What adventure module have you pillaged the most without using the main plot?

[Nakana]

Not so much for the content (although it’s good and I’ve used that too) but I was really impressed with the format of Dragon of Icespire Peak from the D&D 5e Essentials Kit.

It serves as a clean, modular template for creating and managing maps and locations, NPCs, hooks, and sequence. It’s open-ended so it doesn’t feel rail-roady, but also minimizes the chances of PCs going “off-map”.

The layout and format makes the content easy for me to digest. I wish I could find other modules like this. So please let me know of any.

 

[Schmoe]

I've borrowed from a whole bunch of different sources, but I don't think I've used more than one thing from any one source, where "one thing" could be an entire dungeon level, for example. I've found old Paizo-era Dungeon magazines to be enormously inspiring and useful.

 

[aramis erak]

For me, I wasn't a fan of the main plot for D&D's Tomb of Annihilation, but I loved the city of Port Nyanzaru, the forbidden city of Omu, the jungle encounters, and I absolutely loved the maps it came with. I "ran" this module using my own home-brewed swashbuckling story for a group of friends and had a blast when we were finished. Now I'm running it again for a different group for as an exploration adventure, using a lot of the maps and NPCs detailed in the book.

What adventure module (from any game) have you ran using the resources detailed without running it for the main plot it was originally published for?

Most? The Traveller Adventure - which is misnamed, as it's actually a full on campaign. But it also serves as a sourcebook for the Aramis Trace.

 

[MNblockhead]

What sort of stuff have you pilfered from it?

Mostly the map and the faction mechanics. The keep itself is also easy to reflavor.

 

[MGibster]

The Ryoko Owari - City of Lies boxed set for Legend of the Five Rings. The main adventure has to do with opium production but there are so many little adventure ideas in the set that you can ignore the primary plot for quite a while. I've used the little adventure ideas for all sorts of L5R adventures.

 

[amethal]

Souls for Smugglers Shiv is such a modern classic module, but the rest of the AP is wanting. I would easily use it place of a starting sandbox campaign and think its a fine way to introduce players and GMs to sandbox modules.

One of my (many, so far unfulfilled) campaign ideas is to run Souls, and then have the party equip their own expedition to Saventh-Yhi (if they are so inclined) and then run a modified version of the city, with competing groups of explorers turning up later on. So basically running the 1st adventure "as is", cutting out most of the 2nd one, and combining the 3rd and 4th with my own material.

 

[payn]

One of my (many, so far unfulfilled) campaign ideas is to run Souls, and then have the party equip their own expedition to Saventh-Yhi (if they are so inclined) and then run a modified version of the city, with competing groups of explorers turning up later on. So basically running the 1st adventure "as is", cutting out most of the 2nd one, and combining the 3rd and 4th with my own mat

That is a solid idea. Paizo just didnt execute well on this AP. I do recall one of the writers blew all their deadlines and it was a total crap show to get the AP back on track but thats all I heard. I love the competing adventure party idea and think Serpent Skull could totally be salvaged.

 

[ilgatto]

For me, I wasn't a fan of the main plot for D&D's Tomb of Annihilation, but I loved the city of Port Nyanzaru, the forbidden city of Omu, the jungle encounters, and I absolutely loved the maps it came with. I "ran" this module using my own home-brewed swashbuckling story for a group of friends and had a blast when we were finished. Now I'm running it again for a different group for as an exploration adventure, using a lot of the maps and NPCs detailed in the book.

What adventure module (from any game) have you ran using the resources detailed without running it for the main plot it was originally published for?

Hmm... I suppose it's a toss-up between Judges Guild's Modron and Lenard Lakofka's The Secret of Bone Hill, having transplanted the entire population of Modron and Restenford to cities I based on the maps in Cities of Harn - after changing the names of most of the inhabitants for obvious reasons and then completely negating the original plots. Although L1 might take the cake, for the PCs spent the most - and a rather memorable - time with the folks of Restenford.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Most? The Traveller Adventure - which is misnamed, as it's actually a full on campaign. But it also serves as a sourcebook for the Aramis Trace.

Agreed, and it even calls it a campaign in the introduction. This was another module just ripe for pillaging for other uses, along with their other adventure, Leviathan, which I ended up running for my friends.