Dragons of Despair - your experiences?

[Quasqueton]

Thirty-eighth thread of a series on the old classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

Dragons of Despair

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? How about any of the other 13 Dragonlance Dragons of . . . modules? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

Quasqueton

 

[rogueattorney]

Is there a flamethrower emoticon? <FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!>

I thought DL1 was the best of the DL series. The art was nice and the dungeon design was first rate. I have nothing else good to say about it.

R.A.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Does it count if I only have/read/run the compiled version?

 

[cmanos]

I started playing in this, albeit with characters of our own design, not the pregenerated ones. I think it would be fun to play/run this series. The did a good job with teh world, even if it was a bit over done, but the series of mods were cool. Would love to see more epic adventures like this one.

 

[satori01]

I played them all except the last one. Oddly enough I have scant memories of specifics, primarily I think because we used the pre genenerated characters for most of the modules.

Dragons of Despair I played twice, once with our characters, once with the pre gens. I remember the Hobgoblin encounter that starts of the module on the way to Haven. I remember being somewhat suprised that the Hobgoblin was almost like a law enforcement official. I also remember the Ranger in our group shooting him with his Energy bow ala the D&D Cartoon. That DM was a mony haul type so we easily trounced the module.

The second time Raistlin was killed by the acid breath of the black dragon. Luckily when the second module came out Raistlin was mysteriously alive and leveled up. We basicaly played them as mini series sleep over D&D events. If Tanis died last module he was always alive for the next.

The best thing about the module:

Blue Crystal Staff

Draconians seemed really nasty back then as well, many a weapon were lost in dead draconian stone, and many a character was signed by an exploding acid sucicide draconian.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The map of Xak Tsaroth (sp?) is one of the most interesting and unique maps I've seen in a long time. Very nifty. I actually haven't run the module as written, but I used the map for another adventure (the players never knew!) and it was very cool. From someone falling down the sewer shaft, to flooded areas that the P had to swim through (infested with a black pudding, of course!), to a forgetten temple of Poseidon, to the huge scorpion monster in the basement, it was a hoot!

 

[coyote6]

I GMed it. The PCs made their own characters. They were Unearthed Arcana-enabled -- i.e., Weapon Specialization -- and were actual regular elves, halflings, etc -- i.e., multiclassed (single-classed demihumans? Who does that?!? ).

They ripped through the module, except for the dragon of Xak Tsaroth. The draconians got fed a heavy diet of arrows, so all those draconian death effects had a pretty minimal impact on the PCs.

 

[IronWolf]

I DM'ed it years ago for my old high school group from way back. I believe they used pre-genned characters to go through it. Everyone had an okay time with it, but we were young then and probably more easily entertained.

 

[Mixmaster]

Played DL1 as Sturm Brightblade - A LOT of fun.

Missed when they played DL2 - TPK.

Always wanted to start it back up, something always came up.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The dungeon was cool (3D maps, yay!). The setting was new, and intriguing.

Then the DM told me my halfling thief had to be a psychotic kleptomaniac with a ponytail. And the party leader had to be a half-elven ranger with an identity crisis. And the useless cleric couldn't cast spells, but had to accompany the party, just because -- and she got the cool magic item.

And no matter where we went, wandering dragonarmies cut off our route of march, unless we went precisely where the DM wanted.

Dragonlance soured rather rapidly after that.