OK. I got a little behind on this thing and I need to catch up so I will do so in this post. Besides, some of these questions are best suited for quick answers anyway.
Day 11 - Favorite Adventure You Have Ran
My favorite module ever is probably B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. It was included with the Basic rules and I used it several times to introduce people to the game so I have ran it more than any other adventure.
Day 12 - Favorite Dungeon Type/Location
Give me the sprawling megadungeon any day.
Day 13 - Favorite Trap/Puzzle
I am just not a trap guy. I have used and will continue to use traps that are detailed in products such as the Grimtooth's line of products but I do not try to devise my own traps. It is just not my thing.
Day 14 - Favorite NPC
I assume this means a recurring NPC from my campaigns and I do not have one. I prefer to not have recurring NPCs showing up time and time again. Maybe a few show up until they are eventually vanquished but there is no villain that escapes time and time again attempt to defeat the group yet again.
I am caught up on the 30 Days of D&D Challenge now. I probably will not be very productive on the next run of questions just because I do not think the favorite monster needed to be split up into a weeks worth of posts. That is just me, though.
B2 is the best fantasy adventure ever. I really wish Gary had written an equivalent for LA instead of Living the Lejend. Living the Lejend is one of the worst adventures ever written.
ReplyDeleteI agree about B2. I was interested in Living the Lejend UNTIL I heard some of the reactions to the adventure. I never have even flipped through it. Would you mind sharing your experience with Living the Lejend?
DeleteI would need to pull out the adventure to give you a detailed account of it. IIRC, the problems I had were the heavy-handed moralizing, bland story-lines, and the fact that it was really just a set of encounters. So, basically you start off being attacked, then things wind down. Then there are like 3 "adventures" that follow. They are really just excuses to go into small poorly thought out caves where you kill stuff.
DeleteAs for the moralizing, I think there is a point where the PC's need to do something with an NPC. It is possible for the PC's to kill the NPC. If they do this, the village turns on them. Ok, that seems reasonable. However, the PC's are permitted to kill the villagers. The GM reads a part that says that the villagers over-power the PCs and they all die. Then you are to lecture the players about being goody-too-shoes heroes. Sorry, but if I am an elementalist that can create tornadoes, a bunch of villagers aren't going to be a problem! Then, if you pick the "selfish" options at any point you are given demerits. I suppose part of this is simply that Gary made LA into a moralizing game and that is a very different experience from the morally neutral D&D games. I don't want to be lectured in my RPGs. A PC's action has consequences, but those should be realistic in game consequences, not the moral judgements of an adventure writer.
In terms of story, there isn't much of them and they suck. In terms of a dungeon crawl, it is pathetic in comparison to what Gary and other TSR folks used to be able to create.
If I ever write a fantasy adventure, I will probably just base it off of B2. Seems the best for an introductory fantasy adventure.
I left out a "not." The PC's are not permitted to fight back and kill the villagers.
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