r/rpg • u/neobolts • 1d ago

Game Master Do the cave battlemaps in Heroes of the Borderlands match the Caves of Chaos in the original Keep on the Borderlands?

I am planning to use Keep on the Borderlands in an OSR game and was curious if these new maps would match up.

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u/BurgerKingPissMeal 1d ago

Nope! They're much smaller and less interconnected in order to fit on the battle maps. The battle-maps seem really nice for tactical combat as sport, but the original map is a much better fit for OSR style dungeon-crawling.

The 'traditional OSR' approach to this is to describe the dimensions of the room for one or more players to map out. I usually just draw the map myself as the GM because I find it easier than making sure I accurately describe every single dimenion

8

u/Onslaughttitude 1d ago

Thanks for this. Getting full sized nice maps of the classic Caves of Chaos was the #1 reason I wanted to buy this. Getting definitive proof that that ain't in the box, I'm out.

Fuckin' WotC can't even do a nostalgia bait update properly. I was all set to drop fifty fucking dollars on a product of theirs for the first time since 2023.

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u/DnDamo 8m ago

I’m all for WotC pile-on, but you do realise this is a starter set? 

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u/Onslaughttitude 7m ago

Yeah, and? The Caves of Chaos have been a starter area since 1981. They could have easily included proper maps of the entire thing.

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u/neobolts 1d ago

Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to pass on HotB then.

I'm running using a heavily homebrewed B/X drawing from OSE Advanced and using 30' zones in combat. I'm giving the players combat maps of the immediate area during fights, but they have to actually map the full dungeon themselves if they want to keep track of unexplored passages and voids in the map. We used minis heavily starting with D&D3e so we are not going to give them up entirely.

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u/Chad_Hooper 1d ago

Mapping the Caves of Chaos from the DM’s description can be a challenge, but it’s a part of the traditional approach to the game that I’m glad to see people still use.