Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is a 1999 adventure module for the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

role-playing game. It is a sequel to the original ''

The Keep on the Borderlands ''The Keep on the Borderlands'' is a '' Dungeons & Dragons'' adventure module by Gary Gygax, first printed in December 1979. In it, player characters are based at a keep and investigate a nearby series of caves that are filled with a variet ...

'' module (B2) from 1979. Both modules were published by

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

Background

Although the original B2 publication was generic in terms of setting, the 1999 "Return" publication retroactively placed the Keep in the ''

World of Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''— Dave Arnes ...

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and c ...

, specifically in the southwestern

Yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army Reserve, descended from volunteer cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of different military roles. History Origins In the 1790s, f ...

. The events depicted in the sequel take place approximately 20 years after those in the original B2 module. It is nevertheless an introductory adventure intended for low-level characters.

Plot summary

''Return to the Keep on the Borderlands'' was set twenty years after the events of the original module, and featured a fully re-stocked Caves of Chaos.
sample

Publication history

''Return to the Keep on the Borderlands'' was written by John D. Rateliff, and published by TSR in 1999. Several supplements were released in 1999 to update some of the most popular of TSR's ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventures, including '' Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff'' (1999), '' Dragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary Edition'' (1999), ''

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a ''pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land pieces ...

'' (1999), ''Return to the Keep on the Borderlands'' (1999) and ''

Return to White Plume Mountain ''Return to White Plume Mountain'' is an adventure module for the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game released in 1999 by Wizards of the Coast under its then recently acquired "TSR" imprint. It is set in the ''World of Greyhawk'' ...

'' (1999).

Reception

Andrew Byers, in his review of the adventure for ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

'', commented that "much of this module is a dungeon crawl, but it's an intelligently designed one, with a fleshed-out base of operations for adventurers, an interesting wilderness environment, and some very good characterization of non-player characters. It could easily provide the basis for an extended campaign for low-level adventurers." Byers stated "If you're not nostalgic about the early days of D&D ... don't buy this book. But if you're interested in reliving (or experiencing for the first time) those first few

roleplaying Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing as ...

adventures... I don't think you'll be disappointed."

References

Gygax, E. Gary Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created a ...

. ''The Keep on the Borderlands.'' ( TSR, 1979). * Rateliff, John D. ''Return to the Keep on the Borderlands.'' (TSR, 1999).

External links

*
Repair of the Keep on the Borderlands
' Russ Taylor's attempts to make RttKotB mesh with Greyhawk canon *

' at the TSR Archive {{D&D topics Dungeons & Dragons modules Greyhawk modules Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1999