Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is one of my all time favourite AD&D adventure modules. I’ve run it about a dozen times in its entirety and run a few more games that ventured there over the years (one memorable Shadowrun game had the group park their panzer for repairs in the garage of a strangely quiet mini arcology).

About four years ago I was prepping to run it again, and decided I wanted to “trim some of the fat” in the adventure – redraw the maps so we can get rid of a few hundred empty rooms and tighten up the encounter frequency a bit. This was a conscious choice to change the feel of the adventure from the original context to something a bit faster and where I could add more pressure on the party by giving them less “unclaimed turf” in the ship.

These are the maps I finally drew up based on those requirements. I playtested a different deck VI that I preferred the look of, but it significantly curtailed the mobility of the mind flayer, which I feel is important to the adventure.

• Deck I – Officials’, officers’, and technicians’ quarters
• Deck II – Service deck 5 / ‘tween decks
• Deck III – Upper walkway and lounge area
• Deck IV – Botanical Gardens, rookery and menagerie
• Deck V – Service deck 6 / garden ‘tween decks
• Deck VI – Theater, athletic, and activity deck

Thanks to the Winterspire to Yoon-Suin crew for playtesting these with me.