Ideal Published Adventure Campaign

[Stormborn]

While I tend to home brew and run my own stuff, I have been wondering about runnign a campaing using all or mostly pre-made published adventures that would start at level 1 and go as far as possible.

There is of course the Adventure Path in Dragon as one option, and a good one I think from reading it.

There is also WLD and several levels of Freeport.

But, if you were going to put together a string of premade adventures from any source what would they be?

I am inclined to start with Sunless Citadel just 'cause thats what I started playing and I do think its a good first adventure over all. By 6th level I am inclined to include Banewarrens. However, over all I am not very familiar with lots of published adventures and want to hear more from those of you who use them regularly.

Thoughts on such a progression?
And what instructions would you give, if any, at the beginign of such a campaign, tothe players?

 

[Crothian]

If I were to do this I'd mix together modules from Goodman Games and Monkeygod.

 

[Teflon Billy]

If I were to do this I'd mix together modules from Goodman Games and Monkeygod.

I'd do the same.

I might toss in Necromancer Games Hall of the Rainbow Mage.

but Maze of Screaming Silence would need to be in there or I wouldn't DM

 

[GuardianLurker]

Pre-assembled modules for an entire campaign?

Necromancer Games - Vault of Larin Kar handles levels 4-10 very well.

10+? No clue, but I'd probably shop Necromancer Games or Atlas' Penumbra line.

 

[Ry]

I'd take the Vault of Larin Karr, and overlap the Adventure Path (Sunless Citadel one) and some Dungeon Magazine adventures and critical threats on top. Also Gorgoldand's Gauntlet as the introductory adventure, and the old 2nd ed "Fighter's Challenge." I'd treat them all just like Larin Karr does; if you want it, come get it, if not, it'll be here later (although some threats need dealing with immediately).

Oh, wait. I did do that.

 

[RangerWickett]

I've always wanted to write and publish an adventure, but I've never found the time for it. Also, I'd probably want to playtest it with my group, which means I'd basically just be turning my home campaign into an adventure.

That's sort of the reverse of what you asked for, actually.

 

[NTZ]

I would try not to plan so far ahead. When I DM I prefer to see how things play out at the table, so having adventures planned out over the life of a campaign would be difficult.

Start with one adventure and see where it takes you.

NTZ

 

[drnuncheon]

Freeport! The original trilogy, then another adventure (why not try something from Tales of Freeport?), then back to Freeport for Black Sails.

Sorry, had to.

 

[Starman]

If you don't use Orc and Pie somewhere along the line, you're not a real DM.

Starman

 

[Mark Hope]

I was toying around with this idea while working on my latest homebrew a few years back and came up with a few possible sequences (all using stuff from older editions as I hadn't bothered with 3e at the time). When I started paying 3e, I made some lists again. They broke down into styles and none had an overarching plot really - just a general feel that united them. I had planned to string plots around them as I went and fiddle with the XP a bit to keep the advancement manageable.

Old School Classics
Temple of Elemental Evil T1-4
Scourge of the Slave Lords A1-4
Queen of the Spiders GQQ1-7

Coolest Dungeons
Palace of the Silver Princess
Keep on the Borderlands
Castle Amber
Desert of Desolation
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
White Plume Mountain
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Tomb of Horrors

Overblown Plots
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
Danger at Dunwater
Finaly Enemy
Pool of Radiance (eeew! What was I thinking here?)
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Isle of Dread
Egg of the Phoenix
Temple, Tower and Tomb (hmmm...)
Dragon Mountain

All of these top out in the mid-teens, though, so I had planned to include stuff like Nightmare Keep, Labyrinth of Madness and the lower levls of Greyhawk Ruins to, umm, finish things off.

For 3e, there is always the "Ashardalon Sequence" (Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, Speaker in Dreams, Standing Stone, Heart of Nightfang Spire, Deep Horizons, Lord of the Iron Fortress and Bastion of Broken Souls) but I suspect that some of these might be crap, so I am actually not so sure about that.

I love the stuff from Necromancer Games, so have been trying to tempt players into a sequence that runs along the lines of Wizard's Amulet, Crucible of Freya, Aberrations and then interweaves Tomb of Abysthor, Necropolis and Rappan Athuk in some as-yet undecided manner. It's just an excuse to mangle some high-level PCs in Rappan Athuk, really (although Necropolis might manage that well enough on its own, heh heh).

Gotta give a shout out to Night Below and Rod of Seven Parts - they could be worked together to make a sequence out of two boxed sets, assuming you slapped something on the beginning that got the PCs through the early levels.

And as a DS junkie, I modified and strung together the adventures from that setting into a campaign that runs Freedom, Road to Urik, Arcane Shadows, Asticlian Gambit, Marauders of Nibenay, Merchant House of Amketch, Dragon's Crown, Black Flames, Black Spine and Forest Maker. I use the Incursion stuff from Dragon & Dungeon magazines to flesh Black Spine out into a full-on invasion and add a finale of my own called Warbringer to rewrite the ending of the Prism Pentad novels. Bit of an obsession, really.