Best 3.5 Adventure?

[Mercule]

I've finally hit a burn-out point that just changing systems won't solve. I realized that I've DMed, almost continuously, for going on five years, now. During that time, I've played in a single, one session, live game and a couple of short or abortive PBEMs. I need to loot something.

My current campaign still isn't done and we all want to finish it, but I need a break. So, one of the players has offered to run a full module as a one-shot. The question is: Which module?

I own every Dungeon issue from roughly the end of "Shackled City" on. I haven't read (or at least retained) most of the adventures, so those aren't prohibited. They may even be preferred, since they're already paid for.

He owns "Expedition to Greyhawk Ruins". But I don't think anyone wants this excursion to run past, say, 1 Oct. or thereabouts. He has also said that he'd happily buy any good module, but his preferred setting is Greyhawk, so it'd have to be thematically similar. I think his desire is for a mid-level (7-12) adventure, too. Dungeon crawl or city/site-based doesn't matter.

Any recommendations? What has your group played that was memorable and fun?

 

[Boarstorm]

Well, if you want reasonably short, I'd have to say I'm somewhat stumped.

Red Hand of Doom is a really nice mod, but it's perhaps a touch... long... for your needs.

Speaker in Dreams was okay, if you don't mind a little work updating it to 3.5 (from 3.0, so not a LOT of work). Lots of creepy-crawlies in a town atmosphere.

Speaking of Dungeon Mag, you might see if you can convince him to do the occasional level of Maure's. Could be interesting to do one level, say, then get back to your regular campaign and break out another level when you burn out again. Might be a touch high level, though.

 

[Mercule]

I ran "Speaker in Dreams" way back when.

I've also already raided all the Maure's Castle bits for my campaign.

Thanks for the ideas, though.

 

[wedgeski]

Since 'Speaker in Dreams' is being mentioned I'll drop in my support as well. Fine little adventure, my players enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Crothian]

Goodman Games has great modules, I'm not sure what would be good for that level range but they have good resources on their site.

 

[Vurt]

I thought that "Red Hand of Doom" was the cat's meow when I ran it, but some of my players felt it was a touch on the difficult side at times.

I also thought "Of Sound Mind" was particularly clever and entertaining as well.

My absolute fave adventure that I've played in was the old Necromancer module, "The Vault of Larin Karr". It's more of a self-directed sandbox style of adventure, so you can easily pick and choose which parts interest you and ignore the rest, especially if you're pressed for time.

EDIT: The latter two are 3.0, but I seem to recall being able to easily convert "Of Sound Mind" on the fly, and don't imagine there'd be too much trouble converting over "The Vault of Larin Karr".

 

[Vayden]

"Red Hand of Doom" was the only published module for 3.x that I ever ran into that was worth anything. Not only was it worthwhile, it was legitimately quite good.

War of the Burning Sky and some of Paizo's Pathfinder stuff have looked interesting when I've browsed them, but I've never run them to find out for sure. You could try just picking up the WotBS pdf for the level you want to play at.

 

[haakon1]

At that level, with Greyhawk old-school feel, I like "The Standing Stones" a lot.

If you just want to kill lots of stuff, DCC12 (I think) about the paladin training bases that's been attacked is a lot of fun, and quite old school.

 

[Voadam]

Banewarrens by Malhavok press, good mix of city adventuring, planar wilderness stomping, dungeon crawling with multiple factions (though a manageable number) including potentially uncomfortable allies with different motives.

It has an overarching LAWFUL (good) theocratic empire that is in decline as the background. For levels 7-10 I believe, about 128 pages. It is however 3e and not 3.5 if that matters.

 

[Voadam]

Goodman games are pretty good for short old school greyhawk feeling games.

Use their Adventure finder check out the ones for the appropriate levels and go with what sounds best is my advice if you want a short one.

http://www.goodman-games.com/3e.html