|
Hey folks,
I spent this Saturday reading through my copy of J3 and just had to give props to Wolfgang Baur! This is a fantastic module. I had ideas running through my head about how I could expand this single adventure into a full blown campaign the moment I read the first line. I'm just curious as to whether or not anyone else had these same feelings.
I do have one minor gripe about the module though, and that was that I wouldn't personally categorize it as a Journey adventure. Really there is no journey involved since the start of the adventure assumes the PCs are already in the valley containing the lost city. To me it read much more like a Wilderness (or even an Urban) adventure than a Journey adventure. This of course, in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the module.
As for ehancing the module, some of my ideas follow:
1) Of course the compas is where it all begins. The quest to find and claim it might take up several adventures in and of itself. I'm sure I could cannabalize several previous Dungion adventures for this purpose, though I haven't put a great amount of thought into it yet. It also begs the question, "Who else is after it?" Who will the PCs have to compete against in order to acquire their prize?
2) I love the idea of the compass, however it just seems too easy to me. The first thing I thought was, "Make it bigger". Make it into something that can't be carried around by a normal player. Perhaps a sundial type object, or a compass sized for a giant. This should add an element of planning to the PCs adventure that wasn't there before.
- How will they transport an item of that size?
- Will they have to hire wagons and porters and such, and if so, how do they plan to protect them?
3) Once the PCs enter the valley they need to find a safe base of operations... somewhere that is at least partially defensable from the shoggoth. This might mean making an alliance with the lizardfolk or the winged gorillas in the area, and using their village as a temporary base. And then what happens when their major competetors come into the valley and ally with the remaining group? There could be some nasty fighting between the lizardfolk and the gorillas.
4) The undead need to be beefed up. If I was converting this to a larger campaign, I'm not sure that I would have the undead all working together, at least not until the PCs started gaining the upper hand.
5) Of course before the PCs can destroy the shoggoth stone, something else equally horrible has to emerge from the Far Realm... something with a little more than animal intelligence, if you know what I mean. Perhaps when faced with the threat of the PCs the 3 undead wizards combine their efforts and are finally able to gain mastery over the shoggoth stone and use it to bring in reinforcements.
6) Clearing the city is just the beginning. After the threat of the shoggoth is removed, all manner of other interested parties may come to the valley to claim the lost flying city.
Any other ideas on expanding this adventure?
I do have one minor gripe about the module though, and that was that I wouldn't personally categorize it as a Journey adventure. Really there is no journey involved since the start of the adventure assumes the PCs are already in the valley containing the lost city. To me it read much more like a Wilderness (or even an Urban) adventure than a Journey adventure. This of course, in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the module.
If there's one thing people continually misunderstand about the module line, this is it. Journey in this case does not refer to an actual journey, but more of a departure from the ordinary. We needed a title for those adventures that we wanted to set in strange an exotic places. And we couldn't use exotic, because E was taken by Event.
Anyway, none of the journey modules are about actual journeys. The closest thing we have to that is W2: River into Darkness and W3: Flight of the Red Raven.
Not to sidetrack this thread or anything. Your ideas about turing J3 into a campaign are pretty cool.