third party adventure modules. what's worth buying?

[Arnwyn]

Some of my favorites:

- Lost City of Barakus (Necromancer)
- Vault of Larin Karr (Necromancer)
- Grey Citadel (Necromancer)
- Tomb of Abysthor (Necromancer)
- Doom of Listonshire (Necromancer/Kenzer)
- Caverns of Thracia (Necromancer)

 

[Thomas Percy]

If you are story oriented DM, consider please Witchfire Trilogy. It's railroading one, but the story is really epic as... well... LotR.

 

[JRR_Talking]

Hmm...the spear of Loghin i thought was pretty bad, as was theives in the forest. 3 days to kill was ok. Cant remember why know i disliked GMing them so much, i bought a stack of really early 3.0 stuff from 3rd party and was pretty underwhelmed. What was the utterly awful one, 'horror beneath' or something zombie-ish beneath a town called scarborough.

A lot of those early things seemed to have direly printed maps using newish map-maker software and a lot of white space per page (actually freeport was bit like that to some extent).

As far stuff to recommend, nothing spring too mind, prob'ly why i write so much myself

 

[the Jester]

Of Sound Mind, without a doubt.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Man, you just cannot go wrong with those Goodman Games DCC adventures (well, there are a few that are "meh" and only one that is certifiably awful...but I mean they are up to what? 40-ish of them now? That's good odds)

Nemoren's Vault by Fiery Dragon is an awesome adventure to start your player group with.

Hall of the Rainbow Mage and Tomb of Abysthor from Necromancer are both gold-standard as well.

And yes...Of Sound Mind

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

The Freeport Trilogy from Green Ronin is my favourite (and has been updated to 3.5) but I also really like The Banewarrens (Malhavoc Press, currently running this) and Maiden Voyage (Penumbra/Atlas).

Thieves in the Forest and Three Days to Kill were OK at the time but don't hold up well six years on.

Cheers


Richard

 

[TerraDave]

Nemoren's Vault by Fiery Dragon is an awesome adventure to start your player group with.

Seconded. And recently updated to 3.5.

 

[JustinA]

i've been impressed with the stuff from goodman games, so far but i'm curious as to what's out there that's worth looking into for a dm and collector.
any suggestions?

In general I've been very happy with the modules published by:

Penumbra (Atlas Games)
Malhavoc Press
Necromancer Games
Goodman Games
Fiery Dragon Press

Not all of these can be relied on 100%. Thieves in the Forest from Penumbra, for example, was merely an adequate 1st level adventure -- it could easily be whipped up by anyone with a modicum of experience and isn't worth paying money for. Legend of the Ripper from Goodman Games was actually atrocious and nearly turned me off the DCC line entirely.

Picking my favorite adventure from each company:

- Rappan Athuk (Necromancer Games)
- Banewarrens (Malhavoc Press)
- NeMoren's Vault (Fiery Dragon Press)
- Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho (Goodman Games)
- Three Days to Kill (Penumbra)

Of these I've used Three Days to Kill no less than three times and Rappan Athuk no less than twice. Three Days to Kill is not only a great one-shot, it's also one of the best campaign-starters I've ever run. And Rappan Athuk really does set the standard for a mega-dungeon in the old-school style.

Troll Lord Games produced some really nice modules when they were first launching, but I've never been able to figure out how I'd actually use them. I haven't checked out their more recent offerings.

Green Ronin deserves an honorable mention for the original Freeport Trilogy -- which has great material, but definitely needs some structural work. (The modules themselves admit that they've got weak points where a single die roll will permanently derail the adventure. That's not good design. A module needs to be more rigorous. It needs to be able to stand up to player abuse.) But their subsequent adventures were so horrid, IMO, that I really can't give the company's adventures as a whole a recommendation. (Undead Emeril Lagasse spoofs and a guest star appearance by Donkey Kong just doesn't cut it for me.)

The Witchfire Trilogy has some really excellent material, too, but it's completely unusable in its published form due to the railroading. The first part of the trilogy is definitely salvageable if you work at it hard enough, but I never sat down to figure out if the second and third parts could be similarly saved.

Justin Alexander
http://www.thealexandrian.net

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Put down another vote for Necromancer Games. They have made some great adventures in their time. I would also recommend some back issues of Dungeon Magazine.

Olaf the Stout

 

[NewJeffCT]

Kenzer has some good adventures out there, especially for lower level PCs. The best campaign I was ever involved in was kicked off with "Aldriv's Revenge". And, the "harvest of darkness" ones are a set of 3 adventures that can take PCs from level 1 to level 9.