Close
Close
Advanced Search

X13 Crown of Ancient Glory (Basic)Click to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/17139-sample.pdf

X13 Crown of Ancient Glory (Basic)

ADD TO WISHLIST >
Selected Option:

All is not well in the kingdom of Vestland.

Not only is the king dead and the holy Sonora Crown missing, but the heir to the kingdom was lost at birth and no on knows where to find him. As if this wasn't bad enough, the forces of the Ethengar Khanate, never on the best of terms with Vestland, are now massing on the borders, hoping to take advantage of Vestland's plight. To complete the rosy picture, traitors from within also threaten to speed the downfall of the High Kingdom.

Sounds like a job for you. You must find the long-lost heir to the kingdom and recover the Sonora Crown, the mystical device without which a king cannot be crowned. Standing in your way are traitors and spies from within and invaders from without the kingdom of Vestland. Time is running out! Can you save Vestland from disaster?

This adventure is for use with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic, Expert, and Companion Rules. You must have these rule sets to play the adventure.

Product History

X13: "Crown of Ancient Glory" (1987), by Stephen Bourne, is the thirteenth and final Expert-level adventure for Basic D&D. It was published in December 1987.

Origins (I): X = X + 1. The Expert-level Basic D&D adventures ran for six and a half years, starting with the publication of X1: "The Isle of Dread" (1981). With their frequent focus on wilderness adventures, they were some of the most distinct adventures published for D&D in the '80s. However, X13: "Crown of Ancient Glory" (1987) marked their end.

More than that, "Crown of Ancient Glory" marked the end to an entire era of Basic D&D publication. The "B" Basic adventures would make a brief resurgence in 1989, but other than that the adventures coded "B", "X", "C", "M", and "I" ended with this adventure. Instead the future of the Basic D&D line lay with the the Gazetteers (1987-1991) that had begun earlier in the year. When adventures did return, they'd be more tightly connected to the Known World of the Gazetteers and would bear strange codes like "DDA" (1990-1991), "HWA" (1990-1991), and "HWQ" (1992).

Origins (II): Character Notes. X13: "Crown of Ancient Glory" has a surprising connection to X11: "Saga of the Shadow Lord" (1991), also by Stephen Bourne. They both share the same set of pregenerated player characters — except advanced by two levels in this new adventure, since it's for slightly higher level characters.

Within the context of the game world, it almost makes sense, as both adventures lie toward the north of the Known World.

Adventure Tropes: Not Your Average Wilderness Adventure. The later "X" adventures tended to move away from the wilderness-focus of the early series, and that's again the case with "Crown of Ancient Glory". Much like Bourne's previous "X" adventure, this one is a double-macguffin hunt, as players search first for a crown, then for an heir. The heart of the adventure is actually a series of no less than three fortress assaults, a pretty common variant of the dungeon crawl.

One of the most interesting aspects of "Crown of Ancient Glory" is that it claims to be an "Expert/Companion Game Adventures". It's not a bridge adventure like B10: "Night's Dark Terror" (1986), as it only runs levels 7-10. However its deep political basis might have been seen as an introduction for the domain-focused adventures of Companion-level play.

Exploring the Known World. "Crown of Ancient Glory" returns to Vestland, following on from X3: "Curse of Xanathon" (1982). With that said, there's not a lot of new detail on the land, other than political overview. Those political details are also somewhat troublesome because they describe a very feudal society where the rulers all have English titles, a bit of a variation from the looser, Viking society of GAZ7: "The Northern Reaches" (1988).

TSR settled the difference between this "X" adventure and the Gazetteers via their preferred method: they said that "Crown of Ancient Glory" must have taken place in a different time period. GAZ7: "The Northern Reaches" would claim that "Crown of Ancient Glory (X13), a D&D® Expert adventure set in Vestland, takes place a century and a half after the time period of this Gazetteer. Vestland has become progressively more modern and feudal, like the Grand Duchy of Karameikos". However, AC1010: Poor Wizard's Almanac & Book of Facts (1992) instead would say that Tenitar (Harald), the heir that the players can rescue here, was coronated in 986 AC. There's also discussion of a "Trollheim Homesteading Acts", which produced feudal titles for a few years before being rescinded in 1000 AC. This dating, which puts "Crown of Ancient Glory" in the recent past, seems to be the preferred canon.

Artifacts of Note. The eponymous Sorona Crown is one of the few artifacts of note in the Basic D&D line. However, two others also appear: the Harp of Spirit Restoration and the Throne of Transformation.

About the Creators. X13: "Crown of Ancient Glory" (1987) was Bourne's fourth and final book for TSR, following his work on X11: "Saga of the Shadow Lord" a year earlier.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (2)
Discussions (1)
Customer avatar
Marco Filippo V October 12, 2018 4:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
The scan quality is very poor, I'm afraid.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!















Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
64
Edition
1.0
ISBN
0-88038-495-6
Publisher Stock #
TSR 9218
File Size:
12.5 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
October 31, 2016
This title was added to our catalog on March 11, 2022.