What is The Isle of Dread?

Introduction 

The return of the classic.

The first successfully completed campaign I ran for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition was based on The Isle of Dread. This module was created for the Basic version of D&D back in 1980. I picked up the Goodman Games conversion to 5th Edition published in 2018. I bought it mostly for nostalgia sake, but also with a thin hope of running a retro campaign one day.

I got that chance in 2020, for a group of five players online for over a year. It was a ton of fun, and we created some great stories and memories that we still talk about to this day. In this series, I'm going to talk about my experiences running the Isle of Dread. I'll tell you what worked, what didn't and what I changed and what I wish had done differently. 

I will front load the advice at the start, and then save my reminiscing for the second half with section called My Experience.

What is the Isle of Dread

The Isle of Dread module is actually a campaign setting. It doesn't matter if you are using the classic module or the Goodman Games update - you are essentially getting the same material. 

Time, why are you so forgetful?

This setting is a tropical island campaign involving lots of exploration on land and at sea. The focus is a large island (the Isle of Dread) and its surrounding smaller islands and reefs. You get a bunch of adventuring locations and set pieces on the island. There are a large number of non-player characters (NPCs) to interact with including pirates, cultists, villagers and four unique races with their own societies/cultures and goals. 

Adventure locations include unique natural formations, strange ancient monuments, cave networks and even a couple good sized dungeons to crawl through. There are settlements on the main island, but also on the smaller islands and even under the water. Player characters (PCs) can befriend or antagonize the locals in a multitude of ways.

The Isle itself is very much inspired by Skull Island from King Kong and the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs (such as The Land that Time Forgot) with dense jungles, roaming dinosaurs, and cave people. The adventure is targeted at characters from 3rd to 7th level, and is fairly grounded when it comes to magic. 

Treasures and secrets abound on the island, the players are expected to explore to find them. You get a nifty player map that only shows the basic outline of the island itself, with a few coastal details. The rest is for the players to fill in.

You don't get an overarching plot or central antagonist. There is a very powerful monster on the island who can act as your Big Bad, if you like. But there are no story threads leading the players to this monster. Story hooks to get the adventure started are provided, and they focus on your players seeking fame and fortune, and having a vessel to travel to the island. Depending on the group, the DM may need to create a bit more of a story to get everything moving.

You don't get any material for a ship or crew. These are things the DM will need to create, depending on how much you want that to be a part of the game.

Classic art of Kopru from the original print.

You get some bare bones material to get the adventure rolling from a port in civilized lands. Your mileage may vary with the provided material. But the focus of the adventure text is the setting and the encounters within.

The Isle of Dread is a rich adventure location with plenty to offer a DM. You can run it right from the book as straight exploration focused sandbox. Or you can modify it to fit your existing campaign but making it a key location in the larger scope of the story. It has some great locations to hide that special treasure of macguffin the party is seeking out. You have plenty of dangerous antagonists that can become a focal point for the adventurers including the pirates, the shark cultists, and of course the infamous monster Kopru and his dedicated followers.

This adventure book is very versatile and is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a fun island location with lots of dinosaurs, exploration and unique characters to meet.

My Experience

My first experience with D&D was the red box Basic set by Frank Mentzer created in 1983. I probably ran into it a couple years after that, when a friend of mine tried to run me through the castle adventure included in the book. This was a hurried session during recess in fifth grade or so. I remember creating a thief and then failing to climb a wall and getting killed by a carrion crawler monster.

Red and blue box sets for the win!

I got the box set myself later that year, and was immediately drawn into the solo adventure where you meet Aleena the cleric and Bargle the infamous. I had already read some of the early Endless Quest books and had a couple in my collection. So I was familiar with the concept of D&D. But I struggled to get any of my friends to give it a try. Eventually the same friend who ran me through the castle adventure gave me the rules to the Expert set. But by this point I was more interested in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - and thought that regular "basic" rules were for kids. Yeah I was kid myself, don't judge me.

I read through the Expert rulebook, and somewhere in it or with it was information about this module called The Isle of Dread, which just sounded cool! I remember seeing the cover with the characters fighting a T-Rex and it just got my mind going. But I never got my hands on the module, even though I'm pretty sure I saw it at the local bookstore on a number of occasions.

Jump forward to around 2019 or so. I'm thinking of running my own campaign for a group of friends online. I want to set it in a low magic low fantasy setting like my memories of old school D&D. I grab a bunch of world building notes for a fantasy novel I wrote around 2016 or so, and then looked for an old school module to combine it with. doing some internet research, I find the name Isle of Dread and it sparks all kinds of memories and ideas. 

Let the voyage to the isle begin!

Looking into it, this module is fondly remembered by a lot of older players. Plenty of war stories of exploring the mysteries of the island, battling pirates and facing down Kopru. Reviews also mentioned how it was a teaching module designed to show the new DM how to focus on exploration outside of a dungeon. This sounded useful, and when I discovered that Goodman Games had just published a revised version for 5th Edition, including the original versions of the old module and interviews with the original writers and creators of the module - it just sounded like a good buy. I do love me some RPG history.

So picked it up for myself, even if I didn't end up running it. And it was a fun read all the way around. When I ended up pitching campaign ideas to the online group, I threw in Isle of Dread as an option. Not really thinking anyone would be up for a nautical exploration campaign.

But I was wrong, nearly everyone selected Isle of Dread as their first pick for the campaign. And so I got to serious work re-reading the module and prepping it for play. In the end I fused several of my other campaign ideas into this one, turning it into a rather clunky but entertaining saga that took over a year to complete. But it all started here, with memories of an old copy of the Expert rules and the mention of that title.

Homebrew your 5th Edition setting - Dungeon Master Tools

Looks pretty darn magical out there.

 In an earlier post, I talked about knowing what type of game Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition was and how understanding that can lead to better games at the table. I gave some example on preparing your sessions using that information.

But what if you want to build a campaign world for a 5th edition home-brew campaign? How do you apply those points?

Here are the points again.

• The player characters are powerful and will only get more powerful.
• The game expects a setting where magic is everywhere and well known and used often.
• Anything can happen and it often does.
• Most of the rules in the game revolve around combat with monsters and how to resolve it.

While you often see the default setting for Dungeons and Dragons as medieval European inspired. That familiar trope can clash with the way the game is currently played. For me the disconnect is very strong. It can be difficult to reconcile medieval castles and knights dealing with flying player characters that look like cat people who can shoot lances of fire from their fingertips while strumming a lute. It gets comical and silly really damn quick. And if you are going for a comical game, then it works great. But if you are more interested in running a serious game, then it can be a challenge.

If you look beyond the classic Forgotten Realms setting and at some of the other campaign settings for 5th Edition from Wizards of the Coast you see some appealing alternatives. A lot of folks love the Eberonn setting, with its pulp noire aesthetic and fusion of magic and technology. 

Had a blast in this setting!

I ran a year long campaign in the Ravnica setting, based on a high magic super-city from the Magic: The Gathering card game. This was a blast, and the high magic/high power of 5th edition fit easily into the setting. It also allows for lots of intrigues and crazy combat situations. 

Spelljammer with its interplanetary travel, Planescape with its dimensional hopping and Theros with its divine powered characters and destinies can all work with the bigger scope that fits 5th edition. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it, but the setting of the Radiant Citadel, from the adventure anthology Journeys through the Radiant Citadel looks like a good fit and with an all new setting created specifically for this edition. 

So look at these settings for inspiration for your home-brew. For me, a lot of the powers and spells could also easily fit in fantasy worlds found in anime and Japanese role playing games like Final Fantasy. In my mind, the further you pull away from a grounded historical setting and open up an imaginative large scale world, the better the fit for this edition of the game.

So let's ask a couple of world building questions that will help you create a world for your 5th edition campaign.

• Why is your setting so magical - what caused it to be that way?
• What kind of threat are you presenting that will take super heroes to resolve?
• If magic is everywhere and nearly everyone can access it, what keeps everyone from being a super hero?

Coming to grips with those three questions will help you create a campaign that can build up to higher levels of play. If there is one thing that Dungeons and Dragons players love - it is leveling up. It also answers some basic questions about the world that your players may find useful during character creation and backstory development.

Worldbuilding can be a lot of fun, and a whole rabbit hole of work if you aren't careful. So remember, that you are creating a setting for your players to explore and interact with. Keeping that player focus helps you stay on target and only create what you need for your game first. And then, if you have time, you can flesh out more just for fun.

A violent argument broke out over whose day was more magical.

Know your system - Dungeon Master Tools

The player's handbook compels you!

 I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition for several years now.  I've came to the realization that this game has a very specific style it is going for. Understanding that helps me prep and run my games in a way that works for me and the players.

This seems like obvious advice, but I can't tell you how much I've struggled against what 5th edition is, and what I wanted it to be. It created an odd disconnect that ended up frustrating me, and in one case ended a campaign way too early.

So what is D&D 5th edition at its core? It is a game about super heroic characters in a high fantasy-high magic setting fighting monsters and performing impressive heroic acts.

The game works best when you embrace these key elements:

• The player characters are powerful and will only get more powerful.
• The game expects a setting where magic is everywhere and well known and used often.
• Anything can happen and it often does.
• Most of the rules in the game revolve around combat with monsters and how to resolve it.

Keeping these points in mind while prepping for your next session or building your campaign can lead to more fun at the table and a better experience overall.

Let's look at some examples for making this work.

• Know your player characters - review the spells, abilities, feats, and magic gear they have as part of your prep session. Then build encounters (monsters, traps, NPCs) that allow them to use these cool features. If using a published adventure, modify encounters to highlight these elements. 
• After hitting level three, and certainly by level five, most players characters are very powerful. You can toss a lot at them, and they will survive. Embrace this instead of fighting against it. The bigger threats and overcoming them are part of the fun.
• Most 5th edition settings are full of magic and magical mayhem. This means that you can play around with all kinds of storylines and elements including time travel, dimension hopping, encountering gods (or god like beings) and more. The scope for a 5th edition campaign can be HUGE, and leaning into that gives the players a sense of achieving important and amazing tasks.
• Combat is a big part of the game. As much fun as roleplaying and exploring are, combat is where the characters shine. So spend a bit of time giving your combat encounters a bit of flavor, with memorable monsters, or an interesting environment, or an element of added tension. Don't go overboard with combat, but keep in mind it is a key element of the game.

If they are level 7, they've got this.