It is with great excitement that I announce that Dungeon Master’s Workshop has teamed up with D&D Explorers’ Guild to produce a remastered version of our adventure, Temple of the Primordials, now available for play in the Explorers’ Guild shared campaign!
What Is Explorers’ Guild?
Most people are already familiar—by reputation if not personally—with the official shared campaign administered by Wizards of the Coast: D&D Adventurers League. Since 2014, Adventurers League has offered D&D players an option to use the same character at any table that is running their rules. This means that you could take your character from your home game with your friends to a game convention with total strangers, provided that character conforms to the organized play rules. It wasn’t too hard to do this, since the organized play rules emphasized following the rules as written.
However, that all changed with the new Adventurers League season.
The new season (season 8) introduced a massive overhaul that came with no consultation of the player base and implemented many changes that have frustrated those who were previously loyal to the campaign. I wrote an article about the good, the bad, and the ugly of these changes at the end of July, when they had been proposed. Sadly, even though my voice was one of thousands calling for revision, Wizards of the Coast would not be dissuaded from their course and now are facing open revolt from their players. Game stores around the world are losing their AL player base as a mass exodus back to home games is occurring in protest of these rules. The season 8 rules package on Dungeon Masters Guild, at the time of this publication, had an average rating of 2.0/5.0 and 72% of the reviews left on it were for 1-star ratings. Many people are saying that Adventurers League just killed the faith of their player base, and thousands are seeking an alternative that will respect their wishes, loyalty, and hard work.
Enter the Explorers’ Guild.
The D&D Explorers’ Guild was created by Derek Madson of Solon Games. The motto, “Resurgens”, means “rising from the dead”, which is appropriate given that the purpose of the Explorers’ Guild is to resurrect Adventurers League at the last viable point of its existence: August 29th, 2018 (the day before season 8 began). Any Adventurers League character ‘cloned’ effective this date is viable for play in Explorers’ Guild games, which utilize virtually the same rules as pre-season 8 Adventurers League, though with some pesky (non-RAW) rules such as “PHB+1” left behind. The content of these games can be any official hardcover adventure (such as Storm King’s Thunder and Curse of Strahd), any Adventurers League (DDEX or DDAL) adventure (season 8 adventures will be subject to approval in the EG Content Catalogue), and as of this moment, proprietary Explorers’ Guild adventures such as DDEG-01: Temple of the Primordials.
Temple of the Primordials
When I first wrote this adventure, it was intended to allow a tier 1 party to have some fun with puzzles, one of the most mistakenly vilified resources available to a Dungeon Master. Over the past weeks, I have been working with the Explorers’ Guild to adapt it for use in EG-sanctioned games, and now I am proud to announce the official release of the adventure on Dungeon Masters Guild.
The Explorers’ Guild adventure has been added to the original title, so those who have already purchased the original Temple of the Primordials on Dungeon Masters Guild will get it for free. For those who have not yet purchased the adventure, be sure that you run the correct adventure with your EG party. It’s easy to spot which one it is: it’s titled DDEG-01-Temple of the Primordials.
You can get the adventure by clicking the image below.
Even if you don’t intend on running this adventure as part of the Explorers’ Guild shared campaign, Temple of the Primordials is a fantastic module that challenges players to think beyond simply bashing their way through the dungeon (though they can certainly still try that method). The original version is designed to advance a party from 1st to 3rd level, and the EG version of the adventure can be played at any tier! Don’t wait: leap into the struggle against ancient evil today!
Don’t forget to check out the Explorers’ Guild’s official Facebook page!
Did you run this adventure? Leave your thoughts on it in the comments below!
