Against the Giants - your experiences

[Imhotepthewise]

I have tried to run the Against The Giants supermodule by Sean K. Reynolds under 3.5. Giants had a field day. Must be powered back. I really want to make it work someday. Sean did a great job. He even signed my copy when he came around on the 25th anniversary tour.

 

[Krieg]

.../snip/...Things go downhill from there.../snip/...

They always do my friend....they always do.

 

[jasper]

Ran through it and since it was in my munckin bad group days I have forgot the play value except for getting handed down a + hammer when the dwarf found the hammer of thunder bolts.
I dm for various groups. My munckin bad group. "Jasper play the module as written" Group was mad because I had guard gian awake and after threats of violence and other things I back down.
Played with some other groups If Robert C. King, Jose ? and Joe? from FT ord Cal 83-84
are out here contact me.
Ok module but needed an experience Dm not to be the standard no reaction unless the door is open module. Aka you can murder your brother loudly as long dad's bedroom door is close.

 

[Altalazar]

I have had this module (and the Ds) for probably 25 years now, and I never ran them and never went through them, but I've always been fascinated by them. I'm not sure I ever read any of them all the way through, even. It was years later that I got a (used, obviously) Q1 to complete the set, just for completion sake.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem the same to go through this as 3E - I've always wondered what it would have been like to go through this in 1E.

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

Wow, what a blast from the past... I ran this series way back in high school (late 80's), but never got to G3 because everybody went off to different colleges and the military and stuff. I had to wait more than a decade to finish off the entire GDQ series. (I just told the new party that the old party was adventuring concurrently, so they could take over when they got high enough level...more on that later.)

We only had four players, so some players took extra characters to cover all the bases. The core group was Varden "the Rat", a N(E) wizard with a Charisma of 6, a cleric/thief of Olidamarra that had become infected with lycanthropy (weretiger), a female ranger specialized in archery, and a blustering paladin of Heironeous. The secondary characters were the paladin's squire (2nd level herald-bard dual-classed into fighter), a hired halfling assassin, a dwarven alcoholic fighter, and a druid of Obad-hai. Not all the secondary characters were always around (except the squire) but the core group stayed constant.

The best fight came when the party decided that they had to sneak into the Hill Giant Steading, and were worried that the paladin wouldn't let them because it would be "dishonorable". Well, the paladin's player had been boning up on wargaming, and had come to the decision that his people were officially at war with the giants, so his actions would be justified as necessary to prevent unwarranted deaths. He was totally cool with sneaking in, just not with "assassination". So, the party cast invisibility on him, made all their stealth preparations, and snuck into the throne room while the room was mostly empty. As morning rolled around, the majority of the Hill Giant clan came in for breakfast. The giant chieftan sits down, bellows for his beer, and hears a challenge come from BEHIND him as the paladin raises his bardiche and brings it down on his head. The paladin was visible, the giant wasn't officially surprised, but the party totally whaled on the giants. It was the most fun we had in a fight that entire campaign.

Unfortunately, as mentioned, the group broke up and I never got to finish the series. When I started my next campaign, I made it my intention to finish the damn modules with the new group. Problem was, they were first level. I ran them through the mini-campaign module Fate of Istus, which made a great framework for a country-hopping campaign. Over time, I constantly dropped hints and news about the growing problems in Sterich and the surrounding countryside. Eventually the party ran into the paladin's squire, now a war leader in his own right (and one character's illegitimate half-brother), and he enlisted them to go back and get revenge...on the wizard, Varden.

I had known for a long time that Varden was aiming for Lichdom, and I just figured that when he actually ran into a lich (in the Underdark), he'd betray the party for the chance at immortality. The group went after him, and he totally screwed them over. He claimed to have been "mind-controlled" by the lich, and that he had no control over his actions when he tried to kill them all. The party swallowed it, and went after the lich (after battling through the rejuvenated fire giant clan and the drow). Once they got down there and barely beat the lich, Varden teleported in while they were resting (he was tracking them by crystal ball) and stole all the lich's spellbooks!

They still haven't forgiven me...

 

[Crothian]

I'm running it right now, today was the third session against the Hill Giants. They are laying low in the forge in the dungeon area.

 

[MummyKitty]

This was part of the most epic campaign we ever did in my high school gaming days. I'm pretty sure we did this one after the Borderlands, so we even had some high-tech laser weaponry to kill off some of the giants. We went through all of these and continued on through the slave pits of the under city, shrine of the Kuo-Toa and Vault of the Drow with the same characters. I can never recall all the details but I remember being really freaked out by the prospect of going into a place FULL of giants. I mean, giants are tough aren't they? The Hill Giants turned out to be just slightly more powerful than ogres to us, but the Frost and Fire giants were kinda scary. We were a lot more stealty in those modules, and in the follow-ups too. Classic stuff that I wouldn't mind playing again someday. At least that's the way my memory serves me some years later....

 

[Hussar]

I played this, but I wasn't too old at the time, 12, 13ish I think. I do remember that my paladin got the hammer of thunderbolts and had a blast knocking off giants right left and center. THose things were INSANE. IIRC, my character was pumping out something like 50 points of damage per hit! And that was under 1e rules when the biggest of critters only had something like 100 hit points. I wonder now if we screwed something up.

I do remember having a lot of fun in this thing, but, to tell the truth, I don't remember anything too specific.

 

[KenSeg]

I remember playing in that series when they were produced as individual modules back in 1979 I believe. Had a great time in them.

I remember that we finished off the hill giant steading by using a brazier of summoning hostile fire elementals inside the steading, then teleporting out immediately using some device we had. The elementals obligingly burnt down the steading for us and we finished off any of the giants that made it out. I remember the look on my GMs face at that one. Priceless!

-KenSeg
Gaming since 1978

 

[shaylon]

My group is going through this right now, 3.5 edition. The hounds were replaced with something called Goblin Bears. I think they came from SL? Anyway they are pretty tough. We are also a little low for this module and it is showing. Most of us drop about every session although I must admit our tactics are pretty sound and I am fairly certain that the DM could be making it a lot tougher than he is. Er, not that I want him to make it tougher.

I am really enjoying this adventure. Experience is good, story is good, and we are still alive. We did lose a monk before we got into the compound but other than that it is still the original party.

-Shay