Module Database, B series

B series:

Series overview: All of the Basic D&D modules are set in the D&D Known World of Mystara. Most of them are set specifically in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos on Mystara.

B1: In Search of the Unknown

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 3-6 of levels 1-3

Written by: Mike Carr

Year: 1979

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: None

What you get: 32 page booklet

Summary: Rogahn the fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, noted personalities, built a stronghold years ago, but now they are gone. Who will dare to explore their hideaway?

Notes: This module is incomplete in that the DM must stock the dungeon with monsters and treasures. Tables are provided for this.

Personal notes

B1: As a starter dungeon for new DM's it has some merit. There is a nice list of possible monsters and treasures for the would be DM to assign to rooms. It features all the traditional early dungeon settings, from teleports to one way doors.

Value for modern players

Good for a first time DM, little of interest to hardened gamers.

B2: Keep on the Borderlands

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 6-9 of levels 1-3

Written by: Gary Gygax

Year: 1981

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: None

What you get: A 28 page module which includes information on the keep and its inhabitants, the surrounding area, and the Caves of Chaos.

Summary: This adventure takes place in north-western Karameikos. The party is based at a keep, and is free to explore the surrounding countryside.

Personal Notes

B2: Has a large wilderness section and features the huge caves of chaos, in actual fact the caves are really a set of separate dungeons each about 10 - 20 rooms. As a dungeon crawl experience itís a blast. the role-play elements are thin on the ground but when they do crop up (the mad hermit in the forest for example) they can be a hoot.

Value for modern players

Good is you want a module to while away the hours killing low level beasts and gaining minor magic. A little long in the tooth for slotting into a structured campaign.

UPDATE: This has now been re written and re-released, Ill post a review when I get a copy.

B3: Palace of the Silver Princess

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 4-6 of levels 1-3

Written by: Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells

Year: 1981

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: Archer Bush, Decampus, Vampire Roses

What you get: 32 page booklet and cover

Summary: The protectors, a magical race from the land of Faerie, summon the PCs to save the palace of Princess Argenta in the land of Haven, for it has fallen under a spell.

Personal notes

B3 This is a self contained module that features a castle where the inhabitants are all in stasis. Has a great underlying story line about noble dragon riders and evil clerics attempting strange spells. The layout a little hokey but itís a dungeon that gets better the longer you play it. Some real role-playing opportunities later on (the two female thieves and the talking magical sword just for starters.) Has a bad reputation due to early printing having some dubious artwork, in truth the early version is hard to find and not that much different from the later works. Sadly butchered in the collected B1-9 (they removed most of the role-play reasons for doing the module).

Value for modern players

Still (for my money) one of the greatest of the B series. Well worth a read by aspiring DM's who want to see how a story driven module can be generated from a standard dungeon bash. With the right editing still highly playable in modern game circles, though most of the odd monsters would have to be culled and the map changed in the lower sections.

B4: Lost City

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 6-10 of levels 1-3

Written by: Tom Moldvay

Year: 1982

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: Banshee, Cynidiceans, Werefox Lycanthrope, Polymar

What you get: 28 page booklet and cover with map fold-out.

Summary: The PCs, being lost in the desert, know that their only hope of survival lies in a ruined city rising out of the sands in the distance.

Personal views:

It's taken me an age to track down a copy of this module, before I only had the collected works. It's actually not bad at all, reminds me a lot of the desert series. Lots of strange statues and priests clearing manipulating thier followers. You get to finish off the last few levels yourself (as happens in quite a few of the B series). As a complete module this is as worthy of your attention as the keep on the borderlands.

B5: Horror on the Hill

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: ? of levels 1-3

Personal notes

B5 Hiding behind a cool title is what amounts to a small dungeon crawl against a hob goblin. There is a reasonable set of wilderness encounters that lead you to the lair its self. Long in the tooth and not that logical its an exercise in brief room descriptions and lots of monster stats.

Value for modern players

Not that great sadly. The wilderness encounters are ok, but the actual dungeons hardly up to scratch.

B6: Veiled Society

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: for levels 1-3

Written by: David Cook

Year: 1984

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: Sirenflower

What you get: 16 page booklet and a fold-out cover, 8 pages of building cut-outs.

Summary: The PCs become involved in the power struggles of the city of Specularum, where there are many factions -- the Torenescu, Rade, Vorloi, and the *shudder* Veiled Society...

B7: Rahasia

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 5-7 character of levels 2-5

Written by: Tracy and Laura Hickman

Year: 1985

Characters: ? of levels 1-3

The party are swept into a storyline based around an Elven Princess and an age old mystery. This is a tournament module from the great authors of ravenloft. Certainly worth a look.

B8: Journey to the Rock

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: 6-8 of levels 1-3

Written by: Michael Malone

Year: 1984

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: Chameleon Man, Winged Warrior, Rock Man, Sand Spider, Water Weird, Ghostly Horde, Crone of Chaos

What you get: A 32 page module with cover which includes several pre-rolled characters.

Summary: A wizard hires the party to investigate the Rock, a desolate monolith, for him and to bring back the secrets it contains.

Notes: For the most part, this is a wilderness adventure.

B9: Castle Caldwell & Beyond

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: ? of levels 1-3

B10: Night's Dark Terror

Setting: D&D Basic/Expert, Mystara

Characters: for levels 2-4

Written by: Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris and Phil Gallagher

Year: 1986

New spells: None

New magical items: None

New creatures: Chevall, Ice Wolf, Kartoeba, Living Statues, Rock Rattler, Giant Foot-Pad Lizard, Piranha, Shroud Spider, Wyrd

What you get: 96 page booklet and cover with fold-out map, 1 full color map (maps on both sides) and 8 player's pull-out sheets.

Summary: The PCs journey across the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in a desparate race against time and the forces of evil in a part-dungeon and part-wilderness adventure.

B11: King's Festival

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: ? of levels 1-3

B12: Queen's Harvest

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: ? of levels ?

B1-9: In Search of Adventure

Setting: D&D Basic, Mystara

Characters: ? of levels 1-3

Year: ???

Notes: This module is a collection of modules B1 to B9.

Personal Notes

Collected B1-9

This is a great collection if you are willing to forgive the omissions. Huge parts of almost all the selected modules are missing. In some cases the logic is baffling. The wilderness keep section from B2 makes no appearance yet the hideous goblin caves from B5 are in <?>. Still its the easiest way to play most of the B series and in some cases my only experience with a few of them (B6-9). In light of the hatchet jobs done on B2, B3 I have elected not to fully report on the others. I could be doing them a great disservice judging them only by the printed material in this collection, I will give the briefest of run downs on the other modules form the snippets reproduced here.

B4 Lost city

Looks ok, hardly ground breaking and clearly missing sections that grant it logic. A standard bash.

B6 Veiled society

An excuse to give you paper fold out building modules, they are not in B1-9 so we get the slim module which is hardly fab

B7 Rahasia

People were always telling me that this was the module to look for, the parts shown in B1-9 allow me to agree with them. Nicely written with a decent story line about an Elven princess. As far as I am aware this was the first published dungeon to use the random teleporter room style of mapping, I can't say I am a fan of it but I won't let it distract me from the main module. Sadly its also missing huge parts that would have tied the module together.

B8 Journey to the rock

A waste of space, three different journeys to the same rock, smacks of a tournament module, indeed only one of the ways is even printed here. Not so much a poor module as a waste of typing.

B9 Castle Caldwell and beyond

Only one section made it in. From the blurb this was a collection of several short adventures, I am no fan of adventures cobbled together to fill out the page count. We are treated to one of them and if its any indicator to the others then I pity those that parted money for the module.