Let’s take a look at some of the B-series modules this week. B is for Basic and it doesn’t get any more basic than B1: In Search of the Unknown (1979, 1981), by Mike Carr.

This, obviously, is intended as an introduction scenario, for use with the 1977 Holmes D&D Basic Set (yellow cover) and then revised and reissued for the 1981 Moldvay Basic Set (brown cover). Until the release of the Mentzer Red Box in 1983, this was pretty much the gold standard learn-by-playing D&D module. Even now, I think it works as a solid introduction to both the pillars of play and the essentials of DMing.

The plot beats form the formula of many adventures to come. Players hear rumors of treasure in the Caverns of Quasqueton, where a number of monsters lurk, as well as a fighter and a mage who’ve made the upper reaches their stronghold. There are traps, there are magic pools, bars to be bent (I’ll be damned if that Sutherland illustration didn’t inspire the bending bars scene in Conan the Destroyer). There are forests of giant fungi. There are the lower reaches, which are left largely undetailed, so the DM can flesh them out on their own. As a classic dungeon, I am not sure I can think of one that so perfectly verges on archetypical.

Great early art throughout. I love the old monochrome covers (Tramp!), but Darlene’s full color paintings hold their own (I’ve always loved the posture on the slinking troglodyte). Interiors are all David Sutherland, and some of his best stuff. The one of the pools is a fave and I can see a lot of similarities between that and Peter Mullen’s style.