D&D 5E Quests From The Infinite Staircase

[Paul Farquhar]

Huh.

Two OAR adventures (I recommend using @Dyson Logos' Barrier Peaks maps instead of the way-too-large-by-today's-standards TSR maps), two UK modules, and two other solid 1E adventures. No obvious planar links. Both Crystal Cave and the Lost City are for the same level ranges, originally, which is probably something they'll change.

After Ghosts of Saltmarsh, I had expected Pharoah to be the anchor for a similar desert-set product. Interesting to see it pop up now.

All of these are generally well liked modules, but all of them dated by today's standards.

I think that’s the point - these are all really old. The previous compilations included 2nd, 3rd and even Next content, but I think the most recent of these is around 83. Crystal Cave involves planar travel, and I think it’s safe to assume that the spaceship in the Barrier Peaks came from another plane. I seem to recall some weird shenanigans in Star Falls as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think that’s the point - these are all really old. The previous compilations included 2nd, 3rd and even Next content, but I think the most recent of these is around 83. Crystal Cave involves planar travel, and I think it’s safe to assume that the spaceship in the Barrier Peaks came from another plane. I seem to recall some weird shenanigans in Star Falls as well.

Weeeeell, I guess under today's cosmology, Crystal Cave counts as planar travel to the Feywild. But it's really just going to a small pocket dimension that contains the dungeon, which is kind of a fairy tale out of time.

And the spaceship in the Barrier Peaks -- theoretically a piece of the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha (RIP, Jim Ward) -- isn't necessarily planar. Without rewriting, it's not a "planar" adventure as we'd understand it today.

If this list of adventures is accurate and complete, this looks like it's going to be the same idea as Yawning Portal: An anthology of old school adventures with some very light connective tissue, at best. Which is fine. There are no bad adventures on this list or real head scratchers, like there were in Yawning Portal. (Including an adventure in that one that was meant to be played by four groups simultaneously at conventions was just plain weird.)

Hopefully these get more updating than the Yawning Portal adventures did.

 

[Aellic Mornbringer]

Alright, that is quite the curious mix: one Basic module, 5 AD&D. Two previously reprinted by Goodman Games as OAR 3 And 4.

By PC Level:

• B3: The Lost City, 1-3 (huge surprise, this is a wild choice)
• UK 4: Whe. A Star Falls, 3-5 (deep cut, not too familiar myself)
• UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave, 4-7 (heard of this by reputation, too)
• I3: Pharoh, 5-7 (Not going to lie, thought this would be in a bigger book with I4 & I6 someday ala Ghists of Saltmarsh)
• S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 6-10 (though the convention tournament is advertised as Level 9)
• S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, 8-12

Didn't realize there was already a thread going when I commented in another. I am very curious to compare WotC's conversions with Goodman Games' on The Lost City and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

 

[Parmandur]

I think that’s the point - these are all really old. The previous compilations included 2nd, 3rd and even Next content, but I think the most recent of these is around 83. Crystal Cave involves planar travel, and I think it’s safe to assume that the spaceship in the Barrier Peaks came from another plane. I seem to recall some weird shenanigans in Star Falls as well.

Yeah, these are definitely pushing the old part of old school. S3 and S4 are from 70's Tournaments, B1 is a starter seed for a DM to grow out honest to goodness OG megadungeon, but the other 3 seem to have the reputation of being the harbingers of what would become the norm after Ravenloft and Dragonlance.

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

Four of these landed on “The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time” list in Dungeon 116 on the game’s thirtieth anniversary in 2004.

• The Lost City #28
• Pharaoh #6 (as part of The Desert of Desolation collection)
• The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth #22
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks #5

The two UK modules are out of left field. I really thought The Gates of Firestorm Peak (#11) had a shot if it was cut down from its original 96 pages. Dead in Thay was originally 108 pages but showed up in Yawning Portal so why not.

 

[Parmandur]

Four of these landed on “The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time” list in Dungeon 116 on the game’s thirtieth anniversary in 2004.

• The Lost City #28
• Pharaoh #6 (as part of The Desert of Desolation collection)
• The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth #22
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks #5

The two UK modules are out of left field. I really thought The Gates of Firestorm Peak (#11) had a shot if it was cut down from its original 96 pages. Dead in Thay was originally 108 pages but showed up in Yawning Portal so why not.

Yeah, Gates of Firestorm Peak felt like a strong contender, and doing just one of the Desert of Desolation modules is a surprise (though it was a standalone, originally).

Stringing all 6 of these into one campaign would be...decidedly odd. These are all fairly off the wall, quirky products for D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

Beyond the Crystal Cave. (Feywild would be a retcon though, it wasn’t invented at the time it was written).

I'd actually turn that around: it is less that they retconned it into the Feywild, and more that UK1 was one of the primary inspirations for how they standardized D&D Fairie when they got serious about it.

 

[Parmandur]

Another weird ovservation: there was a Basic magazine Adventure included.in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but B3 now ia the first BD&D numbered module book to get an official WotC 5E conversion.

It's a very cool Adventure, bur I would not have bet om the Loat City over Keep on the Borderlands, Isle of Dread, or juat about moat BD&D modules.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm convinced that the adventures in this book will be linked together by a planar theme, in the same way that Ghosts of Saltmarsh was connected by the nautical theme.

So, this ended up.not being the case as far as Setting, but I think there may still be something to this. I also thought we would see something from Wberron, or from after 1984 at least, but we got 3 Greyhawk (S3/4 & UK1), 1 Mystara (B4), and 2 generic fantasy set Adventures (I3 was not originally a Forgotten Realms story, and UK4). So thst part was clearly not a major concern.

But all 6 of these Adventures on further examin5aeem to delve deeply into weird limitations space: The extremely bizarre Lost Cityof Cyrenica, Fairies, recovering a fallen star from the Underdark, entering the afterlife realm of amlong dead Pharoh, a convoluted madhouse Dungeon, and a literal alien spaceship. They seem to be really leaning into weird, out there themes pushing the space of D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Four of these landed on “The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time” list in Dungeon 116 on the game’s thirtieth anniversary in 2004.

The fact that the list was all TSR material (other than the justly lauded Dark Tower) always made it pretty suspect, IMO.