Review & Commentary On The Free OSR Adventure DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane By Greg Daley For Your Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition & OSR Campaigns

"An ambitious sorcerer schemes to hold sway over a fragmented eastern marchland, eschewing no evil deed or means of establishing his power. In order to realise his latest subtlety he seeks the aid of adventurers of negotiable disposition. Whether they serve or oppose him, they will find themselves in well over their heads! Meanwhile, goblins are on the move, secretly penetrating into the remains of an ancient dungeon beneath the Stele of the Silver Thane, and poised to strike against the magician who would make himself their master!"

DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane  is a nice free Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition module by Greg Daley. This module is perfect statted out for the beginning dungeon master to get their games straight off the ground. The DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane clocks in at fifty six pages & the artwork for a free adventure is actually well done.

DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane is a dungeon & wilderness adventure that employs the right mixture of elements that the dungeon master can tune up to their own old school or OSR campaign. The wilderness contains twenty six adventure encounters this spices up things for the party. The separation of the adventure locations & the encounters is very well done here. The locations could very well end the PC's lives.
The village of Hadd has some excellent potential to give the adventurers a hand up or hinder them depending upon how they decide to play it out in DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane.  The whole module feels well done with many of the encounters perfect to bring in a solid beginning to a campaign. Because DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane is a beginning Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition adventure there are number of other OSR uses for it. 




DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane is a first edition AD&D module for 1-3 level PC's so it could easily be adapted to the  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg. This module could be adapted for the Summer season of Hyperborea. The encounter table, adventure locations, etc. would have to be adapted for example the gnome village becomes a human location or the gnomes are mutated humans. The goblins essentially stay the same but may be semi demonic fodder. But the essence of DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane  remains the same.
For Adventurer, Conqueror, King almost nothing is changed but the adventure locations of DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane  could become one of the bases that the PC's take over as they begin to expand out into the world as conquerors. The gist of the module remains the same but the tone changes. The players are going to become movers & shakers in the world. Here's where the inclusion of Gary Gygax's B2 Keep on the Borderlands comes in as the players move up in the world of ACK's.  This same tactic could work as well with Castles & Crusades.  In fact  DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane works really well with C&C. 


For Dungeon Crawl Classics DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane  villain would have to be modified into a very self contained being. The dungeons & encounters remain but the rewards would have to pick up on the higher end. The villain is turned up to eleven & the adventure elements become more twisted.

Could DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane be used with the Lion & Dragon rpg or its setting books of Dark Albion? Possibly but the adventure would have to be modified with the adventurers dealing with some Fey elements as the world of Fairy is intruding into the mortal realm. This puts a very different spin on DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane & the crown is going to come down hard on the world of  DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane so be prepared DM's. 


 DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane has everything I want from a beginning module. An easing into the adventure location, solid encounter tables, & whole cloth module that can be run straight outta of the box. Four out of five because I think that  DF33 Stele of the Silver Thane deserves a longer run time & page count but who can complain with this free module!