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Best and Worst Necro Modules?

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Krazz The Wanderer	Best and Worst Necro Modules?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 11 (10/03/09 09:32:21) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Remove this ad I'm looking to start a new campaign with my group and I'm looking to acquire the best Necro modules. I've made up a list of all the Necro products and maybe instead of just focusing on the best, it may be easier to ask what are the top 10 worst modules. I figure this should be more of a universal consensus than which ones are the best (I hope!) This way I can quickly establish which ones to avoid. So what are your least favorite modules and if you feel so inclined, go ahead and list your favorites also. And I should probably add, that I'm looking at the modules only, not game accessories (like Grimtooth, Tome of Horrors) Thanks for your input!!
Treebore		#1	[-]
Posts: 8152 (10/03/09 11:06:39) Scribe of the Unending Word Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My least favorite? Where Evil Lurks. This is my "least Favorite", but by no means is a bad module. Siege and Durham's Folly. Since I have no interest in the Zayene series I cannot honestly comment on them. Favorites? Most of the ones done by Lance Havermale, Grey Citadel, Lost City of Barakus, Morrick's Mansion, Book of Taverns, Durbanford (?), and others I cannot even recall parts of the names of right now.
Geleg		#2	[-]
Posts: 1595 (10/03/09 13:56:39) Lurker Above Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	my least favorite is Siege of Durgam's Folly, although not because it is poorly designed. It's plot involves clockwork stuff, and that's something that never really fit with my preferred form of D&D. Lots of other people love it. I tried one of the Zayene series and didn't like it - too fun-house for my style. many others like that style, though. Favorites? too many to mention. Rappan Athuk is classic, but a bit intimidating. It is worthy of a campaign in and of itself. I also really like Coils of Set, Grey Citadel, Doom of Listonshire, Vault of Larin Karr, Temple of Abysthor, and, last, but certainly not least, the City of Brass. Barakus is also good, although the dungeon never really grabbed me for some reason (maybe I should go reread). I also recommend the wilderlands retreads, esp. Caverns of Thracia if you can't get a copy of the original.
Philotomy Jurament		#3	[-]
Posts: 566 (10/03/09 18:51:45) Old School Cool Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Best: Tomb of Abysthor Demons & Devils Rappan Athuk (I find the originals easier to use than the boxed set). Philotomy's OD&D Musings B4 Lost City Campaign
Sir Clarence		#4	[-]
Posts: 810 (10/04/09 00:07:14) Vampire Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tomb of Abysthor is by far my favorite NG module, followed by RA Reloaded and Demons and Devils. The Maze of Zayene comes next, although it's a pity that the last module of that series never got published by NG. The Lost City of Barakus is excellent as well. I have yet to see a bad NG module.
cjs65		#5	[-]
Posts: 379 (10/04/09 03:14:42) Ghast Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I love Lost City of Barakus and Vault of Larin Karr due to their free-form 'sandbox' nature, with a distinct lack of railroading. My players had a great time with them, and level-wise, Larin Karr takes over where Barakus leaves off. First 8-9 levels covered! For a low-level game, I really can't recommend Barakus highly enough. We were also enjoying Shades of Gray before we had to abandon our game, but due to the nature of the plot, it's less free-form than I'd like. Still entertaining, though. Tomb of Abysthor looks good but I've not given it a go. Ones that I just don't like the look of and will probably never run are Siege of Durgam's Folly and A Lamentation of Thieves.
Tsathogga	my own favorites	#6	[-]
Posts: 2081 (10/04/09 07:51:10) Demon Lord Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'll leave out those I wrote (well, one of my favorites I wrote parts of (Barakus), but another writer was lead). No particular order.I actually am 90% or more happy with everything we have done, though a couple were weaker than the top of the line. 1. Vault of Larin Karr--Bill K is possibly the best writer in industry history IMO, and this one plays great. In-game moments of my wife and another guys wife roleplaying me into the dust to get the gem from the merchant's wife is still one of the high points of my gaming career..women gamers are formidable opponents for the DM. 2. Lost City of Barakus--I prefer low level stuff in general, and this one was just damn good..I mean "Keep on the Borderlands on steroids good" 3. Grey Citadel--Nate has the ability to turn the mundane into dark horror, sewer crawls are cool, and the boss monster is cleverly used. Look out for more of this in Eamonvale...though I admit I have not played EI yet. One thing I can say is that Nate's stuff always "works". Its the best playtested material we ever produce. 4. Hall of the Rainbow Mage--this one is a lost gem...one of our (and for that matter anyone's) best, but rarely mentioned; I encourage folks to give it another look--Pat was nothing short of brilliant at times, and the entrance vampire encounter is worthy of legend. The supplemental material that we had to cut (and is pdf ready on our website) is like what...50 pages? If anything bad can be said about this, its the title (yes, Clark wanted me to change the title). 5. Mesopotamia--Morten may not speak English as a first language, but he writes it better than I do. The low-fantasy sequencing of this one is very Conanesque, and fits in well with my play style. Similar to Nate, he can make the mundane fun and scary. This book also has my favorite cover (although Slumbering Tsar is close). I liked it so much I bought the original oil paiting from Rick (much to my wife's horror), and its on the wall in my bedroom.
JoeGKushner		#7	[-]
Posts: 7593 (10/04/09 07:54:28) Demi Lich Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Grey Citadel and Vault of Larin Karr are probably my two favorites. Some of the others loo solid, like Lost City and of course RA Reloaded, but never ran those. e-bay Sales Updated 3/24/2009: , Miniatures, Ultramodern Firearms, The Hunt d20 setting, Legends of Excalibur d20 setting, Legends of the Samurai d20 setting, Midnight books, 4e Points of Light, and more!
Damien the Bloodfeaster		#8	[-]
Posts: 11443 (10/04/09 22:36:05) Vampire Scion Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I too like Vault of Larin Karr and Lost City of Barakus, and consider them among the best. They're not for every group (I had problems with my tabletop group when running VOLK, who seemed to be lost without a plot to follow), but any group with a sense of initiative should adore them. I'd have to give props to RA Reloaded as well, but of course I'm a coauthor, so my opinion may not count there! Another lost gem IMO is Aberrations, an early module by Casey Christofferson, which had the right level of weird creepiness. For non-adventure stuff, the Tome of Horrors is definitely at the top; it's about the only non-SRD monster book other third party companies will regularly draw from (aside from their own material). It is packed with classic and new monsters, and is a great value. I did run Siege of Durgam's Folly, and don't think it's one of the weakest. The clockwork thing did not bother me in the least, and having mechanically-animated bodies lumbering around was delightfully macabre. I felt it was a nice one-two punch which surprises those expecting little more than a hackfest with the ogres in the first part. Among my least favorites would be Maze of Zayene 1-3, particularly the 3rd one, which is all but unplayable without heavy work on the part of the DM. I also felt the 2nd one (which was really just an extension of the first) was way too linear. The only part of the series I liked was the art gallery in the first module; I'd recommend transplanting that to another dungeon, and jettisoning the rest. I also had some issues with the Bonegarden and Lamentation of Thieves. Both have great writing, but there were some balance problems that I felt needed to be addressed, notably in the former (which I played through, and also played through about half the scenarios in LoT). I should point out that though I have nearly everything Necro has produced (I'm only missing the Book of Artifacts and the new PDF releases, which I'm hoping will become available as print on demand products on Lulu so I can get hardcopy). However, many of them I've only skimmed, and some I've actually avoided reading (in the hopes I can get another of my gaming group to run them for me someday). Author: Mother of all Encounter Tables, Bits of Magicka 1-3 Coauthor: Rappan Athuk Reloaded Bits of Magicka: Pocket Items - 2008 ENnies Honorable Mention
davrion24		#9	[-]
Posts: 430 (10/05/09 07:27:59) Shadow Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My faves include Grey Citadel, Coils of Set, any of Lance's stuff (esp. Lamentation of Thieves), Thracia, CoF, and ToA. Someone else in my group has read RA to DM it, so I can't comment on that having not read it myself. Siege of Durgam's Folly is easily my least favorite. I rarely like products that Mearls is involved with.
Sangrolu		#10	[-]
Posts: 2046 (10/05/09 12:52:24) Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Remove this ad I think City of Brass is my favorite, and RARE and Shades of Gray are two that I also long to run. Maze of Zayene would be my least favorite. There's some interesting ideas you could extract from it, but the heavy handed nature of many encounters and the character abilities sort of felt like the author wanted to run the game instead of letting the buyer run it. --- (This space for rent)
Krazz The Wanderer		#11	[-]
Posts: 12 (10/05/09 12:56:09) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thanks for all the input everyone! Here is the list of Necro stuff I have managed to get my undead hands on: Crucible of Freya Tomb of Abysthor Hall of Rainbow Mage (just acquired thanks to Tsathogga's recomendation) Lost City of Barakus Tome of Horrors 1 Bard's Gate City of Brass Rappan Athuk 2 Wilderlands of High Fantasy Player's Guide to Wilderlands Caverns of Thracia I think I'll try to get the rest of the Rappan Athuk modules or maybe hopefully find RA reloaded on ebay or something. Keep all the suggestions coming. I appreciate the input. Last Edited By: Krazz The Wanderer 10/05/09 13:07:24. Edited 1 times.
leadjunkie		#12	[-]
Posts: 2913 (10/05/09 13:27:57) Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The thing to remember about the Zayene series is that it was written by Rob Kuntz, Gary Gygax's Co-DM in the original Grayhawk campaign. Rob is very much old school. I don't think he really understood the 3.x mechanics. He certainly does not play it. Rob still DMs and writes for AD&D. A glaring example of this is finding and dealing with traps in Zayene. It is a matter of player skill, not character skill. Games I am... Judging - Kingmaker: Adventure Path PFRPG Playing - Tom Crone's, Order of the Rusty Dagger (home brew), PFRPG; Aaron Flagg's, Serpent's Skull, PFRPG; Stan Shinn's, Space 1889 (home brew), Savage Worlds "Virtual" Type I Demon ('cuz Yuku's lame)
Vladicu		#13	[-]
Posts: 33 (10/05/09 20:05:42) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Good list. With both Crucible of Freya and Lost City of Barakus, your low level adventure support is extremely strong. Mid range with Caverns of Thracia, Bard's Gate, and the Tomb of Abysthor is also strong and surely doesn't lack for adventure, and that will only increase dramatically if you add RA 1. At the risk of overkill, you could bolster it further by adding The Grey Citadel, which both details and explores a small sized city, something I don't believe you currently feature. Or, you could include at a little higher level, the Doom of Listonshire, which develops an entire region. Such a detailed expanse opens up many story options. Is Listonshire, for example, the place to locate the Caverns of Thracia - Doom of Thracia, anyone? Finally, at the top end with both Hall of the Rainbow Mage and City of Brass, you are simply already very well positioned and perhaps doubly so if you add RA 3. My only thought here is your players are going to miss out on a lot of other good adventures. At the lower end of this range Aberrations, Six Spheres of Zailhhess, What Evil Lurks, and Fane of the Witch King all come to mind. While it's true missed adventures are simply a consequence of other paths chosen and that that simply can't be helped, it's also true that any of these four adventures would give you an additional non RA option to offer your players (if desired) when they reach these levels. Overall, I think your pics are excellent ones and possibilize both great gaming and campaigning. The Wilderlands is also a fine choice to host for all materials. Last Edited By: Vladicu 10/06/09 06:50:34. Edited 63 times.
Frost		#14	[-]
Posts: 3099 (10/06/09 04:35:02) Lich Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Damien the Bloodfeaster wrote: I did run Siege of Durgam's Folly, and don't think it's one of the weakest. The clockwork thing did not bother me in the least, and having mechanically-animated bodies I really think Siege of Durgam's Folly get unjustly thrown under the bus. I have to admit, at first blush the clockwork stuff didn't grab me, but when I ran the module it was a great surprise to the players. It actually worked out much creepier than the standard "animated as a zombie" kind of situation. Give the module a try, folks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. On top of that, it was cool to watch the party figure out how to get into the keep in the first place. As for my favorite NG modules, I'll limit it to 4, in order of preference 1.) Rappan Athuk 2.) Mesopotamia (this is truly the most underrated NG product in my opinion... it's simply brilliant) 3.) Vault of Larin Karr 4.) Tomb of Absythor Frost Official Killer DM #0076 Baron of the Pitt - Castles & Crusades Society The Dungeoneering Dad
Vladicu		#15	[-]
Posts: 35 (10/06/09 06:39:58) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Frost wrote: Damien the Bloodfeaster wrote: I did run Siege of Durgam's Folly, and don't think it's one of the weakest. The clockwork thing did not bother me in the least, and having mechanically-animated bodies I really think Siege of Durgam's Folly get unjustly thrown under the bus. I have to admit, at first blush the clockwork stuff didn't grab me, but when I ran the module it was a great surprise to the players. It actually worked out much creepier than the standard "animated as a zombie" kind of situation. Give the module a try, folks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. On top of that, it was cool to watch the party figure out how to get into the keep in the first place. I agree with this assessment. In Seige of Durgam's Folly too and likewise in both Aberrations and What Evil Lurks, it really is the sketches/pictures that tremendously convey the true horror of what the villians are up to and thus what the players are up against. Without these drawings in all three of these particular adventures, I would have had an extremely hard time understanding 1) what was actually going on, and 2) how to share it. That's not bad writing; the images were described well in text. It's just a picture really is worth a 1000 words. Last Edited By: Vladicu 10/06/09 06:54:04. Edited 8 times.
Ryan Henry		#16	[-]
Posts: 186 (10/06/09 08:00:21) Ghast Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	As a module writer who knows how much time and effort goes into writing one, I'd hate to label any as my "least favorite" out of respect for the craft and the creators. I guess my "favorite" NG adventure would depend on what type of adventure I was looking for. Great sandbox exploration with short dungeons - The Vault of Larin Karr City with intrigue and episodic flavor - The Grey Citadel Epic dungeon with short quests - Necropolis Big, bad dungeon crawl - Rappan Athuk (or RARE) If I had to list my all-time fave, it would probably be Larin Karr. Lots of great memories there. Had a blast in Abysthor and Freya as well. Heck, I really enjoyed Barakus too. Guess I'm saying that about all of 'em are keepers. Typing about these modules makes me nostalgic for the good old days. Ryan
Vladicu		#17	[-]
Posts: 36 (10/06/09 10:01:50) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Question: how come there are forum threads for both Slumbering Tsar & Eamonvale Incursion but not Demonheart or has this omission already been covered in another thread or post?
grodog		#18	[-]
Posts: 2339 (10/07/09 18:29:11) Lich Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My NG favorites, roughly in order: - Tomb of Abysthor - Caverns of Thracia - Demons & Devils - Maze of Zayene - Bard's Gate - Vault of Larin Karr - Necropolis Bard's Gate isn't an adventure, but it ties together the Crucible of Freya, Rappan Athuk, and Tomb of Abysthor very nicely, and can easily be inserted into whatever campaign world you're playing in. So, it's worth including (on my list anyway ). Some follow-up comments on Zayene: Sir Clarence wrote: Tomb of Abysthor is by far my favorite NG module, followed by RA Reloaded and Demons and Devils. The Maze of Zayene comes next, although it's a pity that the last module of that series never got published by NG. The Lost City of Barakus is excellent as well. The final module M4 The Eight Kings, was published by Different Worlds in 2004, and is still available if anyone's looking for a copy. Sangrolu wrote: Maze of Zayene would be my least favorite. There's some interesting ideas you could extract from it, but the heavy handed nature of many encounters and the character abilities sort of felt like the author wanted to run the game instead of letting the buyer run it. The modules were originally written as tournament modules for the RPGA's 1983 EastCon events in South Jersey (which were, alas, sold out when I tried to register for them BITD!), so there's definitely some tourney-based linearity built into them (in particular the first two, which are a matched-pair: you need #2 to play #1 right), along with the initial setup and pregens (where they're not particlarly prepared for dungeon exploration, since they were at court to perform an assassination, so they're dressed in finery, have no provisions, etc.). That said, I do think that the Zayene modules are generally underrated, since many folks are turned off by the tourney-style intro and pregens. MoZ1 and 4 are my favorites in the series, and using MoZ3 and 4, you can easily alter the introduction and play-out the encounters from the MoZ1 background, if desired. leadjunkie wrote: The thing to remember about the Zayene series is that it was written by Rob Kuntz, Gary Gygax's Co-DM in the original Grayhawk campaign. Rob is very much old school. I don't think he really understood the 3.x mechanics. He certainly does not play it. Rob still DMs and writes for AD&D. A glaring example of this is finding and dealing with traps in Zayene. It is a matter of player skill, not character skill. Marshall speaks the truth: while I'm pretty sure Rob grok'd the 3.x mechanics in general, he certainly wasn't savvy to how bonuses would stack, for example. The Zayene modules were also among the first NG produced, before they brought in Scott and others as rules editors, too---they (and Rappan Athuk) were among the reasons that Bill and Clark opted for bringing on a rules editor IIRC (and I may not have my timing exactly right---it has been awhile ). grodog ---- Allan Grohe Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing grodog@gmail.com www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/ www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site
Tammeraut		#19	[-]
Posts: 158 (10/07/09 20:08:28) Necromantic Writer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've got to add my vote for Vault of Larin Karr. I really liked Rainbow Mage, too, despite the West Hollywood name.
leadjunkie		#20	[-]
Posts: 2916 (10/07/09 20:23:29) Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Remove this ad Tammeraut wrote: West Hollywood name LOL! Games I am... Judging - Kingmaker: Adventure Path PFRPG Playing - Tom Crone's, Order of the Rusty Dagger (home brew), PFRPG; Aaron Flagg's, Serpent's Skull, PFRPG; Stan Shinn's, Space 1889 (home brew), Savage Worlds "Virtual" Type I Demon ('cuz Yuku's lame)

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