I’ve been reading the “Is There A Hole In The Submissions Room” string with a little envy for the people who find the time to write up their ideas and send them in to Dungeon (I’d like to be one too). Alas, my job, house and family make that difficult. Thank goodness a magazine like Dungeon is here for me when I finally get the chance play a little D&D.
With no time to make up adventures of my own I pretty much rely on Dungeon exclusively. One of the fun little challenges is putting together a series of adventures from the magazine to make your own Adventure Path (needless to say I have been thrilled with the publication of the Shackled City, Istivin and the upcoming Age of Worms Adventure Paths). I realized I can’t be the only one in this boat and was curious to know what Adventure Paths others have put together from the modules published in Dungeon.
My current Campaign has just begun and will consist of the following:
LEVEL 01: Issue 114 – Mad God’s Key
LEVEL 02: Issue 123 – Salvage Operation
LEVEL 03: Issue 115 – Raiders of the Black Ice
LEVEL 04: Issue 121 – Fiend’s Embrace
LEVEL 05: Issue 122 – Fiendish Footprints (Adapted from 6th to 5th)
LEVEL 06: Issue 106 – Tameraut’s Fate
LEVEL 07: Issue 114 – Torrents of Dread (Adapted from 6th to 7th)
LEVEL 08: Issue 121 – The Styes (Adapted from 9th to 8th)
LEVEL 09: Issue 113 – Practical Magic (Adapted to continue adventuring in the Styes)
That’s all I have planned for the moment though it would be easy to craft a campaign right up to 20th level.
So, what dungeon adventures would you use to create your own adventure path?
Right now I'm running Cry Wolf, Final Resting Place, and Obsidian EYe for a 2nd to 5th level adventure path (is that a new term now? I've always called it a 'campaign arc'). Do a little work with the NPCs and you can tie all three adventures together.
And I'll plug my Wyrm's Hoard which makes it easy to find an adventure for level X: http://www.paladinpgm.com/wyrm/
One of the fun little challenges is putting together a series of adventures from the magazine to make your own Adventure Path
I should say the real challenge is connecting them together. I see most of the adventures you've chosen take place on the coast, but what plot seed have you planted that will take your PCs to the Black Ice? Have you developed a story-line that leads from one adventure to the other?
It looks like all your issues are current, but I would like to point you in the direction of issue 109 featuring the campaign setting of Hardby. It's a well described location that loans itself well to many of the adventures you've listed (even Mad God's Key can be easily moved to Hardby).
I'd definitely try stringing 'Into the Fire', 'Out of the Ashes', and 'Old Embers Never Die' together... with some un-Flame-related adventures thrown in between adventures.
I should say the real challenge is connecting them together. I see most of the adventures you've chosen take place on the coast, but what plot seed have you planted that will take your PCs to the Black Ice? Have you developed a story-line that leads from one adventure to the other?
Yes, I agree. Coming up with the glue that binds the adventures together is key; but, its also quite fun.
Black Ice was my inspiration. I wanted to run a campaign (Adventure Path, Campaign Arc... what is the term to use these days) set in Blackmoor. My problem was that all the other adventures I wanted to run were in a coastal city. I have tampered with the Blackmoor setting a bit by moving the Capitol City of Dantredun to the Coast on the North side of Blackmoor Bay. That's the "Home Base", so to speak, for the campaign.
The Mad God's Key was a great intro adventure because it sets up a lot of NPC's as contacts for future adventures. Theldrat is a good connection to the merchants and leads into Salvage operation (Theldrat introduces the PC's to a Friend - Aubreck - in need of some assistance). Geraal is a good connection to mages, collectors, etc.. (Tie in to Fiend's Embrace); and so on.
Great suggestion about the City of Hardby. I was looking for a map I could adapt for use as the City of Dantredune. As for the Styes; I was thinking of locating them on the coast at the ruins of Blackmoor City.
This is begining to sound too much like a campaign journal entry so I'll stop there.
Nuff fer now.
Are you planning on running your campaign using the rules in Frostburn? If so, are you adapting the non-arctic adventures to a cold climate? Just curious because I was thinking of running a campaign using a similar group of adventures (at least until 4th level).
I am currently combining Dungeon and Goodman-games modules into a 1-20th level adventure path. It started out with 1st edition Village of Hommlett, and then into Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. About mid-way into the caverns the party that likes to complain about not enough hack, complained again about to much hack, so off we go into some AEG mini-modules, and adopted three of those into a world changing campaign seting based around one of my players' past that he originally wrote, and now back into Dungeon. Goodman-games module Aeire of the Crow God was old school meets d20. Nothing but amazing for that module. A few AEG mini modules later we delved into Dungeons latest Crypt of the Crimson stars last week. This week the party has to deal with Goodman Games' Temple of the Dragon Cult, which should make the parties average level inot the double digits. I cannott wait to play the rest of the DragonShard arc, and then eventually to The Crypt of the Devil Lich. I highly reccommend combining alittle AEG, Goodman-games, along with Dungeon for a customized role-playing campaign that takes little to no time to prepare for. Dungeon just has to start making a few more 12-17th level encounters. I think long-time subscribers have plenty to choose from in the 1-7th level arena.
Are you planning on running your campaign using the rules in Frostburn? If so, are you adapting the non-arctic adventures to a cold climate? Just curious because I was thinking of running a campaign using a similar group of adventures (at least until 4th level).
Not really, I don't have that Accessory in any case. It's spring up here in the Great White North and I'm not eager for an accessory that dwells on snow & ice.
I will be using any of the rules and options from Frostburn where they have been included in the adventure (Land of Black Ice). I will be keeping the setting in the temperate zone and will run the Land of Black Ice at the start of winter (which is in keeping with the story as written).
Cheers!
Temperate zone? I thought you were running it in Blackmoor. If you want to run it in a temperate zone and just use the arctic adventures as winter sets in, I would keep it in Greyhawk or nearby (the Woolly Bay maybe for the coastal adventures) and then just run Black Ice and Fiend's Embrace in winter.
Temperate zone? I thought you were running it in Blackmoor. If you want to run it in a temperate zone and just use the arctic adventures as winter sets in, I would keep it in Greyhawk or nearby (the Woolly Bay maybe for the coastal adventures) and then just run Black Ice and Fiend's Embrace in winter.
Yep, Temperate Zone! What's not Temperate about Blackmoor?
Last I checked the Temperate Zone was described as a climatic region that achieves a temperature of >10 degrees (celsius) for four to eight months of the year. The actual "start" of the Arctic Zone (66.5 degrees north latitude I believe - somebody correct me if I'm wrong) is North of Hudson's Bay. Even Baffin Island has a good portion of it's land mass South of the Arctic Circle. These places are well North of the Boreal Forest. You've got to go far South of the Arctic Circle to nice civilized latitudes (56-57 degrees) before you find boreal forest again. At these latitudes on the shores of Hudson's Bay and the Atlantic Ocean you can find Seals, Polar Bears, and best of all: Cities ;-) ... all well within the temperate zone (albeit the northern range of temperate zone).
Yes, Blackmoor is a northern land; however, it is still a land that supports agriculture, forests, and things you just don't find in the true Arctic. From what I've read on the Land of the Balck Ice (admittedly very little) it's supposed to be a strange anomaly. The vast glacier DOES support an arctic environment and when winter comes to Blackmoor strange creatures venture out from thier glacial home to terrorize the land (how creepy is that?).
Cheers!
Well, thanks for the clarification. I always thought of those lands next to glaciers as being in a different climate category than, say, Greyhawk. This is helpful if I decide to run a campaign in Blackmoor, as I can just drop adventures like Mad God's Key into it without much alteration (have to add some nearby hills and change Dantredun to coastal, I think that's about it). Are you planning on making any other alterations to the first couple adventures in your campaign?
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From the latest issues i'd definitly settle for 'The Styes'.
This is a truly great adventure and i really like this morbid Lovecraft-styled atmosphere it creates and the well thought-out story.
I don't play adventures from the magazine, 'cause i'm running a campaign that is heavyly story-oriented in my own world, but i'm using the Dungeon-adventures for inspiration.
Some elements from 'The Styes' and 'Fiendish Embrace' will definitly make it into one of my future adventures.
Kudos to Richard Pett & Stephen Greer, the author's of these fine adventures!
Chris - Always happy to be of assistance.
I think I've already covered my planned changes (the map is the biggest, I've really juggled the locations of settlements).
Are you using the same string of Dungeon adventures? I really had a hard time finding a 2nd level adventure until Issue #123 came out - just in the nick of time.
Absinth - I totally agree! I was really looking forward to running Practical Magic as my 9th level adventure - then The Styes came out and I had to adapt my plans to fit it in.
Ciao.
I had planned to use Mad God's Key, Raiders of the Black Ice, and Fiend's Embrace. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for 2nd level and juggled a few ideas back and forth, including modifying Unfamiliar Ground (119), which I really like, for 2nd level. Then last month's issue included a good coastal 2nd level adventure, so I decided I'd use that instead. I wasn't sure how I was going to tie in the coastal adventures to the cold ones but I have some ideas now, thanks to your post. I hadn't planned beyond 4th level, I figured I would continue the storyline started with the nimblewright in Black Ice, maybe modifying one of the adventure locations in Frostburn for my purposes.
I really like those two adventures, The Styes and Practical Magic, and they are both suited to the same environment (coastal city) so I'd like to include those when my PCs get to the appropriate level. But I know once Age of Worms gets to my mailbox I'm going to drop all these ideas and start the adventure path instead. Oh well, it's fun to cook these things up even if I don't use them. Cheers.
My fiance GM'd an "adventure path" campaign just using modules in one issue of Dungeon, issue 90.
Totentanz
Tears for Twilight Hollow
Elfwhisper
I was planning one a while ago (back when 3.0 was brand-new) using a few of the early 3rd edition adventures. I was going to start with Evil Unearthed, since it left the villain's goals pretty open-ended (he was digging for something, but it was never stated exactly what he was loking for). Then I figured the lack of a cleric in town would lead the townsfolk to ask the heroes to travel to the nearest larger city to escort the new cleric back there (since the way the villain in Evil Unearthed got "in" was by murdering and posing as the town's new cleric when the previous one died). I figured that town was Dorr from Ever-Changing Fortunes. After finishing that adventure, they'd bring the new cleric back (protecting him along the way), and by that time, the friends they had rescued in Evil Unearthed would have had time to research the seal in the ruins on the mountain and determine what was under it: the Dungeon of the Fire Opal.
I never really figured out where to go from there, but the opal itself could easily have been the catalyst for a "destroy the evil artifact" quest, a la Lord of the Rings... I was playing with the idea of eventually working it into The Harrowing as one of Laveth's power recepticles.
Unfortunately, like most of my campaigns, this one never got off the ground.
I am currently developing a campaign set in the FR, waterdeep to be specific, and will be using many bits pulled from the pages of Dungeon culminating in a githyanki incursion into the realms. I will be creating 3/4 of the advenures myself, and will be running a "superhero-esque" style, but thus far the Dungeon modules I Plan to adapt are:
Kambranex's Machinations-#91 (Substitute "the Tinker" a mad gnome inventor for Kambranex)
Heart of the Iron God-#97 (Same "Tinker" substitution for recurring villain)
Beast of Burden-#100 (Substitute sauhaugin for gnolls and make the kadtanach an amphibian)
The Lich Queen's Beloved-#100 (incursion campaign, enough said)
Foundation of Flame-#113 (not whole cloth but I will use many of the encounters)
Death of Lashmire-#116 (it requires plot tweaks but it has some great psionic githyanki action)
Lost Temple of Demogorgon-#120 (I'm just pilfering the monkeys from this one, oh yeah)
That's all I currently have slated for inclusion but I am taking monsters/NPCs/traps/etc from other issues. Those I have chosen all share a uniqueness that fit well into the envisioned "superhero" campaign. I would really appreciate any suggestions for other off the wall adventures I may have missed.
"My fiance GM'd an "adventure path" campaign just using modules in one issue of Dungeon, issue 90.
Totentanz
Tears for Twilight Hollow
Elfwhisper"
Me too. Damn that was a good issue.
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I just started a new Eberron Campaign for only two (sometimes three) players. I use not only modules from the mag, but as well, some official Eberron ones. Here's the flow of modules for my campaign:
1) Forgotten Forge (from ECS)
2) Queen with burning eyes (#113)
3) Shadows of the Last War (Eberron module)
4) Fallen Angel (#117)
5) Whispers of the Vampires Blade (Eberron module)
6) Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Eberron module)
7) Steel Shadows (#115)
The modules I am definiately going to use are:
- Fiendish Footprint (#122)
- Fiend's Embrace (#121)
- The Seventh Arm (#88)
- The Styes (#121)
- Racing the Snake (#105)
...to name but a few. Which brings me to the thing I find even more interesting than WHAT adventures to use, but HOW TO CHAIN THEM so that they fit into the story, how to get the bridge from one to the other? How do you do that?
Which brings me to the thing I find even more interesting than WHAT adventures to use, but HOW TO CHAIN THEM so that they fit into the story, how to get the bridge from one to the other? How do you do that?
I've tried to create additional npcs and monsters with links to several locations in the Dungeon adventures. Props like journals, maps and pieces of treasure scattered about in several adventures helps creating an illusion of a bigger plan.
For example, I'm preparing with a new Waterdeep campaign, with the current adventures schedules so far:
“Undermountain” (side treks, all levels)
“Mad God’s Key”, see Dungeon ##. (1st level characters)
“Dungeon of the Fire Opal”, see Dungeon 84. (3rd level characters)
“Nuchar’s Tomb” (4th level characters, Libris Mortis)
“The Forsaken Arch”, see Dungeon 120. (7th level characters)
“The Seventh Arm”, see Dungeon 88. (7th level characters)
“Daemonfey Bolthole” (10th level characters, Lords of Darkness)
"The Dungeon of the Crypts"
I want to use a villain group as patron/hook (Probably the Shadow Thieves or Elaith “the Serpent"), and introduce a rivaling villaim group (The Arcane Brotherhood) following the same path as the player characters. With a few journals and recurring villains I hope a path will emerge.
Not awfully clever, I know, but it should give the players room to create their own story based on the published material.
My campaign, roughly, has gone/will go something like this:
SO FAR:
*Sunless Citadel (WotC)
*the top level of Forge of Fury as part of a homebrew (WotC + homebrew)
*Stormdancers (#86)
*Iriandel (#83)
*a homebrew based on a Robert E. Howard story, featuring the return of the Dragonpriest from Sunless Citadel
*portions of Shadows Under Thessalaine as part of a homebrew (Monkey God Enterprises + homebrew)
--at this point my game hit a hiccup, and was "rebooted" with everyone moved back to 4th level--
*Vanity (#93)
*Totentanz (#90)
*a homebrew
PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE:
*Buzz On the Bridge (#110)
*Cradle of Madness (#87)
*Curse of the Emerald Cobra (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
*Beast of Burden (#100)
*Elfwhisper (#90)
*Heart of Nightfang Spire (WotC)
*Istivin, City of Shadows Arc (#117-#119)
*Headless (#89) (fits beautifully here!)
*Lost Temple of Demogorgon (#120)
*The Winding Way (#117)
The scenarios will be tweaked to fit the party's level ("Buzz On the Bridge," as written, would be very dull for a 6th level party, ferinstance), and as we near the end of the campaign, there'll be a lot more homebrew mixed in. (The party is in Bissel, fending off Evard's army of necromancers, and there'll be a lot of stuff that ties directly in to that in between.)
-The Gneech
Right now I'm running Cry Wolf, Final Resting Place, and Obsidian EYe for a 2nd to 5th level adventure path (is that a new term now? I've always called it a 'campaign arc'). Do a little work with the NPCs and you can tie all three adventures together.
And I'll plug my Wyrm's Hoard which makes it easy to find an adventure for level X: http://www.paladinpgm.com/wyrm/
"Obsidian Eye" is very nicely followed by "Palace of the Twisted King," - they're both desert setting adventures, and the fallout of one to the other can be well done (I had my players on the run from more undead and some of the new cultists as they ran like heck with the obsidian eye - not to mention that the twisted little freaks in the resting place <I>took</I> it...)
Here is the path I am working on for my next campaign (a dark campaign for which I plan on using Heroes of Horror... I probably will not start it until December or January)
Hey Cool, I've ordered the "Hero's of Horror" from the Piazo web store (a few months ago it seems) and still haven't received it yet. Do you have it? If so, do you find it useful to your campaigns?
My own adventure path took a big detour when AoW came out. My group completed "The Mad God's Key" and "Salvage Operation" and started AoW as 2nd Level Characters. This seems to be working well so far. I've run the adventure as written (Whispering Cairn that is)and had no problem challenging the crew. They're still wallowing around town trying to figure out how to get Balaber's Gang to spill the beans about the empty graves (the summer vacation season has destroyed our game schedule - hopefully we'll pick things up in September).
Cheers,
C.
I am beginning an adventure that starts with "A Box of Flumph" and will run through the City of Istivin arc. I am making "the Grackle" from "A Box of Flumph" a little more sinister and mysterious but running with the idea of a shady character who has made enemies everywhere and burnt every bridge he has ever crossed.
The whole campaign is based around chasing Jonas through a mish-mash of Dungeon adventures (Fiendish Footprints will show its face) that I am implanting in a homebrew world. I am asking all my PC's to invent a terrible thing that Jonas has either done to them or taken from them to give proper motivation for revenge. In the end I am going to let the PCs either sate their lust for revenge in a battle to death in the midst of the world being torn apart by a rift in time or I am going to let them join Jonas and travel to the past to help rectify all the wrongs he has done.
All the adventures can be easily linked by following the Grackle's rabbit trail straight into and out of each module.
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Contributor
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I am currently developing a campaign set in the FR, waterdeep to be specific, and will be using many bits pulled from the pages of Dungeon culminating in a githyanki incursion into the realms. I will be creating 3/4 of the advenures myself, and will be running a "superhero-esque" style, but thus far the Dungeon modules I Plan to adapt are:
Kambranex's Machinations-#91 (Substitute "the Tinker" a mad gnome inventor for Kambranex)
Heart of the Iron God-#97 (Same "Tinker" substitution for recurring villain)
Beast of Burden-#100 (Substitute sauhaugin for gnolls and make the kadtanach an amphibian)
The Lich Queen's Beloved-#100 (incursion campaign, enough said)
Foundation of Flame-#113 (not whole cloth but I will use many of the encounters)
Death of Lashmire-#116 (it requires plot tweaks but it has some great psionic githyanki action)
Lost Temple of Demogorgon-#120 (I'm just pilfering the monkeys from this one, oh yeah)That's all I currently have slated for inclusion but I am taking monsters/NPCs/traps/etc from other issues. Those I have chosen all share a uniqueness that fit well into the envisioned "superhero" campaign. I would really appreciate any suggestions for other off the wall adventures I may have missed.
Thanks for throwing in "Death of Lashimire" in your personal Adventure Path. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. (also wrote a follow up to it in issue 125)
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Here is the path I am working on for my next campaign (a dark campaign for which I plan on using Heroes of Horror... I probably will not start it until December or January):
Bogged Down - Dungeon #91
An Icy Grave - Rpg Archive
Deep Freeze - Dungeon #83
Frozen Whispers - WOTC
The Soulscape Paintings - RPG Archive
Totentanz - Dungeon #90
The Stink - Dungeon #105
Rana Mor - Dungeon #86
Bloodlines - Dungeon #94
Tears for Twilight Hollow - Dungeon #90
Ravager of Time - 1E I8 converted to 3.5
The Styes - Dungeon #121
Bad Moon Waning - WOTC
The Dying of the Light - Dungeon #84
The Death of Lashimire - Dungeon #116
Beyond the Light of Reason - Dungeon #96
Seekers of the Silver Forge - Dungeon #125This path should take the party to level 15 and beyond. I usually pare the list down as I go, but this is the working list I am starting with right now as I am in the early planning stages.
DM
Cool, another person out there who wants to run my adventures!!!
Thanks Wolf70!|
Contributor
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I am beginning an adventure that starts with "A Box of Flumph" and will run through the City of Istivin arc. I am making "the Grackle" from "A Box of Flumph" a little more sinister and mysterious but running with the idea of a shady character who has made enemies everywhere and burnt every bridge he has ever crossed.
The whole campaign is based around chasing Jonas through a mish-mash of Dungeon adventures (Fiendish Footprints will show its face) that I am implanting in a homebrew world. I am asking all my PC's to invent a terrible thing that Jonas has either done to them or taken from them to give proper motivation for revenge. In the end I am going to let the PCs either sate their lust for revenge in a battle to death in the midst of the world being torn apart by a rift in time or I am going to let them join Jonas and travel to the past to help rectify all the wrongs he has done.
All the adventures can be easily linked by following the Grackle's rabbit trail straight into and out of each module.
Ok, now I'm completely flattered...
Please let me know what happens to Jonas once you get started.
I switch around. So far I have run Isle of Dread, Istivan-City of Shadows, that one in Sharn with the angels hand, (lost mag and forgot name, sry) I'm planning on doing Vampires of Waterdeep and Root of Evil. Well, thats all I have planned for now at least
Tell you what Mr Hitchcock, I will start a campaign journal just for you called "The Grackle". Go over to the campaign journal message boards today and it will be there.
By the way, my sincere compliments on many fine adventures, but I must give an extra bow to the fact that if the PCs play "Box of Flumph" just right, they can actually own the ship The Grackle was using for smuggling. I loved that!
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Tell you what Mr Hitchcock, I will start a campaign journal just for you called "The Grackle". Go over to the campaign journal message boards today and it will be there.
By the way, my sincere compliments on many fine adventures, but I must give an extra bow to the fact that if the PCs play "Box of Flumph" just right, they can actually own the ship The Grackle was using for smuggling. I loved that!
Groovey.. I'll definately check the thread!
Here is the path I am working on for my next campaign (a dark campaign for which I plan on using Heroes of Horror... I probably will not start it until December or January):
Bogged Down - Dungeon #91
Bear in mind I wrote that one under 3rd edition when the mummy was weaker, Mr. Isendale could handily spank a 1st level party if you're using 3.5 rules (higher HD, big boost in strength). Might I suggest reducing the 3.5 mummy's hit points due to woulds accumulated over the years and perhaps making some items available to aid in combating the mummy. The dead lizardfolk could have some alchemists fire on it or the druid could have a scroll of produce flame. Oh and I wouldn't let the mummy have a chance to surprise the party, that could be TPK easily.