BITD (back in the day)
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:53 pm 
 

The Collector's Trove wrote:What the heck adventure was that?


Yeah, was that a TSR tournament module?  

As for A1-4, I think they're great, my personal favorites which were a blast to run.  With a bit of tweaking they're ready to drop into most campaigns.  A1 probably shows its tournament roots the most but there's a ton of cool, fun stuff in that module from the doppleganger to the dimunitive troll busting out of the temple poor box to the aspis in the sewer and the orc graffitti that says "elves are fairies."  The only letdown is the boss battle with a non-descript slavelord flunky.  That part needed further fleshing out, which a good DM can of course provide.  
And then the series gets better as they move on with A2 featuring some memorable villains such as Icar and Markessa with all those deformed humanoids from her magical experiments, and even her love interests.  It's a fun scout and destroy mission module.  
And then A3 with a nice, short dungeon to get to the city adventure in the hidden city of Suderham to the showdown with five of the slavelords.  The party I ran through it were taken down, but then again I used the Unearthed Arcana rules to make Feeta the pirate fighter double specialized with his +2 scimatar and 18/76 strength.  He was just a killing machine as well Nerelas with the sips from his potion of invisibility to backstab the unsuspecting, and I had Ajakstu levitating high in the chamber peltering them with magic missiles from his Staff of Power.  I don't think many 4-7th level parties would be able to survive that onslaught, but it was one of the best battles I've ever been involved in.  
And then comes the coup de grace, A4, which is the best adventure ever to really test a D&D player's skills.  With none of their original supplies or magic items, they must use their cleverness and raw skills to get out of the volcano before it explodes.  Memorable enemies include the first introduction of the myconids and magmen, the "kingdom" of the kobolds and a feeble will-o-the-wisp.  And getting out of the volcano is just the first act, then the party has to make their way across the burning island to the docks to defeat the remaining slavelords with very little help (exception Murtano) and the island burning to smithereens all around them.  Just awesome all round.   :D

  

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:16 pm 
 

The Collector's Trove wrote:Howdy,




What the heck adventure was that?


Futures Bright,

Paul


I suspect it was not a published tournament adventure.  It was a local event with a dozen teams.

Mark


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Post Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:23 pm 
 

MShipley88 wrote:
The standard operating procedure in my own campaigns has been to start over with new characters whenever the game began to break down due to PC power levels.

In 1st Edition AD&D, this was around 9th-11th levels.  

...snip....

Mark   8)


Interesting thread, if only that clearly my group's gaming experience was so very different to most it seems. We never used any TSR modules - I looked over some and hated the whole style of them. 90% of what we used was original with exceptions for CSIO and a few of the better dungeons out of White Dwarf and Underworld Oracle (the Thieves Hall of Testing was relocated within the walls of the City State.

I DMed a very very tight and closed game world in which I think I highest level characters ever achieved were a 6th Druid, a 5th/4th Magic User-Fighter-Elf and a 5th level gnome thief. The vast majority of characters were killed off before reaching 4th level - not that it was a deadly campaign. It might take my players a couple of years to get to 4th level  8O

It did mean though that the mosters were easy to keep dangerous and interesting and the concept of power players simply did not exist.   

I worked without any printed rules for about three months, then a single blue soft back for levels 1-3 for another year or so before getting hold of the original set and gradually the first four sups. We moved onto 1st Ed AD&D for our last couple of years gaming until we all went off to Uni and I never played D&D again  :cry:

Plenty of good memories though and I know it would be a mistake to try to return - at least for anything other than an odd game for nostalgic reasons with similarly dated old farts. I don't dis whatever has happened since - it is just I have never seen it and only know of it's existance from this site.

I just know I would hate it though - just like that modern music whadoya call it - rap?  :wink:  Now where did I put my hearing aid.....

Nick

  

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:21 pm 
 

What the heck adventure was that?


Any module/adventure has the potential to be "busted wide-open"; it's the nature of the beast.

Anyone who has ever DM'd knows the feeling of having your group waltz through a section of your campaign into which you have poured a lot of your time and creativity.

When you are DMing for a group of intelligent and creative individuals, you never know when the synergy of their insights and intellect will defeat you utterly. The old "...best laid plans oft gang agley..." was never truer than in this circumstance.

When we were asked, BITD, why it was necessary to continually issue errata sheets and rules clarifications, our reply was often "There is no such thing as fool-proof rules because fools are too ingenious."

The moral of this story is that no matter how crafty you are, now matter how obscure the clues, as a DM you always have the chance of a "flash of intuition" that can and will render all your scheming moot.

The only alternative is to construct an adventure that is impossible to win because it is hoplessly stacked against the players. An infinite number of balrogs and hill giants can kill any party; what group will come back for more of that?


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:06 am 
 

That is so true, Tim.  The players can be fiendishly inventive.

The DM might be smart, but the average group of players is a whole group of smart people.  It is very difficult to out-think them.

When interpreting and role-playing monsters, I generally applied the following standard, based upon intelligence:

Animal:  Generally outsmarted by any reasonable plan.

Low:  As smart as the average person.

Average:  As smart as the average gamer.

High:  As smart as...well...me.

Very High:  Can think of things I should have thought of.

Genius:  Probably already thought of any plan the party might have.

   In the case of the tournament module above, the people who ran it were used to a lower level of play.  They were more open-hearted and less crafty/stubborn/dastardly/competitive than my own gaming circle.

   Just one "for instance":  The module subtracted points of damage done to party members by pit traps on a one-for-one basis from the team's total tournament points.  In their campaign, the players apparently considered pit traps to be unavoidable and did not take real care.  By contrast, our party took no damage from traps.

  Ironically, we missed out on winning by missing a 200 point bonus that we would have gotten had we "figured out the maze" and gone right through a series of hellishly bad traps on secret doors.  We figured out that we could just go around every secret door location and take no damage at all.  But, we did not "figure out the maze."  (Several other parties got wiped out in the maze while they "figured it out.")

  It was all good fun, however, and we still have a laugh about it from time to time.

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:27 am 
 

sleepyCO wrote:To all of you --MShipley88, bad mike, etc.--you all may have hit on something, and it's a point I had not  thought of.  The fact that most of us (?) here started in some way with the first-edition modules gives (most of) us a common starting point--the Greyhawk world (and later Mystara) and all of the modules that came out.  How many of us really can relate Eberron or even Dragonlance (beyond the DL1-DL16 series) to all of us?

  Most everyone here has either played, DM'ed, and/or at least read those modules.  Yes, some were weak, some stunk, and some were good to great.  But if someone said (as done in this thread) that they had played T1 The Village of Hommlet with modifications, it would be safe to say that most of us know the module, have a basis of understanding of what is being said, and would be curious to see what changes were made.  Same with the group in Portland that still uses 1e rules 25+years later; I personally would love to find out what characters are at what levels, which ones got the farthest, which character(s) have lasted the longest (in real time)--and if any of the original characters are still around, and what 1e modules (if any,changes or not) they have gone through.  Keep telling these stories about other games and even BITD. . . this has been very interesting to read over, these last posts.

Imagine what could be, if one could bring back and update, say, DA1/DA2/DA3 by 30 years . . . or the U1-2-3 series . . .
or, what would S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks be like 30 years on?  Or, all new adventures in the Greyhawk setting, similar to 1e settings?


This is entirely anecdotal, but I would have to say if you started gaming in the Golden Age (1978-1983), you had probably a 100% chance to do the majority of the following: B1 and B2; C1 & C2; G1-3 and D1-2; L1; N1; S1-4; T1; U1; and X1.  This core group was probably the collective unconciousness of an entire generation of gamers and a powerful shared point of reference. Mention something about one of the above, and you would have heads nodding and tales flying.  
  Personally I am always updating and re-running the classics, sometimes with the same players years later!  My most run modules would have to be B1 and G1-3, with T1, L1 and D1-2 close behind.  I also have a fondness for Dragon magazine modules and have run Citadel by the Sea, Can Seapoint be Saved and Forest of Doom several times.
    I find B1 is the absolute perfect dungeon for beginning players who barely understand the concept of D&D, it has a little bit of everything, and doesn't throw a lot at the players and make too many demands.  It can be as simple or complicate as you want to make it. I often have a "boss" in the lower level by the exit, he can be an evil priest, evil mage or some kind of monster that will give 1st-2nd level characters a challenge (an Ogre or Ghast works well).  I've possibly run this as many as 20 times, most of the time as one shots. The last time I ran it in a campaign was a few years ago, the friend that introduced me to D&D and who is now a doctor had me run he and his kids, and my stepdaughter through it, it was their first ever D&D adventure (a bit of symmetry, it was MY first adventure and my doctor friend ran me through it in 1978!).  The kids had a blast, the final combat on the bottom level against an evil priest and his skeleton servants had the kids really sweating, at one point everyone in their party was held, unconcious or at negative hit points except my friend's mage (down to 1 hp!) and my daughter's war dog, which she had bought on a whim before entering the dungeon.  The war dog ended up being the big hero, the mage shot the cleric with a paralyzation ray from a wand, the cleric failed his save, and as the mage and his raven familiar held off the skeletons the war dog proceeded to kill the mage by tearing off his arm (I added that bit as the dog did massive damage with a few max damage bites).  Needless to say, all my daughter talked about for days afterwards with how her dog ripped off the arm of the evil priest in the dungeon and saved everyone!  What a great intro to roleplaying for the kids...
   I've run G1-3 many times, even converted it to second edition, and placed it in the Forgotten Realms for a few times.  My brothers have gone through it multiple times, and I make sure to change up crucial details each time to defeat any sort of half-ass attempt to outthink the module....it just ain't gonna happen.  The last time I ran it I added shamans to the Hill, Frost and Fire giant strongholds; made the inevitable Giant Slaying Sword a cursed berserker (whoops, heh heh heh); gave King Snurre a Ring of Warmth (defeat those pesky cold spells that might be thrown at him); made Ombi an actual good dwarven prince, albeit a 1st level one (they didnt' butcher him out of hand like I had planned, that would have been good for a few laughs); and turned the Red Dragon on the bottom level into an Efreeti who conjured the image of a red dragon to fool the party while he did his best to take them by surprise.  Every different version has added or subtracted at my whim to try and keep the players on their toes.  This had to be the absolute most beloved series by my groups and players over the years, with the funnest battles except for maybe the Trog, Troll, Bugbear and Drow clusterfuck in D1 (which has also figured multiple times in my campaigns.)
    Basically, if I can shoehorn any of these in one of my campaigns, to this day I will do so happily.

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:40 am 
 

The Collector's Trove wrote:Howdy All,


Anyone else here use the final Slavelord encounter with the poison gas in A3 or did you run the battle and let the bodies fall where they may?

I couldn't put my group through the poison gas trap, I thought it would really burn their collective butts to be railroaded like that.

Still the battle was pretty stacked against them but it was memorable one. The Slavers had all but won when the party's invisible thief, hiding under Mordrammo's throne, backstabbed him and killed him a huge cheer went up from the collected group. The battle looked grim after that but everyone hung on that last character's tactics and dice rolls. What great suspense and excitement for even those with unconscious or dying characters!

In the end all were captured alive and sent to be sacrificed to the Earth Dragon in A4. I told them at the beginning I would run it with the same time constraints as the tournament with a failure to complete the scenario being their death. I have never seen them make quicker and bolder decisions than that night. They escaped with an elapsed time of 3:58 but their dwarf fell behind and I had him roll a saving throw as the whol place collapsed and lava started to flow. He made it, tumbling down the slope of Mt. Flamenblutt only to have the party members scream to run again as lava was pouring down the slopes of the now active volcano.

Ah, good times!


Futures Bright,

Paul


Fought the battle out. I agree using the gas would have caused a group revolt.    As written the slavelords (run by the DM) should be able to counter and defeat the party, it lead to one of the all time great game moments as one by one the beloved characters who had been run since 1st level went down to defeat (andsome death) during the battle.  The players actually got upset enough they were yelling at each other.  The grim, morose faces as the last character fell were priceless.  I couldnt' leave them like that so I immediately told them what was in store for the beginning of the next adventure (basically giving them the A4 intro), telling them they were going to be raised and healed up but without anything and having to rely on their wits, so come to the next session prepared to think outside the box.  Just hearing they weren't permanently dead did wonders for their psyche...they wanted to start the next night!  Like you said A4 works best as a pressure cooker so I made sure we could get the entire crawl into one night without interuptions.  The characters did a great job, they immediately stripped down to their birthday suits, said they were picking up spare rocks, and used their underwear for slings!!!  I used the weaponless combat rules for most the battles, it was nip and tuck until they got out.  They even had a pretty ingenious plan for taking the boat of the slavelords and using it to get off the island (don't remember it right now), didn't lose a character to death, and managed like Paul's group to make it across the island just before the volcano blew.  Even brought the surviving slavelords back for a sequel a few adventures later (boy were the players motivated as heck to kick some ass on that one....!)
 I have to agree with Mark, I don't think the A-series would stand up well now although I know the group had a good time with it, much too linear for today's players.

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:41 am 
 

I converted Steading of the Hill Giant Chief for a Viking-themed 3.5 campaign.   It was still a blast after all these years...even worth the hassle of converting the map to five foot squares for the 3.5 movement rules.

The best classics are still classic in any format.   :D

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:47 am 
 

MShipley88 wrote:  

I have only ever really been happy in a millieu of my own creation and I have always prefered modules that could be picked up and dropped into any night's gaming.

I tend to treat published modules like a junkyard, anyway.  I pull off pieces from the rusting hulks whenever I find them useful or interesting.

Mark   8)


I was always surprised at all the DMs Iknew who ran the modules "as written"...I mean, the are obviously tournament modules and for the most part meant as one=shots, not suitable for campaign play.  After some tinkeringmost could prove acceptable. The only ones I could never run were EX series and UK1, no amount of tinkering could make these worthwhile.  Mygroup hated C2 because it was the definition of a tournament adventure, even my changes couldn't make it work.

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:00 am 
 

My memories.

BITD a lot of groups never used the rules correctly.  I would like to point out that this was not a creative difference or shunning of the btb mentallity.  There was no internet yet (who is Al Gore?) and a collective exchange of ideas and gaming styles, house rules, etc. was not prevailent where I was at.  I have had the misfortune of never seeing a truly well played game btb.  That is not to say that I have never seen my fair share of good games otherwise.

I relate to those who mentioned just having the big 3 books for AD&D.  Nobody ever had them all.  It was always a collective effort for the group and usually the DM had the guide and there was just 1 or 2 PHB that was passed around during play if needed.  A smattering of modules as well.  We never played the published modules much but enjoyed looking at them and wondering if we would ever attain the levels to play them.  The 7th level was usually the highest any respectable DM would let any get to before the total TPK reared it's ugly head.  It seemed in those days if you had a PC that was higher in level than a DM you played with a lot,  that something terrible was about to happen to your character :wink: .  Homebrew modules were like a foray into Q's lab from James Bond.  A door is never just a door and treasure always had a price to pay in blood.

The greatest gift I could give to a modern player is the sense of wonder that sword & sorcery had back then that is in no rare quantity today.  We had just a few movies such as Excalibur but it was not like it was a vhs tape that you could pop in and watch on a wim.  You had to watch the TV Guide and try and catch a sci-fi flick back then.  Sword & sorcery was just more fantastic then because it had not permeated society nearly as much as now.  Sure we had books, Frazetta, Conan comics, & Harryhausen but looking back that was about it!

Thanks sleepyCO for the remembrance/thread and btw, I wore my Moldvay out at the bottom of Pikes Peak!  I miss the beauty of that mountain!

  


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:23 am 
 

Tim Kask:

I think you were our referee in the D & D tournament at Origins II (or maybe it was III).  It was a version of the later Barrier Peaks module, and I think there was an element of what later became Metamorphosis Alpha, because we were on an alien spacecraft that had crashed.  Our group ended up winning because we took over the ship with no deaths and I won a subscription to The Dragon, issues 2-7.  (Much better than Origins I when I got killed in The Tomb of Horrors by a giant tick about half way through!)

You are absolutely correct that the DM is key.  Back in the early 80's, I used to play a fantasy game called Melanda at a store called Days of Knights in Newark, Delaware.  The DM's were the authors of the material, they used to run tournaments at local cons too.  The Melanda game materials are very basic and not very well done.  But the DM's were excellent and the games were extremely fun.

Tim is also correct that back in the really old days (BITROD?) people did just use three or four books.  As a general rule, the supplements weren't used for much more than the new character classes.  And when AD&D first came out when I was in college, we didn't use anything but the MM, PHB and DMG for about two years.  None of those fancy modules for us.  I did like the Judges Guild maps though.

One big difference when I first started in 1975, was that we started each game with new characters and every game was just a dungeon crawl.  We didn't keep characters, just rolled up a new one for the next game.  I don't think we started running campaigns with continuing characters until about 1976.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:47 pm 
 

MShipley88 wrote:
The standard operating procedure in my own campaigns has been to start over with new characters whenever the game began to break down due to PC power levels.

In 1st Edition AD&D, this was around 9th-11th levels.  After Unearthed Arcana, the breakdown began shortly after 7th level, when double weapon specialization made the fighter characters too strong for almost any monster in the book.

The same was true of 2nd Edition, which was essentially a neutered version of 1st.

In 3.5, the breakdown level is higher because the monsters can also be over the top mean.  I consider 9th-12th to be medium levels, with the game beginning to break down after the cleric reaches 12th level and cuts loose from reality.  The game can be played to higer level, but changes to a high level space opera at that point.

After starting new characters, the old characters became either NPC's, under my control, or were held in reserve for special high level adventures.  Sometimes, after a group of characters reached sufficient level, the campaign was declared to be "open" and any past character could be brought to the table.

The old PC's from the high school games became the legendary heroes and mages of my adult campaigns.  One, as mentioned above, even became a god that was worshipped by player characters...at their peril.


Interesting concept.  I have detailed notes of the main campaigns I have run over the years. We tended to do exactly as you say, starting over when characters reached a certain level (mainly when they started building stronholds, attracting followers, etc).  It's more fun to run a mage with 4 hp, a dagger and a Sleep spell than a Mage with an army and castle to my groups way of thinking....
  The first campaign I ran started with B1 and then C1 and C2, after which we wanted to run the GDQ so I bumped them a few levels (I think they were 5th) and they went through the GDQ series which ended up lasting several years as one member was in the Navy and we could only play while he was on leave.  This party still gets hauled out ocassionally for one shots (recently they started the 25th anniversary Against the Giants and have played about halfway through it, it's been several months now but we'll dig them out again eventually).  So this group is still going after 26 years...
  The other group was two members from that original group, plus a few others who wanted to game with us but we wouldn't let them join the Giant series in progress.  We started with B1 (naturally), then T1, then a ran a few of my own adventures waiting for T2-4 to come out (whoops, never did), finally they ended up going through classic letter stuff like B3, I1-5, N1, S2-S4, UK2-3, U1-3, A1-4, WG4, X2, just basically whatever module was coming out I bought it and ran the party through it after adapting it to the level of the party.  Also ran through some Companions stuff and Judges guild...I was going to college during this time and I don't think I even wrote one original adventure during the entire campaign!!! I remember the final adventures of that party had them settling in the Saltmarshes in Greyhawk and building their strongholds, first they cleared out the U3 sahaughin stronghold and WG5 (I moved Maure castle to a nearby location). This group is permanently retired as we haven't used the characters since about 1987 or so.
    When second edition/Forgotten Realms came out, had an entire new group except for both my brothers. I set the campaign in the Moonshae Islands since I wanted a celtic type theme and setting (plus it had just been released and I knew my players didn't have it yet to read!!!) Started in N4 ((Treasure Hunt), C3 (Isle of Castannimir), then L1 & L2.  Ran the entire campaign out of a group of islands with the main cities being Barnacus (from Dragon magazine) and L1's Restenford (they were the largest cities in the archepelgo I used as a backdrop, one on each side of the largest island in the chain).  Oddly enough I mixed in many of the Dragonlance modules, completely reworked them and made the badguys the Cult of the Dragon and actually the group had a LOT of fun with these.  Take out all Dragonlance references, use the maps and bump the dragons to 2nd ed and they aren't bad crawls.   About this time Dungeon magazine had come out and used a few adventures from these....off the top of my head, Tortles of the Purple sage, Caermor, Assault on Eddistone Point, House of the Brothers, Nightshade (who became a huge recurring character in the campaign), Crypt of Istaris (all from the first 9 issues of Dungeon Magazine). Also ran I6 Ravenloft for the first time for this party, and the sequel I think it was I10?  Worked in X5 Temple of Death as the main headquarters of a major baddy on an isolated island.  A lot of old modules work well as isolated islands....I know we did L7 Baltron's Beacon this way. Also remember distinctly running UK7 Dark Clouds Gather and the players had an absolute blast, it was the first time I ran the adventure ever, they got really good mileage out of the Skyfish in that module and used it for the entire campaign to zip around the islands! We had a gigantic final ship battle against pirates and Cult ofthe Dragon, I remember the players taking out a fleet of about 100 ships or so, we had a great time with that, we retired them after that....haven't played them since about 1991 or so...

Ugh, this BITD remembrance is taking way too much time and space, don't have time to go into any major campaigns past 1992 or so.  But the gist is that it was never a bad time to work in a letter adventure.  The impact these adventures had on my subsequent campaigns and gaming are obvious, I loved those things.

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:43 pm 
 

Badmike wrote:About this time Dungeon magazine had come out and used a few adventures from these....off the top of my head, Tortles of the Purple sage, Caermor, Assault on Eddistone Point, House of the Brothers, Nightshade (who became a huge recurring character in the campaign), Crypt of Istaris (all from the first 9 issues of Dungeon Magazine). .


Mike!

You just made my day, man!   :D  :D  :D  :D

Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:41 pm 
 

We ran Greyhawk campaigns (was the only one around). I used modules extensively. My homebrew adventures were written just like the modules including player descriptions for each encounter. My goal was always to make my adventures seem as professional as the TSR stuff and I went out of my way to not let the players know if it was a module or homebrew adventure in many cases. It is funny to go back and read my homebrew stuff...


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:28 pm 
 

MShipley88 wrote:
Badmike wrote:
About this time Dungeon magazine had come out and used a few adventures from these....off the top of my head, Tortles of the Purple sage, Caermor, Assault on Eddistone Point, House of the Brothers, Nightshade (who became a huge recurring character in the campaign), Crypt of Istaris (all from the first 9 issues of Dungeon Magazine). .

Mike!

You just made my day, man!   :D  :D  :D  :D

Mark   8)


Hey, those old Dungeon adventures ROCKED.....Especially House of the Brothers. Wish you had written more of that stuff Mark!!!!! (and no I didn't know he'd written it when I first mentioned that, I'm not THAT much of an ass kisser... :D )
   As I mentioned during college I had no time to write anything. Got a full time job out of college and still had little time to write anything original.  Instead, the new Dungeon Mag (first came out late 1986) was a godsend.  I ran almost everything the first 20 issues or so.  I'd just find one or two each issue and shoehorn them into our campaign changing the levels, location or foes to meet the demands.  I specifically remember running the Keep at Koralgesh as an UNDERWATER adventure when I needed a sunken ruin. Looking through my Dungeon magazine index I also remember using Assault on Eddistone Point, Grakhirt's Lair, Stolen Power, Eyes of Evil, Plight of Cirria, Secrets of the Towers, Dark Conventicle, Moor Tomb Map, Stranded on the Baron's Isle, Phantasm Chasm, Elephant's Graveyard, Ironguard, By the Wayside, and House of Cards (releasedeep breath..).  I notice most were before the mag changed to 2nd edition....there were some good adventures even after the first 20 issues, but too much Spelljammer, Dark Sun, and non fantasy crap (Top Secret and MSH adventures) would ruin the magazine for me many times.  I like when everything was D&D or AD&D and tht was it.  Ironically I thought the last couple years or so before 3rd edition (Issues 70-81) had some of the best stuff they ever did, certainly some of the all time best 2nd edition adventures.  There are still a lot of Dungeon adventures that I've never run, and would love to someday.  The first couple of years of Dungeon are very evocative of the original style of AD&D playing at the time and are highly recomended, most are equal to or better than official stuff coming out at the time (we are talking 1986-1988 or so), and be sure to pick up that Dungeon #6 with the excellent House of the Brothers adventure.... :wink:
  If I have time I'll list some of the best 1st edition adventures run in Dungeon mag...I think the switch was sometime around #20 or so?  Lots of 1st edition gold in them there hills....


Mike B.


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:33 pm 
 

bbarsh wrote:We ran Greyhawk campaigns (was the only one around). I used modules extensively. My homebrew adventures were written just like the modules including player descriptions for each encounter. My goal was always to make my adventures seem as professional as the TSR stuff and I went out of my way to not let the players know if it was a module or homebrew adventure in many cases. It is funny to go back and read my homebrew stuff...


BBarsh you still have some of the homebrew in printible shape you should let us know....there are a lot of us in this forum that enjoy reading each other's original or adapted stuff.

Mike B.


"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:51 pm 
 

Yep, I got it. I did most of my writing on the computer (macs) back in the day. If you are interested, I can send out some stuff.

I'd love to some stuff from some of the guys, too.


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:58 pm 
 

On the subject of burn out at higher levels. We seldom had that problem. I can think of at least a few campaigns that died out via Tomb of Horrors, Vault of the Drow among others.

Hell, it took us many, many months to achieve those levels (sometimes years).

But there were plenty of campaigns that ended prematurely due to complete party destruction (Forest of Doom from Dragon magazine was one).

I think we started at least six campaigns (I was not the DM in any) one year and not a single character got past 3rd level before everyone died. Now, those were the good old days... 8O  :D


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

 WWW  
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