tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post2735330392652067476..comments2024-03-18T20:22:06.331-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Open Friday: Adventure UseJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-86921560647763333722012-08-01T11:56:05.993-04:002012-08-01T11:56:05.993-04:00Most used? ... N2 The Forest Oracle by Carl Smit...Most used? ... N2 The Forest Oracle by Carl Smith (1984)<br />Why? Well despite a number of minor, oddball flaws it had:<br />* suitably generic locale with an "old world" European swords and sorcery feel vs pulp sci-fi fantasy of Barrier Peaks, Temple of the Frog, Where Chaos Reigns (all with lasers and robots) or jungle expolration pulp of Quagmire!, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, Isle of Dread, Isle of the Ape and (again) Temple of the Frog.<br />* amazing Keith Parkison cover -- dire wolves are a nightmare vs low level PCs<br />* blend of wilderness and dungeon locations<br />* established NPCs that could easily springboard future plots, become arch villains, or mentor PCs.<br />* wererats vs PC party w/ no magic weapons :)<br />* solid, simple cartography<br />* [perhaps most importantly] there was a sense that this environment had been /lived in/ before the adventurers came along. Why were there bandits in the Great Olde Woode? Was the local lord a toad or were they broken men who had fled a battle? How did they keep themselves alive with all those bloody dire wolves in the forest? Who led them and was he just a thug or did he have a higher purpose? Was Bolo the inn keep in league with the wererats? With the dwarf mines played out who still traveled this way often enough to let the Wildwood Inn stay open? How many other bands of Bloody Hand orcs were in the mountains? Who was their king? A hill giant or some other foe far too powerful for 1st and 2nd level PCs to tackle directly? And what the heck are these gypsies doing hanging about?<br />So I have come back to this module with EIGHT separate groups of players because it offers a fairly generic, "vanilla" flavored setting (to provide a backdrop against which future jungle pulp transdimensional robot stories could be told in due time), a simple encounter-based linear plot (*gasp*!) that moved the party briskly through a much larger environment while continually hinting that there were many more things to be discovered, and just enough logical flaws and silliness that, as a DM, I was charmed into pondering questions like "how did the ogre get a pet flesh golem anyway?" which gave me seeds for more and more adventures.<br />Not bad for $11.MoldvayKindernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-39449632143613895312011-11-24T21:11:26.969-05:002011-11-24T21:11:26.969-05:00Most used, borrowed from and pillaged would be:
H...Most used, borrowed from and pillaged would be:<br /><br />Halls of Tizan Thane - White Dwarf<br />The Lichway - White Dwarf<br />Tegel Manor<br />City State of Invincible Overlord<br />A1<br />L1<br /><br />All modules I bought in the first few years of gaming<br /><br />Modules I've read and want to run:<br />G, D Series<br />Tomb of AbysthorLilaxehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18128759834239414567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-55048809011268314762011-11-23T10:12:02.285-05:002011-11-23T10:12:02.285-05:00Without a doubt:
Stonehell.
Our LL game has been...Without a doubt:<br /><br />Stonehell.<br /><br />Our LL game has been going on every week for a year now and every session has had at least something to do with Stonehell. It'd be going on for another year, but sounds like the expansion isn't going to be coming soon. But we've gotten about 250 hours of game play out of it, directly or indirectly.Gregoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13691550494650829835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-67864450530067014302011-11-21T17:30:05.115-05:002011-11-21T17:30:05.115-05:00AD&D's 1983 classic, The Pharaoh. The comp...AD&D's 1983 classic, The Pharaoh. The complete Desert of Desolation adventure compilation came later for me. These modules contained fantastic chambers and traps plus great Jim Holloway artwork.Moorhawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07859537118710762813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-45622045062428912052011-11-21T07:52:32.308-05:002011-11-21T07:52:32.308-05:00B/X D&D:
Irilian (a city-based module from a B...B/X D&D:<br /><b>Irilian</b> (a city-based module from a Best of White Dwarf collection)<br />After the "Shadows over Bögenhafen" like module was over the city remained the hub of my first hodgepodge campaign setting (which drew heavily from other magazine modules, most notably from White Dwarf and Imagine).<br /><br />AD&D Second Edition:<br /><b>N5 Under Illefarn</b><br />Daggerford was a campaign foundation with solid descriptions of factions. The dwarven dungeon itself was a bit "meh" but everything else was top notch. In fact, I didn't use much of the official Realms at all. My Realms evolved organically out of this module alone. In the end my Realms were a lot more "eerie" and fog-shrouded, thanks to the illustrations from artist Peregrine (sp?) found in N5.<br /><br />Stormbringer:<br /><b>Griffin Island</b><br />A great wilderness sandbox!Greyhawk Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06730467399899194610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-18420915078430006092011-11-20T20:55:37.194-05:002011-11-20T20:55:37.194-05:00The original City State of the Invincible Overlord...The original City State of the Invincible Overlord from Judges' Guild was the product that saw the most use. It became the centrepiece for our 'golden age' campaign, although to be truthful we mainly used the map and made up the details as we went along - often stealing ideas wholesale from Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Robert E. Howard. I still think that the original version is one of the best RPG maps ever produced! We used the city-state as a base of operations from which expeditions travelled to the locations of the various classic TSR modules. Good times!Ian Mageehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06156995293439922576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-19882854628125539152011-11-20T20:37:30.682-05:002011-11-20T20:37:30.682-05:00Almost forgot -- Jonathan Tweet's "Barran...Almost forgot -- Jonathan Tweet's "Barran the Monster Killer" in Strangers in Prax (for RQ3) is pure unadulterated genius. I almost don't want to tell others about it, so I can run it on players without spoiling it. I've run it several times for D&D with rousing success. Very well-structured and challenging.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08868302412533031659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-13160613803537927872011-11-20T20:35:08.987-05:002011-11-20T20:35:08.987-05:00Apple Lane from RuneQuest -- especially "Grin...Apple Lane from RuneQuest -- especially "Gringle's Pawnshop" -- is immensely fun (I've run it with rollicking success in both RQ2 and AD&D). Unlike most of the worthy classics discussed in this thread, it is not a dungeon delve, but a one-building siege against inventively designed foes. Even seasoned players will be hard pressed if you play the antagonists intelligently, yet the scenario gives smart players lots of opportunities to prepare and shine. <br /><br />C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness is a classic I haven't seen mentioned here yet -- the mood is evocative (you're going into a tower that doesn't exist anymore), the challenges are varied and surprising, and it builds to a dazzling final set-piece. Also, I've found it runs between 3.5 and 4 hours when played through -- as a one-shot, it works surprisingly well in light of the fly-by-the-pants nature of game design back in the late '70s.<br /><br />R2: The Investigation of Hydell by Frank Mentzer is a criminally underappreciated classic. It should be a case study on the correct use of illusions in AD&D. R1: To the Aid of Falx is also a gem, with a time-limit that adds a distinctive challenge to play.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08868302412533031659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-28507212485301967632011-11-20T19:18:30.482-05:002011-11-20T19:18:30.482-05:00B1 became the basis for most of my teenage campaig...B1 became the basis for most of my teenage campaigns. Quasqueton became the center of a larger world, and I built new reasons to return. Being able to switch up stuff on a group mostly made up of the pregens in the back was wild fun, and I wore the module out.Luke Martinezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17613401274696711406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-61155993190771404782011-11-20T10:01:36.305-05:002011-11-20T10:01:36.305-05:00Death on the Reik from WFRP. Lots of sandboxy pla...Death on the Reik from WFRP. Lots of sandboxy play up and down the river (great reference for other campaigns, for that matter), and then a great and fairly bizarre dungeon in Castle Wittgenstein. Lots of potential adventure hooks along the way if you want to build the campaign in a different way rather than continuing on to Middenheim.<br /><br />I think during the 90's, most publishers priced their adventures too high (partially because of print costs) relative to their audience and the volume of material they provided. As a GM, I had to chose between paying $20+ dollars for a supplement (which could provide material for multiple homemade adventures, new PC options for games I played in or my players, and lots of reading/browsing materials) and adventures that cost $15+, could only be run once with a particular group, and only at certain points in the development of any other group (most adventures only worked for a particular level/XP band without significant overhauls).<br /><br />In those days, I was most attracted to adventures that combined significant sourcebooks (like The Enemy Within in WFRP). These days, going cheap + PDF-only seems like a much more clever route.ComradeGnullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09210806450294521289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-5736333118287294532011-11-20T09:00:48.090-05:002011-11-20T09:00:48.090-05:00I didn't get keep on the border lands or any o...I didn't get keep on the border lands or any of the single modules for early levels of game play - I picked up B9 in search of adventure which was the booklet compilation of pretty much the Basic D&D Adventure series.<br /><br />It became the mainstay of my D&D campaigns - and followed up with a substantial number of the Gazetteers...became the core of My D&D gaming set.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-43944384371918950622011-11-20T05:57:52.824-05:002011-11-20T05:57:52.824-05:00@ Kiltedyaksman: Ditto. This is one of my favorit...@ Kiltedyaksman: Ditto. This is one of my favorite introductory modules. It's got a few holes here and there, but I tend to re-use it for its basic set up: "you're all victims of an orc press gang" beats the heck out of "you're all sitting in a tavern when..." as an open scene. It's served as a great start up for any number of great nautical campaigns I have GM'd.80sGamerGeekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273165960058841668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-23469793588736622662011-11-20T00:35:31.887-05:002011-11-20T00:35:31.887-05:00I don't tend to re-use modules. I had to think...I don't tend to re-use modules. I had to think a bit on this one.<br /><br />Used most often:<br />"Free city of Krakow" and "Escape from Kalisz" for Twilight:2000. I know I've used them to start at least 4 campaigns.<br /><br />Also, "Sprechenhaltestelle" for Top Secret. I used the map and some of the buildings and NPCs a lot back in the '80s.<br /><br />Used the longest:<br />"King of the Giantdowns" for 2e AD&D, Birthright setting. I ran a 5-year (real-time) campaign there.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13103472744612438430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-50453124632280532572011-11-19T23:11:57.540-05:002011-11-19T23:11:57.540-05:00For AD&D: Paul Jacquays Caverns of Thracia, Th...For AD&D: Paul Jacquays Caverns of Thracia, The U1-3 Saltmarsh series, UK5 Eye of the Serpent and UK4 When a Star Falls each got several plays from me with different groups. Yeah and The Keep on the Borderlands, but we all got that one. I like my modules to be fairly complete and ready-to-play if I'm going to use a module. One nice thing about prepared modules, especially when there weren´t many of them, is as a sort of shared cultural point between gamers. Different groups could reminisce about their experience of the Giants or Drow or the Tomb of Horrors. Call of Cthulhu adventures are generally so plentiful and well-written that I´ve rarely 'done my own thing' with that game. It has some classic adventures too, like Masks of Nyarlathotep.Questbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00533422997911138615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-41981221668875707302011-11-19T21:06:44.893-05:002011-11-19T21:06:44.893-05:00Either The Village of Hommlet (As a campaign start...Either The Village of Hommlet (As a campaign starter, more often than not) or the Ravenloft 3e remake, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, as a Halloween oneshot or occasional minicampaignRachel Ghoulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04765944479141792643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-19150114396635703082011-11-19T21:02:04.836-05:002011-11-19T21:02:04.836-05:00“I know it's not a module but I bet I used the...“<i>I know it's not a module but I bet I used the little map and encounters in Mentzer's Red Box Set's DM book a lot as well.</i><br /><br />Come to think about it, I’ve used the sample adventure in Moldvay’s book an awful lot.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733274876782876659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-42278913254751126502011-11-19T20:40:26.177-05:002011-11-19T20:40:26.177-05:00To answer this question:
"I'm curious as ...To answer this question:<br />"I'm curious as to why that might be."<br /><br />The rationale I've heard most often is that "insert big game company name here" will only sell one copy of a published adventure, but might sell a sourcebook to your entire gaming group.<br /><br />Truth is, I'm seriously doubting that's the case anymore. If my own gaming group is a guide, we're lucky if we've got two core rulebooks at the table (I run with four other players) including mine, and supplement books are pretty much mine alone.<br /><br />Also, in a day with Tablet computers and PDFs, the opportunity cost for publishing that PDF adventure is a lot lower than a print company.<br /><br />Ironically, I think Paizo is one of the first ones to figure this out. One of the things I admire about Pathfinder vs. 4E or even 3rd Ed, is that Pathfinder is putting a lot more stuff to play in GMs hands instead of burying them in a blizzard of rules supplements that just lead to power creep, munchkinism, and a broken game system.<br /><br />Hero System has also done pretty well selling small PDF adventures. And if you think about it, outside of Cthulhu Invictus, everything published by Chaosium for CofC since the early 1990s has been published adventures, other than new additions of the corebook.Desert Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14837747666646894084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-61079706996750572432011-11-19T20:29:02.994-05:002011-11-19T20:29:02.994-05:00Hmm. As far as well-worn adventures go, I've ...Hmm. As far as well-worn adventures go, I've used the following more than once:<br /><br />Classic Traveller:<br />Leviathan<br />Twilight's Peak<br />The Traveller Adventure<br /><br />MegaTraveller:<br />The Flaming Eye Campaign Sourcebook.<br /><br />MT is my rules system of choice (with the errata, it's a perfectly workable system, and I've got 25 years worth of stuff created for it, so there's no point in upgrading). This is a particularly good, fairly open ended campaign about piracy during Traveller's Second Civil War period.<br /><br />AD&D:<br />U1-U3. The UK modules starting with U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh got a few uses for me.<br /><br />And a little farther afield, I've run the 12 to Midnight d20 Modern scenario Weekend Warriors more than once at cons. It's a great little scenario involving zombies, super-soldier experiments gone awry, set on a military base. Much like the video game Left for Dead, if your soldier dies, he becomes one of the zombies. :)Desert Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14837747666646894084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-79227765482293585092011-11-19T20:05:53.318-05:002011-11-19T20:05:53.318-05:00I've returned to gaming after a very long hiat...I've returned to gaming after a very long hiatus. (Shame on me!) The systems I've been using in my gaming 2.0 reboot over the last couple of years are CoC and Warhammer. For the former, the scenario that I'm now running for (at least) the second time is Shadows of Yog Sothoth. After we were done with SYY I handed off CoC GMing responsibilities to one of the group who wanted to GM and is now doing Horror on the Orient Express. For Warhammer, we'll be doing The Enemy Within after Thousand Thrones. Enemy Within was one of my all time favorite rpg experiences.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11539859100766255114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-67460619101192182212011-11-19T19:10:10.697-05:002011-11-19T19:10:10.697-05:00From my gaming experience the adventures that seem...From my gaming experience the adventures that seemed to see the most repeated use were:<br /><br />I6 Ravenloft<br />DA2 Temple Of The Frog<br />CM1 Test Of The Warlords<br />A1-4 Slaver series<br />S1 Tomb Of Horrors<br />S2 White Plume Mountain<br />WG4 Forgotten Temple Of Tharizdun<br /><br />Now one thing most of (but not all) these modules have in common is the goals are clear cut and relatively simple, allowing for more of a sandbox type experience, which I really enjoy DMing. Now in the case of S1, that never, ever saw use in a campaign of mine; it was usually done as a one shot just when were felt like playing D&D, but a not a long running campaign.Chris#6https://www.blogger.com/profile/08305925037284931371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-233989120261114512011-11-19T18:36:59.150-05:002011-11-19T18:36:59.150-05:00Modules I've run at least twice include Call o...Modules I've run at least twice include Call of Cthulu's The Haunted House - when I ran it for my wife, she refused to go inside! - and N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I ran X2 Castle Amber just once, I think, X1 Isle of Dread I ran & played. A lot of this is from when I was 12-14, 24-26 years ago, very hard to recall!Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01173759805310975320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-71567822541997104342011-11-19T18:23:20.320-05:002011-11-19T18:23:20.320-05:00'Lost City of Barakus' for 3.5 D&D gav...'Lost City of Barakus' for 3.5 D&D gave me nearly 2 years of sustained fortnightly play, around 35 5-6 hour sessions. I used very little that wasn't in the hardback. I don't think anything else comes close - nearest would be The Shrine of Kollchap in 'What is Dungeons & Dragons?', which I have rerun many many times. After that maybe 'Irillian' from White Dwarf, which I ran back in the '80s.<br /><br />Can't say I've made very much use of TSR/WoTC adventures.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01173759805310975320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-16797521728339660432011-11-19T17:59:09.710-05:002011-11-19T17:59:09.710-05:00"Still Waters" in Chaosium's the Gre..."Still Waters" in Chaosium's the Great Old Ones. I've run it in the original Call of Cthulhu system, d&d 3e w/ sanity rules, Ghostbusters d6, and Fading Suns.<br /><br />There's something about this 'simple mission gets complicated adventure' that allows me to pile on the slowly growing mystery and horror in almost any setting. Opportunities to use stormy nights, a nearby river (originally the Mississipi), flooding, and a badly tuned piano are a plus.Alex Osiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14851139031311819958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-28100017400236850652011-11-19T14:37:34.205-05:002011-11-19T14:37:34.205-05:00For CoC I ran Masks of Nyarlathotep twice and play...For CoC I ran Masks of Nyarlathotep twice and played as an investigator 3 times. We all went mad or died horribly. Good times.<br /><br />The Star Trek RPG (FASA) adventure The Vanished was played 3 or 4 times at conventions. <br /><br />For D&D it was probably B1 but I consider it pretty thin - it is more of a model for doing your own adventures than a fully developed dungeon. <br /><br />The short answer about adventures in that in the 90s nobody could make <br />Any <br />Money selling themCaptain Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10682678777940123469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-65539203499120998182011-11-19T13:01:39.794-05:002011-11-19T13:01:39.794-05:00I haven't used a whole ton of published advent...I haven't used a whole ton of published adventures over the years, but one that I've gotten a lot of use out of is <i><a href="http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1713" rel="nofollow">Death in Freeport</a></i>. I've run the original Freeport Trilogy at least twice if not three times, and I believe I've run <i>Death</i> at least once or twice without going on to the others. I've been thinking a little bit lately about running the trilogy again and I'm trying to decide whether to just run them in 3.0, to buy the 3.5 update, or to convert them to <b>Call of Cthulhu</b>, which I've been thinking about using for a sword & sorcery game lately.<br /><br />Next to those, I remember running <i><a href="http://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/46119/eye-of-traldar" rel="nofollow">Eye of Traldar</a></i> a few times in the couple years after it came out. I was very excited to hear it had a sequel coming in the form of <i><a href="http://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/46126/the-dymrak-dread" rel="nofollow">The Dymrak Dread</a></i>, but being disappointed that it wasn't really a sequel.Luke Styerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05225900590722737581noreply@blogger.com