B2 Keep on the Borderlands

B2 is perhaps the most well known of all D&D modules, and the second of only two stand-alone modules published by TSR for the Holmes Basic Set. It was designed by Gygax specifically to replace B1 In Search of the Unknown as the introductory module included in the Basic Set. It contains extensive advice for new DMs, rules clarifications and additions, a detailed home base for the PCs (The Keep), a "dungeon" (the Caves of Chaos), a brief wilderness (see the map to the right), and even room for expansion (the undescribed Cave of the Unknown). It was successful enough in this role that a revised version continued to be included in the Moldvay Basic Set.

"There probably have been more copies of B2 printed than any other role-playing scenario" - Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Shick, 1991 (pg 135).

"The total print run for B2 is easily in excess of a million and a half units" - "Looking Back" by Ryan Dancey in The Story of TSR, 1999 (pg 27).

Gygax (and Mentzer and Holmes) on B2

B2 also has the distinction of being the only stand-alone module published by TSR which included Dexterity (DX) scores in the monster stats in accord with the rules for initiative in the Holmes Basic rulebook. The Holmes Basic rulebook does not include monster dexterity scores, but instructs that if the DM "does not know the dexterity of an attacking monster he rolls it on the spot" (pg 20). By including DX scores in the monster stats, B2 can speed up the flow of the game. These can also be used to extrapolate typical monster dexterity scores. The only other TSR scenario with DX scores is the Chapel of Silence published in Dragon.

Artists

1st print - Wizard Logo; front cover mentions AD&D

Jim Roslof - front cover, owlbear battle title page illustration (as ROSLOF) -

Erol Otus (EO) - back cover, four interior illustrations (as EO)

David S. Laforce - two thematically linked interior illustrations, page 7 (as DSL); map (shown to the right)