I have never made it a secret that Thunder Rift was one of my favorite settings for Basic edition D&D. I’ve gone as far as bugging the good folks over at Save or Die to do some reviews on the early 90s settings (to a response of a resounding no). Much of my love for Thunder Rift didn’t start with the Thunder Rift Box Set but with a very small stand alone adventure entitled “Assault on Raven’s Ruin” which was part of a collection of ratty, not very well cared for, adventures I picked up for $2 at a garage sale in the mid 2007.
At the time I wasn’t into the OSR so the adventure like everything else in that box of goodies set untouched until around 2013 when – after I was thoroughly indoctrinated into the OSR – I found the box while collecting things to give to Good Will. I read the adventure several times, added the town of Kline to the northern shores of the Azure Marsh (Oh don’t worry it will eventually show up in an adventure), and ran the kids through it in the course of a 4 hour adventure. The sleeping thief lord later became a major antagonist to the players in the game and died after a stand off among the roofs of his home in a battle that saw the Physician (A time traveling wizard with an affinity for bow ties) nearly have his immortality stolen from him.
So, to say that I got giddy today when I saw that WOTC had finally released Assault on Raven’s Ruin to DTRPG, is downplaying it just a bit. This is an adventure I cannot recommend enough. So … seriously, check it out. Buy it, run it and stomp those booted feet through the grasses of the Thunder Rift!
