Did these old adventures suck? Nobody talks about them

[Emirikol]

I was going through my collection to sort out stuff that's going on the local con auction block. I realized nobody ever talks about the following adventures. Did they suck or what?

Axe of the Dwarvish Lords
Return to Tomb of Horrors
Night Below
Rod of Seven Parts
Dragon Mountain

I don't know why I ever bought them. I know I probably just ripped off the plastic and never read them.

jh

 

[Nepenthe]

I'm sorry, you have accidentally labeled this as "review" instead of "humour".

Or: Plenty of people I know talk about them

 

[Treebore]

Axe of the Dwarvish Lords This was OK. Some problems from the DM perspective but was still fun for the players.

Return to Tomb of Horrors- I didn't like it as written, but loved it as rewritten by me.

Night Below- Loved this. Lots of coolness!

Rod of Seven Parts- A bit dry, but definitely workable into an awesome game experience

Dragon Mountain- Quasi predicitable, but still a a fair amount of originality and definitely able to be worked into being another great experience.

 

[Crothian]

I know we have had threads on Return to Tomb of Horrors, Rod of seven parts, and Dragon mountain.

Axe of the Dwarvish Lords has some cool history and neat magical items but as a dungeon it just went on too long. I do like the poem hint they used, that really helped a lot.

 

[Emirikol]

That's the impression I got when I glanced through it (Axe). The dungeon seems a bit long.

jh

 

[mattcolville]

My problem with Axe of the Dwarvish Lords is that the bad guys are goblins. My players aren't super interested in fighting goblins at 12th level and while the author(s?) did a great job of making goblins nasty, my players would rather be fighting more fantastic stuff at that level. Stuff you can ONLY fight at that level.

Night Below, on the other hand...was the best module I've run in 20 years.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Some search results...

RttToH
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=200824&highlight=return+tomb+horrors
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=185579&highlight=return+tomb+horrors
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=182634&highlight=return+tomb+horrors
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=132466&highlight=return+tomb+horrors
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=129176&highlight=return+tomb+horrors

Plus of course James McMurray's story hour, one of my favorite stories on this site.

 

[Crust]

Rod of Seven Parts - I ran this module from '97-'98 with my 2E group. I had to change some things to make it fit into the campaign, but the role-playing element of researching the Rod and its assembly was a lot of fun, especially when a newly-assembled piece gated in a dozen spyder-fiends! This was a great box, and it's really great that the Rod makes a cameo in the Age of Worms adventure path. I get to dust this stuff off again. I love it.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors - I've had plenty to say about this box here and on Wizards, Candlekeep, and Paizo boards. I started it in '98 with my 2E group, right after we finished Rod. We made it through the original tomb, and our campaign dissolved. I dusted it off RIGHT where I left off in 2005 when I wove it into my githyanki Incursion campaign (Vlaakith searching for Acererak's knowledge of demi-lichdom). An absolutely incredible module. If it were ever redone in 3.5, I'd expect the latter parts to ask for PCs in the epic levels.

Night Below - I ran this with my college group from '98-'00. We made it as far as the Sunless Sea, and they all perished when they decided to go tomb robbing, releasing a drow lich from stasis while plundering a dwarven burial site.

I own both Dragon Mountain and Axe of Dwarvish Lords, but I just couldn't fit them in. I chose to go with the above three modules during my time DMing 2E. Dragon Mountain always intrigued me. So many kobolds, though... Axe didn't interest me much (probably because of the goblins).

 

[exile]

I moved away before I could finish running Night Below for a group. That said, the first book alone was an incredibly fun adventure to run. It helped, I'm sure, that I had great players, and worked with them all in advance to create interesting backstories for their characters (sort of tied them all together). I'll always remember the young werebear in the adventure and the party's halfling rogue going out of his way to get infected by the lad. Likewise, I'll always remember the giant albino eel that bit the party's uber greedy human fighter in half and the reclusive wizard (hiding out from members of his old oreder) who from behind a door locked twelve or more times cautioned the party, "Leave me alone! I am warning you, I know zee fireball." Great times.

Chad

 

[jdrakeh]

Return to the Tomb of Horrors rocks and is actually somewhat of a collectible (usually going for around $50 to $100 on eBay). I bought a copy from another ENWorlder a few weeks back and am enjoying it very much, despite not having a had a chance to run it yet.