Hello,
I would like to run a campaign in a sort of fantasy Scotland (with gothic moors, haunted ruins, misty highlands, mysterious lakes... and dungeons, weird magic & a pinch of gonzo :-), and am looking for both good classic and contemporary OSR modules which could fit into this atmosphere.
I already have in mind: Castles Forlorn (Ravenloft), U1 (The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh), Howls in the Night (Ravenloft)...
I am looking for wilderness adventures, adventures which revolve around a mystery (Scooby-Doo-ish mysteries are fine), and also weird dungeons (I plan to create a complex 'underworld' under the highlands, populated with strange mushroom men & 'fungial' creatures). I'm also looking for adventures which convey the mood of the 1973 movie "The Wickerman". I would like to avoid backstory-rich modules (it's better if modules "show and don't tell").
Could someone help me in this quest?
Thanks a lot, in advance!
Nota: I'm french, and french RPG forums are probably not the best places in the world to seek for 'anglo-saxon' insights :)
My Scourge of the Demon Wolf (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/106705/Scourge-of-the-Demon-Wolf) should work well as an above ground adventure. Just dial up the weirdness of the locale. I present them pretty straight forward but nothing that stops a referee from presenting it with a weird dark vibe.
Quote from: Amleth;942697I am looking for wilderness adventures, adventures which revolve around a mystery (Scooby-Doo-ish mysteries are fine),
At DM's Guild (https://www.dmsguild.com/?) are pwyw modules: Here are three:
Ambush at Boxcar Rocks (Gothic)
Let's Give Goblin Peace a Chance (Mystery)
Blood & Mistletoe (Mystery &
Druids)
Theres some squirreled away in Dungeon and I am pretty sure at least one in the really early White Dwarfs. And I believe another in Dragon.
Good Ravenloft picks. I think some of the Beyond the Wall playbooks could work well for the setting as well. Patrick Stuart's DEEP CARBON OBSERVATORY could be of interest, particularly the dungeon section. The DCC module #10 THE SUNLESS GARDEN would be a good fit for your underworld. I've read good things about BITTEROOT BRIAR and THE STEALER OF CHILDREN modules but haven't picked them up yet.
Not necessarily scenarios but books that you might look at for the history of the Scottish borderlands: George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets can give you enough material to inspire several scenarios. He also did a novel on the same subject, Candlemass Road.
I should write one.
"What do you Call the Hairy Thing Between a Scotsman's Legs: The Search for the Peener of Vecna."
It's a rough first attempt, but my Fountain of the Green Lady (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B17FqxHToBrxRGNBTzd4NndsRk0/view) is a pretty solid fit for your campaign. Just make sure to put a door on the north end of room 7 (I foolishly omitted it from the blueprint. Told you it was rough!)
Scenic Dunnsmouth comes to mind. It isn't wilderness, but it is a mist-shrouded and weird-magic mystery. Maybe rename the four families and you're good.
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;942921The Search for the Peener of Vecna."
Tongue the Pee Hole!
Save vs. Death, if successful gain 1 Minor Power from the Artifact Chart.
Quote from: Amleth;942697(I plan to create a complex 'underworld' under the highlands, populated with strange mushroom men & 'fungial' creatures).)
The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/13709/Advanced-Adventures-1-The-PodCaverns-of-the-Sinister-Shroom) by Matthew Finch and The Fungus Forest (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178717/The-Fungus-Forest) by Reynoldson & Nash may be of interest. Although I do recommend brainstorming your own ideas before looking at these.
Barrowmaze's surface barrows and swamp actually fit your criteria, although the mega-dungeon underneath may not serve you well for a quasi-historical game. There's a mystery of a kind down there, but it would require reskinning, and it's still a lot of fairly standard dungeon crawling.
Quote from: Spinachcat;942928Tongue the Pee Hole!
Save vs. Death, if successful gain 1 Minor Power from the Artifact Chart.
Bullshit, it should obviously be a Save vs Wand or Rod:D!
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;942921I should write one.
"What do you Call the Hairy Thing Between a Scotsman's Legs: The Search for the Peener of Vecna."
Dude, give it a fucking rest.
Quote from: Herne's Son;943181Dude, give it a fucking rest.
Preferrably before it begins to form calouses.
Quote from: Spinachcat;942928Tongue the Pee Hole!
Save vs. Death, if successful gain 1 Minor Power from the Artifact Chart.
Nope, the Peener of Vecna works the same as the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna.
You first.
Quote from: Herne's Son;943181Dude, give it a fucking rest.
Nope.
Quote from: Dave R;943116The Fungus Forest (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178717/The-Fungus-Forest) by Reynoldson & Nash may be of interest.
Thanks for the shout out.
There were these OSR modules, free ones, that were a trilogy set in a northern land which was clearly meant to be viking-type. However, if you're running a fantasy north along the lines of northern England and Scotland, you could adapt it into ancient remnants from the earlier period of northman settlement.
UK2 - the Sentinel and UK3 - The Gauntlet could work reasonably well in a Not-Scotland setting. They're full of rocky hills, moors, weird villages, giants and strange magic.
I've not yet looked at theRPGPundit's "Dark Albion" stuff, but it seems like that might be a good resource.
Good call on those UK modules.
Wow, this forum is great, thank you all for your great contributions!
Let's sum it up, by 'function':
Introducing the area and the human settlements to the party ; give the PCs a first taste of the scottish wilderness :
- Scourge of the Demon Wolf (Conley, 2012)
Mysterious locations:
- Casteles Forlorn (Smedman, 1993) (but I'll never have enough time to read it :()
- U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Browne & Turnbull, 1981) (Scooby Doo inside)
- Bitterroot Briar (Waters, 2013) (I'll definitely run this one!)
- The Stealer of Children (Spahn, 2013)
- Deep Carbon Observatory (Stuart, 2014) (I own it, it's great, but maybe hard to insert in a scottish context)
- Scenic Dunnsmouth (Kowolski, 2014) (I own it, and am fond of everything Kowolski writes)
- UK2 The Sentinel (Morris, 1983)
- UK3 The Gauntlet (Morris, 1984) (not sure about this one)
Dungeons & underworld modules:
- The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (Finch, 2006) (read it, loved it!)
- The Sunless Garden (Lasalle, 2004)
- Fountain of the Green Lady (Azraele, 2016
- The Fungus Forest (Reynoldson & Nash, 2016)
Inter-adventures & ponctual events:
- Ambush at Boxcar Rocks (Jeromy Schulz-Arnold, 2016) (may be triggered if the PC want to dig too deeply under the ice)
- Blood & Mistletoe (may be played if the PCs undertake to explore the native magic and its connections to the wilderness; and the PCs will befriend a druid!)
Cool 'england-but-not-scotland-centered stuff':
- Dark Albion (RPGPundit, 2015) (aaah, sadly not the right period and area for my purpose, but it's a wonderful book, but I also own 'Cults of Chaos' and definitely have to use it in this campaign)
Non RPG resources:
- The Steel Bonnets (Fraser, 1971)
- Outlander (Gabaldon, 1991) (because of the stone through which we can travel in time)
And, Pundit, "ancient remnants from the earlier period of northman settlement": I have read a history of England written by the great historian George Trevelyan, and his depiction of this period really stroke me. And there is also this little & beautiful TV thing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4179452/.
PS1: OK, I have to read Beyond the Wall.
PS2: I don't know where to find Let's Give Goblin Peace a Chance.
PS3: The Frenchman I am does not understand the word 'peener' (but I have an idea about the question).
Quote from: Amleth;944186Wow, this forum is great, thank you all for your great contributions!
PS2: I don't know where to find Let’s Give Goblin Peace a Chance.
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/201746/Lets-Give-Kobold-Peace-a-Chance?term=lets+&filters=0_0_45418_0_0_0_0_0&test_epoch=0
I'm pretty sure this is it, with a slightly misremembered humanoid somewhere along the line.
If you can find them check out old issues of Imagine Magazine. Issue 5 had a Celtic themed module and some nice notes on a Celtic themed setting. and issue 17 had more musings on the Celtic setting and another Celtic themed module.
I only have a few of these as was trying to collect the Star Frontiers articles so not sure if theres more than those two issues.
Found another in issue 19. A one page systemless module.
You should check out the Codex Celtarum for Castles & Crusades if you're going to do a campaign. It's a sourcebook, no adventures, but a lot of good Celtic-flavored stuff. There are also somewhere around D six modules but they are set in an alternate Wales, I believe. However, you could adapt them as always.
And totally forgot. Theres also the 2d ed D&D book Celts.
Well thought out and I believe its on DriveThru now?
These are all very short adventures, but you might find them appropriate as sandbox locations.
Tannoch Rest-of-Kings (http://blog.trilemma.com/2014/03/tannoch-rest-of-kings.html) is a ruined tower on a misty lake; a sort of convent taken over by a trio of ogres.
Veil of the Once-Queen (http://blog.trilemma.com/2017/01/veil-of-once-queen.html) is a fey citadel, just replace "Martoi" with Sidhe and you're on your way.
The Unmended Way (http://blog.trilemma.com/2015/02/the-unmended-way.html) is a bit of an oddball and has implications to the surrounding area, but it's got giants and fairies of a sort.
Prescott's short adventures are terrific, imaginative, well drawn and laid out. Not sure why he doesn't get more kudos.
Quote from: Herne's Son;944101I've not yet looked at theRPGPundit's "Dark Albion" stuff, but it seems like that might be a good resource.
While Dark Albion is not an adventure, it has a whole bunch of adventure seeds related to northern England and Scotland, as it was in the 15th century (and it's legends and myths).
"Search for the Gay Scottish Princes, Ben Doon and Phillip McCrak"
Quote from: RPGPundit;944992While Dark Albion is not an adventure, it has a whole bunch of adventure seeds related to northern England and Scotland, as it was in the 15th century (and it's legends and myths).
Yes, sorry, i was thinking of it more as a good resource, rather than thinking in terms of adventures.
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;945002"Search for the Gay Scottish Princes, Ben Doon and Phillip McCrak"
Dude, seriously. Why do you do this? Your dick jokes aren't funny, and all they serve to do is grind an interesting discussion to a halt. Over, and over, and over again. This is the same crap you used to pull on RPG.net before you got kicked off of there. If you don't have anything worthwhile to add to a discussion, why not just shut the hell up?
Thanks Omega for pointing out Imagine issues & HR3 Celts Campaign. All HR are GREAT! Have you read HR4 A Mighty Fortress? A solid Elizabethan sourcebook.
I just bought Secrets of the Wyrwoode (2016, Luigi Castellani)... if you like this thread, you have to check it out :
The standing stones at the heart of the
ancient forest known as the Wyrwoode
once was the headquarter of a savage druid cult.
But those barbaric days lie in the past.
Or do they?
Children are being kidnapped on new moon nights
as fairy raiders from the old forest rampage throughout the Downs.
Are you going to be the hero that brings peace to the duchy?
Or are you going to use for evil the secrets discovered
in the fairy realm on the Other Side?
The forest known as the Wyrwoode is a pretty normal wood, but once it -and its ring of standing stones- was sacred ground to an ancient and quite savage druid cult that
was disbanded by the local duke a couple of centuries ago.
Quote from: Herne's Son;945034Yes, sorry, i was thinking of it more as a good resource, rather than thinking in terms of adventures.
Dude, seriously. Why do you do this? Your dick jokes aren't funny, and all they serve to do is grind an interesting discussion to a halt. Over, and over, and over again. This is the same crap you used to pull on RPG.net before you got kicked off of there. If you don't have anything worthwhile to add to a discussion, why not just shut the hell up?
It's because he just wants to piss on somebody looking for help. The Miniatures Page is full of the same variety of internet-jackass.
Quote from: Herne's Son;945034Dude, seriously. Why do you do this? Your dick jokes aren't funny, and all they serve to do is grind an interesting discussion to a halt. Over, and over, and over again. This is the same crap you used to pull on RPG.net before you got kicked off of there. If you don't have anything worthwhile to add to a discussion, why not just shut the hell up?
Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;945049It's because he just wants to piss on somebody looking for help. The Miniatures Page is full of the same variety of internet-jackass.
1) Because it amuses me, and I really don't care if anybody else finds my humor funny.
2) Because your tears of rage are delicious.
3) Because if somebody is going to be lecturing and pushy instead of making a polite request, I'm going to double down, because fuck petty authoritarian assholes.
4) Because if somebody can't ignore a dumb joke instead of letting it "grind an interesting discussion to a halt" that really, truly is not my problem
Forget it.
Pretty much a thread-crap of a very productive thread. We don't have enough of these to throw them away with derails!
Back on topic please. :)
Graeme Davis has written some pretty excellent Celtic-themed scenarios over the years.
He's got lots of them on his website for free download:
https://graemedavis.wordpress.com/freebies/
Quote from: Herne's Son;945068Graeme Davis has written some pretty excellent Celtic-themed scenarios over the years.
He's got lots of them on his website for free download:
https://graemedavis.wordpress.com/freebies/
See? That's called "ignoring a dumb joke you don't like." Works a treat.
OP, I'm not really familiar with horror games, but have you considered looking for some horror adventures and reskinning them for fantasy? Even "Hound of the Baskervilles" could be something like what you're after with a little modification.
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;945074See? That's called "ignoring a dumb joke you don't like." Works a treat.
Yeah, but I'm used to your tedious "jokes". For people who don't know your tiresome schtick, you just come off as a disruptive asshole.
Boo. Also, hoo.
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;945075OP, I'm not really familiar with horror games, but have you considered looking for some horror adventures and reskinning them for fantasy? Even "Hound of the Baskervilles" could be something like what you're after with a little modification.
Oh, yeah, I have :) I have a lot of horror tropes in mind (ghosts, weird forests, undeads, etc.). What you propose is more or less Ravenloft editorial line (for example, "Hound of the Baskervilles" is "Howls in the Night").
Quote from: Herne's Son;945068Graeme Davis has written some pretty excellent Celtic-themed scenarios over the years.
He's got lots of them on his website for free download:
https://graemedavis.wordpress.com/freebies/
Thanks! I LOVE G. Davis work, but was not aware of this web page.
Reskinning horror is a great idea there's a classic CoC 'adventure' set on the Scottish highlands called Horror on the Glen available in Green and Pleasant Land. (https://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Green_And_Pleasant_Land)
Quote from: Voros;947006Reskinning horror is a great idea there's a classic CoC 'adventure' set on the Scottish highlands called Horror on the Glen available in Green and Pleasant Land. (https://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Green_And_Pleasant_Land)
That was quite a good book in general.
Quote from: Herne's Son;945114Yeah, but I'm used to your tedious "jokes". For people who don't know your tiresome schtick, you just come off as a disruptive asshole.
"I played with Gary" is pretty much all he has to offer. That's why he is widely ignored.
Quote from: Matt;948427"I played with Gary" is pretty much all he has to offer. That's why he is widely ignored.
Seriously.
Blah blah, you're all pretty. More links for fuck's sake.
Quote from: CRKrueger;948832Blah blah, you're all pretty. More links for fuck's sake.
Given I don't DM DnD I guess you better buck up buttercup.:)
Some old Warhammer FRP material may be good, especially for weird and uncanny elements.
For example very early Web of Eldaw (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_zFVkK2-d36MDk1SEtXWjZfWjA/view)
And you could drop the Fimir (https://www.scribd.com/document/96818116/Fimir-Armylist-Background-and-WHFRP-Adv?ad_group=&campaign=Skimbit%2C+Ltd.&content=10079&irgwc=1&keyword=ft500noi&medium=affiliate&source=impactradius) into the Highlands: