When I kicked off BECMI Month I mentioned that I was going to try to do BECMI versions of some regular features. Here is one I was really looking forward too.
With the possible exception of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, no other adventure help so many new DMs as much as the Expert Set's The Isle of Dread. In fact it had so much appeal that the module was available to purchase separately AND it was included with both the B/X Expert Set and BECMI Expert Set. No surprise really since the module contained so much information.
For this review and overview I am considering my original print version of X1 along with some copies I managed to pick up from somewhere, the PDF version on DriveThruRPG and the Goodman Games Original Adventures Reincarnated hardcover version which features both the B/X and BECMI versions as well as a new 5th Edition D&D version.
The Isle of Dread is notable since it is the only B/X adventure to get reprinted in the newer TSR BECMI-era trade dress.
While my focus this week is on the D&D Expert set from 1983, I am also going to talk about my experiences with this from the D&D Expert Set of 1981. The copies of the module do differ in layout, but they are largely the same in terms of content. In fact I have not discovered many differences at all.
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| Yeah. I am a fan. |
X1 The Isle of Dread
For this review I am considering the print version that came with my D&D Expert set, one purchase separate of the set and the
PDF from DriveThruRPG.
The Ilse of Dread by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay. 32 pages, color covers with blue maps. B&W interior art and maps.
The adventure that was to complete the new 1981 Basic and Expert Sets was written by the two main authors of those sets, David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay. The Basic set would include the adventure module B2 Keep on the Borderlands written by Gygax himself. But the Expert set did not have an adventure until Cook and Moldvay wrote it. Both drew on their love of pulp fiction and it shows. Additionally, parts of the world created by Moldvay with his then writing partner of Lawrence Schick became the starting ground for the Known World, this world would later expand more until we got Mystara, but that is a topic for another post/review.
The adventure was so well received that when the expert set was rereleased in 1983 under Frank Mentzer editing, TSR included the Isle of Dread again with a new cover.
While the adventure centers around the eponymous island, there is a lot to this book that is above and beyond the adventure itself.
Part 1: Introduction
Here we get the basics of the world we are in and what this adventure was designed for. Don't expect complicated plots here, this is a sandbox for new DM's wanting to try out adventuring in the Wilderness. Here we also get our first look at our world.
"Map C-1" is such an unassuming name. Though I will argue I have never read any map in such detail as I did with this one. I don't even pour over maps of my beloved Chicago as much.
Each country is given a brief, I mean really brief, description. Hardly more than a paragraph. But in those scant words were the seeds of a lifetime of adventure.
The biggest criticism, of course, you have such a hodge-podge of cultures and climes in a 1,200 x 1,000 miles square. So if I put Chicago in Glanrti then the Kingdom of Ostland would be Halifax, and the Isle of Dread is about where the Bahamas are. That's not a lot of land really. But hey, I've made it work for me.
Seriously we are 2.5 pages in and I can already point to about 30 years of gaming. What is in the rest of this book?
Part 2: The Isle of Dread
Here we get our plot hook for adventuring on the Isle of Dread. A letter from pirate captain Rory Barbarosa. It is designed to get the characters to the island. When really all I have ever needed was "hey there are dinosaurs on that island. wanna check it out?" And it has always worked. Plus it's a great excuse to use all those old plastic dinosaurs.
There is the trip to the island, which in my cases always became an adventure all on its own.
Once you get to the island only the lower South East peninsula has been detailed with the Village of Tanaroa, which comes straight out of the 1930s King Kong movie. This was also the origin of one of my favorite NPCs ever, Bone Man, a village priest, and later warlock. I even got some original art done of him for my
Warlock book from none other than
Jeff Dee himself.
Outside of the giant, Kong-style walls, there is the rest of the island. Here we run into not just some of the best D&D Expert set monsters, but some of the best monsters in the history of D&D. The Rakasta, cat people with war-claws (and the 1982 Cat People was just around the corner!), the Phanatons, flying squirel-monkeys (had more than one player want to play them as a race!), the Aranea, and most of all the Kopru!
There is a meme floating around social media around the time of this review about being an adult suck because no one ever asks you what your favorite dinosaur is. Well, my kids love this because they know mine, and it is a total cheat since it is not really a dinosaur, but something older, the Dimetrodon. So the Dimetrodon Peril was the encounter *I* remember the best, not the "Deranged Ankylosaurus." An animal high on "loco weed?" No thanks, I grew up in the Mid-west that is not adventure material, that is something everyone saw once or twice.
The 8 or so pages in the center are all dedicated to some of the best maps in D&D up to Ravenloft.
Part 3: The Central Plateau
Seriously. There is so much going on here that it always takes me a couple session to get through it all and I have NEVER had a party investigate the entire central part of the island. The Village of Mantru always gets a good investigation though.
Part 4: Taboo Island
The base of the Kopru. These were my first crazy fish-men and I wanted to use them in place of the Kuo-toa in the D-Series, but I later relented. I still kind of wish I had done it though.
Part 5: New Monsters
One of the best features of the BECMI-era modules, and this is no exception, are all the new monsters. The above-mentioned ones, plus more dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. Sadly, no giant ape. I did create some
Sea-dragons for this and used them.
This adventure has not only stood the test of time, it has stood the test of editions. Much like B2 Keep on the Borderlands I think I have run this for every single edition of *D&D since 1981. Most recently for D&D 5th edition and it still works great. Plus every time I have run it there is something new to find and there is something new that the players do.
It is really no surprise that it was used for both iterations of the Expert Set.
Maybe second only to B2 and B1 in terms of numbers of players, but The Isle of Dread lasts as one of the best Basic-era adventures out there. In today's frame of mind, the adventure is equal parts Pirates of the Caribean, King Kong, and Jurassic Park. It is a heady cauldron of tropes, ideas, and just plain crazy fun.
Other Editions of D&D
The Isle of Dread is so popular that it got routinely updated to whatever was the popular version of D&D at the time.
D&D 3.x
Paizo, back when they were publishing Dragon and Dungeon magazines published Dungeon #114 which brought the Isle to 3rd Edition D&D and the World of Greyhawk.
The adventure
Torrents of Dread by Greg Vaughan is a must-have for any fan of the original Isle of Dread.
They would later feature it again in issues #
139, #
142 and #
145.
D&D 4
Mystara or Oerth? Where is the Isle of Dread?
D&D 4th Edition Manual of the Planes lets you have it both ways! The Isle is part of the Feywilde and it can come in and out of other realities. It's a pretty cool idea really.
D&D 5
There are a couple of ways to play the Isle of Dread using the new D&D 5th edition rules.
There is the
Classic Modules Today: X1 The Isle of Dread 5e. This is just conversion notes and monster stats. You still need the full adventure in order to play it.
The other is the fantastic
Goodman Games Original Adventures Reincarnated #2 The Isle of Dread.
The book is a massive 328 pages and retails for just under $50. So it is a big one. Color covers and predominantly black & white interiors. If you have any of the other Good Games Original Adventures you will know what you are getting here. The first 10 pages deal with the history and background of the adventure. An article and an interview from David "Zeb" Cook. An article from Lawerence Schick on his and Tom Moldvay's creation of the Known World. As well as some other retrospectives.
The next 34 pages reprint the original 1981 version from the B/X Expert boxed set.
The next 38 pages reprint the 1983 version from the BECMI Expert boxed set.
It's great to see them both side by side though if I am being 100% fair the reduction in font size for the faithful reproductions is hard on these 50+-year-old eyes.
Now the material we spent all this money on. The 5e update.
The 5th edition conversion is a complete rewrite of the adventure and covers 246 pages. That seems like a lot, but a lot of material has been added including 90+ monsters, new magic items, 5 new spells, 15 NPCs, player handouts, and maps.
There is also an appendix for further adventures on the island. I have mentioned above how much potential this adventure has, this only supports my claim.
Regardless of which version you have (or how many) this is one of those adventures that succeeds both as a learning tool for new DMs and as a fantastic sandbox adventure that you can go back too time and time again.
Plays Well with Others
The Isle of Dread is also one of those adventures that just lends itself so well to all sorts of games. I mention the "King Kong" feel to it, but there is also a strong "Lost World" of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and "Pellucidar" from Edgar Rice Burroughs. There is even a tiny bit of "Godzilla" and Monster Island here, the adventure remains very pulpy. This means that the setting can be used with a ton of different games and nothing at all about the island needs to change.
Dinosaurs? Of course! Weird fish people? The more the merrier! Pirates? Always! Strange Cults? Everyday!
I have already talked about how well you can use this adventure with two "D&D derived" games, the Pulpy exploits of
Amazing Adventures.
and the equally pulpy, though the more dark fantasy of
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
Running this in either would only require the barest minimum of conversion. In fact, using the Goodman Games version gives you a leg up for using it with Amazing Adventures since the SIEGE game (that powers AA and Castles & Crusades) is very similar to both AD&D and D&D5.
Of course, you can save your self some effort and use the
brand new Amazing Adventures for 5e.
No. It is not out just yet.
But what else can you do? Lots really.
Thanks to X1's solid pulp roots anything from around that time is also fair game. No pun intended.
Hollow Earth Expedition and
Leagues of Adventure are two Ubiquity powered RPGS. Hollow Earth should really capture the minds and hearts of any Mystara fan since it is also a hollow world. Leagues of Adventure is a pulpy Victorian age game. Both though draw on the same sources that Cook and Moldvay did for the Isle of Dread.
The adventure would need to be tweaked a little to use with either of these games, but because their source materials are largely the same appropriate substitutes can be found in either game.
Editorial: Seriously Mystara fans, check out Hollow Earth Expedition. There is a ton of great ideas for Hollow World here.
But what about my own beloved Victorian Era? I am so glad you asked!
Games like
Gaslight and
Ravenloft Masque of the Red Death already cleave close to the D&D rules used in the Isle of Dread. These games just put more "dread" into them. Both also take place in the late Victorian era so the pulpy spirit of adventure is already getting started.
Ghosts of Albion, my favorite child, takes place in the early Victorian era, and travel in the world is not as easy as it is in the 1880-1890s, but that still is not a problem. Ghosts' higher magic system is also a benefit here.
If you want to go even darker then there is the classic.
Call of Cthulhu's DNA is found deep in the introns of the Isle of Dread. How do you convert this? One simple change. The Kopru used to be human. Rory Barbarosa is not lost, he has been changed and even all these years later he is still alive as something else.
Hell. That's a good enough idea to use in any game!
While I personally think that everyone who plays any version of D&D should also play Call of Cthulhu,
Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for 5e is a great substitute. Grab the 5e version of the Isle of Dread and no conversions are needed.
Monster Hunting
While monster hunting can be achieved with, well, every single game out there, my "Monster Naturalist" game is a little different. You don't kill the monsters, you need to bring them back alive.
It is also not a stretch to say that my Monster Naturalist game idea got its start here with this island and its menageries. But it found it's true form in Blue Rose.
The idea is a simple one. The Isle of Dread is about to erupt in a huge volcano. Not terribly original I know, in fact that is the point I am stealing from any number of pulpy-feeling movies.
The inhabitants have all been relocated to nearby islands all that is left are the dinosaurs and other strange creatures. And that's where you, Sovereign’s Finest, come in. Efforts to save some of these creatures are underway and it is your job to get them off the island before the volcano destroys it. Easy enough idea and you have plenty of time. That is, as long as nothing goes wrong.
Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy is a different game in which hunting and killing monsters is never the point. Sure, evil monsters can be dispatched with no pause, but these are dinosaurs and the Queen feels that efforts should be made to rescue as many as can. Of course, she does not want the lives of her Finest to be in jeopardy so great care is taken. What the Queen and her advisors don't know about is the Kopru, are they trying to benefit from this disaster? And the pirates, are they taking the animals (and maybe even the people) to be sold? These will be the problems the envoys will need to solve. Oh, and the volcano is starting to shake. A lot.
One day I need to run a campaign centered around the island and its neighbors. I certainly have enough to keep me busy.
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