Any good dungeon crawls?

DonAdam

Explorer

• Aug 30, 2002

• #1

I'm looking for some good old school dungeon crawl modules.

Let me qualify "good:"
The module does not consist of room... combat.... room... combat... rinse and repeat.

Every single free module on the wizards web site is like this. Every WOTC module that I've seen is like this.

I even enjoy other adventures that have plot and combat, but what I'm looking for is a good dungeon crawl, like the old pharoah series, where combat was secondary but a possibility.

I want puzzles, riddles, combat, internal logic, and big overwhelming dungeons. I want the players to be punished for charging into combat without a strategy.

 

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Nightfall

Sage of the Scarred Lands

• Aug 30, 2002

• #2

Rappen Athuk, Banewarrens, Tomb of Abythor. I think they'll slake your thirst for such things.

Rappen Athuk and Tomb are both by Necromancer games.

Banewarrens, by Monte Cook.

 

Painfully

First Post

• Aug 30, 2002

• #3

There are no good dungeon crawls without some work on the DMs part. A writer can never make the personal connection to the PCs that the DM can.

I would suggest you give at least two of your PCs a strong motivation for investigating said dungeon crawl in the first place. It helps to make it very personal to them. And then throw in something they didn't expect, like the woman they were hired to rescue is really a devil in disguise, or by succeeding in their mission they indirectly helped their enemies more than their allies, by releasing something dangerous from its tomb. A player's curiosity won't let them leave things alone--use this to your advantage!!!

One of the better 1st edition modules is the Barrier Peaks module that had the high tech stuff in it. There was a flowchart that detailed whether PCs "figured out" the devices they would find in the spaceship. Still a dungeon crawl though.

Like I said, its up to the DM to make the more personal connection to the PCs. A module writer can never do that as well as the DM.

*edit*
Some people like Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Personally, I just can't play it.

 

Last edited: Aug 30, 2002

DonAdam

Explorer

• Aug 30, 2002

• #4

Barrier peaks was a good module.

And I agree that a personal touch makes a module better, AND that the DM has to infuse it, but I want quality material to begin with.

Anything but combat, combat, combat which is all most of the modules I see today are. The Sunless Citadel became wretchedly tedious because it was 842 encounters with dire rats or 2 goblins. The only interesting part was Meepo and the dragon, which was some roleplaying in the middle of the dungeon.

I thought about picking up banewarrens, but, as much as I love Monte's "crunchy" stuff, the adventures I have seen of his tend to be light on the puzzles and riddles stuff and heavy on the combat combat combat. I'll flip through it and might give it a try.

Thanks for the responses, keep 'em coming.

 

Nightfall

Sage of the Scarred Lands

• Aug 30, 2002

• #5

Well there's also What Evil Lurks and Hall of the Rainbow Mage. There's plenty of puzzles in both. Another is Siege of Durgham Folly.

Or you could go REALLY old school and try a great Gygax d20 revision. Necropolis is VERY meaty and would last you a LONG time.

 

B

Bragg Battleaxe

First Post

• Aug 30, 2002

• #6

Pretty much anything by Necromancer Games. I would second Tomb of Abysthor and Hall of the Rainbow Mage. Both are good old fashioned dungeons with some roleplay opps.

 

X

Xarlen

First Post

• Aug 30, 2002

• #7

For an example of an adventure that allows for personalization, as well as unleashing evil, I had some PCs wander into an abandoned mineshaft, once. Said mineshaft had collapsed. There was a pile of rocks, with a gem stuck on the end of a wooden shaft, sticking out of a good pile. Off to the side, was a broken axehead. So, the players pulled the gem-capped stick out, and uncovered the pile, to find an armor-wearing dwarven skeleton.

What really happened was, the PCs had unstaked a dwarven vampire. A fireball had dropped the roof of the Mineshaft's struts, which caused a cavein ontop of him. It broke his axe, and the slayers staked him, while he was disoriented. They didn't cut his head off, though.

The PCs took his axe and gem, which caused the vampire to stalk them for a good adventure. Note, the PCs did this going Into an adventure, and didn't realize what had happened until they were on their way Back home, stopped in the cave... and discovered the corpse was gone.

 

DonAdam

Explorer

• Aug 30, 2002

• #8

Of those mentioned, which ones...

-are the most pluggable? (rewritable to put into an existing campaign)

-are the shortest? (I don't want to spend more than a few sessions crawling, and I might buy a few to run as one-shots)

 

Grazzt

Demon Lord

• Aug 30, 2002

• #9

DonAdam said:

Of those mentioned, which ones...

-are the most pluggable? (rewritable to put into an existing campaign)

Click to expand...

Rappan Athuk, Tomb of Abythsor, What Evil Lurks, Crucible of Freya...just about anything by Necromancer Games. All the modules are "1e feel" meaning (among other things) they are not tied to a single setting. They can be dropped anywhere.

-are the shortest? (I don't want to spend more than a few sessions crawling, and I might buy a few to run as one-shots)

Click to expand...

What Evil Lurks, Demons and Devils (3 short adventures), Crucible of Freya.

 

Fiery James

First Post

• Aug 31, 2002

• #10

OK, I'll be the first...

NeMoren's Vault.

- James