Keep on the Borderlands

Dungeons & Dragons: Greyhawk, Book 5

By: Ru Emerson

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark

Keep on the Borderlands was one of the very first D&D adventures, so seasoned gamers remember this product from their early days, and newer gamers will recognize it from the 25th anniversary rerelease. Greyhawk novels are based on the classic D&D modules from this world and provide listeners with the same kind of feeling that they get playing classic D&D modules.

©2001 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Disappointment

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, I was excited to read this book because The Keep on the Borderlands was my introduction to D&D and had a lot of great memories. However, this was like reading a transcript of a table top game. The characters were shallow and nondescript. It took over half the book to get to the caves. Great opportunities for plot twists and suspense were lost, for example, when the evil priest from the caves were discovered for what they were at the keep, almost as a side note, instead of being able to join the party and turning against them at the worst moment.

On the good side it had the true flavor or D&D and it was like placing you at the table of play. Great ideas about what a prepared party does and realistic view about what personal is needed to carry out such an expedition.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would not have wasted so much time adventuring outside the cave area. Instead of the large force predictably plodding through a tedious dungeon crawl though all the caves, I would have made a smaller more diverse and tricky party that goaded the monsters from the caves fight each other weakening their forces making for an easy clean up and sacking. There would be no systematic genocide of monsters just because they are monsters. A character would take in a young kobold or goblin to raise it as a cohort and adoptive child. I would have included a good chase through the labyrinth and beyond with the minotaur. The higher level caves and evil temple would have been a dungeon crawl and concluded the story by saving a character who touched the cursed religious items. There would have been plot twists with the evil undercover priests and rescued prisoners and when things looked hopeless a quickly rescued medusa saves the day.

What does Bernard Setaro Clark bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Did a good job

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

NO

Meh… zero plot

The narrator does an excellent job, but the story is just one random encounter after another. To be fair though, the Caves of Chaos adventure, Keep on the Borderlands, is just a string of random encounters with almost no plot. Worst in the Greyhawk series.

As Was Previously Reported

If you are an old school gamer, good for a read. Otherwise, not so much. The characters are two-dimensional, campy, and annoying. The dungeon-crawl aspect, a majority of the book, becomes repetitive and burdensome. The narrator does a good job in all aspects, though, and that redeems the audiobook a bit.

Fantastic book

Loved reading this book and now listening to it. Great plot and the narrator really did an excellent job with the characters voices.

Does Gary gygax honor

An enjoyable story on the very first module for D&D. One of the few by Gary Gygax. Ru weaves an excellent story amid the dungeon crawl adventures in this introductory campaign. The voice acting is excellent although the Irish accent for the elves is a bit amusing to me personally. Still, very well done and honors this timeless classic.