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What is your favorite adventure site that's appeared in an adventure in Dungeon?

There's a much bigger difference between my Player and DM perspectives in this question. Some of the best games and experiences can get tied to a location, but it was often because of the work of the DM, not necessarily the source material. As a DM the best stuff must be good material with inspiring depth and mood all leading to a fun experience.

That's why I think Styes deservedly shows up so often.

My personal favourite is Istvan, as also mentioned. I was happily inspired to lay down a few adventures to segue into the 3-part series and it also got my players excited in its consequencees afterwards. Most successful campaign I've run in recent years. I didn't need a whole Adventure Path. Instead it inspired me to create the rest myself.

Which sort of described what happened with Styes, too, although it wasn't an entire campaign. Instead I knew it would be their home base for an extended arc.

Another great inspiration started from a single illustration in Dungeon with Zebra Centaurs. We played the module fine (hunting a T-rex, as I recall), but I was inspired to build a mini-campaign around the location because of the illustration! (I switched from Aztec theme to Zimbabwe and more emphasis on African wildlife.) The players enjoyed it much because it was so different from Middle Earth knock offs.

I'll put the paired subscriptions to Dungeon and Dragon at the top of my recommendations. And this leads well into a point touched on but not addressed above, "What interaction does the DM have with the Players?" For me, I like stuff I can share as a DM with my players. Getting multiple uses from the same item seems like better value. Of course, there's stuff I won't share, too, but it doesn't need to be a huge portion of my budget.

So, Dungeon is wonderful for me, but I won't share it. Instead I encourage my players to pass my Dragon issues around.

For this same reason, I find PH2 one of the better values. I has good stuff I can use plus keep my players happy. I can't share DMG2 or the MM sequels as easily, so I put those at a slightly lower priority. That's a very personal issue and YMMV.

I bought Stormwrack and was very pleased. It got my players excited about a campaign using it in ways I never got them excited about using prior themes.

Since I had no interest in allowing Warlocks in my campaign, dismissed Complete Mage. Unfortunately that makes a big portion of Complete Arcane irrelevant, too. Since I had already invested in Sword/Fist, Songs/Silence, etc, I've been slow on adding the Complete series. Stormwrack was an easier, happier decision.

So I found the Complete series didn't generate the same interest in a campaign that the environment books did. But if you have no plans on including a desert in your campaign, the players might get frustrated over unrealised interests.

One complaint others have already noted is the lack of ""downtime" in the APs. The party is hustled along at considerable speed with no time off to craft items or pursue sidetreks.

Therefore I would like to see 3 arcs. Something like a Low-level (1-5), Mid (7-14) and High (18-20). Yes, I left deliberate gaps. The idea is that the end of each arc has a solid "mission accomplished" feel. The subsequent arcs should have hints that connect to the prior arcs, but have much more independance between them. Still they would evoke a "Loose Ends Reconnect" feel, like how escaped apprentices to earlier bosses have recovered or the broken conspiracy has been rebuilt. The downtime and side treks gave these other foes time...

This provides some of the advantages of an Adventure Path with plenty of options for a DM to adapt to their players. There would be plenty of suitable adventures in Dungeon to fill the gaps for the lazy DM that just wants 1-20, but it should provide a sufficient difference to distinguish it from the current APs.

EDIT: Belated addition. There could be an Epic(21-24) arc in support. There appears to be interest in such but it would be nice to have a break, allowing some folks to ignore it.

Of course, an issue would be the subsequent compilation hardcover. I expect the gaps to be filled with blatant side treks (or campaign seed) material plus good suggestions of how down time might be spent.

Cheers!

Currently I'm just finishing the Dreams to use for the Dream Haunted Trait and then I'll finish with the Nightmare Realm which mimics these dreams...to a point.

I've also finished writing up the Cagewrights, added more foreshadowing and the changes that would needed to be madein 13 Cages & Strike on Shatterhorn.

Wow! I love the many suggestions and will happily grab your collected info. I have two concerns that can easily be handled.

-1- Things shouldn't be too dependent upon any one person. My worry is that with the rate characters die in this arc, a Dream Haunted PC might not be available. There must be alternative suggestion for the DM. Actually this connects to my other concern.

-2- Some of us are running things from the magazine, not the hardcover. Since I'm since early in the arc, I'm a bit fuzzy on later details, but I think the Dream Haunted Trait might be one of those differences.

Sometimes you look at something you've seen before one hundred times, but it just looks wrong today. I've seen plenty of feats, but I was looking at the Academy Graduate from the Savage Tide Player's Guide today and something struck me this time: You rarely see a Feat that makes some skill always a class skill in future. But why not?

Well, when you're taking a new different class there's an explanation why an old skill is now cross-class or prohibited that runs something like you need to practice related skills, not tinker around and improve some old unrelated skill.

So the logic behind Academy Graduate implies, Yes, but thanks to your superior education, you can continue studying old skills (provided those were among the Charisma- or Intelligence-based skills you selected).

Are there game balance issues I'm missing should there be new feats like:

Back Alley Child
You were raised in the back alleys and this School of Hard Knocks leaves you adept at learning urban survival skills.
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on either Gather Information or Sense Motive checks. In addition, these two skills are always considered class skills for you.

Back Woods Rockhopper
You were raised in the back of beyond hopping around the crags and this experience leaves you adept at improving such skills.
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on either Climbing or Jumping checks. In addition, these two skills are always considered class skills for you.

A Feat that grants two +2 skill improvements plus class skill status seems too much and without at least one, seems too strict for 1st level selection. Perhaps they should be restricted to First Level selection only? I'm deliberating pushing the difference between Intelligence-based skills and something else with Rockhopper. Can this be justified in game-balance terms? What do others think?

How about Witch of Serpent's Bridge in Dungeon 95? Has to due with construction of a church and workers being killed. Fits in with the happenings of Cauldron.

Or search the Wyrm's Hoard for a different substitution.
http://www.paladinpgm.com/wyrm/

Dungeon 95 is the one issue I'm missing from the last 3 years of subscribing. I think I hid it so my kids wouldn't be tempted by the "Special Sealed Section" with Vile content, but now I can't find it. I knew my Search and Spot skills weren't strong.

Changes to Part Two of the SCAP is of particular interest to me because I'm using the Magazine version of the Adventure Path, which doesn't have Drathkar like the Hardcover. So although I might substitute anything, I kind of wanted something I could insert a Vampiric Bugbear into, even if the rest was different.

Thanks for the link to Wyrm's Hoard! Browsing is a great help and has given me a couple ideas. My current thought tweaks the recent Home Under the Range from Dungeon 134. The Malachite Fortress has this connection to Underdark that could be explored...

I was just wondering if anyone can offer feedback on the SCAP newsletters I have submitted to www.therpgenius.com, namely the Cauldron Echo. I'm looking to give it some more depth and your views will be appreciated.

I really appreciate them. I was able to use #1 "As Is". I liked how you kept them general enough for others. The Cauldron Herald is nice, too, but I appreciated the "Two Page" look when I passed it out to my crew.

Unfortunately, I won't be using #2, because I'm running from the magazine, not the hardcover, so I don't have Drakthar. If you can continue making them general, I will be able to use most others, I think.

It might start sounding contrived to avoid naming the adventure party or characters, but I don't see how to get around that. The best I can suggest is script poor relations between the "Reporter" and the party (especially if the reporter is pumping the Stormblades). Then you can have the reporter deliberate ignore the party's own name for themselves to generate something slightly condescending. (I'm thinking about James Jonah Jameson, for some reason!) Otherwise, any adventuring party is going to wonder at the disinterest.

I like how both yours and the Herald make go use of foreshadowing. Your Concerns about the Flood Festival article made it easier for me to add other NPC's with concerns, so I know better how to pitch the hook (which won't be for at least another session).

Thanks!

The next morning found the adventurers asking questions of the Headmistress of the orphanage. The most obvious lead from their questions was based that all locks at the orphanage coming from the same locksmith, Keygan Ghelve.

When they returned, they pressured the locksmith into allowing them in past the curtain behind him. They weren’t passed it very long before the fight broke out. Ghelve conjured a flash of colors that stunned a pair of the adventurers. Some dark creature dropped from the balcony into combat with those still standing. By the time the interloper was slain, the locksmith had disappeared. A search found things of value, but not answers. The entire shop and living quarters above were given a deeper search, with only a map turned up, one supposedly describing the lost Gnome city of Jzadirune, and a hidden, secret door.

The team was very confused how the locksmith managed to disappear. It took an extended search to find the secret door he must have used. This put them in mind to search for secret doors more often.

Since the locksmith still hadn’t returned, it was decided to explore the stairs behind the secret door. A long staircase with two turns at landings led to a large room with giggling masks. Instead of exploring any of the exits from the room, the adventurers returned back to the last landing where a well hidden secret room had been passed by. The hidden room had a pit trap, which was discouraging, but with their perseverance, the team discovered another secret door.

They had found the secret door, but wanted to see the first room at the bottom of the stairs, before backing up.

This time when the adventurers opened a secret door, they were the ones surprised from the other side. Two hobgoblins threw spears and wore armor that turned many of their attacks, but in the end the hobgoblins were killed and one of the church’s potions had been used to heal. A handful of coins were taken, but later the adventurers returned with the idea of recovering the armor, and found the bodies gone.

Inexperience shows. It's a lesson they can learn from.

The room the hobgoblins had been guarding turned out to be an elevator, a wooden platform and chains that could be lowered deeper into the earth. When the platform reached its bottom, the team had learned to spend extra time searching for more secret doors, and another was found. This room held the controls for returning to the upper levels. It was reassuring to know that should they need to retreat quickly, they already knew how to raise the elevator.

The obvious exit led to large room with empty cages and a strange sculpture. As they approached the possible statute, they were surprised to discovered it to be a monster, ready to fight. Their attacks seemed to have little effect. After only a short time, another creature emerged from a side door to join the battle, a huge, filthy Ogre. With solid teamwork, the party defeated the monsters. Beneath the garbage strewn about the Ogre’s room was found an iron chest. It was the rogue that unlocked the chest to reveal over 80 pounds of coins. As the party was out of spells and needed to carry the chest, it was decided to return to the surface and come back to explore again, refreshed in the morning.

It was a good place to stop and allow them to finish leveling up, sell loot and restock. The Rogue really needed to worry less about combat, so he selected a level of Fighter, which also qualified him for the Weapon Finesse feat and greatly improved his combat ability. Meanwhile the Paladin decided his 2nd level would be as Sorceror. The Barbarian and the 9 year old Fighter's just picked up a second level in their same level.

This is the GM's log of my current campaign. I started playing in 1976 and my older son last year, but my younger boy, now 9 years old, wanted to play, too. So with another friend, we're running the Shackled City Adventure Path.

With my encouragement, they decided to only run one character each and have a fourth NPC run by me. The fourth would be dumb fighter-type (actually, I chose to make her a Half-Orc Barbarian) that would provide solid physical support but no brains (or hope/worry of interference by Dad). Since I stressed the deadly nature of this campaign, they elected to run no spell-casters, opting to pick something up later through multiclassing and use a Paladin to cover healing.

Character names were created, but often went unused. The dumb Half-Orc had a nice name, but I can't remember it anymore, succumbing to their nickname of "Thog". The thief had some name that was mispronounced as "Floyd" which soon became "Pink Floyd" and now he's officially known as "Pink", which also describes what he does with his Rapier, I suppose. He turned out to be the weakest fighter in the party, but very useful in finding secret doors. The Paladin's name was supposed to mean "Rabbit" in some language, but never mind that. He's now called "Bunny". Such if the humor of teenagers. My 9 year old's fighter is simply "Smith". The Barbarian uses a Great Axe while the Paladin and Fighter use Greatswords. I don't know why the disdain of shields, but they can do decent damage when they hit. Interestingly, the Paladin, with no prompting on my part, selected Wee Jas, not Saint Cuthbert.

So, they started off as: Bar1, Pal1, Rog1, Ftr1.

Four friends met together in the big city of Cauldron. The plan was to hope the Lord Mayor, or the Clerics of Saint Cuthbert, would be hiring adventurers, as they were known to occasionally do. It had been raining all day and the city looked grey and drab as they hiked the streets, searching for a good inn before finding work.

The gang broke up an intimidation attempt, preventing three thugs from beating a priest. The thugs had been hired to stop the church of Saint Cuthbert from investigating the disappearances of four kids from an orphanage. The rescued priest invited the team back to talk to his boss.

Jil made her speach and got away easily enough. None of the thugs were killed and the Rogue managed to extort money from them to convince the Priest and Paladin to just let them go. My son does understand the meaning of his alignment and how to word the extortion attempt to slip pass his friend, the paladin.

The grateful church and the acting High Priest plied the friends with food and drink while explaining how the city had been hit with a series of kidnappings, the latest being 4 children from an orphanage. The gang accepted the job to find the missing townsfolk and the children in particular.

They picked up on the Acting modifier. It allowed me to do some foreshadowing.

(more still from Session One)

James Sutter wrote:

In 1994, the Gatekeeper was in 4th grade

God, I feel old... In 1994, I was out of college two years and got married. *shakes his cane menacingly* Whippersnapper!

Oh come now! Just because some of us were married and had kids old enough in 1994 to play D&D doesn't mean we can't still have the whippersnapper template! (Although I do understand you can't hold both Whippersnapper and Curmudgeon templates.)