3e, 2e, Ad&d, Od&d.......... Forked Thread: Adventures that are NOT dungeon crawls.

[ExploderWizard]

X3 Curse of Xanathon
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death
X9 Savage Coast
EX1 Dungeonland
EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
I3 Pharaoh
N2 Forest Oracle (A classic )
N4 Treasure Hunt
WG6 Isle of the Ape

 

[Rhun]

CM1 Test of the Warlords

This one leapt to mind as fairly open module design to me. While there is a sequence of events taking place over a two year period, and several opportunities for dungeon crawls, the "openness" of owning and managing your own domain certainly doesn't fall into the dungeon crawl category.

X3 Curse of Xanathon
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death
EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
I3 Pharaoh
N2 Forest Oracle (A classic )
N4 Treasure Hunt

I actually think these qualify as "dungeon crawls." While they may not actually take place in a dungeon, they are (for the most part) simply a series of combat encounters. While some of the encounters may require some roleplaying, they also require a lot of hack and slash to fight your way through them.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I3 Pharaoh

Pharaoh is totally a dungeon crawl. It's sequel, Oasisi of the White Palms, is less of a straight dungeon crawl. The final module of the series is almost totally dungeon crawl again.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I actually think these qualify as "dungeon crawls." While they may not actually take place in a dungeon, they are (for the most part) simply a series of combat encounters. While some of the encounters may require some roleplaying, they also require a lot of hack and slash to fight your way through them.

Not really. Many of these can be run as plain hack & slash. The EX modules are a virtual death sentence if you try it that way. X3 involves investigation and things could get really bad for PC's who just start slaying known citizens. A lot of the approach to these classics depends on how the DM treats them. It's possible to treat any adventure as just a collection of stat blocks and loot, but that doesn't really make them all combat/dungeon crawls does it?

 

[Qualidar]

X3 Curse of Xanathon
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death
X9 Savage Coast
EX1 Dungeonland
EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
I3 Pharaoh
N2 Forest Oracle (A classic )
N4 Treasure Hunt
WG6 Isle of the Ape

OK, the only one of those I've actually read & run is Pharaoh (just last year, actually), and it is definitely a dungeon crawl: you're in a Pharoah's tomb filled with tricks and traps 90% of the adventure!

That said, it's also one of the best adventures of all time, and the best dungeon crawl I've ever played in, and I certainly wouldn't tag it with any of the undesirable traits that "dungeon crawl" connotes, so perhaps you're on to something.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

The fact that one of 3e's marketing slogans was "Back to the Dungeon" speaks a lot about the way that 2e modules went. Dungeon magazine in the 2e era, especially under Wolfgang Baur if I recall correctly, was frustratingly (to me) anti-dungeon. Willie Walsh's adventures were great, but sometimes I just wanted a dungeon, you know? Then there were those Planescape adventures that were page after page of text, with few game stats and fewer expected combats. Again, still fun, but I often wondered where the ten-foot squares and the fountains that reversed your sex went to. So yeah, to my memory, 2e, especially mid- to late-2e, was the era of the anti-dungeon crawl.

 

[Ariosto]

As I mentioned in the other thread, most 0e/1e dungeon expeditions in my experience were -- by your criteria -- not "dungeon crawls". Even the modules for the most part did not fit, even though so many originated as tournament rounds. A string of set-piece combat scenarios was simply not how the game was conceived. There was a period when (as I gather from accounts of others) RPGA scenarios essentially devolved into strings of "role-playing" (in the later theatrical sense) encounters. My impression nowadays is that RPGA has gone the "gauntlet of fights" route.

I don't think that reflects the desires of a majority of 4E players, but in the long run it could -- especially if reflected in non-RPGA published scenarios -- have a selection pressure on expectations among players who stick with the game.

 

[Ariosto]

Many of these can be run as plain hack & slash. The EX modules are a virtual death sentence if you try it that way.

Agreed! One problem I have seen at first hand is a tendency among 3E/4E players to assume that the only "proper" response to an appearance of monsters is to try to kill them. When that does not turn out so well, they seem to have a hard time finding reverse gear. A TPK is about as easy as that.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Heck, BECMI's X1: The Isle of Dread, despite being pretty straightforward, was also very much not a dungeon crawl.

How would you like to explore the island? Are you willing to be friendly with this tribe? That tribe? It's a real sandbox, that one.

 

[meomwt]

War of the Burning Sky is no Dungeon Crawl. Indeed, it's about Chapter 6 before the first Crawl appears, IIRC.

Chapter 1, for example, takes place in a besieged city, the action starting as an aerial battle takes place overhead. The PC's first have to escape from enemy infiltrators and a burning inn (at the same time), encounter a potentially hostile spy and his LG celestial accomplice (this gave the Paladin in our group a few moments of moral dilemma), before attempting to retrieve a caseful of espied data and escape from the city under the noses of a hostile army.

Best of all, The Scouring of Gate Pass can be downloaded free*, and includes a map and mini-gazetteer of one of the most unusual cities I've seen in 25+ years of RPG-ing.

Other Chapters include moral dilemmas, negotiations with monarchy, information-gathering and mass battles between huge armies.

Necromancer Games have two excellent products which are less Crawl than one might expect. The Lost City of Barakus details a city, wilderness around it and a multi-level mega-dungeon. The city includes numerous opportunities for adventure, plus detailed NPC's and room to develop unique plots. The Wildeness also sees much love, multiple encounter sites (not all combat) and various plot lines. The Dungeon, even on the first level, has areas where negotiation is better than fighting and a careful approach is better than kicking in the door.

The Grey Citadel mixes combat with investigation, role-playing, mystery and intrigue. There are fights to be taken, but there are multiple ways that the adventure can be taken. When I ran it, I had two or three sessions where the majority of the time was taken up with RP and I had to chuck in a combat for the blood-thirsty members of the group.












* The 3.5E version that is. Don't ask about the 4E conversion, OK?