Lead-in to Temple of Elemental Evil remake?

[R_kajdi]

Okay, looks like I'm starting up a new campaign for a bunch of the old crew I used to play with (DM flaked on us ~a year ago) and everyone apparently wants to play a big dungeon crawl. Out of what I have available, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is certainly the biggest and best dungeon crawl I have available (WLD is too random and a bit of a turn off as an adventure, Rappan Athak is also pretty random-- it's a runner up currently)

My main question is what good adventures are there out there for a run-up to RttToEE? I need to get these guys levels up to 4th level (starting at 1st, so everyone has some experience with me as DM w/r/t deadliness, standard practices, ect.) Here are the requirements I came up with:

* Plotless. I want to be able to twist the adventure to my needs, so the less plot stuff the better.
* Dungeon. Mostly goes with the former, but these guys want some dungeon crawling, so I think giving it to them is a goal.
* Non-linear. Also goes with the first. I'd like to be able to give the players a coupld of options, instead of an A->B->C style linear adventure.
* 3.x. Don't feel like converting an adventure at this point. Trying to avoid having to do stat block as much as possible.

Any suggestions on a dungeon or run of dungeons to do this? I've got Sunless Citadel, which was rather good the last time I ran it, and I think I can alter the end of the adveture to run it into the start of RttToEE pretty well. Any other suggestions, so I can play something fresh instead?

Raymond

 

[The_Gneech]

Okay, looks like I'm starting up a new campaign for a bunch of the old crew I used to play with (DM flaked on us ~a year ago) and everyone apparently wants to play a big dungeon crawl. Out of what I have available, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is certainly the biggest and best dungeon crawl I have available (WLD is too random and a bit of a turn off as an adventure, Rappan Athak is also pretty random-- it's a runner up currently)

My main question is what good adventures are there out there for a run-up to RttToEE? I need to get these guys levels up to 4th level (starting at 1st, so everyone has some experience with me as DM w/r/t deadliness, standard practices, ect.) Here are the requirements I came up with:

* Plotless. I want to be able to twist the adventure to my needs, so the less plot stuff the better.
* Dungeon. Mostly goes with the former, but these guys want some dungeon crawling, so I think giving it to them is a goal.
* Non-linear. Also goes with the first. I'd like to be able to give the players a coupld of options, instead of an A->B->C style linear adventure.
* 3.x. Don't feel like converting an adventure at this point. Trying to avoid having to do stat block as much as possible.

Any suggestions on a dungeon or run of dungeons to do this? I've got Sunless Citadel, which was rather good the last time I ran it, and I think I can alter the end of the adveture to run it into the start of RttToEE pretty well. Any other suggestions, so I can play something fresh instead?

Raymond

It's hard to go wrong with these!

http://www.goodman-games.com/DCCpreview.php

-The Gneech

 

[R_kajdi]

It's hard to go wrong with these!

http://www.goodman-games.com/DCCpreview.php

-The Gneech

I was looking at them. But I have no idea which ones are good, and which ones are going to be plot-filled messes, or just poorly thought out. Any suggestions as to which ones to go with? If you think any really have a good hook to work them into the whole Elemental Evil plot, so much the better.

Raymond

 

[airwalkrr]

Back in the day a lot of people used the Sunless Citadel to work people up to 3rd level, then added some encounters or just beefed up the awards in that adventure to get the PCs to 4th. There is also Scourge of the Howling Horde, which gets the PCs up to 3rd level as well. [sblock=spoiler alert]You could have the goblins in that adventure be agents of the Temple seeking to sow chaos and the black dragon who leads them is a kind of emissary.[/sblock]

Honestly though, as good as the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is, its true value is nostalgia. So if your group never played through the original adventure, I would recommend nixing Return. In that event, I suggest running the original. You can download it as a pdf for $5 and converting it to 3.5 is not very hard. As a plus, that adventure starts at 1st level.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

I'm running Tomb of Abysthor (by Necromancer) right now and it is an extremely well written and designed adventure. Reminds me a lot of Dark Tower in the best possible sense. The rules are 3.0 which I convert to 3.5 on the fly. It would be incredibly easy to link it to ToEE either thematically or literally. PCs just need to know when to retreat. I can't recommend it highly enough. Such a cool module, really.

Lost City of Barakus would also fit the bill too. You could simply plunk Hommlet down in the same region.

As far as Goodman Games goes, I'd recommend taking a look at Into the Wilds by Mr. Stroh. That's a really good one.

The Slathered Plates of Butterworth would also be a fine choice.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

Honestly though, as good as the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is, its true value is nostalgia. So if your group never played through the original adventure, I would recommend nixing Return. In that event, I suggest running the original. You can download it as a pdf for $5 and converting it to 3.5 is not very hard. As a plus, that adventure starts at 1st level.

He's got a decent point. The ENworld conversion library has a complete conversion of the 1E ToEE. That'd be FUN.

 

[SavageRobby]

I was looking at them. But I have no idea which ones are good, and which ones are going to be plot-filled messes, or just poorly thought out. Any suggestions as to which ones to go with? If you think any really have a good hook to work them into the whole Elemental Evil plot, so much the better.

Raymond

I like DCC 28 Into the Wilds quite a bit, and it could be a good precursor to ToEE. Its got a Keep on the Borderlands feeling, combined with some very cool original elements.

 

[The_Gneech]

I was looking at them. But I have no idea which ones are good, and which ones are going to be plot-filled messes, or just poorly thought out. Any suggestions as to which ones to go with? If you think any really have a good hook to work them into the whole Elemental Evil plot, so much the better.

Raymond

Well, that's why I said, "it's hard to go wrong," because all of the ones I've encountered so far have been good. If you want a specific recommendation, I'll say "Idylls of the Rat King," putting the mine in question in the Kron Hills and saying that (spoiler)

Spoiler

the vampire in the bottom of the dungeon escaped the destruction of the temple during the Battle of Emridy Meadows

.

-The Gneech

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

Well, that's why I said, "it's hard to go wrong," because all of the ones I've encountered so far have been good. If you want a specific recommendation, I'll say "Idylls of the Rat King," putting the mine in question in the Kron Hills and saying that (spoiler)

Spoiler

the vampire in the bottom of the dungeon escaped the destruction of the temple during the Battle of Emridy Meadows

.

-The Gneech

I've encountered a few dogs in the pile. Most of them are pretty great, though.

 

[Jefuri no Oni]

You could just start them at level 4 so that you can run Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil right away. This way you don't need a lead in to bring them up to that level.