Some ideas for Dungeons

[Mr. R]

As I have a Large collection of old Modules from D&D and elsewhere, I plan to use some in my game as enticements for my players!

 

So some entries 

Ruins of the City of Tenryk, old capitol of the Tenryk Empire that was overrun by Goblyns and is now surrounded by a dark goblyn infested forest (This is one I don't have any material for, but I love the idea as it is a common trope)

 

Phantom Pirate Isle (inspired by a skeleton infested island from an Old Adventurers Club!)

 

Ghost Castle on the coast of Ruecha.  (I plan to use an Oriental Adventure module about a ghost castle)

 

Ruins of Dorethal (this one is in the module I am using, is a magical city on one of the southern islands.  The island partially sank and most of the city in now underwater)

 

Lost City in the northern jungle (Dwellers of the Forbidden City)

 

City of the Storm in the Bola Desert (inspired by an adventure from one of the Al Qadim modules)

 

Cavern of Wonders in the Wyrmian Mountains (Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth/ minus that Artifact)

 

Stairs of the Gods (Again hinted at in the module I am using.  Some out of the way islands with some strange ruins on them)

 

The Floating Island of the Black Ocean (Also from Al Qadim.  Is actually a GIANT sea turtle that was used as a base by some pirates.  Then it dove under water.  Now it has resurfaced!)

 

Any other Ideas!

[Old Man]

We mostly ran our old FH campaigns out of AD&D modules* and never even bothered to change the names.

 

 

* Grumbling the whole time about the lack of published adventures for FH.

[DShomshak]

None of my old AD&D campaigns lasted long enough that running modules could even become an issue. (And even then I preferred to design my own dungeons, despite them making no sense whatsoever. But then, the published examples often made no sense whatsoever, either.) When I came back to D&D at 3rd ed, I no longer saw any need for any of the old material. Also, it was primarily a military campaign: There was no opportunity to explore the classic multi-leveled "dungeon," even if I could have thought of a justification for one. My latest, 5e campaign is set in a city built on a low spit of land, in which the classic dungeon is physically impossible. Nobody's missed it.

 

That said, over the years I did borrow a few premises from the old AD&D modules. Most important perhaps was the idea of a ruined lost city hidden in a huge rift, from Dwellers in the Forbidden City, which I lifted as the setting for the penultimate adventure in my 3e campaign. Only it was a city ruled by medusas, they'd rebuilt it a lot after the month of divinely-inflicted earthquakes that destroyed their empire eight centuries before, and was a functioning town. Challenges were mostly political: Instead of rampaging around looting the place, the PCs were trying to obtain a magical key (one of a set, a big campaign McGuffin), and recruiting the medusas to help fight the evil overlord menacing the little kingdom.

 

I've also repeatedly used the idea of an aristocratic family of wizards descended from an Archmage, as seen in Castle Amber -- most often as a background for PCs. Most recently, when a friend ran a D&D 5e adaptation of the Pathfinder module Rise of the Runelords, my PC was Lord Skyron Actinar of Stormkeep, great-grandson of the archmage Actinar. Family motto, "I Hold the Lightning." Skyron was exiled from Stormkeep for offending one of his elders, and was trying to earn his way back. (He did.) The GM made good use of the Actinars as a source of NPCs and side-quests. I recommend the "Arcane Aristocrat Family" as a Shared Origin for use in FH campaigns.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ockham's Spoon]

When I migrated from D&D to the Hero system, our adventures became much more character and plot oriented rather than hack & slash, shoot & loot mentality that a lot of the D&D modules have.  D&D dungeons were often designed like a series of deathtrap puzzles with minimal rhyme or reason, and while that is fun on some levels, it lacks depth.  I still use some of the interesting bits of D&D modules as inspiration, but wouldn't adapt one directly into Hero.

 

If you are looking for inspiration, something that is intriguing but would require fleshing out, check out the One-Page Dungeon contest entries.  They run the gamut from wacky to serious, and from basic to fantastic, but there are a lot of good ideas.  You can find them here: https://www.dungeoncontest.com/

[Lawnmower Boy]

11 hours ago, Ockham's Spoon said:

D&D dungeons were often designed like a series of deathtrap puzzles with minimal rhyme or reason, and while that is fun on some levels, it lacks depth.

 

They had to make some concessions to realism

[Old Man]

18 hours ago, Ockham's Spoon said:

When I migrated from D&D to the Hero system, our adventures became much more character and plot oriented rather than hack & slash, shoot & loot mentality that a lot of the D&D modules have.  D&D dungeons were often designed like a series of deathtrap puzzles with minimal rhyme or reason, and while that is fun on some levels, it lacks depth.

 

A surprising number of published modules were originally "tournament" adventures, where the point was to see which party could get the furthest into the deathtrap puzzles.  Not that roleplay, characterization, or improv were ever important back in the just-out-of-wargame days.

[Ninja-Bear]

Check out Dyson Logos. The maps are beautiful and he has a lot for FREE! The maps also usually have a small paragraph explaining them. Naturally you can not use it.

[Scott Ruggels]

A YouTuber recently explained the appeal of the original Dungeons, that the original, just post Chainmail, rules were about pulp flavored survival  horror.  And thinking about to my experiences in the mid 70's, it maps. 
 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Grumbling the whole time about the lack of published adventures for FH.

 

I'm working as fast as I can! 

[assault]

1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

A YouTuber recently explained the appeal of the original Dungeons, that the original, just post Chainmail, rules were about pulp flavored survival  horror.  And thinking about to my experiences in the mid 70's, it maps. 
 

 

 

This is kind of disturbing, but right.

 

3rd edition Fantasy Hero is the only version of Hero I have on my phone.

 

I'm thinking that 50 point characters might be the way to go. (That's plus Disads, of course.)

 

Everybody dies, naturally.

 

Clark Ashton Smith, mostly.

[Scott Ruggels]

Give it a go!

[assault]

I just need to sort out the magic. Enough to allow a player to create a wizard with about 20 points worth of spells.

[assault]

By the way, the reason why I am a bit weird about this stuff is that I reread Autoduel Champions fairly recently and decided that that would be how I wanted character creation to be.

[Ninja-Bear]

If you get a chance, read the Scarlet Citadel by REH. I just re read it and I was going “man that a D&D trope, and there’s anothrr one”.

[Ninja-Bear]

Also I think some dungeons should be alien in nature and thought. There seems to be this idea that everything in a Fantasy has to make sense. Heck even in the real world we don’t know really why people did what they did. 

[Mr. R]

9 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Also I think some dungeons should be alien in nature and thought. There seems to be this idea that everything in a Fantasy has to make sense. Heck even in the real world we don’t know really why people did what they did. 

 

 

Good point!

[Khymeria]

On 12/1/2022 at 9:21 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

I'm working as fast as I can! 

So am I with a Book of Lairs inspired night of long encounter style but I hate maps. I just hate them to pieces! I am having a lot of fun having my playtesters outthink me instead of hacking and slashing. That is a lot different feel than when working on a WotC backed adventure. Much more enjoyable to write the story.