Anyone whose read my blog for any length of time probably knows that the Dark Country isn't exactly your standard D&D. It's 2 parts hammer horror, 1 part 50s atomic b movie, one part the Hobbit, and 1 part Doom Metal.
Anyway, my players are starting to explore the wider world, and I need some modules to plunk down on my map. I'm having a bit of a hard time finding them. Any suggestions for thematically appropriate ones?
Note: I'm already have a considerable number of James Raggi's modules.
Hmm. Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh maybe - with a few tweaks.
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I find you can rarely go wrong with Chateau d'Amberville--though you'd likely want to tone down the "funhouse dungeon" aspect and crank up the "degenerate family of nobles in bizarre private domain" bits.
ReplyDeleteWhite Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors, although they're both middle to high level modules. Also, Night of the Walking Dead is a low level Ravenloft adventure which is available for free at WotC. The original Palace of the Silver Princess is also a kickass module, although you have to fix the dungeon map a bit.
ReplyDeleteBetween the Raggi's module my favorite is definitely Death Frost Doom, although Hammers of the God is particularly indicated as a great example of "dark fantasy", but you probably already know that.
Also, if you can manage to find it, I remember something about a "reprint" of Palace of the Vampire Queen.
Don't discount other systems either; it sounds as if Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenarios might fit in quite well with your setting. There are a number of free adventures available for the game in various parts of the internet.
ReplyDeleteMaliszewski's Cursed Chateau.
ReplyDeleteTalanian's Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent
Finch's Spire of Iron and Crystal
Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King + Tower of Blood
And from the first wave (using just the module codes)...
In Search of the Unknown, Keep on the Borderlands, and Horror on the Hill make a classic old-school mini-setting (just make Guido's Fort = The Keep), and it hits the theme more closely if you make this the *one* place that humanoids are gathering, and combine it with the old Warhammer Doomstones module Death Rock to make everything threatening and in-motion rather than a static sandboxy thing)
Put 'em on a boat and send them to the Isle of Dread (and put the Dwellers of the Forbidden City city up on the plateau, and the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan dungeon within that city)
The Secret of Bone Hill-Assassin's Knot combo works pretty good, N1 has a good atmosphere.
Tomb of Horrors and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks work well (the S series is all good but White Plume Mountain and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth feel a lot more "standard D&D" to me, although the Tsojcanth-Tharizdun module combo can be pretty dark).
Village of Hommlet by itself (forget the Temple of Elemental Evil) can be a really cool Hammer Horror style village-in-peril adventure.
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh by itself, without the rest of the series.
Master of the Desert Nomads and Temple of Death have a LOT of really great bits even if you don't want the epic overland mini-campaign.
Those old Warhammer modules are really great - the first four Doomstone adventures really all have great bits (originally conceived as D&D adventures as I recall), Lichemaster, Death's Dark Shadow, a lot of the pieces of The Enemy Within (especially from Death on the Reik) work great.
From TSR, I would recommend Horror on the Hill and Night's Dark Terror (both for Molvday Basic). For AD&D 1E - Ravenloft (the module) and Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun.
ReplyDeleteIn the OSR, I'd consider Cursed Chateau and Blood Moon Rising.
I haven't been able to get Finch's Spire of Iron and Crystal, it's off the shelf right now.
Our two campaigns have a lot of similar themes, so a bunch of these are seeded into my game as well.
The Hook Mountain Massacre, at least the first part with the hilbily half-ogre family. Its real creepy.
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