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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 9:50AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Howdy: I am trying to plan a campaign using only prepublished adventures. My prep as DM (apart from learning the adventures) will be to tie adventures together to create a coherent overarching campaign plot, but the building blocks will be pre-published because like many of you I just don't have time to design homebrew adventures anymore (much to my chagrin). To that effect, I am trying to comb through all the published 4e adventures I can get my eyes on to pick ones that are cool. I am confident that in almost any case I can modify the story of a given module to suit my needs. Here's what I'm planning on using so far:
- The Slaying Stone (standalone published)
- Reavers of Harkenwold (DM's Kit)
- Orcs of Stonefang Pass (standalone published)
- Dead by Dawn (Dungeon 176)
- Remains of the Empire/The Tyrant's Oath/Force of Nature (the Elkridge trilogy: Dungeon 165, 178, and 190, respectively)
- Battle of Witchlight Hermitage (Dungeon 191; coupled with Sunken Tower of the Marsh Mystic from Dungeon 186 and that cool Sea Demon's Shrine workbook from Dungeon 181)
- Lord of the White Field (Dungeon 184)
- That Which Never Sleeps (Dungeon 195)
- Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault)
- Madness at Gardmore Abbey (standalone boxed adventure)
- Bark at the Moon (Dungeon 185)
- Blood Money (Dungeon 200)
- Reign of Despair (Dungeon 191)
So, my question to you all is: what else should I look at? Any 4e adventure is fair game, but for now let's just heroic (or low paragon) tier. Any LFR adventures I should consider? Any Dungeon adventures or published adventures I'm overlooking? Thanks! If there's a pathfinder/3.5./earlier edition adventure/path that's really really good (read: worth doing all the conversion work for) I'm certainly open-minded. Hopefully this can be a resource for other DMs as well.
Sidebar: if you've played one of the above adventures and it didn't work as well at the table as it looks on paper, feel free to (constructively) offer that opinion and suggest specific issues.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 10:24AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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My gaming group enjoyed Toll Station this past weekend. This three-encounter level 6 adventure is from Goodman Games' From Here to There supplement. Although this is intended as an interim side trek, I was easily able to make it the kick-off of the next major story arc in my campaign. (I also recommend this entire supplement for both its intended purpose [side treks] and campaign integration pieces!)
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 11:00AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Thanks for the tip, Seeker! And also for the reminder that 3pp 4e adventures are welcome, too!
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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 5:12PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Dec 23, 2010
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There is also the Scales of War Adventure Path. Published in Dungeon 156 - 175.
You'll have to update the monsters to the current standard.
I'm planning to run it as my next campaign as most of it looks quite good
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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 6:46PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2009
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H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is always fun and there's a lot of space to take the adventure on interesting side treks if you wish. The adventure contains plenty of story, plot hooks, and NPC's to run as written, but the "labyrinth" dungeon can be easily expanded/modified to fit in anything you want. I've run it twice and had a blast both times. The players like having the underground city to use as their home base.
I personally consider H2 and Gardmore Abbey to be my favorite of the in-print 4e adventures.
Of the Dungeon magazine adventures, I highly recommend "Last Breath of Ashenport" which has a wonderful H.P. Lovecraft horror theme. "Lord of the Whitefield" is also fantastic and one of my favorites.
Want to know more about the history of D&D, especially how to play older editions of the game? Check out Crazy Monkey's "Tour through the editions":
http://community.wizards.com/crazymonkey/go/forum/view/133793/225799/Asylum_Play-by-Post
The current edition is BECMI, the most popular form of Basic D&D and the adventure is the classic Red Box quest to kill Bargle the evil magic user. Check it out, learn about the games roots, and enjoy the story as it unfolds.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 09, 2012 - 8:32PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2010
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A lot of my recommendations are already on your list, but I want to say Slaying Stone was one of my favorite adventures I've run so far. Lord of the White Field also seems really good, though my players decided to get away from town as soon as they helped the family in the early part get away. I disagree with kueryd about Scales of War at least for the heroic tier. The general plot is pretty good, but most of the individual aventures don't work very well. We just finished the 5th adventure (or 6 heroic tier adventures) and it was the first I didn't end up almost completely redoing. Though the Heroic tier ender (Temple Between in Dungeon 161) looks really good. From my read through Scales of War seems to hit it's groove through Paragon tier. For third party stuff I've been really impressed by the Zeitgeist adventure path from ENworld. If I were to start a campaign now I'd probably choose that over Scales of War. It does a good job of giving an interesing plot while still keeping things open about how to let players accomplish goals. I also think it does a good job of developing interesting NPCs, some of whom I'm probably going to try to port into my own setting. If you didn't want to run the whole path it could also probably be adapted into individual adventures as well.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 10, 2012 - 5:11AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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Just popping in to second (third? fourth?) Lord of the White Field. It's been one of the most brilliant adventures I've ever ran.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 10, 2012 - 5:47AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Just popping in to second (third? fourth?) Lord of the White Field. It's been one of the most brilliant adventures I've ever ran.
Thanks svendj - any advice on how to really make it pop?
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1 year ago ::
Apr 10, 2012 - 6:39AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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Instead of repeating myself, I think you'd best check out my report of the adventure in the original thread. Lots of tips there!
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1 year ago ::
Apr 10, 2012 - 10:26AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Instead of repeating myself, I think you'd best check out my report of the adventure in the original thread. Lots of tips there!
Went back and read it - awesome write-up! Thanks!
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