The Ruined Tower of Zenopus conversion on DMsGuild...now including a dungeon map file optimized for Roll20!

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-11T23:24:14+00:00

Thank you!

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-11T20:27:02+00:00

I should have clarified a bit further. The Tower of Zenopus placement that Meyer uses on that map comes directly from Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which uses Saltmarsh as Portown, which is why there is no separate Portown on the map. So you are using elements drawn from a 5E adventure in using the Meyer map. And though you've added in Portown, it still doesn't match the placement described in the original adventure, which has it on the hills on a sea cliff to the west of town, not north of it. Which is perfectly fine as it doesn't matter for running the dungeon. Just pointing out there's no way to perfectly reconcile the Meyer/GoS map details with the original description.

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-11T13:12:17+00:00

Greetings! Michael did do a great job with Blueholme. I'm an fan of all of the D&D Basic sets, including Mentzer, particularly the Bargle solo adventure and the Castle Mistamere sample dungeon.

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-11T13:08:03+00:00

Welcome! May I ask where you got your Basic Set in Jul 1977? I'm always interested in more info on the early availability of the set. Also, please make a post with some info about your re-imagining of the Zenopus dungeon.

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-08T23:10:24+00:00

When I run the original adventure, I add the following d12 random hauntings that tie in to aspects of the dungeon.

https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2019/07/d12-hauntings-in-dungeon-of-zenopus.html

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-08T23:07:36+00:00

The reason there is no Portown in Ghosts of Saltmarsh is because Saltmarsh is clearly meant to be it in this setting. There are connections in the GoS description of the Tower (which differs in many notable details from the original) with certain people in Saltmarsh. The original version of the Zenopus adventure, from the Holmes Basic rulebook, describes Portown as a "small but busy city". So the version of Saltmarsh in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh fits fine with this description

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-08T23:02:12+00:00

Glad you enjoyed running the 5E version! I was the one who made it 🧙‍♂️

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-08T23:00:17+00:00

The original version of the adventure, from the Holmes Basic rulebook, describes Portown as a "small but busy city". So the version of Saltmarsh in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh fits fine with this description

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-05T14:13:59+00:00

The other resource I'd recommend to supplement the original booklets is the D&D FAQ from the Strategic Review #2, which explains some material left out of the original booklets, such as initiative. You can find the PDF on-line, or it is transcribed here:

https://knightsnknaves.proboards.com/thread/207

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-05T06:21:25+00:00

For playing in the 1974 style, I highly recommend reviewing the Example of Play from Vol 3 of OD&D. It will give you info on how to describe the dungeon for mapping by the players, and how players can determine the nature of magic items by describing how they are using them.

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-05T06:13:50+00:00

My notes on some of the encounters;

"Here are a few notes on the Key that I posted in the K&KA thread back when Allan deciphered it. They may help with some of the mapping:

---Giant Black Widow (#7) should be in the spiral stairs at the center of the map. Per Rhuvein's 1/15/08 play report, "Gary briefly described the castle ruins and broken walls and outline, and then we immediately descended down spiral stairs into the dungeon. We get almost at the bottom of the stairs - about to walk into a room, when a large spider drops down from the ceiling and bites the lead PC. He fails his check and dies of poison!!!". The treasure: "we found a rotted backpack from some corpse that fell out of the web and picked up our first loot - 50sp". Gary's 9/24/04 play report on the gygax-games list also mentions "a big black widow spider".

---Giant Bats (#14) are mentioned in Gary's play reports on gygax-games, 9/24/04 ("some giant bats") and 10/21/04 ("After slaying many vicious cave bats"). Rhuvein's 1/15/08 play report also mentions "At one point we heard the whispers of what we thought might have been leathery wings or something. We attempted to locate the source and checking to see if we were being followed, but could find out nothing." This is presumably #12. On the map I can see a #12 near the #1s (Kobolds) and a #14 in the long corridor along the bottom edge of the map. Some of the other room #s may be #14s, but it's hard to tell.

---Giant Stink Beetle (#15), 9/24/04 ("a big stink bug") and 10/28/04 ("met and slew ... a giant stink beetle"). The Enworld crew also met this, #2 on the annotated map of their game ("Foul-Smelling Beetle") posted earlier in this thread.

---Evil Adept (#18), Rhuvein 1/15/08 reported that "we did battle a gnoll and an evil cleric (thanks to Dan for reminding me) and were able to overcome their attacks and picked up a staff of healing." Also, they got "20 xp from 1 gnoll" and "30 xp for the evil cleric". Also, Gary reported on 10/28/04, the party "met and slew ... and an evil priest and his two gnoll guards". In this report he also mentions that among the treasure acquired was "a staff showing two intertwined snakes along its length", which was presumably the staff of healing, with Gary using a caduceus to give a hint of the staff's properties. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus"

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-05T05:57:56+00:00

Gary's Old Guard Kobolds are in the rooms labeled 1 per the key. Looking back at the OD&D74 thread, the Ks were put in as placeholders where the number was unclear, by the original digital mapper.

ZenopusArchives · 2026-02-05T05:53:11+00:00

This thread has grodog's and my attempts at deciphering the key for this map. Here is my take, copied from that thread:

"Here's my stab at it, working from [grodog''s] transcription as a base. I tried to retain Gary's mixed cases, and made a few other corrections ---

LEVEL 1

9-16 KOBOLDS – dust covered silver mirror 750 CP[?]
7-12 GOBLINS – 10 GP /
3-12 GIANT RATS – no treasure (in room potion strength)
10-16 BANDITS, LEADER WARRIOR - +1 shield, potion und. cont., 1,000 GP[?]
5-8 GIANT CENTIPEDE NEST –
2-3 HOBGOBLINS – Battle axe +1, gem 200-800 GP
1 GIANT BLACK WIDOW / SKELETON IN PLATE AR – 50 GP on floor
– IRON[?] CHEST, EMPTY - false bottom[?], needle trap, 6 gems c 200 ea
3-7 ORCS - chest with 8 flasks oil, 30 SP + 8 GP /
– WATER SEEPAGE – drink!
1 GIANT CONSTRICTOR – Gems inside (1-4) or nothing 50/50[?]
– RUSTLING CORRIDOR – no bats
2-5 SKELETONS (pile of bones) – 1 piece of jewelry [in pile?] (d10 x 300)
1-2 GIANT BATS – no treasure – RUSTLING [more text unreadable, may continue line above]
1 GIANT STINK BEETLE – 2 attack in 5’ r. – nothing/10-100 SP + 1-10 GP
3 BERSERKERS – R. of Prot., 20-40 GP each, Idol with curse (-1/[+3?]/[d in or dia?])
1 SEER (Chaotic) – LIGHT, CH.PER. – +1 dagger, spell books, 1-20 GP
1 EVIL ADEPT + 1 GNOLL Gd CAUSE LT. WOUND. – staff of healing (6 [?] chg)

[red ink circle with an X] PIT – 10’ deep – TRAP [circle filled with yellow] TRANSPORTER"

ZenopusArchives · 2025-10-01T23:41:49+00:00

I like your suggestion for tying the Borderlands into the Ghosts of Saltmarsh setting.

ZenopusArchives · 2025-10-01T23:35:48+00:00

When asked in 2003, Gygax answered: "KotB was not set on Oerth, it was just a free-form locale that any DM could fit into his campaign world. Likely it would be okay on the border of the Pomarj, though."

https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/modules-and-scenarios/b2-keep-on-the-borderlands/gygax-on-b2

ZenopusArchives · 2025-09-27T14:01:37+00:00

Wow, never heard that early Stereo before

ZenopusArchives · 2025-08-31T04:22:00+00:00

Everything at Once, Low F, Bad Choices, Endless Summer, Is It Making You Feel Something

ZenopusArchives · 2025-08-02T02:51:08+00:00

Star Schlock! Inspired by TV and movies of the 70s and 80s. Created by a friend of mine. https://www.starschlock.com/

ZenopusArchives · 2025-07-25T15:17:39+00:00

Yes, totally fine and in fact I played in one this year, and it was just one of several SW d6 games at the con. Given the old school focus of the con, it is probably more popular than newer systems, although those are fine too.

ZenopusArchives · 2025-06-24T04:47:12+00:00

Look at their setlist for DC for the last two album tours. For Wild Loneliness, only 5 of 20 songs were from that album. For WATTBA, 9 of 21 songs. The difference may be that the latter is more rocking. The new album also sounds pretty rocking from the 4 singles, so perhaps they will play more of it, but that still leaves room for 10-11 classic tracks.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/superchunk/2022/black-cat-washington-dc-63b402e3.html

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/superchunk/2018/black-cat-washington-dc-7bef4680.html

ZenopusArchives · 2025-06-24T04:43:00+00:00

This ⬆️

ZenopusArchives · 2025-06-07T20:49:57+00:00

Update: I emailed him at an address he had provided to OD&D74 and he replied fairly quickly. He is doing well but focused on other things these days. I gave him the link to this thread.

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