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Desert Campaings:
I need your help...
Starting a desert-themed campaign late next month...
I need names of modules and sources of adventures for an upcoming Desert Campaign. Any edition(i can adjust accordingly to 3.5) and any source including Dragon and Dungeon magazines, other companies, both official and unofficial, will do. They just need that desert flavor.
Thanks all for your help,
Thoth-Amon
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Head over to Wolfgang Baur's homepage, check out the Open Design #4 project - Six Arabian Nights.
Get a copy, you'll love it.
It's 6 short side trek adventures AND a city backdrop to use. They can be run as standalones, or strung together into a mini-campaign. For levels ranging 5 to 10.
Desert Campaings:
I need your help...
Starting a desert-themed campaign late next month...
I need names of modules and sources of adventures for an upcoming Desert Campaign. Any edition(i can adjust accordingly to 3.5) and any source including Dragon and Dungeon magazines, other companies, both official and unofficial, will do. They just need that desert flavor.
Thanks all for your help,
Thoth-Amon
The obvious Dark Sun campaign comes to mind. Also if memory serves there are articles about the Bright Desert in the polyhedron section of Dungeon # 98 & 103.
J1: Entombed With the Pharoahs is a desert adventure for 6th level characters.
I wrote a little ditty with my good friend Brendan Victorson for Dungeon magazine called Obsidian Eye. It's a low level desert adventure that provides a lot of campaign hooks. It's in Dungeon #120.
Also, there is a great little Dungeon adventure about a meenlock infested desert outpost besieged by a blistering sandstorm that I absolutely LOVE as well. It's called Palace of the Twisted King, penned by my fellow werecabbage Phil Larwood. That one is in Dungeon #116. It's short, but brilliant. I highly recommend.
Masque of Dreams in 142 is an excellent starting adventure, and is related to one of the best of the old D&D modules, "The Lost City". This was an old adventure module (I have a copy--if you can find it at a gaming store or used bookstore or online it's a treasure) that had a good story behind it and a Conan-esque them of an ancient being worshipped as a god. Very cool. And the city is under a desert and the Dungeon adventure is set in an oasis in that same desert.
Then there's the "Desert Nomads" series ("Red Arrow, Black Shield" "Master of the Desert Nomads" "Temple of Death") which are based on a war with an army of fanatics set largely in desert or near-desert conditions, also very good. While you might have to change some of the locations this is easily done. You'd have to find these online or through again gaming or bookstores that have out of print game materials, but I think they're very worth it. Among other things the villain's main settlement has a rather unique society that makes sense given how D&D works.
Dude, I'm doing the same thing.
I'll be using Open Design's Arabian Nights and Entombed with Pharaohs.
The Desert of Desolation series is another good one. 1st edition AD&D stuff. Can't remember the names of the individual modules though: Oasis of the White Palm and some others.
The Desert of Desolation series is another good one. 1st edition AD&D stuff. Can't remember the names of the individual modules though: Oasis of the White Palm and some others.
Pharaoh and Lost Tomb of Martek. Good call.
Oh, and consider getting either the Stygia or Shadizar settings for OGL Mongoose's Conan D20. Shadizar in particular is a well developed city that can be fitted into any campaign as far as I'm concerned.
This seems obvious, but do you have Sandstorm? I thought it a decent volume with additional useful details and resources.
As the editor on [i]Six Arabian Nights[i], let me offer a little more information. There are six adventures which could easily dovetail into each other (in fact I have an Adventure Path outline for using them all in sequence). One features a sandship adventure, another features ghuls, a third a djinni, and more. It also has a section on the city of Siwal, which is a darn cool adventurers base.
For other resources, might I suggest the Aladdin cartoon from Disney Channel? Many good ideas in that if you can track it down. Also, they made a cartoon out of The Mummy. That has a lot of pyramid/Egyptian stuff in it. Folks have written positive reviews of Hamanuptra and Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia, which I have tried to track down.
From Greyhawk Rary the Traitor is set in a desert. (AD&D2)
The whole Al-Qadim Series has a lot of Desert-style stuff to offer.
Some ideas might be had from the old BD&D Gazetteer GAZ2 Emirates of Ylaruam
GURPS Arabian Nights could be useful, too.
For inspirational movies, I´d point to the obvious
Dune
Star Wars Episode IV (which is, in fact, inspired by the Dune books)
and
Lawrence of Arabia (the old movie with Peter O´Toole - it has some nasty desert scenes.)
Stefan
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No one's mentioned Necromancer Games' free downloadable adventure, "Set's Daughters" which I feel is quite strong for a free download. Strongly recommended.
Also, if you're in to older stuff, "Desert of Desolation" is the combined 3 adventures by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis that are considered the best D&D desert adventures ever. It was published in '86.
-W. E. Ray
Al-Qadim. This has some good ideas in it and it's only 4 bucks.
Hey, Kruelaid,
Coleridge's Mariner may not have jumped out at you as an immediate inspiration but reread parts 3-6 again. The desolation on the ship certainly evokes a desert-like thirst.
-W. E. Ray
** spoiler omitted **
Shelley. It's hard sometimes to impress players with the awesome power that has faded into oblivion when they see ancient ruins. Pathfinder has actually been doing a pretty good job of bringing this kind of atmosphere into the foreground--as long as the DMs appreciate it, anyway.
Mariner, now there's something I haven't touched for a while--I'm going to look it over. And stranded on a irreparably damaged boat is actually great idea for starting a campaign.
I'd be interested in hearing how the adventures ran, if you get a chance.
Well, some of it might show up in a pbp, tweaked. Truth be told I know nothing about it because I donated but can't access the journals from China. Wolfgang said it would be a few more weeks.
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The Shelley quote wasn't for your campaign.
Oh, hey, a colleague of mine posted a NY Times cartoon on his office door some years back of a construction worker, half in / half out of a NYC sewer hole, in the middle of a busy street under construction, quoting Shelley's poem to the oblivious New Yorkers driving by.
It's priceless!
For inspirational movies, I´d point to the obviousDune
Star Wars Episode IV (which is, in fact, inspired by the Dune books)
and
Lawrence of Arabia (the old movie with Peter O´Toole - it has some nasty desert scenes.)
Other movies, less memorable but good inspirations :
* Hidalgo (with Omar Shariff & Viggo Mortensen) : a horse race in the saudi desert, based on real facts.* the Mummy
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If you don't have it already - get the sandstorm book - if you really want to start a whole camaign in the desert - this is the ruleset you want (races, restige classes and monsters - though more of a scorpion king then an al quadim feel). You could also get the calimport supplement and the touch of death adventure on WotC website - for free
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads
As the editor on Six Arabian Nights, let me offer a little more information.
For those of you who don't frequent the Kobold Quarterly website (shame on you!), you might want to check out the article I posted today. It's a preview of Arabian Nights.
Hey, nice contributer tag Ed! Congrats ... when do we see your work in Pathfinder / Gamemastery?
Golem willing, some time in March or April.
Dark Sun.
http://www.athas.org/
Awesomely brutal campaign world.
and even if you dont like the world, the rule book give some good 3.5 compatible rules for deserts and extreme temperatures.
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I have nothing to add to the impressive list of adventures suggested above but theres a great podcast dealing with desert campaigns from the Dragon's Landing podcast HERE.
Necropolis by Gygax
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Head off to your local bookstore or library and pick up Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian sands and The marsh Arabs for some real-life inspiration.
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The Desert of Desolation series is another good one. 1st edition AD&D stuff. Can't remember the names of the individual modules though: Oasis of the White Palm and some others.
I3-I5 Modules were excellent, takes a little work on the DM's part to make things flow better but overall very good choice for an desert adventure.
We had a lot of fun playing Desert of Desolation (the three original modules) back when they were shiny and new, especially Pharaoh.
L
Head off to your local bookstore or library and pick up Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian sands and The marsh Arabs for some real-life inspiration.
Great stuff indeed! I made a terrain set based on some pictures of the Ma'dan.
Petra in Jordan is another good site to take images from.
There is an overlay of both Nabatean and Roman culture.
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I wrote a little ditty with my good friend Brendan Victorson for Dungeon magazine called Obsidian Eye. It's a low level desert adventure that provides a lot of campaign hooks. It's in Dungeon #120.
Of course the Great WereCabbage was to have had a sequel to this great adventure and yet it has flown to the ether never to be seen again.