RPGForge on Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain and the Legacy of Zenopus

RPGForge, a newish blog that I have recently become aware of, has two posts from the last week that should be of interest to readers here. Each presents a detailed and thoughtful take on the topic at hand.

                                                                                                                                                  

The first, from December 15th, is a review & adaptation (to their preferred RPG system) of my one-page dungeon Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain:

Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be discussing this micro-dungeon in detail so AVOID if you want to play through it yourself. Zenopus Archives is a great site dedicated to 'Blue Book' or 'Holmesian' D&D - nothing to do with Sherlock but rather Eric Holmes who authored the first Basic D&D rules in 1977.

                                                                                                                                                  

The second, from December 16th, is titled "Legacy of Zenopus" and takes a deep delve into the Zenopus sample dungeon:

Legacy of Zenopus

Gygax was a weird polymath with a fascination for medieval details but Holmes was the more orderly mind and, as an author, a better stylist to boot. In place of Gygax's long-winded and rather scholarly disquisitions, Holmes was the master of the poignant detail that lodges in the imagination.

Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain

Screenshot of Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain

Click here to download Beyond the Door to Monster Mountain

Here's something I finally had a chance to finish up. I turned the Monster Mountain micro-dungeon I posted here last year into a one-page pdf. It's written up for Holmes Basic, using the stat block from the original B2 Keep on the Borderlands - DX stat included. However, you should be able to use with any old D&D without changing anything.

It's modified a bit from the original write-up. I added one of my favorite monsters - stirges - to room 3 to explain the gem stuck in the crack in the floor. In Holmes Basic, stirges are treasure type Q, which is Gems or Jewelry only. I interpret this as a fondness for gems.

It's intended as an introductory adventure for new players, especially kids. The dungeon is a simple puzzle, and relies on text adventure type solutions - most rooms have an obstacle that can be overcome using an item found in a different room, although this being D&D other solutions are certainly possible, as determined by the DM.

The dungeon was built out of Lego Heroica, the sadly discontinued Lego game series from a few years back. If you have a few Lego Heroica sets you could recreate the dungeon build yourself. Otherwise it should be simple to recreate with dungeon tiles or for player(s) to map.

I ran this dungeon for a child running a single 4th level fighter, but it should work for four 1st level characters. So I'd call it an introductory adventure for 3-5 character levels. 

I've also added it to the resources on the Holmes Ref page.