Retooling - "Thunder Rift" (1992) by Colin McComb for Basic Dungeons & Dragons For Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg

" Thunder Rift was created as a standalone campaign that could be slotted into any fantasy world. But the intention of the designer, Colin McComb, was always that it was part of Mystara, somewhere in the mountains bordering Karameikos (source). This beginners' campaign was then designed to lead players to the more complex world of Mystara, and the adventure Escape from Thunder Rift provided this link explicitly."



What if  "Thunder Rift" (1992) by Colin McComb came out for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Before you tar & feather me because the third edition AS&SH Kickstarter is coming out today. Hear me out, the Thunder Rift setting has several things going for it. This book is a mini setting for the game & it packs a lot into its thirty two pages.You've got self-contained little setting in a valley about thirty miles long. All of the familiar Basic Dungeons & Dragons monsters are in here including a dragon, elves, dwarves, goblins, & lots of human settlements. This is thr e perfect isolated setting to transport PC's from your traditional Dungeons & Dragons world into Hyperborea. The set up is simple  & easy in its exacution. There is & has been a two way portal from Mystara into the Thunder Rift setting. Beyond this is Hyperborea. 

Everything from the lost & the damned from Mystara winds up across the dimensional & planar threshold. And no one is the wiser until the evidence begins to mount. There's several reasons for using Thunder Rift & it breaks down as follows: 

• history - You've got a ton of background on the world setting of Thunder Rift.
•  population - All of the towns & villages are broken down by population, location, etc.

encounter charts-The encounter charts are all here for the dungeon master  to pull from. 

So this makes it the perfect product to show case what a lower tier setting can do for a 1st through 4th level set of adventurers. The Thunder Rift area is perfect as a bread basket for Hyperborea due to the volcanoic activity of that fuels & surrounds it.  The D&D Cycolpaedia Screen which includes Escape from Thunder Rift,this adventure links up the Thunder Rift area to Mystara. But Thunder Rift can easily be dropped into any campaign setting with a bit of work. 

Because Thunder Rift was a return to the Medieval lands.style of D&D settings & adventures. The whole cloth of the region is perfect for starting adventurers of Hyperborea who want a bit of that peusdo European vibe but mixed with the Sword & Sorcery asthetic of AS&SH. Personally I'd set the isolated location of Thunder Rift right near the heart of Hyperborea. This allows the DM to bring home some of the familiar D&D elements while being able to isolate it from from the goings on of AS&SH's Sword & Sorcery bigger adventures. Because Thunder Rift is perfect for 1st & 2nd level adventurers then the PC's can easily be moved on to other AS&SH adventures such as 'Rats In The Walls & Other Perils'. 

With a bit of work Thunder Rift could actually be one of the most influencial & dangerous places on Hyperborea. And we'll explore why coming up! 

Black BASIC Dungeons & Dragons Thunder Rift Setting & A Trail of Murder - Campaign Commentary

"The Shady Dragon Inn is a set of pre-generated characters for use with the Dungeons & Dragons game. This player's aid comes in two parts: each character appears first in a section devoted to his or her character class. They appear again in the second section as members of a party. As a DM or as a player, you may use either or both sections; over a hundred characters await you!

Each character has a brief biography that will help you to create backgrounds for PCs or NPCs as needed. Also included is a rough physical description, and a list of items owned by each character.

The Shady Dragon Inn also contains the D&D statistics for those special characters who are presented by figures in the D&D and AD&D toy line, and provides a tavern setting from which players may start adventures or gather party members."0

Take a classic era TSR product & you can find some very interesting little tid bits in the hidden gems of another era. Take for instance 'AC1  The Shady Dragon Inn' by Carl Sargent filled with over 100 pregenerated NPC characters.. Now for quite while now I've been needing an NPC to help fill an NPC murder niche.
Before I continue this particular NPC is inspired by the fact its for Mike Stewart's Victorious rpg  And the fact that the Thunder Rift campaign setting for Black Basic Dungeons & Dragons has a lovely little adventure called Escape Thunder Rift which expertly places this setting in Mystara.

Thunder Rift on occasion crosses into the world of Fairyland in my 1870' alternative history version of New York City & also  'AC1  The Shady Dragon Inn' by Carl Sargent which quietly appears on a side alley in the city . This brings me to mad, evil, & highly dangerous NPC that crosses over from the inn into New York with murderous intent. My version of the Shady Dragon Inn is taken from The Vaults of Pandius here.. 
I'm speaking about Zarak the Evil Half-Orc Assassin whose going on a job. And if you think that he's not someone to wreck havoc think again. 


My use of Zarak is inspired by the pint sized assassin the BCC's exceptional '87 adaptation of 'Sherlock Holmes' 'The Sign of the Four'.  There's a cursed treasure from Mystara that's crossing hands & causing murders in my campaign. 


The 1892 cloth-bound cover of The Sign of Four after it was compiled as a single book

Someone's hired   to recover that treasure and now the bodies are starting to pile up. But no Venger isn't on the other end of Zarak. Instead someone far more personal to our player characters is.. My use of Thunder Rift isn't an accident because it goes all of the way back to '94 when I took the self contained book for a spin. Thunder Rift is small. .You've got self-contained little setting in a valley about thirty miles long. All of the familiar Basic Dungeons & Dragons monsters are in here including a dragon, elves, dwarves, goblins, & lots of human settlements.
The quality of the Thunder Rift's setting & adventures are exceptional. They make excellent OSR campaign adaptions & their not well known to the experienced & jaded AD&D or D&D players. They can be used in very unexpected ways to suit a dungeon master's taste. 

OSR Commentary - "Thunder Rift" (1992) by Colin McComb for Basic Dungeons & Dragons

So its been a long while since I cracked the spine of Thunder Rift for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. This book is a mini setting for the game & it packs a lot into its thirty two pages.You've got self-contained little setting in a valley about thirty miles long. All of the familiar Basic Dungeons & Dragons monsters are in here including a dragon, elves, dwarves, goblins, & lots of human settlements.

Though the valley has been mostly cut off from outside there's still a lot of adventure hooks packed within this product: 

• history - You've got a ton of background on the world setting of Thunder Rift.
•  population - All of the towns & villages are broken down by population, location, etc.
• encounter charts-The encounter charts are all here for the dungeon master  to pull from. 

Quest for the Silver Sword is another adventure within this line that has one of the major adventure campaign plot points affecting one of the towns within the setting. PC's are going to have a heck of a time with this plague. Another product that has the potential to really blow things is within the D&D Cycolpaedia Screen which includes Escape from Thunder Rift,this adventure links up the Thunder Rift area to Mystara. But Thunder Rift can easily be dropped into any campaign setting with a bit of work. 

The whole point & purpose of Thunder Rift is to show new dungeon masters how awesome a campaign is & all of the building blocks to get one off of the ground. Even though this a Basic product a lot of work must have went into this product. The writing here is concise & easy to read as well as understand. The material is fun to go through & brain storm about how to insert this mini setting into a existing campaign.