AD&D Modules in this Campaign

Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed I am familiar with AD&D (both editions!) as well as D&D 3E and 5E (I skipped 4E and joined the nascent OSR). I am aware of at least some of the modules released for the various editions, and while I have placed B/X modules generally where they are suggested in official material, AD&D and later editions do not have official adventures based in Mystara. One question that has occurred to me is should I import modules from other editions and worlds into B/X Mystara? 

Does it fit into Mystara?

It could be argued that one of the things that makes a campaign world special and memorable is the adventures set within the world. This is how PCs and therefore players experience the campaign world. By copying and pasting adventures from Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms into Mystara, am I homogenising the game into a generic-fantasy mess? The adventures I have written on this blog in the last few years  have been with the Mystara campaign in mind. There are some published adventures that, while good in their own right, are too closely tied to their original world for me to comfortably convert them to use in Mystara. The Dragonlance modules in particular fit this category, as does WGA modules (the Falcon trilogy set in the City of Greyhawk, and Vecna Lives) and the FRE1-3 (Forgotten Realms Avatar trilogy set in the Time of Troubles). I would happily borrow ideas, maps, names, monsters and even encounters, but not try to convert the whole module.  

Are the rules and characters relatively compatible with B/X D&D? 

There is also the aspect of different rules, particularly for player characters and therefore NPCs. B/X proudly sticks to the peculiar idea of Race as Class, and there are only 4 classes for humans. AD&D and later editions have class and race as separate (albeit AD&D has restrictions on some combinations). Furthermore AD&D introduces classes that have no direct equivalents in B/X D&D - and although the Companion rules introduce the Paladin and the Druid, and Mystics are introduced in the Rules Cyclopedia, these “classes” function very differently from the Paladin, Druid and Monk of AD&D.  If an adventure relies on these different classes, not to mention rangers, barbarians, bards, assassins and illusionists, it probably won’t convert very well to B/X D&D. Similarly class/race combinations such as elven clerics, dwarf thieves and halfling druids may be found in AD&D but would be difficult to stat out if one stuck to the B/X rulebooks. One could create new B/X classes to describe such characters (as I have done with elven rangers, dwarf clerics, halfling defenders (a variant of halfling clerics) and gnomes) but this seems like a lot of work for just converting a module. There are other aspects of the AD&D rules that do not have equivalents in B/X. Psionics and magic resistance are things that are not found in B/X and an adventure that relies heavily on one of these might seem odd in Mystara. 

Do the monsters work in Mystara and B/X D&D?

Monsters usually fare better at being converted though there may be raised eyebrows at some creatures from the Monster Manual or Fiend Folio appearing in Mystara. With the AD&D great wheel of the outer planes relying on the two-axis alignment of Law vs Chaos and Good vs Evil, the role and philosophy of devils, daemons/yugoloths and slaad may be difficult to fit into the single axis Law (=Good) vs Chaos (=Evil) that is found in B/X. I think it is interesting that the early B/X editions (Moldvay & Cook) shied away from anything like demons, though with Mentzer's BECMI some creatures from the Plane of Nightmares appeared as quasi-demons (Malferas, Nightmares and Soul Eaters). I actually have no problem with the concept of demons travelling from the Planes of Chaos to Mystara, so in terms of lore any AD&D module that uses demons can still work. 

Nonetheless, the original idea of a module was for a fairly self-contained adventure or dungeon that could be dropped into and used in a campaign with minimal fuss and work. And those adventures that neither rely too much on the campaign setting nor on rules for characters can work in this regard.  

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My Ideas for Particular AD&D Modules

This list is not comprehensive, and is really based on my own familiarity. As far as the rest of this blog and my variant of Mystara is concerned, these modules and settings do not exist, and I do not expect to reference them in later blog posts about the campaign.  So here are my quick ideas about particular modules:

• S1 Tomb of Horrors: Acerak was a particularly chaotic and malevolent Alphatian mage who created his infamous tomb in the rugged mountains on the borders of Ylaruam and Soderfjord Jarldoms. 
• S2 White Plume Mountain:This volcanic mountain and its associated dungeon is found in a small uncharted island between Aloysius Island and Roister Island in the southern seas of Ierendi. 
• S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks: The Barrier Peaks are a nickname for what are officially the Amsorak mountains to the northwest of Darokin and west of the Principalities of Glantri. The strange "magic" found in the dungeon is similar in many ways to the weird technomagic of Blackmoor. Some wizards and sages are curious and want adventurers to return samples of these artefacts. 
• S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth: Tsojcanth was the mountainous lair of a particularly nasty and chaotic Glantrian witch called Iggwilv, set in the Wendarian Ranges north of Klantyre, on the northern border of Glantri. She may well have been involved in the Cult of Chaos. 
• T1-4 The Village of Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil. Something of a borderline case but if it turns into a Temple of Elemental Chaos, it becomes better suited to this campaign. The Village of Hommlet and the ruined moathouse are in northern Karameikos near Threshold, while the actual Temple is further north in the Black Peaks. Iuz and Zuggtomoy are either turned into or replaced with a Prince and Princess of Chaos. 
• C1 The Lost Shrine of Tamoachan. This could be set in the jungles of Davania, perhaps not far from Herakanthia. 
• C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness only appears occasionally on the west coast of Hattias, in southern Thyatis, not far from the town of Grey Bay. 
• D1-3 & Q1 Against the Drow: The drow are so distinctive to AD&D and are markedly different to the Shadow Elves of Mystara that I'm not sure if this is suitable for conversion. Nonetheless, a DM playing fast and loose with lore could say that the drow are a different, rival subrace of elves from the Shadow Elves, or perhaps split away from the less psychopathic shadow elves when both were driven underground by the surface elves.  
• G1-3 Against the Giants: These start with the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief in Vestland of the Northern Reaches., the Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl further north in the Mengul Mountains west of Heldannic Freehold, and the Hall of the Fire Giant King back south underneath the Three Fires Volcanoes in the northeastern tip of Glantri. 
• A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords: Rather than terrorizing Woolley Bay, the slavers are the scourge of the southern shores of Brun where the continent meets the Sea of Dread. Karameikos, the Five Shires and Darokin are all raided. The slavers have been able to set up lairs around the islands of Ierendi, especially the volcanic islands. 
• H1-4 The Bloodstone Modules: Probably best set in Norwold and geared towards Companion level characters. 
• I1 Dwellers in the Forbidden City: Northern Davania, far from the shore. The city could be and abandoned attempt by Thyatis to establish a colonial city, or perhaps it was built by a lost civilization older than the Thyatians, perhaps the same one that created the Lost Shrine of Tamoachan. . 
• I3-5 Pharaoh Trilogy: Set in northern Ylaruam, using the ruins of the forgotten Nithian Empire. 
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill. Lendore Isle is a small isle in the Minrothad cluster, and Restenford is on the southern coast. There is some trade with Minrothad City and the Baron of Restenford nominally pays fealty but for the most part it is left to its own devices. 
• U1-3 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater & the Final Enemy are all set in and around Aloysius Island in the southern waters of Ierendi. 

I'm sure that readers will have their own ideas on where these modules could be placed, and also their own favourite modules that I have not listed here. Others may feel that converting some modules to B/X is too much work. This is all fine because I am not taking this post too seriously nor am I going to include these modules in further blog posts about this Mystara campaign. They are merely suggestions if you are so inclined.  

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