Best prewritten adventures (any system)?

[deuxhero]

What's the best prewritten adventures (and what is considered to make for a good one)? System doesn't matter.

I saw a thread about this elsewhere and thought the Codex would have interesting answers.

 

[Xathrodox86]

"The Thousand Thrones" and "The Enemy Within" for WFRP 1st and 2nd editions, respectively. Wonderful, complex and with a clear lovecraftian vibe, that was a trademark of the earlier editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Great stuff.

 

[Neanderthal]

^Yeah what he said, best ever been in my humble.

Also AD&D: Castle Ravenloft, original adventure wi Strahd, small setting but massively detailed.
Greyhawk, City of Adventure was a setting but you had a shit ton on adventures wi it.
Irilian, an adventure set in a dark age anglo saxon city o same name, premiered in White Dwarf #42.

Modules that required good GMs: Falcon trilogy were set in Greyhawk an were pretty good.
Vecna Lives were fair good, but needed some editing.

Fairly much any o Runequest an AD&D adventures from early White Dwarf were excellent, some really classic shit there.

 

[Don Peste]

Let's see what He thinks:

(Don Peste) Favorite D&D modules and Warhammer: We never played any of the Warhammer modules, I wrote my own (I did three "modules," one of which I still think was one of my best work - it was a treasure hunt of epic proportions). I did like the Warhammer modules I read, though, but I liked the campaign books more. As for D&D modules, I loved the Against the Giants series (up until Queen of the Demonweb Pits, which I thought sucked), Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, Village of Hommlet (a classic), and Keep on the Borderlands. We played Cult of the Reptile God and Temple of Elemental Evil (the mega-module) quite a bit, although never finished Temple. I disliked Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and Tomb of Horrors - the latter because I couldn't imagine my own character surviving the experience.

 

[Tripicus]

I liked a number of the Dungeon magazine adventures back in the AD&D 2e days. You would get the re-spinning of other stories as modules, such as Name of the Rose, and quirky ideas that would not be fit for a stand alone module.

As for a published module, I'm partial to Tales from the Infinite Staircase. It's a good way to introduce players to the planes/planescape, and the events can be set against the machinations of your own, or other, major plot-lines.

Edit: The Dragon Mountain box set adventure is a fun romp. The high level adventure consists largely of scheming kobolds and, naturally, an old red dragon.

 

[Ebonsword]

Paul Jaquay's Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia modules are both fantastic.

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01/retrospective-dark-tower.html

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/12/retrospective-caverns-of-thracia.html

 

[Cosmo]

"Masks of Nyarlathotep" for Call of Cthulhu was a blast.
The City of Lies for L5R is one of the best setting/story ever written.

 

[Melan]

Paul Jaquay's Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia modules are both fantastic.

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01/retrospective-dark-tower.html

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/12/retrospective-caverns-of-thracia.html

While we're at it, there is also the more obscure Night of the Walking Wet (a.k.a. Realm of the Slime God). There is a reformatted PDF copy floating around the net, but I can't find it right now.

 

[Andhaira]

What's the best prewritten adventures (and what is considered to make for a good one)? System doesn't matter.

I saw a thread about this elsewhere and thought the Codex would have interesting answers.

Aside from the other obvious suggestions above like I6: Ravenloft, Enemy Within, etc I reccommend:

Barrowmaze Complete: An OSR mega dungeon compatible with any OSR game (Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery [great ruleset, low res version is available for free. It's the best OSR ruleset out there IMO], Castles & Crusades, D&D pre 3e etc) With some work you can make it work with any game system honestly. It is worth it for the artwork alone, trust me.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/139762/Barrowmaze-Complete

The Lost Lands Series: Any FGG adventure, such as The Lost City of Barakus, Stoneheart Valley, The Sword of Air, etc. They offer their adventures in both Sword & Wizardry (aka OSR compatible) formats, as well as Pathfinder (and lately D&D 5e as well)

https://www.froggodgames.com/

 

[Eadee]

"Die Phileasson-Saga" for the german rpg "Das Schwarze Auge" or "The Dark Eye".
Its a great campaign and I highly recommend using the old edition of this campaign. Its incredible fun and gets pretty epic.

 

[nikolokolus]

For adventures that you can run in a session or two and more episodic play, I'm a huge fan of Goodman Games line of Dungeon Crawl Classics modules. They go all the way back to the d20 era of D&D and are still for sale on RPGnow/DrivethruRPG or you can get their more recent offerings that are written for DCC RPG. They are very easy to adapt to just about any version of D&D -- Look for adventures authored by Harley Stroh; his stuff is the cream of the crop.

I'll echo Andhaira's recommendations for Frog God Games/Necromancer games. Slumbering Tsar is a gigantic book that could keep you busy for years and just about everything they produce is excellent (The Sword of Air is a personal favorite).

 

[Melan]

I am not entirely sold on the DCC line. Stroh's stuff is good, but much of the rest consists of adventures with interesting concepts, solidly old school cover art, but excessive linearity and poor execution. The Necromancer Games / Frog God product line is more consistently high quality (conflict of interest alert: I wrote stuff for them a long time ago, and may do so again in the future). When it comes to the DCC RPG, I have been more impressed by some of the adventures released for it by third-party publishers, especially Purple Duck Games. The DCC RPG has attracted a lot of imaginative people to it.

Also look out for Bryce Lynch's review blog. He has good taste in adventures, and a lot of experience in finding the brilliance among the dross (he has read and reviewed hundreds of modules, including some very dire ones). He's also got a best of list that's worth looking at, and transparent review standards.

 

[Dustin DePenning]

Lost Mines of Phandelver

This is an excellent introductory adventure with fun branching options and non-linear play, though it has a few choke points of "unavoidable scenes." Over all, I was quite pleased with how flexible it was for a DND module.

 

[deuxhero]

I highly recommend using the old edition of this campaign.

What did they ruin?

 

[Eadee]

Well, when they went from the dark eye 3rd edition to 4th they reduced hitpoints for characters a LOT. So it might be understandable that they reduced the damage input for the heros in this campaign.

Spoiler

For example the last stage of the stairs that lead to the chap mappa tapam simply shows you visions of war, without any other effect at all. In the previous edition it were 13 steps and each one dealt 1 daamage to you equal to its number (so 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13 =91 points of damage) and the heros had to be very creative in order to avoid those 13 steps or to compensate the damage somehow. It was the most cruel part of these stairs... now it doesn't do anything at all.

However they also defussed a lot of scenes that didn't have anything to do with hitpoints, just by saying the heros can't do "xyz" its no longer dangerous and stupid to do, no its just impossible.

Spoiler

For example the magical spear in the chest of the leader of the trrops of the nameless in the ruins of Te'shianna. It can only be removed by a priest of Zerzal now (and there are no priests of Zerzal anymore, making it impossible). In the original campaign it was a STUPID idea to remove that spear, since you would free the leader/champion so he can once again conquer the world. But where is the meaning of that scene if you can't possibly fail? Whats the point in meeting him in the first place if you're forbidden to do anything by the adventure?

One annoying part is where they mixed up two mages that had two separate specialities and now both can do both things, so it doesn't really matter on which side you end up.

Spoiler

Speaking of Vespertiou and Vermin. One used to be a Golem-builder while the other one breeded chimeras. In the new edition they both work on chimeras instead.

These things are just examples what has gone wrong. I personally think it is good to use the campaign how it was written for 3rd edition and have the 4th edition at hand for the couple of improvements they made. However if you only want to buy one or don't want to compare two editions of the campaign all the time (its a quite big campaign, so a lot to read), then go for 3rd edition.

And whoever wants to gamemaster this campaign HAS to read it cover to cover BEFORE starting its really crucial to the campaign. So its a lot to do for the GM but if he does well, this campaign will not only blow the players minds

 

[v1rus]

Sooo, anything new you folks wanna chip in?

 

[hexer]

Beyond the Mountains of Madness
Red Hand of Doom
Harbinger House
Gary Gygax's Necropolis
All 5 M-series DnD adventures

 

[v1rus]

Also, any DM/module preparation tips you might offer? Its been a long, long time since i wanted to run a campaign, but my friends are bunch of noisy assholes, and we never went past session 2. We grew older tho, and got into board gaming, so I guess its gonna be easier.

What would you suggest for a first time GM, and bunch of a first time players (who are heavy into vidya, some rpgs even and can handle complicated board games well).

I was thinking Red Hand of Doom (with some modules to get them up to the level (Sons of Grumush and something else)), or one of the Pathfinder Adventures.

 

[hexer]

Red Hand of Doom is a great choice!

Be careful that the introductory low level adventure isn't thematically too similar to it so you keep that RHoD wow level.
If you and your group are a bit rusty regarding the rules, it's best if you refresh your memory a bit before the session and guide them when they're uncertain.
Also, I'm a DM that likes to improvise and whenever we had doubts about some rule we would all work towards finding the best solution.
I would gladly recommend you a low level adventure but I haven't really DM-ed/played enough of them.
Almost always when my group starts a new campaign we make our own low level adventures.

If a player is close to losing his character, don't push it if you don't have to.
Try to find a way for him to save himself or quickly resurrect his character somehow later with or without party's help.
I had players abandon the campaign because their character died - so you have to know your players well too.

Finally, don't forget the snacks and a cool soundtrack. Have fun!

 

[v1rus]

Red Hand of Doom is a great choice!

Awesome tips bro, tyvm for the encouragement!

I think its gonna be The Sunless Citadel -> Sons of Gruumsh -> Red Hand of Doom.

Think ill manage to get a hang of some thematic link, so all of those seem connected.

Just another question tho - for how many players do you suggest it?

Ill prolly run it with the recommended 4, but 5 would be awesome.

 

[hexer]

4 or 5 seems just fine, that's my default party size.
There are always players who talk more and those that talk less during the session so even if there are 5 of you, it shouldn't be overwhelming.
The only issue might be that combat rounds might take longer to finish.

On the other hand, I ran campaigns with just 2 or 3 players and I had to adjust the difficulty levels of encounters to compensate for missing party member(s).
I even remember allowing one player to run two characters but it soon proved to be too much to track so he dropped the henchman.

 

[Sacibengala]

Anyone else is here beacuse of the new released Old School Essentials?

Also, any DM/module preparation tips you might offer? Its been a long, long time since i wanted to run a campaign, but my friends are bunch of noisy assholes, and we never went past session 2. We grew older tho, and got into board gaming, so I guess its gonna be easier.

What would you suggest for a first time GM, and bunch of a first time players (who are heavy into vidya, some rpgs even and can handle complicated board games well).

I was thinking Red Hand of Doom (with some modules to get them up to the level (Sons of Grumush and something else)), or one of the Pathfinder Adventures.

Tomb of the serpent king, it is free and very gm/player friendly https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/06/osr-tomb-of-serpent-kings-megapost.html

 

[Falksi]

"The Thousand Thrones" and "The Enemy Within" for WFRP 1st and 2nd editions, respectively. Wonderful, complex and with a clear lovecraftian vibe, that was a trademark of the earlier editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Great stuff.

Ah, those were the days. Always found tabletop role-playing a bit tricky, as we'd start getting bored during practical parts of the night (e.g. Gamesmaster sets up a new area) and start fucking about pretending to creating "constant ejeculation" potions & suchlike. Then when we got back to playing we couldn't take anything serious, and every encounter would see us responding "the wizard spunks on them!". Good times

But this little adventure had so much quality it actually kept us hooked all the way through. Sure we raped a few elven women, & went on the odd daft quest for Sigmar's Codpeice, but we actually made it through the whole set of these, and it was a fucking excellent experience.

 

[Snorkack]

Enemy Within gets extremely retarded towards the end and if you want a satisfactory conclusion, you gotta rely on homebrew stuff after finishing Power Behind The Throne.
While we're at WHFRP, "A rough night at the three feathers" is one of my all time favourite short scenarios. Works pretty decent in other fantasy settings with minor tweaking, too.

There's the Module 'Die Herren Von Chorhop' for Das Schwarze Auge. It begins with the enslavement of the players, but then they win the city's big lottery and are not only set free but become members of the city council. What follows is pretty much the best sandbox adventure I've seen.

And then there's the Desert of Desolation. It might not be the best module played from beginning to end. But it's full to the brim with amazing dungeon ideas, everytime I flip through the books, I find one or two things that eventually gets incorporated in whatever campaign I'm running atm.

 

[hello friend]

I'm guessing Die Herren Von Chorhop has never been translated to English + where can I find this .pdf, friend? Theoretically, I mean, if you want to discuss hypotheticals over PM.