D&D Next: The Caves of Chaos

I think everyone knows about my unabashed love for the Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands.  I even blogged about it a few months back. Considering the number of hits that page still gets, it appears that The Keep on the Borderlands struck a chord with a lot of people. I am betting that most of those learned to play D&D with a box that looked something like the one pictured on the right.  Thus, it was a very pleasant surprise when I saw that the playtest adventure for D&D Next was none other than The Caves of Chaos!

For this playtest, WotC has gone retro and actually reproduced the old school blue and white map for the Caves of Chaos.  The multiple caves complex spanning 60+ rooms has been updated to give playtesters a chance to run their pregen characters through adventures ranging from levels 1 - 3.

It's been over thirty years since I played the Caves of Chaos and am thrilled with the idea of revisiting them.  Particularly, because I will actually be playing a character and not DM'ing the adventure.  Well, considering that I still remember that a medusa, an owlbear and a minotuar were among the dwellers of the Caves of Chaos, maybe I should be more worried than thrilled...

While we appreciate WotC's attempts at going old school.  We're not that hard core.  For our playtetst tomorrow, we'll be going with the beautiful maps made by Weem. I blogged about Weem's maps in February but I won't make you go back to that post for the link to Weem's website.  However, do check Weem's website if you are playing any version/edition of the Caves of Chaos.  Weem provides both keyed and unkeyed maps for DMs and players, and both look stunning!