Linking published modules. Which ones have you linked?

[Heinrich_Uberlich]

Hey guys just wanted to hear from DMs of any campaigns they have run made up from linked published scenarios (be it Dungeon magazine or d20 modules).
I would like to run a D&D game soon but may be pressed for time to actually write anything original. I was thinking of purchasing some published material and was curious if any DMs out there have had to link modules due to similar time constraints.
If you have a moment and can list the modules and how you linked them that would be cool.
HU

 

[Minicol]

Hi,

Actually, I always link prewritten modules. I have done so for years, and my players have always been satisfied with it. The trick is to own a sizable stock of DUNGEON mag back issues. If you have enough of them, you can always find one in the right mood, level and setting range. Then you have to select a recurrent place of operations (Hommlet, Greyhawk City, Waterdeep...) so the players have some feeling of continuity between adventures. You just have to wrap it up to modify a few of the names of the modules, and everything will run fine.

A few other tips :
Use modules written for the world you are using and generic ones, and be very careful when you adapt a module written specifically for another world.
Run a very good short adventure for the first session to hook your players.
Plan several sessions in advance.

Good luck

 

[Buttercup]

But Stereofm, if you plan several sessions in advance, how do you handle it when your players decide to wander off in some direction not supported by any of your modules?

I also use modules from time to time, but my players have *never* done what the module "expected" them to do. For instance, right now I'm running a Freeport campaign. The party finished the first module and then decided they wanted to explore the jungle. So I had to cook something up for them. (Right now they're in a fine pickle, having just been betrayed by the man they thought they were escorting to the "Lost Temple of the Snake Goddess." They have just awakened in cold, dank cells, buck naked. If they survive this and make their way back to Freeport, I'll run the second module. God knows how long it will take them to finish it, because they'll keep wandering off to investigate other things. Anyway, my point is that modules don't save me all that much time because I have to be ready for whatever my players decide to do.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

This is a question I'm facing as well.

There's been a fair number of 2nd ed., 3rd ed., & 3.5 ed. modules (plus a Basic & a 1st ed. here & there) I'd like to use in my campaign. However, in some instances, the PCs will be globe-hopping (for example, from the arctic in 1 instance to a jungle in the next), or in other instances, have no real reason to go from 1 adventure to the next (no links, motivations, etc.).

The main answer to linking all of this stuff together is a really good uber-plot: trying to defeat an ancient evil, locating lost lore, or even achieving a legendary quest, for example. You can always tie things in somehow: in one instance, perhaps a magic item or scrap of lore in the adventure is key to the uber-plot; in another, perhaps the PCs are asked/forced/required to go on an adventure in order to obtain what they need from an NPC.

The main problem I've had is trying to see how much removing items/monsters that don't fit IMC from a module will effect that module overall.

 

[CalicoDave]

Hey guys just wanted to hear from DMs of any campaigns they have run made up from linked published scenarios (be it Dungeon magazine or d20 modules).
I would like to run a D&D game soon but may be pressed for time to actually write anything original. I was thinking of purchasing some published material and was curious if any DMs out there have had to link modules due to similar time constraints.
If you have a moment and can list the modules and how you linked them that would be cool.
HU

For my next campaign I'm considering linking the Sunless Citadel, Vault of Larin Karr and The City of the Spider Queen. To link them together I'm thinking that as they are exploring the Sunless Citadel the PC's will find a note about the Birds of Prey and directing them to Quail Valley. Then, when their getting towards the end of Vault of Larin Karr, Drow raids will start and I'll direct them to the start of the City of the Spider Queen. The levels seem to match up pretty well, but I might have to throw in a side quest or two to get the PC's to the levels they need.

D.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I've always linked published adventures also. In fact, I almost exclusively use published adventures. No doubt players can go off on tangents, but I agree with Stereofm, the trick is to have a lot of old DUNGEON magazines (or a ton of published adventures). If you know what's in each of them, then when the players say, "We're going off to investigate the Frost Giant's contact among the southern slavers," you know that Module X in issue Y has nice maps and NPCs that will serve as a slaver's fort.

Some specific examples from my recent campaign follow. They're high-level, so I'm not sure if they'll help a ton. But I did the same thing when the players were at a lower level:

The players had just finished penning up the Set Rahotep, the would-be Set-On-Earth, in his own tomb in Khemit (using a very abbreviated version of Gary Gygax and Necromancer Games's _Necropolis_). Khemit was placed in our world south of the land of Guadalante, which the players knew quite well from way back in the day (July 2000 or so) going through Lance Hawvermale's "Fortune Favors the Dead" from Dungeon #??. When they got back, they found that a white dragon had been making trouble back in their northern lands and was allying with a dracolich that they stirred up in Khemit. The white dragon was Accessiwal from "Glacier Season" in Dungeon #??, and the dracolich was shipping his forces up North from Khemit in big ships. The players also had many other things on their plate: a recurring enemy succubus is preparing an army of githyanki on the astral plane (she's the succubus Thurra from another Dungeon mag adventure, don't remember the title, I think the tag line was "Hell Hath No Fury," or maybe that was the title), plus there is a huge power vacuum in the south created by the collapse into madness of the Father of Obedience and his Scarlet Brotherhood (yep, love those guys so much I ripped them right out of Greyhawk). Anyway, I had modules prepared for the party to go in any of those directions. They chose to go thwart the dracolich's flotilla of troops, so I pulled out a module I knew was all about attacking ships, "Strike on the Rabid Dawn" from Dungeon 111 (actually, that was when we playtested it). I just changed some of the NPC dialog from Asmodeus to Set, and they it was set to go (sorry about the pun). Then after they did that, they wanted help attacking the white dragon and went to get Bazim-Gorag free from his prison in "Prison of the FlameBringer" in Dungeon #??. They decided that was a bad idea, abandoned it halfway through, and finally went through Glacier Season. They slew the white dragon, but the dracolich escaped. They've heard rumors of his phylactery being in the Bone Garden, so that is where they are now (Bonegarden from Necromancer Games).

Whew. Sorry for the ramble. But that's basically how we link things together, with frequent stops in their hometown/home area for business, checking up on the guilds/temples/tribes the run, checking for new threats, etc.

 

[Len]

My DM has used published modules for almost our whole campaign so far. Most of them are from old Dungeon mags, with a couple of purchased 3e modules. It's working great, but I don't know if it's saving him much time because he has to convert most of the modules from 1e or 2e!

We usually take the plot hook that he dangles in front of us, so he hasn't had to make up a lot of stuff on the fly. Only a couple of times.

Linking the adventures isn't hard. Since we're now "professional adventurers", we're always receptive to rumours of treasure for the taking or evil for the smiting. The DM just has to plant whatever hooks are specified in the next module. Sometimes he links them to the previous adventure, sometimes not.

Some of the pre-written NPCs have become permanent characters in the campaign, which is great. You can do this by keeping track of bad guys who got away so you can bring them back later, by having grateful patrons offer to help the party in the future, and by replacing NPCs with similar ones they've already met.