all-published module campaign

[kenobi65]

You just have to plan ahead and be prepared to change a few things if necessary to accomodate your story arc.

Agreed. Don't expect to be able to run prewritten modules 100% as written, unless you really don't care about continuity with your game world.

Our campaign is pretty loose, as campaigns go -- the PCs are recurring characters, obviously, and most of the adventures are missions that the PCs take on as troubleshooters for the Cormyrian government. But, because of the nature of running unrelated modules, there's not a lot of storyline links between the adventures. More episodic than serial, I suppose.

I wind up fine-tuning some of the place names, deities, etc. in any particular module, in order to make it fit into the Realms a little better, but I don't go much beyond that.

 

[Grayhawk]

*Warning: This post includes minor spoilers from the adventure path modules*

Here's what I did for my campaign:

I wanted to use the Adventure Path modules, but as I both dislike high level play and the fast leveling of 3e, I just got the first 4 modules and intersected them with freebies from WotC, thus drawing out play at each level.

For this purpose, I made a campaign world and drew a map, placing the various adventure locations in appropriate terrains. I also placed them in a way so the party would be inclined to come upon the locations 'in the right order'.

For instance, at first level the party is send by the sheriff of their hometown, to sit in on the peacetalks between the villagers and barbarians in The Village of Camiram. Their way to the village takes them through a mountain pass town, where they learn that the local mine is suffering from a plague outbreak, making The Burning Plague their first adventure (as they took the hook).

Deciding up front which modules I want to include and which I just consider optional, makes it possible to create a world where I can drop hints and hooks about several adventure locations, hopefully giving the players a real sense of choice.

Here's the order I'm planning of running the adventures: (WotC means it's a freebie from their site. AP means Adventure Path module.)

The Burning Plague, WotC. Was optional
The Village of Camiram, WotC (from their 'Cliffhangers' series, I believe)
The Sunless Citadel, AP #1
The Ettin's Riddle, WotC
The Hallowed Hills, WotC (also from 'Cliffhangers' I think). Was optional
The Forge of Fury, AP #2 (where they currently are)
Base of Operations, WotC. Optional
The Alchemist's Eyrie, WotC
Lorin's Chasm, WotC 'Cliffhangers'. Optional
One Last Riddle, WotC. Optional
The Speaker in Dreams, AP #3
The Hand of the Highwayman, WotC
Nest of Corruption, WotC. Optional
The Standing Stone, AP #4

Also, knowing which module they'll be put through at later levels makes it possible to flesh the world out in greater detail, by introducing elements that won't have any real importance until much later.

Examples: In the Village of Camiram, there was a festival where the party's bard competed against another bard called the 'Cuckoo'. Much later they'll encounter him again in Ossington, learning that he's actually a Vrock. (In 'The Standing Stone').

The party has also, on several occasions, encountered a hermit - Crazy Sam - near the village they all hail from. He has provided some valuable advice as a thank you for some food and gold the party gave him, when they found him begging on the outskirts of their village. Some of the party members have even begun to suspect some relation between Sam and that scruffy looking dog they've also seen on occasion, watching them from afar. (Crazy Sam is actually a Hound Archon named Zaphael, send by Pelor to keep an eye on the party. He may reveal himself if the party turns out to be in over their heads fighting the defilers of the Pelor temple in 'Speaker in Dreams' or the Vrock in 'Standing Stone'.)

The party has also been to Brindinford already, where 'Speaker in Dreams' takes place. Here the party's cleric was witness to how the tithes collected from Pelor temples throughout the region is being used to build a golden dome for Brindinford's temple. This dome will later be shattered in 'Speaker in Dreams'.

Etc.

Besides these tie-ins, I've also written an overarching plot, that deals with the history of the world they live in. With clues spread out through the modules as to where the humans originally came from, how the orcs where created and why exactly Orcus is their god.

Unfortunately, my group is currently taking a break. But writing this campaign walk-through makes me want to get back to playing!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yep, yep -- my current campaign is about 90% pre-published stuff, though suitably modified to fit the campaign. Too many to list here -- though as a challenge to thise who feel up to it, read diaglo's Banewarrens d20 Story Hour, and see if you can identify all the adventures used or hinted at (beyond the obvious Banewarrens, of course).

 

[Ranes]

I'm just starting a new campaign. It kicks off with a heavily modified Mad God's Key (Dungeon 114) that's linked to a complete refit of Forge of Fury. Assuming the players actually decide to go along with me that far and that their PCs have hit points left at the end of it, where they go next will probably result in another heavily modified published adventure from somewhere.

 

[EricNoah]

I would LOVE to do an all-module campaign. I'm getting to the point where that may be all I have time to prepare!

 

[HiLiphNY]

Yep, done it, and am doing it now. Wall St. and a kid leaves too little time for world building etc.


Arcana Unearthed Campaign:

1) Plague Of Dreams (Fiery Dragon)
2) Seige on Ebonring Keep (Mystic Eye)
3) The Banewarrens (Malhavoc)
4) Liberal use of Bluffsides encounters etc.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I ran the adventure path series and thought it was excellent throughout--except for Standing Stone. That's still the stinker.

 

[fafhrd]

I ran the adventure path series and thought it was excellent throughout--except for Standing Stone. That's still the stinker.

Hrmm, my players would disagree. They run Ossington now.

 

[Kormydigar]

Has anyone done such a thing? If so, what modules (including Dugeon) have you used? I'm thinking of doing something like this. The Adventure Path seems like an obvious choice but I'm curious about any other modules people would recommend for a campaign like this. Thanks!

My current campaign in Greyhawk began with a converted 1st edition N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God followed by the Scourge of the Slavelords series (with a connecting wilderness travel to get the party to the Wild Coast
The party was 12th level by the time that was finished so I began using my own stuff after that. Just remember that the mega- modules will usually yield enough XP to level the group up past the designed adventure recommended levels.

 

[Treebore]

I am running an all Necromancer campaign based in the Wilderlands, but it is currently on hiatus since we are now concentrating on MegaTraveller.

The modules I used:

Amulet/Crucible of Freya/free associated downloads
Morrick Mansion
Lost City of Barakus in conjunction with The Grey Citadel
Lead ins to Tomb of Abysthor and Rappan Athuk.

These will take my group all the way to 20th level.

All of these should still be available at stiggybaby dot com. Maybe even on ENworld. The only one I know is really hard to find on-line is Rappan Athuk 1.
Rappan Athuk is a 3 module series. However, if you are just starting the campaign the combined/updated/upgraded Rappan Athuk will be out in print by the time you need them. So wait for that.

A few years ago, during the 2E years, I also ran a large portion of my campaign using Dungeon adventures, it worked well to.