Which Necromancer Games Adventures Worth Getting/Avoiding?

[Keith Robinson]

I'm looking to pick up some of Necromancer Games' adventures and was wondering what experience folks here had of them and which they'd recommend? I play 3.5, but 3.0 is fine as well.

What ones did you enjoy playing or running and why? A brief synopsis of the adventure would be nice, plus what levels it was aimed at.

Also, if there were any you thought that were particularly bad, I'd also like to here about them!

Presently, here's the rather pitiful list of the Necromancer Adventures I own:

Rappan Athuk Reloaded
D1 The Tomb of Abysthor (for lvls 2-8)
W1 The Crucible of Freya (for lvls 1 or 2)

Many thanks in advance!

 

[S'mon]

Lost City of Barakus gave us a pretty fun campaign that lasted nearly 2 years of biweekly play, ca 35 sessions. It uses & requires half XP (PCs should go from 1st to ca 6th level), which allows for a more leisurely, exploratory feel. It features a large dungeon but the real selling point is that it also has lots & lots of wilderness and city adventures; it's done in a 'sand box' style and can be run as-is or add your own ideas.

I would say that as GM I found it a bit bland at times, but my players definitely enjoyed it a *lot*.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I've only got one Necromancer product: Dead Man's Chest. It's very good if you like a low-fantasy vibe sea adventure. It does have a couple of adventures in the back but is mostly a source book.

 

[Windjammer]

Troube at Durbenford. It's a mega campaign for 3.5, and I think it's Rob Schwalb's finest work for D&D (any edition) to date. It's AMAZING! You get a mini-setting akin to the Nentir Vale, a city, tombs, dungeons - everything. Every type of adventure is covered (this making it the ideal companion book to the 3.5 DMG), and everything down to the last detail - including the design of individual encounters - is just awesome. It features a stronger cast of nonplayer characters than even most Paizo products (which means, an immensely strong one). I carries tons of potential. Sir Keegan's story in the 4E module Keep on the Shadowfell - the only story element in that module worth referencing - was lifted en toto from a single paragraph on a side kick NPC in this book - take that as an indicator of what to expect. And, do expect lots of mature themes and deadly challenges for your party cropping up. And a beautiful mythic backdrop - Rynas' tears (no further spoilers!).

Number 2 would go to Mike Mearls' Siege of Durgham's Folly (or is it Folly of Durgham's Siege? I keep forgetting), which is 3.0. It's a slim module with - ironically, AGAIN - the H1 plotline except with knobs on. Again, a fairly good cast of characters, and the confrontation with the BBEG mimics, successfully, the better parts of PARANOIA: the RPG. The module is also fairly strong on descriptive texts. I rate it Mike Mearls' best module to date, being produced at a time before he turned all to mechanics.

 

[Knightfall]

Presently, here's the rather pitiful list of the Necromancer Adventures I own:

Rappan Athuk Reloaded
D1 The Tomb of Abysthor (for lvls 2-8)
W1 The Crucible of Freya (for lvls 1 or 2)

Your pitiful list is nothing compared to my pitiful list. I only own "The Hall of the Rainbow Mage" and "Gary Gygax's Necropolis," which is more of a campaign adventure book. While I also have "Glades of Death," I bought that book more for its rules.

Personally, I prefer Necromancer's city sourcebooks such as "Bard's Gate" and "City State of the Invincible Overlord." [EDIT]I also really like "Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia."[/EDIT]

I would recommend you go with S'mon's suggestion regarding The Lost City of Barakus. That's the main Necromancer adventure that I don't have that I really wish I could get a copy of (I'm not interested in PDFs for the most part). I've heard great things about it.

Perhaps this thread will help me as much as it helps you.

 

[Knightfall]

As an aside, I've balked when it comes to Necromancer's adventures because so many of them seem to include mini-settings that I cannot fathom trying to fit into my homebrew.

Adventures such as "A Lamentation of Thieves," "The Bonegarden," "The Crystal Skull," "The Doom of Listonshire," and "The Grey Citadel."

 

[Melan]

If you are looking for a mini-campaign, I can recommend The Vault of Larin Karr, which describes a valley with settlements, mini-ddungeons, wilderness lairs and a full underworld to explore. Everything is interconnected, so it is fun for the PCs to descend into a dungeon from a cemetary, find an underground cave system, and finally emerge in an abandoned series of tunnels under a castle held by gnolls or something like that... Alternatively, you can use it as a grab bag of mini-adventures. The Lost City of Barakus is the same idea, but I think the execution is weaker.

Raise the Dead is a collection of small adventures for having a low to mid-level PC raised from the dead. The setups here are particularly evil in a way only the fine people from Necromancer can think up. Caution: in these adventures, characters killed horribly tend to be > characters actually raised.

If you like high-level deathfests, Demons and Devils or Vampires and Liches are good either as short dungeons or as the culmination of entire epic campaigns. I think they are among the pieces which do "1st edition feel" the best; Demons&Devils is the better of the two, but both are worth owning.

Ancient Kingdoms of Mesopotamia is very good sword&sorcery, but it is also very specific; if you want to run a Babylonian-themed or wasteland campaign, it is solid gold; otherwise, it is just good reading material.

 

[JeffB]

I had most of the pre 3.5 releases. TOA, COF and Demons & Devils are my faves of those.

About the only one I did not like was the one with the "planar drill/machine". I think it was called "What Evil Lurks". Just felt the idea was lame, but I don't care for "gadgetry and machines" in my D&D so I'm biased.

Oh, the Rob Kuntz modules were pretty bad too even though generally I'm a fan of Rob's contributions to D&D over the years.

Overall though, I'd say the entire catalog is pretty solid from NG.

 

[Morpheus]

Good Stuff

Necromancer makes quality stuff with one caveat-the modules are tough, so your PCs will have to be at the top of their game. Here are some of the ones you will want to check out:

The Fane of the Witch King-Great dungeon crawl with interesting villains.
Aberrations-Very cool premise to get the PCs involved. Then it becomes a bu g hunt (so to speak).
Demons and Devils-Nice, short adventures involving, ahem, demons and devils.
The Siege of Durgam's Folly-Fun adventure involving different constructs.
The Vault of Larin Karr-Quite possibly the best sandbox mini-campaign available for 3e D&D (needs a little work to be updated to 3.5).
The Grey Citadel-Excellent urban adventure.
The Bonegarden-Superb high-level adventure involving undead masses.

I hope this helps you decide. You really can't go wrong with any Necromancer modules (although the Zayene series is generally considered the weakest of the lot)...

 

[thundershot]

We loved the Bonegarden... We didn't use the included setting, but we integrated the Bonegarden into our own campaign, and it worked out great. The PC's ended up returning there several times, and even ended up imprisoning a powerful Lich there that's been an arch foe for years...



Chris