Friday, December 17, 2021

My Top 9 non-D&D Adventures of All Time

In a comment to My Top 10 D&D Adventures of the Golden Age (Part II), fellow blogger Adam Dickstein asked me to produce a similar list of my favorite non-D&D adventures. I thought that was an excellent idea and so spent the last week thinking about the matter, resulting in the list below, which I hope will be of as much interest as my previous one. This one is a little different than my D&D-centric one in that it's not in any particular order. Given the wide range of roleplaying games for which these adventures were written, ranking them would, on some level, be like comparing apples and oranges. 

As with my earlier list, this one is highly subjective, based almost entirely on my personal experiences with the adventures in question. I make no claims that any of what follows is "the best" in any absolute sense, only that they're personal favorites from more than four decades of roleplaying. In addition, I have deliberately limited myself to the single adventure I consider my favorite for each game system. I could easily have included multiple Traveller or Call of Cthulhu adventures, for example, but felt a broader list would better illustrate my personal tastes. That's also why there are only nine entries on this list rather than ten: I had a tough time coming up with adventures for ten different games that I have actually used and enjoyed, so I settled for nine. 

The Traveller Adventure

The choice of Marc Miller's 1983 The Traveller Adventure is both obvious and something of a cheat. Unlike some of the entries on this list – though not all, as you'll see – this one more of a campaign framework than an single adventure. Despite its title, The Traveller Adventure gives the referee enough material for months of play in GDW's Third Imperium setting. After the kick-off scenario, the players have an immense range of options, as they pilot their merchant vessel among the worlds of the Aramis subsector of the Spinward Marches. Though there's an overarching narrative thread, it's not heavy-handed. That's vital in a game like Traveller, which, as its title suggests, is built on the characters' freedom to travel where they wish among the worlds of its far future setting. While not perfect – what is? – I've gotten untold hours of fun out of The Traveller Adventure and use it as a model for how to present freewheeling campaign-building material. 

Bugs in the System

You'll find that there are a number of science fiction adventures on this list, which should come as no surprise to those who read this blog regularly. Bugs in the System by Graeme Morris is one of two modules published by TSR UK for Star Frontiers. Unlike many of the scenarios published for the game, this one is relatively slow-paced, focusing on scientific and technological investigation rather than combat. The characters are tasked with figuring out what went wrong on an extraction platform in orbit around a gas giant contact with which has recently been lost. Unraveling the mystery requires careful analysis of the facts on the ground as much as the quick thinking one typically associated with RPGs. What elevates Bugs in the System above so many other modules of this sort is that the central mystery is genuinely science fictional in nature and quite different from what could be found in other Star Frontiers modules. I regularly find myself thinking back on this one.

Trouble Brewing

This one is something of a cheat too, in that it's not a single adventure but rather an overview of a campaign setting, along with several different scenarios, each of which highlights part of that setting. That said, Trouble Brewing is absolutely wonderful, both in its utility to the referee running a Gangbusters campaign and in the options it makes available to the players. The scenarios presented here run the range from law enforcement to journalism to independent and syndicate crime. One of the things I still find incredibly attractive about Gangbusters is the evenness with which it treated character options. The rules treat being an investigative reporter as every bit as viable as being a gangster or private eye. Trouble Brewing follows in the same vein, offering up scenarios and situations intended for all types of characters. I got immense use out of this product.

Legion of Gold

I have been known to call Legion of Gold "the Village of Hommlet" of Gamma World, which is high praise considering that Hommlet is my favorite D&D adventure of all time. I mean that comparison most sincerely. Legion of Gold presents a community of relative safety and prosperity – the Barony of Horn – for use as a home base by a band of newly created player characters. Once established there, the characters begin exploring the surrounding countryside, undertaking small missions for local patrons. In the process, they not only make names for themselves but also start to hear rumors of a growing threat, the eponymous Legion of Gold. The Legion seemingly appeared out of nowhere and, armed with mighty weapons of the Ancients, seems bent on conquest not just of the Barony but all the lands near Lake Mitchigoom. There's plenty of material to sustain a Gamma World campaign for months packed into this module's 32 pages. Great stuff.

The Vanished

FASA's Star Trek the Roleplaying Game remains my favorite adaptation of the venerable science fiction series into the medium of roleplaying. During its existence in the early to mid-1980s, FASA published an outstanding number of truly excellent adventures for the game, many of which compare favorably with episodes from the Original Series. A good example of this is 1983's The Vanished. The scenario is similar in some respects to Bugs in the System above, in that the player characters are investigating unexplained events aboard a space station that has resulted in the disappearance of its crew. This is a slow, methodical scenario that rewards keen eyes and clever thought, but it's also immensely rewarding, as the characters uncover the true cause of what's happening and must resolve it according to the principles of Starfleet. I had much fun with this adventure and still consider it one of highlights of FASA's output for the game.

Shadows of Yog-Sothoth

This entry is another cheat in that Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is a campaign for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu rather than a single adventure. On the other hand, Call of Cthulhu tends to be known more for its campaigns than for its individual scenarios, so I feel quite justified in choosing it. More to the point, this is one of the earliest supplementary products published by Chaosium, so its influence and impact cannot be understated. As a neophyte Keeper, I welcomed the release of Shadows of Yog-Sothoth in 1982 and ran it to great success with my players, who enjoyed every bit of it – even the final confrontation with Cthulhu himself. To this day, whenever I think of refereeing Call of Cthulhu, I find myself thinking back to Sandy Petersen's masterpiece. It's exceptionally well done, with lots of variety in its sanity-shattering horrors and the overall structure, while Derlethian in its frame, is quite satisfying.

The Free City of Krakow

Twilight: 2000 is a favorite RPG of mine, one I bought immediately upon its release in 1984 and played with great gusto with my friends at the time. Over the years, I've retained an immense fondness for it, owing in large part to my memories of the days we spent in the then-possible future of the Year 2000. Much of those days were spent in and around the titular Free City of Krakow, a sovereign city-state that conducts itself independently of both the Warsaw Pact and NATO. Within its walls, almost anything is available for the right price, most especially information. This module, like so many others on this list, presents multiple possible scenarios in which the characters might become involved, in addition to plenty of information about Krakow and its inhabitants. The characters in my campaign of yore spent many months in the Free City, in the process becoming involved in local politics and intrigue. I can't say enough good things about this one.

War in Heaven: Hegemony

Because the focus of this blog is old school roleplaying games, I generally don't write much about RPGs published after the mid-1980s, but one of my favorite games is Fading Suns, first published in 1996. Fading Suns is a science fantasy roleplaying game set thousands of years in the future after the fall of the high-tech Second Republic. What follows is a literal dark age, as the stars themselves begin to fade due to some unknown – and possibly supernatural – phenomenon. War in Heaven: Hegemony is the second part of an unfinished trilogy of adventures dealing with the mysteries of the setting, in this case the enigmatic aliens known as the Vau. The scenario involves the player characters being selected as part of a diplomatic mission to Vau space, during which they learn more about these aliens, the culture, and beliefs. It's a little heavy-handed at times, but I am fond of it nonetheless because of the masterful way author Bill Bridges deploys religious beliefs, esoteric thought, and science fictional concepts to create memorable situations with which the characters must contend.

The Boy King

Again, I cheat – I am sensing a pattern here – in that Greg Stafford's The Boy King isn't a single adventure so much as a campaign framework into which the referee can insert any adventure scenarios he likes. In my defense, I can only say that, despite this, the book does include numerous ready-to-play scenarios, not to mention plenty of background information, locations, and NPC descriptions from which to create many, many more. It's a nearly perfect toolbox for any Pendragon referee, giving him everything needed to run a 80-year campaign, spanning the time between the time of Uther to the death of Arthur. Without exaggeration, The Boy King is the only supplement a Pendragon referee will ever require to keep his campaign humming along for many months, if not years. It's a brilliant piece of work and I've gotten so much use out of it over the years that I had to include it on this list.

33 comments:

  1. heh, I saw the title of this post, and I knew we were going to split hairs over adventure vs campaign..nice work adding a setting book as well...

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    1. It's funny how few adventures most non-D&D RPGs have. Outside of Traveller and Call of Cthulhu, there aren't as many as I'd have expected.

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    2. Part of the reason D&D had so many so quickly is that TSR could draw on tournament scenarios, which no other RPG could really do. Out of the eleven earliest modules, eight (G1-3, D1-3, S1, and C1) come from tournament scenarios.

      There are a few other RPGs with several adventures. Tunnels & Trolls, of course, had lots of solo adventures, and Dragonquest had about five from SPI and a couple from Judge's Guild. Villains & Vigilantes has a ton of adventures as well.

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    3. I am shocked how little support otherwise enormous RPGs get. look at Palladium Fantasy. good rpg, lots of source books, almost zero adventures (mostly just a scenario or three in the sourcebooks, and I think a couple in The Rifter...).

      I just wanted to add that one of my faves was for Dangerous Journeys, Necropolis, by Gygax. now for D&D of course...

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    4. @Rick I dimly remember a local Palladium fanboy coming back from some show (GenCon or Origins, probably) in the 90s and telling us that he'd gotten to talk to Siembieda about the "where's the adventures?" thing. He'd been told that Kevin didn't think they'd sell as well as sourcebooks, based on early attempts like Palladium Fantasy's Arms of Nargash-Tor. Rifter had a fair few over the years but outside of that yeah, few on the ground.

      If that's true (and this is a he said he said he said thing) it would explain things - although going by Nargash-Tor, Kevin wasn't half bad at writing a good adventure setting, so his assumptions about sales might have been hasty.

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  2. as an addendum, I could have made a "Top 10 Adventure Not For D&D" just from Call of Cthulhu....

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    1. I could have done the same with Traveller.

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    2. I, for one, would really like to see your top 10 adventure list for Traveller.

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    3. We shall see. The narrower the focus of the list becomes, the list interest it'll likely hold. On the other hand, Traveller remains a significant RPG even today, so perhaps it'd be worth writing such a list.

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    4. I think Traveller holds a lot of interest for a lot of people, especially readers of this blog, and you're such an aficionado of the game that your list would be well worth reading.

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    5. I'd have a hard time sticking to just ten in either CoC or Traveller. So much good stuff there...

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  3. Thoughts:

    Bugs In the System is very atypical of Star Frontiers modules, which is for the best I think. Shooting up pirates and Sathar is fun and all but it's nice to see something different as a break.
    It could be adapted to other scifi games (Traveller seems an obvious choice) without great effort, and probably deserves to be better known than it is.

    Never played the Vanished, but I did run Witness For the Defense (which was the other one of the first wave modules for Trek) to mixed results. Vanished sounds better conceptually, murder mysteries/crime investigation isn't the first thing that comes to mind with Trek. FASA Trek remains my favorite Trek RPG, but that's likely due to sever nostalgia and a preference for TOS over other later series rather than objective merits.

    Fadings Suns is a fascinating IP, and has one of the most convoluted publication histories of any game its age. The Tau are intriguing and their highly structured and thoroughly alien society reminds me of parts of Tekumel, but I think I enjoyed Lifeweb (the first book in the non-trilogy) more. The Symbiots are just plain weird and really push the body horror/alien infiltration buttons for me.

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    1. Lifeweb is indeed excellent, but I've personally had more success with the Vau, in part, I think, because they're generally less hostile to humanity.

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    2. Cripes, Vau, not Tau. I'm a nitwit, and apparently brainwashed by the chemicals GW uses in its plastics. :)

      Anyway, I can see your point. Symbiots are better as alien monsters/villains to beware of. Vau are better to talk to - carefully. Very carefully. Do not offend the Vau.

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  4. And of course you could throw the Sky Raiders trilogy in for Traveller as well.

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    1. There's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Traveller

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  5. Seeing how many of these are campaigns and frameworks and there's nothing for RuneQuest here, I'm surprised you didn't go for Griffin Mountain. Perhaps it was stretching the definition too much?

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    1. I have never refereed a game of RQ in my life (and only played it much in recent years), so I unfortunately had to exclude books like Griffin Mountain. It's clearly worthy of inclusion but I have no direct experience with it as a referee.

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    2. wait, we have to have refereed a module to vote for it? crap, that kills most of my ideas...

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    3. That's one of the criteria I've been using for my lists, yes. I thought it a good way to winnow down the options to something manageable.

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    4. Hmm. Well, I've run Griffin Mountain, so I guess I can put it on my list without feeling guilty. :)

      Although I think I'd put Pavis/Big Rubble's many scenarios slightly ahead of it for RQ awesomeness.

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  6. James:

    You make me nostalgic to play these GAMES (instead of Dungeons & Dragons!) despite never owning, running, or playing ANY of these particular adventures.

    (with the exception of GW1, which I own but have never run)

    Yes, even Star Frontiers, a game I’ve lambasted in the past for its problematic design.

    This post reminds me of the excitement that caused me to buy so many of these RPGs over the years (Fading Suns being the only one I didn’t pull the trigger on when I had the chance). I might have to break out one or two of these this holiday season.
    ; )

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  7. Another thought - it's really nice that Trouble Brewing supports investigative reporters so well. I've been listening to an awful lot of OTR and stuff like Casey, Crime Photographer and Crime Beat fill me with delight. They're set much later, but you can see the "tough mystery solving newsman" trope forming back in teh Prohibition days.

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    1. OTR shows have a lot of inspiration to offer folks playing games set in those earlier eras.
      I'm kind of surprised there's not been an 'I Love A Mystery' RPG... seeing as it's focus is a group of adventurers solving weird mysteries, vs. the usual hardboiled loner.

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    2. That would be a good framework for an RPG, although some of the other shows from the era could also work if you just shifted the spotlight a bit so the "supporting cast" regulars were a bit more front-and-center - Casey, Crime Photographer could do that easily, for ex.

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  8. Griffin Mountain, The Enemy Within, Rogue Mistress, The Darkening of Mirkwood are among my all-time Non-D&D favorites.

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    1. Rogue Mistress was amazing. Truly a shame so few people get a chance to play Stormbringer these days.

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  9. It's hard to do these lists, as it so easily becomes the list of times you and your friends had a great time hanging out.
    I like that you manage to include some information on what makes these good, even though I am still unconvinced about the T2000 one. It seems widely praised, but I really don't see what makes it so special, so having played them is a must if you put them on a list.
    I'm almost tempted to make a list myself, but I've almost always used a campaign source book, one published adventure and then a published adventure for another setting ans mashed the three together.

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  10. Ooh, I really liked the main Fading Suns book but never read any supplemental material; might be time to go snag an ebook!

    Speaking of FASA adventures, I used to splice adventures from "Harlequin" into my Shadowrun campaign, rotating it in with "sci-fi" & "magic" themed adventures. I always intended to get to "Harlequin's Back" but time is what it is...

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  11. Villains and Vigilantes' "Death Duel with the Destroyers" by Bill Willingham from 1982 is one of the best modules I've seen for any game. Total command of the genre and its tropes. Amazing art: cover, counters, maps and a different comic page to introduce each supervillain. The villains were fleshed out with great dialogue, origins, motives, personality weaknesses to be exploited by clever players, battle tactics and more.

    Like Hommlet, this low level adventure stood on its own but was really the lead-in to a much-hyped conclusion that failed to deliver on the same level (in this case, The Island of Doctor Apocalypse).

    I'd run this again in a heartbeat.

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  12. I consider Legion of Gold to be an almost Platonic ideal of an excellent adventure. I used it in a Gamma World campaign just a few years ago to great effect with very little tinkering.

    Let me add to the chorus of wanting to see even more Traveller content on your blog! I am currently starting a Traveller campaign for friends unfamiliar with the system and am planning to use the Traveller Adventure at some point, to greater or lesser degree. (My first re-read, though, has reminded me that there is a fair amount of mild railroading going on... at least at the beginning.)

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  13. I second the call for a version of this list around Traveller. I found old Traveller modules invaluable in prepping a sandbox for my new Esper Genesis campaign. Hopefully one day my group will actually let me try running it for them!

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  14. If nothing else this article is going to inspire me to spend some money at DriveThruRPG, and perhaps Ebay and the like.

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