There’s a lot of excitement around the new D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands and for good reason. In my humble opinion, it’s the best starter box Wizards has put out in decades.

B2 Keep on the Borderlands is arguably the most played and best-known D&D adventure of all time. It first appeared in the 1980 Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay (the Moldvay edition), and just a few years later returned in the 1983 Red Box Basic Set by Frank Mentzer (the Mentzer edition). Throughout the 1980s it was also sold separately as a shrink-wrapped TSR module.

In 1999, during the AD&D 2nd Edition era, it was revived as Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, this time officially placed in the World of Greyhawk, in the Yeomanry.

Original B2 Keep of the Borderlands

Now, more than four decades later, the Keep returns once again in the 2024 Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands. Perhaps the best starter box ever made, introducing a whole new generation to this classic adventure while giving longtime players like me a powerful feeling of nostalgia.

I won’t rehash the many excellent unboxings and reviews already out there. Instead, I want to share why I think this set belongs in the World of Greyhawk and how I’ve tied it into my ongoing Legends of Saltmarsh project.

Why This Set Feels Special

I’ll admit, I’m biased. My first D&D campaign, back in 1981, was Keep on the Borderlands (Moldvay Basic Set). It was groundbreaking because it blended three elements rarely combined so seamlessly at the time:

  • The Keep, a home base for social play and intrigue.
  • The wilderness, a place for exploration and random encounters.
  • The Caves of Chaos, a dungeon crawl classic.

We logged countless hours in those sessions and expanded it with the 1981 World of Greyhawk folio. Even though the Keep wasn’t officially placed in Greyhawk at the time, my group set it near the Dreadwood. We explored the surrounding area, several TSR modules as well as our own adventures. That tradition stuck with me.

Greyhawk: The Heart of D&D

Greyhawk remains, in my eyes, the most developed fantasy campaign world ever created, arguably more so than Middle-earth. Gary Gygax created it in the late 1970s, and from 1980 through the 2000s it was the backbone of TSR’s adventures, Dragon magazine scenarios, and the Living Greyhawk campaign.

World of Greyhawk Gazetteer (Revised, 2024)

Several hundred adventures officially unfolded there, giving it a depth and continuity few other RPG settings can match. It had a tone rooted in medieval fantasy, heavily inspired by Tolkien, Moorcock, Vance, and others. In fact, I often compare Keoland in Greyhawk to Martin’s Westeros, a grounded, political, and dangerous kingdom.

That’s why I was thrilled to see Greyhawk return in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, complete with maps, gazetteer entries, and even the City of Greyhawk. WotC finally realized they were sitting on a treasure trove of legacy content worth reviving.

Dreadwood Map

Where does the Keep belong?

Although Heroes of the Borderlands isn’t officially set in Greyhawk, it’s easy to place it there. My choice: just south of the Dreadwood.

Why?

  • The old road across the Dreadwood’s southern edge is a natural borderland: very dangerous Dreadwood to the north and the Hool Marshes to the south.
  • Politically, it’s the frontier between Keoland and the Hold of the Sea Princes.
  • When the Sea Princes seized the southern coast, the Javan River trade collapsed under pirate raids, making the overland Kimberton–Saltmarsh road vital. But the road was dangerous; bandits, monsters, and worse.
  • To secure the route, Keoland established a fortress, The Keep on the Borderlands: a stopover for merchants, a safe haven for travelers, and a garrison to keep frontier threats in check.
Original Keep of the Borderlands / New Heroes of the Borderland / Keep location near Dreadwood

This fits with the module’s geography: swamp to the south (easily read as the Hool Marshes or the northern reaches of the Drowned Forest from Ghosts of Saltmarsh), dense woods to the north (the Dreadwood), the river (headwaters of the Dunwater River), and an east–west road linking it all. It works geographically, politically, and historically.

This aligns beautifully with the original module’s map and also puts the Keep within striking distance of other Greyhawk classics like Baltron’s Beacon (I7), Tomb of the Lizard King (I2), and Saltmarsh (U1-U3).

Legends of Saltmarsh

The village of Saltmarsh (Ghosts of Saltmarsh) is an amazing campaign hub, and I still think it’s one of the best 5E books published. Saltmarsh is firmly set in Greyhawk and surrounded by a wealth of adventures (I counted 40 nearby scenarios in one of my videos).

So, folding Heroes of the Borderlands into Legends of Saltmarsh feels natural. In fact, over a year ago I recorded a video about placing the Keep near Saltmarsh, long before I knew WotC would officially revisit Greyhawk in the 2024 DMG or reissue the Keep in a starter box. Sometimes fortune smiles on a DM.

Final Thoughts

I’ve already picked up the digital version (D&D Beyond for $14.95) and can’t wait to expand it into my Legends of Saltmarsh project. If you’re looking for a way to introduce new players to Greyhawk or just want the best starter adventure box D&D has ever made, this is it.

The only thing missing from the original module is the Cave of the Unknown, a location marked on the wilderness map but left completely blank for the DM to design their own dungeon. Goodman Games later addressed this in their Original Adventures Reincarnated: Into the Borderlands, which combines both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands. In their edition, the dungeon from B1 is placed inside the Cave of the Unknown, with a hidden tunnel linking it directly to the Keep and the Caves of Chaos.

If you’re interested in experiencing the original classics with this expanded treatment, Into the Borderlands is well worth tracking down, it has become hard to find and not sure if it is in print anymore.

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