Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook

A list of all former Selected Rulebooks for the D&D Portal. All articles must be B-Class or higher.

Selected rulebook 1

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/1 Book of Vile Darkness is an optional supplemental sourcebook for the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The book was written by Monte Cook and published by Wizards of the Coast in October 2002. Described as a "detailed look at the nature of evil," it was the first Dungeons & Dragons book labelled for mature audiences. The second was the "good" companion volume Book of Exalted Deeds.

Selected rulebook 2

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/2 Against the Giants (module code G1-2-3) is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, published by TSR in 1981. It combines the contents of three earlier modules: G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King. The "G" in the module code represents the first letter in the word "giant".

The 1981 version was produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. To recognize the 25th anniversary of TSR, an updated version, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, was released in 1999. Also in 1999, Wizards of the Coast published Against the Giants, a novelization of the adventure by Ru Emerson.

The original three modules play as a classic dungeon crawl, against giants under an external influence. The focus is on hill giants, frost giants and fire giants, three of the original evil giant types used in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

The original "G" series modules formed the lead-in to an overall campaign set in the World of Greyhawk that then continued on an odyssey into the Underdark. These adventures included the "Drow" series of modules, D1 - Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D2 - Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and D3 - Vault of the Drow. (D1 and D2 were later compiled into a single adventure, D1-2 - Descent into the Depths of the Earth). The campaign finally culminated with module Q1 - Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

Selected rulebook 3

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/3 Ravenloft is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, published by TSR in 1983 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. The module, or pre-packaged adventure booklet, was written by husband–wife duo Tracy and Laura Hickman, with art by Clyde Caldwell and maps by David Sutherland III. The plot of Ravenloft centers around the villain Strahd von Zarovich, a vampire who draws power from the isolated land he rules.

Ravenloft was ranked as the second greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game, behind Queen of the Spiders. Ravenloft inspired a sequel, a gamebook adaptation and an entire campaign setting, which in turn had many spin offs, including a module for the Neverwinter Nights role-playing video game. The original Ravenloft adventure itself has been revised and republished several times.

Selected rulebook 4

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/4 Dragons of Despair is the start of the first major story arc in the Dragonlance series of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game modules, a ready-to-play adventure for use by Dungeon Masters in the game. It is the first in a series of 16 Dragonlance adventures published by TSR between 1984 and 1988. This series provides a game version of the original Dragonlance storyline, as told in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels. This module corresponds to the events told in the first half of the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Its module code is DL1, which is used to designate it as the first part of the Dragnlace adventure series.

Selected rulebook 5

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/5 Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead is a book which is an official supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, version 3.5. It is about the fictional undead within the D&D universe and comprises seven chapters, introducing new content for Dungeon Masters and players, as well as providing general information about undead.

It was received positively by reviewers, with praise for its material for Dungeon Masters and its illustrations, but received criticism for its weak player-oriented content. The book was the second in the series of books about specific monster types, the first being Draconomicon. Similar books published since include Lords of Madness. Libris Mortis included content from older books, such as Tome and Blood and the Book of Vile Darkness, that had been reworked.

Selected rulebook 6

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/6 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and was written by Gary Gygax. The 32-page adventure bears the code S3 ("S" for "special") While Dungeons & Dragons is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction and science fantasy. It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather futuristic weapons and colored access cards necessary for advancing the story.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at the Origins II convention in 1976 where it was used to introduce Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) gamers to the science fiction game Metamorphosis Alpha. In 1980, TSR updated the adventure for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules and published it. The adventure was never updated for any later rules systems, but a Wizards.com article did provide a conversion to Future Tech. It included a separate booklet of illustrations, some of which were in color. The adventure is an old time favorite of many Dungeons & Dragons fans, including Stephen Colbert. It was ranked the fifth best Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, and received positive reviews from White Dwarf and The Space Gamer magazines. The other adventures in the S series include Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

Selected rulebook 7

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/7 Dwellers of the Forbidden City is an adventure module, a ready-to-play adventure for use by Dungeon Masters, for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The adventure was first used as a tournament module at the 1980 Origins Game Fair, and was published by TSR in 1981 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module was written by David "Zeb" Cook, who attributes his work on this module to be one of the reasons he was hired by TSR. The module was ranked as the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004.

Selected rulebook 8

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/8 Tomb of Horrors is a 1978 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, written by Gary Gygax. It was the original tournament dungeon used at the Origins 1 convention. The Tomb of Horrors is a 2002 novelization of the adventure written by Keith Strohm.

Numbered "S1," the module was the first in the "S" (for "Special") series of modules. It was followed by S2: White Plume Mountain, S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Although part of a series for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, the four modules had no connecting plot or theme. Tomb of Horrors is one of the most famous Dungeons & Dragons modules. It was also the first module to include a numbered series of drawings, each of which would be shown to the players upon entering a certain area or encountering a certain fate.

Selected rulebook 9

Portal:Dungeons & Dragons/Selected rulebook/9 S2 - White Plume Mountain is a module for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, written by Lawrence Schick and published by TSR in 1979. Its associated module code is S2 (Special 2). The adventure is a dungeon crawl, the player's characters are hired to retrieve three "notorious" magical weapons. A trident, a war hammer, and a sword, all of which possess their own intelligence. The adventure contains art by Erol Otus, W with a cover by Jeff Dee. A sequel, Return to White Plume Mountain, was published in 1999, and updated version conforming to v3.5 rules was released online in 2005.

White Plume Mountain was received well by critics. It was ranked the 9th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004. One judge described it as a "the puzzle dungeon to end all puzzle dungeons." A review for British magazine White Dwarf gave it an overall rating of 8/10, noting that the adventur focuses on problem solving. It is the favorite adventure of Ken Denmead of Wired magazine, who described it as the "amusement park of dungeons" with a story similar to The A-Team or The Equalizer. Other adventures in the S series include Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.