Best non-linear adventure modules / mini-campaigns

[olshanski]

Necormancer's The Lost City of Barakus and The Vault of Larin Karr are both really good for this sort of thing.

+3 on both.

I ran a campaign that featured the two of those adventures... players could pick and choose and went back and forth. I had to decrease the rate of EXP or characters would advance too fast.

 

[joela]

WotBS compendium

In 4th edition.

Actually, I'd love to put out a compilation for 3rd edition, but a) the adventures are going to be too long to all fit into a single book, probably, unless we cut a lot of background material, and b) sales are down. We're not sure whether it would be worth the cost to compile them for 3e.

Understood. Hmmm. Let me think about this....

We might do it for 4e, though, or for 3e if sales pick up. We hit a slump after the 4e announcement back in August.

Ugh. Just read about it on another post. Fingers crossed you get another cash inflow.

 

[joela]

Cost of WotBS. In print

We're not sure whether it would be worth the cost to compile them for 3e.

Could you give me a ballpark figure of how much the entire saga (including all non-free handouts) would cost via Lulu?

 

[Qwillion]

I think for a sandbox, Ruins of Intrigue is good

So is the Drow War Book III: Dying of the Light.

 

[RangerWickett]

Could you give me a ballpark figure of how much the entire saga (including all non-free handouts) would cost via Lulu?

Buying them separately, about $100 plus shipping for what has come out so far. There are still 3 adventures to go, so figure $130. But if you figure that each book is 60-100 pages, and a typical soft-cover game supplement goes for $15 at that size, it's not unreasonable.

I do admit, I was less stringent in editing for length because I knew our primary venue would be PDF. If we did a compilation, a lot could be reduced in size, both from reducing redundancy (e.g., not having stats for the standard Ragesian military units repeated in every single adventure) and from trimming out stuff that in hindsight isn't necessary. Still, it would have to be split into at least two separate, thick books. I'd have to do some checking to figure out what the price would be.

If you're interested in learning more, though, the player's guide and campaign guide are both free downloads at RPGNow.

 

[howandwhy99]

You could try GDQ and just place them in a sandbox world with the repercussions of that being the starting blocks. Those have a good overarching and dramatic story to them.

I think the classic is T1-4, A1-4, & GDQ, but that takes a long time even in AD&D. And don't go (contact) route and kill all the PCs (unless they like that). He has a top notch storyhour with a great example of what you are looking for. Just flush out Verbebonc a little more, add in some more intrigue from nearby lands, stuff not pertaining to T1-4, to the desired taste of course, and you have a good idea of how it's done.

 

[Jorunkun]

Thanks for all the replies, especially to Ryan.

I'll check out Necormancer's The Lost City of Barakus and The Vault of Larin Karr for sure.

Cheers,

J.

 

[kensanata]

I can recommend Vault of Larin Karr (and would love to run the Lost City one of these days). The only drawback I've found thus far is that some of my players have repeatedly asked for a list of "open issues" because they lost track of it all. (Session report including said list.)

Essentially I was springing plots at them, offering them more choice, but players would have prefered less choices (as in three or four plots instead of ten or more). The next time I run this kind of game I will have to keep that in mind.

(I didn't enjoy Red Hand of Doom that much.)

 

[roguerouge]

Ranger Wickett: Which of the Burning Sky modules would you pick to showcase the path? I'm willing to buy one to take a look, but I recognize the first module isn't always going to be the centerpiece one.

It's very "Sophie's Choice" I know....

 

[RangerWickett]

Ranger Wickett: Which of the Burning Sky modules would you pick to showcase the path? I'm willing to buy one to take a look, but I recognize the first module isn't always going to be the centerpiece one.

It's very "Sophie's Choice" I know....

Hm. Third or fourth. The third sets up a lot of the alliances you'll have later on, while the fourth has actual, y'know, war. Both of them make it clear that you won't win the war by yourself: you've got to get allies, most of whom need some help before they'll be fully useful.

I'll say the fourth adventure - The Mad King's Banquet. It has political machinations, urgent scouting missions, investigation into a mysterious plot by the enemy, and a little mass combat. You're not at the forefront of the war, but the spectre of the enemy hangs over the whole adventure.

Also, I edited while I was on pain medications after getting knee surgery, so I slipped in a tidbit that, if the PCs get captured in one scene, the interrogator performs knee surgery on one of them to make them talk.