Это видео недоступно.
Сожалеем об этом.

X1 The Isle of Dread - A BECMI adventure module review

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 18 июн 2024
  • X1 The Isle of Dread was written by David Cook and Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, before being republished in 1983 in the famous orange cover. It was the support module included in the Expert Rules to transition play from the dungeon to the wilderness and was for character levels 3-7.
    The Isle of Dread is one of the most influential modules of all time, appearing as a cross-campaign setting location, and sometimes even as a location that travels across planes. This video covers its humble beginnings. I hope you enjoy it.
    X1 Credits
    Written by David Cook and Tom Moldvay
    Editing: Tim Kilpin
    Art: Timothy Truman
    Link to my BECMI Dungeons and Dragons playlist: • BECMI Dungeon and Dragons
    BECMI Berserker logo and artwork created and gifted by the very generous Steve Young, contactable at steveyoungwork@hotmail.com Thank you, Steve!!
    If you like this video and want to support me further, please consider buying me a coffee at: www.buymeacoffee.com/becmiber... Your support is greatly appreciated.
    Contact:
    Instagram: D&D RPG fRe&k
    Email: orcwart@gmail.com

Комментарии • 138

  • @Rich_H_1972
    @Rich_H_1972 Месяц назад +30

    Ran this as a campaign. Started it with the PCs shipwrecked on the island and just went from there. The PCs ended up ruling the island. Great and crazy times - they never went back to the mainland; why bother! Brilliant adventure/campaign.

  • @Ironcaster
    @Ironcaster Месяц назад +30

    The king Kong influence can also be chalked up to the '78 remake, which would have still been fresh in recent years.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +7

      That’s true. It made more reference to tar pits if I recall correctly. 🤔

    • @SimonAshworthWood
      @SimonAshworthWood Месяц назад +2

      Yeah, I remember that movie was shown on an airplane I was on in the early 80s.

  • @solomani5959
    @solomani5959 Месяц назад +14

    Another classic. “It never occurred to us to go outside”. So true.

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад +1

      I once played a game in which the party discovered a secret passage in the inn that led directly to the dungeon so that was literally true.

    • @totalpartykill999
      @totalpartykill999 Месяц назад +2

      well, you always had the central hub, which was usually a village. there was also the journey to the dungeon, but yeah early on it really was all about the dungeon. wilderness exploration would play a bigger role as time went on.

    • @N0madic71
      @N0madic71 12 дней назад

      Also, Fireball is more useful inside :)

  • @jeffreymoynagh5439
    @jeffreymoynagh5439 Месяц назад +7

    To have a lost city, I put the module I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City inside the crater on the plateau. It made the legends true as there was a lost city of the gods. And that adventure fit very well inside this one. Also, it made for a LOT of sessions with those two very open campaign environments.

    • @Istari68
      @Istari68 Месяц назад +1

      This is a great idea!

  • @erictiso9315
    @erictiso9315 Месяц назад +6

    I started with the first three boxes, so this was my first formal module, being that i was in middle school at the time and didn't have much cash of my own. Really, this is more of a campaign than a module taking a couple/few sessions just to get to the island, and the long overland trek after. I don't think a party ever had made it to the center of the plateau. Still, you provide a great overview and definitely some great ideas for improvement of the module as written. Great job, and many thanks!

  • @davidbrennan660
    @davidbrennan660 Месяц назад +7

    I remember playing this….was I ever so young?

  • @Merlinstergandaldore
    @Merlinstergandaldore Месяц назад +14

    This one's another goodie. Classic lost world scenario for your mid level D&D characters? Most excellent. I hope to do a series of Reviewcaps set in this one. Drop the players in and watch the hilarity ensue! And by hilarity I mean the dinosaur feedings! 😁

    • @SimonAshworthWood
      @SimonAshworthWood Месяц назад +1

      Sweet! I’m looking forward to those videos! 😍

  • @albertcapley6894
    @albertcapley6894 Месяц назад +8

    There was a 3.5 module from Dungeon magazine which treated the dread isle pretty well, and gave the Tanaroa some of that intrigue and potential for inter clan conflicts. If I recall everything right, the local zombie master of Mora village was corrupted by the Kopru in order to allow them access to the caverns beneath to create a magical hurricane via some magical mcguffin or another. The really interesting part is how the pyramid in the center of the village was built to conceal the entrance to the zombie master caverns and allowed them to just pop out through a secret hatch hidden beneath the big drum. I also think I remember there being mention that some of the other villages had different clans, although in this particular adventure, one of the Mora clans was literally wiped out by a mudslide crushing them during the hurricane. It was a really good adventure, and set you up to run an Isle campaign almost as well as the original module did (well... in some ways, in others well.. it just ain't the same is it? Lol) which probably inspired their "adventure path" focused around the isle right before they stopped publishing dnd stuff and created pathfinder. It's almost like they knew how the berserker ran his games and decided to take notes. Lol.

    • @albertcapley6894
      @albertcapley6894 Месяц назад

      And yr right, I live in the sub-tropical rainforests of lower Alabama, and we don't even get elk down here, it kinda feels like a dinosaur totem would be appropriate for at least one clan, sea turtles, cool, tigers, yeah why not, but what we need is a clan who follows the example of the stegosaurus, or some other thunder lizard. I do think it's a little funny just how many dinos are in BECMI in general, but I like them, so I ain't complaining, lol.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      Was that Savage Tide? I ran Shackled City and Age of Worms but my group broke up before I got to ST.

    • @albertcapley6894
      @albertcapley6894 Месяц назад

      @@becmiberserker yeah, Savage tide is also one I never got to run, or even read, I have the final issue with the last adventure, lol, looked like a badass conclusion, I just had no real context for how the PCs were supposed to get there. I really like age of worms, and although I don't really run games that are railroaded enough to probably pull off that campaign anymore, I'm currently sprinkling in some of the plots and ofc the Ebon Triad, cos that was a cool cult, (and a nice call back to shackled city) into an osr game I just started running. Maybe the party goes after the worm that walks, maybe they don't, lol.

    • @albertcapley6894
      @albertcapley6894 Месяц назад +1

      @@becmiberserker I found my old copy of the dungeon issue in question: the adventure is called "Torrents of Dread" and they did replace the elk clan with the boar clan. I have my PCs in a homebrew where I've dropped the Korinn Archipelago from the 2e module N4, and that's where they have started out, so I might just get to converting this from 3.5 into our system, mwa haha and sor forth.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      @@albertcapley6894 Glad it wasn’t just me irked by the elk clan. Good luck with your game!

  • @tommo9757
    @tommo9757 Месяц назад +9

    Ah yes! The first commercial module I ever DM'ed. Talk about dropping yourself in the deep end!!!

  • @robbabcock_
    @robbabcock_ Месяц назад +6

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane! The Isle of Dread is a pretty simple module in retrospect but back in the day it seemed like a revelation!

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      You’re welcome.

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад +2

      Discovering that yes, there was an actual game world with actual nations and stuff really WAS a revelation at that time.

    • @NefariousKoel
      @NefariousKoel Месяц назад +1

      @@DolFan316 I really liked how the major nations of the Known World were given brief overviews in X1 and the Expert set it came with. Gave just enough info to get started with some basic references loosely based on old real-world history and culture. Yet left so much up to the DM after priming the imagination and providing straightforward maps to work from. A very efficient way to set up a campaign with many possibilities and potential differences each time.

  • @guldcat1619
    @guldcat1619 Месяц назад +5

    Just wanted to say that it's really weird how you're following me around and spying on all of my game prep and campaign creation note-taking, but it's honestly super useful that you keep releasing videos on topics *exactly* when I need them. 😀

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +6

      It’s my Kopru mind-reading ability. 😉

  • @danacoleman4007
    @danacoleman4007 Месяц назад +3

    thank you so much for making these wonderful time travel videos!

  • @coachlarry6773
    @coachlarry6773 Месяц назад +3

    Very cool video, X1 is just a classic, timeless adventure.

  • @jacobbrown7367
    @jacobbrown7367 Месяц назад +3

    With how you describe the information about the known world being inside the X1 adventure module. It almost feels like they were supposed to be sold as part of the box set and then somebody at the last second decided to split it off and do its own thing.
    Edit: Yeah, given more context later in the video, this almost certainly sounds like someone took the starter adventure for the expert set and split it off into its own book.

  • @Kaiyanwang82
    @Kaiyanwang82 Месяц назад +2

    I remember the fun of arming an expedition and managing the crew. We would then leave them to guard the ship when the actual dungeon exploration occurred tho, they would die too easily. Great to face random brigands and similar threats too, or even worse stuff due to the archers.
    Expert was truly the greatest expansion the game had. No other book if acquired, in any edition, is a bigger gamechanger.

  • @mightyeroc7284
    @mightyeroc7284 Месяц назад +1

    Thanks, great review. Recently dropped this in our campaign. The party made a short foray into the isle. They left and realized they need to plan and level up to deal with the dinosaurs.

  • @totalpartykill999
    @totalpartykill999 Месяц назад +2

    i miss this aspect of DnD. it wasnt about flashy combat, but exploration and treasure hunting. the worlds felt big and unknown. the challenges required creative thinking. it really was immersive.

  • @Tabletop_Epics
    @Tabletop_Epics Месяц назад +5

    Great review!
    I keep this module around so I can pillage it for my dream campaign, based on Land of the Lost. Sword & Sorcery meets dinosaurs and cults of reptilian humanoids, played out across unforgiving jungle and desert environments.

  • @kennetth1389
    @kennetth1389 Месяц назад +2

    My favorite BECMI adventure.
    Used it several times over the years for a change of pace or a stand-alone.

  • @nathaniellyesmith504
    @nathaniellyesmith504 Месяц назад +6

    I never played BECMI but i love learning more about it It is so massively different from 5e

  • @danacoleman4007
    @danacoleman4007 Месяц назад +2

    now that's my kind of center fold!

  • @jasonnewell7036
    @jasonnewell7036 Месяц назад +4

    I am currently running this module in 5e. Full Mystara setting, too.

    • @johnbalk6091
      @johnbalk6091 Месяц назад

      Check out Mr. Welch. He's an old school grognard who runs an all Mystara channel. Spectacular resource.

    • @jasonnewell7036
      @jasonnewell7036 Месяц назад

      @@johnbalk6091 I have been. We disagree on some things, but he is a good resource.

  • @FriendlyDuergar-by7jm
    @FriendlyDuergar-by7jm Месяц назад +4

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

  • @manuelgarcia-ve5vm
    @manuelgarcia-ve5vm Месяц назад +2

    ive played this module countless times with different rules and editions ... to me, its the best of the best, the ultimate sandbox

  • @darthjoel6357
    @darthjoel6357 Месяц назад +3

    Great video Berserker! Classic module explained extremely well!! 😊

  • @glenndean6
    @glenndean6 Месяц назад +1

    I find X1 to make a great middle arc of a four-module campaign that leads up to about level 10: Start with B4, The Lots City, then X1, Isle of Dread; then X4 and X5 (Master of the Desert Nomads and Temple of Death). Optional follow-on to X10, Red Arrow, Black Shield.

  • @Scutifer_Mike
    @Scutifer_Mike Месяц назад +1

    Great review. Can’t wait to get around to this one.

  • @shinigamiauthor
    @shinigamiauthor 15 дней назад

    it feels like a match made in heaven to cross Isle of Dread together with Dark of Hot Springs Island

  • @repentantsinner7472
    @repentantsinner7472 Месяц назад +3

    Another great review from the Berserker. The Isle of Dread is a total classic. It definitely has its weak points, but there is also a lot of potential. I really appreciated your custom DM tips to make the whole thing flow better. The real missed opportunity is the Gazetteer; The Kingdom of Ierendi. The Isle of Dread should have formed the backbone of a really great Gazetteer with secret pirate coves, various monstrous aquatic civilizations (I always imagined a whole city populated by the creatures from the Black Lagoon), sea monsters, mermen and mermaids, dinosaurs, and locations that could only be reached by navigating treacherous waters, etc...instead we got tropical tourism. I always thought that if a character forged ties with a strong native tribe during their Expert Set days, then had their own kingdom overthrown by a traitor during their Companion Set days, it would be a cool adventure to go back to the tribe you helped so many years ago, and convince them to follow you back to help you reclaim your kingdom. Again, lots of potential and a lot of lost opportunities.

  • @AndrewWinkless
    @AndrewWinkless Месяц назад +1

    The Isle of Dread was used in 3.5E in the Savage Tide adventure path in dungeoen magazine. It was a blast - the island was the centre of a conspiracy by Demogorgon (worshipped by the Kopru). The campaign assumed you were shipwrecked on the north of the island and had to explore down to Taranoa because the other ship in your expedition was going there. En route there was a strange demon temple (one of the best dungeon crawls I've ever been in), and things only heated up after getting to Taranoa. Probably Paizo's best work before they were stabbed in the back by WotC and had to go on their own.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад

      I consider Paizo at the helm of Dungeon Magazine a bit of a golden age. The content was excellent. The adventures well written. The art and cartography was outstanding and they made all this available for download as DM support PDFs. I ran Shackled City and Age of Worms but never got round to Savage Tide. Read it though and it looked great.

  • @choggy4214
    @choggy4214 Месяц назад +4

    Awesome, thank you!

  • @Taranchule
    @Taranchule Месяц назад +3

    I never played this module as my friends and I were 2E AD&D kids. We kinda missed the boat. Alas. That said, I do own a vintage copy as I have the first four BECMI boxes.
    Something that occurred to me as the video went on is that, with some modifications this could be a dandy adventure for a Indiana Jones-style pulp game. Troll Lord's Amazing Adventures comes to mind.

  • @jasonnewell7036
    @jasonnewell7036 Месяц назад +4

    I had the clan divisions for religious reasons. The four clan totems were representations of the four immortals that the tribespeople of the island revere, which explained why each village has the same divisions as each clan is responsible for devotions to a specific immortal.
    I made the zombie masters into Ancestor Keepers, where becoming a zombie is an honour given after death so that one can continue to serve the tribe after death. The Keepers are not so much a figure of fear, but one of pity as they must exist amongst the dead rather than being fully part of the village.
    I also had conflict between the villages formalised into a game. Rather than fight amongst themselves, which would be problematic given the limited space and hostile environment, they engage in "War" which is a six a side ball game where each side tries to place their ball made of bound hides and fibres at the top of a conical plinth, while trying to stop the other team from doing so. Whomever has their ball on the plinth after the time has run out is determined to be the victor. They use it to decide trading advantages and intertribal marriages as well. I had the chieftain of Tanaroa's daughter being married off to the Kirikuka tribe, and they used the game to negotiate the dowry. The party's barbarian played for the Tanaroans and helped them win. It was a fun moment for the party because it was like a big intertribal festival.

  • @michaelwallace6851
    @michaelwallace6851 Месяц назад

    I ran this about 7-8 years ago the last time. The entire party was charmed by the khopru and sent back to world with a statue which, when touched, allows the khopru to charm through it. The party brought the statue back to Marienburg (using the WFRP setting) and had it installed in the entry foyer of the seaman's guild, allowing the khopru to spread the cult into a major city.

  • @docsavage8640
    @docsavage8640 12 дней назад

    Great video. Still have this module.
    I think it made sense to out the Known World setting information in the module rather than the rulebook so as to ensure it was understood that the Known World wasn't necessary for use in your campaign, and you could drop that background information from the module or use it if you liked it, with no effect on the game. That way the only Known World content in the rulebook is more like an example of how to create your world rather than "here is where the game takes place."

  • @anarionelendili8961
    @anarionelendili8961 Месяц назад +2

    Very nice review, although I would have liked you to mention the absolutely brutal climb mechanic of both the central plateau and especially the volcano's rim to reach the caldera. Which can easily wipe out the party if the GM is not careful and relies too much on the rolling the dice.
    I very much appreciated the suggestions on how to make this better. Having some henchmen/sailors go off with pretty local girls only to be nowhere to be found the next morning might have a real horror quality to it. Or maybe it is to split the outsiders up, so that they can be more easily defeated. The henchmen who might have been separated are already getting stretched on the sacrificial stone before the PCs themselves are tried to be seized, too, etc. Rather than splitting each village into several clans/tribes, it might be better to spread the clans around, so that each village is held by one, and then vary the personality of each tribe, perhaps based on their totem. And one of them might even be friendly!
    I agree, leaning more on the lost civilization of the kopru would have helped, as well as more strongly themed encounter list. I would be tempted to move the Rakasta to the central plateau, since its Ice Age fauna would fit better with their sabertooth tigers.
    Alas, I never played this module with my players, although I did use it as a backdrop and inspiration for a more fantasy-pulp adventure story. The Kopru were, of course, defeated by the heroes.

  • @ericpaisley8501
    @ericpaisley8501 Месяц назад

    Been looking forward to this for a long time.

  • @TheBattlinBarrowGaming
    @TheBattlinBarrowGaming 16 дней назад

    I had this adventure since I got my expert set in the 80s but never ran it until last year where I had a blast with it.

    • @TheBattlinBarrowGaming
      @TheBattlinBarrowGaming 12 дней назад

      I did really lean into the Lovecraftian mythos aspect of the Kopru. My players basically have a necronomicon, it was in that that detailed a vague history of them, as well as the beastie from Nights Dark Terror. There was also hints of their god breaking through to our plane when the world heats up, which I added throughout the game that the temperature was rising. there was a hint in there of a ritual needed to be performed that required a "black pearl". I then moved the end game out of taboo island using our ship combat rules and had this massive tentacled monster break through and they had to perform the ritual whilst being assaulted.
      I like the idea of some of the Kopru escaping and ending up on the mainland and charming some locals. That could lead to some interesting ideas.....

  • @pheralanpathfinder4897
    @pheralanpathfinder4897 Месяц назад

    I played through BECMI in elementary school. Hex/Dungeon crawls were more fun than now. But even then we leaned into the story and Role Play opportunities.
    DMs tended to play either tight to the module as written or more often use it as inspiration as they "winged it" based upon player choices and a sense of what felt right at the spur of the moment.
    I find myself spending much more time creating encounters that are creative and present unusual challenges. Sadly most 5e modules only have a few creative situations.

  • @elfbait3774
    @elfbait3774 Месяц назад +1

    The clans living collectively in the same village just reminds me of many clan-based cultures that exist(ed) in North America and I assume in other places. Clans are a form of lineage in these groups with some supernatural attachments to those designations. In these cultures, it takes all clans to make a society.
    I have a campaign that uses the Isle as the ultimate goal, starting with an abridged Saltmarsh run to get the players a boat and set on their way. I have pepppered in many of D&D's many published nautical, island, and coastal adventures to pad out the campaign. I even experimented with placing the Lost City as the climax of the Isle instead of the originally published version.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      Interesting info on the North American clans. I didn’t know that. Makes sense though.

    • @elfbait3774
      @elfbait3774 Месяц назад +1

      @@becmiberserker it is, of course, not universal to all nations, but it is present in many of them, including prohibitions against marrying from the same clan, etc.

  • @stephenradlett1418
    @stephenradlett1418 Месяц назад

    I ran the goodman games 5e update for my son's group, tying it into our regular campaign. They really enjoyed it and C3 may see it get a revisit

  • @newtpondskipper
    @newtpondskipper Месяц назад +1

    Such a great module! We never have been able to reach the inner reaches of the Isle as our DM was brutal with random encounters and weather hazards. Good old days of limited healing made the third encounter with dinos rough and then playing the dragon we saw flying overhead would ignore us. It didn't.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      🤣 Sounds rough!

    • @newtpondskipper
      @newtpondskipper Месяц назад +1

      @becmiberserker we are old school Red Box vets so it's to be expected. Color Spray has become one of the most important spells with the amount of people it can hit. We definitely have a tracking of food and equipment, the loss of heavy armour due to the heat was one fun thing!

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      @@newtpondskipper love it! When everyone buys into the system it makes it all the more rewarding.

    • @newtpondskipper
      @newtpondskipper Месяц назад

      @becmiberserker I sent your video to our DM. Hopefully he'll love it as much as I did. Definitely it'll give him more inspiration!

  • @MiguelAngelSanchezCogolludo
    @MiguelAngelSanchezCogolludo Месяц назад +2

    2:05 Well, there were another version of King Kong released in 1975. I vaguely remember seeing it at the theater, probably the first movie I saw in a theater with barely 5 years old (in Spain they were released almost a year later)

  • @Da_maul
    @Da_maul 21 день назад

    I'm a bit late, and I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but the "mapping error" mentioned at 39:23 is because there's some over/under stuff happening on the map. The central room (32) has a giant face with a door in the mouth of it which leads east, and then, in the secret room (34) there's stairs that lead up to room A which is above the corridor the mouth opens into, Room A has some machinery IIRC and has the face's eyes as windows, it's where the Kopru would pretend to be the "gods" of the natives. The wall that blocks off the corridor is just the back wall of the upper area.
    It's a little convoluted and difficult to understand from just looking at the map, but it's something you can put together from the text.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  16 дней назад

      Indeed. What I should have mentioned is that there is an image of this that was in the 1981 publication but omitted from the 1983 one. Would have saved a bit of head scratching.

  • @dougmartin2007
    @dougmartin2007 Месяц назад +2

    I always felt the villagers were so opening right away to the party. I know the intent was for the party to save some villagers from the slave trading pirates, but there is so much you can do there. Have some villagers in conflict with the pirates, and have interclan issues like you suggested for the other villages.
    Fortunately, the module allows plenty of space for a DM to add things in.

  • @jarredalabran6298
    @jarredalabran6298 Месяц назад

    Great video. I like the different tribes being in each village, it reminds me of the Aiel from The Wheel of Time series and can lead to interesting encounters if you get involved in inter-tribal politics.

  • @Khaldryn
    @Khaldryn Месяц назад

    The ancient and powerful race who mysteriously disappeared without a trace in my game were the Drow. This is their origin and show they once lived above ground before an event drove them into the Underdark.

  • @NegatveSpace
    @NegatveSpace Месяц назад +1

    I wonder if those Kopru are early versions of Illithid? I like these better though. With the inclusion of the hot environment restriction gives them more character.

  • @wbbartlett
    @wbbartlett Месяц назад +3

    I loved King Kong as a kid. It seems ancient now but it would have been the equivalent of watching a movie made in 1979 today - Alien, the Life of Brian or Apocalypse Now.
    But there was loads of old stuff on tv back then - Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, the Lone Ranger, Tarzan etc etc. I watched it all :)

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      Same. Loved the old silent movie repeats also. Wouldn’t be done today.

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад +1

      Funny you should mention Alien. My dad wouldn't take me to see it at the time because he said it was too scary for me to handle. He went to see it by himself and as it turned out, HE actually ended up having nightmares about it afterwards.

  • @davidtauriainen9116
    @davidtauriainen9116 8 дней назад

    The BECMI/5e Goodman Games hardcover reprint and update isn't half bad. There are reasons given for the Isle to show up unexpectedly in any given campaign (although I still feel it works best on Urt/Mystara). There's much more kopru intrigue for higher level characters to deal with should they choose.

  • @patrickholt2270
    @patrickholt2270 Месяц назад +1

    Some amount of inter-mixing of the clans would be natural, in terms of the preference to marry kids off to youths from other clans/tribes for genetic health and attraction, as well as for diplomatic purposes. Another common practice could be for chiefs to foster each others' sons as a way to keep the peace. Visiting and trading with each other combines family obligations and news gathering.
    Perhaps Rory Barbarossa was Kopru charmed, and the writing of his log was their plot to get more powerful potential slaves to come visit them? Then the players could get breadcrumbs about the sinisterness of the taboo island from locals' recollections of the man's strange and/or malicious behaviour, talking to himself etc. That would be suitably Lovecraftian I feel. Or alternatively, if the scrolls are too old for that, He and his pirates could have left grafitti and burials on the island giving additional clues about the evil they encountered and which took them over.

  • @kurtoogle4576
    @kurtoogle4576 Месяц назад

    Captain Barbarossa and the quest for the Black Pearl, huh! I've run this many times and it never clicked. Ha!

  • @yvindheilo229
    @yvindheilo229 Месяц назад +3

    Leaving the dungeon was like playing Chutes and Ladders and asking the question: What happens if I move my game piece outside of the board?

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +3

      Good analogy!

    • @yvindheilo229
      @yvindheilo229 Месяц назад +2

      @@becmiberserker I was I guess 12 years young when I got the Expert Rules, and I can remember how my mind struggeled to comprehend what I would do as a DM to run the Isle of Dread. In my head I would go through endless narration of wilderness travel, wondering how I would ever be able to describe "real-time exploration".
      When I finally took the plunge and ran it it made sense though. And we had so much fun. The campaign ended when they beat a dragon and I rolled random treasure in front of the players, maxing out about every roll. The insane ammount of treasure plunged the campaign into Stronghold-focus. We played with a rule that you could strike the dragon with the flat side of your blade to enslave it, and thats what the players did.The rest of the summer we planned castles and elaborate building schemes, but at the time i never got my head around running this kind of stronghold game.

  • @dmforsyth
    @dmforsyth Месяц назад

    13:30 "Screaming Vikings. I haven't been called that since my honeymoon". (Surely one or two people will get the reference)

  • @chiefchurpa5739
    @chiefchurpa5739 Месяц назад

    i plan on running this as a mid way break in my campaign if you like, karameikos wants to claim this land b4 other nations and employ the pc's to take a galley down and claim the land for them with a barony for each member as a reward... im goin to use warhammer lizardmen race to populate a huge part of the interior , havin a few clans spread out on the island... goin to keep this for added reference too. cheers

  • @Heike--
    @Heike-- Месяц назад +1

    Nice channel name. Got me to sub.

  • @WizardDeadloss
    @WizardDeadloss Месяц назад

    At 2.55: "What? We can go outside now? And I can have a ship?" I'm so glad I heard that soft 'p' at the end of 'ship'. I thought you said something else.
    I'm looking forward to playing this one for nostalgia's sake.
    This was extremely useful. I'm new to all of this and I find it difficult to imagine a game being played from just reading the module. Maybe most people only see the flaws and potentials after one play through. I didn't pick up X1's flaws just from reading.
    I'd be curious as how others tie in the pirates that live on a seperate island. Do they kidnap one of the party, perhaps?

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад

      Funny you should mention the soft P. I was considering re-recording that bit when editing because it is a bit quiet. 😌
      Otherwise, glad you liked the video.

  • @Ishpeck
    @Ishpeck Месяц назад

    @34:56 , you should never be afraid of causing multiple TPK's. :P

  • @lexington476
    @lexington476 Месяц назад +2

    15:58 are the white hexes glaciers or unexplored/unknown territory?

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +5

      Unexplored. Those are what you fill with the terrain symbols.

  • @deusvault5732
    @deusvault5732 Месяц назад +1

    Black pearl, Barbarosa? Are these common pirate things or did this module influence pirates of the Caribbean

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      IMHO I'd go with yes, but I have no evidence. 🙂

  • @CrashingPotatoEngineer
    @CrashingPotatoEngineer Месяц назад

    May Ka the Preserver guide my party!

  • @DolFan316
    @DolFan316 Месяц назад +1

    IMO ol' Rory was killed by none other than Bargle. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

  • @DolFan316
    @DolFan316 Месяц назад

    I mean yeah, the charm with indefinite duration and unlimited range is cool and all, but if you're a race that has to depend on random adventurers to wander into your specific lair that you can't leave and that they have no idea exists, in the middle of a big island full of so many others things the adventurers can do, then your empire isn't long for the world anyway.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      Absolutely, which is the situation the Kopru currently find themselves in. I think it might be fun to play the downfall the Kopru realm. Kind of like the party are native resistance fighters, living 1,000 years ago and unable to trust anyone. The “priesthood” ensure a steady supply of new people for the Kopru to charm. Maybe it’s a religious rite of passage when a child reaches maturity. However, there are pockets of resistance here and there across the island and they are mobilising. But who can you trust? Will it be as simple as just attacking the vile overseers? Or will there be multiple betrayals along the way. This has so much potential!

  • @MrDrumStikz
    @MrDrumStikz Месяц назад

    I would actually keep the clans as four families operating together within the villages. In theory, they are collaborators, and they engage in legitimate business and social interaction. In practice, they are all competing for respect, riches, and zombies.
    Every clan is working to obtain human sacrifices from the other clans, which are turned into zombies to appease the gods. However, these sacrifices must be obtained legitimately: as payments for debts, punishment for crimes, or stakes in competitions and games of chance. This creates an environment in which the players are relatively safe as they interact with the clans in each village, but they are surrounded by a foreign culture with an alien (and sometimes disturbing) sense of ethics and social norms.

  • @dantherpghero2885
    @dantherpghero2885 Месяц назад +2

    I Live ALL BECMI Berserker videos!

  • @blktom
    @blktom Месяц назад +1

    Have you done Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Boarderlands?

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      Not yet. Just CM1, B10, and X1 so far.

    • @blktom
      @blktom Месяц назад

      @@becmiberserker So there are plans? I ask because as a old school D&D player, I enjoy modern recaps of those old modules on to hear people's opinions of them. I always thought it was a resourced that D&D failed at exploiting for later versions of the game... you have the properties, update and use them.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +1

      @@blktom It’s on the list but no timeline as yet. Real life keeps holding me back. 🙂

    • @blktom
      @blktom Месяц назад

      @@becmiberserker Ain't that the truth. 😁

  • @docsavage8640
    @docsavage8640 12 дней назад

    Or, if you roll stirges at sea you could say one of your crates or packages of supplies was infested with stirges/eggs/larvae...

  • @PaladinDusty
    @PaladinDusty Месяц назад +1

    I like how you go into culture in a way Seth Skorkowsky seems to miss. Seth hits the fictional tropes well, but I think you do a better job covering setting up the verisimilitude.

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      That’s very kind of you. I wish I had his sub count! 😀

    • @PaladinDusty
      @PaladinDusty Месяц назад +2

      @@becmiberserker Me too, bub. lol

    • @PaladinDusty
      @PaladinDusty Месяц назад +1

      @@becmiberserker You know, as I am making it to the final chapter, I almost want to just cut this entire part and have Hutaaka just be a haven of undead and Kartoeba.

  • @sumdude4281
    @sumdude4281 Месяц назад +1

    Oh, my! Taboo Island. Kay Parker is waiting...lol

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад +1

      I wonder how many people besides me will get that reference? I definitely never saw it in 7th grade at my friend's house late one night when we were alone, nope, never happened😉

    • @sumdude4281
      @sumdude4281 Месяц назад +1

      @@DolFan316 Me neither, never saw it...ever, nope never 😜

    • @becmiberserker
      @becmiberserker  Месяц назад +2

      Not saying nuffink...

  • @DolFan316
    @DolFan316 Месяц назад +1

    *YESSS!!! HE'S BACK AND ESCAPED RUclips PUNISHMENT!!! WOOHOO!!!* 🤘🤘🤘

    • @danacoleman4007
      @danacoleman4007 Месяц назад +2

      ?

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад +3

      @@danacoleman4007 His previous video had the audacity, the effrontery, and the sheer chutzpah to dare question wokeness. It insipires me to this day, seriously. But then he disappeared for weeks to the point where I thought he was in RUclips jail or maybe even worse but it turned out he was perfectly fine.

    • @danacoleman4007
      @danacoleman4007 Месяц назад +5

      @@DolFan316 Nice! thanks for the response. I really get excited when I see people pushing back against all that nonsense. Good stuff!

    • @DolFan316
      @DolFan316 Месяц назад

      @@danacoleman4007 You should watch it sometime 🙂

    • @DavidMasters-nt7rm
      @DavidMasters-nt7rm Месяц назад

      ​@@DolFan316 So you were worried about a completely fictional persecution scenario that exists solely in your head?
      You people are funny.

  • @thumper8684
    @thumper8684 Месяц назад

    I remember this being really racist, and I was a teenager at the time. I knew nothing.
    Maybe I got the wrong adventure. It was a very longtime ago.