The Lost City (B4) is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure module by Tom Moldvay . It was first published by TSR in 1982 and was designed as a stand-alone adventure for use with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set . The working title for the module was "The Lost City of Cynidicea". Moldvay designed the module as a low-level scenario to give novice Dungeon Masters experience in fleshing out adventures such that it is only partially complete. The plot involves the player characters discovering a ruined subterranean city slowly rising out of the sands. The adventure is set inside a huge step pyramid, with the lower pyramid only sketched out and the city itself described with a list of the major areas and a map. The adventure's main villain is Zargon, a giant one-eyed monster and his minions. The entire double pyramid, not including the city, contains over 100 rooms.
26-517: This module includes a cover folder with maps and a descriptive booklet with ready-made adventurers for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game . It also includes enough information to continue the adventure beyond level 3, using the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Game rules. This adventure was partially reprinted in the supermodule compilation B1-9 In Search of Adventure (1985), which included only
52-525: A Summer 2020 release. At the Gen Con panel, staff working on the project said they would greatly expand on the original module, fully mapping out and stocking the parts of the module which were only mentioned, and originally left to the Dungeon Master to expand upon. As such, Goodman Games claims the publication will feature enough content to be a campaign setting unto itself. A remastered version of
78-517: A certain point, and then the rest is left for the DM to "Expand the Adventure," including a final confrontation with the evil "God" who helped bring down the civilization, and eventual discovery of the remnants of the people living a strange, drug-addled life of mushroom farming beside a subterranean lake." Review: Different Worlds #28 (1983) Dungeons %26 Dragons Expert Set The Expert Set
104-415: A desert sandstorm and stumble upon the entrance to a pyramid. The pyramid and the underground city beneath it are located on the site of the ancient ruined city of Cynidicea and inhabited by the descendants of the city's people. These Cynidiceans, now regressed to a subterranean species, are addicted to narcotics and spend most of their time in drug-induced reveries, wandering around in costumes and masks. As
130-474: A long-term campaign, including designing the home town and area of player's characters, and combat rules for various wilderness terrain. The Grand Duchy of Karameikos is presented as a sample wilderness adventure area. The lists of magical items and monsters are also expanded. Players who want to continue expansion on their characters would continue to the Companion Set . Aaron Allston reviewed
156-458: A long-term campaign. The rulebook is then divided into a Player's section and a Dungeon Master's section. The Player's section introduces rules for adventuring in the wilderness, as well as new weapons and equipment. It expands the spell lists for the cleric and magic-user classes , and introduces the concept of "reversed spells" (in which some spells may be cast with a result opposite to their normal effect). Because of their special abilities,
182-463: A major revision in 1981 by Tom Moldvay . The overarching goal of the revision was to provide subsequent expansions to the game, each describing a specific set of levels of character development. The Basic Set described character levels 1 through 3, as had its immediate predecessor, the Basic Set edited by J. Eric Holmes in 1977. The Moldvay Basic Set was immediately followed by the release of
208-472: Is an expansion boxed set for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . It was first published in 1981 as an expansion to the Basic Set . Having been told that Greyhawk was reserved for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons , Schick and Moldvay decided to use their own setting of Mystara specifically around The Known World area which resembled 15th century Europe. The Basic Set saw
234-635: The Basic , Expert , and Companion sets; as well as the modules AC2 , AC3 , B1 , B2 , and M1, Blizzard Pass ; the Player Character Record Sheets ; and dice; this set was limited to only 1,000 copies, and was sold both by mail and at GenCon 17. The Expert Set consists of one rulebook and an adventure module, X1- The Isle of Dread . The Expert Set rulebook presents rules for characters of level 4–14, and begins with an introduction to wilderness adventures and playing
260-415: The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991). The Mentzer Expert Set featured art by Larry Elmore , and was published as a boxed set with dice and two books: the 64-page Expert Set rule book and the 32-page (with an outer folder) module Isle of Dread . The 10th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons Collector's Set boxed set , which was published by TSR in 1984, contained the rulebooks from
286-484: The Expert Set edited by Dave Cook and Stephen R. Marsh , supporting character levels 4 through 14. The Isle of Dread was included in the set as an example of an outdoor adventure and setting. The set included dice, and featured cover art by Erol Otus . The Basic Set was revised once more in 1983 by Frank Mentzer , this time as Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules . Between 1983 and 1985 this system
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#1732801971758312-556: The Center of the Circle , and others; play techniques and strategies for players and gamemasters of role-playing games; reviews of games and miniatures; and reviews of current books and movies of interest to role-playing gamers. Notably, Different Worlds also featured early works by artists Steve Oliff , Bill Willingham , and Steve Purcell ; ″Sword of Hollywood″, a regular film review column by Larry DiTillio from issue seven onward;
338-414: The adventure progresses, the characters discover that a monster known as Zargon was responsible for the downfall of Cynidicea. The monster still lives, and a cult of evil human priests and various other monsters has grown up around it. Besides the priests of Zargon, there also exist three other factions of relatively normal Cynidiceans. They worship the city's ancient Gods and are dedicated to the overthrow of
364-658: The adventure was published in the anthology Quests from the Infinite Staircase for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition on July 16, 2024. The Lost City was ranked the 28th greatest adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004. Ken Denmead of Wired included the module as an installment in his column "Top 10 D&D Modules I Found in Storage This Weekend". According to Denmead, "with this module, things are clearly detailed to
390-443: The context of the series." Anders Swenson and Douglas Law reviewed the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set and Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set for Different Worlds magazine and stated that "The new D&D Basic and Expert Sets should be a smooth introduction to the hobby of adventure-game playing for vast numbers of new players and an enjoyable addition to the libraries of experienced players. We recommend this version of
416-520: The dungeon – wilderness, aerial, naval, the world at large – but this doubles the investment required." Allston also commented that " Expert D&D is practically valueless outside the series. It duplicated materials in Original D&;D and AD&D , and breaks no new ground. Its use with other RPGs is questionable, except for the section on castlebuilding, which few other games handle in detail. It is, however, well-arranged and invaluable in
442-724: The game over the previous editions, especially for beginners, because it is clearer, better organized, and more refined." Chris Hunter reviewed the 1983 edition for Imagine magazine, giving it a positive review. He thought that, unlike the Basic Set, this was more of a re-organization and re-editing of the original material. Different Worlds Different Worlds was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987. Different Worlds published support articles, scenarios, and variants for various role-playing games including Dungeons & Dragons , RuneQuest , Traveller , Call of Cthulhu , Journey to
468-505: The irregular autobiographical/interview feature ″My Life and Roleplaying″; and the industry scuttlebutt column ″A Letter from Gigi″ by the pseudonymous Gigi D'Arn. Different Worlds also published books, including: Different Worlds was launched in 1979 by Tadashi Ehara and Greg Stafford of Chaosium as a general-interest role-playing magazine. At that time Chaosium was primarily a board games publisher, but had also published its own role-playing game, RuneQuest , in 1978. RuneQuest
494-596: The original Expert Set in The Space Gamer No. 38. He commented on its place with the Basic D&;D series, saying that "Overall, the Basic series is a good set of rules, but only as a series. A beginning gamer will find Basic D&D well-organized and playable, but so limited as to soon grow pale and vapid. With Expert , the scope is increased to acceptable levels, with rules for adventuring beyond
520-521: The priests of Zargon and the restoration of Cynidicea's lost glory, but their diverging faiths have kept them from working together against their common enemy. Although only the upper half of the pyramid is detailed, enough information on the lower half and the underground city is provided for the DM to expand the adventure. After clearing the upper pyramid the players can become involved in the struggle for Cynidicea and, if they grow powerful enough, confront Zargon in his lair and destroy him. The Lost City
546-483: The three demi-human classes are given maximum levels "to help keep all the character classes in balance": dwarves , elves , and halflings can only rise to 12th, 10th, and 8th level, respectively. When any character reaches a specified "Name" level, depending on their class, they are permitted to build a stronghold, and thus attract lower-level NPC followers. The bulk of the Dungeon Master's section provides details for creating and running both wilderness adventures and
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#1732801971758572-511: The upper pyramid and was set in the Mystara campaign setting . The adventure follows a city buried in the desert, which is dominated by multiple warring factions. Much of the adventure takes place within an enormous step pyramid. Other areas of the city are merely outlined, with suggestions provided for the DM to create further detail. At the beginning of the adventure, the characters become lost in
598-496: Was designed primarily to be played in Glorantha , Stafford's fantasy world and the setting of the board games White Bear and Red Moon (later Dragon Pass ) and Nomad Gods . Chaosium had previously published the magazine Wyrm's Footnotes , which ran for fourteen issues from 1976 to 1982. Wyrm's Footnotes was conceived primarily as support for White Bear and Red Moon and other Chaosium board games, but quickly became
624-480: Was revised and expanded by Mentzer as a series of five boxed sets, including the Basic Rules , Expert Rules (supporting character levels 4 through 14), Companion Rules (supporting levels 15 through 25), Master Rules (supporting levels 26 through 36), and Immortal Rules (supporting Immortals – characters who had transcended levels). The first four sets were later compiled as a single hardcover book,
650-526: Was written by Tom Moldvay and illustrated by Jim Holloway . It was published by TSR in 1982 as a 32-page book with an outer folder; the first printing was 3-hole punched. Dragon magazine revisited the setting with "Mystara: Return to the Lost City" in issue #315. The module was the inspiration for a 3rd edition D&D adventure, "Masque of Dreams," which was printed in Dungeon #142. The adventure
676-534: Was written by B. Matthew Conklin and illustrated by Michael William Kaluta . Zargon and the Cynidiceans received a re-interpretation in the 3.5 edition product, Elder Evils , which places the temple in the default, Greyhawk -like setting. Goodman Games has announced the fourth entry into their licensed Original Adventures Reincarnated line of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons hardcovers to be an update to B4 The Lost City at Gen Con 2019, aiming for
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