Game
02
Basic
Game Adventure B2
The Keep on the Borderlands
(1980)
By Gary Gygax
Layout:
Harold
Johnson
Editing:
David
Cook, Harold Johnson, Jeff R. Leason, Frank Mentzer, Tom Moldvay, Lawrence
Shick, Jean Wells
Art:
David
S. LaForce, Erol Otus, Jim Roslof
The Realm Review:
The most-played
fantasy role-playing adventure of all time, Keep on the Borderlands introduced
thousands to the role-playing phenomenon. The Keep stands as the only buffer
between the hordes of Chaos and the shining walls walls of civilization. The
party of adventurers enters the nearby Caves of Chaos time and again, crushing
the forces of evil before the Keep can fall!
Realm Rating: 5/5
...Download Game02 at the Magic
Mirror...
Collected reviews on Game 02:
Keep on the
Borderlands - 7.5
This is a design from
the Realm campaing setting by Ray Dyer and should be played as a part of it. It
is a conversion of the original module of the same name.
The story is fairly
simple (Find out who is the badguy and kill him) and it leaves many open
questions about why is this all happening. Who was the bad guy? Where did he
came from? Was he going to conquer the world? and so on. However, the
surroundings of the keep offer so much to investigate, that I can promise that
you won't get bored.
Random combats are
numerous, but they all are also well written. It doesn't feel like they are
there just to add another combat. However, because the design takes along time
to play, the random combats get annoying in the end. Set encounters are also
very well written and keep things interesting all the way to the end.
I found only one
possible bug in the big gnoll combat in the forest near the end. Should those
rangers I freed from the caves fight on my side or the gnolls' (as they do).
The combat, as it is, seems really hard. I tried it four times before going to
the editor (see, I loved this design :)
The new artwork looks
nice, with the exception of some of those sprites. Hacks are good (frame, intro
music, etc.).
Overall, it was a very
enjoyable design. Only the fact, that the story was so simple prevents it from
being one of the greatest.
-Tero L.
Hi!
It's me again! And now I have something to
say about the third of your modules I've played. First of all, I've loved the
"Keep"! It was just great.
I've specially liked the way you made many
smaller dungeons to create a very large world. You almost didn't see where the
dungeons were connected to one another.
Then it was the great story itself and the
way you managed to make it equally interesting trough whole game. Also loved
all the small descriptions of almost every clearing and room in the caves. I
like designs with much text. ;)
Now over to things I've didn't liked so
much... ;) Again, the resting thing. When my party is in a wilderness, I except
that they at least will be allowed to TRY to rest. I mean, in reality you can
TRY to make a camp and maybe even get a hour of sleep (if you are lucky) even
in a wood full of not fully friendly humanoids. Why not make it possible to
rest and set a quite high chance of a combat every hour?
Another thing, the money. I don't know If
I'm the only one to have this problem in the world but my party had too throw
their money away, just to be able to move faster and carry some more useful
stuff. Maybe a little vault in the keep would be in place? (By the way, most of
my money came from selling Gems and Jewels, you can get a smaller fortune for
selling some of them ;)
Another thing, a possible bug. When I was
in one of the Chaos caves (Bugbear one I guess) I've freed some rangers and
they said that we will not be alone when we need some help. Much later there
was a big battle with the gnolls and the text before said that the rangers my
party saved did sowed up there. They showed up, all right, but they fighted for
the Gnolls... some little charm spell I've missed, or...
Well, you've asked for it, you've got it,
another comment from me, I'll send you more, when I'll finish other of your
designs.
Arek "Wolverine" Lubniewicz
Game02 - Keep on the Borderlands (rating:
later)
Disclaimer: I have not played or even seen
the original p&p game this design was based on. In fact, I have never
played AD&D, except these computer games. (this disclaimer I put on all
instant reviews)
I guess this qualifies as a 'hack'n slash'
design. Wander around from one location to the next fighting lots of baddies.
The reason for the fight seems not to be for some greater good, but instead to
train the heroes for their future endeavors. Nothing wrong with that. Trying
somehow to make some logic out of the plot would end up being futile, so better
not think about it too much. The party just wanders around, entering various
locations and exterminating the humanoids living in there. My problem with this
type of games is the lack of any definite goal. Even if it's just hack'n slash,
there still should be some goal that the party pursues, even if it's nothing
more than 'kill all the bad guys'. The problem here was that I found a mountain
where the 'caves of chaos' were, and I didn't really know how much mayhem my
party needed to do there for the game to consider it 'victory'. Trekking back
to the keep to find out about it didn't feel like a best thing to do, and the
caverns were somewhat confusing, having multiple exits and me generally being
somewhat lost. After roaming for a while in and around the caves, I returned to
the Keep. I got a new 'mission' to find an evil altar in the caves, but somehow
found myself not interested in going back there again, spending another hour
trying to find this altar.
Harri Polsa
Hi Folks,
game02.zip Keep on the Borderlands
Some of the tavern tales don't come up in
the bar. I had one major glitch, that has also showed up in the design I'm
currently playing, Horror on the Hill. When you try to donate to the temple,
the game locks up. I have to do a hard reboot. Otherwise a very good adapation
of the classic module. My husband is currently running my son and I through
this module. He's dropped Horror on the Hill into the middle as a side quest. I
like the way the bar/inn was laid out with the various table encounters. I have
really liked all of the realm games thus far.
Plot
Matter: 9 Artwork: 9 Hacks: 9 Text: 9 Events: 8
Originality:
9 Errors: 8 Difficulty: 5
Total
Rating: 88% Mycroft Rating: 8.5
Susan
From: Ron Mierka
<cadaver@planetdirect.com>
I just got done playing Ray Dyer's
con(version) of one of my all-time favorites.
I was skeptical at first,(the other UA
versions I've tried have fallen utterly short) but once I got into it I didn't
stop playing until I completed it.
I was worried that I would get bored with
encountering one humanoid band after another, but (aside from the -maybe- too
many random encounters in the wilderness) I truly enjoyed every descriptive
encounter I faced.
I really felt a sense of reward with each
step I took. (That's what made me keep playing and ultimately finishing the
whole thing in one sitting).
There were two encounters that were -way-
too hard for characters 1-3 level:
What was the purpose of the dragon with 92
hit points? That really screwed me up. (I hadn't saved my game for a while
before that and had to back-track).
Also, when I went back to the caves for
the last time to confront the evil priests, I got attacked by several dozens of
Gnolls, Bears, and two Rangers, (each with 42 hp - shooting arrows at me)
hopelessly out of reach of anyone once I got surrounded, all at once. It took
me no less than 10 attempts to get lucky and win that one!
Anyway, thank you, Ray Dyer, for providing
me with at least two days worth of fun.
I'm looking forward to trying another one.
"Horror on the Hill," probably.
(Ed.
Note: While the purpose of the dragon and the several warnings of its presence
were to warn people that not every monster needs to die by the end of a given
design, the rangers and their pets were a glitch that has been fixed with the
current patch file.)
Hi Ray.
I just wanted to let you know how much I
have enjoyed your work. I have gotten into the habit of playing FRUA
occasionally, and I ran across your website. Mods like these were the reason
that I bought UA in the first place. These are the first mods that I have
played that really make me feel like the "old pen and paper days." I
have only played the veiled society and part of keep on the borderlands, but
already I am hooked. I also am a firm supporter of the judicious use of random
encounters. The only negative thing I might say is that I think I may have ran
into a bug in keep on the borderlands. I had covered every square inch of
terrain and cleaned out all of the tunnels I found, I covered some areas twice
to check for secret doors. When I went back to the keep, nothing out of the ordinary
happened. I had made a savegame earlier just to see if we could get past the
green dragon. From that savegame, going back to the keep started the guided
tour into the inner bailey. The only difference between the two savegames was
that the dragon savegame had not covered some areas twice. I hesitantly jumped
into the game editor and noted that the inner tour tests quest 13, and that
some events like killing chieftains increment quest 13. I set a utility event
to decrease quest 13 by one. Then walking past the gate triggered the tour. IT
looks like one of your utilities to increment quest 13 is not set to "do
only once," or something like that. I don't like digging through a mod,
particularly if I'm still playing it, because it takes away some of the mystery,
so I didn't go thru to see exactly what it might be. Other than that (roaming
around for some time trying to figure out ifI missed a secret tunnel or
something) the game has played flawlessly. I look forward to playing every
single one... Actually, I kinda don't want to, because once I have, then I will
have finished them, and I'll have nothing to look forward to....
thanks for making UA fun again,
Keep is a hack-and-slash adventure, but I
still enjoyed it, mainly because of the sense of accomplishment I experienced
after defeating the various humanoid tribes. I loved having the citizens of the
Keep recognize my accomplishments.
I recommend to others playing this game
that they begin with a party of at least second level, as it was originally
frustrating to return to the inn after fighting only a few battles. Despite the
constant returning to the Keep, I liked the way resting was handled. There is
no resting allowed except in certain areas, mainly the inn, but also several
other hidden locations. The battles in the game are generally difficult,
especially the final conflict against the humanoid army. That battle required
my mage to use the wand of fireballs she found seveal times.
One thing I that annoyed me was that the
party had no ability to have diseases cured, but they had to fight a nest of
giant rats. Lethal poison was also a problem in some areas.
I felt that the dungeons and wilderness
areas were designed really well, though I needed to map the outside of the
Caverns of Chaos in order to keep track of what I was doing. Also done well was
the text. The opening text statements grabbed my attention, and Ray writes very
well throughout the game. Those text boxes that didn't require a return press
annoyed me, however, when they came at the end of a string of text statements
that do. I prefer consistency.
Well met, Mr. Dyer! I have been a silent
fan of your work for a long time now, especially the older modules that you
have converted. Your version of the Keep on the Borderlands was far and away
the best I've seen yet.
Dear Mr. Dyer,
First of all, let me say I've downloaded
and played Keep on the Borderlands, amazing, I first ran the module about 1981
or 82 and it was finally a joy to sit down and actually play the game itself.
Thank you.
In regards to the comments or reviews, I
didn't have a problem with the big Gnoll fight everyone seemed to complain
about. I didn't manage to free the "rangers" that turned on everybody
until some time after, oh well, one less treason to deal with. It was also
great fun to play with a dwarven fighter/cleric and an elven fighter/MU/cleric.
Brought back some memories of the good old days.
I have to admit, I was a little
apprehensive about the lizardmen section in the beginning but it was a treat to
play, altogether it was a lot of fun.
Thank you again for the Keep
Well, I just finished Keep on the
Borderlands. I loved every minute of it! The modual never seemed that
"alive" when I've played it. This conversion was great (and i even
defeated the green dragon...well, it killed everone in my party except my
ranger, who took no damage, before it ran away. I looted its treasure hoard,
and thats what counts ;) My trusty band of adventurers are off to the fort,
with a quick stop off to check out the "Veiled Society".
