Starting at the Keep: Part One

I keep starting "Starting at the Keep", but then I didn't save my text or my computer starts to reboot out of the blue, so let's see how far I can get before I hit "Publish".

This is part of my more in depth look at adventure module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. This module was meant as an introductory adventure for the First Edition Dungeons and Dragons Basic set, with some reference to being able to find even more fun in the Expert set (together known as B/X or even BECMI if you're ambitions for years and years of play). As such it might teach us something of how the game was supposed to be played as it's written as somewhat of a Dungeon Master Tutorial with hints, tips and tricks (and some incentives to buy the Expert set) thrown in between the actual meat and potatoes of the module.

One of the most remarkable things to me is that everything is unnamed. None of the NPC's have names, the land doesn't have a name and neither does the Keep. It really is just a framework for you as a dungeon master to build upon. Think of it as how a colouring page might be coloured in a lot of different ways. The text also encourages even adapting things in the module to fit your own views of the game, which is a bit odd in an introductory module. I'd be more expecting to be thaught how to crawl before I can run as a babbie-DM. But then again this might mean that the "make it your own" philosophy is a vital part of running the game. Still being thaught how to make things your own would have been great I think.

There are some things that the module seems to be putting forth as important though. Things that are backed by rules or mechanics. The first is alignment, on which more in a later post. But the main thing to take away from that is that there's a big struggle going on in which the game takes place. The forces of Law and Chaos are in a constant state of war. What exactly this means I think might even be interpreted differently by different people, but more on that later.

Another thing is that it's in a fantastical version of the medieval times. Wether it's just fantasy or more mythological or fairy-tale like is kind of left up to interpretation. This module in general has a chivalric fairy tale feel to me. It has knights and soldiers and creatures from fairy-tales (elves, dwarves, goblins, hunters, bugbears ...) But then on the other hand it has some more straight up fantasy elements such as orcs and these fairy creatures having structures and families etc. There is definitely more of a militaristic feel to it. And while some fairy tales have Soldier protagonists, these are mostly solitary people having strange encounters. It's not particularly focusing on the militairy part of being a soldier but on a soldier's bravery or courage, not quite his might. But more often than not it's not about soldiers in fairy tales, but about children, or simple or unfortunate folk. The chivalric part is more militant in nature, but even there, while they are a group of knights questing for the grail or whatever, the focus is on character and virtue, not on might. That part resonates more with Greek Myths to me, where what made you heroic was how strong you were, not quite how strong your moral character was. Anyway, I'm going to end up involuntarily writing about alignment anyway if I continue on this tangent. So yeah, a muddled "Fantasy Medieval Setting" loosely based on mainly European folklore and mythology with some modern fantasy flung in for good measure. This echoes the "Make it your own" philosophy again.

And I think those are the only real things that stand out. It's basically a sandbox for you to create stuff in and your players to discover things. Just some of the things are already partly built. For my tastes I like to flavour things in a more Mainland Western Europe Fairy Tale flavour. Some of the Chivalric stuff definitely ruffles the hairs of my five year old self. Being a knight of some type of King Arthur would be great! Having anachronistic Gaul running around like Asterix and Obelix also does something to me. This is probably because when Belgium became a country and they needed some Heritage to fall back on and inspire Patriotism in the people they took hold of the Gauls, especially the Belgica whoem Ceasar himself claimed were the bravest of all the Gauls. I sure know that I heard that line a lot during history class in primary school! That Ceasar wrote that after subjugating them and assimilating them completey in the Roman Empire to the point that little of their history and culture is known today I had to find out later by myself though. But yeah, making the Halfling class into a Gaul class or miniature Gaul class of savage people living in the woods who generally have a good heart but are rough and tumble is a fantasy I like. More on them later as well, as I cant seem to stop daydreaming about these little troublemakers.

I had planned to write about actually starting your players here, but have been typing for way too long while I still have lessons to prep and domestic stuff to handle, like assaulting the Dishes of Chaos in the Sink of Despair. So, next time (probably) a post about how to start your players in this adventure, since the way it's handled in this module seems ... weird to me. Anyway, What Ho and such, 'till next we meet again fair readers.
Also, I have not proofread this post, so feel free to point out any spelling errors you find, I do not mind. I'd rather amend them than letting future readers suffer through them.