for the other inhabitants of the isle, and the climax of the adventure typically consists of the characters exploring this temple, battling its inhabitants, and uncovering its secrets"  Part of the reason that I love The Isle of Dread is the fact that you get some fantastic resources to use with the Known World setting it also  also maps out the whole Sea of Dread. 
So when the PC's deal with all of the elements of the isle they're work has only just begun with this lost world treasure. There is page after page after entry on using this module. But one of the resources that came my way recently is Return To Dread in Threshold magazine issue #4 . This is a free fan resource and contains a ton of OSR material including trading in the sea of Dread, trade routes, pirates and raider information and more. 


The second resource for running a campaign in this area issue #3 of Threshold magazine. This issue is titled The Sea of Dread and contains a virtual ton of information and twists about the region of the sea, everything you would want to know is in there about this area of the Sea of Dread. This resource contains the inhabitants of the area, articles on minor islands in the area, the pirates, raiders &  merchant princes of the sea, a ton of background material ready to drop into your game and much more. This issue clocks in at two hundred and forty eight pages of lost world goodness. 

What makes the isle so unique is the number of small factions who exploit one another and the landscape all of the while back connecting everything around the pulpy elements of the adventure and yet it works in spades because of the attention to details that David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay have infused in this module. Everything happens within the confines of the sea and X1 itself. That makes the factions and the way that the adventure unfolds as an organic whole and yet this sandbox continues to surprise both DM's and players alike because of the way that the factions and adventure elements on the Isle of Dread are handled.  

From both a player and a  dungeon master's stand point  Isle of Dread presents a unique set of challenges in the matters of play. There isn't a structure per say but it makes decisions by the players for their PC's as a central theme of the module and some of the dinosaurs encounters can be very unforgiving. All in all I think that Isle of Dread is a module that not only screams for modification but basks in it as well. Its a module that asks for modification, customization, and a host of other projects that make this a module well worth an OSR DM's attention. As always your mileage may vary .