Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Dwellers of the Forbidden City is an adventure module, or pre-packaged adventure booklet, ready for use by Dungeon Masters in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. The adventure was first used as a module for tournament play at the 1980 Origins Game Fair, and was later published by TSR in 1981 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module was written by game designer David "Zeb" Cook, who partly ascribes his hiring by TSR to his work on this module. In the adventure, the characters are hired to recover a stolen object from a hidden oriental-style city ruled by a snake-worshipping cult of yuan-ti and their mongrelmen and tasloi servants.
The cover of Dwellers of the Forbidden City, with art by Erol Otus. The artwork depicts a battle between bullywugs (left) and player characters.
The adventure was designed by David Cook (pictured in 2016).
David Cook (game designer)
David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer, best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook designed several games, wrote the Expert Set for Dungeons & Dragons, worked as lead designer of the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and invented the Planescape setting for AD&D. He is a member of the Origins Hall of Fame.
Cook at the 2016 Lucca Comics & Games
David "Zeb" Cook (left) at GaryCon III.