D&D 4E Third Party Adentures for 4e

[Scrivener of Doom]

I read 2 goodman modules (1 good, 1 over-rated), and one other independent that was awful--an epic fail (beautiful art, crap writing, no real understanding of 4E mechanics).

I must admit, I never understood why Goodman's modules were considered good.

As for no real understanding of 4E mechanics, I also found their 3.xE stuff was mechanically unsound as well. Nothing changed.

 

[D'karr]

I must admit, I never understood why Goodman's modules were considered good.

As for no real understanding of 4E mechanics, I also found their 3.xE stuff was mechanically unsound as well. Nothing changed.

You can't categorize all of their stuff in the same boat. Some stuff from Goodman Games, I'm thinking about the stuff from Blackdirge, was actually pretty good. Some other stuff was average, and there was some that was plainly below average.

As for understanding of 4e mechanics we need only look at the initial 1.5 years of WotC stuff to see that they didn't seem to understand the design paradigm either. Chris Perkins seems to have been the only one that understood the underlying purpose/design of the mechanics and how to get things properly going with them.

 

[JeffB]

Hey folks..please fork the convo if you feel the need to discuss "understanding 4e for 3p designers". Just looking for adventure suggestions .

 

[Lindeloef]

I read 2 goodman modules (1 good, 1 over-rated), and one other independent that was awful--an epic fail (beautiful art, crap writing, no real understanding of 4E mechanics).

Would you mind, dropping the names of said goodman modules?

 

[sabrinathecat]

Goodman M1 Dragora's Dungeon was the "meh" one.
"Curse of Kingspire" was a good read and looked like a pretty good adventure to run. I'm looking forward to it.

Unknown Tome (nothing to do with Goodman) produced "Trial of the Underkeep", which was the one that was just awful, with poor understanding of 4e.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Chaos Trip Studios]

Slayers of the Great Serpent

My company, Chaos Trip Studios, just released the first installment of an adventure series called Slayers of the Great Serpent. The book is available in softcover and PDF.

 

[S'mon]

Goodman M1 Dragora's Dungeon was the "meh" one.
"Curse of Kingspire" was a good read and looked like a pretty good adventure to run. I'm looking forward to it.

I was kinda the opposite - I thought Kingspire looked too complicated for me, and I didn't think Groundhog Day worked well as a D&D concept. I was put off Dragora's Dungeon for a long time by the porny cover, but when I ran it it worked pretty well as a 3-session adventure; the PCs sneaked through the lost city straight to the temple and thus evaded several pages of political stuff, but the pacing was good.
Sellswords of Punjar was also good; Isle of the Sea Drake was ok but resulted in a near-TPK when I ran it due to the PCs short-circuiting the adventure and coming into the final encounter by boat rather than through the dungeon.

In general I felt the 4e DCCs were much stronger than Goodman's 3e material, I have a bunch but much of it is really really bad; Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar was terrible. Certainly the 4e DCCs seem generally better than most of the WotC 4e adventures, FWIW.

For actual good adventures I have to go back to TSR D&D, though; most of the 1e adventures, and especially the B-series before B8 or B9, but including B10. If I wanted a good 4e adventure I guess my best bet would be to convert one of the old classics.

 

[D'karr]

4e DCCs seem generally better than most of the WotC 4e adventures

I have found that most adventures from third party publishers have been better than those by WotC. But to be fair there is more variety there. Usually when I say WotC I mean the HPE series. However, when you add up the adventures in Dungeon magazine, WotC does have a lot of "good" ones.

For actual good adventures I have to go back to TSR D&D, though; most of the 1e adventures, and especially the B-series before B8 or B9, but including B10. If I wanted a good 4e adventure I guess my best bet would be to convert one of the old classics.

I have done this routinely with very good results. My caveat to this is that the DM needs to know what encounters are significant and which are not. Then adjust combat to match that assumption. You don't want to convert something like Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and make every combat a significant (set-piece) combat.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Yes, converting the old ones is always good--you get to decide and design, using the story framework, and make a few changes for the know-it-all classic players. Always fun.
And, don't forget the classic Dungeon Magazine. Sure, they're 1st and 2nd ed, but some of those were great stories. Someone even had an idea for converting a Marvel Comics Adventure into 2nd Ed D&D: Instead of the League of Evil Mutants, the characters were a band of different wizards.