The Shady Dragon Inn AC1 – and why I Love It!

The Shady Dragon Inn, module AC1 by Carl Smith, is my absolute favorite old school Dungeons and Dragons supplement.

The Shady Dragon Inn is a collection of over 100 NPCs across all levels and all of the major old school classes and races, including:

Fighters
Magic Users
Clerics
Thiefs
Dwarfs
Elves
Halflings

There are also several TSR branded special characters included in the module, which appear in another old school module (Quest for the Heartstone XL1), as well as a toy line through the 1980s.

The module also includes floor plans for the Shady Dragon Inn itself, backstory as to who owns the Inn and who hangs out at the inn, as well as helpful short-hand lists for each NPC, their weapons and spells and abilities.

The Best Part

The best part of the Shady Dragon Inn are the NPC descriptions. Each NPC comes with a description with a few sentences, including the background of the character, and a story hook or interesting way the NPC will interact with Player Characters.

For example, Sam Smallsole, the smallest of all halflings ever, once killed a bear with a single shot from his sling. His description covers why he has the name Smallsole, and the fact he is curious about magic users and elves. Interestingly, it also describes a time he was carried away by an eagle for dinner.

You can see how Sam could easily fit into an adventuring party, which types of characters he may befriend quickly, and how he may behave around birds.

This is incredibly useful from a Dungeon Master’s perspective, as well as fun! So many of these descriptions are inventive and hilarious that they can inject energy and joy into any campaign.

My Favorite Characters

I created a few videos below that outline my favorite characters from The Shady Dragon Inn.

Should You Buy the Shady Dragon Inn

If you are looking for pre-made old school Dungeons and Dragon NPCs, I highly recommend buying a physical copy or PDF of the Shady Dragon Inn.

It’s got such a high volume of inventive, varied and fun NPCs that can very quickly be included into any campaign. It solves the NPC problem that many Dungeon Masters have. I’ve used many NPCs from this module to great effect in my campaigns, from Boris the Bonesnapper and his greedy method of splitting treasure, to Apris the Wondrous and her enthusiastic love for tipping.

If you like reading old school modules, I also highly recommend buying a physical copy or PDF of the Shady Dragon Inn.

I have read this module through several times. It reads easily and quickly, and the vignettes for each character are fun to go through! I’ve also found a few secrets throughout the module – for example, how one of the high level thiefs included in the book is actually one of the TSR special characters in disguise! Or maybe they just ran out of time and had to reuse one of the stat blocks that was already created.

Connect

I love going back through old modules, especially the overlooked ones, and finding nuggets of joy and usability in them. If you want to check out more of this, you can join the newsletter here or check out my Youtube channel here!

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