Favorite and Least Favorite to Run

[Nohwear]

This is probably forum Bingo, but what is your favorite and least favorite scenario to run? Personally, I have yet to run anything yet. This is going to change at basically the beginning of the year.

[nosig]

Favorite - Blackwaters.

Least Favorite (that I have run so far) - City of Golden Death

[Muser]

Favourite would probably be Rebel's Ransom

Least favourite? The Chasm of Screams.

[Talgeron]

Favorite: The Confirmation (with new players)
Least Favorite: Probably Legacy of the Stonelords (really complicated, tons of prep)

[Drogon]

Favorite: Sewer Dragons of Absalom. So many awesome NPCs. So many awesome fights. Makes me so happy every time I run it.

Bonus close second: Golemworks Incident. For all the same reasons. Loses to Sewer Dragons because of the spoilerific title.

Least favorite: only one that comes to mind is The Segang Expedition. It's a cool concept, and good story. But role playing with myself never seems to go as well as the author intends. There is probably one I like less, but I have obviously banished it from my thoughts.

[Dresden10589]

Best is The Traitor's Lodge. Great atmosphere, fights, and roleplay. I've run it 13 times.

Second Best is Horn of Aroden. People love to hate my Lander, and the roleplay is just so much fun. 9 times I've run this, I think.

Worst is Beacon Below. It's just so poor. If you have a good 8 hours to run it, it might be ok, but as is, it's an awfully disappointing follow up to Destiny of the Sands.

[Angry Wiggles]

I'm going to have to second Dresden with my favorite as the Traitor's Lodge. It's a fantastically written scenario. I ran it four times in one weekend at a con last year and threw out my voice doing so. Not a single regret involved.

My least favorite scenario to run so far would have to be Assault on the Wound. Mass combat touches so many nerves and seems to be a rather frustrating way of reducing people's characters to a single number. I, as well as those I ran it for, would have preferred if the final 30 minutes had been expanded to make up a full scenario, and the mass combat had been thrown out entirely. I think it would have been less of a disappointment if we weren't spending a whole season building up to it, as well.

[Dhjika]

Most Favorite --Snows of Summer - for a group who has not played it before. Or Race for the Rune-carved Key. If sticking with just scenarios - it is hard to decide - perhaps Among the Living.

Least favorite - Port Godless

[Ahz]

Favorite: The Prince of Augustana
Love the briefing playing an insane guy. Lots of room for fun.

Least: Scars of the Third Crusade
I'm really surprised this one hasn't been mentioned yet. With the typos and inconsistent mechanics and the unanswered/irrational motives of some of the NPCs this is hell to run.

[WalterGM]

Favorite Scenarios

• Hall of Drunken Heroes
  
• Portal of the Sacred Rune
  
• Heresy of Man, Pt. 2
  
• Forbidden Furnace of Forgotten Koor
  
• Immortal Conundrum
  
• Voice in the Void

Favorite Special

• Siege of the Diamond City

Favorite Adventure Paths

• Wrath of the Righteous
  
• Kingmaker

Favorite Module

• Realm of the Fellknight Queen

[UndeadMitch]

Favorites:

-Rise of the Goblin Guild
-Library of the Lion
-Port Godless
-Lost at Bitter End
-The Kortos Envoy
-The Dalsine Affair

[Starglim]

Favourite: Voice in the Void
Least favourite (barring, I suppose, those I've entirely avoided running): Halls of Dwarven Lore.

[Rei]

Favorite: Red Harvest (I will never not toot the horn of this scenario)
Least favorite: Assault on the Wound (it basically takes the players' characters out of the scenario for most of the game and replaces them with an unnecessarily convoluted-feeling minigame)

[DM Beckett]

Favorite(s): Any of the "Blakros Museum" Scenario, 9minus Silver Mount Collection which doesn't count), Blackwaters, Night Marches of Kalkamedes, and Frozen Fingers of Midnight.

Least Favorites: Rivalry's End, Halls of Dwarven Lore, Silver Mount Collection, City of Strangers 1 & 2, Severing Ties, and Scars of the Third Crusade.

[Netopalis]

Favorites: Hall of Drunken Heroes, The Jester's Fraud, Murder on the Throaty Mermaid, The Gods' Market Gamble, Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment, Severing Ties, The Blakros Matrimony, The Hellknight's Feast, The Traitor's Lodge, Scars of the Third Crusade

Least-favorite: The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch, Drow of the Darklands Pyramids, Glories of the Past I: Halls of Dwarven Lore, Rivalry's End, Chasm of Screams, The Icebound Outpost

[Nohwear]

Beckett, what is wrong with cities? I am thinking of running them.

[DM Beckett]

It's kind of half an adventure stretched out over 2 scenarios, and extremely railroady. It's also a concept that's basically been done to death, and with Taldor no longer being a Faction, the absolute highlight is no longer allowed.

If you have ever heard someone shout "I do this for Taldor!", this is why.

They are not terrible, just kind of meh. It's a lot of DM walking the players through meeting various people, and a lot of the time very contrive reasons why they can't do something (or must do something).

I'd say give them a shot, and definitely read up on the area a lot so yu can add in some flavor (it's very lacking for an introduction to a major city), and see what you think.

There is a massive amount of prep required, and almost everything is on the DM.

[Jayson MF Kip]

Favorite: God's Market Gamble
Close Second: You Have What You Hold

Least Favorite: Before the Dawn II: Rescue at Azlant Ridge (Because other than the singular "holy shit" moment, the rest of the scenario is boring wave-fights with only two(!) enemy options. You can only say "more show up" so many times.)

[Leathert]

Of the ones I've run I think Nightmarch of Kalkamedes was funniest. Just waiting how the players are going to do things, while not having to worry about all freedom (and thus more prepping) that comes with a truly sandboxy scenario.

Scars of Third Crusade was annoying. It leaves so much things open for the GM to improvise, and that's not my strong suite. Also it at the same time spends a lot of time explaining what's going to happen if the PCs fool around, even when that is the unpreferred outcome.

[Iammars]

It's hard to pick a favorite, although Eyes of the Ten Part 1, Golemworks Incident and Wardstone Patrol are all near the top.

I do have a clear least favorite though - Encounter at the Drowning Stones.

Spoiler:

I refuse to run a scenario again in a public setting where the major theme of the mod is suicide.

[andreww]

Leathert wrote:

Of the ones I've run I think Nightmarch of Kalkamedes was funniest. Just waiting how the players are going to do things, while not having to worry about all freedom (and thus more prepping) that comes with a truly sandboxy scenario.

Spoilery:

I played Nightmarch in a group which consisted of two arcanists, a Swashbuckler and an Oracle. The groups combined strength modifier was I think -4. We still managed to complete it, largely by disabling Kalkemedes before he did anything stupid. It also saw my 5'4 90lb arcanist successfully grapple the annoying git two rounds in a row to stop him walking off a cliff.

My favourite to run so far has probably been Echoes of the Everwar part 1. It has a lot of very creepy flavour to it. Least favourite is probably Beacon Below. It is way too long, has some extremely annoying features which slow things down even more and makes it actively difficult to actually engage with the NPC's.

It is also potentially very swingy. We ran two online tables of it at the same time. My group managed to get to the end and only just overcame the final guardian while the second group fled after two characters were annihilated by the first guardian.

[joe kirner]

Favorite to run: golemworks incident, elven entanglement, ghenett manor gauntlet, fortress of the nail, rise of the goblin guild, severing ties, fate of the fiend.

Least favorite: blakros matrimony

[Theconiel]

I rather liked "City of Golden Death". While I mostly liked "Murder's Mark", I found it...

mmmph:

impossible to prevent the PCs solving the mystery sooner than the plot said they should. As soon as they found out about the narcotic, they went hunting for the town alchemist.

Hey, what was that?!

I loved running "We Be Goblins", especially making players sing their goblins' songs.

[Soluzar]

Favorites: Night March of Kalkamedes, The Confirmation,

Least Favorite: Scars of the Third Crusade, this scenario is the worst I've ever seen. Followed closely by Trial by Machine and the Silver Mount Collection.

[Majuba]

Favorites to run: Tide of Morning, City of Strangers 1 & 2, Portal of the Sacred Rune

Least Favorite to run: Rats of Round Mountain part 2, any Season 5 with 6+ books.

Refuse to run: Any of "The Devil You Know", The Darkest Vengeance.

[Disk Elemental]

Favorites: Scars of the Third Crusade, Port Godless, Voice in the Void, Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment.

Least Favorite: The Paths we Choose, Among the Dead, Devil We Know series, Hall of Dwarven Lore

[TriOmegaZero]

Favorite: Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment/The Traitor's Lodge.

Least: Rivalry's End

Eyes of the Ten will probably beat the rest for favorite once I get my chance to run it.

[Kristen Gipson]

Favorite: Traitor's Lodge, Storming the Diamond Gate, Rebel's Ransom

Least: Halls of Dwarven Lore, Goblinblood Dead, Sanos Abduction

[Hrothdane]

Absolute Favorite
The Traitor's Lodge
I will jump at any chance to play Valais, and the tables I've run it for both really enjoyed it and had some great moments.

Other Favorites

Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment
It's a classic, and you can pretty much count on every party doing it differently.

The Hellknight's Feast
I love influence scenarios, and this one has lots of memorable NPCs to roleplay with the players. The only reason Blakros Matrimony and Merchant's Wake aren't on here is because I haven't run Blakros and Merchant's Wake loses points for editing.

The Golden Serpent
The beginning of the scenario is a wonderful roleplaying encounter and the combats all have interesting twists to make them feel not so cookie-cutter.

Least Favorites

Decline of Glory
Now, I enjoyed the table I ran this for, but that was for reasons that are almost certain to never reoccur.

Reasons:

A very fun necromancer character took control the ghouls in the cave, so half the scenario people got to RP with the ghouls (and I got to play them).

It's otherwise just kind of a tedious meatgrinder.

Before the Dawn II
The one totally amazing part of the scenario gets shortchanged by the structure of the combats. It basically ends up being another meatgrinder with little chance of failure.

Echoes of the Overwatched
No good RP encounters and meh combats that don't really have strong flavor.

[Coraith]

Favorite: Destiny of Sands P1
I run it as a sandbox where I let people come up with elaborate plans of how to solve a situation and then I get to throw curve balls at them and see how they react.

Least Favorite: Fabric of Reality.

[JT$]

Favorites: NM of Kalkamedes, Citadel of Flame, Merchant's Wake, Fury/Fate of the Fiend

Least Favorite: Delirium's Tangle, Darkest Vengeance(only because as written I think a certain encounter is a very unfair deathtrap)

[Thurston Hillman]

I'm highly amused at the contrast between Traitor's Lodge and Assault on the Wound. It makes me giggle, in some hideous half-eidolon thing sort of way.

Also, thanks everyone for the kind words.

[Qstor]

I like City of Strangers. The setting has some interesting elements and there's fun RP opportunities with the NPCs.

I think some of the comments can be geared towards all the older scenarios too.

I like Perils of the Pirate Pact and The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch.

Mike

[Pinstripedbarbarian]

Favorite Scenarios:

• Murder on the Throaty Mermaid: different every time!
  
• Silent Tide: I love the special encounters, though I hate the end boss.
  
• City of Strangers 1&2: gotta love Miss Feathers.
  
• Library of the Lion: great break from the regular hack-n-slash.
  
• Quest for Perfection 1-3: a nice little story arc, and part 3 has perhaps my favorite method of non-combat solutions
  
• Trial By Machine (which I feel could/should have been another Confirmation.

Favorite Modules:

• Dragon's Demand: super fun, especially campaign mode.
  
• Godsmouth Heresy: good for a classic dungeon crawl.
  
• Feast of Ravenmoor: VERY flavorful, very creepy.

[WalterGM]

Thurston Hillman wrote:

I'm highly amused at the contrast between Traitor's Lodge and Assault on the Wound. It makes me giggle, in some hideous half-eidolon thing sort of way.

Also, thanks everyone for the kind words.

I enjoyed running Charge of the Midnight Lord, which I believe you also wrote, Thursty.

But I think that particular scenario was only run a handful of times.

[Yiroep]

Favorite:

This one is tough, but I will have to go with a list:
Assault on the Wound
Green Market
Storming the Diamond Gate
Before The Dawn: Part 2

Yeah, I couldn't pick one for I went for a few of the ones I love. As a general rule, mini-games and weird but cool additions is what draws me to a scenario.

Least Favorite:

Anyone who knows me well enough will tell you that, for me, this clearly goes to City of Golden Death. Repetition is what draws me away from a scenario.

[Thurston Hillman]

Walter Sheppard wrote:

I enjoyed running Charge of the Midnight Lord, which I believe you also wrote, Thursty.

But I think that particular scenario was only run a handful of times.

WOW, now that brings me back. Yeah, it was only for the one-time Grand Convocation event and was meant to give high tier players a run for their money.

Spoiler:

I forgot it had delicious kytons! It also shows my affection for screwing over PCs with Icy Prison... *innocent whistle*

[Dhenn]

I'm amused by how many of these scenarios show up in both the top and bottom. Different tastes, I suppose. And the individual table experience probably makes a big difference as well.

I really liked running The Technic Siege, as well as Valley of Veiled Flame, for some interesting encounters, and nice, open-ended mechanics.

I just ran the second part of Quest for Perfection part 2, and, while the table was fine, the scenario itself was rather meh. Almost literally a railroad, little challenge to most encounters, and it didn't do much to show off the different locations visited.

[TriOmegaZero]

Thurston Hillman wrote:

WOW, now that brings me back. Yeah, it was only for the one-time Grand Convocation event and was meant to give high tier players a run for their money.

Sadly, I was stuck at the 1-2 Subtier table watching initiates fend off mooks. Although I nearly got my first kill in my first PFS table running the Into The Vault side quest! Only that single AoO saved the poor 2nd level fighter from the CdG.

[WalterGM]

Thurston Hillman wrote:

Walter Sheppard wrote:

I enjoyed running Charge of the Midnight Lord, which I believe you also wrote, Thursty.

But I think that particular scenario was only run a handful of times.

WOW, now that brings me back. Yeah, it was only for the one-time Grand Convocation event and was meant to give high tier players a run for their money.

** spoiler omitted **

I still have my physical copy of it from the table I ran. I actually had to bring it out the other day to show my new batch of players what a challenging scenario really looks like.

Spoiler:

Three interlocutors and a lich? And they say Bonekeep is hard these days.

[kinevon]

Favorites to run:
Seriously variable depending on the players and party, but:
Frostfur Captives can be a riot.
I always enjoy Mists of Mwangi, even if everyone saves, as long as there are some members of the party who are not Aasimars or Tieflings.
Master of the Fallen Fortress, depending on the party, can be fun.
We Be Goblins! if everyone gets engaged

Least favorite:
First Steps, Part 1: In Service to Lore - tends to give me deja vu, these days.
Thornkeep: Accursed Halls - never know how much a party can handle.

[Coraith]

Walter Sheppard wrote:

Thurston Hillman wrote:

Walter Sheppard wrote:

I enjoyed running Charge of the Midnight Lord, which I believe you also wrote, Thursty.

But I think that particular scenario was only run a handful of times.

WOW, now that brings me back. Yeah, it was only for the one-time Grand Convocation event and was meant to give high tier players a run for their money.

** spoiler omitted **

I still have my physical copy of it from the table I ran. I actually had to bring it out the other day to show my new batch of players what a challenging scenario really looks like. ** spoiler omitted **

That fight earned my Pirate character 150gp in fantastic extra-dimensional loot.

[roysier]

Favorites to run:
The Green Market
Trial by Machine
The Bloodcove Disguise part -1
Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment
King of the Storval Stairs
Feast or Ravenmoor – Mod
The Harrowing - Mod

Least Favorites:
Tower of the Ironwood Watch
The Bloodcove Disguise part -2
Any scenario when there needs to be a certain skill mix to succeed and that skill mix does not exist at the table: Library of the Lion, The Disappeared, Blakros Matrimony, etc.

[Woran]

I really loved running

Tide of Twilight
Night March of Kalkamedes
The dissapeared
Rats of round mountain

And we be goblins is always a hoot.

Nothing I strongly dislike, as I can be picky about what I run.
Playing the Beggars Pearl was rather underwhelming, as well as the Devil we Know series.

[Silbeg]

So, I might as well chime in... why not?

Favorites (for various reasons)

• Gods Market Gamble
  
• Murder on the Throaty Mermaid
  
• The Stranger Within (so much goodness here! Thanks Sam Polak!)
  
• Rise of the Goblin Guild (Ekkie!!!)
  
• The Frostfur Captives
  

Least Faves
Trial by Machine (at least in part because I had to run it cold, instead of running Bonekeep 3 at Gen Con)
Among the Living (I really hate one part of the BBEG's tactics... not saying more)

[Muser]

That BBEG never gets to do his thing. Much sadness.

I mean, sure it is foul play, but the combat should already be as good as lost if he a) has the time b) can safely move over the victim.

[rknop]

Spoiler for Among the Living:

Among the Living is one that really really needs to get updated for Pathfinder, since the Cleric ability in question doesn't even exist in Pathfinder. Were it not a violation of the PFS Guide, I would definitely just change the cleric myself to have the Pathfinder version of the Death domain instead of the 3.5 version.

[Silbeg]

rknop wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

among the living:

Actually, it is not the domain ability that I have issues with... It is the tactic to use Animate Dead. Kind of foul play (though not dissimilar to death effects, either). But at a 3-4, it is likely that poorly built or run parties could lose someone to the ogre zombie, and then they will have another to fight. And no raise dead, only ressurrection

Oh, and the HUGE map sucks to draw. Barely fits on a mondomat