Well, with the release of Issue 141, 2006 has come to a conclusion, so I think it is high time for a favorite of the year thread.
My Personal Favorites
January (130) - "The Palace of Plenty" by Tito Leati.
February (131) - "The Prince of Redhand" by Richard Pett.
March (132) - "Caverns of the Ooze Lord" by Campbell Pentney and "The Library of Last Resort" by Nicholas Logue.
April (133) - "Chimes at Midnight" by Nicholas Logue, "Ill Made Graves" by Kevin Carter, and "Kings of the Rift" by Greg A. Vaughn.
May (134) - "And Madness Followed" by Matthew Hope and "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" by James Jacobs.
June (135) - "Chains of Blackmaw" by Nicholas Logue.
July (136) - "The Coming Storm" by Greg A. Vaughn.
August (137) - "Siege of the Spider Eaters" by Tim & Eileen Connors and "Man Forever" by Jason Nelson-Brown.
September (138) - "The Weavers" by Richard Pett.
October (139) - "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs and "Requiem of the Shadow Serpent" by Anson Caralya.
November (140) - "The Bullywug Gambit" by Nicholas Logue and "The Heart of Hellfire Mountain" by Dave Olsen.
December (141) - "Swords of Dragonslake" by Nicholas Logue.
Favorite Issue Issue 133
Favorite Author Nicholas Logue
Favorite Adventure TIE "The Palace of Plenty" and "The Prince of Redhand."
Oooh, fun. I'll play. I copied your list to work from, and ended up with practically the same list.
My Personal Favorites:
January (130) - "The Palace of Plenty" by Tito Leati.
February (131) - "The Prince of Redhand" by Richard Pett. Although it was close: I liked Greg A. Vaughn's "The Hateful Legacy" a lot)
March (132) - "The Library of Last Resort" by Nicholas Logue.
April (133) - "Chimes at Midnight" by Nicholas Logue, "Ill Made Graves" by Kevin Carter, and "Kings of the Rift" by Greg A. Vaughn. What an awesome issue!
May (134) - "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" by James Jacobs.
June (135) - "Funeral Procession" by Mark A. Hart
July (136) - "The Coming Storm" by Greg A. Vaughn.
August (137) - "Man Forever" by Jason Nelson-Brown.
September (138) - "The Weavers" by Richard Pett.
October (139) - "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs
November (140) - "The Bullywug Gambit" by Nicholas Logue
December (141) - I'm going to recuse myself from this one, as I haven't done more than skim the issue, and they all look good.
Favorite Issue: Issue 133 (by far)
Favorite Author: The Ebon Triad: Leati, Logue, and Pett
Favorite Adventure: THREE WAY TIE "The Palace of Plenty", "Chimes at Midnight", and "Ill Made Graves"
December (141) - "Swords of Dragonslake" by Nicholas Logue.
Favorite Issue Issue 133
Favorite Author Nicholas Logue
Shroomy!!! I love you!!! We need you on the competition thread!!!
Massive editorializing to follow. Thanks for indulging me.
My Personal Favorites
January (130) - "The Palace of Plenty" by Tito Leati. This adventure stood out for a sort of strange, sad beauty rarely found in the game.
February (131) - "The Hateful Legacy" by Greg A. Vaughan. Props to me for correct spelling of Vaughan. I expect a shout out. While I thought the plot in this adventure wasn't particularly strong, both the foes and the environment (in particular the Rock Tower) were very compelling.
March (132) - None. Both "Caverns of the Ooze Lord" by Campbell Pentney and "The Library of Last Resort" by Nicolas Logue have great ideas within, but neither connected with me.
April (133) - "Kings of the Rift" by Greg A. Vaughan. Arguably the best adventure of the last year. Rarely have I seen a high level adventure with such an epic scope. Excellent cartography as well. Honorable mention to "Chimes at Midnight" by Nicolas Logue, which had a great rogues gallery and set a great mood, but simply couldn't compete with giants and dragons battling over the phylactery of a lich.
May (134) - "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" by James Jacobs. Periscopes made from undead worms that eat your eyeballs. Nuff said.
June (135) - "Dawn of a New Age" by Tito Leati. Taken as a whole, I like the SCAP better than the AoW, but the last three adventures in AoW are simply great. I hope the STAP can measure up. Both "Chains of Blackmaw" by Nicolas Logue and "Funeral Procession" Mark A. Hart benefit from great locations. Overall a very strong issue.
July (136) - "Tensions Rising" by Ryan Smalley. This is a clean, simple idea with a strong execution that I think would be a lot of fun for low level players.
August (137) - None. All three adventures had strong concepts that suffered from flawed executions. The one that came closest for me was "Man Forever" by Jason Nelson-Brown. Dire werebat ettins are genius, but shouldn't a Batman homage be set in the city?
September (138) - "The Weavers" by Richard Pett. I am now officially in love with The Styes. Perhaps we could see the living shipwreck from issue 141 used in a future adventure from Mr. Pett? Honorable mention to "Urban Decay" by Amber E. Scott, a very competent first level adventure. Fingers crossed that we will see more female contributors in the future. I never played or read the 1E version of the "Mud Sorcerer's Tomb", but the 3.5 version failed to live up to the hype.
October (139) - "Maure Castle: The Greater Halls" by Robert J. Kuntz. Close on its tail is "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs, which was a very smartly constructed first level adventure. The backdrop for Sasserine was also excellent. Overall a very strong issue.
November (140) - "The Bullywug Gambit" by Nicolas Logue, even though I hate bullywugs and would have preferred lizardfolk. Three words: Assassins on stilts. Honorable mention to "The Fall of Graymalkin Academy" by Mark A. Hart. While I thought the foes were far too static, the concept of a magic academy under seige was so good I started wondering why I hadn't thought of it first.
December (141) - A tie between "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" by Richard Pett and "Vlindarian's Vault" by Johnathan M. Richards. The former is an extremely competent execution of every single high seas fantasy adventure trope you could imagine, while the latter is just plain cool.
Favorite Issue: Every issue since James Jacobs took over has been very strong.
Favorite Author: Richard Pett
Favorite Adventure: "Kings of the Rift"
Now, who's got the guts to start the WORST ADVENTURES OF 2006 thread?
"The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" is an all time fave of mine, and the 3Ed. was true to the original so it makes my list. "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" and "Dawn of a New Age" were also exceptional,wrapping up AoW in style. Sorry Jebadiah, but "Kings of the Rift" makes my least favorites list. I like dragons, I like giants, but every dragon and every giant in one dungeon is a gong show.
That epic level dungeon also made it on my most favorite...wait a sec...oh yah, there was no epic level dungeon this year. What's up with that?
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Favorite Issue: Every issue since James Jacobs took over has been very strong.Favorite Author: Richard Pett
Favorite Adventure: "Kings of the Rift"
Now, who's got the guts to start the WORST ADVENTURES OF 2006 thread?
I second all of these awards, though "Ill-made graves" gets a honorable mention. Also, am I the only one who loved "Wingclipper's revenge"?
As for WORST adventure, I'll nominate "Tealpeck's Flood". Overly complex mechanics, stupid backstory, no cool monsters and a significant chance for a level 6 party to paddle right into the lair of a pit fiend... "The mud sorcerer's tomb", though quite cool, did not transition well from 1. ed to 3.5, mostly for game-mechanical reasons (take 20, anyone?). Also, "Library of last resort" was kinda hokey - quick, how do we make the PCs face off against four completely disparate monsters while incorporating an old-school D&D artifact? Thankfully, Logue has gotten better since then.
However, the worst adventure of the Mona/Jacobs era has to be last year's "Vampires of Waterdeep" arc, tossing even more high-powered, yet unnoticed horrors from your basement at the PCs. If any players are actually willing to submit to DM manipulation this blatant and heavy-handed ("um, Malar sez you can never leave Waterdeep until you run this adventure") to engineer a plotline this lame, they deserve to be stripped of their civil liberties. The only way to respond to this kind of PC infantilisation is to say that, "hey, I guess he'll never leave, then - and, incidentally, here is my new character concept". Does Dungeon receive so few high-level FR submissions that they have to resort to this?
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Keep in mind I haven't received issue #141 yet and I'm not allowed to read any Savage Tide adventures.
Hagen's Favourite 2006 Dungeon Adventures:
1) Prince of Redhand by Richard Pett (#131)
2) Dawn of a New Age by Tito Leati (#135)
3) Library of Last Resort by Nicholas Logue (#132)
4) Kings of the Rift by Greg A. Vaughn (#133)
5) Chains of Blackmaw by Nicholas Logue (#135)
6) The Weavers by Richard Pett (#138)
7) Chimes at Midnight by Nicholas Logue (#133)
Favourite Issue: #135 (3 great adventures & great cover art)
Here we go! G3's Top Picks 2006
January (130) - "The Palace of Plenty" by Tito Leati. Boy howdy is this good, in fact an hour after playing it I was hungry for more. I will give honorable mention to "Within the Circle" by Sam Brown.
February (131) - "The Prince of Redhand" by Richard Pett. "Hat-full of Legos" just can't stand to this unique cullunary treat, though I did like the bad monkey.
March (132) - Is a pretty damn strong issue all the way around. However I think "Wingclipper's Revenge" by Chris Wissel edges out "Caverns of the Ooze Lord" by Campbell Pentney and "The Library of Last Resort" by Nicolas Logue, even though I am a fan of Odessey-style adventures.
April (133) - Ouch! Two killer issues in two months. Are we in the golden age? This one's got a little for everyone. "Chimes at Midnight" by Nicolas Logue, "Ill Made Graves" by Kevin Carter, and "Kings of the Rift" by Greg A. Vaughn. Extra special mention goes to Mr. Carter for his not-so-core Viking setting.
May (134) - Okay it is official - Golden Age. Three in a row. Wow just freaking wow. Everything from evil rope (rhymes with Tito's "evil soap") in Mike Kortes' "Home under the Range" to Great Old Ones in "And Madness Followed" by Matthew Hope and then straight into the god of all dracoliches in "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" by James Jacobs. My hat is off to everyone involved.
June (135) - Is very solid and only suffers by comparison solid, but here "Chains of Blackmaw" by Nicolas Logue, gets the nod.
July (136) - "The Coming Storm" by Greg A. Vaughn I think stands out a bit more than the other offerings. While I think the issue is good it is probably by comparison the weakest of the year.
August (137) - "Siege of the Spider Eaters" by Tim & Eileen Connors and "Man Forever" by Jason Nelson-Brown, both stand out the most in my mind.
September (138) - "Urban Decay" by Amber Scott and "The Weavers" by Richard Pett both stand out very well here, and the return of "Challenge of Champions" by Jonnathan M Richards all spiffed up for 3.5 is a very refreshing change from the usual kill'em ups.
October (139) - "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs and "Maure Castle: The Greater Halls" by Robert J Kuntz both stand out here for me though I think "There is No Honor" suffered for lack of space (even with the backdrop), and that "Chamber of Antiquities" edges out this latest Maure installment.
November (140) - "The Bullywug Gambit" by Nicolas Logue and "Fall of Greymalkin" by Mark A Hart are both stand outs though I do think Nick went a bit over the top in the pirate dialogue department and that Greymalkin suffered from being a bit static (perhaps for editing reasons).
December (141) - Ah ha, Another all around solid effort. "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" by Richard Pett, "Swords of Dragonslake" by Nicolas Logue, and Vlindarian's Vault by Johnathan M Richards are all very well wrought, though once they all seem to be fighting for magazine space. I think we need Dungeon to go bi-weekly. 26 issues a year.
Favorite Issue A tough call between 132-133. I think I was most geeked by Issue 133 though.
Favorite Author Richard Pett (he responds to his emails more than that Logue guy)
Favorite Adventure "The Palace of Plenty"
Top Ten Overall
1) Palace of Plenty
2) Prince of Redhand
3) Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
4) Wingclipper's Revenge
5) The Weavers
6) Chimes at Midnight
7) Kings of the Rift
8) Seige of the Spider Eaters
9) Swords of Dragonslake
10)Within the Circle
Mmmm, I smell Dungeon Compendium-worthy material.
GGG
October (139) - "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs and "Requiem of the Shadow Serpent" by Anson Caralya.
Shroomy, you have just allayed my fears that falling between the inaugural entry in a new AP and the latest Maure Castle installment, my little adventure would be entirely overlooked. Thank you!
In no particular order: Wormcrawl Fissure, Chains of Blackmaw, And Madness Followed, There is No Honor, Sea Wyvern's Wake, The Weavers. "Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" was WAY too heavy on the DR 30/adamantine (one rogue and 3 tanks with adamantine weapons = optimal; anyone without adamantine-armed tanks = hosed). "Greymalkin Academy" was just silly, and all the other "rooms with monsters" adventures get zero stars from my group. I admit that I am looking forward to running "Dragonslake," but it will take the right party.
Shroomy, you have just allayed my fears that falling between the inaugural entry in a new AP and the latest Maure Castle installment, my little adventure would be entirely overlooked. Thank you!
October (139) - "There is No Honor" by James Jacobs and "Requiem of the Shadow Serpent" by Anson Caralya.
Cool ghosts will always pique my interest.
I don't get to run games enough to get to read them all or get a good feel for which ones work best, but the one that stands out is Chimes at Midnight by Nicholas Logue. I think it really managed to capture some of the different feel of Eberron that I've been struggling to pin down.
I feel like I'm in a pretty small minority from what I've seen on the boards, but I really don't get the Maure Castle installments.
They just seem like D&D versions of old text adventure games on my Apple //e. "If you dip your left hand in this water, and 13 rooms later happen to stick your foot into the puddle..."
And of course, everyone fills their living space with dozens of lethal traps. Guess the Maures didn't entertain much - a BBQ wouldn't leave many survivors. :)
Judging from the response to the adventures, though, I think I'll be seeing them in the magazine for years to come. However, since I'm the universal arbiter of good taste...
You are not alone, I don't get the Maure love either.
I feel like I'm in a pretty small minority from what I've seen on the boards, but I really don't get the Maure Castle installments.They just seem like D&D versions of old text adventure games on my Apple //e. "If you dip your left hand in this water, and 13 rooms later happen to stick your foot into the puddle..."
And of course, everyone fills their living space with dozens of lethal traps. Guess the Maures didn't entertain much - a BBQ wouldn't leave many survivors. :)
Judging from the response to the adventures, though, I think I'll be seeing them in the magazine for years to come. However, since I'm the universal arbiter of good taste...
Yeah, right. Anyway, to move back toward the topic at hand, I agree with the sentiment that 2006 was a very strong year for Dungeon.
I agree that not every adventure should be Maure Castle, even though I voted for it. However the over the top design I feel breaks the modern mold enough to make me want to read it. The fact that Rob doesn't feel any shame about breaking the "It's all about the PCs" rule (i.e. the rule that says you can't kill, maim, perforate, fold, spin, mangle, fry, electricute, change the gender of, change the alignment of, reincarnate as bull frogs or bards or otherwise do bad things to them because "it's not fair"). People -deserving or not- die all the time folks. It is that uncodified uncertainty that makes life and RPG Games different than novels. Personally I find that uncertainty makes an adventure that much scarier, and that amount of change is good enough for me to list it in my top picks.
Not just a Rob cultist.
GGG
You are not alone, I don't get the Maure love either.I had a 1st Ed flashback when I realized the Maure maps were pretty much based on the "single sheet of graph paper, filled" style. :)
Different strokes, I suppose.
No one really maps anymore (or perhaps ever) do they? So I doubt anyone besides a reader is going to notice.
GGG
I feel like I'm in a pretty small minority from what I've seen on the boards, but I really don't get the Maure Castle installments.
They just seem like D&D versions of old text adventure games on my Apple //e. "If you dip your left hand in this water, and 13 rooms later happen to stick your foot into the puddle..."
And of course, everyone fills their living space with dozens of lethal traps. Guess the Maures didn't entertain much - a BBQ wouldn't leave many survivors. :)
Judging from the response to the adventures, though, I think I'll be seeing them in the magazine for years to come. However, since I'm the universal arbiter of good taste...
Yeah, right. Anyway, to move back toward the topic at hand, I agree with the sentiment that 2006 was a very strong year for Dungeon.
I bought Dungeon 112 (the first Maure Castle installment) in PDF and didn't care for it at all, but I very much enjoyed "The Greater Halls".
I feel like I'm in a pretty small minority from what I've seen on the boards, but I really don't get the Maure Castle installments.
I think the reason the Maure stuff is so well liked is its simplicity.A lot of dungeons these days have really cool storylines with twisty-turny plots and crazy ass villains, which is great 'cuz the game has evolved that way over the years. Maure Castle is yer basic hack n' slasher done really well. It takes a simple idea (a crazy family of wizards) and lets players go in, kick the crap out of monsters and always have another hook around the corner because it goes back to that simple idea: another uncovered secret from the crazy family of wizards. Plus, there's the nostalgic value for the us old school gamers.
There's my 2 cents.
I'm a bit hamstrung on this thread because I have not read any of the AoW adventures, since I will be participating in the AoW as a player soon. (I'm really looking forward to that)
I also haven't read a lot of the adventures, as I was very short on time this year and only thoroughly read the ones that I was going to drop into my campaign.
Having said all that....my favorite adventure from a DM perspective:
"The Hateful Legacy" #131 (Greg A. Vaughn)
My favorite adventure from a player's perspective:
"Chains of Blackmaw" #135 (Nicolas Logue)
However, my list of candidates was very, very small, as I only counted adventures that I actually ran or played in and that list included only five.
February (131) - "The Hateful Legacy" by Greg A. Vaughan. Props to me for correct spelling of Vaughan. I expect a shout out.
Shout out to Jebadiah Utecht for spelling my name right ( a member of a very small fraternity worldwide) but whose own name I could only spell while looking at it in the quote box above my post.
(I feel your pain Mr. Utecht.)
You wrote some good adventures this year. It's the least I could do. In "The Bullywug Gambit" (Dungeon 140, p27), Nicolas Logue uses the name "Jebidiah" in passing. I encourage all other writers for Dungeon to make me famous. Correct spelling is optional.
I don't have the time or inclination to be as complete in my ratings as others have been, and I won't get into author comparisons (you know who you are), but these adventures really stand out as I think about the last year:
The Coming Storm - I absolutely loved the atmosphere, the dungeon design, and the backstory on this. As I read it, I just thought, over and over, "This would be a blast to play."
Chains of Blackmaw - I thought this was brilliantly done. Incredible creativity with the setting and the characters, and very well put together.
Ill-made Graves - Awesome. Great setting and a cool story, with a nice twist to make the adventurers' lives more interesting along the way. Settings like this and "The Coming Storm" are the reason that I play fantasy games.
The Prince of Redhand - Pure genius. I have never, ever, seen a primarily social adventure done as well as this one. This has revolutionized how I think about social events in my games. For high level, no less!
Overall, kudos to every single Dungeon author over the last year. The magazine has been an incredible source of inspiration, and you guys ROCK!
February (131) - "The Hateful Legacy" by Greg A. Vaughan. Props to me for correct spelling of Vaughan. I expect a shout out.
Shout out to Jebadiah Utecht for spelling my name right ( a member of a very small fraternity worldwide) but whose own name I could only spell while looking at it in the quote box above my post.
(I feel your pain Mr. Utecht.)
Mr. Vaughan, I sincerely apologize, :) And this is coming from someone whose last name is also routinely mispelled.
Sorry about the misspelled name, Greg.
I'm not able to put nearly the time I'd like into this list, but I believe the Five best adventures of last year are:
#5 Maure Castle's Greater Halls: Kuntz's work never gets old and constantly provides incredibly interesting history, challenges, and magical variety.
#4 The Weavers: Not equal to its predecessor, the Styes, but a good quasi-Lovecraftian' adventure, and definitely one I will spring on my death-prone players in the future.
#3 The Palace of Plenty: one of my big 'pet pieves' is the continual combining of Chinese and Japanese elements in any Oriental Adventures setting, but this is still a great adventure, and I applaud Mr. Leati's efforts.
#2 The Spire of Long Shadows: I love this adventure. This is a pure and simple creepy dungeon crawl that will provide any player with 5 functioning brain cells many thrills and chills with the environment he/she has to go into, and what happened there 2,000+ years before. Also the first time the players really stand to get hosed by Kyuss' minions of various types. A delightful creep'fest of the first rate.
#1 Ill Made Graves: Maybe it's just my viking ancestry skewing my judgement, but this is an adventure that is not only incredible, but completely overdue. I'm hoping the next adventure path is a massive viking-like saga.
Nice to see such a avid group of liked Dungeons; cant say I have thought much of my years worth of issues of Dragon magazine, just didnt have the content I was hoping for; sure the news classes are nice, but hey; thought I would try a years worth of Dungeon magazine as I used to enjoy it back when and this thread gives me hope :)
Out of the following nominations:
The Palace of Plenty
Home Under the Range
Chimes at Midnight
The Prince of Redhand
I choose The Palace of Plenty, by Tito Leati. Wonderful Lost Horizon-like atmosphere coupled with some very interesting encounters makes for an oriental adventure that doesn't feel stereotypical. While The Prince of Redhand presented a brilliant social adventure it didn't have a satisfactory conclusion, and Home Under the Range was a tiny bit too silly for me even though the concept was great. I'll be running Chimes at Midnight this week and I really like how it presents the city of Sharn in a great Dick Tracy-esque light, but a few plot holes weaken it somewhat.
the constant dangers of "vowel raids" by those poor vowelly-challenged eastern Europeans. (No, Mr. Krystkchtk, you may not buy an "a".)
As one of those feared vowel-raiding _Central_ Europeans I now swipe your precious 'u', Mr. Vaghan, to turn my name into Mr. Krepicuz. You think you have problems with your last name...
I have read probably about 3/4 of the adventures, and so far have run only about half of "There is no Honor" so my opinions must be taken with a grain of salt, but here's my top 5:
5. Ill-Made Graves. I just loved the Beowulf feel of this adventure!
4. Palace of Plenty.
3. The Coming Storm. Both of these adventures captured a really interesting oriental spirit-world feel that resonates with me--I'll probably use both in my homebrew, because they fit so well.
2. Prince of Redhand. Zeech's party is just so over the top--I can hardly wait to run this adventure, though it will be at least next summer before I get to it.
1. Into the Worm-crawl Fissure. This was a complete tour-de-force. Best High-Level Adventure Ever.
Honorable Mention
Heart of Hellfire Mountain
Home Under the Range
Siege of the Spider Eaters
Chains of Blackmaw
Dawn of a New Age
Kings of the Rift
The Sea Wyvern¡¦s Wake
Chimes at Midnight
Tensions Rising
Best Combat Encounter: The Kenku tower in "The Weavers" (Honorable Mention: the Hydra in "Siege of the Spider Eaters" and the Stampede in "Home Under the Range", rogues on stilts in ")
Best Roleplaying Encounter: Zeech's Party in "Prince of Redhand" (Honorable Mention: Zulshyn in the Wormcrawl Fissure, Jarret Muros in "Chains of Blackmaw")
Best NPC: Zulshyn in "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" (hands down!)
Best Villain: Lashonna (Age of Worms)
Further commentary--I thought all of the Age of Worms adventures were excellent or outstanding. So far, all of the STAP adventures have been excellent as well, and overall it promises to be a lot of fun. My players have given a high "fun" rating to the first half of "There is no Honor."
Best Villain: Lashonna
A villain? Don't you think you're exagerrating somewhat? A cool character she is, but I would consider her more an ally than a villain...As much as I would like to debate this subject, this thread probably isn't the best place for it.
:)
Age of Worms spoilers follow
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First ally, then villain--the best kind of villain, don't you think? She is, after all, the last BBEG the PCs face before fighting big daddy Kyuss himself. I like her because of the "et tu Brute" factor. Also the deep background explaining her fall--most Dungeon villains aren't this well developed because it's hard to have so many layers to the onion in a single adventure. Finally, I like her because she breaks the mold for a feminine villain--she's neither hag, nor seductress, nor dominatrix. She's almost likeable, yet evil to the core because of her twisted, vengeful ambitions.
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Age of Worms spoilers follow
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>First ally, then villain--the best kind of villain, don't you think? She is, after all, the last BBEG the PCs face before fighting big daddy Kyuss himself. I like her because of the "et tu Brute" factor. Also the deep background explaining her fall--most Dungeon villains aren't this well developed because it's hard to have so many layers to the onion in a single adventure. Finally, I like her because she breaks the mold for a feminine villain--she's neither hag, nor seductress, nor dominatrix. She's almost likeable, yet evil to the core because of her twisted, vengeful ambitions.
I'm sorry. My post had the opposite effect I wished for. Let's just say some of my players are on this board and I was hoping to keep a few surprises in store for them. Oh well, I can always change the adventures, no biggy.
There's always name changes, mind control, and character swap outs.
;)
GGG
I'm sorry. My post had the opposite effect I wished for. Let's just say some of my players are on this board and I was hoping to keep a few surprises in store for them. Oh well, I can always change the adventures, no biggy.
OK, sorry, this was why I warned about spoilers at the beginning of the post. If they're really intent on finding out what's going on there are about 30 other threads on these boards that discuss the material I cited. And if they lack the self-discipline to avoid reading past the warning, well, what can I say?
My favorite adventures of 2006:
Tied for 5th place
"Ill Made Graves" by Kevin Carter (#133) (epic Beowulf/13th Warrior atmosphere, novel idea), AND,
"There is No Honor" by James Jacobs (#139) (great structure and plot, urban thievery atmosphere)
4th
"Chimes at Midnight" by Nicholas Logue (#133) (fun villains, cinematic encounters, great writing, more than any other adventure this year - I wanted to play it 'right now')
3rd
"Prince of Redhand" by Richard Pett (#131) (novel concept, inspired implementation)
2nd
"The Sea Wyvern's Wake" by Richard Pett (#141) (potentially bland concept, inspired implementation, reminded me at times of two other ocean voyage adventure greats: 'Isle of Dread' and 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness')
And the Greensburrow goes to...
1st
"Kings of the Rift" by Greg Vaughan (#133) (giants vs. dragons, cinematic location, tight plot but still leaves enormous leeway for the PCs to direct the story)
Favorite Issue: #133 (see above)
Favorite Scene/Encounter: Flashback scene at end of "Library of Last Resort"
Favorite Twist: Lashonna
However, the worst adventure of the Mona/Jacobs era has to be last year's "Vampires of Waterdeep" arc.
Whereas Vampires of Waterdeep was one of last year's highlights for me.
As much as I want it to be because of the kick-ass fourth adventure, I think issue #126 had more to do with the all around solid performance of everyone involved that month (and the hard work leading up to it) "Vampires" included. I was really happy with that issue and not just because I got a to go to a Con for free.
Thankful to be a part of something cool this Thanksgiving,
GGG
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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As much as I want it to be because of the kick-ass fourth adventure, I think issue #126 had more to do with the all around solid performance of everyone involved that month (and the hard work leading up to it) "Vampires" included. I was really happy with that issue and not just because I got a to go to a Con for free.
I think it also had something to do with the magical combination of:
Red cover
Hot chick on cover
Poster map
Any one of those factors seems to have more impact on newsstand sales than the quality of the adventures within the magazine.
Go figure.
--Erik
PS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!
So the alternate cover with space ship and dinosaur in the backgound chasing all the chimps and the male hero in the foreground crying with the words "Why aren't you buying this magazine?" plastered across the whole thing had nothing to do with it then? Hmmm.
;)
G3
Now don't encourage the child by quoting his names...
"The mud sorcerer's tomb", though quite cool, did not transition well from 1. ed to 3.5, mostly for game-mechanical reasons (take 20, anyone?).
I have to agree with this assessment. The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb was an exceptional 1st Edition Adventure that simply does not work all that well for mechanical reasons in 3.5. Its great strength was that it was a very interesting and well done puzzle adventure and these kinds of puzzles don't function in 3.5 very well. The characters don't puzzle out the answer they just take 20 with an appropriate skill and are told the puzzle and its solution. Now I don't think 3.5 The Mud Sorcerers Tomb is actually a bad 3.5 adventure. Actually its pretty good and I might well run it one day but it simply does not shine in this edition of the game the way it shone in 1st edition. My feeling is that a better solution would have been to take the look and feel of a Mud Sorcerers Tomb and make a whole new adventure (could be a different tomb then the one we encountered in the original) and make an adventurer that plays on the strengths of 3.5 instead of playing on its weak points. Skill checks are great for setting the theme and maybe an adventure that among other things required interesting skill checks - often time dependent so that players raced to either make their role or overcome the obstacle with magic would have worked better in this kind of adventure. As it stands the laid back players just take 20 everywhere and use that to bypass the challenges by and large.
However, the worst adventure of the Mona/Jacobs era has to be last year's "Vampires of Waterdeep" arc, tossing even more high-powered, yet unnoticed horrors from your basement at the PCs. If any players are actually willing to submit to DM manipulation this blatant and heavy-handed ("um, Malar sez you can never leave Waterdeep until you run this adventure") to engineer a plotline this lame, they deserve to be stripped of their civil liberties. The only way to respond to this kind of PC infantilisation is to say that, "hey, I guess he'll never leave, then - and, incidentally, here is my new character concept". Does Dungeon receive so few high-level FR submissions that they have to resort to this?
Well I disagree with your call. I loved the Vampires of Waterdeep Trilogy, especially the first one with the amazing chase sequence. I'm totally on board that the specific mechanic of some God making you stay wretched but that's a tiny part of the adventure only really part of the hook or whatever and easily changed. If I shot down every adventure that had anything at all in it that did not suite my tastes I probably would find that all I had left where a bunch of adventures that while having nothing in them that irked me also failed to really inspire me. I think both [Prince of Red Hand[/i] and Kings of the Rift had a couple of parts that I was less then impressed with. For example I did not like the part in Kings of the Rift where the Jester from Prince of Redhand reappears but now he is evil and the players probably quickly work that out and kill him. He was such an interesting NPC and was one of the few reoccurring ones in the AP. Whoever made that call was wrong IMO but that does not really make Kings of the Rift any less spectacular an adventure. Its a minor flaw, IMO, easily changed.
I'm sorry. My post had the opposite effect I wished for. Let's just say some of my players are on this board and I was hoping to keep a few surprises in store for them. Oh well, I can always change the adventures, no biggy.
Never tell your players where you hang your DMs hat. In fact I don't even tell my players what campaign their playing in unless I have to to stop them from buying it or something. Also the thread heading says *spoilers*. Here is the deal - if your a player in any adventure from the last year you probably should not be on this thread - period. Really if one is a player one probably should not even be in the Dungeon section of the site.