Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 All Sessions - Part 2

Here is part of my observations on all sessions to date for B2 Keep on the Borderlands. I really hope you bought a copy, so I can stop posting the link to DriveThruRPG. 

I have mentioned the map scale several times and the headache that it gives. The valley for the Caves of Chaos is far too small, and the distance from the Keep is tiny. The module gives travel times as 1 square (100 yards) per hour when searching, which seems fine, but then gives non-searching speeds of 300 yards per hour. That's 0.17 miles per hour or a little less than 6 hours to cover one mile. 

I'm a little chubby, and I walk much faster than that. 

Keep on the Borderlands was published a year before the Basic and Expert sets. These sets combine to codify indoor and outdoor travel speeds. It was a welcome choice and a great option. I politely ignore the travel times in the module, and as a consequence, I don't let much happen on the road. 

The next issue with scale is the sheer number of people inside the Keep itself. I counted 239 fighting men and 47 non-fighter types. I will not die on these numbers. I am probably wrong because I counted quickly. Gary Gygax's writing can be obscure or unclear, to say the least. But I did my best. If I had read it more slowly, I would have gotten it right because I'm sure it is all there. 

A castle similar to Bodiam Castle

This population fits my historical thinking. In keeping with my quick, back-of-the-envelope calculations, the Keep is roughly 3 times bigger than Bodiam Castle. This "castle" is more of a fortified estate, a family home over fortification. Much of its defences revolve around big walls and surrounding features instead of manpower. The walls and moat were two defences, but it also had satellite ponds designed to slow someone down and force them to take in the grandeur of the site. That was the intent: to slow someone so everyone got a look at everyone else. Sometimes, that is all you need to stop an opposing force. 

I found a notation that Bodiam Castle was 1/3 the size of the Keep in B2 and that it could support up to 80 people for a limited time. Those would have been guests and merchants, not fighting men, most of the time. If the Keep is 3 times bigger, the number of troops is perfect. The Keep is not overpopulated; it's overmanned by soldiers. I tend to describe it as an up-and-coming Keep, where the 47 non-fighting types are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to population. They are the people the characters notice, not all of the people. I often introduce several huts, a few camping fishermen by the river, a small farm, and a woodsman's shack near the Keep. This is flavoring and landmarks for the party, so they know roughly where they are. 

This also gives me something to do with the raiders and spies south of the Keep. They sit near the road, the only road to the Keep. This road has to bring in thousands of gold pieces of cash and goods to the Keep, because the Keep has no means of support in the surrounding empty territory. The raiders could actually steal a wagon or bribe the caravan guards and do serious harm to the Keep, even if they only stole food. That's a really good plot point. One quick raid hands the Castellian a big loss. 

Better yet, the raiders already have something in their description that hints at a possible avenue of profit and, in a way, an economic attack. Since they hunt the forests, they have fresh game meat to trade. They don't want to walk into the Keep to do this; they sell it to the caravan, which in turn sells it to the people in the Keep at a good profit. Everyone knows what is happening. There is no real surprise that the Castellian doesn't try to remove them if he discovers them because everyone loves fresh food. 

As spies, they don't have to do too much. I would imagine the captain and lieutenant would try to spy and make contacts in the Keep itself. There is not much to keep them out. The rest of the "raiders" would also venture to the Keep for major news. They wouldn't do anything nefarious. They simply want to know if something "big" is happening in the Keep so they don't get surprised themselves. 

As described, the raiders do represent a minor threat to a party of about equal size. They can't really get a TPK, but they can brain-drain a party by wiping out Magic-Users, Clerics, and Thieves. 

One thing that WILL cause a TPK is giving the raiders horses if the party is on foot. Those spearmen become very deadly on horseback. The same happens if more than 2 guys have bows or crossbows. Gary Gygax must have thought this out with the intent of a fair, but tough fight. 

I'll need to create a plotline for the raiders in one of the upcoming sessions.