Vault of the Drow - your experiences?

[Quasqueton]

Thirteenth thread of a series on the old classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

[Note: since this one was usually played with/following the Descent into the Depths of the Earth, I'm posting this thread on the same day (but seperately) as that one.]

Vault of the Drow

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group? Did you also play the next/final in the series - Queen of the Demonweb Pits?

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

i like the other cover better.

i refereed this one.

 

[jasper]

I played and dm this one. However it was during my munckin mega gaming bs days so I did not enjoy running it. And when I dm it the players knew the layout and low and behold their pc knew the layout. I may still have the module if wasnt one that got ripped off or lost by my mother.
Now days if I were to play it, it would be a pc killer.

 

[VorpalBunny]

i like the other cover better.

Me too.

I also DM'ed this one, but the adventure still stands out. I played up the "creepiness factor" in the Fane of Lolth as well as the complete feeling of isolation and the unknown (remember, the "underdark" and the drow were a new back then) and had my players jumping at shadows. By the time they got to the portal to the Demonweb they were completely scared and paranoid. Good stuff.

 

[Quasqueton]

i like the other cover better.

You've got to be kidding. . .

Quasqueton

 

[Quasqueton]

Unless you mean this cover (for the whole GDQ series). . .

This image made fire giants my favorite species of giant.

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

You've got to be kidding. . .

Quasqueton

i never kid about D&D.

 

[VorpalBunny]

This image made fire giants my favorite species of giant.

Quasqueton

And it made Lolth my favorite goddess. I still prefer the original D3 cover though (mainly 'cause that's the version I own).

 

[Cut Lulu]

Fun to run the introduction of Daemons and Demons running free in the major Drow city freaked the party out. I kept sending lepers to bother them in the city. They were terrified, lost and afraid to ask for directions when the revolutionary cell approached them in a 'bad' section of the city.

They jumped at the chance to help bring down the priests of Lolth, then got slaughtered at the Fane. Never did run the final Demonweb thing.

So different from most very linear adventures. You can't fight the whole city or even many of the houses before getting beat down. You can't really win except by stirring up trouble between the houses.

 

[JDJarvis]

PC'd in it in one camapign I and a coupla other fellows were only able to ultimately survive it by being real creeps and screwing over the rest of the party.