D&D General Greyhawk setting material

[Parmandur]

I owned Forgotten Temple back in the day, and I remember it as an absolutely awful module. One big fight and then nothing but mopping up. The pacing was atrocious. But, then again, that might just be my memory playing tricks.

I'm not sure that focusing on Drow would be a good way to go. I think that Forgotten Realms have pretty much sucked that idea dry. Even the idea of redoing the old GH Drow city isn't really going to distinguish it too much from FR. Yes, I KNOW there are differences, but, I'm not sure if the perception of those differences would be enough. It's an underground city matriarchy led by dominatrix dark elves. That's an idea that really has been beaten to death.

I'd suggest that focusing on stuff that you don't see in FR might be a better way to go. The Paizo Dungeon adventures - Seeds of Sehan for example - with its body horror, use of somewhat more esoteric monsters (yak folk monks?) might be a better direction. Play to GH's strengths rather than try to directly compete.

There was one book released in 2016, years ago, that didn't primarily focus on the Drow. Like NBC used to say, even a repeat can be New.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I owned Forgotten Temple back in the day, and I remember it as an absolutely awful module. One big fight and then nothing but mopping up. The pacing was atrocious. But, then again, that might just be my memory playing tricks.

It was written with the expectation of a pitched battle at the gates - which is rather more realistic than players fighting monsters one room at a time without the alarm being raised!

It could be stealthed though.

 

[Hussar]

It was written with the expectation of a pitched battle at the gates - which is rather more realistic than players fighting monsters one room at a time without the alarm being raised!

It could be stealthed though.

Oh, I understand how it was written. Totally get it. But, there's the issue right there. "More realistic" does not necessarily equate to a better experience. I found the module largely a failure the few times I ran it. Actually, to be honest, the lead up to the module - trying to find the Temple was the fun part of the module. After that it was just a giant grindfest fight followed up with lots and lots of empty rooms.

 

[David Howery]

I have to say that I would absolutely adore a 5E conversion of The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun.

this seems like it would fit in pretty well with the way WOTC is putting out 5E campaign books. I'm not totally familiar with all they're doing, but I keep hearing that they are set up as 'start out as 1st level, work your way up to high level, face off against the Big Bad, all inside this one book'. LCT/FTT would work fine for this... just have to work in some low level stuff to start out with, likely some other cavern complexes in the same mountains to fill out the book, etc.

 

[Parmandur]

this seems like it would fit in pretty well with the way WOTC is putting out 5E campaign books. I'm not totally familiar with all they're doing, but I keep hearing that they are set up as 'start out as 1st level, work your way up to high level, face off against the Big Bad, all inside this one book'. LCT/FTT would work fine for this... just have to work in some low level stuff to start out with, likely some other cavern complexes in the same mountains to fill out the book, etc.

Easily done: T1-4 take place geographically just across Furondy and Veluna, and bring the characters to precisely the right level range by the end of the Temple of Elemental Evil, which happily enough can be tied to both Tharizdun and Iggwilv. In point of fact, S4 had been conceived of as WG3, with T1 to be changed to WG1 with the Temple of Elemental Evil being WG2.

For an even more climactic fight, have the reprint end with confronting Iuz across the way by reprinting City of Skulls, and connect it all with some regional Gazeeter material....

 

[David Howery]

Easily done: T1-4 take place geographically just across Furondy and Veluna, and bring the characters to precisely the right level range by the end of the Temple of Elemental Evil, which happily enough can be tied to both Tharizdun and Iggwilv. In point of fact, S4 had been conceived of as WG3, with T1 to be changed to WG1 with the Temple of Elemental Evil being WG2.

For an even more climactic fight, have the reprint end with confronting Iuz across the way by reprinting City of Skulls, and connect it all with some regional Gazeeter material....

maybe, but putting T1-4, LCT, and FTT all in one book would result in one HUGE book...

 

[Parmandur]

maybe, but putting T1-4, LCT, and FTT all in one book would result in one HUGE book...

Smaller than you might think. First point is, that the old edition reprints in GoS and TftYP have taken up significantly fewer pages than the original modules (different print, page size etc.). Just taking the face page count though:

• T1-4 with 128 page book and 16 page map supplement
• S4 with two 32- page books, one of them primarily a Bestiary in my understanding, and a folder map
• WG4 with 32 pages & folder map

So that's ~240 pages in the old format on the face of it.

In contrast, for Ghosts of Saltmarsh, we had:

• U1 was a 32 page module with folder map, but takes up 23 pages in GoS
• U2 was a 32 page module with folder map, bit takes up 26 pages in GoS
• U3 was a 48 page book with foldout map, but takes up 29 pages in GoS

So, ~116 pages (including poster maps) of 1E material became 78 pages of 5E material, roughly two-thirds of the space used. Therefore, we can conclude that T1-4, S3, and WG4 would be a comfortably sized 5E book, with loads of room for other material.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

LCT/FTT would work fine for this... just have to work in some low level stuff to start out with, likely some other cavern complexes in the same mountains to fill out the book, etc.

Like the Caverns of Chaos from Keep on the Borderlands

 

[David Howery]

So, ~116 pages (including poster maps) of 1E material became 78 pages of 5E material, roughly two-thirds of the space used. Therefore, we can conclude that T1-4, S3, and WG4 would be a comfortably sized 5E book, with loads of room for other material.

okay, size wouldn't be a problem. But you'd have to rework some of the stuff... ATM, the T series and LCT/LTT don't really have anything tying them together. Plus, the two regions are widely separated. Shouldn't be hard to do that though...

 

[Parmandur]

okay, size wouldn't be a problem. But you'd have to rework some of the stuff... ATM, the T series and LCT/LTT don't really have anything tying them together. Plus, the two regions are widely separated. Shouldn't be hard to do that though...

Looking at Ghosts of Saltmarsh, with the extensive additions of frame material, put a Marklands Gazeeter and sandbox in there, with suggested connections.

Not really all that distant geographically, per the '83 box set (references to WG1 and WG3 in the original text on page 30):

"The Village of Hommlet (WG1): Thetlegendary village is located in hex 04-98 near Verbobonc."
"The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (WG3):This strange magical hoard is hidden somewhere on the border between Perrenland and Ket, in hex E5-88."
"The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun(WG4): This desolate and forbidding edifice can be found near the lost caverns, in hex F5-88."