Yair said:
I've had a good experience with The Ettin's Riddle. Good adventure, there.
The others, I don't know
I suspect most folks wil only know one or two, perhaps a handful at most. Still, I'm wondering also if people changed them significantly to fit their game (level-wise or otherwise) and if they used them to fill gaps or had planned them in from the beginning of a campaign, etc. Actually, anything at all about how any of the above adventures were used is of interest to me, I guess.
Guillaume said:
So how did you tie all of that up together ?
Never did
run them, myself, but I am wondering what others might have done since there freebies get a lot of post-play on these boards. Curiosity.
Evilhalfling said:
I used the ministry of winds and the tower of deception, in a single campaign.
I selected them based on the fact that they were both by Monte, and the right levels. They also fit into my homebrews climate and culture better than some of the others.
So, the reputation of the author played a part in the decision to use them (certainly fair enough) but was that prior to actually reading any of them or did you just read the ones by authors you knew you'd likely enjoy? Did you take the time to check out any of the other authors and, if so, which ones?
Evilhalfling said:
The ministry of winds was being used as an orcale by several tribes of skulk in an abandonded city. It was actually a red herring quest, the players were looking for the elemental air bane sword owned by a PCs father which had been stolen, and a rumor of the ministry of winds was enough to send them off. It was modified by the creatures common to my homebrew world.
One PC was killed there, he was the son of a NE high priestess. In response she hired some mercenaries and leveled the building & much of the city, after the PCs returned to civilization.
That's a clever way to work that into a campaign.
Evilhalfling said:
The Tower of Deception was used to side track players, as they were about to face the BBEG (and get killed). The level they gained in the tower, plus a slight rethink in tactics allowed them to triumph. There were changes to the purpose and orgin of the tower, but little to the adventure itself. The party priest of the elven goddess of travel and gates, made the place over into a shrine, while the party wizard moved in permenantly as well.
Nice. It avoids the problem of having to potentially pull your punches later with the BBEG which can possibly ruin the whole campaign (with a watered-down finale).
Evilhalfling said:
Neither quest had much to do with the main campaign storyline - which was a far realm incursion.
I was less happy with the Tower of Deception, esp the scantilely clad women in an upper chamber, if I were to do it again, they would be revised. Also one enemy that could not leave a room and had no cover from doorway attacks. - tough as he was, he didn't lay a hand on the party.
The ministry off winds went better, some good RP and tough fights, one villian actually turned out to be a PCs brother, but that PC just went ahead and killed him anyway (sigh.)
I wonder how many villains die simply for lack of cover?
All in all it seems you made good use of what you snagged from their freebies. Overall, you must feel that it is a useful resource to have available, I would guess.
Voadam said:
I hadn't seen a collection and breakdown of them by level before thanks!
Well, in all fairness, I just copied them and put some break between the levels. It's a fairly complete list/pile of adventures they've accumulated over the last few years from some quality sources, isn't it?
Kesh said:
Here's a campaign path I put together using mostly the free adventures, along with a few old 2e modules and the occasional Dungeon article. This particular one is a cold-themed path, perhaps resulting from an evil ritual designed to plunge the world into ice, or coming into alignment with a plane of cold, etc.
(1-2) Unearthing the Past*
(2-3) The Dead of Winter*
(3-5) Touch of Death {reversed from desert to arctic}
(5-9) Dark of the Moon
(7-8) Into the Frozen Wastes*
(8-9) Fang, Beak & Claw*
(9-10) Tiger's Palace*
(10-11) Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl*
(11-12) The Road to Oblivion*
(12-13) Thicker Than Water*
(13-15) A Frigid Demise*
(14-15) Ill Wind in Friezford*
(15-17) Glacier Season [Dungeon #87, pg. 77]
(17-18) Haunting Lodge*
(18-20) An Icy Heart*
Critical Threats - Cold Storage [Dungeon #96, pg. 12]
* Free adventure from the website.
Well, I'll state the obvious and say that is a very impressive use of available resources! I love the way you tied it all together and can only guess that you explored the resources first and then determined the nature of the campaign? (As opposed to planning the campaign and incidently being able to plug in so many of the freebies?) Very cool, indeed, and one I think any DM would be wise to copy and keep on a disc as a back-up campaign (or to use for their next one!) How did it go, overall? Any particular pitfalls worth noting?
Eye Tyrant said:
I've recently started a new homebrew and used the following:
The Ettin's Riddle
The Windswept Wall
The Eye of the Sun
The main reason I used these is because I don't have as much time as I need to write my own adventures. They were also easily adapted to my homebrew world. The first two were missions the party wizard took up for the Arcanist's Guild. The third was a mission that the party druid took up for the local enclave of tree-huggers
Next they will get to experience Sons of Gruumsh (not on the list I know), but this will be the beginning of an upcoming war/invasion.
Later, I plan to throw the recently revised Tomb of Horrors at them. This one is available for download on the WotC site as well...
Looks like you have a good campaign going and have some great plans for it. How many players? Are these people you have GM'd before? It sounds like you sit behind the screen fairly regularly.
Thanks to everyone who has posted so far! I'm keen to hear more, too!
