World-Building: The Shared D&D Experience

[Hella_Tellah]

Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters expresses WotC's desire to have a "shared experience" among all D&D players, to bring us back to the days when every table ran through the Tomb of Horrors, scaled White Plume Mountain, and stopped up the shenanigans at the Temple of Elemental Evil. I think this is awesome, and I'm inspired to start working on my campaign world. To that end, I'm trying to put together a world that incorporates all the classic modules, as well as the new 4e modules to come. I'll be updating 1e and 2e adventures to 4e rules, with perhaps a few modifications to darken them up a bit and achieve a Points of Light sort of feel. I started playing with 3.5, though, and most of the classic modules were released before I was born, so I'm asking my revered elders on the board for some advice here.

So far, I'm planning to update the following adventures:

• Tomb of Horrors
• Temple of Elemental Evil
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Ravenloft (the original module, not the setting)
• Desert of Desolation
• White Plume Mountain
• Dwellers of The Forbidden City
• The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
• The Isle of Dread
• Against the Giants
• The Drow D Series
• Queen of the Demonweb Pits

So tell me, mighty Old Ones, which classic adventures defined the D&D experience for you? And how would you apply a theme of decay and corruption on top of them, as I plan to?

 

[Voss]

Off that list?
ToEE and the Isle of Dread.

Tomb of Horrors is a lesson in what not to do in a serious campaign (it can be amusing as a one off for laughs, but not with characters that someone is actually attached to).

I'd definitely add the Slave Lord adventures to that list.

As for decay and corruption... well, ToEE doesn't need much added, depending on how you play it. The demonic patrons of the temple of the temple handle it fairly well as is. Maybe add some flavor text to the various servants of the temple, give them a few extra unexpected agents in town.

Isle of Dread... hmm. a monstrous experiment of some sort? Either a straight Island of Dr. Moreau type thing, or something more disturbing.

Slavelords can go with the decay and corruption route pretty easily, depending on what, exactly, they're doing with those slaves, and what kind of patrons they have.

Some of those I'd avoid, to be honest with you. Barrier Peaks because of the sci-fi goofiness, and the giants/drow/queen package just because it isn't really all that good. (All again, the sci-fi weirdness. I have no idea why Lloth has a spider-shaped spaceship, nor do I want to). You're also supposed to fight her at the end, which is one thing when she's got 66 hit points, and quite another when she's firmly in divine territory.

 

[mrtomsmith]

Where is Keep on the Borderlands? It's got issues as a coherent module, sure, but it defines classic D&D for many people. Well worth updating and including.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Not a bad list, but it needs more Night, Dark, and Terror.

Just sayin'.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

I'd definitely add the Slave Lord adventures to that list.

Ooh, slave lords... sounds interesting. I have A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords; is that what you mean, or is it some other module?

Some of those I'd avoid, to be honest with you. Barrier Peaks because of the sci-fi goofiness, and the giants/drow/queen package just because it isn't really all that good. (All again, the sci-fi weirdness. I have no idea why Lloth has a spider-shaped spaceship, nor do I want to). You're also supposed to fight her at the end, which is one thing when she's got 66 hit points, and quite another when she's firmly in divine territory.

For the sci-fi goofiness, I'm planning on replacing all instances of "Alien Spaceship" with "Vessel from the Far Realms," in large part because I love Beholders and Mindflayers but have never run a 3.5 game that got into the higher levels. My main alteration to these older modules is to replace the goofy stuff with Lovecraftian horrors, as a general guideline.

Where is Keep on the Borderlands? It's got issues as a coherent module, sure, but it defines classic D&D for many people. Well worth updating and including.

You know, it was right on the top of my list going into this project, but when I actually read the adventure, I wasn't impressed. Scuttlebutt is that they'll be offering some sort of 4e update to it, though, so I'll probably use that.

Not a bad list, but it needs more Night, Dark, and Terror.

Just sayin'.

I agree with the inclusion of those three words, but I think you're referring obliquely to a series of adventures, yes? If so, which? Night, Dark and Terror are certainly going to be guiding principles in the development of this setting, so the more stuff fits that, the better.

 

[D'karr]

Ooh, slave lords... sounds interesting. I have A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords; is that what you mean, or is it some other module?

The original slavelords adventures where A1 - A4. During the 2e era they were combined into the megamodule called Slavers. I did not like that module, though the originals are still some of my favorite adventures.

For the sci-fi goofiness, I'm planning on replacing all instances of "Alien Spaceship" with "Vessel from the Far Realms," in large part because I love Beholders and Mindflayers but have never run a 3.5 game that got into the higher levels. My main alteration to these older modules is to replace the goofy stuff with Lovecraftian horrors, as a general guideline.

You might also want to look at the Illithiad (A Darkness Rising, Masters of Eternal Night, and Dawn of the Overmind), if you are looking for that Far Realms bend.

You know, it was right on the top of my list going into this project, but when I actually read the adventure, I wasn't impressed. Scuttlebutt is that they'll be offering some sort of 4e update to it, though, so I'll probably use that.

The original adventure has some weirdness to it, because it seems like the monsters in the caves are just there to be killed, which they are. But if you just spend a few minutes going over the ones that are there you can come up with a pretty good thread that weaves the encounters into a coherent whole.

I agree with the inclusion of those three words, but I think you're referring obliquely to a series of adventures, yes? If so, which? Night, Dark and Terror are certainly going to be guiding principles in the development of this setting, so the more stuff fits that, the better.

I imagine that would be B10 - Night's Dark Terror.

 

[arscott]

Some of those I'd avoid, to be honest with you. Barrier Peaks because of the sci-fi goofiness, and the giants/drow/queen package just because it isn't really all that good. (All again, the sci-fi weirdness. I have no idea why Lloth has a spider-shaped spaceship, nor do I want to). You're also supposed to fight her at the end, which is one thing when she's got 66 hit points, and quite another when she's firmly in divine territory.

To make GDQ a little bit less wonky, try amping up the norse mythology aspect of the adventures--after all, Giants (Jotun) and Drow (Svartalfar) both have their roots in norse myth. Maybe instead of Journeying to the demonweb pits to confront Lloth, they wind up in niflheim and fight Hel.

 

[Lanefan]

Tomb of the Lizard King
Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
Rahasia

Those are three worth looking at.

As for the person mentioning Night and Dark and Terror, they're probably asking you to update Night's Dark Terror, probably my least favourite module of all time...

Lanefan

 

[KidSnide]

I could take or leave the first two Desert of Desolation adventures, but the Lost Tomb of Martek is the bomb. It's easily the coolest dungeon I ever went through as a player. Between the Sea of Glass and the Mobius Tower... just awesome. And the whole series has fantastic flavor for 1E material.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Not totally on topic, but I'm doing the same as the OP.
However, I'm also including the mythology of 3.x - so The Sunless Citaldel, Nightfang Spire, the myth of Ashardalon, Elsir Vale (RHoD), the Fortress of the Yuan-Ti etc. will also feature in my world.