Okay, so that's not really the title of a book. This time I will be discussing two old D&D modules called EX1:Dungeonland and EX2:The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. And for those few who are not familiar with these modules, they are Gary Gygax's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

It's time to brush off these classics and consider creating a one-shot evening of Mad Hatter mayhem as a break from your regular campaign setting.

Remake #94
The new Alice in Wonderland movie is actually a Walt Disney production, which somehow seems to conflict with it being a Tim Burton film. But looking at the movie posters makes it pretty obvious that this isn't your father's Alice in Wonderland. Definitely not for the rugrat crowd.

With Johnny Depp playing the Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, this latest version of the classical books looks too intriguing to pass up. The posters seem just odd enough to make it seem worth taking a look.

There's a creepy feeling to the images that set a tone to the movie. Honestly, when I first saw the Hatter poster at the movie theater, I thought it was from some slasher film. I passed it a number of different times before seeing the Alice in Wonderland reference.

Gary does Alice
Flashback to the 1980's when Gary Gygax writes Dungeonland. He had previous adapted Alice in Wonderland to one of the levels in his Castle Greyhawk dungeon. It wasn't hard to flesh out what he had written and create the module. He followed this soon after with The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror module.

If you take a step back and look at the original story, you'll see that Wonderland lends itself quite easily to D&D play. Lots of crazy characters and twisted creatures. Maybe Carroll was just a bit ahead of his time.

Alice's adventures even lend itself through to a good old fashioned dungeon crawl. In the books, she stumbles from one area to the next, some times on purpose, some times unknowingly. Odd people and even odder creatures populate the lands. Does that scream D&D or what?

Gary did a selective look at the books but it is obvious to anyone familiar with the story where you are. The opening scene where eating the bread makes you shrink while the potion makes you grow is a dead give away to most people.

Each of the creatures have been adapted for the modules. Some were granted new stats as per new new creatures, while others have been adapted to existing ones. For example, the Mad Hatter is a monk while the Cheshire Cat is a sabertooth tiger.

Old Style Maps
The modules each come with 2 major maps along with some minor complementing one. As per the style at that time the maps are simple and functional as opposed to artistic or detailed. It would be great to see what a Dundjinni master could do with these maps.