Suggest Some Anti-RttTOEE Adventures

[AuraSeer]

My group is apparently about to complete Return To The Temple Of Elemental Evil. The DM estimates that we have about 10 sessions left, which is kind of amazing to think about, since we started sometime in 2004.

I'm volunteering to DM the next campaign, to give our current overworked DM a rest. (Hi, Adam!) The only problem is I don't know what to run next.

Once we find and kill the RttTOEE Final Boss, I think we'll need a break from vast, overarching, world-ending megaplots for a while. And after spending so much time grovelling through the crater mines, we're not too excited about another generic dungeon crawl. So, I'd really appreciate some suggestions on some adventures that might be good for a change.

What short adventures have you all played and liked? Are there any good campaigns that are made up of individual modules, instead of a single monolithic quest? Is there an awesome new adventure path that I've missed hearing about? Spill yer guts!

 

[Hypersmurf]

I hear good things about World's Largest Dungeon...

(Ow! Ow! What?)

-Hyp.

 

[GwydapLlew]

I'd say Savage Tide fits your description. There's some dungeon crawliness, but the first three adventures out, and it has excellent variety.

 

[Herobizkit]

There was a lovely set of 3.0 adventures that came out in module form near the onset of d20, which I believe started with the Sunless Citadel. I played through that adventure, and it was loads of fun for a 1st-level adventure. There is a "path" that follows... some research on the net should guide you through.

 

[jdrakeh]

Although they're techincally for D&D 3.0. Thieves in the Forest and Three Days to Kill from Atlas games are both excellent adventures, easily scaled to suit different party levels. Also, the Unknown Armies/D&D hybrid module Ascension of the Magdalene is a nice change of pace from dungeon crawls and injects just enough of UA's weirdness to make it a nice change of pace from baseline D&D, as well.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Check out the "short adventure" collections; things like En Route (I-III), Raise the Dead, Book of Taverns, Demons and Devils, the WotC free adventures, etc.

Oh, and before its said elsewhere: Dungeon is your friend.

You'll get a more episodic campaign, with lots of wilderness adventures, and short, brief dungeons.

 

[Glyfair]

Although they're techincally for D&D 3.0. Thieves in the Forest and Three Days to Kill from Atlas games are both excellent adventures, easily scaled to suit different party levels.

Odd, the adventure that came to my mind was In the Belly of the Beast (one of Mike Mearls early d20 adventuers) from Atlas. Although the adventure might be considered to take place in a "dungeon," (actually inside the body of a creature), in practice it plays much different from a dungeon adventure.

 

[SWBaxter]

Once we find and kill the RttTOEE Final Boss, I think we'll need a break from vast, overarching, world-ending megaplots for a while. And after spending so much time grovelling through the crater mines, we're not too excited about another generic dungeon crawl. So, I'd really appreciate some suggestions on some adventures that might be good for a change.

What short adventures have you all played and liked? Are there any good campaigns that are made up of individual modules, instead of a single monolithic quest? Is there an awesome new adventure path that I've missed hearing about? Spill yer guts!

Well, the original adventure path - WOTC's 3.0 modules, Sunless Citadel through Bastion of Broken Souls - is a bunch of relatively loosely connected adventures. There's some dungeon crawls among them, but they at least have the benefit of variety. And the advantage over the more tightly connected megamodules is you can bail at any time.

There's a bunch of freebie adventures on WOTC's website for a wide range of levels. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to string a bunch of them together into a 1-20 experience. I've used a few of them, and been happy with the results.

Necromancer and Goodman Games both have a bunch of modules available. They tend towards the dungeon crawly side, but it's usually smaller dungeons so might not be too bad (just steer clear of Rappan Athuk and the Tomb of Abysthor - both great dungeons, but on the large side). In particular, I really like the Wizard's Amulet (free download from Necromancer) and Crucible of Freya as campaign-starters.

Green Ronin has just started a new line of modules, Bleeding Edge Adventures. I haven't read Mansion of Shadows, the first one out, but from what I've heard about the line it's supposed to steer clear of "nostalgia", which presumably means the back-to-the-dungeon approach is out. Might be worth a look.

The way I'd go if your group's a bit tired of megaplots is just set them up as an itinerant band of mercenary adventurers and try to give them a choice of interesting adventures that last maybe two sessions at the most. Go for an episodic feel, something like Conan's adventures would be great - group hears about ancient treasure, sets out to seize it, complications arise, group faces down some monstrous threat and escapes with much less treasure than they thought, then blows it all carousing before the next session.

 

[Aeric]

I found myself in the exact same situation over the last year. Our group had just finished RttToEE and we wanted something different. I ran an Eberron game with no overarching plotline, just a bunch of individual adventures that had (with one or two exceptions) nothing to do with each other. As DM, I got bored. I had to come up with an entirely new adventure every month, often without being able to build upon what had happened in the previous one. The players seemed to like it, but I didn't. Hopefully YMMV.

 

[Remathilis]

I guess Rappin Aluk is out of the question...

I hear only fab things about Age of Worms and Shackled City, both in Dragon (the latter is a hardcover book, the latter isn't going to be anytime soon)