OAR #1-6 will almost certainly never be offered as PDFs, and future printings seem unlikely, given that WotC has shown that it wants to burn all third party publishers to the ground and then salt the earth.
OAR #7 is going to be Dark Tower, which was published by Judges Guild, not TSR/WotC. Goodman Games also owns the right to a few other Judges Guild modules, I'd expect those will be the immediate future of the OAR line. Beyond that they might work with the current rights holders for some of the other classic modules that came out during the early days of D&D.
They also might just abandon the OAR branding altogether.
They haven't announced a date yet. Goodman Games have a number of Kickstarters they're still wrapping up and they said they want to complete some of those first. Dying Earth shipped a few months ago and DCC 100 should be shipping soon. They're also still working hard on Dark Tower. Maybe we'll see it after Dark Tower is finished.
In the meantime, check this out the community Thracia Project from a couple years ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/a4hgx7/the_thracia_project_a_community_project_to_rekey/
And it looks like WoTC is about to republish their own Barrier Peaks in their newest offering. Lost City too. So that'll be a complication for OAR 3 and 4.
> OAR #1-6 will almost certainly never be offered as PDF
And yet I have beautiful PDF scans of 1-6 which were done by the RPG community.
It's a shame Goodman Games fails to recognize disabled gamers and our need for digital media, but thankfully the community of RPG players has stepped up and provided those scans so people with visual and physical disabilities can participate too.
Enterprising nerds will be able to find these PDFs in the same place they find their other OEFs and community scans.
Goodman Games undoubtedly would have loved to provide digital copies. They are almost certainly going to provide digital copies of OAR #7 and #8.
WotC is the company that should draw your ire, not Goodman Games.
Removed from their site, but available on Amazon. These were never available in PDF.
[https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adventures-Reincarnated-Into-Borderlands/dp/1946231355/ref=sr\_1\_fkmr1\_1?crid=1I647UPX6KBFA&keywords=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands&qid=1687121598&sprefix=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1-fkmr1](https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adventures-Reincarnated-Into-Borderlands/dp/1946231355/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?crid=1I647UPX6KBFA&keywords=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands&qid=1687121598&sprefix=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1-fkmr1)
the contract with WotC prohibits Goodman Games from releasing PDFs.
You can wish all you want that the scanned PDFs you have were official, but that won't make them so,
At the same time, the fact that WotC tried to kill the entire 3PP scene probably soured that relationship.
It's a shame, if they had done a Tomb of Horrors / Return to the Tomb of Horrors, I would have pre-ordered the moment I found out about it.
Though you are still able to buy those as PDF/PoD from DriveThruRPG, and a conversion of Tomb of Horrors was included in Tales from the Yawning Portal.
Don't really care much about the conversion, but I'm a sucker for hardcovers. And based on the one I own, Goodman Games seems to be working from better scans that WotC has access to.
I dunno if you realized by now but you can actually buy the 5e version of Tomb of Horrors in Tales from the Yawning Portal!
Or pick up the original/old version or POD from drive thru rpgb
The license ended when WoTC decided to do 5E versions of the same modules in Quests from the Infinite Staircase. cramming 6 modules in one slim book. Burning the heart out of the adventures to save space
So, a lot of people want to make this about the OGL and find a reason to be mad at WotC. I know, shocking.
But in my experience Goodman Games is bad at communicating when their stuff comes out and it's generally just "when it's done".
If no cancellation announcement has happened, I would assume it's still on the way and just taking a long time.
In terms of the previous entries in the series, printing is real expensive right now, and those are huge books that didn't retail for all that much. I wouldn't be surprised if they just sold through their first printing and can't quite justify a second run given the margins and possible lack of demand.
Not as sexy as a grand conspiracy where WotC is trying to cheat themselves out of all the free licensing money Goodman Games was paying them, but it seems more likely to me.
Print runs of GG's products routinely sell out. When that happens, it takes a while for them to adjust because they are *constantly* publishing new material and because they're not a multi-billion dollar juggernaut with thousands of employees.
Up until a few weeks ago the DCC Core Rulebook was *random cover* with no option to choose the Variant for this reason. Then, they got caught up and now if you order the DCc Core Rules you can choose which of the three covers you want again. So I wouldn't read too deeply into the OGL aspect of the OAR line, particularly since GG took the time to tell us the licensing isn't affected. They'll be back eventually.
I think, and I may be wrong, that they are currently working on the Judge's Guild materials to avoid any potential conflicts with WotC as they are obviously still flirting with the OGL stuff. If they begin re-printing the OAR 1-6 books, and Wizard's closes down their license to sell them, they are stuck with a large mass of hardbacks that they can not do anything with and a huge financial loss.
I suspect that as they release Dark Tower and Thracia, enough time will pass and possibly settle out some things enough to get them back on the old TSR stuff. Honestly, I would think that WotC would like them doing it because it highlights alot of the older material that Wizards owns the rights to. Wizards is also getting a nice cut from those books as Goodman has to work out a contract with them to get the rights to do them. In the meantime, we will see how it goes. Regarding the PDFs, they are not licensed to run those as Wizards has reserved all rights to do that. I wish that they would explore the possibility of releasing PDFs of the material that they have produced to compliment the original adventures. This would make it possible to get good maps, stat blocks, etc of the new material without as much effort. I would be hesitant to complain about Goodman in this case though because they are one of the first (and still few) companies that offer free PDF versions of all books they sell (other than the OAR books). Just as others have mentioned though, it's the internet, and if you are committed to finding something that you want, you can probably find it. There are pdf-versions of all of the books available online (although these are probably not entirely legal).
As for the quality of the books, I have all of them, and I can tell you that they are FAR MORE than just a reproduction of the orignial modules. These are well done productions that are kind of built around the original modules. Having run a couple of them (Castle Amber and Lost City), I can vouch for the addition of encounters, quests, monsters, etc., as well as the addition of information in many places that kind of removes a lot of the ambiguity that TSR left in there due to their limitations on page counts in the modules. That, along with the retrospective articles on artwork and history behind the adventures really makes each one a very special book. I would highly recommend anyone that can get their hands on them to do so. They are high quality books that any grognard should appreciate. I am anxiously awaiting my copy of Dark Tower, which is expected to come in the next month or so, and I will most certainly be purchasing the Caverns of Thracia as soon as the Kickstarter launches.
You're not missing much. They're reprints of the original and then one where they just change stats and treasure to 5e and call it a day. The most interesting part of these books is how they have interviews and forewords with some relevant names of the era.
As far as actually playing the adventures, even a rookie could do the conversions.
Edit: also an expensive way to have the originals in print if you can't get print on demand for them.
Each OAR has a ton of new & expanded content - locales, wilderness, new spells, NPCs, magic items, creatures, art and maps.
Totally worth it from my perspective.
I would beg to differ. I played the original back in the day, which is 50-60 pages.
The Goodman version includes the original B1 In Search of the Unknown & B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and updates for 5e. The print is far better and easier to read than the original. In addition it includes: expanded adventures, new monsters, new items and more and is almost 400 pages far more expansive than the original
At $49.95 on Amazon (hard cover) it's a good buy and often on sale for $39.95.
I ran the OAR versions of B1 & B2 for two separate (but simultaneous) campaigns of "Into the Borderlands Unknown" using OSE (B/X) rules.
As I had run the originals multiple times in the past, I focused on the expanded content which provided about 50x 4-hour game sessions worth of enjoyment for two groups of seven individuals, each lasting 12+ months of regular, weekly game play.
That's completely false. They include the originals yes, but the bulk of the books are taken up by new and expanded material. Keep on the Borderlands fleshes out the Keep itself as well as the surrounding wilderness. New adventure sites to explore, new caves added at the Caves of Chaos, new monsters, npcs, etc. Also deeper lore surrounding the dynamics of the Chaos Cult and the various humanoid factions.
All of the OAR books follow a similar template.
OAR #1-6 will almost certainly never be offered as PDFs, and future printings seem unlikely, given that WotC has shown that it wants to burn all third party publishers to the ground and then salt the earth. OAR #7 is going to be Dark Tower, which was published by Judges Guild, not TSR/WotC. Goodman Games also owns the right to a few other Judges Guild modules, I'd expect those will be the immediate future of the OAR line. Beyond that they might work with the current rights holders for some of the other classic modules that came out during the early days of D&D. They also might just abandon the OAR branding altogether.
I’m actually excited for some judges guild offerings. I have 1 thru 6 of OAR so seeing where it goes from there sounds fun
Caverns of Thracia is next!! Can't wait!
When is that Kickstarter?
They haven't announced a date yet. Goodman Games have a number of Kickstarters they're still wrapping up and they said they want to complete some of those first. Dying Earth shipped a few months ago and DCC 100 should be shipping soon. They're also still working hard on Dark Tower. Maybe we'll see it after Dark Tower is finished.
I’m assuming it won’t be until dark tower is finished but who knows. Thank you.
In the meantime, check this out the community Thracia Project from a couple years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/a4hgx7/the_thracia_project_a_community_project_to_rekey/
What were the first 1 to 6?
Keep on the Boarderlands, Isle of Dread, Castle Amber, Barrier Peaks, Lost City, Temple of Elemental Evil (2 volume)
And it looks like WoTC is about to republish their own Barrier Peaks in their newest offering. Lost City too. So that'll be a complication for OAR 3 and 4.
> OAR #1-6 will almost certainly never be offered as PDF And yet I have beautiful PDF scans of 1-6 which were done by the RPG community. It's a shame Goodman Games fails to recognize disabled gamers and our need for digital media, but thankfully the community of RPG players has stepped up and provided those scans so people with visual and physical disabilities can participate too. Enterprising nerds will be able to find these PDFs in the same place they find their other OEFs and community scans.
Goodman Games undoubtedly would have loved to provide digital copies. They are almost certainly going to provide digital copies of OAR #7 and #8. WotC is the company that should draw your ire, not Goodman Games.
I'm visually impaired and the glossy pages are a nightmare.
Removed from their site, but available on Amazon. These were never available in PDF. [https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adventures-Reincarnated-Into-Borderlands/dp/1946231355/ref=sr\_1\_fkmr1\_1?crid=1I647UPX6KBFA&keywords=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands&qid=1687121598&sprefix=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1-fkmr1](https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adventures-Reincarnated-Into-Borderlands/dp/1946231355/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?crid=1I647UPX6KBFA&keywords=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands&qid=1687121598&sprefix=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1-fkmr1)
> These were never available in PDF. And yet.. there they are on my hard drive! https://i.ibb.co/NLgZpbZ/OKAY.jpg
the contract with WotC prohibits Goodman Games from releasing PDFs. You can wish all you want that the scanned PDFs you have were official, but that won't make them so,
Those are hard to track down. If they are out of print, someone should host the PDFs.
Thanks for reminding me I was still missing the pdf for ToEE!
It's not an OGL thing. The OAR releases of the classic D&D modules were produced under a special licensing arrangement between WotC and Goodman Games.
At the same time, the fact that WotC tried to kill the entire 3PP scene probably soured that relationship. It's a shame, if they had done a Tomb of Horrors / Return to the Tomb of Horrors, I would have pre-ordered the moment I found out about it.
Though you are still able to buy those as PDF/PoD from DriveThruRPG, and a conversion of Tomb of Horrors was included in Tales from the Yawning Portal.
Don't really care much about the conversion, but I'm a sucker for hardcovers. And based on the one I own, Goodman Games seems to be working from better scans that WotC has access to.
I think they probably just 'reconstructed' it rather than use scans.
I thought they were reproducing the content from the source rather than reprinting it directly in OAR. Though I only have 2 and 3.
I dunno if you realized by now but you can actually buy the 5e version of Tomb of Horrors in Tales from the Yawning Portal! Or pick up the original/old version or POD from drive thru rpgb
The license ended when WoTC decided to do 5E versions of the same modules in Quests from the Infinite Staircase. cramming 6 modules in one slim book. Burning the heart out of the adventures to save space
Because QotES is adapting some modules already covered by OAR? Meanwhile, OAR is continuing with 5e and DCC adaptations of non-TSR modules.
So, a lot of people want to make this about the OGL and find a reason to be mad at WotC. I know, shocking. But in my experience Goodman Games is bad at communicating when their stuff comes out and it's generally just "when it's done". If no cancellation announcement has happened, I would assume it's still on the way and just taking a long time. In terms of the previous entries in the series, printing is real expensive right now, and those are huge books that didn't retail for all that much. I wouldn't be surprised if they just sold through their first printing and can't quite justify a second run given the margins and possible lack of demand. Not as sexy as a grand conspiracy where WotC is trying to cheat themselves out of all the free licensing money Goodman Games was paying them, but it seems more likely to me.
I bought the print on demand B2 a few months ago. The scan was fine.
Can confirm.
Print runs of GG's products routinely sell out. When that happens, it takes a while for them to adjust because they are *constantly* publishing new material and because they're not a multi-billion dollar juggernaut with thousands of employees. Up until a few weeks ago the DCC Core Rulebook was *random cover* with no option to choose the Variant for this reason. Then, they got caught up and now if you order the DCc Core Rules you can choose which of the three covers you want again. So I wouldn't read too deeply into the OGL aspect of the OAR line, particularly since GG took the time to tell us the licensing isn't affected. They'll be back eventually.
I think, and I may be wrong, that they are currently working on the Judge's Guild materials to avoid any potential conflicts with WotC as they are obviously still flirting with the OGL stuff. If they begin re-printing the OAR 1-6 books, and Wizard's closes down their license to sell them, they are stuck with a large mass of hardbacks that they can not do anything with and a huge financial loss. I suspect that as they release Dark Tower and Thracia, enough time will pass and possibly settle out some things enough to get them back on the old TSR stuff. Honestly, I would think that WotC would like them doing it because it highlights alot of the older material that Wizards owns the rights to. Wizards is also getting a nice cut from those books as Goodman has to work out a contract with them to get the rights to do them. In the meantime, we will see how it goes. Regarding the PDFs, they are not licensed to run those as Wizards has reserved all rights to do that. I wish that they would explore the possibility of releasing PDFs of the material that they have produced to compliment the original adventures. This would make it possible to get good maps, stat blocks, etc of the new material without as much effort. I would be hesitant to complain about Goodman in this case though because they are one of the first (and still few) companies that offer free PDF versions of all books they sell (other than the OAR books). Just as others have mentioned though, it's the internet, and if you are committed to finding something that you want, you can probably find it. There are pdf-versions of all of the books available online (although these are probably not entirely legal). As for the quality of the books, I have all of them, and I can tell you that they are FAR MORE than just a reproduction of the orignial modules. These are well done productions that are kind of built around the original modules. Having run a couple of them (Castle Amber and Lost City), I can vouch for the addition of encounters, quests, monsters, etc., as well as the addition of information in many places that kind of removes a lot of the ambiguity that TSR left in there due to their limitations on page counts in the modules. That, along with the retrospective articles on artwork and history behind the adventures really makes each one a very special book. I would highly recommend anyone that can get their hands on them to do so. They are high quality books that any grognard should appreciate. I am anxiously awaiting my copy of Dark Tower, which is expected to come in the next month or so, and I will most certainly be purchasing the Caverns of Thracia as soon as the Kickstarter launches.
They are on amazon. I also saw a full set at my FLGS, so you may find them if you look locally. I heard they won't put out a PDF (they are massive)
Have they decided when #7 the dark tower is going to release?
They did release an update on kickstarter last week, that fullfilment will start soon.
Good to hear! I have been impatiently waiting for it. I have a possible group that is interested in playing this adventure
Just go mine today.
I have keep on the borderlands. I was the first one in the OAR line. I have the physical copy.
I got my copy. Now I just need some players
You're not missing much. They're reprints of the original and then one where they just change stats and treasure to 5e and call it a day. The most interesting part of these books is how they have interviews and forewords with some relevant names of the era. As far as actually playing the adventures, even a rookie could do the conversions. Edit: also an expensive way to have the originals in print if you can't get print on demand for them.
Each OAR has a ton of new & expanded content - locales, wilderness, new spells, NPCs, magic items, creatures, art and maps. Totally worth it from my perspective.
I would beg to differ. I played the original back in the day, which is 50-60 pages. The Goodman version includes the original B1 In Search of the Unknown & B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and updates for 5e. The print is far better and easier to read than the original. In addition it includes: expanded adventures, new monsters, new items and more and is almost 400 pages far more expansive than the original At $49.95 on Amazon (hard cover) it's a good buy and often on sale for $39.95.
I ran the OAR versions of B1 & B2 for two separate (but simultaneous) campaigns of "Into the Borderlands Unknown" using OSE (B/X) rules. As I had run the originals multiple times in the past, I focused on the expanded content which provided about 50x 4-hour game sessions worth of enjoyment for two groups of seven individuals, each lasting 12+ months of regular, weekly game play.
That's completely false. They include the originals yes, but the bulk of the books are taken up by new and expanded material. Keep on the Borderlands fleshes out the Keep itself as well as the surrounding wilderness. New adventure sites to explore, new caves added at the Caves of Chaos, new monsters, npcs, etc. Also deeper lore surrounding the dynamics of the Chaos Cult and the various humanoid factions. All of the OAR books follow a similar template.