B2 Keep on the Borderlands Review - Old School Role Playing

This is one of my favorite modules. It is not for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which is what I DM for my own group, but it can easily be converted for use with 1st edition. The adventure was written by Gary Gygax and was published in 1981. From cover to cover it is thirty pages long. But this includes a great deal of material that is meant for use by beginning dungeon masters and might be useful long beyond this module. Many of these tables and forms could be copied or town out to use in other adventures.

This is an introductory adventure. It is intended for starting characters and those of extremely low levels Levels 1 to 3 should find this adventure appropriate.

The characters arrive at a remote keep on the outskirts of civilization. The keep itself has a few issues. And the surrounding areas are becoming increasingly hostile. This is obviously a place where adventurers could find some work. There are caverns near the keep which are infested with who knows what. And the swamp nearby has a few nasty creatures living there as well. And something, or someone, is leading these monsters in their harassment of the locals.

What I like about Keep on the Borderlands

There are a number of aspects that I love about this adventure. It has a safe “keep” for the adventurers to return to. This acts as the starting town and is close to all of the areas in which the party will want to explore. But it is not totally safe. There are priests of chaos hiding within the keep as well as in the caves. And one of them will attempt to accompany the adventurers and then turn on them at an opportune moment. More on this subject at the end of my review.

There are several low level dungeon areas to explore. The Caves of Chaos are close to the keep and provide about a dozen areas of interconnecting caves to explore. Kobolds, orcs, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, skeletons, zombies, priests of chaos and even a Minotaur await the adventurers within the caves. Some of the encounters are quite easy. Others could turn fatal quickly if the adventurers do not take care.

Also close to the keep are a little swamp area with some lizard men and a few other short encounters.

This is a simple setup. It is made with the novice DM in mind. There are lots of explanations provided. Nothing is assumed. There are tables and other helpful points provided to make this module run smoothly. And as I mentioned…it is easily converted to use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. More recently a 5th Edition version of this module has been released as well as a few other related products.

Links:

What I do not like about Keep on the Borderlands

One thing struck me as out of character with the adventure. In the caves of chaos there is an encounter in area 57 called the “Hall of Undead Warriors.” This encounter is with 20 skeletons and 20 zombies. Obviously at this low level this encounter could easily be a total party kill. It seems way too powerful to be in this adventure.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

Absolutely. It is a fantastic adventure for beginning dungeon masters and experienced ones. It is a fun adventure for the players as well. It offers a nice little “safe” place for the adventurers to return to from adventure. And it offers a number of short “dungeons” for the delvers to explore and then return to safety in the keep. It also offers a nice little conspiracy in the form of the priests of chaos both in the keep and in the caves as well.

Would I run Keep on the Borderlands with my own group?

Yes. And I have. Twice. I ran it back in the day with a group when I first bought the module. It came with the boxed set. I was young. And it was my first attempt at running a game as a dungeon master. I found the setup to be extremely easy and we had a great time with it. I ran it again with my current group (before their total party kill) a couple of years ago. It was a great way to get some low level characters some early experience without too much risk of death.

When I was at the North Texas Role Playing Games Convention (NTRPG) a couple of years ago I played in a group running the Keep on the Borderlands module. If you have not been to this convention it is in Dallas each summer and it usually has many of the surviving members of TSR and others who were involved in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons. And to make things even more special…..these are usually the dungeon masters running the games. Now Gary Gygax is not with us any more. So he was obviously not the one running the module for us that night. Another DM from my home state of Arkansas was the dungeon master. But while we were playing Frank Mentzer, who edited the module, came by while we were playing. Apparently he contributed a bit to this adventure (uncredited). Specifically he designed the evil chapel in the caves (I believe). Anyway during this adventure the evil priest accompanied us into the caves and then turned on us while we were exploring the ogre cave area. We played basic for this adventure and it was my first and only time of playing that edition. I will confess……I do not especially like basic. But I love the module.

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The Keep awaits those who seek adventure and glory!

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2 Replies to “B2 Keep on the Borderlands Review”

I loved this review, and I would love if you did a similar one for the “temple of elemental evil” and “Desert of desolation” modules that I own but have never played.

Joseph Mohr says:

September 26, 2019 at 3:37 pm

Thanks! Temple of Elemental Evil is coming up. I write these a month or so in advance typically. But I did TOEE recently and it should be up in a week or two. I have not read the Desert of Desolation series. Is that a TSR product? I will see if I can find it and review it in the coming weeks.

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