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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crothian" data-source="post: 5001008" data-attributes="member: 232">I'm prepping to start running this classic series of 3e modules.  I've owned them for years but never had a chance to use them.  I run a homebrew like many people and this will be the first time anyone has gone to Freeport though it has been mentioned in the setting for quite a while.  One of the things I plan on doing, and please forgive my hubris, is make them better.  The start of the module is were I run into my first problem.  It can be tough to write in why adventures go on a certain adventure so it is not a weakness of just this module.  In the module the group fights off a press gang and impresses someone who needs help finding a missing person, Lucius.  Instead of doing that I'm having the PCs arrive in the city looking to find Lucius for another reason.  As a member of the god of knowledge clergy the PCs will be looking for information they haven't had luck finding at m0ore traditional places.  I'm improving the importance of the temple in Freeport and its collection of books and knowledge.  The pirates have been raiding places for centuries and they don't have a lot of use for books.  So, the temple has an open policy to buy at a fair price any books the pirates get.  The Temple knows how the pirates get the books, but feel pirates are going to do what they do no matter what and at least they get to save the books and the knowledge.  I imagine the PCs could go to his house or the temple first.  Either place they will get swept up into the mystery since they'll need to find him for their own means.  My players have always been good at taking the bait so I'm hoping not to have too many issues with them on this.  The Bloody Vengeance is going to be great because as far as all the players are aware Orcs are extinct.  In a past campaign a ranger who hated orcs cashed in all his favors he'd done after a long campaign of doing good to destroy the orc nation and no orc has been seen since.  I really like how this encounter can be a good dialogue or combat depending on the PCs.  I like the alternative motives for the orcs being on the edge and placing in a powerful magical item they can potential get with all its baggage fits well into my style of DMing.  One of the more major changes is going to be the serpent people.  I have some ancient races I'm going to use instead, but I think I can still keep the serpent decor.  The race is a race of shapshifters and so far they have not been portrayed as evil and insane.  So, it's nice to mess with players perceptions on ancient races.  I'm going to make the city rather filthy and gross to emphasis the lack of civilization.  The city runs and works but there are plenty of people that just don';t give a damn and that brings everything down.  The different districts are going to have different feel to them almost like different cities.  One thing I'm trying to come up with is other rumors and stories.  I want the city to feel alive so there needs to be more going on then just the plots of the adventure.  I'm looking ahead to the grand ball in Madness of Freeport and using some of that for inspiration so those plots can be discovered and heard about during the earlier adventures.  Also, Lloyd, Captain of Verlaine's Guard is going to be an NPCs at least on of the players knows.  I think he will play an appearance in the first session as the PCs leave the city they are in to go to Freeport.  It's still very possible that the PCs can and will kill him when next they meet but I like reoccurring NPCs.  I'm looking for more in the modules that I can also do this with.Who else has gone through these classics?  Anything that worked well or not so well?  How would you improve them?  What would you keep as is because its perfect?</blockquote>

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