Dungeon Adventure Discussion

[Storminator]

[Spoilers for the Seventh Arm ahead]
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I just finished up The Seventh Arm. It was a pretty good dungeon crawl. I think more could have been done with it, but my son (14) and his friend aren't the greatest role players. A lot of the subtlety was lost on them.

They did have one of the most hilarious moments in it tho:

In the abandoned wizard's tower is an old water elemental. The lamia that has recently moved in tries to lure the PCs into its range with her Major Image of a scantily clad girl running down the hall. Can you think of better bait for 14 year old boys?!? They were actually pushing and punching each other to move their minis closer to the image's mini. So when the elemental attacked and the half naked woman disappeared they were in total shock! I laughed so hard. Then I critted the fighter and dragged him into the water and nearly killed him.

They made it to the last room, but the Insanity Symbol and the girillions killed all of them. Alas, too agressive.

PS

 

[Pyske]

Another favorite

Castle of the Blind Sun is another favorite of mine. Written "backwards", from the art to the plotline, it still came out as an exceptionally fun adventure, and a great way to showcase the party bard.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I also liked "Mightier than the Sword" and "A Wrastle with Bertram." As we ran "Bertram," our group set up a bracketed wrestling tournament involving PCs and NPCs, and we watched in amazement as round after round the scrawny wife of the town baker rolled 20 after 20... I think she ended up losing to the PC monk in the semifinals, and it was a close match!

Personally I like the "return to the dungeon" idea. Or at least, the "return to the site-based adventure." My group is overflowing with plots and hooks, and I virtually never use the background story, names, locations, etc. of the adventures. I do use the basic plot sometimes, but mostly I use the sites, the traps, the puzzles, the NPC stats, the descriptions and so forth.

My favorite all-time adventure was "Fortune Favors the Dead" from Lance Hawvermale (somewhere around issue 80?). I also liked (hope I get the names right) "Thiondar's Legacy," "Out of the Ashes," "Ruins of Nol-Daer," and "Old Man Katan's...".

 

[Percy]

Off Topic a little... are there modules you play again and again?

I know this might be better suited to the "published adventures" thread, but I was wondering if there were adventures, either in DUNGEON or in full-length published modules that DMs like to play more than once, or failing that, revisit often??

Personally, one of the first modules I got to play in as an impressionable munchkin would have been "Castle Amber", a D&D published module. Loved it so much, I bought it and ran it with about four different groups. Anybody do the same?

 

[Percy]

Oh and the original "Ravenloft" module. That's a goody.

 

[Piratecat]

Well, Keep on the Borderlands is one for a lot of people. I know someone who has run that four times!

 

[el-remmen]

I have run Castle Amber at least five times. . .and I will run it again some day (though highly adapted) in Aquerra.

I have run U1 - Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh at least three times.

Nowadays since I only run in Aquerra, modules that have already been run in Aquerra will never be run again - but the sites I placed in Aquerra to allow those adventures to be run can be re-visited.
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Oh, and I really disliked Castle of the Blind Sun - I haven't revisited it in a while - but I just remember the hook and the actual events of the adventure to be weak - it marked what I saw as a decline in Dungeon. ..

 

[Holy Bovine]

Greetings to Mr. Walsh - King of [I]Dungeon[/I] !

I have run several published modules multiple times - most have already been mentioned above but...

B2 Keep on the Borderlands
B1 In Search of the Unknown (gets customized anew everytime - great intro-level dungeon crawl)
X2 Castle Amber
X1 Isle of Dread (once combined this one with X2 - party got to the isle, fought a few dinos then got themselves transported to Castle Amber by an angry Shaman!)
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death (conclusion to X4)

and last but not least
I6 Ravenloft (best damn vampire hunter module ever)

All of these I have run at least 3 times each (B1 and I6 probably closer to 5 or 6 each) each time I modify the action slightly but they are always a blast for the players and me.

From Dungeon I have only run Vesicant and Necroplis more than once but have probably used 20-30 adventures in whole from my collection and upwards of a 100 plots/ideas/traps/NPCs etc in other adventures. As I said before Dungeon is dirt cheap considering what you get for your money.

 

[Rugger]

Lotsa cool stuff I remember...good thread.


Beyond the Glittering Veil (Issue #31): Supplemental adventure to the Complete Psionics Handbook. Great scenario....made Shadows scary again. And Cool Psionic Ninja Shades always rank high in my eyes

Vessicant (Issue #16): Always wanted to run this one...never had the chance. I may show up in my homebrew world someday...

Jacobs Well (Issue #43): Another I want to run someday...made Slaad scary again (most players think of them as evil frogs...which they are...but dangit they need to be used like this adventure did more. They are Parasitic frogs that use you as an egg host. THAT's scary.)

Monte's Recent Spider-Drow Adventure: Was OK...seemed more like an exhibition for high-level 3E play...which it did well...it just lacked...pep. We ran with one-shot characters to test high level play...it was a deadly adventure, thats for sure.

Chadranther's BaneIssue #18) Dangit, I actually got to START this one back int the day, but then the group fell apart....I have to try it again.

In Defense of the Law (Issue #8) : Was a cool little dungeoncrawl with lots of evil NPC's to smash...oh, and a rival party in said dungeon working against you. Made my players fear NPC's more than monsters as there were very few critters even in it!

More to come....

I really like the new format...even my girlfriend noticed how nice it looked. But I agree with Senor Noah: having to dig through the MM really gets old. To help combat that I had my copy of the MM spiral bound at work (god bless the mail-room folks!) and I use a bookstand with it....works really well. And it sits flat now

-Rugger
"I lurk!:

(Edited to correct Issue Numbers)

 

[el-remmen]

Rugger, you can use the index link in the first post to find issue numbers.