Opinions please!
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I have several years worth of Dungeon magazines. Not all of them sadly but quite a few. I am asking this community to share their favorite adventures from these great magazines from the past.
I'm looking for adventure ideas and I don't have time to go back and reread all of these magazines, which have on average about three adventures per volume. So I'd like opinions on which ones you thought were the most fun or most memorable.
If you can, PLEASE tell me which magazine number (if you remember) and what level the adventure was written for.
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FYI: I'm already familiar with the huge adventure paths like Savage Tide, Age of Worms, and the Shackled City adventures. So I'm looking for adventures besides these three (not necessarily APs, just individual adventures from the magazines).
WHILE I'm at it... I happen to have boxes and boxes of old 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition D&D modules. So I might as well open up this thread to your favorite adventure modules too. I don't mind re-writing an old D&D module for Pathfinder.
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In SUMMARY....
What's your favorite or most memorable adventures you remember playing or reading from Dungeon Magazine or any of the old D&D modules.
Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing everyone's favorites!
Bloodwort
There are three words that have never stricken fear or elicited such a strong reaction from me (at a gaming table, anyway) than these:
The Black Egg.
Good lord almighty, I played through that adventure about eight years ago, back at the beginning of what I consider my D&D heyday. I think there was some story behind it, but all of that is a blur when I remember the mass carnage that happened because of it. It was an adventure where all of the PCs in the group died at least once- in fact, all but one of us died in the middle of the big final confrontation at the end. It was all kinds of nightmarish and brutal, right from the beginning. The adventure begins (at least for us, it did) with the PCs returning to a city they were recently at, fresh off another adventure or side-quest. While riding along towards this city (Rael sounds familiar, I think that's what it was called), the PCs notice a shooting star! Except.... wait... It's getting closer... OH SWEET MOSES NO
Next thing they know, the city is completely destroyed by what at first glance seems like a falling star. Assuming they're far enough away to survive the aftermath (being at ground zero, if I'm not mistaken, results in disintegration on a failed save, and something like 30d6 fire, sonic, and bludgeoning damage on a successful save) they see, floating above ground zero, a massive iron orb. A bunch of random encounters later, they discover this orb is a dungeon, which an impossibly powerful artifact called the Black Egg was imprisoned (yes, imprisoned- it's intelligent) and hidden away in the sky so nobody would find it. Well, it's back, and there's all sorts of demons and dragons and demonic dragons and draconic demons trying to get it.
I played through this adventure as a PC long ago, and one of my buddies from that group (the one PC who survived the final fight, which I'm convinced required a heavy amount of HP and die roll fudging- but I'm not complaining) was later running an Eberron campaign. We finished the first long arc of the 20-level campaign he had made, and after spending four or five sessions traveling across the countryside to a town where we can drop off our phat lootz and take a rest, we're riding up to the aforementioned town when one of the other PCs looks up, and sees.... a shooting star.
My eyes went wide, and I literally fell out of my chair in terror as I saw him grin evilly, dramatically pulling up that issue of Dungeon from beneath the table. I spent the next hour or so speechless.
Apparently he had told the rest of the group about it in advance, and he had been building this up for months- and I gave him the exact reaction he wanted.
Anyway, I don't recall what issue it was, but it was an adventure for around level 10- and the issue's cover was white, with a big reddish-blackish crystal egg with a crack in it (from beneath which a draconic talon was poking). I'm fairly certain it was from the late 3e era, or early 3.5 at the latest.
As for the best adventure I've ever run, I think the best all-around adventure I can think of is the Whispering Cairn- the first adventure in the Age of Worms adventure path. It's a masterpiece from start to finish, and without a doubt the best 1st-level adventure I've ever seen.
Wow, Gabe.
I love all the details. Better yet I think I have that magazine. I remember reading parts of that adventure.
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anyway, I just realized, some of MY PLAYERS actually read these boards. If you ARE one of my players, please DON'T read any further it might spoil the surprise.
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I am really looking forward to reading everyone's response to my request. I just hope people see it. Honestly, I never read the "Gamer Talk" boards until tonight. Paizo staff moved my post from "advice" to "gamer talk".
In the fall of 2004, we had a DM who did voices at the cartoon network here in Atlanta. I was a PC in one inter/extra-planar adventure he ran, and I have fun memories of that one. It was in > Dungeon #108, "The Iron Satyr" < .
Some of my favorites which I have actually used (not in any particular order):
The black egg - yes, that one, too! It is really spectacular.
Nbod's room (dungeon 51): it is actually for 1 character of level 5, but easily adapted to a low-level group. I still remember one of my players' character jumping on the back of the sea lion, and another one whispering the name of a ship to a sea chest. The under water combat with the kuo-toa is really tough (and turned out to be quite deadly in my campaign).
The stolen power (dungeon 05): for level 1 to 3. The PCs were captured in total 3 times by the evil cult and every time their escape attempts became more desperate.
The siege of Kratys freehold (dungeon 33, level 1-4): I actually made a huge map of the fortress and spread it out on the table. My players had a lot of fun coming up with all kinds of defenses for the keep.
The obsidian eye (dungeon 120, level 4): especially the fight with Mio the scorpion is great. It ended up in a jumping duel between her and the PC monk.
Last dance (dungeon 64, level 2-4): the house with the mechanism and all the creepy undead marionettes really gave my players the creeps.
Horror's harvest (dungeon 68, level 2-4): I was in this one as a player. One of our group was possessed by one of the plant creatures the whole time and we only noticed when it was too late...
The mere of dead men series (dungeon 69-74): this is a sort of mini adventure path. I liked the atmosphere of the whole series, and the final adventure with the twin dragons is really great.
Ancient blood (dungeon 20, level 3-5): the adventure really has a great northern/viking atmosphere, and great foes.
Forbidden mountain (dungeon 6, level 6-8): a non-euclidean dungeon with a cthulhu-like atmosphere
The vanishing village (dungeon 19, level 5-7): a village consisting of house hunters, a type of advanced mimics. My players still look at me with horror when entering an abandoned village and only hearing the church bell toll.
Operation manta ray (dungeon 66, level 6): for the great pirate atmosphere
Into the fire/out of the ashes/old embers never die (dungeon 1, level 6-10, dungeon 17, level 8-12, dungeon 100, level 12): The dragon Flame and his return (not 2, but 3 times)
Thunder under needlespire (dungeon 24, level 8-12): negotiating with mind flayers in underdark
House of cards (dungeon 19, level 9-12): all the door keys in the dungeon are actually cards from a deck of many things
Sleepless (dungeon 27, level 9-12): a wizard is dead and has sold his soul to 4 different parties
Threshold of evil (dungeon 10, 14-18): the combination of a wizard's tower and an icy landscape (with e.g. a remorhaz under the ice, which was quite deadly)
Headless (dungeon 89, level 12): gave my players a healthy fear of undead
@Tensor, - Thank you. I actually have that one. Now I just wish I could do voices. :-(
@Luna, - Wow! You must have been DMing for a while listing all of those adventures. Some of those are pretty old Dungeon magazines too going way back. Thank you so much for listing them out. I guess I should make a list or index of all my magazines and see what I have.
Was there a plot to the vanishing village one?
I'll never forget running "Green Lady's Sorrow," from Dungeon #35. The experience was just so incredible, I had to tell the tale at great length.
That same story mentions The Speaker of Dreams, which is also up there on my list. I personally found it to be railroady enough that the DM will never be stuck for ideas, yet just sandboxy enough to provide surprising turns.
Of course, I find many adventures to be memorable because a player made some choice that just happened to lead to something unexpected. The same might have happened when I ran any other adventure, if some die had fallen differently, if some player had had some different whim, or if the wind had blown in a different direction...
...so if it's just a matter of a well-written Dungeon Magazine adventure, well, I guess I'd say just about anything by Chris Perkins.
Also, Eye of Pain by Thomas Reid comes to mind. It's got...
The Mad Gods Key- Great, great adventure; mad cultists, Tharizdun, foul ritual, insance, climactic final battle...and the PCs ending up with a baby infused with Tharizdun's spirit (yeah, talk about moral quandry).
A hot day in L'trel- A fire ravaged town, plague, slavers and all kinds of fall out from the catastrophe. Really well done!
The Seige of Kratys Freehold- the original "defend the keep" with what you got...tar, tents, hoes, caltrops...
Ex-Libris- Lost shifting library, ancient tomes...
A Race against Time- Mad bomber blowing up places, and you gotta stop the crazed maniac
Kingdom of Ghouls- wulfgang Baur, one of the best locations of all time, every encounter oozes flavor, and the Ghoulish culture is nasty
Thunder under NeedleSpire- Underdark, mind flayers, and mind flayers who need help!
The Champions Belt- Gladiator throwdown with an awesome backstory
Chimes at Midnight[- Sherlock Holmes gone bad!
Chains of Blackmaw- Break into a prison and save the witness!
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The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.
Riddled with innovative tricks, traps, and interesting monsters. Had an awesome Aztec-like theme throughout. Furthermore, it turned the whole dungeon crawl on its ear by being a place you fought to get out of, instead of deeper in. I love it, and run it in various incarnations and as general inspiration whenever possible.
I ended up writing a whole Living Greyhawk adventure inspired by a single encounter in the adventure (The Tomb of Tloques-Popolocas).
If you want a TPK without much effort and a lot of creativity try the "Mud Sorcerors Tomb" I know there is a thread for it here or on another forum. Aaaahhh memories of a PC grinder.
That thread is right here
MST was written for level 14, in issues #37 and #138 of Dungeon (the latter Paizo's revision for 3.5).
"Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" was the first module I ever saw. Bought it when it came out (Yes, been playing that long).
Prior to that, it was all dungeon crawls with no real rhyme or reason. With "Steading", Gygax showed D&D players what a structured, logical adventure could be. We played the entire series as each new one came out (3 giant, 3 Underdark, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits). It forever changed how I made adventures and how our players viewed the game world.
I was fortunate enough to spend a couple hours talking D&D with Dave Arneson (along with three other people) at a con a few years back, off in a side room and undisturbed by anyone. Dave told us how Gary Gygax came up with the idea of making modules to sell, and how he told Gary they would never sell. He said, "I was positive nobody wanted to pay for pre-made adventures when they could do them themselves for free. Gary pushed ahead with it and we sold a ton of the giant series."
With the success of those modules, they began turning their own home game campaigns into modules, so that many of the early modules were just tidy versions of their games. Dave also said many of Gary's ideas were too bizarre for published play, such as a dungeon level of motorcycle riding, homicidal giant bunnies.
Over the years I've run the giant series for our players or new players at least four time, making enough changes to make it different each time. I even built the hill giant steading the last time I ran it, with cardboard, a hot glue gun, paint, and detachable roof.
So, despite all the great modules and Dungeon adventures that came after, the giant series is still my favorite.
Chandranther's Bane from Dungeon Issue #18 was right up there with one of the best adventures I ever ran. PCs get shrunk when they enter a cabin and need to deal with this whole micro ecosystem including some other shrunk creatures as well as not so shrunk rats and such. I believe I played this in 1st but I can't see any reason why this would not adapt well to the modern versions of the game.
Also in issue # 18 was Tallow's Deep (that was a good issue) which was an excellent adventure involving invading a goblins lair that was just brimming with traps and tricks. Played it in 3.5 and it still seems to play very well with the modern versions of the game.
Mud Sorcerers Tomb (Issue #37) was great when I played it in 2nd edition but it does not age very well. The module is really one of the classic, out smart the traps, type dungeons ala Tomb of Horrors and the modern versions of the game do this element very poorly (there is a serious argument, IMO, from completely removing any skill that effects traps from the game simply on the basis of the game is better to play if players have to deal with the traps instead of their character).
What made the traps in Tallow's Deep work in modern versions of the game while the ones in Mud Sorcerers Tomb do not is that Tallow's Deep's traps almost always have goblins in and around them meaning the players don't really have time to be thorough. That said I've not actually tried to run the revised version of Mud Sorcerer's Tomb so it may play out better then my suspicions would indicate.
I also really liked DL1 Dragon's of Despair which I converted for use in 3.5 and it was simply epic. Fantastic local, awe inspiring and there are some fun to fight monsters here too. Big enough to show off its glory without being so big as to bore anyone.
Chandranther's Bane from Dungeon Issue #18 was right up there with one of the best adventures I ever ran. PCs get shrunk when they enter a cabin and need to deal with this whole micro ecosystem including some other shrunk creatures as well as not so shrunk rats and such. I believe I played this in 1st but I can't see any reason why this would not adapt well to the modern versions of the game.
I can see a reason why the adventure would not adapt well. The first encounter has...
My advice would be to substitute the goblins with Tasloi. They can take 10 on their Climb checks, and you can get the 3.5 stats for them for free right here.