Caverns of Thracia

[Reynard]

I just picked up a copy of the 3E era Caverns of Thracia from Judges Guild-- it's been eyeing me at my FLGS for years.

What's your experience with it? Any advice for running it? Potential pitfalls? Also, any Pathfinder conversion notes floating around?

Thanks.

 

[jedavis]

I'm in a similar boat; have 3e Caverns, never ran it, but considering it for my campaign this semester. Kind of sad that there's been no feedback / *bump*...

Alternatively: clearly there were no survivors.

 

[Thanael]

I havn't played it yet, but i feel compelled to mention that Nacromancer Games has forums for each and every product they produced, where you can get nice extras and advice.

Caverns of Thracia Forum

 

[Treebore]

The Caverns ARE a campaign. So many possible directions, and tons of cool fun. Just run it and go with it, it should "grow" fine on its own. Go on a Judges Guild extravaganza and get the other modules done by Goodman Games. Those should then hook you solidly into the awesomeness of Judges Guild enough to have you hunting down their old stuff, including all originals.

 

[grodog]

I just picked up a copy of the 3E era Caverns of Thracia from Judges Guild-- it's been eyeing me at my FLGS for years.

What's your experience with it? Any advice for running it? Potential pitfalls? Also, any Pathfinder conversion notes floating around?

I can't help you with the PF conversion, but our DM ran us through CoT several years ago, and I thought he had reposted the sessions online from our private forums, but now I can't find them. I'll point to them once I find out where they are....

 

[S'mon]

I found it wasn't suitable for online play (at least by me) when I tried to run it; mostly that the maps were too complex for pbem.

One issue I faced was the lack of a 'home base' in the module, my idea/solution was that the PCs be part of a larger expedition exploring the ruins, with the city near the coast and their ship moored offshore, making it relatively safe from attack. This seemed better than having a friendly 'base town' nearby.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

I love, love, love Caverns of Thracia. It was the tent-pole dungeon for my White Sandbox campaign, and was also a big part of the Borderlands campaign that was the other source for Adventurer Conqueror King. Reaching the climax took 22 sessions, 37 players, and 55 characters (link contains spoilers).

Here is my advice:

1. If you're working with the Judges' Guild original, write in on the maps (or a photocopy thereof) where each staircase and off-map connection goes. There are lots of these inter-level connections - part of the greatness of the module - and it's not always clear. The Necromancer version cleans this up a little.

2. Again if you're using the JG original and OD&D or 1E type rules, I found that there weren't enough treasures in the upper levels to let characters advance (GP = XP, remember) to the point where they could tackle the lower levels. What I'd recommend is using the rumor in the rumor table where a collector offers 2d100 for Thracian artifacts. Seeding the dungeon liberally with such artifacts will help get the ages of the dungeon across to the players, and create connections between town and dungeon. Speaking of which...

3. I created a town to be within a day's travel of the dungeons, and was super glad I did. 22 sessions of dungeon adventure would have been a lot less interesting without things that happened there having repercussions in town (I extended the factions to have overlap in town, so that worshippers of the Dark One became upset when their temple artifacts were sold to the town's merchants, etc.)

Also worth checking out are Justin Alexander's essays about Caverns of Thracia; spoilers here as well.

 

[grodog]

our DM ran us through CoT several years ago, and I thought he had reposted the sessions online from our private forums, but now I can't find them. I'll point to them once I find out where they are....

Apparently our crew's Caverns of Thracia session recaps haven't been reposted anywhere in public. If Jon starts reposting them, then he or I will chime in here with a pointer.

1. If you're working with the Judges' Guild original, write in on the maps (or a photocopy thereof) where each staircase and off-map connection goes. There are lots of these inter-level connections - part of the greatness of the module - and it's not always clear. The Necromancer version cleans this up a little.

From a player POV, I don't think I ever quite figured out the relative levels we were on in CoT

Also worth checking out are Justin Alexander's essays about Caverns of Thracia; spoilers here as well.

Justin's essays are fabulous! Well-worth digging into!

 

[Beginning of the End]

Justin's essays are fabulous! Well-worth digging into!

That link doesn't seem to work, but here's a couple places to look:

The Alexandrian Blog Archive (Re-)Running the Megadungeon

The Alexandrian Blog Archive OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia – Part 1: Character Creation

 

[grodog]

Here's a link to the first few campaign journals from our CoT campaign: KNIGHTS & KNAVES ALEHOUSE • View topic - Campaign Journal - Caverns of Thracia (w/ spoilers aplenty)