Dungeon Adventure Discussion

[Sigma]

There was one adventure with three sisters (identical triplets in fact) that had been murdered and were now ghosts which I ran twice. It might be the Ghost of Mistmoor (#35), but I'm not sure. It was a great spooky adventure, and confused the heck out of characters, since the three sisters seemed to be one ghost that acted in three very different ways. It even had a neat little trap set up by two thieves with a portable hole. A character would fall into it, and the instructions in the module said to just tell the player his character had died, then take him aside and explain that the character was kidnapped. Neat little twist, though it does end up putting a portable hole in the player's hands.

As for Asflags Emporium, I tried running that one and it nearly crashed the campaign. I pronounced the 's' as in 'Sam' instead of as in 'chasm'. After that, my players kept asking if his symbol was flying (a picture of a butt, on a flag). He was never taken seriously after that, and hence, niether was his keep.

 

[Darrell]

I fully agree with Nemmerle about "Unhallowed Ground." It's one of the best-written and most easily run adventures ever to appear in Dungeon (or any where else). It's also _extremely_ easy to convert to 3e (since there's really only one "critter" to worry about).

I've run it for five different parties over the years since I first bought the issue, and it has provided a great deal of enjoyment on each occasion. I'd love to see it 're-released' for 3e, either on the WotC website, or in the magazine itself.

Regards,
Darrell King

 

[mtbdm]

Favorite "Dungeon" Adventures

Without a doubt, my all time favorite Dungeon adventure is "the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" in issue 37 -- a dungeon crawl with some lovely themes and background worked in (ancient cults, tomes of eldritch lore, horrible deadly traps, etc...)

I linked that adventure with "The Secrets of the Towers" from issue 10 and expanded it into a large chunk of a campaign (which also contained the "Labyrinth of Madness"--a somewhat silly, but deadly TSR module). That campaign culminated with the Elder Elemental God almost being released from its prison plane and eating Faerun. It was special.

I also agree that "Tallows' Deep", "Ex Libris" and "A Rose for Talakara" were outstanding. "House of Cards" (not sure which issue--has a picture of a minor death on the cover) was another great one if you remove the silly handicapped NPC leader of the thieves guild (who rides around in a chariot pulled by lions) and replace him with a real NPC. "Kingdom of the Ghouls" looks great, but I haven't run it yet. I'm sure there are quite a few other good ones I've forgotten.

If you really want to torture your players run all the "Dovedale" adventures, anything containing hobbits or fey and anything by Willie Walsh. While some of these modules are quite good, I have discovered players hate them for their "cute" tone. It drives them insane! Ia Ia Cthulu Fhtagn!!!!

In any case, I wholly agree that Dungeon (especially with the addition of Polyhedron) is the best value in gaming!

 

[Holy Bovine]

A Race Against Time (#81): Delayed blast fireballs placed in stasis and scattered around a city + a list of clues + realtime time limit = fun for all (or at least the DM

That is another one I just played in recently - it was excellent. The look on our faces as we realized (finally) what was happening must have been priceless as the DM just grinned and chuckled.

A very well done adventure that would be ridiculously easy to convert to 3E (we did) and could be played by levels 1 to about 8 I'd estimate.

 

[d12]

issue # 78, side trek adventure called Unexpected Guests. it can literally be dropped into ANY adventure, it can be run in an hour or less and if the PC's survive, they get a home-in-a-bag called the BAG OF LODGING. We had a blast with the bag of lodging.

 

[MerricB]

A Race Against Time was one of the best concepts I've seen for an adventure - but I detest the NPCs in it. It's an module that's ripe for adaptation, but great concept.

Cheers!

 

[el-remmen]

You know I did not even read "Race Against Time" b/c the idea of time-bombs seemed anachronistic to me - but maybe I'll give it another look.

 

[Piratecat]

Re: Favorite "Dungeon" Adventures

"Kingdom of the Ghouls" looks great, but I haven't run it yet.

I'm starting a modified version of this right now. The group just faced their first enemy, 560-odd ghouls in an advance scouting and scavenging mission. It was quite the fight.

I've used a ton of Dungeon adventures, and there have been quite a few I'd like to use. One of my favorites was the one where the red dragon featured in the very first issue returns... tricking the PCs into a kobold-filled deatrh trap, in order to gain revenge on them for killing him the first time!

 

[el-remmen]

Another thing I love about DUNGEON is often times I will come up with an idea for an adventure or a type of place or NPC and all I need do is go through my back catalog of issues and find something that fits or that is close enough to work with some changes. . .

 

[Percy]

If you say "Willie Walsh" enough times, he's going to show up...

Asflag's Unintentional Emporium (issue #36) - What happens when a wizard who was keeping over a dozen specimens from the Fiend Folio in his home dies? FUN! FUN! FUN!

I wrote that one because I thought that most Fiend Folio monsters tended to be overlooked. Plus, of course, I wanted to know the consequences of what happens to a wizard's home when he goes "Whoops!" and then Poof!

Nine-tenths of the Law -- Willie Walsh -- Great for confusing PCs due to the unique nature of the bad guy. And really anything by Willie Walsh.

I always liked the idea of misdirection and confusion, not just tricking the PCs, but getting the NPCs into a bind. In "The White Boar of Kilfay", for example, the avatar of the Celtic deities sent to wreak revenge on an NPC is a giant boar. Looks good in theory, but he can't turn doorknobs! Doh!

Mr. Noah is right - Willie Walsh wrtoe some the best and most creative adventures for Dungeon and had some of the best NPCs.

Thank you kindly. The editors when I was writing had a strong view that adventures shouldn't be dungeon crawls, and had to have interesting characters. "Interesting" to me meant they should be human -- in the sense of being recognisable as fallible or funny. Games should be fun. It took ages sometimes to explain by letter all the motivations behind a character's actions to the editor.

As for Asflags Emporium, I tried running that one and it nearly crashed the campaign. I pronounced the 's' as in 'Sam' instead of as in 'chasm'. After that, my players kept asking if his symbol was flying (a picture of a butt, on a flag). He was never taken seriously after that, and hence, niether was his keep.

How did you pronounce "Pakkililirr"...?! (#52). I've had a couple of games that went downhill pretty quickly cos someone picked on a character name too. I've found a punch in the eye normally puts things back on track.

If you really want to torture your players run all the "Dovedale" adventures, anything containing hobbits or fey and anything by Willie Walsh. While some of these modules are quite good, I have discovered players hate them for their "cute" tone. It drives them insane! Ia Ia Cthulu Fhtagn!!!!

"Lenny O'Brien's Pot o' Gold" (#4) by J. Lee Cunningham and "Huddle Farm" (#12) by Yours Truly caused many a groan around a gaming table. I loved "Dovedale" (#46) by Ted Zuvich and used it as the start of a miniature, low-level campaign. Adventures where monsters are given personalities the PCs can interact with are often intriguing.

One of my all-time favourites in this vein was "The Standing Stones of Sundown" (#25) by Paul May, which, when my group played it, developed an afterlife when an NPC from the successful conclusion of the adventure (not giving away the plot here, of course) joined the PC party as a DM-run NPC.

One of my own "misdirection" scenarios that I most liked infuriating the power-players with was "Pearlman's Curiosity" (#32). If anyone recollects playing that one, please post here... I'd love to hear how it went.