DMs: Name your homebrew adventures?

[gamerprinter]

Well considering my homebrews are also commercial adventures, my first 3 adventures for my Japan-inspired horror setting for Kaidan, fall under The Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy:

Part 1: The Gift (the item to be delivered is considered a gift)
Part 2: Dim Spirit (this is the transliteration for the Japanese word for ghost; yurei)
Part 3: Dark Path (this refers to the underground passage, as well as the Buddhist idea of pursuing a path to damnation.)

Plus 2 Convention Game one-shots created:

The Tolling of Tears (about a haunted shrine bell)
The Frozen Wind (about a winter storm at a monastery in the mountains)

Kaidan the setting incidentally is the Japanese word for 'ghost or horror story.'

 

[Lanefan]

I name all adventures; and if I don't, my players do. Canned modules sometimes keep their original name and other times get changed to a greater or lesser degree. Some examples:

Modules that changed name (all from my current campaign unless noted):

Shadowhaunt Temple (was Keep on the Shadowfell)
Forge of the Furies (was Forge of Fury)
The Green Tower (was Baltron's Beacon)
Who Let the Dogs Out (was part of Night's Dark Terror; the players named this one)
Jackal Valley (another part of N.D.T.)
Lost City Found (ditto; this one will probably get renamed later)
Quirine: Flame of Chaos (was Tower of Ulission, an old Judges' Guild module)
Markessa's Laboratory (was A2 Slavers' Stockade)

Some homebrew names from current campaign:

Two Blind Mice [party stumble on two demigods who have been turned to mice by Ares]
Enter Magraine [party finds corpse of a famous military general then resurrects same]
Xantos One-Horned [party goes after a one-horned minotaur]
The Timeless Caverns [series of caverns where time doesn't work very well]
Beyond the Crystal Veil [party goes back in time and fixes history]
A Turvitian Tea Party [series of raids against a village of "Turvitians" (Ogres)]
Ghosts of the Heceta Head [named after a Lordi song, uses song's plot]
Ruins of Fortune / Vortuin [Vortuin is an ancient Hobgoblin flying castle; party find it, fly it, break it]
Key to the Seven Winds [a line in a song, party go to Atlantis-like sunken city]
Holiday In Puridius [party do good deeds in evil realm of Puridius - in theory]

Near the end of my previous campaign I managed to string three adventures together whose names worked well:

Coldwood Menace [high-level party take on some unexpected Githi in the Coldwood]
Attack of the Bones [they deal with a dracolich in its lair]
Revenge of the Gith [the Githi destroy party's home castle then get annihilated]

Lan-"and there's lots more where those came from"-efan

 

[Steel_Wind]

The Elder Lords

Streams of Silver
The Black Book
The Iron Crucifix
Balrog's Bane
Citadel of Despair
A Twist in Time
Tower of Archimedes

 

[ACreepierFolklaw]

I never thought to name them, but seeing your examples all, has set me thinking...

 

[meomwt]

I always named my homebrew adventures: my first ever T&T dungeon was called Eagle Caves and featured a Cult to the Great Eagle trying to fend off the unwary adventurers seeking loot.

I don't know where most of my 2E adventure notes are, but I remember some of the titles I gave them: The Silver Knight (Drow using glowing armour to cow Ogres at Ogremeet and forge an army to attack the surface-dwellers); The Book of Eyes (the PC's discover thieves trying to smuggle a Tome of Tharizdun out of Greyhawk); Tournament of the Golden Arrow (in which the PC's attend an Elven archery tourney and uncover e plot to steal the prize); Castle of Illusion (a training ground for gnome illusionists is not all it seems); Dragongate (at the behset of a Copper Dragon, the PC's loot the lair of a vanquished Red Dragon).

I have mostly used pre-written stuff in the 3E era, due to lack of time, but I do remember writing Assault on Castle Darkskull (infiltration into the HQ of a humanoid army atop a rocky outcrop); The Taking of Garrondar (re-taking a village from Humanoid invaders); and The Flight From Chendl (which - had it occurred - would have seen the PC's trying to get a fugitive out of the city under the noses of the Thieves' Guild).

Sometimes a title, even if it is only for me, helps to focus on part of the story for the adventure.

 

[Richards]

I definitely give each of my adventures a name; if nothing else, it's a good file name to save it on my computer so I can go find it again later, as needed. Here are a few of the ones I've made for my D&D 3.5 campaign (I use both homemade adventures and those from the pages of Dungeon):

• The Butterflies of Doom - An eccentric wizard's explorations into the field of wild magic cause untold effects in his mansion and the surrounding environs, and the PCs are sent in to investigate.
  
  
• Cannibal in the Clouds - After a floating castle (from Dungeon's "Prism Keep") crashes into a cloud island, the PCs explore it and discover a bound prisoner and the journal of a once-good dragon who has discovered the pleasures of eating the flesh of intelligent beings.
  
  
• The Soundgarden - Elsewhere on the same cloud island, two fallen lillends are creating an enormous musical instrument out of the bones of various adventurers. (This and the preceding were two mini-adventures taking advantage of the PCs being on a cloud island.)
  
  
• Kazmira's Revenge - A high-profile thief the PCs captured is freed by one of their fellow PCs (actually, Gareth was a former PC abandoned into NPC status), and the two leave a deadly "surprise" for the rest of the adventuring group.
  
  
• Kazmira's Safehouse - The PCs track the freed thief Kazmira and the traitorous Gareth to one of the many safehouses she's set up throughout the city.
  
  
• Balama's Treasure Hunt - An NPC from a previous Dungeon adventure ("Rana Mor") teleports the PCs who adventured with her to her ship, which is currently under attack by sahuagin just off the shore of an island halfway around the globe; after saving her crew, they have little option but to help her follow a map to a lizardfolk pyramid and the treasures kept there.
  
  
• A Message from Gareth - Gareth hires a quartet of assassins to kill the PCs after Kazmira is publicly hanged for her crimes.
  
  
• Chalkan's Quest - A PC, Chalkan, is sent a vision in a dream of the location of a slain arcane archer's remains, including his magical longbow - which is now guarded by the spirit of the dire bear who slew him.
  
  
• Death-Beast of the Deep - Returning home from the island (a journey of several months), the other set of PCs is captured by desperate merfolk, who must provide sacrifices to a sahuagin necromancer intent upon creating an undead "superweapon."
  
  
• My Greatest Treasure - The PCs follow a recently unearthed map showing the location of a tomb containing a robber baron's "greatest treasure," rumored to be his magical shortsword.
  
  
• Cult of the Far Realm - The PCs unearth a group of arcanists intent upon opening a rift to the Far Realm, allowing its otherworldly emanations to alter the city.
  
  
• The Negabomb - A lich opens a portal to a magic shop, and the entire shop - with the PCs in it - are shunted to the Negative Energy Plane, where he plans to loot the shop of magic items to power an extraplanar craft he's constructing.
  
  
• Crypt of the Avenger - The PCs explore the crypt of a paladin, recently connected (via purple worm tunnel) to the lair of a pair of drider sorceresses.
  
  
• The Kidnapping of Edmont Stanwyck - A nobleman's 6-year-old son is kidnapped and instead of paying the ransom, Lord Stanwyck hires the PCs to wipe out everyone responsible for the act (and save his son, if possible).
  
  
• Tribe of the Bloody Hand - While en route to a Dungeon adventure, the PCs - including Galrich, a half-orc barbarian - encounter a hunting party of the orc tribe he was born into and escaped from many years ago. The hunting party is led by his chief tormentor growing up, now an orc wereboar, and they're none too pleased at the thought of letting Galrich escape from them twice.
  
  
• Revenge of the Bloody Hand - While returning from the Dungeon adventure mentioned above, the PCs face the leaders of the Bloody Hand Tribe, intent on revenge for those who slew their hunting party. (These last two were just "bookend" mini-adventures adding some background to Galrich's history.)
  
  
• The Stick Palace - Delphyne, a PC wizard raised by her grandmother (a "hedge wizard" or "wisewoman"), visits said grandmother to find her replaced by a greenhag.
  
  
• The Swamp King - Visiting the fishing village of one of the PCs' hirelings, they investigate a recent string of disappearances, following bullywug kidnappers back to the lair of a black dragon.
  
  
• Dead and Buried - The PCs track a group of ambushed field clerics to the lair of an undead wizard interested in the creation of both undead and constructs.
  
  
• Ballyhoo's Traveling Circus - En route to a fabled dwarven testing facility, the PCs encounter an entire traveling circus transformed into zombies.
  
  
• Moradin's Forge - The dwarven testing facility mentioned above. A series of challenges that must be overcome, each providing a valuable lesson on what it means to be a dwarf.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

I also do the same thing with the adventures I write for the Champions campaign I'm running for my youngest son. His PC is Brandon Johnson, an Iron Man type in a suit of powered armor; his superhero identity is "Jetstar."

• Cold Cash - The mutant Icicle (a pregenerated villain from the Champions book) attacks an armored car, which Jetstar notices while flying overhead on patrol. This was a simple "figure out how the rules work again after not having played the game for 16 years or so" simple encounter, but it set up some NPC police officers who would end up being Jetstar's contacts on the force.
  
  
• Fish Sandwich - Two members of the supervillain group "The Aquarians" - Fiddler Crab and the Whale - block off both ends of a bridge over a river and start gathering cash and valuables from the people trapped between them. Brandon is in one of the cars in the middle of the bridge, but fortunately he's got the Jetstar armor in the trunk....
  
  
• Bug Out - There's a scream from out back of the pub where Brandon's eating - a humanoid fly attacked and killed the cook while he was throwing a bag of garbage in the dumpster. While Jetstar battles the Fly, a wasp-shaped robot approaches, having tracked the Fly to its current location and eager to recapture the experimental victim before anyone finds out his identity.
  
  
• Pitch Black Water, Rich Black Daughter - While flying over the bay in the early morning, Jetstar sees two other Aquarians, Shark and Eel, ambush a yacht currently being piloted by Jessica Black, the daughter of a local businessman, Richard Black. When the two split up (Eel taking Jessica underwater to the Sea Scorpion, a submersible piloted by Fiddler Crab), Jetstar lets Shark escape with the stolen boat and rescues the young woman.
  
  
• Naked Without My Armor - Two short scenarios: the first involving Brandon being carjacked by gang members while in the wrong part of town and rescued by Amoebaman, a stretchy superhero; the second involving a fight between Amoebaman and the Crippler, whose hands can become superdense or intangible (and who pulls Brandon right through his own armor when Jetstar joins the battle).
  
  
• Crab Bait - Fiddler Crab posts a challenge to Jetstar to meet him in combat, but it's a trap by STALKER and STASIS, two supervillains employed by Stellex Technological, a combat armor/weapons developer who wants to investigate the Jetstar armor for themselves.
  
  
• Horny Toad - Branson investigates his boss's missing sister, a shy librarian who goes missing during a visit, and who is later spotted working as a stripper at a newly-opened club, the Horny Toad - which, it turns out, is also the name of the hideous mutant owner whose mind control powers only work on women.
  
  
• Gonna Shake My Little Combat Armor System on the Catwalk - Brandon attends a weapons/armor expo, during which a prototype combat armor system is stolen. In hot pursuit in the skies above the city are not only Jetstar, but also TUNDRA (an UNTIL agent - they're the standard "good guy" organization, the equivalent to Marvel's SHIELD) and STRAFER, another Stellex Technological employee intent on stealing the new armor system for his employers.
  
  
• All Your Tech is Belong to Me - A supervillain named HaXX0r, who can control technology with his mind, goes on a rampage through the city just for fun, and Jetstar and TUNDRA must try to take him down.
  
  
• ...Or Maybe It Was a Porcupine? - The current owner of a stolen suit of combat armor, Hedgehog, takes it to be repaired (at gunpoint) to the shop where Brandon works. After "fixing" it, Brandon takes after Hedgehog in his Jetstar armor.
  
  
• Faster Than a Speeding Cream Pie - A disgruntled clown gains speed powers in a freak accident and becomes Velocilaughter. When he goes on a high-speed graffiti/prank rampage through the city, Jetstar has to take him down.
  
  
• Sale Boat - Businessman Richard Black thinks he's tracked down his stolen boat on the black market and wants to hire Jetstar to check it out, leading up to a rematch with Shark and Eel.

You'll notice that most of the titles are puns. What can I say? - I'm easily amused.

Johnathan

 

[Jack7]

I name both individual adventures and campaigns, no matter what kind of game it is (fantasy, sic-if, pulp, modern, espionage, wargame, etc).

These are some of the best adventures and campaigns I've ever written, and I thought the titles came off pretty good too.


The Restoration of the Kingdom of Pesh
Days of Future Past
Window of Heaven/Axis of God
The Memory Palace
Caer Sidhe - I try and replay this adventure every Halloween
Black Sea a'Fire
The Crawl of Man
Torsion and Rubric
The Protean Wolf (also a short story)
HMS Valence
The Dead Drop
The Napoleon - my best Sci-fi and Star Fleet Battles Campaign
The Ghost of the Spook - maybe my best ever espionage/military adventure, and a long short story.
The Unreachable Below
Operation Golden Horn
The Serpent Coiled at Midnight
The White Elephant
The Industrial Act - my best Vadding and Solo Adventure
An Academic Exercise
The Familiar Man
Beneath the Glass
The Tesseract and the True Cross
Trigger Force
The Oro in Eqypt and Syria
Enigma and the Empty Man
The Chimera of Kitharia
Tome and Tomb
Hammerstroke Five
The Lettermen - the best Western I ever wrote or ran, I'm writing a novel based on the same idea
Angle of Fire
Every Man the First Man, Everyman the Last - maybe my best ever wargame campaign and scenario
Past All Possibility
The Old Things
What Creeps and What Crawls
If Ever Death Should Marry
The Silkârjen
Touch of the Unknown

 

[David Howery]

I generally gave some kind of a name to my home-made adventures, just to keep them all straight. Back in the days when I was actually gaming, I ran two campaigns (1 GH, 1 FR) and was actively writing for Dungeon, and had a zillion notes and ideas scattered all over the place, so I usually named them just to keep my sanity. Granted, the names weren't all that inspired at times (I had one where the PCs encountered some time-lost Romans in my pseudo-Africa, that I called 'The Roman Adventure"), and often it was just the name of the place ("The Maze City on the Island").

 

[Lanefan]

A few more from past campaigns:

The Rattling Gate (investigating a crypt gate that rattles on its own - ran this one at GenCon once)
Future Tense World (party go forward in time, see how bad things get if left alone...)
The Leukaio Project (...then return to normal time and fix it)
Loki's Torch (party explore an island of Norse chaos to find the Torch: a glowing sword)
Groa Snowshaper's Journal (find journal to learn what to do with the Torch)
Heart of Asgeir [was Quest for the Heartstone] (find gem that allows access to...)
Stairway to Heaven (...an invisible stair to a house in the clouds, put there by Loki to punish a wizard who annoyed him)
Highway to Hel (party goes to Niflheim to recover a soul snatched by Hel)
Windward Ho! (try to determine why a nearby island is getting overrun by Demons)
Deadman's Island [was Bone Hill]
The Fabled Treasure of Sheeramaleia (a long-lost "treasure" has, when found, no monetary value at all)
The Desert Stalker (name of a sword the party needs, and of he who carries it)
Rainbow Vale (party investigates a psychadelic valley full of wild magic)
Crown of Talarthane (follow-on from Rainbow Vale, rebuild a long-lost Dwarven artifact)

Lan-"campaign names are in .sig"-efan