Great Adventures: Concept and Execution

[TerraDave]

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H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth: Ok concept, mediocre execution...

The idea for the labyrinth is great, but it is seriously undermined by the lack of actual random encounter tables...

"For every hour the PCs travel in the Labyrinth, roll 1d20 and add the following modifiers...if the result is 20 or higher, the adventurers encounter a wandering band of creatures...roll 1d10 and let the result determine which encounter you use"

They could certainly have more for the Labyrinth, but there are random encounters. 10 of them.

 

[MerricB]

"For every hour the PCs travel in the Labyrinth, roll 1d20 and add the following modifiers...if the result is 20 or higher, the adventurers encounter a wandering band of creatures...roll 1d10 and let the result determine which encounter you use"

They could certainly have more for the Labyrinth, but there are random encounters. 10 of them.

You're right. I was confusing some of the later "non random" encounter adventures with H2.

Cheers!

 

[Ariosto]

D3 Vault of the Drow: There's just not enough detailed, although it's great stuff; really a sketch of a campaign, there's enough potential for a "super module" at least. Think of it as something like a Judges Guild Wilderlands installment, and maybe it will fare better in retrospect -- but a more fleshed-out version could really have been great. The payoff for putting in the needed work these days would probably be much less because the Drow have been done to death. Back in the early '80s, though, it was a truly wondrous experience!

It was sort of odd that when the first TSR modules, the G - D series, were released, one might have expected few players to have characters advanced to such high levels under the new AD&D rules. They are all very challenging of players' skills -- and D3 is a real test of the DM's mastery!

I3 Pharaoh: Pretty good dungeons, c r e a k y plot contrivances.

I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City: All around quite good, with rough edges to polish; IIRC, the Yuan Ti are conspicuously "homeless", though, and one really needs to bring in one's own flavor as the text does not supply much. Like D3, this really shines as a framework on which to build; it's just not as ambitious in scope, and so better suited to the available space for presentation. The main map does a lot of the work of providing inspiration, IME.

Those "I" modules bring to mind ...

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan: Top notch in every department, especially with the ("express railroad") tournament set-up. Make sure that character language barriers do not get in the players' way. The "atmosphere" is rich -- conveyed in part by the booklet of illustrations -- and the atmosphere presents a keen time pressure. Of all the traps, the deadliest may be the temptation to explore everything! A second, less hurried, expedition may be worthwhile to take in all on offer. Depending on your players, campaign use may call for throwing in richer treasures as reward for braving the dangers (plentiful opportunities for sudden death). Like the Tomb of Horrors, this may be best as a one-off (and, like the Tomb, is short on "hack and slay"). With the tournament approach, it may be meet to add more clues as to the way out. It takes a careful reading or two to absorb the material, but it's IMO well worth the time for a DM to be well prepared.

Meticulously conceived, gripping and perhaps nerve-wracking when well run.

 

[Plane Sailing]

In earlier days I had a soft spot for several of the 'UK' TSR modules, which included some really great ones.

The Sentinel/The Gauntlet Great concept, Great execution. Great two parter, the first one starts off a little weak but with quite a lot of role-play opportunities. The second one really scored in the mountain pass, handling certain villains, moving on to the giant attack and a final showdown between the two artifacts. I really liked this one.

When a star falls: Good concept, good execution. Brilliant set up with the 'memory web' got PCs engaged in it very quickly. Memorable characters, although I found the svirfneblin bit at the end didn't work so well.

Dark Clouds Gather: Great concept, great execution. Rescueing a bird man from irate villagers, helping protect his people from demonic flying monkeys issuing from a cloud giants castle. Again it is an adventure where the objectives and the scope of the problem grows as you get deeper into the adventure.

In 3e days, even though it is by a friend I still recommend
Of Sound Mind by Piratecat. Great concept, great execution. Some particularly memorable scenes (like the horses near the start, or being chased around crumbling corridors by the great stone dragon) and a really fun adventure.

 

[Celebrim]

I agree with most of the opinions so far. Yes, I3 is a brilliant dungeon and module and really shows off Hickman as probably the leading dungeon designer of all time, but there is a continual drop off in interest along the 'Desert of Desolation' adventure path. Yes, D1-3 is brilliant in concept but rather lacking in execution. C1 and S1 are fantastic for what they are, though because of what they are probably better suited for one offs than regular campaign play. In fact, C1 may even be better in some ways (more RP oppurtunities for example) than its more famous rival.

Here are a few more:

B2: Keep on the Borderlands - Poor Concept, Poor Execution: First of all, there isn't alot of concept here. If I may suggest, the concept involved is essentially identical to that every 12 year old DM first attempts - take every monster from the monster level suitable for a low level adventure and throw them all together in close quarters. B2 is essentially level 1 of most starting DM's mega dungeons, without the lower levels, and as far as the excecution goes of that goes, any randomly generated generated module filled with random encounters is likely to be more interesting to adventure in than B2. However, we might call it at least mediocre execution in as much as the residents of each mini-dungeon area have different defenses, there are a few 'special' encounters of mediocre imagination, if it were not for the fact that collectively the execution even lets down what little concept is involved in the module - namely the conflict between order and chaos represented by the keep and the caves. This fundamental concept is on very poor display and is essentially invisible to the players using the presented material. Had the concept been expanded on, it probably would have suggested better execution as well. From what've I've seen H1 got about halfway there.

X1: Isle of Dread: Brilliant Concept, Lousy Execution: 'Isle of Dread' is one of the most varied and interesting modules around in terms of its concept. It's going to absolutely have great combat, great RPing, and great atmosphere. The idea behind final villain is an interesting one. But it's execution is dismal. The players are not provided enough motivation by the text. The lost civilization is not provided enough context by the text. The final destination is after such a great journey something of a let down both in scale and in imagination. And the BBEG appears completely without context or buildup. This is the classic example of an old school module that is killed by space constraints and which only really truly shines in the hands of a very skilled DM who is capable of doing the work doubling or tripling the content.

CM3 Sabre River: Great Concept, Mediocre Execution: Shares with X1 the need for a great DM to really pull this off, but mostly lacks the problem of missing content. Instead, the problem here is that the dungeon design is fairly uninspiring linear dungeon crawls with limited RP oppurtunities (except with the module's star) and little that can't be overcome by brute force at the suggested levels. I would have loved to see what this module would have been like with Hickman working as a secondary author.

UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave: Great Concept, Mediocre Execution: This is one of the best scripted early modules in terms of plot. To a large extent, by giving the players so much freedom it avoids the railroady feel that is inevitable in such a scripted concept/constrained environment. However, the execution is somewhat lacking. First of all, it has a maze at the heart of it and though small in play mazes are rarely an interesting obstacles to overcome and this one doesn't transcend that problem. Secondly, the adventuring environment can become quite dull in a hurry precisely if the players are skilled and don't blunder around. Probably a good module in the hands of a good DM that would be absolutely terrible in the hands of a lesser one.

 

[Nebulous]

G
H3: Pyramid of Shadows: Brilliant concept, lousy execution.

A dimensional prison? Great idea! So is Karavakos and his shards, along with his erstwhile consort. Unfortunately, then everything falls down with the selection of the other groups to inhabit the pyramid. Quite simply, there aren't any groups the PCs can make common cause with. They're all evil, deranged or both. The pyramid, which should actually give a lot of exploration material along with backstory on the history of the 4E world, turns into an overlong slogfest of one combat after another.

I'm almost done with Pyramid, but i cut a TON out of it. Just one friggin fight after another! Minimal if non-existent opportunities for NPC interaction (as written, i changed that) and the plot while kinda neat doesn't really have doodlesquat to do with anything the PCs experienced in H1 and H2. I added a few subplots to Pyramid just to make it more fun, and cutting out 50% of the combat encounters has made it go more smoothly.

 

[TerraDave]

I am glad I inadvertantly bumped this.

B1: In Search of the Unkown: Good concept and interesting execution: A classic OD&D dungeon loaded with everything, but the actual monsters and treasure, which the DM was free to place. I didn't "get" B1 for a long time, but now see at as a model whose time may have come again.

S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth: Good Concept: keep on the borderlands, turned up to 11. You have a series of wierd caverns, strange monsters, a big wilderness area, and a little backstory. Great Execution: Loads of new monsters and items, including some like the Behir and the Demonicon of Igwiz that would approach iconoic status, some pretty out there encounters, and a great boss fight long before people used that term.

WG4, lost Temple of Tharizdun: Nearly great concept: the lost temple of the bound dark god, before it was a total cliche, guarded by an army of monstrous humanoids that actually act like a an army of monstrous humanoids. Good, but not perfect, execution: Great, great stuff in the hidden temple, good notes on how to run the mountain giant and his crew, allowing you to throw some surprises at the party, and some obvious filler partially redeemed by coming from the fiend folio.

I6 Ravenloft: as noted, great concept and excution. It opened the door to many bad things afterwords, which really makes it the pinnacle.

Fiery Dragon's NeMoren's Vault: Good Concept: Take our best old school dungeon, and use it in 3E. Great Execution: the individual encounters and non-combat features, and the way the back story is reveiled, make this almost perfect.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil: Pretty good concept: take a huge icononic supermodule from 1E, update it to 3E, and maybe make it a little better. Erratic execution: the decision to work in Tharizdun, and work around the more convuleted bits of T1-4, great. The moathouse and nulb, great to good. Invidiual encounters, sometimes great. As a whole, a giant slog that never ends. Of course, this goes back to the concept...if they had just trimmed it back, to maybe covering 6 or 7 levels instead of 10, would have made it a truly great adventure.

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

I am glad I inadvertantly bumped this.



Fiery Dragon's NeMoren's Vault: Good Concept: Take our best old school dungeon, and use it in 3E. Great Execution: the individual encounters and non-combat features, and the way the back story is reveiled, make this almost perfect.

Yeah! Thanks!

 

[Ariosto]

B1: In Search of the Unkown: Good concept and interesting execution: A classic OD&D dungeon loaded with everything, but the actual monsters and treasure, which the DM was free to place. I didn't "get" B1 for a long time, but now see at as a model whose time may have come again.

The first level has an excellent map, a model of many features that make for good levels in an old-style dungeon. The area descriptions in the key are (IME) too verbose for emulation as standard practice in a campaign dungeon -- something I actually tried -- but work in making exploration of the rooms themselves more "the adventure" than usual.

That's just not enough, I think, and the way stocking is handled leaves it too much up to the DM -- remembering that this was meant as a first-timer's instructional module -- to provide the something more that's needed to make the place come alive. The monsters should provide opportunities for conversation as well as combat, but of what will they speak? What are their occupations, and what are the relationships among them? Without that, there's just a wandering through an abandoned house with pretty random run-ins with monsters. The very freedom of that movement bodes against much in the way of strategy, unless the placement of monsters and treasures provides significant choices players can first grasp and then make.

Module B2 does -- again, considering the intended readers -- a much better job on that count. However, an appropriately skilled DM can do an even better job with B1.

The treasure in sum seems to me too little, and the finds too little varied in value; the placement of "jackpots" is a key to good dungeon stocking. Also, some traps and tricks seem to me too absurd and arbitrarily placed; a little of that goes a long way, in this case I am afraid perhaps to building bad habits. Likewise, it may be not only frustrating but bizarre that locked containers turn out to hold nothing of value. (That they hold nothing at all should, one might think, be easy to ascertain -- but players can surprise with dimness as well as with brilliance.)

Bottom line: It's a very interesting place, with a lot of classic dungeon features and weird atmospheric touches (including some that hint at the lives of former inhabitants). It just needs to have something going on, some interesting ecology and society among the current populace.

I remember forgetting to describe some corpses in the key on a first expedition. When the players found them on their next trip, the evidence of things happening -- indeed, of other adventurers after the rumored treasures of Quasqueton -- definitely caught their interest.

 

[haakon1]

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil: Pretty good concept: take a huge icononic supermodule from 1E, update it to 3E, and maybe make it a little better. Erratic execution: the decision to work in Tharizdun, and work around the more convuleted bits of T1-4, great. The moathouse and nulb, great to good. Invidiual encounters, sometimes great. As a whole, a giant slog that never ends. Of course, this goes back to the concept...if they had just trimmed it back, to maybe covering 6 or 7 levels instead of 10, would have made it a truly great adventure.

Nod, I was reading through it recently, and I was thinking it's too darn long, but a very iconic setting with some interesting contents.

I was thinking of redoing it to have just Hommlett, Nulb, and the Temple, without the additional (main) dungeon complex. Think that would work?