SPECIAL NOTICE
Malicious code was found on the site, which has been removed, but would have been able to access files and the database, revealing email addresses, posts, and encoded passwords (which would need to be decoded). However, there is no direct evidence that any such activity occurred. REGARDLESS, BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. And as is good practice, remember to never use the same password on more than one site. While performing housekeeping, we also decided to upgrade the forums.
This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Best (relatively) recent adventures?

Started by RPGPundit, December 02, 2018, 09:42:13 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

tenbones

I haven't run an official adventure since the original I6-Ravenloft. And it was (and remains still) excellent.

Haffrung

#16
Red Hand of Doom
Rappan Athuk
Tomb of Abysthor
Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia
Madness at Gardmore Abbey

I honestly haven't found any 5E adventures yet that rise above mediocre.
 

Haffrung

Quote from: bryce0lynch;1067470Jesus, man ... this thread ...
I guess it's just the natural lifecycle of an internet discussion forum.

Then elevate it. Give us some of your favourites.
 

Brad

Quote from: bryce0lynch;1067474Without commenting on R&PL, virtually everything mentioned in this thread is garbage.

Funny, I mentioned Rappan Athuk which is on your own site as a favorite: http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844

So, are you being intentionally persnickety?
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

SP23

Quote from: Brad;1067490Funny, I mentioned Rappan Athuk which is on your own site as a favorite: http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844

So, are you being intentionally persnickety?

It's the greatest draw of therpgsite, the ability to be an asshole without repercussions ;)

SHARK

Quote from: SP23;1067503It's the greatest draw of therpgsite, the ability to be an asshole without repercussions ;)

Greetings!

LOL! Yeah, Brad went ahead and *destroyed* him...the link Brad supplied to his own website shows a big list of game modules he thinks are fantastic...including Rappan Athuk. :)

Ah...yeah...lets just be abrasive on purpose...for the fuck of it...geesus. :)

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

SHARK

Greetings!

Did anyone like The City of Brass, by Necromancer Games?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

SP23

Quote from: SHARK;1067506Greetings!

Did anyone like The City of Brass, by Necromancer Games?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I've only skimmed it years ago, so I can't really say.

SHARK

Quote from: SP23;1067508I've only skimmed it years ago, so I can't really say.

Greetings!

Whoa! You still have that module-book? As I recall, it was a boxed set. It was huge, though. It looked beautiful when I saw it, though I think it missed out on really having an impact because it came out...I think just a few months before the arrival of 4E.

My friend, you should go through that whole thing, and do a detailed review of it here!:)

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

Thornhammer

Which of the seventy-three different versions of Rappan Athuk are we all talking about here?

I kid, but there are what, five versions?  R1/2/3, Reloaded, Pathfinder, S&W, 5E?  I have R1/2/3 and Reloaded.

The shit monster was a very memorable encounter.

EOTB

Quote from: SHARK;1067506Greetings!

Did anyone like The City of Brass, by Necromancer Games?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

If you want a city of brass, I think this one is the best I've seen yet:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=city+of+brass+huso&type=
A framework for generating local politics

https://mewe.com/join/osric A MeWe OSRIC group - find an online game; share a monster, class, or spell; give input on what you\'d like for new OSRIC products.  Just don\'t 1) talk religion/politics, or 2) be a Richard

SP23

Quote from: SHARK;1067525Greetings!

Whoa! You still have that module-book? As I recall, it was a boxed set. It was huge, though. It looked beautiful when I saw it, though I think it missed out on really having an impact because it came out...I think just a few months before the arrival of 4E.

My friend, you should go through that whole thing, and do a detailed review of it here!:)

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Nah, I purged 99.9% of my collection when I moved, gave away something close to 500 RPG books to friends. It's not worth dragging hundreds of lbs. of books half way across the country, when it's so easy to get digital copies.

Naburimannu

Quote from: Haffrung;1067479Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia

What about Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia in particular? Mine is the one-star review at DTRPG. I had *such* hopes for it, and still want to run a fertile crescent or levantine late-bronze/early-iron fantasy campaign some day, but I don't think the book moves with me again. There are good ideas in the adventure, but I felt like I'd have to reimplement it completely from scratch.

QuoteQuite the disappointment. I'd heard good things about this as a setting, but it's only 1/4th poorly-edited setting material, with its game rules not power-balanced anywhere near where a sensible or typical 3.5 campaign would be (in my view). One canonically bad edit: the map doesn't contain half the cities described, and half the cities on the map aren't described. Two regions are given random encounter tables - but why? Again, one of them isn't even labeled on the map, although its general vicinity is alluded to in the text. Why those regions and not any of the many others? The book is heinously inconsistent; in just three paragraphs about the legal systems of Mesopotamia it manages to completely contradict itself. Editing matters!

The remaining 3/4ths is an adventure which at least tries to lay out a sandbox. It fails for classical 3e statblock bloat reasons. For example, the nominal homebase gets one page of description. The faction most commonly met there, who presumably will be the source of most social interactions, still has more space allocated to statblocks and combat statistics than description and hooks. The next faction, the Brotherhood of Kalab, gets three pages: half a page of art, a third of a page of description, a quarter-page of adventure hooks, and 2 pages of detailed combat statistics.

Any setting influenced by the real world that doesn't provide a bibliography or suggested readings loses a star in my book, dropping this from POOR to outright BAD. They allude to so many things in their setting, but leave me to start from scratch when I want to better understand the history to bring them into my campaign.

Haffrung

Quote from: Naburimannu;1067599What about Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia in particular? Mine is the one-star review at DTRPG. I had *such* hopes for it, and still want to run a fertile crescent or levantine late-bronze/early-iron fantasy campaign some day, but I don't think the book moves with me again. There are good ideas in the adventure, but I felt like I'd have to reimplement it completely from scratch.

I didn't use it as a historical sourcebook. In fact, I think Necromancer really bungled AK:M by marketing it as such.

It's the best sword and sorcery sandbox campaign that I've seen. The ruined cities, temples, cults, etc. are outstanding. Exotic, creepy, dark, and weird. Presented with enough detail to run a campaign from levels 4-10 with very little work. You have the geography, the detailed dungeons, all the foes and factions you need. And there's even a summary on how to run it as an adventure path if you're not into open-ended sandboxes.

If it had been called something like Necromancers of the Red Wastes, or Desert of the Ghoul Queen, it would be a lot better known and higher regarded than it is. And you wouldn't have the unfortunate misalignment of expectations that you experienced.
 

VacuumJockey

I really enjoy the Marlinko quadrology from the Hydra Cooperative. WOTC's own offerings are somewhat average, and - IMO - often need one of the additional note compendiums from Dungeon Masters Guild to fully realize its/their full potential.