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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
 
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Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Jeremy C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/01/2020 11:17:21

What I liked about this adventure was how it freed me up to really play around with the player's could do on the island. There's a lot of flexibility in this adventure which really fit well with the game I was running at the time.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/09/2020 16:04:48

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. 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.

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.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Samuel K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/25/2013 23:52:56

Great sandbox wilderness adventure. There's plenty written out for you, but lots of room to add your own stuff. The scan is mostly quite good. The newer ones seem to change the font a bit, but in return for clearer text that cuts and pastes properly, it's worth it. The maps of the continent and the island could be a little better, but they'll do.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Simon L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/06/2007 00:00:00

I was hoping for the blue cover version as that's what I remember from the old Expert boxed set. I really bought this as a nostalgia buzz brought on by all the Savage Tide stuff going on right now.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It's a complete pastiche of King Kong, Jurassic Park, She and other Lost World style adventure tropes. You almost expect Doug McClure to crop up somewhere. But that's what makes it fun. It's very skeletal, like most of the old modules, but there's also a kind of campaign thread going on there.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Everything that I said above as good could also potentially be a bad. And I'm sad that it isn't the older version as the monster illustrations were better in that one.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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X1 The Isle of Dread (Basic)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Felicia B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2005 00:00:00

Right up there with Keep on the borderlands when you speak of classics. while a littel dated in terms of sophistication, it's lots of fun.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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