Zenopus Dungeon 5E conversion on DMs Guild. NOW WITH A MAP!

[Zenopus]

For the past few months I've been working on a 5E D&D conversion of the original Zenopus Dungeon and it is now available on DMs Guild as an 18-page pdf for $1.99:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus (DMs Guild link)


You can also read more about it here on the blog.

The original dungeon (which includes the dungeon map) is available as a free pdf on the Wizards site.


Update: This now includes a dungeon map file suitable for use on Roll20. See 5/27/20 post below.

[captainjapan]

Bravo,

I don't own 5e, but I had to see this, nonetheless. You managed to elaborate just enough content from the original without filling in every detail and "doing our imagining for us". Well done. This new material is going to frustrate players in the best possible way, if you know what I mean. The jewel in the crown, though, is the bibliography, which is keyed to the individual story elements. I'll say again, Holmes would be proud.

p.s.: You have a real knack for naming (locations, npc's, etc.)

p.p.s.: I don't suppose you'd consider asking Chris Holmes to illustrate it.

[Zenopus]

Thank you, Cap'n, for the kind words and the purchase! I'm glad you like the bibliography; working on it got me back into reading Clark Ashton Smith.

Most of the conversions don't have artwork, but I'd love to add some illustrations by Chris to this, though he's often too busy during the year. He's done some fantastic drawings the past two summers for articles I've written for a new Cthulhu zine. And I'm hoping to have him illustrate Boinger et al for the character sheets for In Search of the Brazen Head of Zenopus.

[Zenopus]

Two reviews of the Ruined Tower of Zenopus, which has hit Silver seller status on DMs Guild and is climbing towards Electrum!

A review on the oldschoolfrp Tumblr:

I bought this and gave it a first read-through. It is an excellent conversion of one of my favorite classic low level adventures, updated for 5e. There are some new monster stat blocks and minor magic items, a little town map on a peninsula (which makes it easier to locate the town on almost any coastline), options for expanding some areas, notes on factions, rumors, and ways to tie Portown to Saltmarsh, plus even 4 pre-gen PCs. Check it out.

A review by Erik Jensen on Twitter:

Finally had the time to read The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: [link] @zenopusarchives has done an AMAZING job with this 5e update of the Holmes sample dungeon,

It's a solid dungeon using the classic map, but it's more than that. It's a great campaign starter for 5e with old-school sensibilities and trappings. It has new 5e monsters and items. Zach gives us 1st-level pregens.

Tips for situating the thing as part of 'Ghosts of Saltmarsh' to turn the beginning of that campaign into a sandbox. You want old-school? A nice rumor table. A delineation of the factions in the dungeon. A list of classic AppN stories that probably inspired Holmes' dungeon.

'The Ruined Tower of Zenopus' is, stunningly, only $1.99. If you're a 5e DM, pick it up and put it in your go bag. If you're an old-school DM, pick it up and see what Zach did with this baby, you'll appreciate it. Strongly recommended, looking forward to using it myself.

[Zenopus]

News:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus goes Electrum on DMs Guild!

[Zenopus]

Two new reviews of the Ruined Tower of Zenopus to share since the last update!

Review & Adaptation by An Abominable Fancy (a six part series!):

"So The Ruined Tower of Zenopus, a 5e conversion of Holmes' Sample Dungeon by Zach Howard of the indispensable Zenopus Archives, is pretty exciting.

The result is exactly what you'd hope for. Here's the fun gameplay of a classic old school dungeon, with the clarity of modern layout. There's plenty nice, thought-out additions so that you don't feel like you should have just saved your money and looked up 5e stat blocks yourself. These include some great resources that Zach has developed for Portown and the dungeon factions..."

Reviews from R'lyeh on the Ruined Tower of Zenopus:

"...The author though, does not simply update ‘Sample Dungeon’ to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. He also offers options to make the dungeon more challenging and adds a slew of monsters and magical items..."

[tetramorph]

Zenopus, is there a Basic orB/X version of your 5e version?!

It sounds awesome, but I would not want to have to do the conversions back.

So happy for you with this. Congrats!

[jeffb]

Jan 23, 2020 8:51:05 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

For the past few months I've been working on a 5E D&D conversion of the original Zenopus Dungeon and it is now available on DMs Guild as an 18-page pdf for $1.99:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus (DMs Guild link)


You can also read more about it here on the blog.

The original dungeon (which includes the dungeon map) is available as a free pdf on the Wizards site.

I FINALLY picked this up. Nice work Zach. Great elaboration on the original, and now I'm psyched to run it again after a lot of years. Like tetramorph though, I will probably stick with an older edition *.





* Love those pre-gens though

[Zenopus]

Thanks jeffb!

[Zenopus]

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus is currently on sale at DMs Guild for $1.59 as part of their current "Play It Forward" promotion.

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-ruined-tower-of-zenopus-is-on-sale.html

[Zenopus]

Apr 11, 2020 8:05:24 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

Zenopus , is there a Basic orB/X version of your 5e version?!

It sounds awesome, but I would not want to have to do the conversions back.

So happy for you with this. Congrats!

I meant to reply to this earlier. The Basic version is the original sample dungeon from the Basic Rulebook! 

If you don't have the Holmes Basic rulebook, WOTC has had a free (if poorly scanned) pdf of the adventure available for more than a decade: www.wizards.com/dnd/files/Basic_1977.pdf

My version is a 5E conversion of this, so essentially the original provides the conversion notes you are looking for. I did expand it some by providing extra options, but it should be trivial to convert anything I added back to OD&D.

Even if you did not have the original, the conversion (like most 5E adventures) does not contain monster stats in the text of the rooms themselves. If a room has, for example, a standard skeleton in it, the monster name is just written in bold. Not even hit points are included in 5E adventures! The DM is supposed to reference the 5E Monster Manual for all stats other than new monsters/NPCs. So you could just use the OD&D version (or whatever rules you are using). New monsters/NPCs are in their own stat blocks separate from the text. Those few you would need to convert or use the closest OD&D equivalent.

[Zenopus]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗭𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘂𝘀 is now a Gold Best Seller at DMs Guild!

As a reminder, it's on sale for $1.59 through this Sunday, May 17th.

I will soon be adding a map suitable for Roll20 to the product, see the blog post for more details and a preview.

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-ruined-tower-of-zenopus-goes-gold.html

[Zenopus]

I am pleased to announce that a dungeon map is now included with the Ruined Tower of Zenopus adventure on DMs Guild!

There are actually two map files: a DM's and a Player's version. These are png files optimized for use in Roll20, but are also printable. These should be available to everyone that has already purchased the adventure. Read more here:

Zenopus Archives announcement of the new map


BTW, the included dungeon map will also serve just as well in Roll20 if you are running the adventure with any form old school D&D.

[Zenopus]

The latest blog highlights another review of the Ruined Tower of Zenopus. This one is by The Fen Orc blog, which Holmes Basic fans should be following.

The Fen Orc blog on the Ruined Tower of Zenopus


An excerpt of the review:

"Two bucks buys you 18 pages, faultlessly formatted and a beautiful cover painting (Thomas Cole’s 1838 Italian Coast Scene with Ruined Tower) that seems to symbolise the whole project: the crumbling tower is the monument of Holmes’ Basic D&D; the idyllic shepherd tending his flock in the shadow of the tower, that is Zach; the little boat out among the islets, that’s us, wondering if we should put ashore: in a moment the shepherd will stand up and wave to us to drop anchor. There’s treasure here, you see, that Zach knows about, in a place long neglected."

[Zenopus]

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus was featured in the "D&D Classics" column in the latest issue of Dragon+ (the successor to Dragon magazine), along with an interview with me...!

Read more here:
zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-tower-of-zenopus-in-dragon-issue-32.html

Direct Link to the column in Dragon +32:
dnd.dragonmag.com/2020/06/05/dd-classics-2/content.html

[Zenopus]

Christmas in July sale at DMs Guild and DrivethruRPG

DMs Guild & Drivethru are having a big July sale, many PDFs are 25% off, including most of the available TSR backcatalog.

And the Ruined Tower of Zenopus is just a $1.49 during this sale!

[Zenopus]

I've just released an updated version of the pdf of The Ruined Tower of Zenopus adventure (5e Conversion) on DMs Guild.

There are two main additions:
1. A full-page illustration by Chris Holmes, son of J. Eric Holmes...!
2. A printer-friendly dungeon map!

All previous purchasers should be able to go back & download the updated pdf.

Click here to read more & see a preview of the new pages.

Click here to go directly to the product page on DMs Guild.

[cometaryorbit]

Cool, thank you! I'll need to re-download that...

[hamurai]

Thanks for the heads-up, grabbing the updated version and map now

[Zenopus]

Just noticed that DMs Guild is having a Cyber Monday sale, and 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗭𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘂𝘀 is included, so it is currently only $1.59. Sale is on for about 16.5 hours more:

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMs Guild

[Zenopus]

On the blog, I am now posting notes on running the Ruined Tower of Zenopus using old school D&D. The first post covers page 1-5, the bulk of which is stats for my customized Wandering Monster table. Notes are written up for Holmes Ref (Holmes Basic + OD&D) but should be suitable for any old D&D.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: Running it Retro

[jeffb]

Nice video review from Capt. Corajus, Mr. Howard!

[Zenopus]

Thanks for posting that here, jeffb! I posted it up on the blog as well, and left some comments at YT.

* * * * *

Today, I've put up the second post on running the Ruined Tower of Zenopus using old school D&D rules.

This one focuses on a Roster of Monsters for the rooms of the dungeon, with converted stats usable with Holmes/OD&D/your favorite retroclone

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-ruined-tower-of-zenopus-running-it.html

[Zenopus]

FYI, The Ruined Tower of Zenopus is currently on sale for $1.39 through September 7th, as part of DMsGuild's "September Starter Sale" of introductory adventures.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMsGuild

For old-school enthusiasts, on the blog I also offer notes on retro-converting it (you can just use the original, but there is added material):

Running It Retro, Part I

Running It Retro, Part II

The adventure went Platinum back in January (1,001 sales), and is now close to 1,500 sales. However, the next badge (Mithril) at DMs Guild doesn't come until 2,501 sales are hit.

Click here to find links to reviews of the RTOZ on by various reviewers (bloggers, Youtubers etc)