Favourite Modules

[Totally Guy]

What with all the module controversy I found myself thinking of one particular module that stood out in my mind that gave me happy memories.

My favourite module by far is a scenario for Burning Wheel system called The Gift.

It's about a team of pregenerated noble and wise elves that have travelled to the dwarven halls to visit their newly crowned greedy prince and his poisonous advisors to discuss their nations relations with each other...

It's also about a group of pregenerated honourable dwarves in their ornate hall that are visited upon by a group of rude and troublesome elves...


The trouble starts when the elves arrive at the dwarven stronghold and have forgotten to bring a gift for their prince. The elven prince however happens to be wearing the finest mithral armour ever to exist. But he loves it too much to part with it.

From there the stage is set and the characters, all having their own agendas, end up squabbling, defecting, imprisoning and killing each other.

I ran this at a GitP meetup and the dwarves were totally badass! The two countries ended up making peace against all the odds when the dwarven vizier manipulated everyone into joining forces to attack a nation of gnomes so that his plot to poison the the elves, which backfired, wouldn't be discovered!

If I make it to the next meetup I'd run it again. But it looks like I won't make it...

[AsteriskAmp]

Whispers of the Vampire Blade. That's as epic as any campaign can get.
You fight a vampire atop the lighting rail while it is raided.

[valadil]

I don't have a lot of experience with pre-written tabletop modules. But I've done a lot of theater style LARPing, which is distinct from the boffer style, whack you with foam swords and pretend a bean bag is a lightning bolt LARPs. Theater style games are pre-written, even the characters. Each character has 2-8 connections to other characters and a set of goals. The games are kind of like the resolution of conflicting plots, all happening in the same place. I think these LARPs sort of count as published modules, but if they're not appropriate I can remove my post.

Anyway, I want to recommend Etherlines: The Morning After as a game to play. Don't google it, because it's easily spoiled. But if you get a chance I highly recommend playing it. It's a weekend long and worth every minute. I usually see games of it running every couple of years at colleges around here.

[Undercroft]

Castle Ravenloft (both the 2e and 3.5e versions).
Strahd is my homie.

[AsteriskAmp]

Castle Ravenloft (both the 2e and 3.5e versions).
Strahd is my homie.

I support this statement, Castle Ravenloft is very popular here from what I've seen, in this forums. I love it as well, injecting randomness into a module, it's one you can play several times and will never follow the same trail thanks to the card readings and the nightly trailing by the count and his followers which add a great deal of excitement to both veteran and newbies alike.

[navar100]

I haven't knowingly played many modules, but any I know I have I tend to like if there was a really cool moment. A module could be fun, but for me to remember it something spectacular has to happen. That brings up two modules.

Sunless Citadel - The introduction to 3E, I really, really like Meepo. I ended up playing it three times among different gaming groups. My favorite was when the party befriended the kobolds. They really, really liked us for getting rid of the goblins for them and rescuing their "pet".

2E U1, U2, U3 series. I played U1 once in college. I had forgotten about it when I played it again many years later, when we played U2 and U3 as well. The second time was a blast to play. The pseudodragon adopted my paladin. When it was time to confront the lizardmen, I stressed to the party they weren't our enemy. We were investigating the situation for Salt Marsh, but the lizardmen had done nothing "wrong" even though they traded with the pirates. The party followed my lead. Naturally the lizardmen guards attacked when we first approached. They were only defending their home, after all. Because we couldn't communicate we reluctantly fought back but only to subdue. We killed no lizardmen, trying to do as little harm as possible. When we finally found the Lizardman King and his advisor who spoke Common, we immediately dropped our weapons and pleaded our case and reason for being there. The fact that we had done no real harm to the lizardmen was a plus in our favor for diplomacy. The Lizardmen listened to us. They told us about the Sahuaguin. We routed the Sahuagin out of the Lizardmen's true home. The Lizardmen reestablished good relations with Salt Marsh, and the party became friends with them.

[Morghen]

Purely for nostalgic reasons:

Isle of Dread - First module I ever ran.
Ruins of Adventure - I ran a party of two (plus something like five NPCs) through this for about two years. We didn't get a whole lot done. (Mostly because we were in 6th grade.)

[SleepyShadow]

Tomb of Horrors.

[/thread]

[dsmiles]

Favorite module?

Either the Against the Giants series, or Undermountain.

[Ravens_cry]

Tomb of Horrors.

[/thread]

That's my least favourite personally. It's basically the epitome of the "killer dungeon" and "player vs. DM" mentality I really find repugnant.
But hey, whatever provides buoyancy for your small nautical vassal.
My favourite published campaign was Legacy of Fire. I want to play another Arabian-esque campaign, it was a nice change from Quasi-European Fantasy.

[Innis Cabal]

The Shackled City.

[Telasi]

The Tomb of Horrors (2e, 3.5, and especially 4e). I have fond memories of running the first two, and a handful of good stories from playing in the 4e version. The 4e Tomb is the only one I'd consider dropping in a campaign I didn't want to kill, though.

Favorite module I'd actually put in a campaign is Undermountain.

[ken-do-nim]

They told us about the Sahuaguin. We routed the Sahuagin out of the Lizardmen's true home.

U3 is a spying mission to pick up the number of sahuagin and report back. You are not expected to beat them all. I'm kind of stunned that you were able to! I have fond memories of running it about 10 years ago.

[genmoose]

Back in college I ran two large modules: Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and The Rod of Seven Parts (same group and characters for each). While we had fun with Elemental Evil, Seven Parts was a different but better module.

For me the fun part about Seven Parts was that it needed some work from the DM to merge it into a proper setting. We ran it in the Forgotten Realms and while the module gave us a general plot and maps for specific locations, it was up to the DM to decide where the pieces were located. I had a lot of options to throw in local flavor to the game for the PC's journey to or from the latest piece of the Rod.

[AslanCross]

Red Hand of Doom for 3.5. It has a plot without being railroaded, and it tries to offer suggestions for how to deal with the crazy things PCs tend to do. It does have its downsides, but it's certainly flexible and well-written, not to mention fun.

[Eldariel]

Bastion of the Broken Souls [D&D 3.0] is the only well-written pre-epic (18+) module I've found. It accounts for all the powers high-level magic provides you with and writes it all into the story. Quite modular, easy to modify to your needs and has a really memorable villain (Module Spoilers: Ashardalon, Half-Fiend Great Red Wyrm)

[Ozreth]

Expedition to the ruins of Greyhawk and Sunless Citadel. Definitely 3e classics. Would love to get in on some Ravenloft though.

[ken-do-nim]

Bruce Cordell is very talented; he wrote both Bastion of Broken Souls and Sunless Citadel, as well as the 2E favorites Gates of Firestorm Peak and Shattered Circle. Anyone know what he's been up to recently?

[supermonkeyjoe]

Chiming in for sunless citadel again, to me that it everything that a 1st level introductory dungeon should be and a great way to start off new players.

[The Big Dice]

For freeform modules, it has to be B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Not just a module, a low level campaign setting that even after 25 years still seems streets ahead of anything else. NPCs in need of naming, no cultures nailed down in ways that don't leave room for GM interpretation. An evil temple that hasn't got it's agenda laid out in simple terms, again leaving room for GM interpretation. Blank spots on the map. And dungeons full of humanoids that actually have reasons not to kill each other, but might do anyway.

And a mad hermit in the forest!

That or Mirror, Mirror for Legend of the Five Rings. Genuine horror, scary for players and characters alike and without doubt the single best tournament style module I've ever ran. Even if it isn't strictly official and never went on sale.

[Morghen]

Bruce Cordell is very talented. Anyone know what he's been up to recently?

http://tinyurl.com/6xjlkme

[Cyrion]

I've always had a soft spot for White Plume Mountain and the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (2nd in Against the Giants) from 1e. I don't know that they're particularly excellent modules, but they were the first I played in (WPM) and owned (GRotFGJ).

[TroubleBrewing]

If this is 3.5 specific, then I've got to go with Undermountain.

If it isn't, then Chaosium's "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" for Call of Cthulhu.

So. Damned. Good.

Sodamnedgood.

So good, you checked for hidden text.

[Totally Guy]

I remember wanting to do a retro night (Nevermind that I'd never roleplayed prior to 2007). So I downloaded a Tunnels and Trolls module from 1978 called "Dungeon of the Bear".

The party encountered a boulder trap, some big beetles and some boxes containing boots and a badger brooch. They were both cursed. The wizard got transformed into a badger. The party then died to a banshee.

They didn't know whether the dungeon was meant to be B themed or whether it was just a coincidence that they happened to meet b things.

[navar100]

U3 is a spying mission to pick up the number of sahuagin and report back. You are not expected to beat them all. I'm kind of stunned that you were able to! I have fond memories of running it about 10 years ago.

Maybe the DM altered it to allow for defeating them. I don't know. I only know it from playing.

[Ozreth]

How is the 3.5 Keep on the Borderlands? Wasn't it done somewhere?

[Earthwalker]

I really enjoyed playing in Harlequin for shadowrun 3. It was alot of fun. Of course I have never run it for players so that might have been my GM at the time.

For a campiaign book though I would have to go with

Dunklezahn Will. (Can't remember the title now)

Basically it started with an online copy of the will of the most famous dragon in the sixth world and just left nothing but plot hooks for greedy players. So much fun.

[hamlet]

How is the 3.5 Keep on the Borderlands? Wasn't it done somewhere?

Not officially to the best of my, far from adequate, knowledge, but I really can't imagine that it wouldn't work quite well. You might have to fiddle with some of the encounters cause things would get very hairy very fast in a 3.x framework, but it is certainly doable.

B2 is certainly my favorite module.

But I have a soft spot in my heart for a stitched together pair of Ravenloft modules Feast of Goblyns and Castles Forlorn. Just surgically remove the first 30-40% of the first one and stitch it into the side of the second (i.e., antagonist of the first gets involved in the 2nd via theft, or trying to hire the PC's into doing something, etc.) and you have the makings of a great adventure. With time travel. And it really works.

Took our group about 2 years of real time, along with some side adventures for breathers and leveling, to push our way through this module, though it's doable in a couple days if you cotton on to what's happening quickly enough.

[dsmiles]

You know, I've been working on a 4e conversion of one of my favorite campaigns (not really a module, so I didn't list it): Night Below.

I'm still stuck in the first book. Some of the encounters aren't converting very well.