After running a published module for either a Fantasy RPG, Supers RPG or Sci Fi rpg so want some suggestions. System doesn't matter - I will adapt the module to whatever game I decide to run.
Also the module needs to be reasonably accessible. In other words 'up the garden path' (or whatever it was called) is probably off the list because I won't pay 500 quid or whatever it costs.
I'll hold my hands up and say in 31 years (or is it 32? God I feel old now) of being a GM I've run about a dozen published adventures, if that, mostly for AD&D and the odd superhero game (Marvel or DC) so I figure it's time for me try try a published adventure again.
Thanks for any advice/inspiration, and I'll get scouring on the usual places (ebay, amazon etc) to tracks adventures down...
Now I want to know what Up the Garden Path was, and why people would pay that much for it.
No Dignity in Death: The 3 Brides. Because it's Vancican and hilarious.
The Purple Worm Graveyard: Short, lurid, sweet.
Quote from: TristramEvans;611063Now I want to know what Up the Garden Path was, and why people would pay that much for it.
From the Acaeum:
"Estimates are that 600 copies were printed, though it could have been slightly less. Unknown how many copies have survived, but one of the authors, Graeme Morris, doubts that more than 100-200 were actually sold at the two festivals (the rest were presumably pulped). Contributor Ian Wright, who attended the 1986 Games Day convention, bought his copy there for 2.50 pounds, but also remembers a number of copies being distributed to retail outlets in the area (of which he was the proprietor of one). Most likely the remaining (unsold) copies from the convention were shipped to retailers rather than destroyed. Probably less than 50 copies survive today."And those silly values:
ST1 Up the Garden Path: GD: $1035 (5/02), VG: $913 (2/03), VG: $1252 (10/04),
VG: $1906 (9/05), FN: $51 (4/96), FN: $834 (6/01), FN: $1233 (6/02), FN: $864 (2/03),
FN: $1035 (9/03), FN: $1874 (10/04), VF: $2500 (private sale, 4/05), NM: $1575 (7/00),
NM: $1666 (private sale, 4/01), NM: $1750 (private sale of the previous 7/00 auction, 4/02),
NM: $1909 (10/04)Ridiculous.
Quote from: TristramEvans;611063Now I want to know what Up the Garden Path was, and why people would pay that much for it.
Only for the rarity. As a module, it's garbage. And yes I have seen a PDF of it. I may still have it on my archive disks somewhere.
The Red Hand of Doom. In between adventuring and exploring dungeons, the PCs must race against time to prevent a goblin horde from overwhelming the scenic Elsir Vale. They can mobilize the citizenry, strike at enemy strongholds, help evacuate noncombatants, and fight all manner of cool monsters.
It's widely considered the best adventure out there for 3rd Edition D&D.
It's rather expensive on Amazon ($55 being the lowest price). Here's a cheap one on Ebay. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Red-Hand-of-Doom-by-Richard-Baker-and-James-Jacobs-2006-Paperback-/121040198755?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item1c2e8edc63)
Quote from: thedungeondelver;611077Only for the rarity. As a module, it's garbage. And yes I have seen a PDF of it. I may still have it on my archive disks somewhere.
Absolutely true. Actually, most of the really expensive D&D items of this sort, whether TSR or third party, are pretty much junk. When we talk about the highest quality material, some may hit the $50-75 range, but none are $500+
Heres' Dungeon magazines' list of the top 30 D&D modules of all time, to give everyone something to argue over :)
http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Dungeon+magazine's+%22The+30+Greatest+D%2526D+Adventures+of+All+Time%22
Frandor's Keep (http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_94_99&products_id=821) module for HackMaster 5e.
The PDF is only 15 bucks, and it's 160 pages. Set in the Kingdoms of Kalamar world of Tellene, this is military/trading outpost positioned on a small island on a river high in the mountains. A complete area setting with dozens of notable NPCs, hundreds of rumors, and enough material to raise PCs from beginning to 5th level.
Even if you don't play HM, the book and setting information alone isa worth the price; just plunk it down in your own campaign and restat the NPCs/monsters.
The PDF is tablet/laptop friendly with clickable links that take you from maps to descriptions automatically, freeing you from needing multiple copies open to different pages.
B10 Nights Dark Terror crams more awesome in its 64 pages than just about any mega module of twice the size. You get wilderness sandbox interspersed with dungeon crawls, city adventuring, lost civilizations, a spectacular siege set piece and one of the best evil organizations in the Iron Ring.
Hard copies can tend to be pricey but you can get a free cleaned up PDF by hunting around Dragonsfoot.
I'm rather enamoured of The Grey Knight (http://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/49526/the-grey-knight), a module for PenDragon (http://rpggeek.com/rpg/317/pendragon-1st-5th-editions) that hits a lot of the mythic notes of the setting and provides plenty of cool shit to do. It's also winningly presented, with evocative art and tips for the GM in a handy sidebar format.
Decent review here (http://rpggeek.com/thread/708375/a-great-quest).
Dungeon Crawl Classics #28: Into the Wilds
It's another homage to the classic Keep on the Borderlands, and more sensible and less "chaotic" than that (just like Frandor's Keep). It's available as a download from RPGnow (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/12002/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-%2328%3A-Into-the-Wilds?cPath=190&it=1) or you can try to find the OOP print version on eBay.
It details the small border town of Wildsgate and four distinctly different dungeons in the nearby mountains. The description of Wildsgate is better than the Keep (but less intricate as, for instance, Hommlet). There's a curse on the town, lots of rumors and adventure hooks.
On the Goodman forum there are two threads that are must-reads:
DCC 28: Into the Wilds (fixing... everything) (http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7085) Listing potential pitfalls of the module, and fixes for them.
None the Wiser's 3-D Wildsgate Excursion... (http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1324) Awesome 3-D SketchUp models of the town of Wildsgate and some of the dungeons. Very good for the DM who wants to visualize the locations before play.
(http://misterhook.tripod.com/misc/forumpics/DCCpics/waterfall_7.jpg)
This module is a very good campaign starter.
Quote from: Fiasco;611208B10 Nights Dark Terror crams more awesome in its 64 pages than just about any mega module of twice the size. You get wilderness sandbox interspersed with dungeon crawls, city adventuring, lost civilizations, a spectacular siege set piece and one of the best evil organizations in the Iron Ring.
Seconded. Buy it along with the Karameikos Gazetteer and be happy hereafter.
Among the modules I really liked/gave me memorable experiences there are
- No Man's Land for Call of Cthulhu
- Dwellers of the Forbidden City for AD&D 1E
- The Isle of Dread for D&D Expert. A bit like "Night's Dark Terror: a sandbox crammed of ideas for adventures and places where to set other modules. I actually played Dwellers of the Forbidden City as the culmination of the Isle of Dread mini-campaign.
Are you talking only fantasy here?
Because if not, I really wouldn't have much doubt: Masks of Nyarlathotep.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;611412Are you talking only fantasy here?
Because if not, I really wouldn't have much doubt: Masks of Nyarlathotep.
Well, if we bring out the 16" guns, then "Par delà des montagnes hallucinee", the French edition.
A reason among the multitude? One of the grimmest ending ever written.
Quote from: Reckall;611419Well, if we bring out the 16" guns, then "Par delà des montagnes hallucinee", the French edition.
A reason among the multitude? One of the grimmest ending ever written.
See, I dig Masks more because its faster-paced and because its got this pulpy and heroic feel while still being totally Call of Cthulhu. Not saying Mountains of Madness is bad, it isn't, its certainly one of the best Modules of all time; its just not the single best CoC module of all time.
Which says a lot about CoC's modules, when you think about it.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;611511See, I dig Masks more because its faster-paced and because its got this pulpy and heroic feel while still being totally Call of Cthulhu. Not saying Mountains of Madness is bad, it isn't, its certainly one of the best Modules of all time; its just not the single best CoC module of all time.
Which says a lot about CoC's modules, when you think about it.
Yeah, the average quality of all CoC modules outstrips everything else. The other top contenders that come to mind are by Chaosium as well. Sure, they've had some duds, just like everyone, but overall, they've been slowly put out solid material for decades.
Quote from: TheHistorian;611732Yeah, the average quality of all CoC modules outstrips everything else. The other top contenders that come to mind are by Chaosium as well. Sure, they've had some duds, just like everyone, but overall, they've been slowly put out solid material for decades.
Yes, though sadly with less frequency or consistency as time marches on.
RPGPundit
My favorite fantasy "module" published in recent years has been Xoth Publishing's The Spider God's Bride (http://xoth.net/publishing/xp1/index.htm). The pdf version is priced reasonably, and is comprised of "ten blood-red sword and sorcery adventures, inspired by the pulp era tales of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith". So, it might not specifically qualify as a "module" by definition, but you'll definitely get your money's worth out of it.
It was originally released for 3.5; has a conversion guide for Mongoose's defunct d20 Conan system; and is supposed to be released for the Legend system (though it's been long delayed).
I ran a campaign with SGB using Mongoose's RuneQuest II system back in 2010. I used 4 of the 10 adventures, and my gaming group enjoyed the hell out of it. Two years later, we still reminisce about it.
One that blew me away when it came out was Judge's Guild The Dark Tower.
That top 30 list though doesn't seem that balanced - it splits up the A series (which I think were combined into one volume later), but treats the GDQ series as a single module.
Quote from: Lynn;612257That top 30 list though doesn't seem that balanced - it splits up the A series (which I think were combined into one volume later), but treats the GDQ series as a single module.
It was published by a TSR/WotC magazine and counted only TSR/WotC products, so, no, balanced wasn't part of the equation.
Quote from: TheHistorian;612683It was published by a TSR/WotC magazine and counted only TSR/WotC products, so, no, balanced wasn't part of the equation.
There is that. My point though is that it was comparing compilations of many modules together (GDQ) with individual modules. Just within GDQ, some were more memorable than others.
I think the unbalancedness is consistent with the modules here being of no particular length...some of there are a session or two long and others (e.g. Return to ToEE) are whole campaigns.
It's not one of the famous, classic adventure but I was impressed with the ICONS adventure "Sins of the Past". It's got a strong central idea, it is very flexible in terms of how you approach it, tons of supervillians to fight and most of all the rarest of all qualities, heart.
No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?
I also liked Dreamchipper & Queen Euphoria.
Quote from: SJBenoist;613161No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?
Easy availability (no hunting down collector's items) was a requirement.
Oops, that would eliminated X11, but TEW is pretty easy to find (and reasonably priced).
Quote from: SJBenoist;613271Oops, that would eliminated X11, but TEW is pretty easy to find (and reasonably priced).
X11 is darn cool but its better in concept than execution. I reckon it would need a fair bit of work to run.
An absolutely bitching cover illustration, though.
If we are talking X Series gems I'd recommend X8 Drums on Firetop Mountain. Castle Amber is right up there too.
Quote from: SJBenoist;613161No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?
Shadows over Bögenhafen runs well, but it wouldn't occur to me as a "best" module. Death on the Reik from the same series, though, would be a serious contender if I was focused on WFRP instead of D&D. It is an excellent non-linear module that lets you roam all over the Empire, trading to get rich and bumping into chaos conspiracies along the way.
Quote from: RPGPundit;611412Are you talking only fantasy here?
Because if not, I really wouldn't have much doubt: Masks of Nyarlathotep.
RPGPundit
I've never played in a CoC RPG - I read a review of that, and damn, now I want to.
I seriously doubt I could convince my currently group of players to do it though. They might go for a one-shot, but not an entire campaign.
I also think I might have met Larry Ditillio (as in shook his hand and said "Hey"), completely outside of a gaming context.
Quote from: Fiasco;613424If we are talking X Series gems I'd recommend X8 Drums on Firetop Mountain. Castle Amber is right up there too.
I guess
Castle Amber's awesomeness is an age-related thing, as in: if it is one of the first modules you play you will remember it fondly, forever. I cannot rerun it as it's too much of a zoo for me. (Taking it as inspiration, using the Averoigne "demiplane" idea and a different dungeon architecture, say, Castle Wittgenstein from
Death on the Reik or one of the many castles from Almondsey (http://www.estalia.net/estalia/country-of-estalia.htm), is a different matter entirely.)
Drums on Firetop Mountain is a module that I neglected for a long time. I couldn't use it because there was no region in any of my campaign settings where I could place it.
But is was a
perfect fit as an Indiana Jones-type adventure for a Nostalgia (http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=562219&postcount=22) hack.
Also, it would make a great adventurous, pulpy, Indy-type, CoC session.
It has a similar set-up as
Isle of Dread but I like it much better than X1.
I love Isle of Dread. Ran it twice last year, for both Albion games (albeit with some modifications).
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;613742I love Isle of Dread. Ran it twice last year, for both Albion games (albeit with some modifications).
Where in the Albion cosmos did you place it?
Quote from: Fiasco;611208B10 Nights Dark Terror crams more awesome in its 64 pages than just about any mega module of twice the size. You get wilderness sandbox interspersed with dungeon crawls, city adventuring, lost civilizations, a spectacular siege set piece and one of the best evil organizations in the Iron Ring.
Hard copies can tend to be pricey but you can get a free cleaned up PDF by hunting around Dragonsfoot.
I'll second this. It's got quite a bit of gonzo thrown into the mix, so you'll have to tone it down if you run a low fantasy/low magic campaign like I do, but that's easily done without really changing the tone of the adventure. I used this as a springboard to several long-term campaigns and that siege at the beginning was always one of the most memorable encounters of all time---it never played out the same way twice, because the actions of the players always changed the course of events.
Also, since you're asking for the best, I recommend any module I've ever published (ex. Blood Moon Rising, The Inn of Lost Heroes, Pyramid of the Dragon, Atarin's Delve). ;)
Pete
My favourite module as far as gameplay experiences go is an online scenario for AFMBE I found called "Aphrodite's Harvest", which I admittedly heavily-modified as I always do, but had a very strong premise: the characters were the crew of a terra-forming spaceship that was sent into deep space to a planet. Instead of the crew staying in cryo-stasis, they were cloned in vats upon reaching the planet. What the players didn't know is that the ship had actually reached the planet almost a decade ago, after the first set of clones discovered a fungus on the planet that turned them into zombies. Once "dead", the computer kickstarted the clone generation process again, and this continued until by the time the Pcs are grown, lower levels of the deck are filled with zombie versions of themselves. Oh, and one of the players was a genetically modifed gorilla, which was awesome. Especially when they encountered the zombie version.
I adapted the scenario for Call of Cthulhu, and added a few more Cthulhoid elements to the game, as well as taking a cue from Paranoia and having the ship's computer become schizoid.
Isle of Dread (I like the mix of exploration and dungeons)
Rappan Athuk (this was just nasty and hard. I think we spent more time cautiously exploring and weighing our options than charging into rooms because some fights were god-awful. We ended up being TPK'd in the end)
Bloody Jack's Gold (this was a really frustrating and challenging module to play that once you reached the end, it was awesome and well-worth the hassle)
Nemoren's Vault (great beginning dungeon crawl)
Of Sound Mind (another great beginning dungeon crawl mod)
Idylls of the Rat King (a third great beginning dungeon crawl mod)
Age of Worms Adventure Path (well-written, awesome story, and very hard to beat. The players had only one surviving player character out of three separate parties with NPC mercs to boot. I think there was over a dozen permanent deaths in this campaign.)
Aerie of the Crow God (I enjoyed the story)
Quote from: Yong_Kyosunim;614303Of Sound Mind (another great beginning dungeon crawl mod)
I've heard good things about this. I think it had psionics that turned me off to it?
Quote from: pspahn;613805I'll second this. It's got quite a bit of gonzo thrown into the mix, so you'll have to tone it down if you run a low fantasy/low magic campaign like I do, but that's easily done without really changing the tone of the adventure. I used this as a springboard to several long-term campaigns and that siege at the beginning was always one of the most memorable encounters of all time---it never played out the same way twice, because the actions of the players always changed the course of events.
Also, since you're asking for the best, I recommend any module I've ever published (ex. Blood Moon Rising, The Inn of Lost Heroes, Pyramid of the Dragon, Atarin's Delve). ;)
Pete
Blood Moon Rising especially, great adventure. Pete writes great stuff, can't go wrong with anything from Mr. Spahn :)
Edit: I've heard great things about Griffin Mountain (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/83384/Gloranthan-Classics-Volume-II---Griffin-Mountain?term=griffin+), and I'm playing through it now as a player.
Isle of Dread will always be my favorite module. You should easily be able to run a year campaign with this, especially if you add in more pirate stuff.
I also really like Red Arrow, Black Shield. It's a high level campaign featuring diplomacy, war, and a bunch of cool encounters. You also see all of the Known World while you're at it.
Quote from: danbuter;614423I also really like Red Arrow, Black Shield. It's a high level campaign featuring diplomacy, war, and a bunch of cool encounters. You also see all of the Known World while you're at it.
Along with "Master of Desert Nomads" 1 & 2 of course :)
Blood Moon Rising was really liked by the group of players I had for it, that was in my FR campaign.
RPGPundit
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;613800Where in the Albion cosmos did you place it?
The Azure Islands, an isolated group of islands near the edge of the world, quite a great distance off the coast of Iberia.
RPGPundit
The OP left out Western and espionage rpgs, so Burned Bush Wells and Operation: Fastpass are off the table.
For fantasy, my personal favorite is The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey, a great example of a dungeon crawl filled with factions for the adventurers to exploit.
For sci fi, Leviathan, trade explorers on the edge of space, plus one of the coolest starships ever.
I got nothin' for supers.
Quote from: Black Vulmea;614856For fantasy, my personal favorite is The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey, a great example of a dungeon crawl filled with factions for the adventurers to exploit.
Fails the reasonably available test though. That one is pretty tough to find, and it almost always commands a strong price (although one did sell recently for a ridiculously low price). This used to be an easy $100 item, but it's probably more like $50-60 these days.
I have to go with my passion-game for absolute #1: The Destiny Map for Torg.
After that, I really liked Castle Amber & Return to the Temple of EE, although I've only played in them, never ran them.
Quote from: Black Vulmea;614856For sci fi, Leviathan, trade explorers on the edge of space, plus one of the coolest starships ever.
System? Publisher?
Quote from: Mistwell;615329System? Publisher?
I'm guessing he means Adventure 4 Leviathan adventure for original Traveller... centered around a big boxy trading vessel.
That's a favorite of mine as well... and I think we ran a lot of games of Snapshot on those deckplans as well.
Quote from: Mistwell;614331I've heard good things about this. I think it had psionics that turned me off to it?
While the book claimed psionics, it was easy to work around. The GM in our case didn't use them.
Quote from: Mistwell;615329System? Publisher?
Traveller. GDW.