AEG's Adventure I & II use?

[JoeGKushner]

So has anyone used AEG's one word books, Adventure I and Adventure II? I heard about them a while ago but they slipped under my radar.

I know Psion's used them before. Any word on it outside the reviews? How'd the actual game play go? Things a little tighter then they were in the small version?

I'm asking because one of the things I love about World's Largest Dungeon is that it can be broken down to individual adventurers and that saves me time. Something like this could probably do the same.

 

[Psion]

So has anyone used AEG's one word books, Adventure I and Adventure II? I heard about them a while ago but they slipped under my radar.

I know Psion's used them before. Any word on it outside the reviews? How'd the actual game play go? Things a little tighter then they were in the small version?

I'm not sure what I could add beyond the review.

I have already used two of the component adventure - Out of Body Out of Mind and Garadon Manor. (It was also interesting to see how they jazzed up Hossuth, city of lizardmen, as I added my own statistics and used it as the basis for a very memorable high level game, some details of which you can glean here. Needless to say, the stats they came up with were a bit less challenging than mine.)

As I noted in the review, statistics are better fleshed out (in some cases vastly so), and some problems with supposed challenge levels are address (the moody adventure Servants of the Blood Moon is still a tough advanture, but at the levels they recommend now, at least you could survive it!)

They failed to "fix" some adventures like Murder of Seven Points, which I felt had clear problems (it's a railroad masquerading as an investigative plot.) In some cases, a healthy dose of GM ajudication is required, as some of the adventures don't have room to expand on all the possibilities, but many possibilities there are.

The maps are genrally an improvement (again, something I think I said in the review). Overall, I like it, as the adventures are a little lighter and more malleable than Dungeon magazine adventures.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Adventure I & II

I'm the madman behind this project. As Project Manager I took all the old text, rewrote many aspects of the adventures that were either wonky, too 'disney' in nature or didn't fit the theme of the adventures, and updated all the stats (NPC's, Monsters, and Magic) to 3.5 with the aid of mechanics guru Sean Holland. I'll answer any questions that come this thread's way!

>>How'd the actual game play go? Things a little tighter then they were in the small version?

The other blessing I had was I got to use 95% of these in actual play before the rewrites...sometimes multiple uses. Yes, story elements that didn't always make sense (NPC's doing things seemingly against their nature or without consequence) have been rewritten to make the adventures feel more complete. They feel like there's more coherence and less left open without addressing the plot threads.

>>I'm asking because one of the things I love about World's Largest Dungeon is that it can be broken down to individual adventurers and that saves me time. Something like this could probably do the same.

This is even moreso, because each adventure has a very specific location and plot (dungeon, city, wilderness, or usually a combination of these). To liken it to WLD, however, some of the stuff I added was multiple possible links to other adventures in the book. Thus allowing 2 or 3 or more to be played one after the other as part of a larger campaign.

Does this help answer some of your questions?

-DM Jeff

 

[Kalendraf]

I own both of them, but I have yet to run an adventure from either of them. It's not that they are bad, but rather that I haven't found a way to work them into my existing campaigns.

Part of the reason why I haven't used them yet might be the intended level. Many of the scenarios in Adventure 1 seem to fall into the 3rd to 7th range, while my groups are in the 9th-10th range. Obviously, the adventures can be scaled, but when I'm looking for something in a hurry, scaling is not usually something I have time for.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Seven Points

>>They failed to "fix" some adventures like Murder of Seven Points which I felt had clear problems.

Shows why 1,000 playtesters couldn't tell WotC the first 3.0 ranger had a few problems! ;-)

Without big spoilers, this adventure is 90% mystery, set in a town. The problem I heard some folks had with it was all the running around PCs do doesn't really effect the outcome. BBEG comes and they have to deal with it.

I ran this adventure twice, and had players commenting on how they were glad the adventure wasn't written to bend to their will, that sometimes stuff happens out of their control, and they had a good time. Perhaps I should have seen the shortcomings and adressed the concerns with some optional play styles in mind. Certainly players enjoy the gam,e because they are able to have an effect ont he world.

-DM Jeff

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I don't have these compilations but I do have some of the original mini-modules. Is the text explaining the chaos spirits in Castle Zadrian any easier to understand? There seemed to be some confusion over hardness, AC and item hit points in the original adventure.

Cheers


Richard