JG 102 Caverns of Thracia Review - Old School Role Playing

Caverns of Thracia is a true mega dungeon. It is huge. It has many levels and quite a few sub levels. This adventure was published by Judges Guild in 1979. Caverns of Thracia was written and illustrated by Jennell Jaquays. From cover to cover it is 79 pages long. It is written for Original Dungeons and Dragons.

The adventure does not specify a level range. But it is clear that many of the encounters and much of the dungeon would be appropriate for the lowest levels. But there are also many encounters which would challenge characters of much higher levels.

Unlike many of the other Judges Guild products this one is not specifically placed in the Wilderlands. It can be placed in any campaign world.

Technically, I suppose, this is not really just one big dungeon. There are multiple levels and areas in the same place.

Caverns of Thracia is all about the God of Death……Thanatos. The Caverns of Thracia includes temples and priests of this deity. There are worshipers of this death god who still inhabit these halls.

But they are not the only ones to live in this place. There are gnolls and lizard men as well. And others.

Caverns of Thracia Link

What I like about Caverns of Thracia

It is a mega dungeon. When you look at the published modules for OD&D and 1st Edition there are not that many adventures that you can really say that about. TSR published many of their longest and deepest works in installments rather than as one adventure. Most of the Judges Guild adventures are not one big deep dungeon like this one.

Caverns of Thracia adds a few monsters which did not exist at the time of it’s publication. In some cases it adds variants of creatures that did exist at that time.

This adventure is likely to require the adventurers to not just attack everyone that they meet in the dungeon. Should they do so they might find the dwellers of the dungeon to be unified against them. And this could easily prove fatal. There are competing factions in this dungeon. Not everyone here gets along all that well. Playing these factions off against each other could be the key to survival.

Like most Judges Guild adventures this one has more than a few magical tricks. If you have ever read any of my own published adventures then you know how much I love these.

The background information for the Caverns is fairly brief. It is about a page long. I can deal with that. There is little that I hate more in an adventure than five pages of history and background that no one cares to read and that my players will never be concerned with.

Lizard men. I love lizard men. And there are lots of them in this adventure. There are also quite a few other monsters which are classics of Dungeons and Dragons.

I really like the single “incarnation of death” wandering encounter. This is an interesting set up. Players having a greater chance of encountering the creature depending upon their health is an interesting idea. A creature being invisible to everyone until some condition is met makes for a unique encounter.

What I do not like about Caverns of Thracia

There is not much that I do not like about this adventure. With the exception that I have never played it or run it with a group. This may change soon.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

Of course! Judges Guild adventures from this era are old school. These are the kinds of adventures that represent the games that I enjoyed playing back when I started playing this game in 1979. This one could easily be converted for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Would I run Caverns of Thracia with my own adventurers?

Absolutely. And I might. My current group is rolling up new characters after making some very poor decisions during a recent gaming session. Their beloved high level characters are not dead and buried. So something new is in the wind. I am starting them with a low level adventure that I wrote myself called “The Wild Woods.” This should get them to 2nd or even 3rd level. After that I plan to run modules for a while. Specifically modules that I do not think that they have read before. So I am considering a lot of different possibilities. This is one of them.

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