Is Red Hand of Doom a fun module? Why or why not?

[Zaq]

(This is a continuation of an earlier thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394223-Legend-What-s-a-good-3-5-module-to-update))

So, long story short, I want a good 3.5 module to update to Legend. I want something mid-level, with a decent amount of story, that has relatively varied enemies. I got several suggestions in the thread in which I originally raised this question, and right now, it looks like the best suggestion I got was Red Hand of Doom, mostly because it's one of the only ones that didn't start at 1st-3rd level, which really isn't the level range I want for these purposes. That said, before I commit forty bucks to this (as that's what it looks like it's going for on Amazon), I want at least one more endorsement of it, because it was really just a single suggestion.

I know I've seen Red Hand of Doom mentioned here several times. Is that because it's a good module? How varied are the enemies? Does it actually feel like a mid-level module, in that the enemies can actually challenge mid-level players? In short, is it worth my money? I really want to get started updating whatever module I pick so I can actually get this Legend game off the ground, but like I said, I don't want to risk $40 on a single recommendation. Help me out, Playground. What's RHoD like?

[dascarletm]

I'm AFB right now but from what I remember, most enemies are dragons, goblinoids, or some combination thereof. There are exceptions, so the diversity is pretty decent.

As far as challenge, look at the Red Hand of Doom thread (is it called a handbook?). It has tips on how to up the power of enemies to challenge players at different optimization levels. Vanilla however is set up like any other module with a fairly low optimized party in mind.

[KillianHawkeye]

I'm AFB right now but from what I remember, most enemies are dragons, goblinoids, or some combination thereof. There are exceptions, so the diversity is pretty decent.

There are also devils, a few giants, and an entire chapter revolving around undead.

While I've never played the adventure, the thing that attracted me to it as a DM was the fairly detailed setting info as well as an enemy timeline and a built-in system for measuring how much the PCs can disrupt that timeline. It features modular encounters that you can basically throw in anytime the PCs are traveling, a variety of environments, and probably one of the best implementations of giving the PCs specific activities during a massive city-wide battle that I've ever seen. Most of the NPCs are pretty well fleshed out, too.

My players all seemed to really enjoy the adventure, for whatever that's worth.

[Faily]

I have played through RHoD as a player, and I'm currently running a Pathfinder-version of it now as a GM.

RHoD is one of my favorite published adventures, simply because it works pretty well for a lot of settings, it features my favorite level-range (5-12), and the adventure itself is entertaining to play and lead. Sure, like with most adventures, there needs to be a certain amount of railroading, but I always felt that RHoD does a pretty good job of making the players feel like it's a natural course of action (especially if they're playing Good-aligned characters), rather than hamfisting them into interacting with the plot. RHoD is well-fleshed out, with interesting NPCs and locations for the players to interact with as well, and the writers also did a good job of writing down history for the location, the NPCs, as well as providing strategy for various encounters and enemies.

The enemies are mostly of the goblinoid sort, but there are also; dragons, outsiders, giants, undeads, lizardfolk, and magical beasts.

The adventure have its own timeline, but leaves enough room for players to mess around with it and affect the events of the Horde.

RHoD can work easy as-is if your group isn't too heavy on optimizing, and the Handbook on the forum here have enough ideas for those that need to up the power-level on the enemies some more. The adventure itself is very supportive of the "classic" D&D party line-up, which is from 4-5 characters filling the traditional roles of warrior, thief, priest and mage (with the fifth member filling any gap between there).

[endur]

Short of one of the adventure paths, the best big WOTC modules for 3.x in my opinion were (lots of great 3rd party and dungeon stuff though)
The Red Hand of Doom
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
City of the Spider Queen
Expedition to Ruins of Castle Greyhawk
Expedition to Ravenloft
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits

Of those six, RTTOE and Castle Greyhawk were pure dungeon crawls. COSQ was close to that as well.
Demonweb Pits was outer planes action.
Ravenloft was an extremely heavy undead adventure (but cool and probably my second favorite).

RHOD is an invasion of a country by an army of hobgoblins and dragons. I really like RHOD. I highly recommend it.

In my case, when I run it, I'll modify the stats of the various enemies heavily, but I'll keep the story the same, as the story is great.

[Zaq]

Cool. That's enough endorsement for me. I've placed the order. Now begins the waiting, and then the conversion. Thanks everyone!

[RaggedAngel]

Cool. That's enough endorsement for me. I've placed the order. Now begins the waiting, and then the conversion. Thanks everyone!

I'll throw in another endorsement after the fact. I've both played in a RHoD game and DM'd one, and it's easily the best pre-made module I've ever used. Not perfect, but very well made.

[Palanan]

Since there are some RHoD veterans here, I have a question about running this module:

Would it be too radical a change to substitute humans for the goblinoids?

[Warlocknthewind]

Making them humans makes them squishier, if only a little bit. +2con +2dex make a then last a bit longer than human soldiers, but you could probably get creative with their feat.

When I ran this, I didn't use goblins at all. I made a list of the general rank & file, and a list of the Dragonspawn from various books, and drew lines across. Some fleshing out with levels, and I had an entirely new Horde, which felt more diverse than it was orginally.

[HyperDunkBarkly]

Cool. That's enough endorsement for me. I've placed the order. Now begins the waiting, and then the conversion. Thanks everyone!

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060217a here, look into this while you wait. it's separate so that DM's can have it on hand without flipping through the book.

[Faily]

Since there are some RHoD veterans here, I have a question about running this module:

Would it be too radical a change to substitute humans for the goblinoids?

Mechanically, I'd say no. As pointed out, it will make them a bit squishier.

Fluff-wise, depends on the setting. As is, it works very well as Goblinoids because it's a race that's often underestimated and not expected to raise such a large army (the hobgoblins are described to have been many warring tribes, but brought together under Azur-kul), not to mention the whole "racial superiority over humans"-vibe the horde has. But it can be changed fluff-wise to humans, I guess, by having it be savage tribes of humans being united by someone like Azur-kul, or an enemy nation with some more tweaking. Basically, as an invasion-story, it can work for a lot of different races.

[Karsh]

Having run all of RHoD for a group, I can corroborate that it's a really good module. My biggest gripe with it is that the Defense of Brindol is such a climactic series of encounters that the Fane of Tiamat is fairly underwhelming as a finale to the adventure.

[Antariuk]

Another +1 for RHoD. No idea how easy it is convert it to Legend, but the basic premise should rock in any system.

What I like to much about the adventure is the feeling of an escalating threat it conveys. It all starts with a seemingly random encounter on a country road, and ends with an aspect of Tiamat, with lots of guerilla tactics in between. The cool thing is the relative freedom the players enjoy in their pursuit of the Red Hand leaders, its entirely possible that it plays out in a different sequence than printed but still ends with an army in front of Brindol's gates. I agree with Karsh that the Fane of Tiamat, the final chapter, is a bit anticlimactic from a storyteller's point of view. Also, the Fane as a dungeon is pretty lame and should be upgraded to something more interesting if used.

Make sure to check out the GM Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?171284-The-3-5-Red-Hand-Of-Doom-Handbook-for-DMs-Major-spoilers!-WIP-PEACH!) since it contains a lot of useful advise and informations about problems, pitfalls, and the like. As a shameless self-plug, check out my signature for some new maps :smallbiggrin:

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Antariuk
As a shameless self-plug, check out my signature for some new maps….

Those are some nice maps. I especially like the old-style version of Elsir Vale--it's very well done, and with a convincingly in-world style, something you could imagine the PCs would actually be holding in their hands.


Originally Posted by Faily
Mechanically, I'd say no. As pointed out, it will make them a bit squishier.

Okay, thanks. Looking through the compilation of stats, a lot of them seem to have pretty subpar feats, like Alertness, Toughness, Persuasive, Stealthy, etc. Would upgrading some of those feats help de-squishify them if they're changed to humans?

[Solaris]

Having run all of RHoD for a group, I can corroborate that it's a really good module. My biggest gripe with it is that the Defense of Brindol is such a climactic series of encounters that the Fane of Tiamat is fairly underwhelming as a finale to the adventure.

I agree. As it is, I think the Fane of Tiamat works better if set before the Defense of Brindol.

[SciChronic]

RHoD is easily one of the best paced 3.X campaign modules. For a module, the railroading is pretty minimum, yet at the same time, the time limit helps give a sense of imminent danger, that helps the PCs from getting too far off track.

[KillianHawkeye]

I agree. As it is, I think the Fane of Tiamat works better if set before the Defense of Brindol.

Funnily enough, my players actually went there before the the horde reached the city and it worked out fine.