Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-B1 In search of the unknown

Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:14 pm B1 In search of the unknown

I have always loved this module. From the moment I opened the shrinkwrap I knew it was sometime special. Many pc's later I still reflect on my early adventues within this dungen crawl.The ability a dm had to custom make a dungen made me feel so diabolical at the time.I wish TSR continued to release these types of modules.
My apologies I regress. My question is that I was wondering if the rest of the B series was as much fun?

Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:21 pm

The B series is a mixed bag, but IMO you can't go wrong with the first 5:

B1 - In Search of the Unknown
B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands
B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess
B4 - The Lost City
B5 - Horror on the Hill

B3 and B4 are pretty straightforward dungeon crawls, though if you liked the "flesh it out yourself" style of B1, the original version of B3, which you can download for free on WotC's site (http://www.wizards.com/) in the D&D Downloads area, is designed in a similar fashion, with a lot of the encounter areas left open for the DM to fill in.

B2 and B5 both offer very cool mini-campaign settings, with interesting area maps and encounter areas scattered around the main adventure locales.

The later B mods are not quite as good, IMO, but are still decent, if you can get them cheap, or can track down a copy of the B1-9 - In Search of Adventure supermodule compilation, they are well worth the investment.
_________________
What would Raxivort do?<br />

Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:26 pm

You can buy a pdf of the B1-9 compilation at rpgnow.com The quality of the OCR work can be questionable from product to product, but you can read off the monitor if nothing else.

Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:14 pm

Thanks for the replies.
I enjoyed B2 & liked the Caves of Chaos spin-off possablities.
B3 never really caught my attention.
I'll use my resources towards othe endevers however.

Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:24 pm B Series Modules

B1 In Search of the Unknown
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
B4 The Lost City
B7 Rahasia

B2 is the standard starter module excellent adventure. B4 is ok, B7 is on the low end of the series.

Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:07 pm

Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:10 pm

I've gotta say I have a special fondness for B1. It was the first adventure module I ever purchased (well, it came with the boxed set that eventually replaced my white box). It's as classic a dungeon crawl as you're ever likely to find, and is quite elegant in its simplicity.

Thulcondar

Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:08 am

B1 is one of my all-time favourites as well - I came up with so many ideas that I thought were clever, especially when it came to hiding treaure (such as rings on statue fingers).

One thing I didn't like (and never used) was the rumour section. Without them, the whole adventure had an unfolding mystery feel.

Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:40 pm

Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:32 am

Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:39 am

B2 is the first module I ever played and I still tend to go back to it for the start of any Oerth campagin I try to run, I have also used Palace of the silver princess but nothing quite holds up to the keep on the borderlands

Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:34 am That B1 map...

I was just thinking back on the last time I ran B1. I've read elsewhere complaints about the cheesy map, but my player at the time loved mapping the upper level; particularly, he liked how the layout fit a shape that he could predict and knew which areas he still had to find and fill in. A simple pleasure, perhaps, but one that sticks with me now at least 10 years later.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

To a Yak-Man, 10 years is like the falling of one grain of sand in the hourglass...

Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:53 am Re: That B1 map...

Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:28 am

B1 was my introduction to the game and is, along with B2 my most favorite modules.

I've recently been reading and comparing B3 green to the original B3 (orange) by Jean Wells. And I must say, I very much prefer the original probably due to it's "open dungeon ~ you key it" approach, much like B1. Smile

Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:57 pm Re: B Series Modules

Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:28 pm

That adventure in dungeon is pretty good, despite being 3.5 edition Laughing

It expands parts of the module that were left undetailed, so there are no real conflicts with the original.

Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:49 am

When I started the campeign I am running right now I told my players, for the most part all new to D&D and none of them ever playing any of the first ed or basic classics that I was going to run them through a 3.5 version of all of the old stuff that I grew up on.

The story started out with them going to the Caverns of Quasqeton from "In Search of the Unknown". The intro story from that module about Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown I have tied into my main plotline. I took the name Zelligar the Unknown and ran with it saying that this person truly was unknown, so much in fact that no two people could even agree as to Zelligars appearance or even sex.

The Caverns of Quasqeton I placed in the Cairn Hills. It was located in a small box canyon that was difficult to reach and after Roghan and Zelligar had disappeared it became reasonable as to why their stronghold had disappeared.

One of the players in my game is playing a Druid and his father was a retainer of Roghans and disappeared with him when Roghan and Zelligar went to the North.

In the actual module it states that they left to go fight the barbarian hordes in the Northlands. I changed that to the armies of Iuz, who I have changed from being a direct threat that is always getting into everyones face to a subtle manipulator in the background that seems to fit more into his style then what actual canon seems to imply sometimes.

I've never actually done anything with "The Palace of the Silver Princess" but I may do so now. I am certainly going to take them through the Caverns of Chaos though. I haven't run that in over a decade... Ugh, I feel old now... But it was probably one of the best D&D game modules ever done IMO.

I liked the rumors section, although I never ran it as a random die roll, I hated that part of it. That was were I first got the idea to have made up nonsensical gibberish as confused, or rather misinterpreted language. What the hell does Bree Yark mean anyway? I think that I saw a "correct translation" of it somewhere but I don't remember were. Does anyone here know?

Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:56 pm

This thread has been in temporal stasis for 7 months. Further discussion of most any topic is always encouraged, but just be aware of how old a thread/post is and respond to its current level of activity accordingly.

Also, if anybody knows what "Bree Yark" means, its will probably be Ratlord. Happy

Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:30 am

Bree yark mean, 'Hey rube'.

Scott

Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:18 pm B1 & B2

I started with B2 in the box and later got B1. I found that they were both very different in how they approached teaching a young DM how to DM. I was really glad that I got to use both of them. B1 because it was so open, it really shows someone how to stock their own dungeon. And B2 because it shows how if everything is fleshed out how much easier it is to use with a minimum of DM preperation.

I have a hard time saying anthing to nice about the other B modules that I've played or DM'd. I didn't get to play or DM them all. I remember having a great time playing in X2.

To bring the topic back to the Greyhawk arena, I read the "Temple of the Frog" adventure from the OD&D Blackmoor suppliment and it's pretty open like B1. I haven't read the DA1 module but I doubt anything published from the era it was printed would be so open--I would expect that it would be more like B2 in that regard.

Has anyone taken the DA series modules and used them in their Oerth-base campaigns? I would think many people would have but I haven't heard anyone say it.

Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:47 am

It has been discussed at the very least, but I recall some people actually transplanting Dave Arneson's 2004 Blackmoor setting right into the Blackmoor area of Greyhawk. I'm afraid I don't have any detailed info on this though. Perhaps somebody else who does will chime in.

Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:29 am

Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:10 am Temple of the Frog

Temple of the Frog's first appearance in print was in Supplement II: Blackmoor. It was later expanded as a standalone module in the DA series.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:06 pm OD&D and Expert D&D

Yeah, the supplement was for the OD&D era and the DA modules were written for the Expert D&D rules box set. I see OD&D and the later Basic and Expert boxed sets as different. OD&D had super strength while the later sets did not. The calculations for to hit rolls were slightly different. AC was calculated slightly differently. Class restrictions were different if you used the other OD&D supplements...though the first OD&D edition only had three classes (fighting man, magic-user, and cleric).

Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:08 am

Here's a whole mess of discussion and images having to do with...
BLACKMOOR!!! Cool

Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:10 pm

It isn't truly a basic adventure but B10 Night's Dark Terror is exceptional by any standards. If you don't have a copy you should certainly try to hunt one down.

Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:49 am

I basically just finished B1 in my new Riftcanyon Campaign. It actually turned out quite well. Looking into moving on to a few others, including versions of B2 and B4 and other stuff about which I should probably keep silent. Never know if players are lurking around here....