Which Version of Palace of the Silver Princess Should You Run?

Over on Bluesky I did a readthrough of both the orange cover and green cover versions of Dungeon Module B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. My reading of the orange version was more in-depth, whereas my reading of the green version was more for the sake of comparison. I thought it would be productive to summarize my thoughts in an easily-digested blog post.

For those who don't know, the publication history of this module is a mess. The Wikipedia article about the module sums it up pretty well. Essentially, Jean Wells wrote the original, orange version of the module. For one reason or another, TSR waited until the day before the module's publication (when the copies arrived at the office for shipping) to decide that it was unacceptable. All of the copies were recalled or confiscated and destroyed.

The explanation at the time was that the illustration of "The Illusion of the Decapus" by Laura Rosloff was objectionable because it was overtly sexual and was exposing children to the S&M fetish. This was also in the midst of the Satanic Panic, so another explanation was that the illustration gave credence to the claim that D&D was promoting devil worship.

Since then, the story has changed. It is now widely believed that the actual objectionable image was Erol Otus's illustration of the ubues (three-headed, -armed, and -legged monsters with both male and female heads), which depicted the monsters with heads that were essentially caricatures of TSR executives (notably Brian and Kevin Blume, though accounts vary). Apparently, Wells had wanted to replace this illustration before the module went to print, but was told it was too late.

Whatever the exact reason, the end result was the same. The original version of this module was essentially memory-holed. Many players from that time are familiar with only the revised green version, which is the version that was officially released after the original underwent many significant revisions at the hands of Tom Moldvay. You can read Wizards of the Coast's own flawed hagiography and download the orange version for free here.

The original version was similar to Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown, with many rooms empty of monsters, traps, and treasure, with instructions for the DM to determine these elements their self (the quality of these empty rooms, in my opinion, is not quite as good as those found in B1).

Not every room was empty, however. The module also contained several intentionally designed encounters with unique monsters, among them the aforementioned ubues and decapus (pictured on the cover of both versions), sentient bubbles, a giant six-legged rat with a toothy duck bill and as many hit dice as an owlbear, an amoeba which disguises itself as a pool of water, paralyzes you, and dissolves you, a giant snake with an enchanting whistle, giant marmoset monkeys large enough to serve as mounts for halflings, and a moss that puts you to sleep and then grows over, suffocates, and devours your unconscious body.

The original module was a relatively straightforward site-based adventure - an ancient palace in ruins, and legends of a giant ruby still hidden within. What will you do with that information? Well, probably go explore the dungeon and try to find the ruby - classic D&D stuff.

In addition to the dungeon, there was a minimally-detailed map of the surrounding region with short entries about settlements and geographic features - a city ruled by a Chaotic baroness (the only living descendant of the titular Silver Princess, who wants the ruby for herself), a shire occupied and terrorized by the baroness's soldiers for unknown reasons, a halfling village which is home to escaped prisoners and slaves, a canton cut off from the barony by a dark and foreboding wood, a swamp inhabited by strange monsters, where spellcasting is unpredictable, a mountain range riddled with abandoned dwarven mines, and another range plagued by storm clouds conjured by an evil wizardess.

The module was filled with mystery. According to legend, the kingdom ruled by the Silver Princess fell into ruin when a stranger arrived at a party to see the Princess's ruby. A red dragon appeared over the valley and burned the land, a man in silver and blue armor upon its back. However, upon exploring the ruined palace, the players may find that the relationship between the Princess and the stranger was not as adversarial as it seemed - or, perhaps, she was corrupted by this sinister interloper. So what exactly happened?

The module does not provide an answer, because the DM was expected to. It is filled with unanswered questions. The land surrounding the Palace is wandered by a tinker in a special wagon that can float across rivers and lakes. Should the players have occasion to visit his home, they will find in his bedroom a suit of silver armor covered by a blanket, and a strange set of riding equipment too large for a horse - intriguing! Inside the dungeon is a chaotic cleric, Catharandamus, who has partnered with Aleigha, a werebear with a ruby sword, who is believed to be another descendant of the Princess. It is possible for the player characters to align themselves with the two, but it's unclear why they're at the Palace and what they're trying to accomplish. And what of the soldiers with the wolf insignia, who can be found on the random encounter tables? Who are they, and what are they doing here?

By comparison, the green version is much more focused and utterly non-mysterious. The region surrounding the Palace is totally omitted. Rather than being an ancient ruin, the Palace was recently besieged by Arik, an evil outsider akin to a godlike entity. The ruby is a vessel of sorts to Arik, which drove some of the Palace inhabitants mad, petrified the others, and trapped the Princess and the dragon-rider (who is unambiguously good in this version) inside the ruby itself. The Palace is held within in a stasis field while Catharandamus (teleported there by Arik's magic) tries to summon Arik into the world.

The party is visited in their dreams by the Protectors, a race of magical beings from the land of Faerie who beseech the player characters to enter the palace and free the Princess. (The Protectors are also in the original version, but they are simply magical guardians of the Palace's tower, warding it against evil so that the party can safely rest within.) Throughout the adventure, the Protectors serve as the voice of the DM, giving the players hints as to where to go next, how to destroy the ruby, and the like. If the Princess is freed, the land returns to normal, and all is more or less hunky dory.

Gone too are the module's original monsters (excepting only the decapus - which loses its ability to create hyper-specific and horrifying torture illusions - and some deadly plants). Instead, the magic of Arik has attracted the usual D&D fare - goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and the like - to terrorize the place. These creatures were present in the original as well, but it is suggested that they are minions of Catharandamus, which he has brought there as an insurance policy against the berserkers who serve Aleigha. Although the two are aligned, the former does not trust the latter. 

There is a hint of faction play in the original. This nuance is totally absent from the green version. Aleigha and her dwarf henchmen are replaced by a werewolf and some orcs. Aleigha's ruby sword (a magical heirloom which introduces a complication to the evil baroness's claim to the Palace and ruby) is now the Sword of Arik, one of many MacGuffins which can be used to destroy the ruby and yield the module's happy ending. The mysterious tinker, himself a potential complicating piece of the puzzle, is omitted entirely.

I would be remiss not to mention Travis. In the orange version, he is a paranoid old adventurer who tortured and killed his party out of greed and now wanders the dungeon holding "court" - capturing, torturing, and killing adventurers to take their treasure. In the green version, he is instead a Palace guard driven mad by the magic of Arik, but otherwise doing more or less the same.

That all is not to say that the green version is without its merits. What might compel you to run one version over the other? Well...

If you want a classic old school D&D dungeon, run the orange version. In the orange version, the Palace is an ancient ruin filled with odd monsters, tricks, and traps. The party's goal is to go there and find the ruby, doing with it whatever they please. The player characters are not assumed to be do-gooders with any higher purpose to their motivations. It's a classic D&D smash-and-grab operation.

If you want a narrative-driven adventure or your player characters are assumed to be heroes, run the green version. The green version has more of a high fantasy vibe - an unambiguously good princess and her kingdom in peril at the hands of an unambiguously evil villain. There are magical fairies which can serve as the DM's voice to nudge the players along the intended path. If the player characters are victorious, they're heroes of the realm and earn a substantial reward, a day of thanksgiving in their honor, and even a ceremony where they're presented with medals.

If you want the Palace to be part of a larger world, run the orange version. The orange version includes a regional map with additional locations like the evil barony and its surrounding settlements, and mysterious wilderness locations like the Abaddon Woods, Misty Swamp, and Thunder Mountains. There are multiple factions suggested by the module's descriptions of these locations, which place the Palace within a larger context and give the players other activities to pursue before or after finding the ruby. The locations are minimally detailed, so you will have to do some legwork to bring them to life.

If you want the Palace to be self-contained (or want to drop it into an existing sandbox), well, you can probably run either version, but I would still lean towards the orange version. Both versions describe a decent dungeon, but I lean towards the orange one because of the Palace's age in that version, which lends itself towards being plopped down as just another ruin on the map. In the green version, the calamity is extremely recent and the kingdom is in immediate peril as a result. It seems harder to just drop that into any old sandbox.

If you want a dungeon that "makes sense", well, neither version really does. Whichever version you use, the dungeon layout is somewhat nonsensical and "random". The green version feels more "palatial" and provides names to all the rooms, which makes it easier to imagine what those places were originally used for, but there's also weird details like tapestries, mosaics, and paintings depicting the Princess and the dragon-rider. The dragon-rider apparently arrived at the Palace the day before Arik struck, so why is there so much artwork of him? This makes more sense in the orange version, where an indeterminate amount of time passed between the dragon-rider's arrival and the ruin of the Palace.

If you want to make the dungeon "yours", run the orange version. Several rooms in the dungeon have space for the DM to add monsters, traps, and treasure. This ensures that no two DMs' version of the dungeon will be the same. Likewise, many characters' motivations are not made explicitly clear. You will have to come up with these yourself, but by the end you will have your own private Palace of the Silver Princess.

If you want everything figured out for you, run the green version. This version's keying of the dungeon is much more complete. You won't have to do any prep beyond the usual or rolling to find out at the table, and you won't have to figure out what any NPC's "deal" is.

If you want original monsters, run the orange version. As I've already mentioned, this version of the module has some truly horrifying, memorable, and silly original monsters. I like the living bubbles that drown you, but if a six-legged duck-billed giant rat as tough as an owlbear is too goofy for you, you may not like this version as much.

If you want your standard D&D monsters, run the green version. While goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs aren't anything new, that doesn't mean they're bad. There are merits to every dungeon containing unique monsters, but there are also drawbacks. If your setting is otherwise plagued by monstrous humanoids, maybe you want your Palace to be overrun by them as well. It might be odd if your campaign features the usual D&D fare, only for this one location to randomly have very weird creatures that don't show up anywhere else in your game.

If you want faction play, run the orange version. The faction play in this version of the module is not especially strong, but it does exist. In the green version, basically everything in the Palace is a minion of Arik and united against the player characters. In the orange version, there is at least tension between Catharandamus and Aleigha and their respective minions. The ubues are a faction of their own and may play the party against Catharandamus, align themselves with him, or even help the party against him. That's not to mention the faction play you can have between the evil baroness and the other settlements in the region, plus Aleigha, who may also be the rightful heir to the Princess.

If you want to make Travis an imposing foe, run the green version. Travis the insane adventurer/palace guard is probably my favorite NPC here. I really like the idea of this crazy old fighter ruling a corner of the Palace like a kingdom, torturing intruders, holding court, and training giant apes to guard his treasure. In the orange version, Travis is a lone operator, a 1st level fighter, and has just 4 hit points. Shame! In the green version, he has 16 hit points, is a 3rd level fighter, and commands a retinue of orcs which he dresses in guard uniforms. Cute! He apparently hangs out in his office writing gibberish reports on the conditions of his orc troops, mimicking the behavior of the guard captain he slew. This is welcome additional detail. 

You could also easily take the suped up Travis and plant him in the orange version along with his orc guards. I probably would not have Travis wandering the dungeon all on his lonesome and relatively easy prey for adventurers - I'd have him fortified in his lair, sending his orcs out to round up intruders. It would be very cool if the orc guards captured the player characters and brought them before Travis for judgement.

To conclude, here's a random miscellany of other neat features from both versions:

• If you want your player characters to be able to hitch a ride on a wagon that floats across rivers and lakes, run the orange version (or add the Tinker to the green version if you're dropping it into a sandbox).
• If you love paralyzing your player characters and depriving them of air, run the orange version. Many monsters in the module have paralyzing attacks. There's a whole section in the introduction with drowning rules based on what armor the character is wearing, and many monsters and traps try to drown the characters or suffocate them.
• If you want snakes in unusual places, run either version.
• If you want "good" boxed text, run the green version. The orange version mixes the typical "at a glance" information with stuff that the players would only learn once their characters investigate an object in the room (the contents of buckets and barrels, for example). The green version's boxed text is much more consistent with what you'd usually expect from these descriptions.
• If you want your lady thieves to be HOT and evil and not just "above average-looking" and friendly, run the green version (or run the orange version but make the lady thieves HOT and evil).
• If you want your player characters to be able to capture and sell or tame a young cave bear, run the orange version.
• If you want a trap to drop 20 pounds of glitter on the player characters, run the orange version.
• If you want a harp made of ice that can magically calm any beast, run the orange version (or assign this property to the same harp in the green version, which in that version is just another MacGuffin that can destroy the ruby, rather than a more generally useful magic item).
• If you like strange eggs in unusual places, run the orange version.
• If you want to teach your players a lesson about robbing a Palace they're supposed to be saving, run the green version. When they free the Princess at the end of the module, she will get angry at them if they looted the Palace on their way, demanding that they return the stolen treasure and giving them a lesser reward. For a game like D&D (especially this era of D&D), this is quite cruel!

Overall, it probably sounds like I prefer the orange version...and I do! In fact, reading both versions has convinced me that there's little if any reason for the green one to exist at all. Obviously, Jean Wells was screwed over by TSR, thrown under the bus, and her work appropriated and basically erased entirely by the revision. 

The orange version is certainly incomplete, with unstocked rooms, dungeon history, and important NPC motivations left to the imagination of the DM, but this is pretty consistent with the trend in modules published at the time. There seems to be a belief that Moldvay was needed to "finish" the module, regardless of the other justifications for its burial, however I would argue that he does a poor job. This is not intended as a dig at Moldvay, who was put in a position which is probably not conducive to good adventure writing. 

What results is a module with an entirely different feel than the original. It is less unique and weird. It wields clumsy narrative devices in service of a black-and-white, linear adventure of unambiguous heroism which feels more at home among the content published by Wizards of the Coast today, rather than among the B series adventures of the time. 

The fault is not with Wells or Moldvay, Rosloff or Otis, but with TSR themselves. Whatever the actual reason for the reaction to the orange version, the failure is not one of imagination or execution, but of development and oversight. If there was objectionable material, it should have been identified before the module went to print, and it should have been the original authors, illustrators, and editors who were left to determine how to correct the issue, not another writer brought in to hastily patch and retcon the initial work in the eleventh hour.

As I have demonstrated, there are reasons why one might wish to run the green version over the original. I may have even convinced you that the green version is right for you, but I have not convinced myself. For me, it's Jean Wells's Palace of the Silver Princess all the way.