The Best of Dungeon Magazine


Dungeon Magazine General Discussion

Liberty's Edge

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With 5th Edition just dawning it seemed like a good time to take a look back at the history of Dungeon Magazine. The magazine has had several eras and milestones with different editions, publishers, and editors (most notably here being it's time under the stewardship of Paizo). I know this forum has started to die, but I am hoping for some great input because the internet really needs a good list of the creme de la creme of Dungeon.

In issue #116 a list of the top 10 Dungeon adventures was compiled but the magazine put out more than a hundred issues following that list. The list presented the following adventures as the top 10 (here listed by issue number):

1: Into the Fire (AD&D)
33: Siege of Kratys Freehold (AD&D 2E)
37/138: The Mud Sorcerer’s Tomb (AD&D 2E)
42: The Lady of the Mists (AD&D 2E)
70: Kingdom of Ghouls (AD&D 2E)
73: Eye of Myrkul, Mere of Dead Men part 5 (AD&D 2E)
75: The Forgotten Man (AD&D 2E)
84: The Harrowing (D&D 3E)
97: Life’s Bazaar, Shackled City part 1 (D&D 3E)
100: The Lich-Queen’s Beloved (D&D 3.5)

Issue #150, the last of Paizo's run, contained a countdown of the 10 best villains and locations. Including those adventures adds the following (again listed by issue order with repeats from above removed):

10: Threshold of Evil (AD&D)
18: Chadranther’s Bane (AD&D 2E)
19: House of Cards (AD&D 2E)
95: Porphyry House Horror (D&D 3E)
100: Beast of Burden (D&D 3.5)
111: Lords of Oblivion, Shackled City part 7 (D&D 3.5)
112: Maure Castle (D&D 3.5)
121: The Styes (D&D 3.5)
124: The Whispering Cairn, Age of Worms part 1 (D&D 3.5)
131: The Prince of Redhand, Age of Worms part 8 (D&D 3.5)
134: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure, Age of Worms part 11 (D&D 3.5)
135: Dawn of a New Age, Age of Worms part 12 (D&D 3.5)
139: There is No Honor, Savage Tide part 1 (D&D 3.5)

Issue #200 also includes a list of notable adventures along with it's index but there are too many to list easily here.

So what I am proposing is a fan-created 'Best Of' list. I am thinking of organizing the list based on 'era' which will roughly accompany the edition changes with #1-#81 the AD&D and AD&D 2E era, #82-#154 being the 3E and 3.5 era, and most recently, #155-#221 the 4E era with a top ten for each. I may organize differently based on what sort of response I get; such as by level or somesuch.

There are, as of last count, 221 issues of Dungeon Magazine to choose from. So, what are some of your favorites?

Liberty's Edge

Some of my favorites would be:

19: House of Cards (AD&D 2E)
63: Hunt for a Hierophant (AD&D 2E)
64: Last Dance (AD&D 2E)
70: Kingdom of Ghouls (AD&D 2E)
100: Beast of Burden (D&D 3E)
112: Maure Castle (D&D 3.5)
117: Touch of the Abyss, Istivin part 1 (D&D 3.5)
121: The Styes (D&D 3.5)
132: Library of Last Resort, Age of Worms part 9 (D&D 3.5)
156: Last Breaths of Ashenport (D&D 4E)

These are the first 10 that really jump out at me as some of the ones I have had the most fun running or playing. I plan on going through and picking out my top 10 for each era soon.

Liberty's Edge

As a quick aside, I ask that this conversation remain about the best adventures, not the way the license was handled, transitions between editions and publishers, or hating on certain editions. if there is an era you didn't care for, that's fine, but I don't want this to become an edition war.

Grand Lodge

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Ah, my favorite Thread topic
.... Man I hope I can add comments on these choices, and yours!

.

The Absolute Greatest: Note: I'm STILL avoiding spoilers on the 12 STAP adventures so none are included & I don't own Dungeons 2-7

1: "The Styes" .... by Richard Pett ....Dungeon 121

2: "Kingdom of the Ghouls" .... by Wolfgang Baur .... Dungeon 70

3: "Umbra" .... by Chris Perkins .... Dungeon 55

4: "And Madness Follows" .... by Matthew Hope .... Dungeon 134

5: "Tammeraut's Fate" .... by Greg Vaughan .... Dungeon 106

6: "The Harrowing" .... by Monte Cook .... Dungeon 84

7: "Maure Castle" .... by Erik Mona & James Jacobs (for Rob Kuntz who is the credited author) .... Dungeon 112
*But this is a campaign, not a single adventure -- may be disqualified if we're comparing "adventures" because this has such greater word count compared to others

8: "Lear, Giant King" .... by Mike Selinker .... Dungeon 78

9: "Interlopers of Ruun Khazai" .... by Dave Noonan .... Dungeon 92

0: "Fiend's Embrace" .... by Steven S. Greer .... Dungeon 121

- - - -

The Greats:

"Heart of Hellfire Mountain"
"Lady of the Mists"
"Ex Libris"
"Into the Fire"
"Thunder Under Needlespire"
"A Rose for Talakara"
"Twilight's Last Gleaming"
"Root of Evil"
"Zenith Trajectory"
"Touch of the Abyss" (honorable mentions to Shadow and Wrath -- but again, stand-alone adventures only, no campaigns so I won't combine them)
"Slave Vats of the Yuan Ti"
"The Forgotten Man"
"Preemptive Strike"
"The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" (Dungeon 37, not the 3.5 version in Dungeon 138
"Porphyry House Horror"
"Nightswarm"
"Seeking Bloodsilver"
"Old Man Katan and the (Incredible Marching) Mushroom Band"
"The Ice Tyrant"
"Dragon's Delve"

- - - -

Here's a copy/paste from another Thread: Chris Perkins

Spoiler:
The greatest adventure writer of all time.

Here’s a good list of most of his adventures with a bit of info on and my rankings for some of his best.

1) “Umbra” A+ The best adventure in the 2E era, ahead of Baur’s “Kingdom of the Ghouls” because Baur wasn’t able to expand that adventure to the size it really needed to be. And no other adventures in 2E come close – not Dead Gods, not “Lady of the Mists,” not “Spirits of the Tempest” nor even “The Mud Sorcerers’ Tomb.” Umbra is a destined daughter in Sigil and her parents and a whole bunch of other powerful Evil Outsiders in the Planescape game setting are fighting to control her. The PCs have to protect or kill or something Umbra but before that they have to figure what in the world is going on. Great intro to Planescape and great lead in to a Dead Gods campaign.

2) “The Ice Tyrant” A+ Even those not so in love with Dragonlance can love this adventure. Gelid the White is an awesome Dragon BBEG – made all the better when we look up the word “gelid.” (Actually I think Perkins named the dragon Gelidis or something but it’s clearly a play on “gelid.” This is the first adventure published in a “drama method” to showcase what Dragonlance was trying to do for what Monte Cook would later call Event Based adventures. Act 1 was for this, Act 2 for that. Really you’re just helping some elf PCs track down the Dragon in the wilderness to its lair but, man it’s awesome. One of the greatest, if not THE greatest wilderness adventure ever.

3) “Dragon’s Delve” A+ So some dwarves are marching along a snow-filled track to sell some arms or something when a bored Crystal Dragon toddler! decides to have some fun and start a snowball fight. The dwarves, not sure who’s attacking them with a thundering storm of snow, flee and get the PCs to find out what monster is in the woods. That quickly turns into the greatest dungeon-crawl puzzle map EVER published after the PCs make friends with the dragon’s apologetic parents who offer the PCs a confusing treasure map puzzle. All of the Player Handouts in this adventure are super fun to puzzle out and each one leads deeper into an underdark dungeon-crawl adventure.

4) “Seeking Bloodsilver” A+ The great Birthright adventure: An ancient artifact weapon that acts (like the Birthright system is designed to) as a “Highlander-like” weapon that steals a victim’s powers if you kill him (“There can be only one” Birthright) has been lost for a gazillion years, but now someone thinks that a possible final resting place may in fact be some old fortress -- even though it’s been searched a million times over the ages. Turns out this NPC has learned that the Fortress was built on a thin membrane between the Prime Material and the Shadow Plane and the artifact may actually be in the Shadow Plane version of the crumbling Fortress. But what makes the adventure Awesome is the chase to get there first as this new idea about the artifact weapon doesn’t stay secret – and of course a dungeon crawl that feels like two, one the Fortress and the other the Shadow-Fortress. This is the first adventure I think in D&D’s history where another group of PCs – DMPCs – are racing the PCs to try and win.

5) “Redcap’s Rampage” A The first ever adventure with a “Rumors in Town” aspect, the townspeople believe a Goblin Army is soon to attack so they immediately go to the old Keep a mile outside town to refurbish it and get it ready – but it’s HAUNTED so they ask the PCs to clean it of ghosts IN A HURRY so they can prepare for the goblins. Only, it’s not haunted, just the lair of a Red Cap (first time a Red Cap was introduced in D&D) who’s playing evil tricks on the stonemason interlopers. But this adventure quickly turns into a “what evil is going on in town” adventure, first as groups of alley cats are mysteriously showing up on the streets and looking evil, and then as a wererat infestation is discovered. And there are some definitely evil NPCs in town, too. So between the Keep & the Red Cap, the wererats and intrigue in town, the creepy cats (who are just searching out a Red Cap they smell is near) and a goblin raiding threat – OMG this is a GREAT adventure.

6) “Life’s Bazaar” A This one is the first adventure in the Shackled City Adventure Path and is truly spectacular. Missing orphans, underdark slavers, a thief with keys to the whole town and a glorious poster map of Cauldron – SCAP has a number of good adventures and this is perhaps the best. (I place “Zenith Trajectory” #1 ahead of this Perkins one because of the AWESOME Heart of Darkness motif. But many will put this Perkins adventure first.)

7) “Lich Queen’s Beloved” A I give this one quite a bit of grief because Dave Noonan had just published a GREAT Githyanki adventure a few issues earlier in Dungeon. And in truth, this is an unoriginal, uninspired bag of industry-cobbled trope-encounters. But if it ain’t broke… And if you hadn’t been gaming for years and years, this adventure would seem super awesome – like Baur’s Expedition to the Demonweb Pits and James Wyatt’s City of the Spider Queen. Yes, “Lich Queen’s Beloved” is an unoriginal and uninspired piece of industry-created “lets-do-something-“special”-for-the-100th-issue-by-cobbling-together-aweso me-stuff” adventure but I admit, if you aren’t a jaded grognard who’s seen it all, this one is GREAT.

8) “Horror’s Harvest” A Ravenloft stuff is certainly hit or miss. Tons of it is offal. This Perkins adventure is not. While it’s certainly not I6 – what is?!; that’s the greatest adventure ever written – “Horror’s Harvest” is a great, creepy adventure where the PCs are in Ravenloft, not dealing with Strahd or Barovians, but still trying to cope with a village mystery and horror.

9) “Asylum” A It’s the final adventure in the Shackled City Adventure Path and it’s really only the second half of one adventure that was so grand and so awesome that they had to split it into two adventures; “Strike on the Shatterhorn” is the penultimate adventure in SCAP. The PCs go plane-hopping to Carceri where they have to finish of the Campaign. Awesome all ‘round.

10) “My Lady’s Mirror” A A sequel of sorts to Peter Aberg’s masterpiece “Lady of the Mists,” this adventure revolves around the Lady’s estranged sister who stole one of the original Lady’s Elixirs of Life centuries ago and is now an evil old Lady herself – unlike her sister who is good in Aberg’s adventure. But this adventure doesn’t begin until a servant accidently breaks her lady’s beautiful mirror which – oops – is actually a Mirror of Life Trapping, releasing a bunch of men the Lady kidnapped over the years. And the adventure doesn’t end until the PCs uncover all of the evil Lady’s secrets – Demon worship and devil summoning and necromantic research – not just the poor men from the Mirror.

11) “Gnome Droppings” A Too Cool. A flying gnome “ship” crashes and the PCs are in a race to retrieve it and find out just what those crazy gnomes are up to.

12) “Scourge of Scalabar” A A Gnome U-Boat shaped like a giant great-white shark is menacing the town and the PCs have to stop it. It’s got pirates, guns & gunpowder, gnome constructs & gizmos, an incredible dungeon crawl in the belly of a mechanical shark against evil gnomes, and an evil merchant trying to gain a monopoly on shipping business by scaring off all the other merchant ships.

13) “Nemesis” A- My favorite Chris Perkins adventure! It’s a spiritual sequel to “Umbra” but you don’t have to have played the first – “Nemesis” stands alone. The PCs have to go to a Layer of the Abyss and hunt down a powerful Marilith who has stolen (I think 6) super powerful weapons from Sigil. The adventure takes place on the 507th Layer and the setting is great – and so are the combats. Best completely Abyss adventure ever.

14) “Ludwilla’s Stew” A- The PCs have to hunt down some hard-to-find ingredients for some Duke as a gift for a good witch but when the PCs learn the good witch is under attack by a Hag trying to steal the recipe – and later that the ingredients they had to find were for a potion that’s part of protection money for a badass bugbear… It’s like three cool adventures in one, each one a surprise.

15) “Strike on the Shatterhorn” A- The aforementioned penultimate adventure in SCAP is one giant BBEG fight with all the NPCs that the PCs have met during the campaign as they get ready to race off to another Plane to finish the campaign. Some GREAT NPC villains make an appearance for this ultimate fight.

16) “Wards of Witching Ways” B+ is a clever little adventure where the PCs get shipwrecked on a small island w/ a creepy castle. The castle's Wizard and his Familiar make a friendly bet about the PCs surviving the Wizard's castle as they explore it. But the wizard can’t do anything “too” lethal and the Familiar can’t reveal itself to the PCs. So the whole time the PCs are falling for the Wizard's tricksy encounters, the Familiar is mysteriously helping them from afar -- and the PCs have no idea what's going on.

17) “Them Apples” B+ Help a Halfling Shire find out who’s poisoning their world famous apple orchard! An adventure with no fighting but an evil Drake prankster, anti-social druids, a dumb and mean Hill giant, and a jealous & angry apple merchant who wants nothing more than to ruin the halflings’ apple orchard.

18) “Quelkin’s Quandary” B+ There’s an evil wizard in his dark tower just outside of town. And he comes bursting in town one night begging for help! Turns out he’s not evil, just misunderstood – but the wizard and his hirelings who are attacking the misunderstood wizard’s tower certainly are evil. The dungeon crawl in a cool wizard’s tower is cool but how the PCs handle the opening scene with the “evil” wizard begging for help makes this a memorable adventure.

19) “Uzaglu of the Underdark” B+ is a spectacular encounter in a cave near the underdark. Uzaglu is a giant undead Myconid whose spores turn you into a unique type of undead with what we would now call the “Plant Subtype.” Have fun fighting in a tight space against Undead Plants who spew area-of-affect spores. And watch out for the pool of slime-acid or whatever that evil-looking puddle is on the middle of the floor. Too great!

20) “The Menacing Malady” B A Hospital has an outbreak of a mysterious disease that makes the patients want to kill everyone – including the PCs. And the disease makes them much tougher than mere commoners should be. And should you really be fighting them and no saving them?!

“A Wizard’s Fate” B Clever "love story" twist for an old Wizard

“The Bandits of Bunglewood” is also solid

“Lords of Obilvion” –- a reasonably good adventure in SCAP

“North of Narbondale” -- meh, a clever little adventure focusing on "how to get the treasure out" of the dungeon

“Avenging Murik” (actually, here you just see a crying Dwarf on the road and agree to avenge his brother),

“Bzallin’s Blacksphere” (Fun with Spheres of Annihilation, right?!)

Liberty's Edge

I think 'Maure Castle' should count, despite the fact it was an entire issue and then some of content. It was still a great adventure.

Unless I'm mistaken, and I could be here, it doesn't look like any of those are post #150. 4E wasn't everyone's favorite system and the change in magazine format limited the audience but there were still some gems hidden in there. Do you have any favorites from the 4E era?

Liberty's Edge

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For completeness sake I will include the rather exhaustive list of best adventures that appeared in issue #200. The issue also had a number of author spotlights and lists of adventures that fell into a reccuring theme, I didn't bother to list those. This list is a hefty one and they touch upon nearly every single issue so I divided it up by 'era' and put it behind spoiler tags.

AD&D and AD&D 2E Era:
4: Trouble at Grog’s (AD&D)
7: The Jingling Mordo Circus (AD&D)
13: The Ruins of Nol-Daer (AD&D)
18: Chadranther’s Bane (AD&D 2E)
19: House of Cards (AD&D 2E)
20: Ancient Blood (AD&D 2E)
23: Deception Pass (AD&D 2E)
25: A Rose for Talakara (AD&D 2E)
35: The Ghost of Mistmoor (AD&D 2E)
37: The Mud Sorcerer’s Tomb (AD&D 2E)
38: Horror’s Harvest (AD&D 2E)
40: Son of the Fens (AD&D 2E)
42: The Lady of the Mists (AD&D 2E)
43: Jacob’s Well (AD&D 2E)
47: The Assassin Within (AD&D 2E)
51: Ailamere’s Lair (AD&D 2E)
55: Umbra (AD&D 2E)
57: The Murder of Maury Miller (AD&D 2E)
58, 69, 80, 91, 108, 138: Challenge of Champions Series (AD&D 2E, 3E, and 3.5)
59: The Mother’s Curse (AD&D 2E)
61: Jigsaw (AD&D 2E)
64: Last Dance (AD&D 2E)
64: The Mad Chefs of Lac Anchois (AD&D 2E)
66: Operation Manta Ray (AD&D 2E)
69-73: Mere of Dead Men Series (AD&D 2E)
71: Priestly Secrets (AD&D 2E)
75: The Forgotten Man (AD&D 2E)
76: Mertylmane’s Road (AD&D 2E)
81: A Race Agaionst Time (AD&D 2E)

D&D 3E and D&D 3.5 Era:
84: The Harrowing (D&D 3E)
84: Dungeon of the Fire Opal (D&D 3E)
85: Ever-Changing Fortunes (D&D 3E)
86: Anvil of Time (D&D 3E)
87: The Whole Issue, apparently (D&D 3E)
90: Tears for Twilight Hollow (D&D 3E)
91: Kambrinex’s Machinations (D&D 3E)
92: Shadow of the Spider Moon (D&D 3E)
100: Beast of Burden (D&D 3.5)
101: Prison of the Fire Bringer (D&D 3.5)
101: The Chasm Bridge (D&D 3.5)
106: Tammeraut’s Fate (D&D 3.5)
107: Test of the Smoking Eye (D&D 3.5)
109: The Devil Box (D&D 3.5)
112: Maure Castle (D&D 3.5)
113: Practical Magic (D&D 3.5)
115: Steel Shadows (D&D 3.5)
118: Throne of Iuz (D&D 3.5)
119: Wrath of the Abyss (D&D 3.5)
121: The Styes (D&D 3.5)
121: Secrets of the Arch Wood (D&D 3.5)
123: Quicksilver Hourglass (D&D 3.5)
126: The Clockwork Fortress (D&D 3.5)
127: Dungeon of the Crypt (D&D 3.5)
133: Kings of the Rift (D&D 3.5)
134: Home Under the Range (D&D 3.5)
139: Maure Castle, The Greater Halls (D&D 3.5)
144: Diplomacy (D&D 3.5)
145-147: Seeds of Sehan Series (D&D 3.5)
150: The Whole Issue, again
151: Hell’s Heart (D&D 3.5)
152: The Last Breaths of Ashenport (D&D 3.5)
153: Prisoner of Castle Perilous (D&D 3.5)

D&D 4E Era:
161-163: Tears of Ioun Series (D&D 4E)
164: Haven of Bitter Glass (D&D 4E)
164: Worse Than Death (D&D 4E)
166: Storm Tower (D&D 4E)
167: Heart of the Forbidden Forge (D&D 4E)
167: Garaltha’s Anvil (D&D 4E)
176: Dead by Dawn (D&D 4E)
176: Cross City Race (D&D 4E)
184: Lord of the White Field (D&D 4E)
192: Evard’s Shadow (D&D 4E)
194: Leader of the Pack (D&D 4E)
196: Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut (D&D 4E)
197-200: Against the Giants Series (D&D 4E)

There are several lists of series in these that I feel should be rated based on their component parts. Also, the issue had sections about the Adventure Paths so there are surprisingly few individual segments called out, leaving many that I feel are quite good adventures without mention. To rectify this, I am also including a list of all the AP adventures, some merely okay with most quite good.

Shackled City:
97: Life’s Bazaar (D&D 3E)
98: Flood Season (D&D 3E)
102: Zenith Trajectory (D&D 3.5)
104: The Demonskar Legacy (D&D 3.5)
107: Test of the Smoking Eye (D&D 3.5)
109: Secrets of the Soul Pillars (D&D 3.5)
111: Lords of Oblivion (D&D 3.5)
113: Foundation of Flame (D&D 3.5)
114: Thirteen Cages (D&D 3.5)
115: Strike on Shatterhorn (D&D 3.5)
116: Asylum (D&D 3.5)

Age of Worms:
124: The Whispering Cairn (D&D 3.5)
125: Three Faces of Evil (D&D 3.5)
126: Encounter at Blackwall Keep (D&D 3.5)
127: The Hall of Harsh Reflections (D&D 3.5)
128: The Champion’s Belt (D&D 3.5)
129: A Gathering of Winds (D&D 3.5)
130: The Spire of Long Shadows (D&D 3.5)
131: The Prince of Redhand (D&D 3.5)
132: The Library of Last Resort (D&D 3.5)
133: Kings of the Rift (D&D 3.5)
134: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure (D&D 3.5)
135: Dawn of a New Age (D&D 3.5)

Savage Tide:
139: There is No Honor (D&D 3.5)
140: The Bullywug Gambit (D&D 3.5)
141: The Sea Wyvern’s Wake (D&D 3.5)
142: Here There Be Monsters (D&D 3.5)
143: Tides of Dread (D&D 3.5)
144: The Lightless Depths (D&D 3.5)
145: City of Broken Idols (D&D 3.5)
146: Serpents of Scuttlecove (D&D 3.5)
147: Into the Maw (D&D 3.5)
148: Wells of Darkness (D&D 3.5)
149: Enemies of my Enemy (D&D 3.5)
150: Prince of Demons (D&D 3.5)

Scales of War:
156: Rescue at Rivenroar (D&D 4E)
157: Siege at Bordin’s Watch (D&D 4E)
158: Shadow Rift of the Umbraforge (D&D 4E)
159: The Lost Mine of Karak (D&D 4E)
160: Den of the Destroyer (D&D 4E)
161: The Temple Between (D&D 4E)
162: Fist of Mourning (D&D 4E)
163: Beyond the Mottled Tower (D&D 4E)
164: Haven of the Bitter Glass (D&D 4E)
165: Alliance at Nefelus (D&D 4E)
166: Throne of the Stone-Skinned King (D&D 4E)
167: Garathia’s Anvil (D&D 4E)
168: A Tyranny of Souls (D&D 4E)
170: Betrayal at Monadhan (D&D 4E)
171: Grasp of the Mantled Citadel (D&D 4E)
172: Legacy of Io (D&D 4E)
173: Those Once Loyal (D&D 4E)
174: Test of Fire (D&D 4E)
175: Terror of Tiamat (D&D 4E)

Grand Lodge

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Joshua Goudreau wrote:
It doesn't look like any of those (Ray chose) are post #150.

This is correct. Mine are from Dungeon 1, 8-150 -- excluding the 12 from Savage Tide because I'm still avoiding spoilers and hoping to find someone to DM that campaign for me..

Others are absolutely encouraged to discuss adventures WotC published post 150 but I do not acknowledge them. (More than) enough said.

Grand Lodge

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Hey Josh, it looks like it's just us for now -- how 'bout we share some commentary?...

What do you think of my TOP 10?
And my "Greats" (from off the top of my head).
And the copy/paste I did of my recount of Chris Perkins adventures in the Bruce Cordell Leaves WotC Thread from a year or so ago?
.

My thoughts on your (very cool) list:

"House of Cards" by Randy Maxwell

Spoiler:
Easily an "A List" adventure for me. I struggled with it but chose not to include it on my brief, hmmm, "as now unofficial" list of Greats because, I dunno, for such a great idea for a dungeon crawl, it just doesn't play that spectacularly as a dungeon crawl.

The back story is really good -- and I do like Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep. But with "House of Cards," after you get past the backstory and enter the dungeon -- which is very small -- the encounters fall flat, compared that is, to the other greats.

What is it that Dungeon 150 says about the Randy Maxwell adventure: A dungeon where the doors are made from a Deck of Many Things must be awesome, right? But it's not. A bit of a let down.

Still a great adventure, and I may yet include it on an all-time list, but I didn't yesterday.

I love that you put it first on your list, what do you remember from DMing (or playing) it?

"Kingdom of the Ghouls" by Wolfgang Baur

Spoiler:
Ooh boy do we agree on this one! I wish, I WISH Baur had been given a greater word count to play with for this masterpiece. Compared to "Umbra" by Chris Perkins, Kingdom is tiny. If their word counts were similar the Baur adventure would solidly beat the Perkins adventure. As it is I have a hard time picking the better one. Perkins' is better but of course it is because of the x4! word count.

But come on...
The Borg invade the Underdark and the drow, mind flayers, beholders, duergar, kua toa, etc., etc., are fleeing to the surface!
Are you kidding me!?! And the PCs have to go into the Underdark to kill the True Ghouls! And the True Ghouls had even made an alliance with another Underdark race! What a friggen GREAT idea for a D&D adventure.

Hey Josh, have you ever thought of the True Ghouls as D&D's (Baur's) version of the Borg? Like it?...

"Last Dance" by Jeff Crook

Spoiler:
This is one that, for me, could almost be on my Greats list. But while that (and "Falls Run") are two really good Ravenloft adventures in Dungeon, I still don't think it (they) hold up to "Horror's Harvest" by Chris Perkins. (I ranked as his #8 best adventure.)

I would put "Horror's Harvest" on my Greats list pretty easily, and certainly before "Last Dance."

I'll say this, though, for all the chaos going on in Dungeon at the time -- remember that issue was the one published after an eight-month, non-announced, gap in service when the magazine was essentially canceled, Spectacular adventure.

.... Hmm, we'll have to agree to disagree about "Hunt for a Hierophant." I thought it was kinda boring.

.... I think lots and lots of folks would absolutely agree with you that "Beast of Burden" deserves to be on a Best of list. I just wasn't, for whatever reason, excited or even interested on the, err, "genius location?," of the adventure. And that adventure is only all about the location.

.... "The Styes." Richard Pett. Greatest. Adventure. Dungeon. EVER. published.

Here's the question: Which did you like better, the original published in Dungeon 121 or the version Pett wrote for the Carrion Crown AP which is just a blatant and gross reprint of the original.

(I'm still not sure if Pett thought he'd just take his old adventure and tweak a few names so as to fit in Carrion Crown or if James Jacobs asked him to remake "The Styes" to fit Carrion Crown and Pett agreed.)

Hey Josh, what did you think of Pett's sequel to "The Styes," "The Weavers" in Dungeon 138?

....

Hey, I'd love to hear about "Last Breaths of Ashenport" if you have time.

That's an Eberron adventure?...

Liberty's Edge

It does seem to just be us. Also, post #150 wasn't an era for everyone, so that's fair. However, with Chris Perkins back in charge, he did some really interesting things despite the limitations of the new medium and rules.

I did some poking and reading and it looks like Pett didn't do one of the Carrion Crown installments. He did the module Carrion Hill however, which was great and also Lovecraftian horror. I think you may be thinking of Greg Vaughan's Wake of the Watcher. There are a lot of similarities between that AP installment and The Styes but I think that is because both are based heavily on HP Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth, which is some awesome horror adventure fodder. I never got to play or run The Weavers but being a Pett adventure I bet it's great. He's pretty spot on with his writing.

Last Breaths of Ashenport is another adventure that draws heavily from this story and thus maintains some heavy similarities to the above adventures. It was first released for 3.5 in issue #153 but was updated to 4E in issue #156. I prefer the #156 version because the presentation is better, with better maps and art, as well as clearer explanation of a few parts. Mostly it's a word for word reprint, but the parts that are changed, aside from the obvious rules changes, make for a clearer presentation. I really enjoyed it despite the fact that it retreads a lot of the ground covered by The Styes because it is seldom we get a good horror from the depth of the sea adventure. As a Maine native, there is a certain mystery to the sea that is hard to capture in RPGs, especially D&D/Pathfinder, so it's nice when something does.

Hunt for a Hirophant requires a little explanation as to why I listed it and why it jumps to the forefront of my mind when I think of great Dungeon adventures. It really doesn't offer much in the way of great writing or design or such, but I got a TON of mileage out of this adventure. It's been years since I touched that issue, but I could probably still run it from memory.

The list I made were just the first ones I thought of and probably not what I would list as the 10 best if I spent some time going through the issues and refreshing my memory.

House of Cards jumps out at me because of the concept. It does the same thing as Chadranther's Bane in that it really thinks outside the box and delivers a concept that is unique and intriguing. I agree that House gets pretty clunky a couple of times with random monsters being summoned from the cards, but it's still a neat way to use the deck. Also, having a deck of many things I could photocopy and use as a gaming prop was pretty neat and got a lot of use around my table. Beast of Burden was another one that grabs an interesting and different concept and uses it. I recommended this one to a friend when she was prepping a game because she wanted some kind of monster too big to fight akin to Shadow of the Colossus. When she ran it she changed the gnolls to drow and the beast to a giant spider stomping through the underdark and it was a lot of fun to play.

Speaking of the underdark, I enjoyed Kingdom of the Ghouls because it was an underdark adventure that wasn't just an excuse for a giant dungeon crawl. I really don't know how the editors at TSR didn't get that submission and immediately decide to flesh it out, give it some nice artwork, and release it as a regular module. I never really thought about the true ghouls as being like the Borg before but I just went and leafed through the adventure again and they do kind of have that ever moving always hungry aspect to them. This is another adventure that channels Lovecraft and that is certainly a theme in the gaming I enjoy.

Last Dance was another one that I only played and I'm not familiar with Horror's Heart I don't think. I remember when my paladin waled into the dead body show it was pretty epic. That was a really fun Ravenloft campaign because we were all into the weird horror of it but weren't afraid to have fun too. This adventure does both, I feel. The NPC, described as a cannonball with legs if I remember correctly, was a lot of fun to interact with, even if my pally was rather unimpressed with what she had been doing.

In my list above, I meant to list Kings of the Rift not Library of Last Resort from AoW AP. Dragons vs giants as the party dives headlong into insanity and tries not to get killed in the crossfire. It's a heist adventure with balls out D&D crashing all around. How is that not awesome?

I haven't read or played Umbra but you are certainly making me want to now. Nor have I read or played Prophyry House Horror but I have heard a lot of good things about it. I'm also not familiar with Interlopers of Ruun Khazai and Fiend's Embrace I don't think. I'll have to look and see if I have issue #92 though I think I do. I have a pretty complete collection with only a handful of missing issues.

Tammeraut's Fate is what Greg Vaughan does best, unpredictable and insanely fun scenarios and encounters. When the zombies come back to the hermitage was a freaken blast to run. Vaughan is easily one of my favorite adventure designers. He became as such when I ran Touch of the Abyss and realized he was the same guy who did this adventure. I really need to get a copy of Slumbering Tsar.

I didn't read or play Lear, Great King but I did play in the adventure that was based on The Tempest and I wasn't very impressed so, despite being a Shakespeare fan, I didn't look up the other two. I am guessing they were better if you listed one here.

I'll have to go through the issues and make a for real list of my favorites to replace the off the top of my head list. I'll spend some time with the post #150 issues too so if you feel like tracking down a copy or two you can see some of the highlights of the era. Personally, I'm not a fan of 4E and never really enjoyed playing it so the adventures I ran from it I converted over to other systems but there are still some gems in there.

Grand Lodge

Joshua Goudreau wrote:
Pett didn't do one of the Carrion Crown installments.

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Pathfinder vol. 44, "Trial of the Beast" is part two of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path and was, indeed, written by Richard Pett. And really IS just a rewritten copy of his masterpiece, "The Styes" (IMO)

(Who, oddly enough, favorited a couple of my earlier posts in this Thread -- wow, Thanks, Pett; now participate in the Thread. Tell us your favorite Nic Logue adventure, at least. ;)

Grand Lodge

Joshua Goudreau wrote:
As a Maine native...

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Hey cool, where in Maine?
Are you from "the northern Massachusetts" part of Maine that, er, real Mainers gripe about (or so I've heard) or are you from the upper 2/3s of Maine and wake up with four moose in your yard everyday and own your own freshwater spring?

[/Threadjack]

Grand Lodge

Check out this Thread from 6 years ago. Back when I still posted as "Molech."

Grand Lodge

"Headless" by James Jacobs is my "Hunt for a Hierophant." A good adventure that I absolutely LOVE. And got tons of mileage out of. What's funny though, and I parade it as often as I can, is that much of my mileage out of it came before it was even published.... It's one of three early James Jacobs adventures that, I swear to god, I created uncannily similar versions of and DMed long before I discovered Dungeon. That and "Twilight's Last Gleaming" especially, it's weird, I ran adventures practically identical to those years before Jacobs wrote them.
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Joshua wrote:
When (my friend) ran ("Beast of Burden") she changed the gnolls to drow and the beast to a giant spider stomping through the underdark.

I love it! How 'bout a Golarion redo "Beast of Burden" with a Spawn of Rovagug!

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Joshua wrote:
I really don't know how the editors at TSR didn't get ("Kingdom of the Ghouls") and immediately decide to flesh it out, give it some nice artwork, and release it as a regular module.

Me either.

The Bron cover painting is AWESOME, though! One of the BEST covers in the mag's history.
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"Horror's Harvest"
Okay here goes (Looks like the blurb I wrote in that "Chris Perkins" post from a year ago is kinda lame -- blame it on my getting tired of writing that post): A falling rock from space lands out in the woods next to some peasant's farm and the PCs go investigate. Turns out the rock is a great incubator for an ineffably evil Plant Creature with psionic mind-control powers that immediately starts taking control of the nearby peasants. (Sound like a volume of Second Darkness AP, anyone?)

It's greatly reminiscent of the 1E Modules "The Village of Hommlet" and "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" except that instead of creepy cultist villagers who will work against the PCs, its creepy "controlled" villagers -- like through an Intellect-Devourer thing. Chris Perkins says his inspiration was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But the best part is the end after the PCs, having almost died trying to destroy this horror, see another falling rock from the sky. And another. And another.
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"Kings of the Rift"!!!!
Damn-it I got confused, too! If you take a look at my quickly-cobbled "Greats" list you'll notice the first is "Heart of Hellfire Mountain." That's the adventure I was confusing "Kings of the Rift" with. It's "Kings of the Rift" that's supposed to be my perhaps #11 adventure from Dungeon.

"Heart of Hellfire Mountain" is GREAT. Very similar in its grand scope and its style. But it came after "Kings of the Rift" and it doesn't quite reach the scope of Vaughan's adventure. Best part is the homage to King Snurre of G3: the Fire-Giant King Snurreson!
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Joshua wrote:
Vaughan is easily one of my favorite adventure designers.

Easily. One of the GREATS

"Tammeraut's Fate," The Istivin Trilogy and "Kings of the Rift" are just the beginning. I'd argue that he's also the best adventure writer for Pathfinder, too.
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"Spirits of the Tempest" is great. I don't think it quite deserves to be on a top 50 list but it's really close! Unfortunately, "Dark Thane MacBeth," the other of Selinker's ode-to-Shakespeare adventures is average at best.
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Quote:
I'll have to go through the issues and make a for real list of my favorites

Ayup.

How bout this, we make three: A top 10, ranked 1-10; an 11-25 in any order; a 26-50 in any order.

Liberty's Edge

W E Ray wrote:
Joshua Goudreau wrote:
Pett didn't do one of the Carrion Crown installments.

.

Pathfinder vol. 44, "Trial of the Beast" is part two of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path and was, indeed, written by Richard Pett. And really IS just a rewritten copy of his masterpiece, "The Styes" (IMO)

(Who, oddly enough, favorited a couple of my earlier posts in this Thread -- wow, Thanks, Pett; now participate in the Thread. Tell us your favorite Nic Logue adventure, at least. ;)

Wow, how the hell did I miss that? I guess I failed my perception test on that one. I guess I'll have to look closer and give my opinion.

I'm from the part of Maine no one likes to talk about; Lewiston, aka The Dirty Lew. It's in Cental Maine, which interestingly enough is no where near the actual, geographical center of Maine.

Also, yes Mr. Pett, chime in please. I would love to hear a contributor's opinion.

Liberty's Edge

Heart of Hellfire Mountain didn't really grab me when i read it. It reads like a simple dungeon crawl, albeit, a high-level one. Speaking of high-level adventures, I really enjoyed The Razing of Redshore. Ultra high-level design is not an easy thing but the pages of Dungeon always seemed to nail it. It's too bad that so few of the same designers and writers make attempts at it with Pathfinder these days.

There is a thread going on right now about the best authors for Pathfinder and plenty of familiar names are cropping up. It's interesting to see some of the folks that wrote the best Dungeon adventures are still in the game.

W E Ray wrote:

"Horror's Harvest"

Okay here goes (Looks like the blurb I wrote in that "Chris Perkins" post from a year ago is kinda lame -- blame it on my getting tired of writing that post): A falling rock from space lands out in the woods next to some peasant's farm and the PCs go investigate. Turns out the rock is a great incubator for an ineffably evil Plant Creature with psionic mind-control powers that immediately starts taking control of the nearby peasants.

Well I certainly need to check this one out in that case. Perkins did some great adventures.

W E Ray wrote:
"Spirits of the Tempest" is great. I don't think it quite deserves to be on a top 50 list but it's really close! Unfortunately, "Dark Thane MacBeth," the other of Selinker's ode-to-Shakespeare adventures is average at best.

My unimpressed memories may be coming from the rather crap GM who ran it. He seemed to enjoy the fact that he got to strip our friend's mage character away from his staff of the magi more than anything else.

W E Ray wrote:
How 'bout a Golarion redo "Beast of Burden" with a Spawn of Rovagug!

I figure if part of a city can be built in the husk of one someone could build a dungeon on one. Hmmmmmm, I smell an AP hook....

W E Ray wrote:
How bout this, we make three: A top 10, ranked 1-10; an 11-25 in any order; a 26-50 in any order.

I'm down for this. It might be a couple days before I really get to scour my back issues, but I will give it a shot.

Contributor

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Heh heh, sorry, there are some large matters afoot for me just now, good things but time consuming, so I've had to just lurk while you were chatting.

Ooo, best Logue adventure - tough choice, there are so many mediocre ones...I'd have to say as much as I'm loathed to that Quoth the Raven (Dungeon#150) takes some beating as an adventure full stop. Nic was coming up to speed to the maximum of his powers then and it was really annoyingly good. Although I obviously can't say it to him, I'm looking forward to seeing what he's come up with for Iron Gods, he is a genius.

W.E. if you think Beast was very Styes (and you are of course correct), then Levee, which is a 9-part urban horror AP set in a city called the Blight should be your sort of thing. It's due out next year from Frog God Games and has been giving me sleepless nights for about the last 18 months writing all 400K or so of it - city and AP together. It's left me with a mighty respect for James, Wes, Erik and Rob as it is tough to do. It is like the Styes, but more bloated and horrible and fleshy...

The session we play-tested on Monday was unsettling, and I wasn't quite sure if the testers were glad or not, but it was very nasty. I hope you'll both have a look and see if you can support it in some way when it does slither out. Sadly that dandy skin-stitcher Greg Vaughan is handling overseeing the project, and then I'll have to have him walled up alive.

I agree wholeheartedly about Tammeraut's Fate, when I read it I asked Paizo for Greg's email so I could tell him how much I loved it. Chris Perkins is indeed a master adventure-writer, as is the unsettlingly nice Mr Baur, while Willie Walsh is a name I'd always remember very fondly as his adventures are mad. I wish he'd do some more.

There are some fabulous adventures in that list:)

Huzzah!
Pett

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I should add that when Wes was assigning Carrion Crown he asked me to write Beast, but I was desperate to write Wake.

So, I had a verbal duel with Vaughan to secure writing Wake of the Watcher involving sarcasm, lovecraft references, threats about cellars and finally bare-knuckle fist-fighting, all of which he won, which still annoys me:)

Tekeli-li!

Grand Lodge

Joshua Goudreau wrote:

"Heart of Hellfire Mountain" didn't really grab me when i read it. It reads like a simple dungeon crawl, albeit, a high-level one. Speaking of high-level adventures, I really enjoyed "The Razing of Redshore". Ultra high-level design is not an easy thing but the pages of Dungeon always seemed to nail it. It's too bad that so few of the same designers and writers make attempts at it with Pathfinder these days.

There is a thread going on right now about the best authors for Pathfinder and plenty of familiar names are cropping up. It's interesting to see some of the folks that wrote the best Dungeon adventures are still in the game.

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I think we're roughly on the same page with "Heart of Hellfire Mountain." I think it's good but completely agree that it's pretty simple. I think the Grognardian in me just lit up a bit with King Snurreson.

"Razing of Redshore" is one of those, for me at least, great idea -- product fell short. The backstory is incredibly well thought out and original. I absolutely love the whole Druid/ giant whale story but it seemed that after that there wasn't much to the actual adventure.

Of course you're right, high level design is ridiculously difficult. Seems like it's just page after page of stat blocks. (One of the things I love about "Diplomacy" is that it doesn't fall too far in that caveat.

.... To what Thread are you referring as the Best Authors conversation; can you provide a link?

Grand Lodge

"Wake of the Watcher" was merely okay in my experience. I should note that I ran a PC in Carrion Craown; I did not DM it. I think that the reason I didn't overly enjoy it was that my experience playing through "Broken Moon" was bad. I still consider that a weak adventure and "Wake of the Watcher" didn't pick it up for me much. "Ashes at Dawn," on the other hand, brought me right back in. It turned out to be a great campaign despite the weak middle. For me, Carrion Crown is great because of vol.s 1, 2, 5 & 6 -- though 6 was not due to design but due to great hack-n-slash encounter after great hack-n-slash encounter and how it juxtaposed with "Ashes at Dawn's" (relative) lack of combat.

For the record, I'm glad Pett got "Trial of the Beast" instead of "Wake of the Watcher." (Not that that means anything to anyone but me, but, well...)

Liberty's Edge

This is the thread about favorite authors:

Name the four best adventure writers for Pathfinder

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Richard Pett wrote:
if you think Beast was very Styes (and you are of course correct), then Levee, which is a 9-part urban horror AP set in a city called the Blight should be your sort of thing. It's due out next year from Frog God Games and has been giving me sleepless nights for about the last 18 months writing all 400K or so of it - city and AP together.

This is some of the most amazing news I have heard in a very long time. I have grown to have tons of respect for the folks at FGG and an urban AP penned entirely by you Mr. Pett is something I will gladly throw my money at.

EDIT: Apparently I enjoy throwing my money in a manner that involves ending sentences with prepositions.

Grand Lodge

I'm going to go through the adventures starting a bit this weekend and into the week, so I should be ready by the end of the week.

And as long as you guys promise not to tell anybody,... back when Dungeon was first cancelled I did print out the free material that WotC put out for a couple months -- very probably including "Last Breaths of Ashenport" which is why the title is familiar to me. I figured, heck, these were the adventures Paizo would have published in issues 151, 152, etc.; they were slated to print anyway and getting them made losing the magazines somewhat less harsh.

So I will include those adventures should any stand out as being spectacular.

(I remember the Ari Marmel(sp?) Return to Tsojcanth adventure with the background on Tsojcanth. It was okay but I wasn't willing to really accept the background as Greyhawk Canon. Turns out, a few years later one of my best buddies, a MONSTER Greyhawk guy, ran a Tsojcanth campaign and I loaned him the WotC adventure in case he wanted some further inspiration for his design. He didn't like the background adventure either.)


This thread is a fun read.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I can't take the full time I would need to this excellent thread due to the fact that I'm in a time crunch as I am editing/updating "The Pit" (Randal S. Doering/Dungeon Issue 17) for a short 2nd ed game tomorrow.

I would like to throw in "The Pit" (no pun intended, I think)

- Ruins of Nol-Daer (issue 13)
- The Moor Tomb Map (issue 13, one of my players who had a downed ranger had his head chopped off by the bandit leader Dougal. He was horrified when it happened!)
- Masquerader
- The Master of Puppets (with Qhyjanoth - bad ass Monk/Magic-User)
- Treasure Vault of Kasil (again, Issue 13)
- Phantasm Chasm (converted to Gamma World - don't ask me how)

These are all off the top of my head and there are a few more in there. I have actually run all of these but the Pit (which I will tomorrow night).

If you could (it would be nice) also include some early era Dragon Magazine modules?

So many overlooked gems out there!

This is a good thread and Dungeon deserves much props - thank you for starting this Joshua!

OK back to work!

Grand Lodge

I like "Ruins of Nol-Daer" as a fun kinda pure hack-n-slasher. Going back these days to that adventure is like a breath of fresh air to a more simple yet more fun, "rowdy," adventure.
The likes that Lord Robilar would enjoy.
Erik Mona's few adventures are a bit like this (no surprise that'd be his style, right), as is "Champion's Belt," "Risen from the Sands" and maybe even "Seven Swords of Sin" (for the traps).

There's a handful of really good ones like that from early Dungeon: "Into the Fire" is the obvious one but also "Wrastle with Bertrum," "Is There an Elf in the House," "Alicorn," "Dovedale," "Assault on Eddistone Point" and maybe even "The Wererats of Relfen."

But I prefer the early thought provokers: "Firegiant's Daughter," "Siege of Kratys Freehold," "Wards of Witching Ways," and "Elephant's Graveyard," those kinds of adventures, to the good olde, fun-loving murder-hobo adventures.

"Master of Puppets" is great (the Metallica song is greater still), one of the top 5 1st Ed. adventures in Dungeon.

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Regarding Dragon, you know I never really thought the pre-Dungeon adventures were very good.

My love of Githyanki certainly led to my enjoyment of "Fedifensor" in #67. But adventures such as "Doomkeep," "The Chapel of Silence," "The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga," "The City Beyond the Gate," and "The House in the Frozen Lands" are all overrated. I know people still talk about them as being good (especially Roger Moore's Baba Yaga adventure and The City, probably because it's in London) but really, those adventures just aren't very strong.

"Aesirhamar" was pretty good. And still probably one of the top 5 "Norse" adventures ever done. But that ain't saying much; it's hard to come up with five good Norse adventures all time, let alone a 5 "best."

Dark Archive

W E Ray wrote:

"Wake of the Watcher" was merely okay in my experience ...

For the record, I'm glad Pett got "Trial of the Beast" instead of "Wake of the Watcher." (Not that that means anything to anyone but me, but, well...)

I haven't played or GMed Carrion Crown, but Wake didn't really grab me when I read through it.

It seemed to want to shoehorn in as many different mythos monsters as possible, thereby diminishing the effect each individual one had. As a player, I'd probably have found myself distracted by the urge to play "mythos monster bingo". I did like the bathysphere though!


"Diplomacy" from Dungeon 144 is one of my favorite adventures, and possibly the greatest non-combat adventure I've ever read. As is "The Lightless Depths", also from that issue.

If there is a challenger to Diplomacy, it would be The Prince of Redhand, from Dungeon 13- something. Let's say 131, and I totally didn't cheat and look at Josh's list.

Possibly the most fun I've had DMing would have been Chapters 2-4 of The Savage Tide. The Bullywug Gambit, Sea Wyvern's Wake and Here there be Monsters were all top notch blends of action and interaction that moved along very smoothly from one point to the next.

Two of the best I've read (unfortunately not played nor DMed) would be The Styes and Chimes at Midnight. The settings were very evocative and made me want to experience them from one side of the screen or the other.

Liberty's Edge

I really need to get back to this. I've had some major life issues, so don't think I just forgot about it. lol

Grand Lodge

"Diplomacy" is great -- probably on my "Big" list. It's just so hard to get all the great material into such a high-level adventure. When you get past the (quite brilliant) negotiation-between-Powers concept, the actual details are only above average. Still, the idea is great and the fact you you don't have to fight -- really cool.

"Prince of Redhand" is hard for me to judge -- I DMed it as part of the greatest, most successful campaign in my 30 years of gaming -- but I modified it SO heavily that I can only honestly say half of what I did was Redhand.
I remember not liking several parts of "the dinner festivities" and loving others -- but I probably was only looking for things for my then-current campaign. I'd have to go back and reread it, without my campaign bias.
The best part of our gaming Redhand, to illustrate what I mean, was the pinata contest -- except that I had Prince Zeech make the Pinata out of the PC's Group Name -- a Cockatrice (The PCs called themselves "The Order of the Cockatrice"). That was so specific to my campaign it's hard to judge how good the published adventure is.

Liberty's Edge

Sorry this fell by the wayside guys, I separated and became estranged from my fiance of three and a half years. Predictably, I haven't had the time or focus to do this.


Joshua Goudreau wrote:
I know this forum has started to die...

Sorry to hear about the relationship's troubles Joshua. But I'm very interested in what you mean by this - this particular subforum, or Paizo.com?

Grand Lodge

No worries, Josh, real life is more important than the Boards.

As for me, I just flat out didn't have time to properly start going through all those adventures. One day....

Liberty's Edge

I meant this thread specifically. The messageboards here at Paizo.com remain vibrant and active. Thank you for the sympathies guys, I really want to get to this because it seems like it will be a lot of fun, but I just don't have the time or concentration to contribute right now.


*Raises Thread*

I don't have every issue of Dungeon, but I do have every issue since the start of the Mere of Dead Men series. And a couple from beforehand.

In a recent fit of boredom and inspiration, I flipped through all my issues, noting what aspects I liked. Not just adventures, mind, but NPCs as well. Rather than listing favourite adventures, I'm going to list my favourite NPCs, in order that I found them:

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Agrovale
(A Rose for Talakara, #25)

This adventure I didn't overly like. A powerful sorceress lord who rules over her own kingdom, but holes up in a crumbling old castle that happens to border untamed wildlands that on the other side is where the characters are. That setup just seemed kind of silly.

Agrovale, however, I loved. A Skeleton Warrior who used to be an honourable knight, and still tries to live up to those ideals. He also enjoys gardening. Numerous little descriptions just endeared me to him. It's especially unfortunate that the players may never actually meet him, or catch on to much of his behaviour. One odd behaviour that I liked was the description of the bed in his chambers, which was just a stone slab. Being an undead skeleton, he didn't need to sleep, but he liked to lay down while plotting and planning, or just to let his thoughts wander.

The adventure I probably will never use, but this guy I probably will.

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Bisquayne
(Challenge of Champions series)

This is an odd choice, as no stats or description is ever given to Bisquayne. The closest is a mention in one adventure of Bisquayne passing around the list for the betting pool, asking people to contribute to 'his' victory fund. And then the end of the adventure features:

Quote:
Bisquayne and his teammates argue noisily in the corner, engaged in a vociferous discussion about where exactly the blame should be placed for their poor showing. It is difficult to make out individual voices as everyone talks at once, but phrases like "total incompetence," "completely useless," and "better off without you," are hurled about with abandon. It seems Bisquayne's problem-solving skills leave something to be desired, at least in the eyes of his teammates.

I'm not certain, but I suspect Bisquayne's Army is the only recurring team among all of the Challenges. Well, somewhat. Another weird bit of the story is the team. I don't know how Bisquayne's Army placed in the first CoC (Don't have that issue.) but the second one had them scoring fairly low, but still decently. After that, Bisquayne's Army is consistently the lowest scoring team. It also goes through some name changes. From "Bisquayne's Army," to "Bisquayne's New Army," to "Bisquayne's final army," to "Bisquayne's Absolutely Final Army And This Time I Really Mean It."

The final CoC features The Army Without Bisquayne who score 370 points out of a possible 400, probably winning the tournament unless the PCs really clean house.

I find myself intrigued with Bisquayne, and have wanted to meet John Richards and ask him if there's a story behind him. Quite a bit of info around a person whose class is never shown. For some reason, I see him as a pompous paladin with a ridiculous handlebar moustache.

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Eric Ulmade
(The Forgotten Man, #75)

The Forgotten Man is one of my favourite adventures, and Eric is one of my favourite NPCs.

For some reason, I find that most liches are almost always the same. Evil Wizard who turned to undeath to further his research and his power. There are variations from this theme, but everyone I've seen seems to fall back to that mention.

Eric, however, is a bard who became a lich. It describes how he still loves art and music, (With a note that his art has become pretty twisted as of late.) as well as preforming. While he could just level the village the PCs start in to get what he wants, he instead comes in under numerous disguise spells as a puppeteer, putting on a puppet show for the audience.

Even past his cover, it's shown he doesn't really like his lich status, but does so out of loyalty to his dark patrons. Like Agrovale above, there's several small details that add up to make a compelling character.

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Glimmerpane
Critical Threat article, #127

I was never terribly fond of the Critical Threat articles. Most of the characters just seemed weirdly designed or felt generic. It was interesting when they statted famous characters, like Warduke or Evard, but nothing major.

But THIS guy. Glimmerpane isn't a human. It's an intelligent Mirror of Opposition. Created as part of a long-forgotten Mage War, it now manipulates events with the evil duplicates it creates (And has full control over) replacing key people and twisting things to its desires. Its weakness is that there are command words to control it, and it has gone to great lengths (even using Wishes it was able to acquire) to destroy the knowledge of those command words.

This caught me by surprise, and I suspect it'll catch players by surprise, too. They'll suspect wizards, or doppleganges, but who's going to suspect a mirror?

Intelligent magic items as enemies and NPCs is a great idea. Especially as the main bad guy of an adventure, if not a whole campaign.

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Sosias
(Home Under The Range, #134)

Continuing my love of intelligent magical items, this is an intelligent Rope of Climbing and Entanglement. Not as detailed or amazing as Glimmerpane above, but still a neat idea. It used to be the servant of an Erinyes who was buried alive in a cave-in nearly a hundred years ago, and was only recently able to work its way through an entire collapsed cave to freedom. Now it works to free its mistress.

I especially loved the image of it in its favourite form of a macramé cobra, entangling an PC while a Tiefling minion tries to attack the PC. Again, just a neat idea overall.

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Vanthus Vanderboren
(Savage Tied Adventure Path, #139-150)

One issue with most adventures, at least in medieval fantasy, is that you can't really have a recurring nemesis, because the PCs will use every opportunity they encounter the individual to kill them off for good. The adventure path does a good job of making the PCs pissed off at Vanthus, and advancing with the PCs. He starts human, becomes half-demon, gets killed, raises again as a death knight, flees to the abyss after abducting his sister, the PC's patron, and gets killed again. He even makes one final appearance as a larva in the final adventure. It's tricky, but I think the campaign did a good job of making the PCs hate Vanthus while managing to keep him returning time and time again.


Found this thread on a random Dungeon Mag nostalgia search. Definitely agree with Forgotten Man as both my favorite DMag adventure and best villain. I also put Dark Magic in New Orleans (2nd Ed / Issue #71) on my all time greats list.

Has anyone ever posted "translations" of some of these old adventures into Pathfinder format? Just curious.

(Sorry for bumping an ancient thread.)

Grand Lodge

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@Trigger Loaded,
Ahhh, I love when this Thread gets resurrected, so sorry I just now found your post nine months later.

"A Rose for Talakara" is one of my all time favorites and yes, it's mostly because of Agrovale.
....I used Agrovale and The Rose in a campaign only two years ago -- making Agrovail's mistress (I forget her name) a worshiper of Razmiran of all people. It just seemed to fit perfectly. The overall campaign was in Varisia and it was mostly a "Lady of the Mists" campaign (Dungeon 42). Powerful NPCs were coming to wilderness Varisia from all over to find a rumored elixer of life-extension (one not from Thuvia) and Razmiran sending Agrovail's mistress just seemed perfect.

"Challenge of Champions" is an odd choice, you're right. I didn't even know about Bisquayne 'till you told me about him and I use puzzles from all of them from time to time. #6 is the one I use the most; I think those puzzles are the best of the series.
....I'll try to find a few hours in the next week or so to look up #1 and answer your question about how his team placed.

"The Forgotten Man" was listed in the Dungeon Top 10 Best Adventures for a reason. Personally, I only thought it was a "good" adventure, maybe "very good" -- but I don't think I ever called it great. My players may tell you it's because I hate Bards. In any event -- I still absolutely respect your pick. Ulmade is a great choice in a very well known adventure even if he's not one of my favs.

"Home Under the Range" is one of those great why-didn't-I-think-of-that adventures that doesn't get tons of notoriety. And you're right, it's because of the unusual nature of the villain, a magic item. I remember thinking it felt a bit like an homage to The Ghost Tower of Inverness where the treasure the PCs are trying to get at the end of the adventure is the main enemy they have to fight.

Savage Tide -- I'm still avoiding spoilers on this campaign, hoping to one day find someone to DM for me. Vanthus Vanderboren is one of the two spoilers that somehow got through. I don't actually know anything about him but I think we the PCs think he's a good guy who turns out to be a Death Knight. Please DO NOT correct me if I'm wrong or give me any other info or clues regarding him. (Obviously, I didn't read your paragraph about why you like him.)


Apologies if this is considered off-topic, but I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the players, editors, and designers who've so fondly remembered the works my brother and I created for Dungeon Magazine some 20 years ago.

To find out that "Into the Fire" (Dungeon#1) and "Out of the Ashes" (Dungeon#17) had not one but two anniversary sequels created over the decades (in Dungeon#100 and Dungeon#200) and that "Trouble at Grog's" (Dungeon#4) was reprinted in the Best of Dungeon collection...I'm just stunned.

So many stories have been written by so many great designers over the years, to have some of ours remembered is humbling beyond words. Never underestimate the power of the Internet.

Well, sorry for hijacking the thread for a moment. But, speaking for my late little brother David and myself, thanks again for remembering.

Grant Boucher

PS Someone even kindly mentioned the all too cheesy "Wererats of Relfren" (Dungeon#14). :)

Grand Lodge

"Into the Fire" remains, even 29 years later, the best go-kill-the-dragon adventure ever written. It's the brevity and simplicity of it that makes it so memorable -- and of course the incredible Kieth Parkinson painting on the cover. And while "Into the Fire" is neither epic nor grand and may not be comparable to the 100-pages-long adventures about mega dragon wars and continent-sized conflicts, it really doesn't matter: it's a masterpiece.

I'm sorry to hear Dave passed away.


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Thank you for your kind words, W E Ray.

A bit of legend lore behind "Into the Fire":

It was originally a region inside a much larger adventure, submitted to Roger E. Moore for Dragon Magazine. He politely asked if I could split the adventure apart, because it was too damn big. The first part became "Into the Fire". The second part became "The Plight of Cirria" which saw the light of day in Dungeon#9.

I still have the handwritten letter wherein Roger told me A) he wanted "Into the Fire" for the cover feature of the first issue of a magazine he was going to edit (aka Dungeon), and B) he was going to commission a painting by my favorite artist (re: Keith) based on my dragon and his horde. Since this was the first creative writing I had ever done, that letter remains one of my most treasured possessions. :)

Of course, the most important aspect is that it was always a dragon adventure that no one knows is a dragon adventure until it's far too late...

PS I typo'd above (and can't seem to edit the post now, doh). It should indeed say 30 years instead of 20. Thanks for catching that :P


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

At the risk of thread necromancy by association, I have run 'Mad God's Key' several times now, to different groups (and the same one, once) and have had nothing but praise for it each time.

From Dungeon 114, by Jason Bulmahn - the city section works neatly, there is room for role playing and roll playing and the actual blood-filled dungeon is impressive for what is a low level adventure.

The only shame is that there wasn't more of it (officially - I carried it on in my own campaign and even at 12-13th level its ramifications are causing head aches for the players).

For me, it is an example of excellent writing, structuring and entertainment.

Reggie.


@WERay:

Ahh, glad to see you popped in.

-Challenge of Champions: That would be neat if you looked up if Bisquayne's Army was in the first Challenge, and how they did. Like I said, they did decently in the second one, and just dropped like a rock from then on in.

-The Forgotten Man: As I noted, this list wasn't so much my favourite adventurers, but my favourite NPCs. Despite that, the Forgotten Man was still a pretty cool adventure. I liked how it twisted subversions, that the PC's weren't rescuing the hero reborn from evil trying to stop him from fulfilling his destiny, but a villain reborn who was being groomed to fulfill his destiny.

There's also a smart bit of Tucker's Kobolds in the castle, with Gremlins who constantly flit out, dropping alchemical bombs or shooting poison darts at the characters as they travel trough. Smart use of low-level creatures.

Some adventures that stand out in my mind include:

-Tears for Twilight Hollow: I'm not entirely certain why this adventure really stands out with me. There are several elements I didn't like, like how an entire dungeon complex was built under a town with noone the wiser, and the mechanical Beholder I seem to recall being a weird bit of randomness thrown in with no importance to the plot. Still, it really stands out in my mind, and I want to make it a central adventure in a campaign idea of mine.

First, I'd have the group come to the town (Probably change the name) quite a few levels beforehand and get to meet the Shaunnra, the acting marshall, and her headstrong squire/apprentice. Have the characters complete their adventure in town (Evil Unearthed, from #82, the first 3rd edition Dungeon magazine.) and leave, knowing of Shaunnra. Later on, have them come back to town, and meet Andress (The villainess), who I intend to make Shaunnra's twin sister, instead of just her childhood friend turned evil. And the temple base Andress uses is the temple that Kor Bloodaxe was attempting to excavate.

Actually, that's something I've had great fun in doing. Taking various, single adventures, and stringing them together to make my own Adventure Path.

Liberty's Edge

Oh hey look, my thread was resurrected. :)


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A little necromancy goes a long way. ;)


Live! Liiiiiiiive!

Question for "Into the Fire", which I lately acquired.

I'm considering running it via Swords and Wizardry (which I think will work; we'll see).

How long do you think it takes to run through? Do you think it would do...for a Paizocon game? Okay, I thought I could keep the accidental rhyming going longer than that, but I'm lazy.


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re: Into the Fire (spoiler free?)

You could easily shorten the "journey up the mountain" part to save time for a live play session. The keys to the tale are the mystery at the beginning, a few red herrings in the middle (specifically the tower), and the side exploration of a cave nearby...BOOM!

The ending boss was very carefully keyed to 2nd edition with the way his big trap works and the timing/race of that final encounter. With the new Pathfinder creature rules (which are scaled VERY nicely!) I'm not sure what the actual CR of that battle would need to be to work "correctly".

The higher level characters that would now appropriately face such a legendary creature would have MANY more options and one major alteration in the rules regarding the main attack of the big boss materially changes the way that trap/race would play out now.

Yet, lower level characters would necessitate reducing the power of the ending boss to a point where the epic nature of this surprise encounter might feel somewhat anticlimactic given the rich rewards at the end. :(

I guess the easiest solution might be to make the ending boss "special" such that his "main attack" happens per the 2nd edition rules so that this moment of the adventure can proceed as originally planned?

Has anyone out there ran "Into the Fire" in the Pathfinder gaming era? I'd sure like to hear what modifications to CR worked and what didn't.


I'm thinking Swords and Wizardry (which is basically an adaptation of first edition, I understand).

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