| Code | B3 |
|---|---|
| Rules required | D&D Basic Set[1] |
| Character levels | 1-3 |
| Campaign setting | Generic D&D |
| Authors | Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells |
| First published | 1981 |
| Linked modules | |
| B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, B1-9, B10, B11, B12, BSOLO | |
Palace of the Silver Princess is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. It was written in 1980 by Jean Wells, and published in 1981 with an orange cover.[2][3] Palace of the Silver Princess contains a single adventure laid out in a format suitable for a single gaming session. The module includes game maps on the unattached outside cover.
Contents |
The module has been described as a low-level scenario, which involves the legends surrounding a ruined palace, a white dragon, and a giant ruby.[4] The player characters encounter evil creatures that have taken over the palace.[5] The plot of Palace of the Silver Princess revolves around a country frozen in time by a strange red light. The only seemingly unaffected location and the apparent source of the glow is the royal palace. The adventurers must restore the flow of time and save the country.
Palace of the Silver Princess was designed for use with the D&D Basic Set.[1] The adventure was originally written by Jean Wells and published by TSR in 1981 with an outer folder, and a tan border on the cover; art was by Erol Otus.[5] The first printing was quickly recalled and destroyed soon after publication.[5] The book was largely reillustrated, and entirely rewritten by Wells and Tom Moldvay, and published in 1981 with a dark green border on the cover.[5]
The history of Palace of the Silver Princess is recounted in an article on the official Wizards of the Coast website.[6] The original version of the module was recalled on the eve of its publication, after TSR senior executive Kevin Blume flipped through it and ordered all copies to be recalled and the artwork replaced.[3] TSR cited several serious flaws in the content and presentation of the module, and every copy that TSR could locate was returned and destroyed.[2] All copies of the orange-covered version were consigned to a local landfill, and a new heavily revised version written by Tom Moldvay was published shortly thereafter with a different-colored cover,[3] new interior art, and certain edits made for the sake of playability.[2]
Although the removed artwork included subject matter such as "The Illusion of the Decapus" by Laura Roslof, wife of Jim Roslof, in which a woman was tied up by her own hair, on the whole the objectionable art was rather tame relative to that released in some other products of the time, so the specifics of the recall are a matter open to speculation.[6]
Frank Mentzer, the editor of the module, recalls events differently. In his recollection, it was Brian Blume, not Kevin Blume, that ordered the module to be pulled from publication; and the reason for the pulling was a particular piece of artwork by Erol Otus on page 19 of the module, depicting 3-headed monsters called ubues whose heads are caricatures of the three directors of TSR (the Blume brothers and Gary Gygax) rather than objectionable artwork elsewhere in the module.[7]
The original version of the module had treasure and monster listings left open for the Dungeon Master to fill in, while the second printing was a more standard dungeon and lacking the fill-in encounters.[5]
Only a few copies of the orange cover version survived.[3] The limited number of copies made this edition a very collectible item.[5] At the 1984 Gen Con game fair auction, a copy came up for sale and went for $300.[2] In 2011, a few copies are still available from out-of-print resellers; in shrink-wrapped, near mint condition these can sell for $1300 to $1500 USD [8]; and a copy apparently once sold for $3050 USD, the highest confirmed sale price for any single non-unique D&D module.[9]
Jim Bambra reviewed Palace of the Silver Princess for White Dwarf magazine, giving it a 10/10 and calling it "an excellent introduction to the game for new DMs and players, being fairly simple to complete and play."[1] He made note of the glossary of unfamiliar terms for the Dungeon Master to reference, and helpful hints on play. Bambra concluded the review by stating that "this should replace B2 [The Keep on the Borderlands] in the D&D Basic Set," as B2 came packaged with the Basic Set at the time.[1]
Reviews: Different Worlds #19 (1982)