HYPERBOREA » Favorite modules!

Chainsaw · 11/22/2018 10:41 pm

Let's hear your favorite non-AS&SH modules. I say non-AS&SH because I think we're all familiar with the AS&SH ones and I'm curious to know what other modules people have enjoyed. Perhaps I can use them in my campaign, even if it requires some fine-tuning (like removing demi-humans etc). Here are some very basic categories to consider:

1. Favorite modules you've run
2. Favorite modules you've only read and want to run
3. Favorite modules you've played

Iron Ranger · 11/22/2018 11:50 pm

Hands down, the best (though always voted the worst), with heavy embellishment – N2 Forest Oracle

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 1:34 am

1. X2 Castle Amber, which I just ran at GameHole. Had an absolute blast. Also, Tegel Manor. Another fun module to run.

2. WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins. It's a serious take by TSR on Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk for 2nd Ed AD&D. There's some pretty cool stuff in there.

3. Village of Hommlet.

Brock Savage · 11/23/2018 1:43 am

1. Barrowmaze is the quintessential old school megadungeon and a DM can place it in the Lug Wasteland.

There are dungeon factions and rival adventuring groups. There's a nearby town with some stuff going on. I imagined it as a boom town with murder hobos flocking from all over Hyperborea to plunder the barrows.

Exploration is rewarded and encouraged but random monsters get much worse when night falls so the players need to exercise time and noise discipline. Players also have to travel through a dangerous swamp just to get from town to the adventure site. All of this ensures the players always feel under the gun and pressed for time, something I strive for in most adventures.

There's a lot of content in and above the dungeon but it makes sense and doesn't feel like a bunch of rooms slapped together and stocked with monsters as if they were xp and treasure pinatas.

The dungeon is quite deadly and it's really easy for players to get in over their head if they aren't careful.

2. All of these adventures exist in my sandbox or are going to be triggered by events at some point. All of these can fit into Hyperborea with a minimum of effort and creativity.

The Red Prophet Rises
Barbarian King by Gabor Lux
Operation Unfathomable.
DCC 84 Peril on the Purple Planet
B4 The Lost City
The Six-Thousand Steps by Pete Douglas
The Monastery of the Order of Crimson Monks by Dragonsfoot
Many Gates of the Gann

3. I am a forever-DM who has never enjoyed a published D&D adventure run by someone else.

Last edited by Brock Savage (11/23/2018 1:47 am)

rhialto · 11/23/2018 6:57 am

Another strong endorsement for Barrowmaze: easily tweaked for Hyperborea (by switching the religious factions vying for control in the catacombs).

Chainsaw · 11/23/2018 7:48 am

Iron Ranger wrote:
Hands down, the best (though always voted the worst), with heavy embellishment – N2 Forest Oracle

Yeah, I was about to say, doesn't this one get rated poorly? What do you like about, do you do anything to "fix" the alleged problems, whatever they are supposed to be?

Ar'Pharazon wrote:
1. X2 Castle Amber, which I just ran at GameHole. Had an absolute blast. Also, Tegel Manor. Another fun module to run.

I have been meaning to buy this one. What do you like about it?

Brock Savage wrote:
1. Barrowmaze is the quintessential old school megadungeon and a DM can place it in the Lug Wasteland.

rhialto wrote:
Another strong endorsement for Barrowmaze: easily tweaked for Hyperborea (by switching the religious factions vying for control in the catacombs).

I have Barrowmaze complete, so I'm ready to rock here. I may see about locating it somewhere nearer to Xambaala. Also, happy birthday, rhialto!

Brock Savage wrote:

The Red Prophet Rises
Barbarian King by Gabor Lux
Operation Unfathomable.
DCC 84 Peril on the Purple Planet
B4 The Lost City
The Six-Thousand Steps by Pete Douglas
The Monastery of the Order of Crimson Monks by Dragonsfoot
Many Gates of the Gann

Super helpful! I have the ones in bold, I'll check out the others.

Brock Savage wrote:
3. I am a forever-DM who has never enjoyed a published D&D adventure run by someone else.

Hahaha!

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 10:21 am

Brock Savage wrote:

2. All of these adventures exist in my sandbox or are going to be triggered by events at some point. All of these can fit into Hyperborea with a minimum of effort and creativity.

DCC 84 Peril on the Purple Planet

I completely agree with this, as IMO, just about all DCC modules can be fit into Hyperborea. In fact, I've run something from #84 in Hyperborea and only needed to tweak a few minor items.

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 10:23 am

Chainsaw wrote:
Ar'Pharazon wrote:
1. X2 Castle Amber, which I just ran at GameHole. Had an absolute blast. Also, Tegel Manor. Another fun module to run.
I have been meaning to buy this one. What do you like about it?

Which one, Castle Amber or Tegel Manor?

Chainsaw · 11/23/2018 10:30 am

Ar'Pharazon wrote:
Chainsaw wrote:
Ar'Pharazon wrote:
1. X2 Castle Amber, which I just ran at GameHole. Had an absolute blast. Also, Tegel Manor. Another fun module to run.
I have been meaning to buy this one. What do you like about it?
Which one, Castle Amber or Tegel Manor?

Sorry, X2.

I have Tegel Manor and want to use it at some point, but I'm also looking forward to Melan's Castle Xyntillan, a large dungeon which he hopes to release next year.

Iron Ranger · 11/23/2018 10:35 am

N2 is hated for being super railroady. So just rip out the rails and add the sand.
It's underwritten, which is a boon actually. Allows a heavy embellisher like me endless on the fly fun.
some things I did to spice it up, add communicable disease to the drought. flip the allegiance of the Druids. Add an army tracking the party, multiply the paths between destinations. Strength the influence of the halfling in the region.And for gods sake plant a Helm of Read Languages inside the log one of the players needs to hide in so they can read the scratches along the dirt road.

lige · 11/23/2018 2:27 pm

1. X2 Castle Amber - with some additions and removing the rails I've used it as a backdrop for my South Bend AD&D game for years. Thieves Fortress Badabaskor was also a pretty fun one to run.

2. B4 The Lost City (though i did get to run one session) I always felt like this would make a great beginning to a campaign.

3. The Tomb of Horrors - Spent about 5 months real time skyping in with my Portland group playing this when I was living in NC. Lots of memorable moments and the fact that I was up so late because of timezone differences made it all seem extra weird and dreamlike.

Brock Savage · 11/23/2018 2:55 pm

Iron Ranger wrote:
It's underwritten, which is a boon actually. Allows a heavy embellisher like me endless on the fly fun.

I agree. A few sentences of terse but evocative description stimulates my creativity. I've never read N2 but will offer my unpopular opinion that not ALL railroading is bad. A tiny bit of railroading used judiciously goes a long way, especially if it springboards an exciting adventure with tons of player agency (starting an adventure in media res is a good example).

rhialto · 11/23/2018 4:31 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
I have Barrowmaze complete, so I'm ready to rock here. I may see about locating it somewhere nearer to Xambaala. Also, happy birthday, rhialto!

One thing I'm considering is adding in some more Elder Gods to Barrowmaze, probably because I've got Realms of Crawling Chaos (excellent weird resource) and am reading Robert Chambers' "The Yellow Sign" now.

And thank you! ...guess I need to work on my obfuscatory skills more.

M'Koth · 11/23/2018 8:28 pm

1: Toss up between B1 In Search of the Unknown and Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits. Radically different when it comes to level of play, but both offer a ton of room for me to add fun and insanity.

2: Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence.

3: S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 8:40 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
Sorry, X2.

Castle Amber is a funhouse, but not over the top like Tegel Manor. It allows for significant amounts of player/NPC interaction, plenty of player decisions to be made, with a large amount of player dice rolls (ST's, feat and test rolls).The Castle itself it small enough to where it can be thoroughly explored in 2 or so sessions. The group I ran it for at Gamehole went through 2 of the 3 wings of the castle in 5.5 hours, and they didn't get to the small dungeon below.

Chainsaw wrote:
I have Tegel Manor and want to use it at some point, but I'm also looking forward to Melan's Castle Xyntillan, a large dungeon which he hopes to release next year.

Tegel Manor is huge, and the randomness of it is cool at first, but it becomes something of a potential turn off after awhile. There's rooms in which the group encounters some nasty baddies that is a likely TPK, but in the very next room - three 4hp skeletons.
Something to note for anyone potentially running it, is that nearly the entire place is undead monsters. Some Ref's may not mind, for others, that's not their bag.

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 8:44 pm

lige wrote:
1. Thieves Fortress Badabaskor was also a pretty fun one to run.

I own that, but I must confess, I've never even looked through it. I should get around to do that one day.

Iron Ranger · 11/23/2018 8:50 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
Iron Ranger wrote:
It's underwritten, which is a boon actually. Allows a heavy embellisher like me endless on the fly fun.
I agree. A few sentences of terse but evocative description stimulates my creativity. I've never read N2 but will offer my unpopular opinion that not ALL railroading is bad. A tiny bit of railroading used judiciously goes a long way, especially if it springboards an exciting adventure with tons of player agency (starting an adventure in media res is a good example).

Brock, def give N2 a look and let the juices flow! I can already think of a thousand ways to move it Hyperborea and I'm slobbering all the sudden.

Brock Savage · 11/23/2018 10:19 pm

rhialto wrote:
One thing I'm considering is adding in some more Elder Gods to Barrowmaze, probably because I've got Realms of Crawling Chaos (excellent weird resource) and am reading Robert Chambers' "The Yellow Sign" now.

I always assumed that Apollo, Artemis, Helios, and Rel were Lovecraftian Elder Gods although it wouldn't effect gameplay at all.

In my game, The King in Yellow desires Khromarium and has a couple cults for that purpose.

Ar'Pharazon · 11/23/2018 11:22 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
In my game, The King in Yellow desires Khromarium and has a couple cults for that purpose.

I absolutely love that.

rhialto · 11/24/2018 7:21 am

Brock Savage wrote:
I always assumed that Apollo, Artemis, Helios, and Rel were Lovecraftian Elder Gods although it wouldn't effect gameplay at all.

In my game, The King in Yellow desires Khromarium and has a couple cults for that purpose.

Interesting...as I haven't quite finished The Yellow Sign (1/3rd done) I'm not sure where it's headed, but Hastur, Carcosa and Hali are mentioned frequently. I can't quite tell yet if Chambers' use of them is pre-Lovecraftian, or his own take on otherworldly weirdness.