Atlas Games' Penumbra D20 Scenarios: Are They Any Good?

[Knightfall]

So, I'm on a hunt for good adventure modules, which is obvious from my "old school" modules threads. Now, when it comes to those "old school" modules, I've received a lot of good advice and thank everyone for it.

However, I'm now going to look for good 3rd Edition modules and I've decided to start with the ones listed here. I've already bought some of Atlas Games Penumbra D20 sourcebooks, but now, I'm wondering about the company's scenarios.

My FLGS has many of these including In the Belly of the Beast, The Last Dance, The Tide of Years, and Monte Cook's Beyond the Veil to name just a few. And they're dirt cheap... only 5 to 8 bucks each, which seems like a steal. Still, when a deal seems to good to be true, it often is so I want some advice before I spend any money on any of these modules.

Which ones are good? Are they highly adaptable? What makes them stand out? Which ones should I avoid, if any?

Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers!

Knightfall

p.s. I do realize that most of these are v.3.0 and not v.3.5 but I'm not too concerned about that.

 

[freyar]

Hey, I actually have one of these!

The Last Dance
This is based only on a read-through several years ago, but I enjoyed this adventure a bit. I do plan to play through it (or maybe a slightly beefed up version) sometime, but the right time just hasn't come up. It's a mystery adventure with the twist that the mystery happened ages ago in a long-vanished kingdom, but the solution is needed to put various souls to rest (nonetheless, the adventure isn't full of undead). There's also a very creative trap, and there's a bit of opportunity for players to act out a bit, if desired. Like I said, it's been a long time since I've looked at it, so I don't know offhand if there are stat errors or anything.

 

[Knightfall]

Hey, I actually have one of these!

This is based only on a read-through several years ago, but I enjoyed this adventure a bit. I do plan to play through it (or maybe a slightly beefed up version) sometime, but the right time just hasn't come up. It's a mystery adventure with the twist that the mystery happened ages ago in a long-vanished kingdom, but the solution is needed to put various souls to rest (nonetheless, the adventure isn't full of undead). There's also a very creative trap, and there's a bit of opportunity for players to act out a bit, if desired. Like I said, it's been a long time since I've looked at it, so I don't know offhand if there are stat errors or anything.

Sooo... which one are you describing? I haven't read the details on all of the scenarios.

 

[freyar]

Oops, I left out the title! It's the Last Dance, and I went back and edited that one in.

 

[Ghostwind]

The En Route series is good for little encounters between adventure modules and for when players are going from Point A to Point B. In terms of sheer adventures, I liked Three Days to A Kill and Beyond the Veil the best from what I can remember.

 

[Minicol]

I am a big fan of Atlas games, and was disappointed when they cancelled the line.

I'd say they explored some pretty unusual adventure ideas, and are certainly not the standard adventure, each relying on new ideas and provocative plot twists. They have more in common with other games than with typical Hack and Slash D&D.

This said, the ones I would not recommend are
Thieves in the Forest (meh)
Lean and Hungry (oriental)

All the rest is grab, grab, grab !

 

[Crothian]

En Route was a series of books that I used a lot. There are plenty pof creative encounter ideas and it is great when the DM is not looking for an adventure just something shorter.

A Few Days to Kill was a very fun module that we played through.

 

[Gilladian]

In the Belly of the Beast read well, but when I tried to run it, it sort of fell apart. Maybe I just didn't handle all the little disparate groups/individuals well. I think it would take a skilled DM to run (or get a couple of extra people to play them if possible). The mystery/challenge was fairly simple, but the solution seemed contrived, if I remember correctly...

I have En Route and used an encounter from it just the other day. It worked very well as filler on an otherwise tedious journey.

 

[mxyzplk]

In general they're good. We played and enjoyed Three Days to Kill and In the Belly of the Beast. I own a lot of these other ones and like them OK. I don't like The Last Dance, The Ebon Mirror, or The Tide of Years.

 

[Starglim]

I really liked 'Lean and Hungry' as a very nicely constructed dungeon with a lot of flavour. But, yeah, it's not obvious from the blurb that it assumes an Oriental setting, though probably it wouldn't be hard to adapt to a different campaign of compatible themes.