Looking for a good ruined city adventure setting

[barrowwight]

Another possibility is the Lost City of Gaxmoor, published by TLG and currently on sale for $1 on their site. Like I1, Gaxmoor was originally set in Greyhawk (in case that's of any interest). .

I tried to buy that one but it keeps giving me a 404 error when I click on the links for the products. weird.

 

[cildarith]

Hmmm. Put the Caverns of Thracia under Dwellers of the Forbidden City. That ought to keep you busy for a while...

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

B4: The Lost City. An entire city underground, where the inhabitants have forgotten the surface world and are steadily losing their sanity as, generation after generation, their champions do battle with the servants of the tyrant Zargon, a thing of ancient evil.

I second the Lost City.

 

[kenmarable]

Hot damn, that sounds cool. Gotta find that.

Found:
RPGNow.com - Wizards of the Coast - B4 - The Lost City

Definitely fun stuff, and it holds a special place as my first real D&D adventure I played.

There's been some recent material relating to it including a Campaign Classics article in one of the print Dragon mags, and Zargon made an appearance as one of the Elder Evils (which even if you don't use the 3.5 mechanics, has some good adventure ideas). Before 4e was announced, I was really hoping they would have made an Expedition to the Lost City, because B4 just scratches the surface on the possibilities.

Relating back to the original post, however, it's definitely more LOST city than RUINED city from what I recall. Not massively populated, but much more "crazy isolated cult" than "creepy empty ruins". Plus it isn't very detailed on the city itself and focuses more on the pyramid dungeon leading to the city than the city itself.

I would also chime in with Wrack & Ruin, since the concept of the city of Penance is very ruin focused. If you don't want to go with the "massive plateau city of layered ruins", it can still be a good source of ideas for any ruined city.

Ruins of Intrigue is a very well designed product with the idea of being flexible and far, far more than just city ruins with lotsa monsters. The various factions and agendas are ripe with possibilities that can be played out in many ways.

Also, a fun twist I did for one long adventure in my version of Myth Drannor (not sure I could make a whole campaign out of it) was having the PCs flip back and forth between:
-- During the day: the final year of the city before it's destruction
-- During the night: the fiend-infested ruins of the present day

It forced a nice balance between investigation and (mostly) social encounters during the day, and running terrified and (mostly) combat encounters at night. And it even gave some emotional impact, like finding their main "gold for loot" merchant's skeleton in the present, weapons they sold him gripped in his hands. Plus the players got really creative with it doing things like sneaking into a heavily guarded ancient location by going there during the night and waiting for the sun to rise, etc. It was the only time I ran a time travel D&D adventure, and luckily it worked out perfectly.