[Any edition]Adventures or supplement that inspire "That Tingle"

[Mercurius]

I was just looking over the awesome Erol Otus picture-map in the front of White Plume Mountain and I got that wonderful, familiar but always fresh, tingle in the back of my mind, that is inspired by hints of lost civilizations, ancient evils, powerful artifacts, and the general mystery of magical worlds...

So what does it for you? What gives you that sense of magic and mystery and forgotten secrets? I'm looking for modules in particular, but setting supplements may apply. Feel free to just name a book, but I'd also like to hear what exactly inspires you about it.

 

[AllisterH]

Forgotten Realms supplement: Faiths & Avatars.

First D&D product that really made the pantheonistic D&D settings almost as interesting as the real world pantheons such as the greeks.


As for pictures, basically all of the Al-qadim module covers were very evocative.

Always been partial to the City of Delights cover art.

 

[Shemeska]

The 2e box set, "Hellbound: The Blood War", and its module "Squaring the Circle". It's pretty much responsible for getting me into planar D&D stuff.

Also 2e's "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil" gave me the same level of inspiration in how it fleshed out its NPCs, their motivations, and so many layers of interaction between the movers and shakers of Sigil.

 

[JeffB]

As for newer products-

The Stone Giant Lord's Sanctum really hit a nerve with me recently.

For WOTC

Secrets of Xen'drik- not a fan of 3E, but this book is fantabulous for any version of D&D and any setting

Many of the 4E products- DMG, Open Grave, MotP, Isle of the Sea Drake, 4E MM/MM2, FRCS in particular.

all that come to mind, I know there are some other OSR products too

 

[delericho]

Much of the Pathfinder material (particularly their Adventure Paths and "Classic Monsters Revisited") has that effect for me.

However, the most notable instance I recall is the following passage from the Silver Anniversary boxed set, talking about the 'new' module "Deep Dwarven Delve":

There is one final item for your perusal. Like a last whisper of music after the concert ends, there is one last note to be played from the dawn of the Adventure Game Age.

<snip>

For the world of Dungeons & Dragons players, everyone stands on the starting line of the delve. All the puzzles are unsolved. None of the traps have been sprung. Are you ready for the challenge?

This is our gift to you. We cannot produce a working time machine to transport you bodily to 1979. But we can use the power of the printed word to bring that time forward to intersect with your own life and your own adventures. For everyone who has loved this game and for those who will come after, Deep Dwarven Delve represents that certain knowledge that there is always something worth finding - if one only searches long enough and takes the risks that matter in the adventure of life!

I don't know quite what it is about that passage, but it has always appealed to me. It's just a certain feeling that Ryan Dancey "gets it". (Perhaps oddly, I haven't even played through the adventure in question. I have no idea how it plays out. But that passage, quite independent of the module itself, leaves me wanting to run an old-school AD&D campaign, just once more.)

 

[jaerdaph]

My most recent "tingle" moment came from reading The Cursed Chateau by James Maliszewski of GROGNARDIA fame. (Plus, it has some new art by Erol Otus!)

It really brought back memories of that nice mix of horror and fantasy that Tom Moldvay was famous for in his TSR work.

 

[Votan]

Curiously, the 1E D&D rulebooks can have this effect on me. Reminds me of the sense of wonder I had as a teenager learning about D&D to begin with.

 

[Ariosto]

For maps, my prize goes to the pair William Church produced for the second edition of Chaosium's RuneQuest. Those made up a surprisingly big portion of the "setting material" in the book.

I find inspiration in the original AD&D Players Handbook, from Dave Trampier's wrap-around cover right on through the text. It is much more utilitarian than the rambling mound of esoterica in the Gygaxian DMG, yet nonetheless very evocative.

Paul Elliott's game Zenobia treats a specific setting in considerable detail, and yet the Desert Kingdoms -- like the historical milieu on which they are based -- are only the fuller of promises of mystery and wonder and romance.

 

[Ariosto]

Castle Falkenstein is a fabulously atmospheric work, the one that really succeeded for me in front-loaded fiction (and "storytelling game" approaches, and other stuff that does not generally enthuse me).

 

[Ktulu]

The 3e module Forge of Fury. The cover was just epic, with the dragon fight over a bridge/chasm. I've thrown it into two different campaigns where it became a centerpoint of the game.