Module Advice (3.5)

[bokodasu]

I recently came into a large stash of 3.5 modules - I haven't even cataloged them all yet, but I think it's all the WotC ones, plus the World's Largest Dungeon (which is, indeed, quite large), and maybe a couple others. It is a huge pile.

And I don't even know where to start with them. I've been wanting to run a game with some friends of mine, so it's nice timing. I think they want more plot than the WLD, and if we do anything too scary, my daughter will have nightmares. (Scary as in Ravenloft, not scary as in oh no monsters, because she loves to slay her a monster. It's the psychological horror she can't do.) I would personally prefer a multi-level adventure, or several that work together as a coherent story, and we'd probably want to start at at least level 4, unless there's some superexcellent module at a lower one.

So... suggestions?

[LansXero]

Not sure if you have that, but the shackled city adventure was pretty nice. Granted, I never played, just read through it, but it was something I wanted to run at the time.

[Yora]

I've read the summaries of the Shackled City adventures, and it didn't seem that interesting to me. But oppinions may vary.

Judging by this forum, Red Hand of Doom seems to be highly popular and well recieved. If you have that one, I think it might be a safe choice.

[Another_Poet]

I second Red Hand of Doom if you have it, what a great storyline. Shacked City was OK, but just OK.

Honestly, you might consider WLD and just add plot of your own. If you have a chance I recommend playing Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (or even just perusing the sidequests in the walkthroughs at that link). It has a lot of good examples of interesting, flavourful quests that all involve delving into the same dungeon.

[bokodasu]

I do have Red Hand of Doom! I'll check it out, thanks. I'm not sure if I have Shackled City or not, but I'll take a look at it too.

And yeah, I do kind of want to run WLD - I think someone said there is a plot, but it doesn't start showing up until the end? Maybe I can do something with it. Mostly I'm worried we won't have enough time to finish it.

[Yora]

In that case I recommend doing a series of unconnected adventures of medium length. Each with its own beginning and ending, so you can tie things up every time and then decide if you want to do one more or not.
But to give advice on that, we'd really need a list of what things you have.

[randomhero00]

I'd say read through several, and mix and match your own. You know what your players want better than the module author.

[Godskook]

Scourge of the Howling Horde, would make an excellent 'pre-module' to Red Hand of Doom, giving the RHoD a longer build-up, and giving you a chance to introduce the 5th beetleDragon at a lower, rather than higher, level(It'd require you to re-write which dragon was in Howling Horde, but meh).

[ericgrau]

I do have Red Hand of Doom! I'll check it out, thanks. I'm not sure if I have Shackled City or not, but I'll take a look at it too.

And yeah, I do kind of want to run WLD - I think someone said there is a plot, but it doesn't start showing up until the end? Maybe I can do something with it. Mostly I'm worried we won't have enough time to finish it.

Roughly 17 billion giantitp members have played RHoD. It comes highly recommended. I've also heard good opinions on keep on the borderlands and some level 10-15+ spider queen adventure I forget the name of.

[randomhero00]

That is, personally, when I play as a player, I find modules boring as heck for whatever reason. If the DM doesn't add in any changes I"m just bleh.

[Smeggedoff]

Shackled City as previously mentioned is "ok"
I'm running it right now and most of the entertainment is coming from in jokes and wacky antics (such as the scout who couldn't figure out how to open a door WITH the key in his hand. Seriously.)

Red hand of doom is on my to-do list though... if my players ever managed to haul their way through the intrigues of The Cauldron.

[Pigkappa]

That is, personally, when I play as a player, I find modules boring as heck for whatever reason. If the DM doesn't add in any changes I"m just bleh.

As a player, you shouldn't know the module's content and then you shouldn't know whether he added any changes or not.

[LansXero]

As a player, you shouldn't know the module's content and then you shouldn't know whether he added any changes or not.

He was probably told afterwards. I know the few times Ive tried running a module I always gave it to the guys at the end of that particular adventure. Often, they dont recognize anything past page 2. I suck at running modules, I always change everything. I guess thats why I liked Shackled City, it seemed like a good base to work on. =/

[dsmiles]

I'd recommend the 3e adventure series (Sunken Citadel, etc) but that's only because I absolutely loved the way we handled them. We went with an evil party, and instead of killing all the bad guys, we did a lot of RP. We made alliances, broke alliances, recruited the kobolds (including Meepo) to work for us. (Of course, we broke that deal, and enslaved the entire Kobold tribe. )

EDIT: Also, Return to Myth Drannor was a popular one with my group. We played through it several times.

[bokodasu]

Well, there's running a module and there's running a module. I've played with DMs who just read the boxed text verbatim, all shoegazing-mumbly style, and a) that's pretty boring and b) I can tell they haven't changed anything. So I can see not liking that. But you can also take a module and make it your own, which is what I try to do. (I don't claim to be an expert, but I know what I'm working towards, at least.)

Enough of my players wanted to start at level 1 that we're going for WLD. I'll probably change up a bunch of stuff, though - there's a bunch of things that just won't do. (Don't let your casters have Web? Oh come on now, you can do better than that.)