10 Necromancer Games Adventures: Which Ones Should I Get?
Slumbering Tsar ties directly in with Bard's Gate, Tomb of Abysthor, and Rappan Athuk and ties less directly with Grey Citadel and maybe a couple others that I can't remeber right now. It was written as part of a "campaign glue" series to tie a bunch of NG's stuff together.
There's a recent review of it in the EN Wrold reviews.
Tomb of Abysthor and Vault of Larin Karr are both awesome. VoLK is NOT particulary drow heavy but does involve some drowish stuff--probably easily converted to something else if necessary. It reminds me of something like a miniature version of the old Night Below boxed set back in 2e.
There's a recent review of it in the EN Wrold reviews.
Tomb of Abysthor and Vault of Larin Karr are both awesome. VoLK is NOT particulary drow heavy but does involve some drowish stuff--probably easily converted to something else if necessary. It reminds me of something like a miniature version of the old Night Below boxed set back in 2e.
Frost
First Post
It's going for over $100 on eBay, so it's likely worth getting for that fact alone (i.e., so as not to kick yourself later if you decide you do want it).
As for the modules, as has been said, Vault of Larin Karr is awesome. I believe it was the first of NG's "mini-campaigns" and really is a lot of fun. It details three towns and a full valley for the PCs to explore. As for the drow element....I don't want to spoil it, but you could swap out the drow element with other content easily enough, I'd think.
[edit: In regards to whether it's "drow heavy," I would say no. The bulk of the encounters really don't deal with drow.]
Tomb of Absythor is great for old school dungeon exploration.
If you like tie-ins with other NG products, Shades of Grey has the closest thing to an NG world map, showing Bard's Gate, Fairhill (from the Crucible of Freya), the Stoneheart Mountain (Tomb of Absythor), etc.
I really like Rappan Athuk, but I see that is already on your list.
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Philotomy Jurament
First Post
My favorites are:
- Tomb of Abysthor
- Rappan Athuk 1,2,3
- Demons & Devils
- Lost City of Barakus
- Vault of Larin Karr
aboyd
Explorer
Of the modules on your list, I have Durbenford and Grey Citadel. I am currently running Durbenford. I have to say that while I'm loving it in some ways, other ways not so much.
It's good in that it appears like the author climbed inside my head and wrote out just the kind of stuff that I enjoy. Interesting characters, sub-plots, etc.
It's not so good in that it really almost looks like a brain dump to me. I've had to jump around through 3 or 4 sections just to get info on a single interaction for the PCs. I've put them into a section of the module and realized that it needs to be waaaaaayyy more fleshed out. I've even found myself writing up little snippets of text to read because I felt that what was in place was unfinished. To some degree, the author would probably say, "Hell yeah write your own stuff, that's not what this module claims to offer!" But at 200+ pages and a real price tag, I kinda want that.
So I selected Grey Citadel. I've not run it yet, but was fascinated reading it cover to cover. Own it in PDF and paperback, legally paid for both. I was *planning* to run it next, but I'm hearing such good things about Vault of Larin Karr, I might just run that next. Since they're almost at the same level, I'm not sure I can squeeze both into my current campaign.
It's good in that it appears like the author climbed inside my head and wrote out just the kind of stuff that I enjoy. Interesting characters, sub-plots, etc.
It's not so good in that it really almost looks like a brain dump to me. I've had to jump around through 3 or 4 sections just to get info on a single interaction for the PCs. I've put them into a section of the module and realized that it needs to be waaaaaayyy more fleshed out. I've even found myself writing up little snippets of text to read because I felt that what was in place was unfinished. To some degree, the author would probably say, "Hell yeah write your own stuff, that's not what this module claims to offer!" But at 200+ pages and a real price tag, I kinda want that.
So I selected Grey Citadel. I've not run it yet, but was fascinated reading it cover to cover. Own it in PDF and paperback, legally paid for both. I was *planning* to run it next, but I'm hearing such good things about Vault of Larin Karr, I might just run that next. Since they're almost at the same level, I'm not sure I can squeeze both into my current campaign.
You are correct.
I like Glades of Death (forests) and Dead Man's Chest (sea) for the adventures. I've got very little interest in the environmental rules (or any other kind of rules from Necromancer). However, they are definitely worth getting just for the adventures. Pretty much every one of them manages to cram in an amazing amount of flavour and hooks for further development in a very small page count.
However, if I had to recommend one adventure, then I'd recommend two
Either Vault of Larin Karr if you want a sandbox, or Tomb of Abysthor if you want a dungeon. Of course, given you have Bard's Gate you must get Tomb of Abysthor - you won't regret it.And if Tsar Rising is as advertised, then that dratted print on demand option better get sorted soon! I've invested a lot of time and effort in linking together all the Necromancer adventures into a cohesive whole, so I'd love to see how the professionals do it.
What is this "Tsar Rising" of which you speak? Is it the Slumbering Tsar series or something new that has slipped by me unnoticed?
Treebore
First Post
"Slumbering Tsar" is the over all series name, "Tsar Rising" is the first of the three.
