Looking for a good Desert Adventure

[Oryan77]

My players will be traveling across a desert and as a side quest I wanted to run some type of interesting desert adventure.

I play 3.5 but I can convert any older adventure. I bought the TSR adventure I3 Pharoah because it had a pyramid dungeon crawl that I thought might be fun. But I just finished reading it and it's pretty bland. I heard good things about it but I don't know what it is, it just seemed kinda boring. The environments are big, but it still seemed really empty. 75% of it had empty rooms & hallways and most of the monsters were just humanoids. Are the other 'I' adventures better?

I'm looking for something with more spice. Maybe more traps & puzzles and more exotic monsters to fight. It doesn't need to be a big adventure (smaller is better) but a good plot would be a bonus but not necessary.

I can use anything from Dungeon mags, old TSR stuff, or anything 3rd party stuff if anyone has suggestions. If you do suggest something, please let me know what you liked about it, thanks!

 

[Pbartender]

I'm looking for something with more spice. Maybe more traps & puzzles and more exotic monsters to fight. It doesn't need to be a big adventure (smaller is better) but a good plot would be a bonus but not necessary.

There's always S1: Tomb of Horrors... It's easy enough to plop it down inside a pyramid in the desert.

 

[bento]

I'm in the middle of a desert campaign and have had a good look at the landscape out there (heh).

I've run "Masque of Dreams" from Dungeon 140 going into B4: The Lost City. This took us six months to get through, so it might be a little too long for what you're looking for. For 1st to 4th level. B4 is a classic - its set in a pyramid and the top half of the layers are well fleshed out, while the bottom layers not so much. And don't forget the hidden city under they pyramid! Four factions are viying for power and your players can tip the scales for one group or another. Note - this dungeon does suffer from the octopus in the room effect - there are some wacky critters that have found their way to the pyramid. You may want to do some re-adjusting to make things more consistent.

A great desert book I came across and will use shortly is Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia by Necromancer. The first half of the book you can throw away, but the middle section contains 6 or so inter-connected adventures. These are great for one-shot adventures, and you can either string them together or use them for one or two nights of playing. Most all these adventures are for 6 to 9th level.

Goodman Game's Dungeon Crawl Classics has a few desert adventures. I've picked up DCC #49, "Palace in the Wastes" which was used at GenCon tournament a couple of years ago. It's for 7th level and I'm still working my way through it. I might end up using parts of this, but I think its too similar to B4's length for me to consider using with my group. Other DCC's set in the desert are #15 "Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen" (14th level), #32 "The Golden Palace of Zahadran" (14th level), #45 "Malice of the Medusa" (1st level), and #47 "Tears of the Genie" (6th level).

Wolfgang Bauer recently finished up a desert adventure in his open game project. You can check his site for details. I didn't purchase but it might be worthwhile.

And don't overlook Sandstorm, WoTC's environment book covering deserts. There are plenty of great ideas, sites for adventures and cool beasties. I use this all the time.

When I get home I'll take another look and see if I left anything out.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

The Lost City

Damn, just saying it makes me feel like I'm 12 years old again. I loved that module. Not sure how it'd play in today's game, but it was fun back in the day.

W.P.

 

[DragonBelow]

There is also Entombed with the Pharaohs by Paizo, it has received raving reviews and according to paizo it has been their best selling module. It's one of their Pathfinder modules (formerly GameMastery).

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Wolfgang and company - DAve "Zeb" Cook, Jeff Grubb, Clay Fleischer, and Joshua Stevens - provided not one, not two, but six adventures! You can get a free preview of Six Arabian Nights off of this page. Now, here's the rub. To get SAN, you have a limited window of time to become a patron. First, you have to join as a patron for the current project, which is Blood of the Gorgon by Nic Logue. Then you have the option to pick up the last patron project (in this case SAN).

In addition to Ancient Kingdoms, there is also Green Ronin's Egyptian Adventures: Hamanuptra (which I would dearly love to get my hands on myself). They also put out a quite decent Trojan War supplement as well as Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. Both of those products are okay, not fantastic, but had some ideas worth stealing, new monsters that one could adapt, etc. I believe there are more desert adventures out there. I just don't remember off the top of my head, sorry.

 

[Oryan77]

Thanks guys. I just got 2 new players in our group and 1 older player has a new PC because his other one died not long ago....they might be mad if I ran them in Tomb of Horrors

I looked at the Masque of Dreams (actually in issue #142) but it wasn't really what I was looking for. So then I checked out my copy of Lost City and it appears it's missing the page that should have maps 4 and 5! Dang, I just coincidently got that book last week!

I read the reviews for Entombed with the Pharaohs and it sounds perfect! That's pretty much what I was looking for. I just placed an order for it on Ebay and can't wait to check it out

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Pbartender]

Thanks guys. I just got 2 new players in our group and 1 older player has a new PC because his other one died not long ago....they might be mad if I ran them in Tomb of Horrors

It depends... The 3.5 conversion that you can download on the Wizards website (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20051031a) doesn't seem to be nearly as deadly as the original was.

I've run parties of D&D characters and Iron Heroes characters through it, and though there were a few low hit point moments, no one was ever in any real danger of dying... So long as the characters are the appropriate level, and the players use a little common sense, it shouldn't be a big problem.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I play 3.5 but I can convert any older adventure. I bought the TSR adventure I3 Pharoah because it had a pyramid dungeon crawl that I thought might be fun. But I just finished reading it and it's pretty bland. I heard good things about it but I don't know what it is, it just seemed kinda boring. The environments are big, but it still seemed really empty. 75% of it had empty rooms & hallways and most of the monsters were just humanoids. Are the other 'I' adventures better?

I just got grognard rage!

 

[Mark]

The free Cooperative Dungeon collection includes a third level adventure that might suit you. I think it is one of the (four) best CDs that EN Worlders made!

Cooperative Dungeon 04 - Tomb of Chaos

This very challenging adventure uncovers a burial place of dark secrets and corrupted use.

Once the tomb of the ancient king Toth Nekamek, lord of a quasi-Egyptian realm who lived several thousand years earlier, its great halls and secret chambers have been violated by unspeakable evil. The outer rooms dedicated to the worship of the jackal-god Chacal, have been desecrated and now house those with nefarious intent but that is only the tip of the pyramid. Deep within must surely lie the secrets and treasures of a forgotten empire, along with their vigilant guardians.

Can those who enter ever hope to come back out alive?


The answer is "Maybe" for those of you who hate suspense . . .