JG 770 Portals of Twilight Review - Old School Role Playing

Portals of Twilight is an adventure from Judges Guild written for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This is one of three adventures in a series involving magical portals to other worlds. Technically, this is the third such adventure, in the series. It is written by Rudy Kraft. The adventure is forty eight pages long including the covers and maps. Portals of Twilight was published in 1981.

This product is related to Portals of Torsh and Portals of Irontooth. In this adventure the explorers are taken to a different kind of world than the other two in the series.

The world of Twilight is different than our own. The planet rotates so slowly that it always faces it’s sun with the same side of the planet. As a result the half of the planet in sunlight is incredibly hot and uninhabitable. The half of the planet facing away from the sun is incredibly cold. It can be survived but the vast majority of the inhabitants live on the edges between darkness and full view of the sun. This area is the Twilight. This area is about 900 miles wide across the planet surface.

There are many portals on this world. The adventurers will need to find the correct one if they ever wish to return home. The inhabitants of this world are not much different than those of the home world in which the adventurers come.

These portals are iron archways with colored mist in between. These colors change from minute to minute. Some of these portals are a two way variety. Others are one way only. And a third type are totally random in nature.

Portals of Twilight Link

What I like about Portals of Twilight

I like that this is a very unique world for the adventurers to explore. And the adventurers can romp around a while in this world and then move on to the next one (if the series is being run) or return to their normal campaign if they wish to.

Magical portals are an interesting “trick” that the players may enjoy for a while. Different worlds are always interesting to the players. This particular world has some hostile places in it. Wandering far from the Twilight area of the planet can reveal vastly different and hostile places. There are many important points of interest to visit on this world. And they are mapped and detailed in the text.

This adventure provides a place to explore and then says “go.” There is no fixed story line (that I can see anyway). So the players are on their own to decide what they intend to go explore here. Or they could just make their mission to find a way home. It is up to them.

A couple of new monsters are introduced including a new dragon with a creative breath weapon. There are also a couple of new magic items related to the world and the portals.

What I do not like about Portals of Twilight

There is no real motivational purpose for the explorers here. Why do they go through the portal at all? Is their only goal to get home? Or is there something else on this world worth finding? If so I didn’t when I read through it. There are some lairs and big encounters to find. And treasures.

If the adventurers cannot find the right portal home they might be stuck here a while. And that could spell doom for a campaign if the players find it boring. However, if the characters find it, there is a way to buy knowledge about the portals on the black market in one of the cities. This might be the key to finding one’s way home.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

I think that this adventure is interesting enough that it would merit consideration. If a Dungeon Master is looking for something different to shake up a campaign this might be it. Sending the players to a new world might keep the interest going. So, yes, I would recommend it if that sounds like something that would interest you and your players.

Would I run Portals of Twilight with my own adventurers?

I might. I intend to run my own players through a few low level adventure modules. After that who knows? Something like this might just be the ticket.

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