In this new series of posts, I want to look back at some of my favorite classic adventures both from TSR and others. I'll give a review, though most everyone knows what is in these adventures by now, I'll also talk about how I have used them in the past and I'll also talk about what other games I have used them with or would like too. So there is a little bit of Plays Well With Others in this too.
Why do classic adventures? Easy, I love these adventures. I have written hundreds of my own adventures, some I have even published, but these are the adventures that everyone knows and we all have a history with them.
So to start off this series, what better adventure than the one that started it all?
Palace of the Vampire Queen
In the beginning, there was a belief that all DMs would naturally create all their own adventures and there was no market for pre-written ones. The only printed adventure out at this time was "Temple of the Frog" in Blackmoor. Seeing a need, the Palace of the Vampire Queen was written by Pete and Judy Kerestan. Yes, the very first adventure was co-written by a woman.
The first edition was self-published, followed by a second and third edition by Wee Warriors (1976 and 1977) and distributed exclusively by TSR.
The "Dungeon Master's Kit" (module was not being used yet) presented a simple adventure with a singular goal; defeat the Vampire Queen. The plot, such as it is, is very thin even by the standards of what would later be the norm. The maps are fantastic, but the descriptions are little more than that; what's in the room in terms of monster and treasure. We get a background, the missing princess of the Dwarf King Arman of Baylor. Vampire Queen herself remains nameless.
The adventure itself is fairly straight forward. Go to the Palace, defeat the monsters and the Vampire Queen and save the Dwarven Princess.
Despite, or maybe because of, this limited background this adventure can be used anywhere with nearly every version of the game. I became aware of this adventure many years ago and it immediately went on to my "must find" list. Around 10 years ago I was able to get a copy and I ran it for a group using Moldvay Basic/ Cook Expert (BX) D&D. It was a lot of fun. There was no indication on how many characters were needed or what levels.
The adventure reminds me a bit of the
Dungeon! board game. You walk the halls, kick in the door, kill the monster, take the treasure, repeat. Of course, this adventure is the first of such adventures so it gets a huge pass on this. There is a lot though here to keep any DM and party busy.
Since 1976 the adventure has had a few reprints. The first ones were by Wee Warriors. These prints regularly go for over $1,000.00 on eBay. There were two such covers, the "black" cover with a castle in the background and the "queen" cover, featuring the vampire queen herself.
The covers were folders with a pocket for notes or other sheets. I nice idea and one I have used myself. Many of the early prints were 8.5" x 11", some later prints were digest-sized, 5.5" x 8.5" same as the OD&D books.
The next major set of reprints was made by North Texas RPG Con and Pacesetter Games and Simulations who printed a fairly accurate representation of the original back cover in digest format and then later a letter-sized one with images from all the covers.
While they are not the originals, but the content is all there and these were much cheaper.
Now today, Precis Intermedia has a new cleaned up reprint of the adventure.
Daughters of Darkness: Sequels to the Vampire Queen
As can be imagined such a classic adventure has had a number of sequels and homages.
North Texas RPG Con
This is the reprint of the original. It is a fairly faithful reproduction of the 1977 version of the black cover version. The first digest-sized version was a fairly faithful reproduction save for the NTRPG Con watermark on every page. The digest size makes it perfect for use with OD&D, S&W, OSE or other OSR games.
To my knowledge there are no more of this print available save for on eBay and other game auctions.
Pacesetter Games
The first round of reprints and sequels after Wee Warriors came from Pacesetter Games & Simulations.
V2 Palace of the Vampire Queen
This printing was more properly letter-sized, the same as the original and features many of the cover variations on the cover of this edition.
This edition also includes introductions from the author Peter Kerestan and Pacesetter's Bill Barsh. Here we learned that the very first edition was printed by Peter himself with a printing press!
Here we also get a fair reproduction of the original. After the introductions and the adventure background, we get to the levels proper. On the two pages are the original maps and descriptions and on the following pages are "updated" AD&D 1st ed stats. These new pages usually cover 3-4 more pages till the next map. This repeats for all five levels. On the new pages, a little more explanation is given and there is new art. This makes for a fuller product and detracts none of the original charms.
Print at Pacesetter.
V5 Palace of the Vampire Queen: Castle Blood
The first sequel to PotVQ is Castle Blood. Now here we get more modern adventure designs and maps. There is more background here too to hook the players in,
The adventure is brief, but it is supposed to be, at just 16 pages. It can be run in an afternoon. I actually felt this worked better as a prequel to the PotVQ. You learn more about her history here. The eponymous castle is all detailed and above ground. You can meet the Vampire Queen here, but killing her is not the goal of this adventure, but rather finding out what is going on.
PDF at DriveThruRPG and
Print at Pacesetter.
V6 Palace of the Vampire Queen: Crypts of the Living
Crypts of the Living was written as an explicit sequel to the Palace of the Vampire Queen and makes more overt references to the first adventure. The booklet, 16 pages worth, says it is designed for 5th Edition, but all the stats are for OSRIC/1st Edition. No worries. Converting is easy.
There are references to both the Palace of the Vampire Queen and Castle Blood. The other adventures are not 100% required to play this one, but it does help.
The adventure is a fairly straight forward exploration affair. There are new monsters and new magic items so that is a nice bonus. Can be played in an afternoon or combined with the others for a longer campaign.
PDF at DriveThruRPG and
Print at Pacesetter.
V7 Palace of the Vampire Queen: Cries of the Tormented
This one is not presently available and I don't seem to have a copy oddly enough.
Print at Pacesetter.
Precis Intermedia
Palace of the Vampire Queen
This version of the adventure also preserves much of what made the original a classic. The PDF of this book has a "special feature" to show a reprint of the original NSFW art. The print copy is all paper, with the cover made out of heavier weight paper (like résumé paper).
At 24 pages it might be the most faithful reproduction yet. While the cover is new art, the interior looks like the classic. No additions have been made to the text. The maps are cleaned up, darker ink and clearer to read.
Other Vampire Queens
Dark Wizard Games gave us the fantastic
Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. But I have talked about that adventure many places here. Most of my posts on this are captured below.
0one's Blueprints: Megadungeons - Palace of the Vampire Queen
This product is a pretty bare-bones affair, and that is exactly why you want to get it. You get 7 pages of "Blue" maps and 7 pages of black and white maps covering over 210 rooms. The rooms are labeled but that is all the description you get. There are sheets for you to detail the rooms with monsters, occupants, and treasure. This is perfect if you want to create a mega-palace for our mysterious Vampire Queen and stock it full of her undead minions. At just under $2.00 it is a steal.
Other Games / Plays Well With Others
The strength of this adventure is how easy you can adapt it to nearly anything. The adventure itself, regardless of which one you have, is so bare-bones it begs to be adapted and added too. I have run this both for Basic, B/X D&D and for D&D 5th edition with no problems. The level of characters can be adapted to easily with the challenges and the monsters you add.
Palace of the Vampire Queen and D&D5
Converting for D&D is easy. What might be more fun is to run something like Curse of Strahd, but replace the count with a Queen.
Palace of the Vampire Queen and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
This is the easiest of all really. AS&SH is close enough to AD&D with hints of Basic to make it possible to run this without any conversions at all.
How to run it? Well all I can say is have you ever read the Conan stories "Red Nails" or "Hour of the Dragon". The queen would make for a good stand-in for Akivasha.
Palace of the Vampire Queen and Blue Rose
Ah. Now this one has a bit more going on for it. This is no simple dungeon crawl, to play this one the Vampire Queen is in a battle of wills or "chess game" with the Sovereign, Queen Jaellin. This style of adventure would play heavily on the investigation skills of the envoys/characters. Our Vampire Queen might even be known as a vampire even, just as a new ruler of a previously unknown island (Baylor). Of course, you have your suspicions and you are fairly sure there is a strong taint of shadow about the land.
Palace of the Vampire Queen and Buffy, Ghosts of Albion or Leagues of Gothic Horror
Here is something fun. A twist on the Dracula story. The cast comes to an old palace in the mountains from their home. Expecting an old Lord they are instead greeted by a woman, the Lady of the castle. Here the horror begins.
Both game systems have plenty of creatures and elements to cover everything in the adventure. What you as the game master will need to do is smooth out some "D&D" elements and add some gothic elements, but that is so easy that I can't decide which one would be more fun Unisystem or Ubiquity.
All three would be fun to try sometime.
One could get easily lost in the potential of this adventure. I do hope that future reviews of classic adventures prove to be just as fruitful.
Links
Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Vampire_Queen
The Acaeum,
https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/modpages/dmk.html
Links to Adventures
Links to my 'Vampire Queen' posts
