Best non-dungeon scenario?

[MonsterMash]

Morrick Mansion from Necromancer games is good and doesn't have much dungeon based stuff - largely focused on puzzle solving. The Grey Citadel also from Necromancer will require a fair bit of dungeoneering, but does have a plot with investigation needed.

 

[Silver Moon]

Mightier Than the Sword by Willie Walsh... Dungeon 29 iirc

That's a good one. I once used it to kick off a new low-level campaign.

For 3e I'd suggest "Beast of Burden" from Dungeon #100. It is a wilderness campaign where the group has to take on a giant extra-planer beast 100 feet high and 500 feet long with a gnoll village strapped to its back. Any fan of the old 'Godzilla destroys Tokyo' films will be able to appreciate the potential of having a giant monster threaten the villages in its path.

Here is the link to the Story Hour of when my group played that module:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63210

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Check out Dungeon magazine's "Tameraut's Fate" (No. 106?) and "The Stink" (No. 105) are both good adventures. Another one, whose name I can't remember, centered around a circus-like sideshow parked outside a city. It may have been called "The Devil Box."

 

[Wraith Form]

I'll second the Freeport trilogy (haven't run Hell, yet). Good modules.

....And they're very Lovecraftian, if you like that kinda thing.

(And if you don't, then may Cthulhu eat your soul!)

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

I'd suggest Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Yeah, there are some parts that are crawls, but a lot of it takes place in towns (plus there are some healthy random encounters for cross country travel)

 

[ruleslawyer]

Wow! I tend to think that RttToEE is the most dungeon-tastic of them all!

As to possibles: I also like some of the recent Dungeon Adventures stuff. "Thirds of Purloined Vellum (issue 88) was a big favorite; the recent city adventures in Sharn (Eberron) and Istivin (Greyhawk) are easily adaptable to other settings. The Isle of Dread rework is pretty good too, for a wilderness scenario.

 

[Storyteller01]

It's a third party adventure, but "What Dreams May Come" is a good choice for low to mid level campaigns.

Synopsis: Humans and fairies are dying at a prodigious rate. Each are blaming the other. Then the body of the fairy prince is found. It's up to the players to find out what is happening and why.

Minimal crawling (a smallish cave and a four story tower). The rest is investigative/dodge the crowd/getting jumped by un-named bad guys. Hope you like speaking in rhymn though...

The picture of the Fairy Queen's castle is very cool though. Petrified (turned to stone) Titans hold it above the ground, with their bodies buried from the wrists down (they werer laid on their backs)...

 

[grendel667]

Many thanks for this plethora of suggestions, I'll have my hands full tracking this material down

Some comments thus far:

1) I have looked at the later Freeport stuff (Black Sails over Freeport, Hell in Freeport). It looked really interesting, but the setting will need to be tweaked (IMHO) to fit in with my normal campaign (Realms based).

2) As for some of the older classic modules, I agree entirely. However, all of my players are quite familiar with them. I have only the fondest memories of the Saltmarsh series and some of the UKx modules. As a recommendation of my own in this context, I could mention UK6 All that Glitters (small, but very interesting dungeon content, mainly outdoors) and UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave (technically a dungeon, but mainly investigative/social interaction). Thanks for the pointers to L1/L2, I actually have those, but had completely forgotten about them ...

3) As for RttToEE, my impression is that it doesn't quite fit my current focus of `non-dungeon' setting ;-). A couple of years back, my group aborted playing the original ToE after a couple of sessions since neither the players nor the characters saw any point in venturing further into the depths (which we found neither logical nor interesting). But as usual, tastes differ. This doesn't mean we hate all dungeons, to the contrary: I heartily recommend I3-5, the Desert of Desolation Series. It consists mainly of smaller dungeon-like sites set in very intriguing environs (Arabian nights-like).

If there is some interest, I can check my entire collection and comment on the best non-dungeon modules I have played thus far.

Again, many thanks for the discussion.

 

[Poster Bard]

Here's a low level outdoor adventure that should easily fit in any campaign world. Since it is primarily comprised of NPCs (rather than monsters), that should make it easy to scale up for your players.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?&products_id=301

Have fun!