D&D 4E Best 4E module?

S'mon · Mar 14, 2021

S'mon said:
I remember in Heathen the three linked combats in Jaryn's hall were great; the first with his guards probably the best. I used the 3D cardboard terrain that had been on sale around that time, it looked awesome. Also the fact that the PCs were trapped in Jaryn's dungeon with his fanatical Banite army pounding at the doors made it a lot more tense than the typical clear-the-level adventure.

Session account from 2012 Session 12 Pillars of Night - The Death of Naarash 24/08/1479 DR L5
Sadly at the time I did not realise that links to pics on Facebook are non-permanent so the great 3D terrain visuals are now just tears in the rain. :\

S'mon · Mar 14, 2021

pemerton said:
I agree with this. It's why, in the end, I think that 4e is not a good edition for modules - modules are about (degrees of) railroading, and 4e is about player-driven development of the fiction.

Yup - the scene I most remember in Heathen was the newly introduced (as a Hand prisoner) Paladin PC Shawna Carter angrily dashing Jaryn's offered wine goblet to the floor, while remonstrating with him about his betrayal/loss of faith. The group lost out on Short Rest benefits as a result but it was worth it.

4e is, as I learned from Pemerton, great at player-driven dramatic play with a chunk of gamist combat. It is terrible at exploration, traditionally perhaps D&D's biggest single focus. It really does not play like D&D at all; you need to understand what it does do well to get the most from it. As a kind of magic superhero soap opera with tactical combat, it can be brilliant.

aco175 · Mar 15, 2021

I found Keep on the Shadowfell a fine adventure. The town of Winterhaven was lacking, but the locations and maps were great and the premise of the adventure was fine to get going.

teitan · Mar 15, 2021

Yeah 4e didn’t hit its stride until Essentials era and then it was too late. I’ve heard nothing but praise for Gardmore Abbey and the Essentials kit adventures. Against the Giants remake was also good. You’ll probably have to scavenge 4e era Dungeon mags for your needs though.

pemerton · Mar 15, 2021

teitan said:
Against the Giants remake was also good.

When I did G2 (The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl) I adapted straight from the original adventure, and stepped it up to be 4e epic-tier appropriate:

Session Report - Against the (Frost) Giants

The PCs in my 4e game have gone to the Feywild looking for the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, so they can destroy the Frost Giants who are massing, in alliance with Lolth and the Prince of Frost, to start a War of Seasons that will overthrow the Summer Fey and steal control over winter...

www.enworld.org

Grugnur died prone in a pile of his own swordthanes!

We finished G2 in today's 4e session. As I've mentioned in and earlier post, it's the sort of adventure that runs a risk of d20-rolling-induced injury. Between that post and this one the PCs: * Reached 27th level; * Assaulted the giants' line of defence underground, in the corridor/long...

www.enworld.org

Mistwell · Mar 15, 2021

Madness at Gardmore Abbey is a good solid adventure. I wish I could find a copy at a reasonable price these days.

JEB · Mar 15, 2021

Mistwell said:
Madness at Gardmore Abbey is a good solid adventure. I wish I could find a copy at a reasonable price these days.

It's on DM Guild, if you're fine with a PDF edition: Madness at Gardmore Abbey (4e) - Wizards of the Coast | Dungeons & Dragons 4e | Dungeons & Dragons 4e | Dungeon Masters Guild

That DM sale is also still running for a little while longer, so it's about $7.

Mistwell · Mar 15, 2021

JEB said:
It's on DM Guild, if you're fine with a PDF edition: Madness at Gardmore Abbey (4e) - Wizards of the Coast | Dungeons & Dragons 4e | Dungeons & Dragons 4e | Dungeon Masters Guild

That DM sale is also still running for a little while longer, so it's about $7.

There are just too many physical components I want for a PDF to be satisfying for my needs on that one.

Lanefan · Mar 15, 2021

aco175 said:
I found Keep on the Shadowfell a fine adventure. The town of Winterhaven was lacking, but the locations and maps were great and the premise of the adventure was fine to get going.

On first reading it I thought much the same. Then I ran it, converted for my game, and found it rather woefully lacking.

I wouldn't run it again without first doing some serious work on it:

--- adding in at least two more vertical connections between the upper and lower levels to avoid the stairs being such a chokepoint
--- ditto between the upper level and the surface
--- greatly expanding the write-up of the final battle vs Kalarel (there's a lot of really glaring holes in that encounter as written)
--- adding in a couple of extra connecting passages to close some loops
--- changing the story somehow such that Kalarel's ritual isn't on quite such a tight timeline, meanign the party can make a bit more use of the town by returning for supplies etc. rather than feeling forced to do the adventure in one big run.

Undrave · Mar 15, 2021

It's not a module, but 'The Plane Above' includes a ton of interesting sample encounters and mini-adventure hooks to use that really show case the cool monsters of 4e. It's also a great showcase of 4e's interesting cosmology!

EzekielRaiden said:
While I cannot guarantee that they will make anyone who plays them fall in love with 4e, here's what I've said previously on the topic:

HS1: The Slaying Stone is almost universally recommended as the introductory 1st-level adventure for 4e. I haven't played it myself, but if you go looking for good 4e adventures it's on everyone's lips (fingers?). The general path people take is....

I would warn that there's a specific Skill Challenge in HS1 (where you negotiate for the titular stone with a dragon) that doesn't actually have any good option if you fail it. The dragon is WAY too powerful for your low level PC to just take the stone and it's easy for it to just fly away, leaving you with basically no decent way to end the adventure.

aco175 said:
I found Keep on the Shadowfell a fine adventure. The town of Winterhaven was lacking, but the locations and maps were great and the premise of the adventure was fine to get going.

Meh, the early dungeons felt like they were designed for an edition with less mobility. The Nentir Vale itself is a nice setting.

D&D 4E Best 4E module?

S'mon

Legend

S'mon

Legend

aco175

Legend

teitan

Legend

pemerton

Legend

Session Report - Against the (Frost) Giants

Grugnur died prone in a pile of his own swordthanes!

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

JEB

Legend

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

Lanefan

Victoria Rules

Undrave

Legend

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