Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has too many fiddly bits to leave it alone.

What happens when you want just a little bit more game material to fit in between two other scenes you’ve already got in mind for your game? What can you do if you can only snag half the time you usually have for your regular game night? What if you have a great idea for a scene, but it doesn’t fit into what you’re doing right now? We’re going to look at modular encounters, building blocks you can store and pull out when you have just the right place to put them.

In 1986, the AD&D product called the Book of Lairs came out, followed up by a second volume in 1987. These had short, often two-page, adventures that were largely about encountering a monster in its home terrain, with some additional context. One particular encounter involves 876 undead of various types in a mythical lost graveyard, including a gate that summons more undead, which for some reason has an alignment of lawful good. This may also be the simplest puzzle in all of D&D for characters to solve, because it involves taking every single gemstone out of the gate. Remember, sometimes looting IS the answer!