Adventure paths can be cool, but sometimes I think it's more fun to have more variety between adventures. Sometimes the complex and overarching plotlines that drive adventure paths - like that of Savage Tide - get convoluted and hazy as your group meanders through everything.
Lately I've been thinking about starting a new "campaign" that uses all prewritten stuff. This got me thinking - wouldn't it be cool to pick the best modules out there to form a fun "adventure path" that would keep people engaged all the way through?
So, I'm wondering which modules people would pick, if they could have their choice of anything. This includes old-school D&D Basic, AD&D and 2E modules. Anything goes. Let me hear some cool ideas!
I'll post mine in a bit, I'm still debating a few.
Start with a classic, that's my motto. To that end here's a beginning list.
B2 Keep on the Borderlands - flesh out the monsters a bit and give the PCs the ability to negotiate with them (ie not every monster rushes to attack them) and this can keep you going well into 3rd level. Once the PCs are nice and famous they get a Royal Comission to explore the mysterious
X1 Isle of Dread - possibly the most detail ever crammed into a 32 page module. There is enough 'barebones' here to build an entire campaign world around and that is exactly what you should do. Beef up the village of natives the PCs first encounter so that it can act as a base of operations (rare spell components & magic item creating ingredients can be obtained from the surrounding jungle - village mystics provide insight for wizards to learn new spells etc). Really the options are pretty wide open on the Isle but eventually your players may tire of it by the time they are 7th level so then we delve into
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads & X5 Temple of Death - getting them off the isle isn't a big deal - an emissary from the Royal Court arrives to escort them back home due to strange happenings in and around the nearby Sind Desert. The final confrontation with the Master should see the PCs at 11th or higher.
That's it for now - I'll think about some more stuff later.
Start with a classic, that's my motto. To that end here's a beginning list.
B2 Keep on the Borderlands - flesh out the monsters a bit and give the PCs the ability to negotiate with them (ie not every monster rushes to attack them) and this can keep you going well into 3rd level. Once the PCs are nice and famous they get a Royal Comission to explore the mysterious
X1 Isle of Dread - possibly the most detail ever crammed into a 32 page module. There is enough 'barebones' here to build an entire campaign world around and that is exactly what you should do. Beef up the village of natives the PCs first encounter so that it can act as a base of operations (rare spell components & magic item creating ingredients can be obtained from the surrounding jungle - village mystics provide insight for wizards to learn new spells etc). Really the options are pretty wide open on the Isle but eventually your players may tire of it by the time they are 7th level so then we delve into
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads & X5 Temple of Death - getting them off the isle isn't a big deal - an emissary from the Royal Court arrives to escort them back home due to strange happenings in and around the nearby Sind Desert. The final confrontation with the Master should see the PCs at 11th or higher.That's it for now - I'll think about some more stuff later.
We're totally thinking with the same brain. I was actually thinking of starting with Rahasia and moving on to do Isle of Dread, Quagmire!, The War Rafts of Kron and Drums on Fire Island.
We're totally thinking with the same brain. I was actually thinking of starting with Rahasia and moving on to do Isle of Dread, Quagmire!, The War Rafts of Kron and Drums on Fire Island.
And I thought about putting the War Rafts of Kron in there as well! :D I thought it might be too much underwater stuff though - that can get really annoying to Dm and play.
Those are good choices.
I think an alternative to starting with Keep on the Borderlands is to use Horror on the Hill. They have a lot of similar monsters, wilderness, etc. The fort can serve as the PC's first home base. There are a lot of potential hooks with this module. Monks come along and seek to find what happened to their companions at the old monastery. Goblinoids have been sighted - are they prepping for war? A dwarf clan can seek their lost relative, the smith forced to work for the goblins). The authorities wish to apprehend a thief, the one who the goblins have locked up. Etc.
It has enough wilderness and dungeon encounters to make at least the first 4-5 levels for the PCs.
After that, I think something more like an exploration works well - the aforementioned Isle of Dread is certainly a classic. If you don't want to deal with ocean travel then something like Lost City could work well in my opinion.
L
Those are good choices.
I think an alternative to starting with Keep on the Borderlands is to use Horror on the Hill. They have a lot of similar monsters, wilderness, etc. The fort can serve as the PC's first home base. There are a lot of potential hooks with this module. Monks come along and seek to find what happened to their companions at the old monastery. Goblinoids have been sighted - are they prepping for war? A dwarf clan can seek their lost relative, the smith forced to work for the goblins). The authorities wish to apprehend a thief, the one who the goblins have locked up. Etc.
It has enough wilderness and dungeon encounters to make at least the first 4-5 levels for the PCs.
After that, I think something more like an exploration works well - the aforementioned Isle of Dread is certainly a classic. If you don't want to deal with ocean travel then something like Lost City could work well in my opinion.
L
B5 Horror on the Hill is possibly my second favourite classic D&D module. Second only to B2 imo. It is certainly an excellent choice though as is B4 Lost City, which, iirc, had a huge underground city in it (but not keyed for encounters or anything). That could be an awesome launch point for the Drow series D1-3 & Q1. That would see you through to at least 18th level and possibly all the way to 20th!
Also, there are a lot of ideas on a campaign centered around Zargon and the Lost City in the Elder Evils supplement. Dungeon magazine had a first level intro module to B4 as well in recent years.
Using the underground city as a launch point into an Underdark series of adventures in the high levels could work really well.
L
Here's what I did in my retro 3.5e campaign, which ran for about 2-3 years or so:
1. In Search of the Unknown (home conversion)
2. Keep on the Borderlands (home conversion)
3. (One of the players ran a few sessions)
4. Isle of Dread (home conversion)/Torrents of Dread
5. White Plume Mountain (WotC conversion)
6. G 1-2-3 (home conversion)
7. D 1-2 (home conversion)
8. Excerpts from "Night Below"
9. Kingdom of the Ghouls (home conversion)/Empire of the Ghouls
I really didn't know where to go from there. Sent the PCs to the City of Brass, thought about running "The Harrowing," maybe "Maure Castle." After the ghoul arc I just didn't see clearly what I wanted to do next.
In any case, the campaign ended as some players moved away, and to tell the truth I wasn't too jazzed about high level play.
In any case, the campaign ended as some players moved away, and to tell the truth I wasn't too jazzed about high level play.
This seems to be the silver bullet that ends many 3.5 campaigns.
It's interesting that no one has suggested any recent modules. Surely there must be something work checking out?
It's interesting that no one has suggested any recent modules. Surely there must be something work checking out?
Necromancer set up a great campaign opener with Wizard's Amulet and Crucible of Freya. From there you can roll right into Vault of Larin Kar for an extended chunk o' campaigning.
I also really like Eden Odyssey's Wonders Out of Time for its ability to mix in a growing mini-campaign to your current game.
|
What a great question!
I would have to put The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh on that list (it's one of my all time favorite modules). Maybe the second two in that series as well and do the U1 -U2 -U3 arc before moving on from there.
I actually started a campaign back in our 1st Edition (or AD&D) glory days by running Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. It was a great way to start the campaign off - in fact, that campaign aned up running for some time. The players actually solved the mystery and negotiated with the town council to give them the old haunted house instead of paying them etc. The PC's spent time and gold and eventually fixed the house up enough to use as a base of operations. The magic user turned one room into a study/research area, the cleric converted a room into a small chapel etc.
It was REALLY a cool way to springboard future adventures ...
My last campaign (well its not quite finished but they are on the last adventure) was done just like this.
My next (non newb) campaign will be like this as well - though I'm taking a break to be a player for a bit first.
A couple of things I noticed when doing this.
A) Often modules fit better or worse together. Essentially if your doing a campaign were the players generally stay in the big city or even the same smallish region of the world then your mostly going to use certain types of modules. In this case your focusing a lot on adventures that can have good recurring NPCs and are often focused on local problems.
If your doing a world spanning epic you'll generally gravitate toward different styles of adventures.
B) One neat trick you can do with this is to let the players have some choice in what they are going to play. Leave them with clues that lead to several possible adventures in each adventure. They pick the one that piques their interest. Since you only included adventures you like in the possible options both you and your players have some say in what kind of adventures are run (so long as your clues more or less give the PCs some kind of an idea of what kind of adventure they'd be getting into).
OK on to my last campaign list
#1 was Below Vulture Point
#2 was Return to the Keep on the Borderland
#3 was Some caves of my own design added to 'Return' that I never should have added as this cave exploration adventure was already too big - oops.
#4 was the first set of Towers in Secret of the Towers
#5 was the second set of Towers in Secret of the Towers
#6 was a heavily modified version of DL1 Dragons of Despair
#7 was a very heavily modified version of Tallows Deep Replace the Goblins with lots of Draconians with class levels.
#8 was a city adventure of my own design, embedded in that however was A Hot Day in L'Trel
#9 was the last of the towers in Secret of the Towers
#10 was an adventure on a Glacier about stealing a Minitor Ship of my own design
#11 is a horror adventure of my own design - but I used the Manor from The Skinsaw Murders as part of the map for the adventure.
#12 will be the last adventure in the campaign it will be Maure Castle including The Antiquities.
A more recent adventure that fits the old school mold pretty good is Kill Bargle! from Dungeon. This could be a pretty good kickoff module maybe leading up to Horror on the Hill. Bargle, naturally, would escape unless the PCs do something spectacular and would return to haunt them again.
So, I think my mini campaign is starting to look like:
- Kill Bargle
- Horror on the Hill
- <something more urban/espionage/foil a plot>
- Quest for the Heartstone
- Lost City
- <something Underdarkish>
I added in Quest because I've found that to be a fun module. I'd probably keep the basic premise but would change the approach to the dungeon (basically a Candyland path from one fight to the next through a marsh, etc.). I figure that intermediate adventure, whatever it'll be between Horror and Quest would get the PCs some street credit that gets them on the Queen of Ghyr's radar to undertake the mission.
thoughts?
L
It's interesting that no one has suggested any recent modules. Surely there must be something work checking out?
While there are a few Dungeon Crawl Classics that I like I also find I haven't used many of the old modules I own and really want to use them for my next campaign. That's mostly where I am coming from in this. There are certainly other adventures out there that are of as good or superior quality but finding them is a pain for me. I also have about 100+ Dungeon magazines that I delve into now and then to pull out a few adventure ideas or npcs.
Recently I ran two different groups through Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde and Red Hand of Doom. One reason they worked was the size of the modules presented almost mini-campaigns. They were big enough that they cut major prep time and let me focus on smaller details.
One group TPK'd in Red Hand of Doom. The other is at the very end of it. If they survive, I'm putting them through the 3.5 redux of Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. I think the evil in the mountains theme will tie really well into the background of SGoS. Plus it's another biggie which will give me time to modify on the run as well as continue searching for the last module to complete the run. As of right now, I'm think it's going to be a home-grown because I have a specific idea of what I want, and there's not a lot of choices for modules of level 15+.
I think another advantage of the "classics" like Keep on the Borderlands and Horror on the Hill are that they're relatively rules light - converting them to any later edition is pretty easy. You may have to self playtest some of the encounters a little to see how they compare to the desired encounter level but overall it's pretty much change Basic or 1E skeleton to the 3.5 skeleton or 4E skeleton.
For the big bad monsters it's usually worth doing some extra work to make them different. Using the Horror on the Hill example, update the stats for the Hobgoblin King and maybe his cleric. You might also want to update the captured dwarf who might join the party, etc. When I ran Horror in 3E I made the dwarf (who was just an NPC of the dwarf class in the original module) into an Expert/Fighter. I figured it made sense that he would be an expert since he was working the forges.
A little off topic though.
L
Recently I ran two different groups through Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde and Red Hand of Doom. One reason they worked was the size of the modules presented almost mini-campaigns. They were big enough that they cut major prep time and let me focus on smaller details.
One group TPK'd in Red Hand of Doom. The other is at the very end of it. If they survive, I'm putting them through the 3.5 redux of Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. I think the evil in the mountains theme will tie really well into the background of SGoS. Plus it's another biggie which will give me time to modify on the run as well as continue searching for the last module to complete the run. As of right now, I'm think it's going to be a home-grown because I have a specific idea of what I want, and there's not a lot of choices for modules of level 15+.
I really like everything about Red Hand of Doom except the end. The Fane of Tiamat is a surprisingly ho-hum hack-and-slash-fest. I do know of a few people that have raved about running the whole thing though, so it's definitely something to consider.
Personally I think what I'm looking to do is mix it up much more and have a world-spanning campaign. I like the idea of the PCs going off and doing dozens of small yet memorable quests.
Dungeon Crawl Classics are a bit of a mixed bag. I generally don't like adventures that are pure dungeon crawls. I like more NPC interactions and wilderness adventures.
|
|
You might consider finding a few of the trilogies from Dungeon at different levels and loop them together with linking modules. Dump some NPCs and put in others.
Recently, I was looking at the Dungeon Ezine 122 adventure, Essence of Evil. It's a level 20 adventure with an elder evil and the end of the world nigh. What a great final adventure. And there are plenty of lower level adventures of fighting various cultists of Tharizdun or other elder evils. Link 'em together - each step representing the heroes finger in the dam . . . but another leak cropping up elsewhere.
Throw in a couple of memorable villains and voila!
You might consider finding a few of the trilogies from Dungeon at different levels and loop them together with linking modules. Dump some NPCs and put in others.
Recently, I was looking at the Dungeon Ezine 122 adventure, Essence of Evil. It's a level 20 adventure with an elder evil and the end of the world nigh. What a great final adventure. And there are plenty of lower level adventures of fighting various cultists of Tharizdun or other elder evils. Link 'em together - each step representing the heroes finger in the dam . . . but another leak cropping up elsewhere.
Throw in a couple of memorable villains and voila!
Good idea. Seeds of Sehan was actually a pretty neat trilogy.
Going back to your idea of possibly using the Isle of Dread - you could kick things off instead with the first of the Freeport trilogy adventures. Basically they arrive in the port city and the adventure begins.
Afterwards you could assume they adventure some inland from the city and bring in Keep, Horror, etc. and then they return for later installments of the adventures. Maybe after the second one they sail off from Freeport and head south to the Isle of Dread (or are sailing for some other reason and get blown off course). Eventually they return to Freeport only to step into the conclusion of the trilogy.
Dungeon magazine's Savage Tide adventure path includes the Isle of Dread and other adventures along the way so you could steal liberally from that - I would think several of the adventures would work really well in the Freeport setting.
L
I just started a campaign to play test Pathfinder.
Were playing in Sterich (Greyhawk) my pc's want to play some kind of againt the giant / Liberation of Geoff
1 Siege of the Spider Eaters
2 Rise of the Runelords
3 Home made
4 The Hook mountain Massacre
5 Fortress of the Stone Giants
6 Some area from Liberation of Geoff mixed with Istivin campaign arc
7 Home made
8 Spire of Xin Shalast
In my campaign the rune lords are ancient Suloise mage.
|
|
Mad God's Key (1st level/Dungeon #114) - Jason Bulmahn
Home Under The Range (3rd level/Dungeon #134) - Michael Kortes
The Stink (4th level/Dungeon #105) - Monte Lin
The Hive (5th level/Dungeon #127) - Phillip Larwood
Fiendish Footprints (6th level/Dungeon #122) - Tito Leati
Mellorn Hospitality (7th level/Dungeon #107) - Russell Brown
Vile Addiction (8th level/Dungeon #145) - Various
Spawn of Sehan (9th level/Dungeon #146) - Various
Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones (10th level/Dungeon #147) - Various
Touch of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #117) - Greg A. Vaughan
Shadow of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #118) - Greg A. Vaughan
Wrath of the Abyss (12th level/ Dungeon #119) - Greg A. Vaughan
Lost Temple of Demogorgon (14th level/Dungeon #120) - Sean K. Reynolds
The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (14th level/Dungeon #138) - Mike Shel
Gates of Oblivion (18th level/Dungeon #136) - Alec Austin
Vlindarian's Vault (18th level/Dungeon #141) - Johnathan M. Richards
Heart of Hellfire Mountain (20th level/Dungeon #140) - Dave Olson
-DM Jeff
So far:
1. Dead Man's Chest (Dungeon 107)
2. Death in Freeport (Freeport Trilogy)
3. Holiday in the Sun (ibid)
4. Terror in Freeport (ibid)
5. Madness in Freeport (ibid)
6. Rana Mor (Dungeon 86)
With more Freeport goodness to come.
Mad God's Key (1st level/Dungeon #114) - Jason Bulmahn
Home Under The Range (3rd level/Dungeon #134) - Michael Kortes
The Stink (4th level/Dungeon #105) - Monte Lin
The Hive (5th level/Dungeon #127) - Phillip Larwood
Fiendish Footprints (6th level/Dungeon #122) - Tito Leati
Mellorn Hospitality (7th level/Dungeon #107) - Russell Brown
Vile Addiction (8th level/Dungeon #145) - Various
Spawn of Sehan (9th level/Dungeon #146) - Various
Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones (10th level/Dungeon #147) - Various
Touch of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #117) - Greg A. Vaughan
Shadow of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #118) - Greg A. Vaughan
Wrath of the Abyss (12th level/ Dungeon #119) - Greg A. Vaughan
Lost Temple of Demogorgon (14th level/Dungeon #120) - Sean K. Reynolds
The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (14th level/Dungeon #138) - Mike Shel
Gates of Oblivion (18th level/Dungeon #136) - Alec Austin
Vlindarian's Vault (18th level/Dungeon #141) - Johnathan M. Richards
Heart of Hellfire Mountain (20th level/Dungeon #140) - Dave Olson-DM Jeff
This is very interesting. Since I'm only familiar with a few of these, would you mind giving a little flavor as to what each one entails?
I'm a huge Planescape fan. If you have any of the Planescape adventure collections like Well of Worlds or The Infinite Staircase or campaign arc books like The Great Modron March and Dead Gods, you could pull quite a few adventures out of those that are heavy on story and roleplaying and light on the hack-and-slash. It would take a little work to convert, though.
I'm a huge Planescape fan. If you have any of the Planescape adventure collections like Well of Worlds or The Infinite Staircase or campaign arc books like The Great Modron March and Dead Gods, you could pull quite a few adventures out of those that are heavy on story and roleplaying and light on the hack-and-slash. It would take a little work to convert, though.
I've heard a lot of great things about Dead Gods, which may be why the print version sells for astronomical prices used.
I'm a huge Planescape fan. If you have any of the Planescape adventure collections like Well of Worlds or The Infinite Staircase or campaign arc books like The Great Modron March and Dead Gods, you could pull quite a few adventures out of those that are heavy on story and roleplaying and light on the hack-and-slash. It would take a little work to convert, though.I've heard a lot of great things about Dead Gods, which may be why the print version sells for astronomical prices used.
One of my favorites. Monte Cook writing for Planescape. A demon lord attempting to rise from the dead, a trip to the bottom of the Multiverse, and Ratatosks! Who can't love Ratatosks?
There's a bunch of the stuff I mentioned above that can be purchased in PDF form, here at the Paizo store, for much cheaper than ebay prices.
Dead Gods is only $4.00.
|
|
This is very interesting. Since I'm only familiar with a few of these, would you mind giving a little flavor as to what each one entails?
Hope this helps!
Mad God's Key (1st level/Dungeon #114) - Jason Bulmahn
A hunt for a missing key leads the heroes from the streets of the city of Greyhawk to the Tomb of Blood Everflowing in the treacherous Cairn Hills. A Living Greyhawk-compatible adventure.
Home Under The Range (3rd level/Dungeon #134) - Michael Kortes
The dwarves have a problem—a tiefling-related problem. The tieflings raid under the shield of magical darkness, but if the PCs can supply the dwarves with giant scarab beetles capable of generating potent bursts of magical light, they might just survive. Unfortunately, they’ll need to escort the herd of giant beetles through the Underdark first…
The Stink (4th level/Dungeon #105) - Monte Lin
The Stink ... Folks have been vanishing from the Stink, a disease-filled rubbish quarter of Sunhill. City officials recruit the heroes to investigate the disappearances, putting the PCs on the trail of scaly subterranean denizens with ill plans for the surface world.
The Hive (5th level/Dungeon #127) - Phillip Larwood
The once-dwarven wizard Hehranna knows that her previous race, for all its pride and skill, is hampered and distracted by lesser concerns—family, friendship, emotion. Once they join the Hive, they won’t begrudge a few moments of pain in exchange for the industrious awakening she has to offer them.
Fiendish Footprints (6th level/Dungeon #122) - Tito Leati
A microscopic map etched into the surface of a tiny knag of wood puts the PCs on the trail of the Fiendish Foot, an item of vast necromantic potential. Will your heroes beat a band of hobgoblins to find the Foot? And what of the object’s vampiric protectors?
Mellorn Hospitality (7th level/Dungeon #107) - Russell Brown
Every seven years, the elven village of Mellorell hosts the Festival of Life, an opportunity to trade, shop, and celebrate with the folk of nearby lands. But a dark secret that could cost the life of fairgoers draws the heroes into a plot that leads all the way to Hades.
Vile Addiction (8th level/Dungeon #145) - Various
A horrific drug has seized the population of the strange city of Exag, yet confronting its source only reveals the true extent of a dire new threat. Part one of the Seeds of Sehan campaign arc.
Spawn of Sehan (9th level/Dungeon #146) - Various
Within an ancient necropolis a pool of alien slime grasps the minds and bodies of the people of Exag with wispy tendrils of madness. Those transformed by its power invariably seek the crypt, but what fell power draws them there? Part two of the Seeds of Sehan campaign arc.
Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones (10th level/Dungeon #147) - Various
Atop a distant mountain peak, a monstrous entity plots dark deeds. The final chapter of the Seeds of Sehan campaign arc,
Touch of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #117) - Greg A. Vaughan
A decade ago, the drow goddess Lolth captured the city of Istivin in her world-spanning Demonweb. Adventurers eventually won the day, but the affair left a dark stain on the city’s soul that now sputters to terrible life. Part One of the Istivin: City of Shadows campaign arc.
Shadow of the Abyss (11th level/ Dungeon #118) - Greg A. Vaughan
On the trail of Ilkharis, frost giant cleric of Kostchtchie and pawn of the Malgoth, the PCs venture out of Istivin to a mountain border fort inhabited by giants and a nasty blue dragon. Part Two of the Istivin: City of Shadows campaign arc.
Wrath of the Abyss (12th level/ Dungeon #119) - Greg A. Vaughan
A new conspiracy against shadow-haunted Istivin has been laid bare! The drow have returned to the beleaguered city, and worse, they have captured the only living creature who possibly knows how to destroy the parasitic Abyssal entity that taints its alleys and foundations. What ties do these dark elves have to the notorious Vault of the Drow? And what exactly is the creature that haunts the city above? Find out in the exciting conclusion to the Istivin: City of Shadows campaign arc!
Lost Temple of Demogorgon (14th level/Dungeon #120) - Sean K. Reynolds
His name has inspired fear in legions of heroes, and his cult has lurked in the dismal reaches of the world for countless ages. His minions are savage and feral, his worshipers vile and wretched. He is Demogorgon, and his temples are nightmare realms haunted by primeval menaces and hateful legacies from a time when the world was savage. And now, a vengeful death knight has discovered one of these lost temples—will the PCs aid him in his dark quest for revenge, or will they fall before the awakened host of the Prince of Demons?
The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (14th level/Dungeon #138) - Mike Shel
Brave the notorious traps and harrowing monsters of the Mud Sorcerer’s Tomb! Fully updated to 3.5 from the classic deadly dungeon crawl.
Gates of Oblivion (18th level/Dungeon #136) - Alec Austin
When an adventuring party fails to stop a shadowy ritual, it’ll take powerful heroes to step in to pick up the pieces and prevent the Gates of Oblivion from consuming the Material Plane.
Vlindarian's Vault (18th level/Dungeon #141) - Johnathan M. Richards
A missing dragon leads the PCs to a treasure vault hidden deep in the Elemental Plane of Fire, a vault operated by an insane beholder and its fanatical cultists.
Heart of Hellfire Mountain (20th level/Dungeon #140) - Dave Olson
It’s one thing when fire giants cause problems for civilization, but it’s another when the fire giants themselves have a problem that only adventurers can solve!
-DM Jeff
So Jeff, did you actually run this campaign as outlined, or was that just a wish-list?