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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr Simon" data-source="post: 4146398" data-attributes="member: 21938">None of these are D&D, and some might be hard to find except on Ebay, but my choices would be:Guamata's Vision. For RuneQuest 3rd Ed., from the Shadows on the Borderland anthology.[sblock]A kind of 'Children of the Corn' adventure. The setting is a remote village in an fairly rough scrubland area, where society is ruled by a pretty strict and puritanical religion (for those who know RQ we're talking Sun County). The PCs are sent to investigate a premonition by the priest Gaumata about a nest of evil growing somwhere in the land.The background is thus: The headman of the village, whilst a young man, brutally raped a young woman who drowned herself in remorse. After leaving to train in the militia he has returned to a position of authority, but the psychic residue of the crime has taken the form of a succubus, driven to revenge itself on the village. (RQ succubi are spirit creatures that can take female or male (incubus) form).  The succubus, known as The Mistress, now rules the small village. She has brought about the deaths of any who would stop her, such as the old priestess, and any natural children. She visits the menfolk at night in female form, draining Constitution. She visits the women folk in male form and impregnates them. All the children are now little monsters, although indistinguishable from humans except in their sly and viscious play. All the adults are drained and exhausted, the only 'normal' people left are the headman (who has lied about his complicity so much that he almost believes his own story), the 'wise woman' who is a terrified novice, and the young militia who are dumb teenagers kept in line by the sexual favours of the succubus.So you have a disturbing set-up with a village where nothing is *quite* right. The PCs can't just hack their way to the solution, it requires guile and RPing as well. The adventure is left pretty much open - there are no set paths through it. But it simply ripples with atmosphere.[/sblock]Rogue Mistress, for Stormbringer [sblock]A fun romp through the multiverse. This one has some dodgy elements, but is good for mining setting ideas.The premise has the PCs 'hired' by a demonic sorceress to find various keys to assist her rise to power. She implants them with demon hearts - if they disobey she can stop the heart, if they help her she will remove it. This is a seriously heavy-handed way of getting the PCs involved, but does lend a certain urgency and sense of injustice!Part one involves floating islands and sky pirates, as the PCs must infiltrate another sorceress' castle to retrieve the Tenatir, a mystical being with the power of travel between planes. Turns out he is a member of the crew of the Rogue Mistress, a planes-hopping roistering pirate ship that the PCs are kind of expected to join forces with.I don't recall the rest of the plot offhand. It's sort of a get-the-set adventure, with various relationships between the NPCs played out in the background. Apart from the heavy opening there are several other adventure-writing no-nos. There's an NPC who gets to do the cool stuff (an aspect of the Eternal Champion) and the ending is pretty much determined by a dice roll (DM of the Rings style), but the settings are cool:After the floating islands plane, there's a plane at the end of its life and a wrecked planar vessel. The surviving crew are locked in a last fight with shapechangers who have taken over, and determining who's who is part of the fun. Oh, and the ship is alive, but also dying.There's a plane that's a variant 17th Century England, but more could have been made of this - as the adventure stands it's pretty much a journey from one place to another, fighting hired thugs.There's a wierd demi-plane where the PCs are turned inside-out and have to negotiate a web of energy in order to get a knife (similar to Philip Pullman's Subtle Knife, it can cut through to other worlds). Once they get it, however, the person owning it is possessed by the spirit of the knife.There's a water-plane, which has some nice NPCs (an underwater ship of undead pirates and a race of intelligent octupi) but is pretty linear, and hack and slash.Then there's a plane set in a futuristic world in the grip of a nuclear winter that has the feel of many 70s dystopian sci-fi films. Humans live in the last domed city (failing in power, reduced to Soylent Green for nutrition). They have technology but a fairly sinister eugenical attitude. Their enemies, the primitive but socially nicer mutants, have what the PCs need.The finale is pretty much a set-piece back with the sorceress and the demon lord she wants to control. [/sblock]Probably my favourite campaign was the Enemy Within for Warhammer FRP. It's first incarnation faded away towards the end as Games Workshop gave up on its role-playing aspect. When Hogshead publishing revisited it they originally intended to beef the ending upbut sadly they too closed down before finishing it. But:[sblock]Probably the best 'you meet in a tavern' opening of all time. The setting reeks of atmosphere and fun NPCs, with the players getting the chance of some fun RPing early on with a flamboyant French (sorry, Bretonnian) card sharp and a snooty noble woman. Early 'encounters' include character moments like hungover coachmen as the PCs try to get on their way. Then the adventure really kicks in.First true encounter is with some mutants that have attacked a coach. Amongst the victims of the first coach is a person who looks exactly like one of the PCs!  Better yet, he's carrying a letter proclaiming him the inheritor of a fortune. Any self-respecting players chase this up, but here's the twist. The letter is a sham. The dead lookalike is a cultist responsible for abducting children for sacrifice. The PCs end up hunted by a bounty hunter who set the trap for the original, plus by cultists who wonder why he is absconding with what they think is their money. This leads into the campaign proper.Shadows over Bogenhafen, the second part, sees the PCs in a medium town for a festival. Plenty of festival games to watch or partake in (wrestling matches, archery contests, freak shows etc.). It is the escape of a three-legged goblin from a freak show (and the subsequent hiring of the PCs to retrieve it from the sewers) that opens up the adventure. The sewer crawl is very well handled, and leads to the discovery of a secret temple (and possibly a theives guild). The adventure subsequently turns into cat and mouse between scruffy PCs vs. rich burgher cultists. Death on the Reik, the third installment, is a glorious piece of adventure writing. It begins with the PCs gaining command of a river boat. In the style of all Traveller adventures they can then become traders but in the process uncover a centuries old mystery. Quite non-linear (and the linear aspects are quite subtle, but also not a requirement). Loads of side-quests. A castle full of mad mutants named after philosophers. A doctor who looks like John Cleese. The only downside is that there is no clear climax.The Power Behind the Throne is good, but not the best installment. Here, the PCs must wheel and deal in one of the highest courts in the land, during another festival, in order to stop a dreadful conspiracy. The NPCs are all well drawn, although it feels a little like a re-tread of Shadows over Bogenhafen.Something Rotten in Kislev - Hmm. Too railroady, has no relevance to the rest of the campaign.Empire in Flames - big ideas, but written so as to reduce PC involvement to a fairly bland dungeon crawl.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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