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View Full Version : Looking for an elegant, low-level adventure



Tytalus
2011-01-03, 12:30 PM
It looks like I have to take the DM seat for a while again, so I am looking for a nice adventure for it. I'd very much like to run a game which breaks the mold and offers the character opportunities to focus on their characters and the story rather than what's behind the next dungeon door and how to kill it.

In particular, I'm looking for an adventure that


Has a low starting level (1-4, perhaps up to 6)
Encourages role-playing, at least occasionally
Is more than just a dungeon crawl
Ideally has a non-linear plot


A great example would be The Red Hand of Doom, which covers all the points above. Unfortunately, it's not an option - the players already know it.

Background on the group: it's an odd group of players with...


Several years of D&D experience each
Varying degrees of rule knowledge (including none - yes, I am aware that this is strange)
Varying degrees of optimization skills
Not used to roleplaying and (non-accidental) character development, although I believe most would enjoy that


House rules: to address character imbalance due to varying rules knowledge and optimization skills, I'll likely restrict the available classes to Tier 3 (and perhaps 4) classes.

So far I've read a number of online reviews of official adventures (it's not a requirement that the adventure I pick is official, I just found more reviews for those) in that level range and found a few that seem to have one or more things I'm looking for. Unfortunately, they also seem to have drawbacks. The three I'm still considering are:


The Sunless Citadel (drawback: dungeon crawl, somewhat linear plot)
Sons of Gruumsh (drawback: seems too similar to Red Hand of Doom, linear plot)
Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (drawback: very linear, but might be ok given the theme; plot holes)
The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde (drawback: linear, almost pure dungeon crawl)


Any suggestions or comments? Any personal experiences with adventures that fit the criteria, perhaps?

SilverLeaf167
2011-01-03, 12:36 PM
I've never used modules, so I can't really help you with that, but you should always be careful with "encouraging roleplay", especially if the players don't like it very much. They'll often get confused about what to do when there's nothing to kill or just plain bored, OR they might do something crazy, which might or might not ruin the whole game/plot. Do you have any experience about how your players react to roleplaying situations?

Kol Korran
2011-01-03, 12:52 PM
i agree with silverLeaf167 in that if the players don't want to roleplay, then there is no need to push them that way. that said, you're allowed to experiment- maybe they'll like it?

on the subject:
- Whispers of the vampire's blade is a Horrible adventure in my experience. there are way too many things that aren't addressed which moderately intelligent players might do. such as:
when they board the air ship the players might decide to intimidate/ persuade/ charm/ sneak past (you wanted roleplay, right?) the captain back to the dimensional closet, or whatever it was (i forgot). the same goes for the train ride, where they want to get to the more private booths where the vampire resides.

i wish i could suggest you an adventure, but i find most lacking. i like to take elements from them and incorporate them into my adventure. the persuasion of the pirate king in "eyes of the lich queen" might be a nice example you can use.

i wish you luck with your endeavor.
Kol.

Loren
2011-01-03, 01:11 PM
We really liked the first adventures from the War Of the Burning Sky by EN World (their site is currently closed for maintainace).
It had interesting challenges and room for roleplaying (I didn't DM so I don't know what was script and what was DM, but I did read the first adventure after we were done it and it looked good).
The draw back may be that it is a campaign designed to go to level 20. The adventures are modular, so you could work it into an ongoing campaign, but it would requires some work.

It seems to me that published adventures tend to struggle with non-linear action and rewarding particular characters as a natural consequence of their scripted nature. The best I've ever seen was Freedom from the original Dark Sun which provided a general timeline and various encounters the DM could present the players with. Finding a copy might be a challenge and it would probably need up dating to your system/world of choice. The enslavement of the PCs may not go over well in some groups.
---
edit, it doesn't look like Freedom is too hard to find, depending on ones scruples.

Ernir
2011-01-03, 01:11 PM
"Non-linear plot" and "published module" don't really work well together. RHoD is an exception, I am told, but really, publishing something that can take the players in multiple directions isn't exactly easy. And I haven't seen it happen in the modules I've read.

Are you sure you need a published module here?

Tytalus
2011-01-04, 05:47 AM
I've never used modules, so I can't really help you with that, but you should always be careful with "encouraging roleplay", especially if the players don't like it very much. They'll often get confused about what to do when there's nothing to kill or just plain bored, OR they might do something crazy, which might or might not ruin the whole game/plot. Do you have any experience about how your players react to roleplaying situations?

Good points; perhaps I wasn't too clear on that (updated the original post now). I think most of the players would enjoy more roleplaying, but are simply too used to modules that take them from one dungeon room with monsters/traps to the next. They do the occasional talking to NPCs, but it's mostly wooden and, without encouragement, more often just "I ask the NPC about X" than not.



- Whispers of the vampire's blade is a Horrible adventure in my experience.

...

i like to take elements from them and incorporate them into my adventure. the persuasion of the pirate king in "eyes of the lich queen" might be a nice example you can use.


Noted. Thank you!


We really liked the first adventures from the War Of the Burning Sky by EN World

...

It seems to me that published adventures tend to struggle with non-linear action and rewarding particular characters as a natural consequence of their scripted nature. The best I've ever seen was Freedom from the original Dark Sun which provided a general timeline and various encounters the DM could present the players with.

Thanks, I'll have a look at those.


Are you sure you need a published module here?

I'd prefer to draw on something that's been (more or less) thoroughly thought-out, as I simply don't have enough prep time on my hands to do everything myself.

Eldan
2011-01-04, 06:14 AM
If you know a bit about Planescape (specifically the city of Sigil) and aren't opposed to do some finishing work on it yourself, Planewalkers has a downloadable adventure called Desire and the Dead on their webpage.

It is based in one of the poorest districts of the city of Sigil, and the PCs are hired to generally keep the peace, hunt down a dangerous monsters and, more or less peacefully, deal with gang problems and a gang of dangerous lunatics. (There's more in the background).

It has, in my opinion, a lot of interesting NPCs and locations, and good roleplaying opportunities, if you take the time to flesh some of it out a little more.

The interesting thing about it, and why you might like it, is that it's almost entirely based on various random encounters you can throw at the PCs, some of which advance the plot, and some of which don't, and lists of locations and NPCs the PCs might see or meet.

Diarmuid
2011-01-04, 11:59 AM
If you liked RHoD, then Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land is written in a very similar style. I cant speak to the overall quality of the adventure as my group never got around to running it.

I will say that we didnt get to running it as it is the second part of a three part series and the first part was horrendous. Now part of that was because the module reliied very heavily on some mechanics that the characters were not well equipped to deal with and the players were not versed enough to really change up their tactics, but all in all I found the module quite lacking in many ways (I DM'd it).

All I can say about S:tSotL is that having flipped through it, the layout and the directions the party can take seemed in a similar style to RHoD where there's an overarching conflict and you deal with a bunch of parts, and the order you do them in has different impacts on how it plays out.

Savannah
2011-01-04, 02:42 PM
I've played and really liked Sunless Citadel. Granted, it is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawl. (I'm going to be DMing it sometime, and am planning on adding stuff at the town at the beginning to mix stuff up a bit.)

Tokuhara
2011-01-04, 02:49 PM
I suggest a nerfed Ravenloft. Very nonlinear, not quite a dungeon crawl, and absolutely terrifying on the player's end

Tytalus
2011-01-05, 07:19 AM
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

:smallsmile:


If you know a bit about Planescape (specifically the city of Sigil) and aren't opposed to do some finishing work on it yourself, Planewalkers has a downloadable adventure called Desire and the Dead on their webpage.

...

The interesting thing about it, and why you might like it, is that it's almost entirely based on various random encounters you can throw at the PCs, some of which advance the plot, and some of which don't, and lists of locations and NPCs the PCs might see or meet.

That sounds good, but sadly I'm not very familiar with Planescape or Sigil (except for a few short trips there as a player). I couldn't find any reviews online - does anyone have experience with it? I think I'll have a look at it.


If you liked RHoD, then Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land is written in a very similar style.

Makes sense, as it was also done by Rich Baker (of RHoD fame). An interesting suggestion, albeit for a higher level group that intended.

But perhaps the precursor adventure Cormyr - Tearing of the Weave is worth looking at? Does anyone have experiences with that? It seems to have received rather positive reviews.


I've played and really liked Sunless Citadel. Granted, it is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawl. (I'm going to be DMing it sometime, and am planning on adding stuff at the town at the beginning to mix stuff up a bit.)

I've played through it once, but was a little underwhelmed in terms of roleplaying opportunities. Also, the plot seemed rather linear and the dungeon positively overcrowded. Perhaps that was due to the DM being not that great; it would seem that the interaction with the kobolds/goblins should provide some interesting situations.


I suggest a nerfed Ravenloft. Very nonlinear, not quite a dungeon crawl, and absolutely terrifying on the player's end

Interesting. It appears to be a good campaign, but at least one of my players has the book and at least skimmed through it already (although, being a bit goth, he'd love me to DM it), plus it seems quite a bit larger in scale as I intended to commit to. I'm also not sure if my immersion-challenged players would be able to sufficiently appreciate the horror theme.

So far I've only seen horror adventures work well (in terms of immersion) with an excellent, well-prepared DM and roleplaying-oriented players. Does this one make it easy for DMs to convey the special atmosphere?

Diarmuid
2011-01-05, 11:31 AM
I DM'd a group through Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave and found it to be lacking in many ways. Though admittedly I was DM'ing a larger group than any published module was intended for, and had a mix of new/experienced players who did not work very well together.

There were a lot of neat mechanics for encounters, but the story felt a little weak, and many of the encounters were just downright mean. Then there's a whole section of the game where the players are in perpetual shadowy illumination and it made for very tedious battles.

YMMV obviously, but I ended up skipping a lot of the final chapter to end it, and the whole group was happier for it being over.

Anxe
2011-01-05, 02:53 PM
I would suggest Tinderbox. It's an adventure that focuses on the PCs trying to stop a crazy arsonist from burning down a wooden town. There are only two opponents in the whole adventure, the arsonist and the fires he leaves behind. The PCs have to juggle putting out the fires as well as preventing the arsonist from starting more. Additionally, the arsonist leaves cryptic clues to his next targets because he's crazy like that.

EDIT: It's in Dungeon magazine #87. According to the site I looked at it's on the CD version, whatever that means.

LansXero
2011-01-05, 02:55 PM
Death in Freeport; its very linear but has many places where it can be not; also, its a bit different from most other modules and has very little dungeon crawling and lots of RPing :D