3e / OGL Which Necromancer Games Adventures Worth Getting/Avoiding?

[meomwt]

My favourite is The Grey Citadel, it has a strong plot, lots of city-based stuff, investigation and RP elements, and a kick-ass dungeon at the end.

The Citadel is one of the better described cities in RP modules, with enough detail there to use as a base of operations for future campaign developments.

It's worth checking out the Necromancer Forums (via the front page of their site or a Google search) as some people have included details of their Campaigns using the Necro modules - that may help your decisions on which to buy. They may also give some inspiration for things to throw at your players as well, of course

[catsclaw227]

Personally, the ones that I like the most, I DMed:

Lost City of Barakus - W.D.B Kenower
Doom of Listenshire - Ari Marmell
The Vault of Larin Karr - W.D.B Kenower, Mike Johnstone, and Brian LeBlanc
(I also did some of Demons and Devils)

These were all very good.

[neuronphaser]

Originally Posted by S'mon

Lost City of Barakus gave us a pretty fun campaign that lasted nearly 2 years of biweekly play, ca 35 sessions. It uses & requires half XP (PCs should go from 1st to ca 6th level), which allows for a more leisurely, exploratory feel. It features a large dungeon but the real selling point is that it also has lots & lots of wilderness and city adventures; it's done in a 'sand box' style and can be run as-is or add your own ideas.

I would say that as GM I found it a bit bland at times, but my players definitely enjoyed it a *lot*.

Agreed. Barakus is the campaign that I'm currently running and it's been a blast. I changed it up a fair amount in parts, but the setting is great and some of the encounters are beautiful.

My campaign's fizzling, but only on my end, and not because I'm bored with it: just real life crap (school, moving). The players are having a blast, and I've enjoyed the NPCs and enemies immensely.


I also have Rappan Athuk Reloaded (love it!), City of Brass (probably one of the most roleplaying-heavy modules in recent memory, at least potentially), and Demons & Devils (very good, but pretty small...make sure to download the extras that are offered on Necromancer's site).

I've used the free adventure (Wizard's Amulet??) to great fanfare as well. In fact, it was what opened my Barakus campaign. Again, some minor tweaks were made, but Vortigern ended up being a major badguy in the campaign.

[Durn]

Originally Posted by meomwt

My favourite is The Grey Citadel, it has a strong plot, lots of city-based stuff, investigation and RP elements, and a kick-ass dungeon at the end.

The Citadel is one of the better described cities in RP modules, with enough detail there to use as a base of operations for future campaign developments.

It's worth checking out the Necromancer Forums (via the front page of their site or a Google search) as some people have included details of their Campaigns using the Necro modules - that may help your decisions on which to buy. They may also give some inspiration for things to throw at your players as well, of course

Yes. This is a really great gritty urban fantasy setting/mini-campaign. I think its for 5th level.

[Adso]

I think my favorites are Rappan Athuk, Demons and Devils, and the Tomb of Abysthor. All are old fashion dungeon delving at their finest--and I likes me some good old fashion dungeon delving. I've run all three and had a blast. I go still go back to them when I want to get into a good mood for doing evil things to my "poor" PCs.

[Frost]

Rappan Athuk
Tomb of Abysthor
Mesopotamia
Vault of Larin Karr

The clockwork stuff in Siege of Durgam's Folly sort of threw me, but my players really enjoyed it.

I'm being DMed through Grey Citadel right now and am really enjoying it.

[catsclaw227]

I should add Rappan Athuk and Tomb of Abysthor as well. These were a blast to play. I should qualify that I did a bit of RA 3.0 back in the day and then only some of RARe because the game group split due to babys and moving.

Either way, they're both quality adventures.

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I loved Rappan Athuk and Tomb of Abysthor. So many juicy tie-ins between the two.

And I loved how NG made all sorts of downloadable extras to flesh out the adventures and surrounding areas. Awesome!

[Ghostwind]

I've enjoyed Doom of Listonshire and the other adventures that were distributed by Kenzer & Co.

[catsclaw227]

Originally Posted by Ghostwind

I've enjoyed Doom of Listonshire and the other adventures that were distributed by Kenzer & Co.

Yup. Ari Marmell did this for them.

I liked a lot of the Kenzer era modules too. I have 6 of them I've only read, not actually played, but they read well.

[Qwillion]

Thanks for this thread somethings I will have to catch up on.

[kensanata]

I liked Vault of Larin Karr very much and posted a review.

I was unable to really take advantage of either Bard's Gate or City of Brass.

Our first foray into Tomb of Abysthor would have ended in a TPK, had I not quickly made a few adjustments (kidnapping and enslaving the one character who had spent minutes investigating the evil rune in the entrance level instead of having a demon kill them all).

[The Kyngdoms]

Many thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences I've now put together a first wave list of wants:

Vault of Larin Karr
Lost City of Barakus
Doom of Listenshire
The Grey Citadel
Trouble at Durbenford
Siege of Durgam's Folly
The Bonegarden

These all sound pretty interesting, so look like a good starting point. I'll have to start keeping my eyes peeled (though I've got them all bookmarked at RPGNow).

Many thanks once again.

[Betote]

I know you already have them, but I have to say that one of my most satisfying campaigns was a sandbox-like one I ran using Crucible of Freya as start point, with Tomb of Abysthor and the ToEE placed in the general area. It ended with a TPK when they played Expedition to Castle Ravenloft but hey, being killed by Stradht Himself is almost as a good tavern story as actually defating him!

I look forward to Rappan Athuk Reloaded and City of Brass, maybe as an epilogue to my current Rise of the Runelords campaign.

[neuronphaser]

Two things worth "seconding" here:

1. Check out Necro's site for downloads. A lot of their extras and web-only stuff is really, really, really useful and cool, and expands on stuff that you really want to work into the adventures.

2. Although Dungeon Crawl Classics are indeed Goodman Games and not Necro, several are worth looking at, too. Vault of the Dragon Kings, Crypt of the Devil-Lich, the adventure about the Asylum (can't recall the name) and especially Castle Whiterock are all FANTASTIC! Castle Whiterock has to be one of the best mega-dungeon/sandbox sets I've ever seen. Incredibly well written, internally very consistent, excellent design work, excellent production values, and really, really good scripting in order to keep everything manageable. You can pretty much open up any part of any of the books and just go. Considering how freakin' huge this project is, that's awesome.

Tons of RP and quests (just before 4e came out!) and neat design.