Such fond childhood memories of leafing through this magical stuff on the shelves of a little pokey, ill-lit, 10'x10' shop lined with 2nd hand RPGs from floor-to-ceiling. It had that distinct, musty smell nowhere is allowed to have anymore. It seemed to be right out of the pages of the D&D stuff it sold set, as it was, on a small, constantly-shadowed, medieval-cobbled street in a Temple Bar of pre-tourism recession Dublin with an indifferent, long-bearded oddball in a tie-die shirt behind the counter with baggy, blood-shot eyes and a long nose that was constantly stuck between the pages of some fantasy book, completely oblivious to the few customers who dropped in. Long-gone, profit-resistant emporiums of RPGs of the 80s, much loved but never to be seen again. Happy times.

Love those B series modules!

I had this, I never ran it, though earlier on my dad ran some of these for me and my sister while home on leave from the air force. I know that there is a pattern in that module that places the dungeon in a larger sandbox tend to only have the dungeon and not the surroundings (this is especially noticeable with Horror On The Hill and Keep On The Borderlands, but I think Caldwell's Castle which lacks its "and beyond"). I was disappointed years later when I found out how much was missing. When I went through some of the adventures as a player it was fun and I have fond memories of them, though many adventures that originally could involve many sessions exploring the area were effectively reduced to one-shots (albeit with recurring characters). I know we cleared Castle Caldwell and completed the Journey to the Rock in one session each.

I played Dungeon Crawl Classics last weekend at Gen Con 2018 and had a blast. The mod was called Sailors on the Starless Sea and each of us took 3 0 level characters, if they survive they get to 1st level and pick a class. It uses a very bare bones D&D 3rd edition rules. I highly recommend. And speaking of B1 and B2 Goodman games who are the creators of DCC, came out with a tome called In Search of the Borderlands which combines both those mods and has stats for 1st and 5th edition D & D.

I have a soft spot for B7 Rahasia. It was one of the first modules I ever ran. It was written by Tracy and Laura Hickman (Ravenloft, Pharoah, Dragonlance, etc.). If you like elves and dark magic, it's a cool adventure.

Awesome video. I have the original and played or DM'd most of them in their stand alone form back in the 80's. Absolutely love this compilation and the flowchart concept was excellent. You are correct in noting that they don't have the entirety of most modules. Because they were trying to make it a campaign and a lot of the peripheral information such as the keep and its surrounds in B2 weren't necessary for the format. As you noted this also is pretty cool as it doesn't make owning the originals a wasted purchase while the compilation also brings new things to the table like the interludes etc. Gaz1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (phonetic: Kara-Mee-Koss I believe) is an invaluable tool to help flesh out this compilation. It will give you all the cultural, historic events between the Thyatian Colonial rulers and the Traladaran natives of the land and introduces you to the major personalities. This can all be used to add huge amounts of flavor and subplots to your story telling that makes the setting come alive. I think you can buy it on drivethru rpg as a pdf and then go and get it printed at a local copy store - its well worth the effort. So glad your enjoying the B/X / BECMI and Rules Cyclopaedia era of D&D. IMO it's incredibly underrated and was the most cohesive and narratively developed versions of the game ever released. It just suffered unfairly by being judged as a kiddies version because Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was perceived incorrectly to be the more adult version of the game

That kicked me right in my nostalgia. I may need a Doctor. Thanks Dave. ;)

Expert rulebook map show module placements. You should also find those from an internet search

I'm also waiting for the Gazetteer to be available for POD. Great video!

Used the DM's Guild link and bought the Rules Cyclopedia, hope I did it right and it helps. This little numbers going on the wishlist next. I got a lot of memories in these modules.

I got this when it came out and I was just starting to buy DnD stuff. I got it out a few years back to try run it right before 5th edition came out. I only ran a few parts before we took a little break then switched to 5e. I have read thru it and most of the originals that were included, it cuts out parts but does try weave them all together to one super campaign. great book

Unf! Right in the nostalgia!

I bet the exp you get from this mega-module is enough to bring you way over what the basic rules cover. Better used with the RC.

I have a copy of B3, B4 and B5 in a box in my garage somewhere, though I haven't looked at them in ~30 years. I don't what exact condition they're in. I know a lot of my hard cover books (including an original "Unearthed Arcana" that, were it in good condition, would be fairly valuable) have fallen apart, and I threw out most of the boxes that the various sets came in because they took up too much space, but I think most of the individual modules are in decent shape. I do wonder how they put together 9 modules that are for levels 1-3 and into one extended module. Granted "The Lost City" is so difficult that if they put it at the end a party that's level 5-6 would probably be about right (and given the exponentially increasing xp requirements in Basic D&D that's probably where they'd be after 8 adventures, with thieves possibly being level 7 and Magic-users maybe as low as 4th.

Noticed the OWA TAGOO FIAM in there. Got tricked by one of it's cousins (OWA TAFOO LIAM) way back when I was a kid. For levels 1 - 3? Keep on the Borderlands was that all by itself. So I'd like to know how well it actually works for that. Nice review, as usual.

I can see how a DM could get a lot of milage from just RC and B1-9.

Draven Swiftbow, did you do the full review of this supermodule? (In the above video, you talked of doing one later.) If not, please do. :) I didn't notice it on your KZfaq page....

I wish they weren't so chopped up though. I'm collecting most of the X series adventures currently on POD. They are fantastic!

Now to see if this order was worth it... 😂

The module rules..nuff said.

I see the big colored map of the Caves of Chaos that the figures are on at the end of the video. What did that come from? Where did you get that?

From the video it looks like the print is pretty tight to the spine of the book. Is that accurate? It look like it was hard to read The columns that were close to the spine.

Nice. I've never played original D&D. I did however pick up the Rules Cyclopedia original hardback at a used bookstore today for under $25 in good shape. So let me ask you...other than the Rules Cyclopedia, are there any core or other books I would need? What would be the first adventure you recommend running for OD&D?

Is that a Caves of Chaos map there? If so awesome! and where did you get it? :D

Little bit too much of a copy-and-paste job, although they do try to connect them. Could have come out better, though. The XP is WAY off too - most PCs would make level 3 just by completing B2, let alone EIGHT other modules in addition! The module must get very easy by the end.