S4 and WG4: Connected Wilderness, Independent Adventures
Editorial date: · TSR Archive
WG4 explicitly works without S4. Track the two 1982 adventures, Tsojcanth’s two booklets and the referee work needed to join their wilderness maps.
The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun was designed to connect with The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, yet its own description expressly permits standalone play. You can use WG4 without treating S4 as required homework. Joining them creates a cartographic preparation task, not a requirement to complete one before buying the other.
The connection is an option in the publisher description
Both archived adventures are by Gary Gygax and dated 1982. S4 places its wilderness in the southern Yatil Mountains, south of Perrenland. WG4 offers wilderness and dungeon exploration in Greyhawk, while also saying it can be adapted to another AD&D campaign. The relationship is an intended interface between adventures, not a claim that WG4 is a chapter physically bound into S4.
Choose whether WG4 will be a neighboring destination, a later discovery or an independent expedition. Then establish what the characters know about the route. The source descriptions do not supply a verified modern overlay in this article, so exact hex alignment and travel times should come from the maps in your copies.
S4 has two booklets, not one long booklet
| Adventure | Archive format | Advertised material |
|---|---|---|
| S4, TSR 9061 | Two 32-page books with tri-fold cover | Wilderness map, two cavern levels and new monsters, magic items and spells. |
| WG4, TSR 9065 | 32-page book with double cover | Wilderness and dungeon maps, encounter keys, new monsters and treasure. |
S4's description traces its origin to an AD&D tournament at Wintercon V and says the original characters are included. That establishes an earlier tournament use, not an obligation to run the 1982 publication under reconstructed event conditions. It also does not prove that the published text is identical to an earlier tournament manuscript.
When inspecting a copy of S4, establish that both books are present. A single 32-page booklet should not be silently treated as the complete recorded package. For WG4, examine the cover as part of the adventure rather than discarding it after finding the text.
Build a route sheet from the copies you will run
Place the two wilderness maps together and note their shared landmarks, scale information and keyed locations. Record a proposed connection only after checking those features. Keep the referee keys off the player version. If your campaign uses a different overland scale, state that adaptation in your notes so it does not look like an original cartographic fact.
The D1, D2 and D1-2 map guide treats another Greyhawk sequence with separate player and referee information. Its combined-volume inventory is specific to that series. Here the useful distinction is simpler: two independently published adventures can be connected without becoming one interchangeable package.
These records concern the original AD&D products. A file labeled with the same adventure title may be a later adaptation. Check its rules edition before using its statistics alongside either 1982 book.
Sources and scope
Product identification and reproduced publisher descriptions: dd1/s4.htm; gh/gh-wg4.htm. Cover images are preserved local archive files, linked to their source records above. No exact hex alignment, tournament reconstruction or 5e conversion instructions. Preparation methods in this article are editorial recommendations, not a report of a new playtest.