I don’t even know where to start with this one.

The Keep is a pretty good, morally complicated horror novel by F. Paul Wilson that, in its purest form, can be described as “Ancient vampire vs. Nazis” and forms the start of a 20-book series that culminates with the end of the world. Michael Mann (Thief, Miami Vice) adapted the book into a 3.5 hour film which the studio butchered into a seriously flawed, deeply weird, somewhat nonsensical 96 minutes that bombed at the box office in 1983. For some reason, Mayfair games licensed The Keep and developed a board game and a Dungeons & Dragons module for its Role Aids line of RPG supplements, the latter of which appeared in 1984. I can’t imagine it was a success.

It isn’t a great D&D module. The action is split across three historical eras – the first at the end of the age of magic, the second in during Vlad Tepes’ war against the Turks and the third, mirroring the events of the movie, during World War II. This is a complicated adventure, but one that is not more interesting for its complexity. The DM has to manage an awful lot of plot for not a lot of pay off and the players are second fiddle to the movie’s protagonists – never a great thing.  

Nice illustrations and maps, though.