Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SnarlyBear 08-30-07, 11:24 AM	Howdy All! I am looking for recommendations for published modules. Which ones have you played in or DM'ed that you found to be excellent? We are finishing up Red Hand of Doom, so you can leave out that one. I am asking because I work two jobs and have a total of, say, 4 hours a week to prep for a once a week game. The published modules make my task much easier. Thanks!
xdahnx 08-30-07, 12:38 PM	Well, it takes a long time to go through it all, but the "Age of Worms" adventure path takes you all the way from 1-20 (21,22 if you're lucky), and it is a fantastic story. Lots of opportunities for Role-Playing, Combat, Puzzles, Exploration, etc. If you don't really have the time to prep your own game, having a solid adventure path to guide you for the next year or more of gaming seems like a good idea.
Subversive 08-30-07, 04:42 PM	We are finishing up Red Hand of Doom, so you can leave out that one. How'd that go for your guys? High PC body count? Successfull? I've heard a lot of good things about Expedition to Greyhawk, and Castle Ravenloft is supposed to be very good, but watch out for errors and ommissions (including, as I understand it, an omitted ending!).
TheFlash 08-30-07, 05:54 PM	What kind of adventure are you looking for? Dungeon Crawls or more like Red Hand of doom?
TheFlash 08-30-07, 06:35 PM	Ok these are my thoughts about different modules: Catle Ravenloft: Is a great module, one of the best from Wizards. Focused on Undead and the Castle at the end is really challenging and difficult to handle if you don't have time to prep. The ending is easy to handle a) They all die b) The 2nd edition PDF is available for download and there is an ending. Castle Greyhawk: Great dungeon crawl, but it works better if your players are familiar with the story of Greyhawk, the npc’s etc.. Great but could be boring if they are not into big dungeon crawls. The Coin Trilogy by Kenzer and Company is more like Red Hand of Doom but with a bigger scale. It is 3 different modules. Your players will travel a big deal: Mountains, forest, sea, desert, city, and face a lot of challenges: Powerful Mages, Undead, Pirates, Dragons, etc… It is a popcorn adventure more like Indiana Jones, so it goes fast but a lot of fun for players. It is 3.0 so you will have little work to do (search around the net for update) Adventure Path (lev 1-20) from Paizo: I recommend a) The Shackled City: A site based dungeon crawl. You have a big city (really cool) and all the adventures goes from Cauldron (the city) to under the city. B) The Savage Tide: A swashbuckling adventure. I suggest only the first half of the campaign. I changed the Isle of dread to be more like Skull Island (King Kong) and conclude with some great fights around level 7-8. Anyway, you will probably take more than six months to get there and players usually get bored after that.
Board_Rider 08-30-07, 10:13 PM	Another vote for Shackled City.
Gerry 08-30-07, 10:39 PM	Umm, T1, Village of Hommlet? Sorry, showing my age. Tearing of the Weave is VERY good. A little linear later, but a good mystery to start. Believeable cross-planar access, playing with dragons, good stuff. If you're not F.R. you need to modify the gods a bit, but heck I just went, "well, in THIS pantheon, Mystra is .... and Shar is .....". That and I looked up a few Feats in the various FR books ( I love the online Feat index, that's what told me where to look. Then off to my FLGS/Library). The Coin Trilogy from Kenzer looks and reads GREAT. I have NOT run it, but it has excellent player hand-outs, artwork to show PCs just to help describe an area, etc. Many of their products are like that. The 3.0 Iconic Modules are pretty nifty, but you'd have to string them together, and convert them from 3.0 to 3.5 . On the advice of my cousin, avoid the World's Largest Dungeon. Its a mega-crawl, you've got to cut XP in half or you go up too fast. Somebody's pumping out a three volume War against the Drow. That sounds interesting, but I have no idea how well it delivers.
SnarlyBear 08-31-07, 04:56 PM	What kind of adventure are you looking for? Dungeon Crawls or more like Red Hand of doom? My players like a variety of types of adventures--the joy with RHoD has been that we would spend an entire evening role playing in Drellin's Ferry, then an entire evening exploring the Witchwood or Rhest, then spend an few days hacking and slashing in Vrest Keep or dungeon Ghostlord. It was a great adventure in that there was A) variety, and B) the players got to decide themselves what line to follow next. So the short answer is, yes, another RHoD type adventure would be great. Oh, and thanks for all the excellent suggestions so far! Applause :cheer:
Subversive 08-31-07, 05:31 PM	On the advice of my cousin, avoid the World's Largest Dungeon. Its a mega-crawl, you've got to cut XP in half or you go up too fast. I'd be careful about WLD. I've heard there's a lot of errors, and it can get sort of repetative. It's a lot of money to shell out, so get some first-hand reviews of it before you plunk down all that cash.
Subversive 08-31-07, 05:33 PM	The Savage Tide: A swashbuckling adventure. I suggest only the first half of the campaign. I changed the Isle of dread to be more like Skull Island (King Kong) and conclude with some great fights around level 7-8. Anyway, you will probably take more than six months to get there and players usually get bored after that. In defence of The Savage Tide, I just picked up the last installment of it, and really enjoyed the setup. Lots of Heroes of Battle type adventure, reminded me a lot of Chapter 4 from RHoD, only this time, you're on the side that's doing all of the attacking! :D
Zyphus 08-31-07, 06:16 PM	I3 Pharoah, I4 Oasis of the White Palm, I5 Tomb of Martek Probably the best series of 1st edition modules. Easy to upgrade to 3.5 and there are some somewhere on the internet. The hooks to start the adventures are terrible, but the rest is great stuff. You can find out more by searching the Out of Print section of the boards.
Gerry 09-02-07, 12:37 PM	My players like a variety of types of adventures--the joy with RHoD has been that we would spend an entire evening role playing in Drellin's Ferry, then an entire evening exploring the Witchwood or Rhest, then spend an few days hacking and slashing in Vrest Keep or dungeon Ghostlord. It was a great adventure in that there was A) variety, and B) the players got to decide themselves what line to follow next. So the short answer is, yes, another RHoD type adventure would be great. Oh, and thanks for all the excellent suggestions so far! Applause :cheer: Tearing of the Weave works a lot like that in the first few chapters. Less so later. But by then, you're on another plane and moving between different encounters. I recommend you look thru it at your favourite FLGS. It might be just the thing you're looking for. And apparently the next two FR adventures are sequels, so there's an instant campaign for you. Gerry
Mordayn 09-03-07, 06:24 AM	My player's had a lot of fun playing through Gorgoldand's gauntlet found free as a pdf at this site: http://www.gilda.it/imperium/download/gauntlet.pdf We've also just finished Cormyr: Tearing of the weave and had a blast. Looking forward to continue the campaign with Shadowdale: Scouring of the land, which reminds me of red hand of doom, but looks better IMHO. Have planned an interlude in between the two adventures using some of the encounters from The Tome of magic (The ones at the plane of shadows). I found Return to castle Ravenloft interesting, but haven't played through it yet.
Caligula 09-03-07, 09:36 AM	I will give you a list of my 5 favorites: Red Hand of Doom Needless to say the favorite module around for D&D gamers. An epic battle against the evil dragon god Tiamat and her forces. Fantastic gallery of NPCs and intriguing settings taking the PCs from deserts to swamps to mountains. Beautiful battlemaps and several awesome battles! 5th-10th level. Return to the Tomb of Horrors Bruce R Cordell has masterminded this fantastic revisit of the dreaded archlich Acererak and his evil plot to rule the world. This module takes the heroes to player they have never seen before, even to new worlds! A must have for any DM of class. Die Vecna Die This is the perfect module for those who have the guts to take up a struggle against a demi-god. Vecna wants world domination and only your group of heroes can stop him! The final battle stands in the throneroom of Vecna himself. Can it be any cooler than that? The Vault of Larin Karr Necromancer Games stand for quality products (www.necromancergames.com) and this is there diamond! We played this module for over 10 months and loved every step of it! The players will search for 3 unique gems that are each part of a magic key that can open the legendary drow Larin Karr's secret vault. Easy? Not quite. The gems are spread out at a vast area and some of them in the possession of less than friendly creatures... And when you have found the 3 gems one important piece of info is still missing. Where the heck is the vault??? ;) 4th-9th level. Destiny of Kings The major bad guy here, the Duke of Aimar, killed 3 of my players PCs. They hated him like crazy for it! This is a lovely module where the heroes must save a small Kingdom from destruction. The king has been murdered and the sole inherant to the throne has gone missing. A plot worthy of Hamlet will have your players on their toes althrough to the end. A great classic! The final battle at the Duke of Aimar's secret fortress is second to none! 1st-4th level. These 5 modules will guarantee you and your players many hours of extreme action and fun. So say I, Caligula. :)
omnicrondelicious 09-03-07, 02:42 PM	I3 Pharoah, I4 Oasis of the White Palm, I5 Tomb of Martek Probably the best series of 1st edition modules. Easy to upgrade to 3.5 and there are some somewhere on the internet. The hooks to start the adventures are terrible, but the rest is great stuff. You can find out more by searching the Out of Print section of the boards. Oh, man - those were great. I've run those modules three times and would happily run them a fourth time. The look on their faces when they freed the efreet, priceless...
RedRory 09-03-07, 05:50 PM	For adventure paths/campaigns I would also recommend Savage Tide. I am currently running it and my group has loved it. I have done some tweaks and am considerably shortening the abyssal part but it stands head above shoulders from the rest. It is long though so you could just run the Isle of Dread adventures (Here There Be Monsters is a lot of fun, evil teleporting monkey demons!). I've been playing in a Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde game and that has been quite enjoyable. It's much shorter than the adventure paths (lvls 1-6 I believe). The module isn't terribly revolutionary but the DM who is running it is DMing for the first time and its working well. Lastly, any of the Gamemastery Modules from Paizo I would recommend. There is a free level 1 adventure Hollow's Last Hope available on their site. p.s. Expedition to Demonweb Pits despite the Planescape vibe is not terribly good.
Carn 09-09-07, 02:34 AM	I am also looking for adventure recommendations (review and grades), so I found this thread very helpful. Hopefully we can get even more votes to get more reliable statistics... So far, what you have recommended is: BEST ADVENTURES (3 votes) -------------------------- Red Hand of Doom Castle Ravenloft Savage Tide Tearing of the Weave GOOD ADVENTURES (2 votes) -------------------------- Expedition to Greyhawk Coin Trilogy Shackled City I3, Pharoah I4, Oasis of the White Palm I5, Tomb of Martek FAIR ADVENTURES (1 vote) ------------------------- Age of Worms (adventure path) T1, Village of Hommlet Shadowdale: Scouring of the land 3.0 Iconic Module War against the Drow Gordoldand's gauntlet Encounters from the Tome of magic Return to the Tomb of Horrors Die vecna Die The Vault of Larin Karr Destiny of Kings Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde Gamemastery modules from Paizo Any more recommendations on the new Expedition series? /Carn
xdahnx 09-09-07, 11:51 AM	i'm currently running aow and loving it so i'm curious why people on this thread are rating it so low i've read a bit of shackled city, and it seems interesting... is savage tide that fantastic?
Flarestorm 09-09-07, 12:48 PM	Any more recommendations on the new Expedition series? Expedition to the Demonweb Pits is awful. Very weak plot, all disorganized, and full of errors. World's Largest Dungeon seems like more an experiment than a runnable campaign adventure. Shackled City is good, but the meta plot sometimes gets buried and it's hard to remember why you are doing what you are doing. Savage Tide seems great, but I didn't get to read the first half of the path. AoW is a great adventure path. Great settings and overall themes. I'd recommend anything by Paizo. GameMastery Modules and the new Pathfinder.
Legendarius 09-09-07, 03:36 PM	I've been playing in a Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde game and that has been quite enjoyable. It's much shorter than the adventure paths (lvls 1-6 I believe). The module isn't terribly revolutionary but the DM who is running it is DMing for the first time and its working well. I'm in the same boat and have been playing this and our DM is also running a game for the first time. We're having a lot of fun with this one. I've been reading through both Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. They both read excellent to me. I've run Ravenloft in older editions and it's a lot of fun. Strahd is my favorite D&D villain. If I run it again, I'll most likely use the new book with a few adjustments here and there and probably some additional material from the Sword & Sorcery 3rd party Ravenloft books. I'm really excited about Greyhawk though. I have the older 2nd edition version of this (and the City of Greyhawk boxed set and other supplements) as well which along with the new materials will let me build a fun campaign that gets the PCs up from 1st to the 8th level or so they need to be to start the new book. All of the adventure paths from Paizo in Dungeon sound excellent to me but I have not run any of them or played in any myself. L
Thane26425 09-11-07, 04:00 AM	Temple of Elemental Evil is a good one. Ravenloft is pretty good too, they did a good job of translating that one to 3.5. A favorite low-level one is Horror on the Hill. I've put most of my groups through that one. It even has a pool that might raise attributes, or knock them down a bit.
Caligula 09-11-07, 04:18 AM	Expedition to the Demonweb Pits is awful. Very weak plot, all disorganized, and full of errors. World's Largest Dungeon seems like more an experiment than a runnable campaign adventure. Shackled City is good, but the meta plot sometimes gets buried and it's hard to remember why you are doing what you are doing. Savage Tide seems great, but I didn't get to read the first half of the path. AoW is a great adventure path. Great settings and overall themes. I'd recommend anything by Paizo. GameMastery Modules and the new Pathfinder. I bought the "Shackled City" hardbound and I'd give it 10 out of 10 straight! Is there any way to buy the "Savage Tide" and "Age of Wyrms" adventure paths as a complete collection? I would strongly suggest to Paizo that they otherwise do so!!!
Subversive 09-11-07, 04:59 PM	I bought the "Shackled City" hardbound and I'd give it 10 out of 10 straight! Is there any way to buy the "Savage Tide" and "Age of Wyrms" adventure paths as a complete collection? I would strongly suggest to Paizo that they otherwise do so!!! There's been lots of discussion on the Enworld boards, but I haven't heard anything concrete. Haven't really been listening lately tho.
Subversive 09-11-07, 05:58 PM	I'm also curious to hear more about AoW. I've heard nothing but good things about it so far, and I'm surprized that it's rating so low with people here. What is the reason behind the poor ratings?
Sunic_Flames 09-12-07, 08:48 AM	I'm also curious to hear more about AoW. I've heard nothing but good things about it so far, and I'm surprized that it's rating so low with people here. What is the reason behind the poor ratings? If it's a lack of votes, perhaps it's simply due to not playing it? I've read it but never ran it. In hindsight, perhaps I should have stayed away so I'd enjoy it more if it were ran, although to be fair I don't remember the finer details, only an outline. And it seems alright if you're into the horror/dread thing.
xdahnx 09-12-07, 09:06 AM	What I like about AoW is that it is hard. It is unforgiving. It is the kind of scary that makes your PC's run out of the dungeon and think of a plan, instead of jumping into everything all willy-nilly. Also, the enemies are tough, but very interesting. The over-arching theme of impending apocalypse is not as distant as it usual is in these scenarios. The threat is very real, and very personal, with the PC's possibly even getting infected without their knowledge...and staying that way for several sessions until... The story takes you to interesting places, sometimes requiring you to do multiple things that seem disconnected at first, but end up being tied in to the whole. The PC's will solve puzzles, fight in an arena, dabble in local politics, be guests of honour at an evil feast or two, fight a dracolich and a demi god, etc. I strongly suggest those interested to give a peak, though, if you are not going to DM it, don't spoil yourself the danger.
Sysane 09-12-07, 09:28 AM	Have to go old school. N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God is a great lower level adventure. I've ran it in both 2e & 3.5. Its a true classic.
Thane26425 09-12-07, 12:07 PM	I bought the "Shackled City" hardbound and I'd give it 10 out of 10 straight! Is there any way to buy the "Savage Tide" and "Age of Wyrms" adventure paths as a complete collection? I would strongly suggest to Paizo that they otherwise do so!!! I just looked at the Paizo website. You can buy all of the Dungeon magazines of the story arc in PDF format.
Gerry 09-13-07, 09:01 PM	statistics... So far, what you have recommended is: BEST ADVENTURES (3 votes) -------------------------- Red Hand of Doom No fair, ;) the OP told us to "skip that one" since they're finished with RHoD. So please add another one for me, since I'm having a blast with it. (All you have to do is look at my "Skull Gorge 3-D" to see that!) Gerry
Mark_Plemmons 09-14-07, 10:08 AM	The Coin Trilogy by Kenzer and Company is more like Red Hand of Doom but with a bigger scale. It is 3 different modules. Your players will travel a big deal: Mountains, forest, sea, desert, city, and face a lot of challenges: Powerful Mages, Undead, Pirates, Dragons, etc… It is a popcorn adventure more like Indiana Jones, so it goes fast but a lot of fun for players. It is 3.0 so you will have little work to do (search around the net for update). Here's some links so you don't have to search... ;) Root of All Evil (http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_28_45&products_id=180) Forging Darkness (http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_28_45&products_id=181) Coin's End (http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_28_45&products_id=182) Downloads (http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=25_28_71)
trellian 09-14-07, 11:41 AM	I usually just try and string a host of Dungeon modules together with a smattering of my own design, but The Coin Trilogy is by FAR the best adventure series I've read and played (haven't played through RHOD yet). I'm not particularly fond of the AP's from Paizo, not that they aren't good reads, but I tend to stop campaigns at about 12th level (give or take a couple of levels), when the game starts to break down. I hang out a lot on Paizo's messageboards, and it is the general opinion that Savage Tide > Age of Worms > Shackled City. It is natural, because Paizo really didn't know all the ins and outs of an AP in SC, improved it in AoW and perfected it in Savage Tide. A couple of common beefs with the adventure paths: Shackled City: major plot holes, updated to 3,5 mid-path Age of Worm: Repetetive hooks. Go to place X. Talk to Sage Y. Do mission Z. Too much dungeon crawls. Savage Tide: Haven't really heard a lot of negative about it. One enemy keeps coming back from the dead at least three times. I bet my players would've been ******. AoW and ST will not be in hardcover. Part of it has to do with copyright issues. Besides, I don't think it was very profitable, and Paizo is rather busy publishing their Pathfinder-series now that they lost their license. Come to think of it, starting up with the Rise of the Runelords might be a good idea. It is Paizo's fourth adventure path, it is ongoing, and it is a lot of support for it, both from the publishers and from the fans.
Legendarius 09-15-07, 07:11 PM	Temple of Elemental Evil is a good one. Ravenloft is pretty good too, they did a good job of translating that one to 3.5. A favorite low-level one is Horror on the Hill. I've put most of my groups through that one. It even has a pool that might raise attributes, or knock them down a bit. In addition to what I mentioned in my earlier response, I have to concur here with Horror on the Hill. I've run this probably 3, maybe more times, since I got it when it was new. It has a few oddities to it but in general is pretty solid and has some fun maps and interesting characters waiting to happen. A nice mix of small town, wilderness and dungeon adventuring (constructed as well as natural caverns). It uses the old Red Box D&D rules so conversion is needed but isn't too difficult really. Another classic I like is the AD&D first edition adventure Tomb of the Lizard King. L
Caligula 09-16-07, 02:45 PM	I usually just try and string a host of Dungeon modules together with a smattering of my own design, but The Coin Trilogy is by FAR the best adventure series I've read and played (haven't played through RHOD yet). I'm not particularly fond of the AP's from Paizo, not that they aren't good reads, but I tend to stop campaigns at about 12th level (give or take a couple of levels), when the game starts to break down. I hang out a lot on Paizo's messageboards, and it is the general opinion that Savage Tide > Age of Worms > Shackled City. It is natural, because Paizo really didn't know all the ins and outs of an AP in SC, improved it in AoW and perfected it in Savage Tide. A couple of common beefs with the adventure paths: Shackled City: major plot holes, updated to 3,5 mid-path Age of Worm: Repetetive hooks. Go to place X. Talk to Sage Y. Do mission Z. Too much dungeon crawls. Savage Tide: Haven't really heard a lot of negative about it. One enemy keeps coming back from the dead at least three times. I bet my players would've been ******. AoW and ST will not be in hardcover. Part of it has to do with copyright issues. Besides, I don't think it was very profitable, and Paizo is rather busy publishing their Pathfinder-series now that they lost their license. Come to think of it, starting up with the Rise of the Runelords might be a good idea. It is Paizo's fourth adventure path, it is ongoing, and it is a lot of support for it, both from the publishers and from the fans. But how can you get hold of the entire series now that they have already been published? (AoW and ST) Can I order all the back issues containing these series from Paizo?
Gryllmyre 09-16-07, 04:47 PM	But how can you get hold of the entire series now that they have already been published? (AoW and ST) Can I order all the back issues containing these series from Paizo? Hopefully Paizo will at least offer the issues in PDF as time goes on. As of the time of this post, the first issue for Savage Tide (#139) is available in PDF for $5, the rest (#140-149) are currently still shipping for $8 a piece, #150 for $11. http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/savageTide It looks like all the Age of Worms issues are available in PDF. http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/ageOfWorms I don't know what will happen when Paizo is officially out of the loop.