Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I think OP is asking for module recommendations that would fit into AoW to expand/extend the campaign.
D&D General Greyhawk fans - How to fit older modules with Age of Worms
- Thread starter earthsea_wizard
- Start date
Honestly, if you run all of Age of Worms, that should be all you run. It's a BIG campaign. (I think it'd much better run in 5E than 3E - there are some design decisions that make the end of AoW incredibly unfun. Like, let's make the final boss immune to sneak attack and also have resistance to +5 or lesser weapons... the poor rogue in my group got to do 3 total damage in the final combat).
TSR, of course, created their own big campaign from the original adventures - Temple of Elemental Evil, followed by Scourge of the Slavelords, concluding with Queen of Spiders.
When you take the central Greyhawk area and look for the classic TSR-era Greyhawk adventures in the region, it's not as many as you'd think!
Anyway, let's go through the classics:
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (2 adventures! Sort of). Levels 1-8, in Hommlet and nearby. Not far from Greyhawk. But a starter campaign, not a side venture. Unless you're Robilar, going to see what all the new characters are up to.
U1-3 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, etc. (3 adventures). Levels 1-5. The originals don't specify the location that much (leaving a lot up to you). Just give a fishing village near an ocean. Assumes new characters, though.
L1-2 Lendore adventures (2, maybe 3, maybe more). Levels 1-4. Very dependent on Lendore lore, IMO - so a long, long way from Greyhawk.
N1. Against the Cult of the Reptile God. (levels 1-3). Doesn't fit in with Age of Worms at all, but it's a well-regarded adventure that I personally don't care for.
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City (levels 4-7). Far, far afield from Greyhawk. I like this one, but it fits better with Savage Tide.
C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness (levels 5-7). Pretty easy to insert. Does trippy things. Honestly, not really an adventure I like.
A1-4 Aerie of the Slave Lords (4 adventures, later republished and revised in Scourge). Levels 4-9, in the Pomarj - not that far from Greyhawk. Very conceivable that the players get involved from a local lord wanting help against the slave menace.]
S2: White Plume Mountain - very insertable into any Greyhawk campaign. Someone hires you to find the weapons. Go, have fun in a funhouse dungeon!
S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (8-12)- insertable. But wow, will probably take a WHILE to run and frustrate your players with mapping. I like it, but last ran it on a VTT with a very nice map, and streamlined exploration a lot. Quite a long way from Greyhawk.
S4. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (levels 6-10). Very important for lore, but the impact of the dungeons relies a lot on the Brand New Creatures - which are bog standard these days. It's fine. It's also a long way from Greyhawk.
S1 Tomb of Horrors - for when you want to end the campaign. (If run in original rules. Much more of a cakewalk in 5E revisions). Easy insertion anywhere, just put an item in the hoard that the party want.
TSR, of course, created their own big campaign from the original adventures - Temple of Elemental Evil, followed by Scourge of the Slavelords, concluding with Queen of Spiders.
When you take the central Greyhawk area and look for the classic TSR-era Greyhawk adventures in the region, it's not as many as you'd think!
Anyway, let's go through the classics:
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (2 adventures! Sort of). Levels 1-8, in Hommlet and nearby. Not far from Greyhawk. But a starter campaign, not a side venture. Unless you're Robilar, going to see what all the new characters are up to.
U1-3 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, etc. (3 adventures). Levels 1-5. The originals don't specify the location that much (leaving a lot up to you). Just give a fishing village near an ocean. Assumes new characters, though.
L1-2 Lendore adventures (2, maybe 3, maybe more). Levels 1-4. Very dependent on Lendore lore, IMO - so a long, long way from Greyhawk.
N1. Against the Cult of the Reptile God. (levels 1-3). Doesn't fit in with Age of Worms at all, but it's a well-regarded adventure that I personally don't care for.
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City (levels 4-7). Far, far afield from Greyhawk. I like this one, but it fits better with Savage Tide.
C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness (levels 5-7). Pretty easy to insert. Does trippy things. Honestly, not really an adventure I like.
A1-4 Aerie of the Slave Lords (4 adventures, later republished and revised in Scourge). Levels 4-9, in the Pomarj - not that far from Greyhawk. Very conceivable that the players get involved from a local lord wanting help against the slave menace.]
S2: White Plume Mountain - very insertable into any Greyhawk campaign. Someone hires you to find the weapons. Go, have fun in a funhouse dungeon!
S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (8-12)- insertable. But wow, will probably take a WHILE to run and frustrate your players with mapping. I like it, but last ran it on a VTT with a very nice map, and streamlined exploration a lot. Quite a long way from Greyhawk.
S4. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (levels 6-10). Very important for lore, but the impact of the dungeons relies a lot on the Brand New Creatures - which are bog standard these days. It's fine. It's also a long way from Greyhawk.
S1 Tomb of Horrors - for when you want to end the campaign. (If run in original rules. Much more of a cakewalk in 5E revisions). Easy insertion anywhere, just put an item in the hoard that the party want.
earthsea_wizard
Explorer
Thank you! This is a super helpful rundown.
As to your first part- I don't intend to make it a part of one long running storyline, rather I want to be able to drop these adventures in my campaign with different adventuring groups and/or players. My plan is to just keep on running Greyhawk and by campaign I mean just that, my personal game set in Greyhawk, regardless of what the current plot/adventure/story is. I hope that makes sense. AoW is indeed big, we are on book 4 and it has been a year of in-game play. I am lucky to have a gaming group of around 15 players from the past 20+ years willing players though so I want to start getting other groups into the world on different days of the month.
QuentinGeorge
Legend
Tomb of Horrors is actually referenced in a miniquest near one of the final adventures in Age of Worms. Tenser can teleport the party there, right to where the demon face is so they can recover the sphere of annihilation from it. It would be fairly simple to turn this into a full run through the Tomb.
I’m running a lifelong campaign (since 2003) and we starting the Spire of long shadows next month. We use BECMI rules so the characters a squishier and advance slower so I’ve had to add extra content to the campaign.
I cant remember half of the adventures I’ve added in thebeginning, but here are few:
Dungeon #114 Mad god’s key - As a starter before the campaign
Speaker in dreams - On the way to Free city and Champions belt. Not Greyhawk and I can’t remember the excuse I used to insert it, but it was a hit!
Rod of seven parts - As suggested in The spire of long shadows
I7 Baltron’s Beacon - To get an ingredient for Allustans superglue to assemble the parts of the rod.
White plume mountain - During the downtime in the start of The spire of long shadows.
My players just recieved a hint of Dragothas heart being in posession of Keraptis. They have yet to find out Dragothas relevance to their mission, but when they do, I plan to combine Return to the White Plume mountain and Dungeon #77 Ex Keraptis Cum Amore as a mission to retrieve it. Destroying the heart weakens Dragotha to the version found in Dragotha’s lair Tounament module:
Dungeon #121 The Styes - Before sending the group to The spire of long shadows, Manzorian asks them to find Balakarde. Of course he is nowhere to be found, but his son is the one accused for the murders in the adventure. He must be proven innocent to get the information of Balakardes whereabouts. Of course they eventually find out he knows just that Balakardes disappeared.
Dungeon #112 Maure castle - As Ebon triad hedquarters. At the moment my players know it exists but don’t have clue where.
I cant remember half of the adventures I’ve added in thebeginning, but here are few:
Dungeon #114 Mad god’s key - As a starter before the campaign
Speaker in dreams - On the way to Free city and Champions belt. Not Greyhawk and I can’t remember the excuse I used to insert it, but it was a hit!
Rod of seven parts - As suggested in The spire of long shadows
I7 Baltron’s Beacon - To get an ingredient for Allustans superglue to assemble the parts of the rod.
White plume mountain - During the downtime in the start of The spire of long shadows.
My players just recieved a hint of Dragothas heart being in posession of Keraptis. They have yet to find out Dragothas relevance to their mission, but when they do, I plan to combine Return to the White Plume mountain and Dungeon #77 Ex Keraptis Cum Amore as a mission to retrieve it. Destroying the heart weakens Dragotha to the version found in Dragotha’s lair Tounament module:
Dungeon #121 The Styes - Before sending the group to The spire of long shadows, Manzorian asks them to find Balakarde. Of course he is nowhere to be found, but his son is the one accused for the murders in the adventure. He must be proven innocent to get the information of Balakardes whereabouts. Of course they eventually find out he knows just that Balakardes disappeared.
Dungeon #112 Maure castle - As Ebon triad hedquarters. At the moment my players know it exists but don’t have clue where.
Yes, it would have been nice.
Paizo wanted to do it, people wanted to buy it, but WotC said no. I imagine it played a part in Paizo's realisation that they needed to move towards owning their own IP.
I don't expect there's any interest within WotC for doing their own version for 5e.
QuentinGeorge
Legend
I suspect because WotC was already planning 4th edition at that stage and knew they would soon yank the magazine license.
Pity, as an adventure path it is miles above anything WoTC has produced in recent history. (just look at Vecna: Eve of Ruin)
Zardnaar
Legend
I've been rereading a lot of 3.5 material lately.
Kinda amazing the fall of in quality. 3.5 is near the bottom of my editions as well.
The big 5E onesbgenerally suck. The smaller ones are better roughly on par with a Dungeon magazine issue.
Thinking a 5E adaption of AoW or Savage Tide as I still have the magazines.
QuentinGeorge
Legend
Yep, holding on to the whole Age of Worms/Savage Tide run is the best decision I ever made. Running Age of Worms now in 5E, will do Savage Tide after its finishes. The players are having a ball.
While I ran all of Age of Worms, I gave up half way through Savage Tide, as it wasn't clicking with the group.
Savage Tide is one of those APs where I actually didn't want them to leave the superbly detailed origin city (Sasserine) - I would have much rather a campaign set there rather than what occurred later (ditto my players!)
Always a problem when you detail the player origins too much and then abandon them!
Cheers!
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