HYPERBOREA » Favorite modules!

Brock Savage · 11/24/2018 10:32 am

rhialto wrote:
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.

Chamber's use predates Lovecraft. Although the King in Yellow, Carcosa, etc. has been expanded upon since Chambers it is still perhaps the most ambiguous and mysterious Mythos being. We should probably take this discussion to another thread if it continues!

Last edited by Brock Savage (11/24/2018 10:35 am)

grodog · 11/25/2018 1:14 am

My favorite module ever is still Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu: see my blog post @ https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/09/module-challenge-2-masks-of-nyarlathotep.html for some of my thoughts about it! :D

With that out of the way, I'm tuning my usual favorite modules lists (another blog post) a bit for ASSH's oeuvre:

Chainsaw wrote:
Let's hear your favorite non-AS&SH modules.
1. Favorite modules you've run

Maze of Zayene #4 Eight Kings by Rob Kuntz (AD&D from Creations Unlimited, or d20 from Different Worlds)
WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun by Gary Gygax (AD&D; TSR)
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads by David Cook (D&D; TSR)
X5 Temple of Death by David Cook (D&D; TSR)

I think Eight Kings would make a great extra-dimensional wizard's lair long-abandoned by Eibon or some other EHP. WG4 could easily be hacked to be a living temple serving some Elder God or other Mythos Entity (Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, or Yog-Sothoth would be my choices). X4 and X5 would need some tweaking, but seem like they'd be worth it to me.

Chainsaw wrote:
2. Favorite modules you've only read and want to run

Dark Druids by Rob Kuntz (d20/Troll Lord Games, 1e/Guy Fullerton's Chaotic Henchmen)
The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey by Bob Charette (AD&D; Phoenix Games)
Beastmaker Mountain by Bill Fawcett (AD&D; Mayfair Games)
Demons & Devils by Bill Webb and Clark Peterson (d20; Necromancer Games)

Dark Druids would require some tweaking, but could work well in Hyperborea, especially with its fractious cult. The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey seems like a good 1-2 combo with Beastmaker mountain (both are strongly oriented toward demons), but now I'm thinking about a series of holy sites (part of a pilgrimage?) that might link together the DMG monastery dungeon, X4, and TLAoC, culminating in a visit to X5 then WG4.... Demons & Devils would add some small sites to the trek between such locations, perhaps.

Chainsaw wrote:
3. Favorite modules you've played

The Enemy Within campaign (Warhammer FRP; Games Workshop)
"In Media Res" (Call of Cthulhu; Pagan Publishing

Elements of the Enemy Within Campaign could easily be ported over to ASSH, and I love starting games in the middle of things, which Pagan's old "In Media Res" does with credible flair!

Allan.

grodog · 11/25/2018 1:25 am

Brock Savage wrote:
rhialto wrote:
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.
Chamber's use predates Lovecraft. Although the King in Yellow, Carcosa, etc. has been expanded upon since Chambers it is still perhaps the most ambiguous and mysterious Mythos being. We should probably take this discussion to another thread if it continues!

Pagan Publishing did some very cool work inspired by Chambers' tales, some of which was folded into their Delta Green books, as well as John Tynes' fiction (he wrote three stories for their Armitage House fiction imprint focused on The King in Yellow; two were collected in Rehearsals for Oblivion).

Alan Moore also wrote three serieses of HPL/Chambers-inspired comic books: The Courtyard, Neonomicon, and Providence.

Arc Dream (the modern publisher for Pagan's IP) is also issuing a limited edition of The King in Yellow, due to be published in the spring of 2019; details @ https://shop.arcdream.com/products/the-king-in-yellow-annotated-edition-deluxe-hardback

All are worth digging up if you like that take on the Mythos.

Allan.

Last edited by grodog (11/25/2018 1:33 am)

Brock Savage · 11/25/2018 2:10 am

All I can say is thanks grodog, you have some classics here (WG4 is great weird fantasy) plus some stuff I've never heard of that I plan to look into.

I own both Masks of Nyarlathotep and Tatters of the King but have never run them. I could give some excuse about finding the right group yadda yadda yadda but will be honest and say I find these epic investigations totally intimidating to run.

I own a lot of Chaosium material, particularly anything to do with the King in Yellow. I think Hastur works for Hyperborea because even in a world where beings like Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, and Tsathoggua are accepted his worship would be obscene and forbidden.

Last edited by Brock Savage (11/25/2018 2:11 am)

grodog · 11/25/2018 4:45 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
All I can say is thanks grodog, you have some classics here (WG4 is great weird fantasy) plus some stuff I've never heard of that I plan to look into.

Happy to help spread the word about good scenarios! :D

Brock Savage wrote:
I own both Masks of Nyarlathotep and Tatters of the King but have never run them. I could give some excuse about finding the right group yadda yadda yadda but will be honest and say I find these epic investigations totally intimidating to run.

The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion is an excellent resource for helping to run the campaign. From what I understand, a lot of the concepts were incorporated into the new 7th edition for Masks, which is much larger in size than the original/expanded original versions.

Brock Savage wrote:
I own a lot of Chaosium material, particularly anything to do with the King in Yellow. I think Hastur works for Hyperborea because even in a world where beings like Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, and Tsathoggua are accepted his worship would be obscene and forbidden.

Indeed!

Allan.

Last edited by grodog (11/25/2018 8:51 pm)

Ar'Pharazon · 11/25/2018 10:49 pm

grodog wrote:
2. Favorite modules you've only read and want to run

Dark Druids by Rob Kuntz (d20/Troll Lord Games,

Those factions he wrote are pretty interesting. I had forgotten about this module, as there's a lot to work with for Hyperborea in this one.

Spider of Leng · 11/25/2018 11:29 pm

"Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is also a great CoC campaign, though I've only read it, not played it. For us, the old GDQ series still stands out, as does The Slave Lords series and "Temple of Elemental Evil." A few years ago I ran a very skilled group of players through the 2nd edition adventure "A Paladin in Hell," and it was a blast. B10 is very good for lower levels. So is N1. Of all these, the Slave Lords would certainly port well over to AS&SH.

I'm quite fond of several of the OSR megadungeons like "Barrowmaze," "Rappan Athuk," "Stonehell," "Forbidden Caverns of Archaia," and "Anomalous Sub-surface Environment," but I haven't played them yet. We'll get into one of them next year.

And Matthew Finch's "Cyclopean Deeps" is perfect for Underborea, in my opinion.

Doctor_Rob · 12/24/2018 5:14 am

I’d recommend:
1. The Spider God’s Bride (and other associated scenarios) by Morten Braten (Thulsa)
2. Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia (Necromancer Games, also by Thulsa)

Both are very easily portable into AS&SH, or vice versa. The Spider God’s Bride is solid S&S, and takes place in Thulsa’s world of Xoth. I’ve been running a Xoth game using AS&SH with very little conversion effort.

Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia has some nice scenarios in the second half, with a very strong S&S vibe.

Both are 3rd ed, but conversion is quite streight forwards (if one simply ignores all the splat with new classes etc at the start; AS&SH handles that stuff nicely IMO). There is a Runequest vesion of Spider God’s also.

mabon5127 · 12/24/2018 8:26 am

Doctor_Rob wrote:
I’d recommend:
1. The Spider God’s Bride (and other associated scenarios) by Morten Braten (Thulsa)
2. Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia (Necromancer Games, also by Thulsa)

Both are very easily portable into AS&SH, or vice versa. The Spider God’s Bride is solid S&S, and takes place in Thulsa’s world of Xoth. I’ve been running a Xoth game using AS&SH with very little conversion effort.

Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia has some nice scenarios in the second half, with a very strong S&S vibe.

Both are 3rd ed, but conversion is quite streight forwards (if one simply ignores all the splat with new classes etc at the start; AS&SH handles that stuff nicely IMO). There is a Runequest vesion of Spider God’s also.

Both are wonderful and inspirational and great additions to my campaign.

mabon5127 · 12/24/2018 8:36 am

G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.

This was the first module I ever purchased and I read this over and over as a source of inspiration. I've run players through this many times including AS&SH. For me, it's like a sandbox in a fort with dozens of ways to approach solving and conquering the adventure. Simple genius, fun, fighting, and a continuing story that can be added at any time. This is a prize in my collection.

francisca · 12/24/2018 12:03 pm

1) I've run amazingly few pre-published modules in my time, but of the few, I had a lot of fun with G1 and T1.

2) The Odboxx of Zoforon, by the Scribes of Sparn

3) Taken from Dunwich

Thrasaric · 12/26/2018 9:48 am

Favorites that I have run, The slavers series, Castle Amber, The Giant series, The Isle of Dread!, Against the cult of the reptile god.
Ones I have read that I want to run- The Lost City
Favorite I have played, Mines of Bloodstone.

Kotaso_1 · 1/08/2019 3:39 am

It's really helpful for beginner.

Handy Haversack · 1/18/2019 11:55 am

Chainsaw wrote:
1. Favorite modules you've run

Some highlights from the past few years of AS&SH (reverse chronological order):
1. Fever Swamp, by Luke Gearing (set in Lug Wasteland; just make it cold. A great set of monsters and a tribe generator).
2. Maze of the Blue Medusa, by Patrick Stuart and Zak Smith. Weird, sprawling megadungeon with great faction play.
3. Ruined Palace of the Metegorgos by Evey Lockhart. Excellent take on wild druids and a small but uniquely challenging dungeon.
4. Red Massif by GusL. A powder keg waiting for the PCs to arrive. Also fun to adapt the Road of Tombs to Hyperborea.
5. Prisoners of the Gelatinous Dome by Jeff Call: Super fun one-page dungeon.

We only got partway through Many Gates of the Gann, but I was enjoying it!

Before those:

1. Anomalous Subsurface Environment. An all-time great. I wish more levels had been published.

Other lifetime favorites:

WG4: Tharizdun
G1
The Caverns of Thracia (almost the perfect dungeon!)
B1
L1
U1-U3. I still think that combo, L1 and the U modules is a great way to begin a campaign.

Chainsaw wrote:
2. Favorite modules you've only read and want to run

First, no doubt: The Dark of Swordfish Island. When will my players get there?! And, with this, Toxic Elven Smut and The Lapis Observatory
The Barbarian King
The Hyqueous Vaults
The full Operation Unfathomable (I have run the original several times at cons; it's excellent)
Deep Carbon Observatory
Dark Tower

Chainsaw wrote:
3. Favorite modules you've played

When do I ever get to be a player? I guess grodog's CG levels at cons are life-list-topping experiences.

I'd really like to either run or be run through a good WHFRP campaign. No one ever runs these at GaryCon? WTF? Ditto: RuneQuest. Why does no one run RuneQuest?

Brock Savage · 1/18/2019 2:13 pm

Welcome back Handy. You have good taste in adventures. I've been working 6 days a week but plan to read Dark of Swordfish Island during my next full weekend.

Handy Haversack · 1/18/2019 2:37 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
Welcome back Handy. You have good taste in adventures. I've been working 6 days a week but plan to read Dark of Swordfish Island during my next full weekend.

I think it's supremely well done. Plop it over next to Zangeiros and wait for the sparks to fly!

And thanks!

grodog · 1/23/2019 11:48 pm

Handy Haversack wrote:
When do I ever get to be a player? I guess grodog's CG levels at cons are life-list-topping experiences.

Thanks Handy! :D

Handy Haversack wrote:
I'd really like to either run or be run through a good WHFRP campaign. No one ever runs these at GaryCon? WTF?

I've been noodling through adapting The Enemy Within to Greyhawk, FYI. No idea when/if I'll run it though....

Handy Haversack wrote:
Ditto: RuneQuest. Why does no one run RuneQuest?

There's a little more RQ at NTX usually, and if you look up Steve Perrin's games, he may have some SPQR on deck, perhaps (Steve Perrin's Quest Rules = very RQ-ish). You might also see if Jennell is running some RQ, she has at NTX in the past.

Allan.

Handy Haversack · 1/24/2019 3:35 pm

grodog wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
I'd really like to either run or be run through a good WHFRP campaign. No one ever runs these at GaryCon? WTF?
I've been noodling through adapting The Enemy Within to Greyhawk, FYI. No idea when/if I'll run it though....

Oooooo. Do it!

grodog wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Ditto: RuneQuest. Why does no one run RuneQuest?
There's a little more RQ at NTX usually, and if you look up Steve Perrin's games, he may have some SPQR on deck, perhaps (Steve Perrin's Quest Rules = very RQ-ish). You might also see if Jennell is running some RQ, she has at NTX in the past.

Allan.

Funnily enough, someone named Kenneth Johnson added a few RQ games to the GaryCon sched., intro-type scenarios. I wonder if he has something to do with the relaunch.