I asked our group what D&D adventure module they wanted after B4 The Lost City. D&D module X1 The Isle of Dread was the strongest contender. We're about a quarter of the way through it. Seeing a long series of sessions between where we are and any possible end point, I put a pin in it. We'll be taking a break from the fantasy tropics for awhile and come back fresh later in the year.
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| My working folder, some notes, a previously owned copy of X1, and my copy of the OSE Referee's Tome. Note the price tag on the module. Remember when Half Price Books had TTRPG stuff for dirt cheap? |
Conversion from D&D to OSE
The stats for most of what's in X1 The Isle of Dread are already in Old School Essentials. And converting between the two systems is as straightforward as it gets. I'm not sure it will continue to be this easy when I start adapting AD&D adventure modules.
My conversion was incomplete when I starting running the module. I concentrated on getting everything in the waters around the island done first. Next came everything in the southern half of the island. I left the northern areas, including the plateau, for later. This turned out to be a good thing, since I'll be adding a few things to the north and central areas in response to what the players are engaging with. More on that down below.
Preparing to Depart
I linked the two adventure modules together with the party's need for an active volcano. The party killed Zargon, B4 The Lost City's big bad boss monster, but needed to destroy his horn to keep him from regenerating a new form. Immersion in lava was the only known method, but I ruled that no sources were available in the area of The Lost City. (There is the option of placing an active volcano in B4 The Lost City as written. I choose not to for this campaign.) Fortunately, the party learned from their trusty Gnome contact Wigglewort that a newly discovered island to the south might have exactly what they needed. And he just happened to be organizing an expedition there, but sure could use the aid of an adventuring party to map the place and look for trading opportunities...
Sea Cruise
Roped in by Wigglewort's offer to help solve their problems in exchange for going on a hex crawl, the party boarded his ship for a more than three hour tour. The few small islands sighted along the way were ignored in favor making steady progress towards the mysterious isle. The couple of random encounters provided little challenge for the party of dungeon-hardened adventurers. The ship did sustain light damage from the weather, but nothing that the crew couldn't repair once they found a place a source of wood and a place to beach the hull.
The party choose to circle the isle rather than immediately making landfall. Wigglewort suggested making contact with the villages marked on his map. The indigenous people might make good trade partners and their villages would be a useful base to explore the isle. The party agreed and the ship sailed down the eastern side of the isle. This was uneventful, as the party cautiously avoided all the tempting opportunities to leave the ship and get into trouble.
Pirate Bay
The ship and party were welcomed by the indigenous people of the southern peninsula. Wigglewort found that they were already prepared for trade with the wider world. Bargains were struck between the Gnomes and villagers as the party collected rumors to guide their next moves.
The indigenous people told of pirates raiding their villages. The raiders came in canoes, wielded weapons of steel, and carried off many villagers to a fate unknown. "Sure would be nice," they didn't quite say, "if some adventurers would come along to track the pirates down to their island base, crush them, and save our fellow villagers."
Not being the types to ignore an obvious hook, the players began planning the operation. The villagers were able to supply the rough location of the pirate encampment. The plan was to have Wigglewort drop them off away from the pirate camp and scout the place out. The adventurers would then determine if a siege, infiltration, or assault would make the most sense.
The party was able to slip on the island, avoid pirate patrols, and approach the camp from the landward side. The first attempt to infiltrate the camp at night was successful in giving the adventurers a good idea of the layout and defenses. It also quickly escalated into full blown battle after they were discovered. The party gave much better than they got and pulled out before taking too much damage. They spent the next day resting, healing, and laying low from pirate attempts to locate them.
The next night saw the party launching a determined assault on the camp. The pirates, having failed to find the party during the day, were clearly making preparations to leave with their prisoners. The party wiped out the pirates and rescued the prisoners.
The party used a pre-arranged signal to summon Wigglewort and his ship. The rescued villagers and everything of value were packed up. A giant squid attack interrupted the trip back to the villages. The beast was driven off, but more damage was done to Wigglewort's ship. It would definitely need repairs before sailing back to the mainland.
In the Jungle (and Other Terrain)
It was at this point that we finally got to the meat of the adventure - a hex crawl. The Isle of Dread is one of the first hex crawl adventure modules. This makes it notable, but it suffers from not incorporating lessons from later decades of TTRPG development.
The party would have plenty of time to explore the isle while Wigglewort and his Gnomes repaired the ship. The indigenous villagers took the party as far as the tar pits they used as a resource. The players decided to focus on the south. It was closest to their effective base of operations. They'd also sighted some active volcanoes in the area while on their way back from dealing with the pirates. Just the thing for dealing with Zargon's horn!
I'm not going to offer a blow by blow account of the party's explorations of southern isle. The highlights included chucking Zargon's horn in an active volcano after the cleric had a nightmare about his followers heading to the isle in pursuit of it. They also encountered a Living Iron Statue guarding some ruins, a patrol of Lizard Men, and some Phanaton gathering fruit. Things were capped off when the party ran into some Rakasta. Things were amiable enough for the cat warriors to take them back to their camp and begin laying down the groundwork for a trade deal with Wigglewort.
The Isle of Dread relies on random encounter tables. There are relatively few keyed encounters on the overland map. This does insure that every group's experience with the module is unique. However, results from the random encounter tables require some finesse. Since the tables cover huge areas of the isle, many creatures will end up in the wrong biome. It doesn't make sense to me for Lizard Men to be wandering around an open plain, for example. This could be addressed with more fixed encounters or tables for each biome, but either would add page count to what is a slim product by modern standards.
Sometimes the dice are cooperative and the results are underwhelming. I don't assume that any random encounter will automatically be hostile. I use the reaction tables to set the mood of whoever is encountered. Since our group doesn't simply charge everything they run across, this makes some encounters non-events.
Example #1:
"You see some animals in the distance."
"We avoid them."
"Cool. Next hex."
Example #2:
"You encounter somebody capable of talking."
"We talk to them."
*Rolls neutral or friendly reaction.* "They engage in conversation."
*Have a role playing encounter.*
There aren't necessarily bad results, but might not be what the module designers intended.
Worse, from the players' perspectives, non-event encounters don't really earn gold. Which means little XP from such encounters in Old School Essentials. I do give out some XP for RP, but the gold value of treasure is the main source of XP income in the game.
Putting a Pin In It
At this point, we were roughly a quarter of the way through the module. Things seemed to be running long and we decided to take a break. I wonder how many groups have made it all the way though this module? Is it a campaign killer? Do groups get part way through the isle and lose interest?
The lack of keyed encounters make the isle feel sparsely populated in a way that random encounters don't address. The place could easily support two or three times the number that are in the module. I'm using our break to add some fixed encounters to fill in some details that seem lacking.
The first are signs of the civilizations previously inhabiting the isle. There are hints in the module as written. Who built the stone wall separating the indigenous villages in the southern peninsula from the rest of the island? The Kopru are stated to have ruled a kingdom in the past, but the only remanent of it is on the "Taboo Island" at the end of the module. Adding ruins of defunct human and Kopru civilizations would add a sense of history to the place. Some of them could be mini-dungeons suitable for a single session.
Second are clues to foreshadow the final encounter with the Kopru. As written, they are just kind of hanging out in their lair at the bottom of the dungeon they are in. Without more context, players may not realize that they are more than random monsters. A few statues - defaced so the Kopru's appearance comes as a surprise - and some inscriptions telling their tale would build up suspense. These would be found to the north of the isle, closest to the Kopru encounter.
Finally, indications of prior visitors. Not all of the current inhabitants appear to be indigenous to the isle. The populations of Aranea and Phanaton seem too small to be self-sustaining. And the Rakasta camp is explicitly stated to be temporary. These folks and others had to come from elsewhere. Over the seas is the most plausible explanation, but a more fantastic one is suggested in the Manual of the Planes (2008, 4E). I'm still playing with the idea.
