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View Full Version : [3.5] What adventures do you run?



ken-do-nim
2010-06-14, 09:20 AM
I just had an auction for a bunch of d20 adventures go without any bids on eBay, and it got me to thinking that published adventures don't seem to be as popular with the 3rd edition crowd as they do with the 1st edition crowd. Thinking back on all the threads I've read on this forum, I've heard Tomb of Horrors, World's Largest Dungeon, and Red Hand of Doom mentioned a lot, but that's about it. So, do you homebrew your adventures, use ones from Dungeon magazine, or what?

AslanCross
2010-06-14, 09:23 AM
My first campaign was set in Forgotten Realms and was homebrewed. In hindsight it felt more of a survey of fantasy cliches than anything else, but it was fun.

I've run Hell's Heart and am currently finishing up Red Hand of Doom.

Hell's Heart I ran with little modification; RHOD I'm running with rather heavy changes since I set it in Eberron.

subject42
2010-06-14, 09:55 AM
I tend to write up my own campaigns, but lately I've been using the Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords module in a lighter side game. It's actually surprisingly well written.

My party likes high-challenge games for one-shots, so I just look for the most vicious murder factories I can get my hands on. Tomb of Horrors, Heart of Nightfang Spire, and Seven Swords of Sin are all good murder factories. They take PCs as input and convert them into as much murder as possible.

HoNfS is particularly good for that. I had one game where there was a TPK within two rounds of the first combat.

ken-do-nim
2010-06-14, 09:58 AM
HoNfS is particularly good for that. I had one game where there was a TPK within two rounds of the first combat.

Yeah, Heart of Nightfang Spire was TOUGH! My favorite part was the ending though, when after we killed the Heart it fell down from the ceiling and landed on the party ranger. Splat.

Another_Poet
2010-06-14, 10:39 AM
Part of the problem might be that the remaining 3.x players either already have a bunch of modules, or have been playing so long it's easy for them to homebrew an adventure. Those who have gone to Pathfinder or 4e have a whole new line of published campaigns to buy.

valadil
2010-06-14, 10:46 AM
I've never done a pre-written adventure outside of LFR. Writing is my favorite part of GMing, so I'm not likely to start using modules.

Hendel
2010-06-14, 10:50 AM
Yeah, Heart of Nightfang Spire was TOUGH! My favorite part was the ending though, when after we killed the Heart it fell down from the ceiling and landed on the party ranger. Splat.

You must be talking about the thing at the top of the tower that nearly killed the party that I ran through that module.

ken-do-nim
2010-06-14, 10:51 AM
I find it fascinating that while in 3.5 it takes longer to homebrew monsters & npcs than probably any other edition, it seems to be more popular than in others. I guess all of you DMs out there deserve a big kudos!

Telonius
2010-06-14, 11:13 AM
I'm currently running a Shackled City campaign. Loads of fun. I think the biggest problem it (or any other published adventure) has is the assumed level of optimization. I regularly find myself adding in an extra monster, or rebuilding important enemy NPCs so they aren't doing clever things like taking the "Athletic" feat when it's not a prerequisite for anything.

the humanity
2010-06-14, 01:43 PM
I enjoy making a lot of inner city type campaigns and making what you could consider a really long sandy railroad.

brew them myself. currently I've hollowed out the very center of Forgotten Realms (a druid did it >_>) and the players are currently fighting among a pair of sleeping Godslayers. fun.

Thurbane
2010-06-14, 09:36 PM
Our recent adventures have been:


(Me as DM) Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (current)
(Stu as DM) Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (8/10 from me, playing as Human Copper Dragon Shaman)
(Mark as DM) Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde (8.5/10 from me, playing as a Human Evoker)
(Stu as DM) Red Hand of Doom (9/10 from me, playing as a Human Cleric of St Cuthbert)

...as you can tell, I don't like playing demi-humans. :smalltongue:

SethFahad
2010-06-14, 11:36 PM
So, do you homebrew your adventures, use ones from Dungeon magazine, or what?

A little bit of this...a little bit of that...

Currently I am running Shadowdale - The Scouring of the Land, with some modifications and some homebrew side-quests.

I like to get some minor ideas from dungeon-magazine adventures and create my own senarios.

Grommen
2010-06-14, 11:52 PM
I think the biggest problem with adventure making in 3X is the fact that it is 3.X edition. Not to say that 3.X is a bad edition but it's a giant 12 headed beast of options, rules, and stats. It is a great evolution to the game, but when you sit down to write an adventure, trying to balance it is just plane silly. And that is just the core game, adding thousands of pages of splat books, and then other peoples D20 additions. It's a daunting task.

Another aspect of it is print runs. Wile everyone picks up a players handbook and the splat books, only the DM needs to pick up the adventure. So adventures are not as good of a seller. It's been my impression that Wizards (the driver of D&D) was not interested in adventures, so with their 3.X line they focused on cranking out top sellers, and let other companies make adventures. So wile one of the smaller companies might be big in your neighborhood, but might not have gotten to mine. So even if it's a great adventure, it might not have gotten to your neck of the woods.

With that in mind Goodmen games has written some outstanding 3.X dungeon hacks. What they lack in creative plot they make up for in good old dungeon hacking fun. And they are generic enough that with little modification you can drag and drop them into your existing campaign, with a little more work you can take their generic monsters and bad guys and sprinkle the flavor you want.

One of our favorite adventures to date is Goodmen Games "Cage of Delerium" #34. Imagine a Ravenloft like adventure done in an abandoned (but not exactly empty) insane asylum. The term Laundry by Kathlolu will always conjure up images that make me giggle with evil joy...

And the boys over at Pathfinder do some kick ass work. The Second Darkness adventure path is not only epic in scope, but some of the stuff they did in it is down right ausome. The first module (Pathfinder #13 Shadow in the Sky) is one of the best campaign starters I've read in a long, long time. Remember the Pathfinder people are the people that did Dungeon and Dragon Magazines for a long time. They know adventures.

I've heard great things about "The Red Hand of Doom" as well, so Wizards did some good adventures. Back in the day they had the talent (Red hand was co written by the main editor over at Pathfinder adventure paths.)

Harperfan7
2010-06-14, 11:57 PM
For me its a pretty even split between homebrew and dungeon magazines.

Specifically, I do all the low level adventures because I think most of dungeons' low level adventures are crap. Their mid levels are the best in my opinion.

drengnikrafe
2010-06-15, 12:31 AM
I only run a premade adventure when I have no ideas and am told to run a campaign now, or when I am physically incapable of producing the feel or danger level of the campaign. So... fear based campaigns. Other than that, I make them all myself, gague the reaction of my PCs, take surveys as to what they do and don't enjoy, and produce more of what they do.