Isle of Dread

Isle of Dread is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, which carries the module code X1 and was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay, it is among the most widely circulated of all Dungeons & Dragons adventures due to its inclusion as part of the D&D Expert Set.

Plot, theme and setting
X1, like the Expert Rulebook it was usually purchased with, is meant to introduce players and Dungeon Masters who had, up to that point, only been familiar with the dungeon crawl style adventures the Basic Set focused on to the theme of wilderness exploration. As such, it has only a very simple plot, even by then-current D&D standards. The characters somehow find a fragment from a ship's journal, describing a mysterious island on which many treasures can be found, and set out to explore it.

Typically, the characters will first make landfall near the more or less friendly village of Tanaroa, which is reminiscent of the village depicted in King Kong, and after possibly dealing with some troublesome factions in the village, set out from there to explore the interior of the island. In the course of their explorations, they may find a number of other villages of intelligent creatures (though mostly not of familiar species like humans and elves), numerous hostile monsters and the treasures they guard, and a band of pirates. Many prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, are prominently featured, especially in the original printing of the adventure. Near the center of the island is a hidden temple inhabited by monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as Kopru; the characters may stumble across it or learn that it is a source of problems for the other inhabitants of the Isle, and the climax of the adventure typically consists of the characters exploring this temple, battling its inhabitants and uncovering its secrets.

Importance in D&D's history
Isle of Dread was the first published adventure for any version of Dungeons & Dragons to focus on wilderness exploration as a major theme. This would go on to be an important element in many other adventures, including most of the rest of the X series. It also introduced numerous creatures to D&D for the first time, including the Kopru and Aranea, both of which went on to find a place in the Third Edition Monster Manual; the Rakasta and Phanaton, both of which would later appear as playable races in other D&D products set in Mystara; and many others including several types of dinosaurs.

The adventure came with a fairly detailed (for the time) map of a setting then called the Known World, showing no less than 15 distinct nations on the mainland to the north, as well as much of the Sea of Dread in which the Isle of Dread could be found. This, along with a few pages in the Expert Rulebook on one of these nations, was the first significant information to be made available on the world that was later known as Mystara.

Printings
Two very different-looking versions of this adventure were printed. The 1981 version has a predominantly blue cover, laid out in the style characteristic of early D&D adventures (for example, it had no Dungeons & Dragons logo, a diagonal strip in the top right corner indicating which edition of the game it was for, and the back cover featured an illustration and a list of other D&D products of the time). This was packaged with the original version of the Expert set, by David "Zeb" Cook, and was also available separately (as was that version of the Expert Rulebook). This version actually has several distinguishable printings of its own.

The second version, which first appeared in 1985, was packaged with the second version of the Expert Set, by Frank Mentzer. Its cover was predominantly red-orange, and used the layout elements that were typical of mid-1980s Dungeons & Dragons adventures (for example, the game's then-current logo was prominently featured on the cover, the diagonal strip was replaced with a horizontal one across the top, and the back cover featured no illustration but did have a text description of the adventure). There are a few minor differences besides appearance between this and the earlier version, including the replacement of a few monsters, and a mapping error that makes part of the final temple appear to be completely inaccessible.

Use of the setting in later D&D products
The Isle is also a minor encounter area in the later adventure Lathan's Gold, and receives some further mention in several later D&D products such as the Poor Wizard's Almanac series.

More recently, issue 114 of Dungeon magazine featured a remake/sequel to Isle of Dread entitled Torrents of Dread. The issue contained an article detailing an updated version of the Isle, as well as a poster-style map of it. This version of the adventure places the Isle in the Greyhawk setting, despite the original version's importance in the development of the separate setting of Mystara.

In the announcement for Dungeon's upcoming Savage Tide Adventure Path, Erik Mona mentions that the Isle will be prominently featured in Savage Tide. Though most place names and other such references will be to the Greyhawk setting, Mona has stated that there will also be a number of Mystara references, in something of a homage to the Isle's roots.