Which "Expedition" to get?

Arnwyn · Jul 10, 2007

Given the choices above, Ravenloft by leaps and bounds. And a couple more bounds.

The other two are miserable failures, AFAIC.

Lancelot's great post has the right of it, IMO.

TheAuldGrump · Jul 11, 2007

The only one I have is Ravenloft - I intend to convert it to Spycraft 2.0 and run it set during WWII. The PCs are dropped behind enemy lines to discover what the German Occult Bureau has found in newly annexed Barovia... and meet up with Reichs Colonel Strahd vonZarovich.

It is decent, better than the last rehash of Ravenloft that was done for the Anniversary. Strahd is someone to be feared - beyond the normal danger of a vampire. Depending on several factors he can range from a subtle serpent to a raging maniac. The fortune telling still has a distinct effect.

The Auld Grump, running it is a ways down the road yet.

BlueBlackRed · Jul 11, 2007

Played Ravenloft - good start, poor end.

Undermountain - friends vehemently hate it.

Demonweb - Heard nothing about it good or bad.

In other words, spend your money on non-WotC modules.

Khairn · Jul 11, 2007

Ravenloft is the only one of the 3 that I would say is even close to being worth the money, but it honestly pales when compared to the original. Its the best of a bad lot.

Hopefully Greyhawk will be better.

JoeGKushner · Jul 11, 2007

Why does everyone assume Greyhawk will be better than Undermountain? Aren't they supposed to be set up in a similiar style? Neither detialing everything and leaving a lot of details for the GM?

MerricB · Jul 11, 2007

Ravenloft seems pretty good to me. It's mostly an update of the original adventure, with more meat (IMO).

Demonweb Pits has a plot that seems more in line with devils than demons. It really suffers from the railroad syndrome - your PCs have to follow the plot, no matter how unlikely it seems. There are plenty of good encounters in it, but overall? Not sure. It's an original adventure. I really like how it deals with the Demonweb, though.

Haven't got Undermountain yet. I have no problem with the way it's set up, though. I'm not expecting every encounter area to be detailed.

Cheers!

Imruphel · Jul 11, 2007

JoeGKushner said:
Why does everyone assume Greyhawk will be better than Undermountain? Aren't they supposed to be set up in a similar style? Neither detailing everything and leaving a lot of details for the GM?

I have no problem with Undermountain not being complete. It wasn't complete in 2E either.

What I really resent is that the maps are incomplete. That's just inexplicable. Oh, and the description of the Yawning Portal tavern and its maps don't correlate at all (a 40' diameter well would swallow the whole tavern as mapped): I gave up looking for inconsistencies (or should I say, consistencies, after that). I'm also not sure if the encounter maps actually match to areas on the larger maps but I put the book away in disgust before I exhausted all of the possibilities.

I did like the venom spore myconid... but it wasn't worth AUD47.95!

ShadowX · Jul 11, 2007

I find the negative reviews of Demonweb Pits very depressing. I have heard so many good things about the original and yet this seems only vaguely correlated and not up to the same quality. Are the classic drow modules worth finding and updating or is the perceived greatness mostly due to the nostalgia of veterans?

bento · Jul 11, 2007

ShadowX said:
I find the negative reviews of Demonweb Pits very depressing. I have heard so many good things about the original and yet this seems only vaguely correlated and not up to the same quality. Are the classic drow modules worth finding and updating or is the perceived greatness mostly due to the nostalgia of veterans?

There are earlier posts in this thread that mention some drow-themed adventures appearing in Dungeon magazine.

If it's like the other monster source books, the recent "Drow of the Underdark" might have plenty of ideas on running Drow-themed adventures, including encounters and villains. I haven't purchased it yet to site specific examples. Several of the other monster-specific books like "Lords of Madness" and "Libris Mortis" were excellent in this regards.