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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

Greetings!

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

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

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.

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

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.

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=

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.

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.

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.

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.