Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

[Vestnik]

I loved loved loved loved loved, and I do mean loved, this DnD module when I was a kid, and although I haven't actually seen a copy in lo two decades now, I had a serious nostalgia flash looking at some of the illustrations online. I was just idly wondering if anybody had ever tried adapting it for Hero, and what became of it?

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Was that the one with

 

 

the flying saucer that crashed in Greyhawk?

 

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Yep! My 12-year-old mind thought it was the coolest thing ever.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I've run it twice (1st and 2nd edition AD&D), played it once (1st edition AD&D), and prepared it to run but never got around to it (3rd edition D&D). But never in Hero.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I haven't actually seen a copy in lo two decades now

 

Shouldn't be too hard to grab a copy if you want: http://www.amazon.com/Expedition-Barrier-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0394515439/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203625691&sr=8-1

 

Then there's plenty of "AD&D to HERO" conversion work done by folks here (cue TheQuestionMan entry). Take one, sift through the other.

[CTaylor]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I'm converting AD&D modules to Fantasy Hero (set in my world) but I didn't like that one at all and won't be doing it. Sci Fi/Fantasy crossover stuff just doesn't work in my mind and it's just grossly cliche'd by this point. EVERY fantasy setting seems to have aliens and crashed spacecraft somewhere, likely because of this module.

[FireTiger]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Was that the one with

 

 

the flying saucer that crashed in Greyhawk?

 

Yep, that's the one. It was the third in the S-series of modules. Those were later reprinted as a single set, compiling all four in the series.

[azato]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I have thought that this would be a cool champions style adventure. [Actually, I was thinking about setting up a super agent style game (100pts +50 disadvantages+25 super powers] to go clear the thing out. The devious point to the whole adventure was the release of the mindflayers into the modern world. I can't remember how many there were but i thought that it would be cool if one wound up in South America or Africa (preferable) and set up a horrific cult. Another one or two would embed themselves into a major government. And another one would mysteriously surface from time to time.

 

There is an old download (I can find the site) that had conversions of almost all the early editions of the DnD monsters. They could be open in notepad. I think it was "Dungeon Hero" but I am having problems finding it.

If you want the files I could zip them at attach the file.

[phookz]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Shouldn't be too hard to grab a copy if you want: http://www.amazon.com/Expedition-Barrier-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0394515439/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203625691&sr=8-1

 

Then there's plenty of "AD&D to HERO" conversion work done by folks here (cue TheQuestionMan entry). Take one, sift through the other.

 

You can also buy the PDF of it from Paizo publishing for $4: http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/aDAndD1/greyhawk/v5748btpy7me2&source=search

 

They actually have a lot of the old 1st and 2nd edition stuff in PDF format for very reasonable prices.

[CTaylor]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I have thought that this would be a cool champions style adventure.

 

Great idea, that or super agents. It would even work with a Danger, International style game, when scaled back a bit. I just don't care for it in a fantasy setting, it ruins the immersion and the feel of the genre to introduce tech, in my opinion (obviously, or I wouldn't have stated it - you just have to say that sometimes or people start arguing with you as if you're stating fact).

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I just don't care for it in a fantasy setting' date=' it ruins the immersion and the feel of the genre to introduce tech, in my opinion (obviously, or I wouldn't have stated it - you just have to say that sometimes or people start arguing with you as if you're stating fact).[/quote']

 

Could be cool to do a revised version, taking elements from the Spelljammer stuff. Instead of a high-tech spaceship make it a large crashed spelljammer and have the high tech be magic of a type not seen in the game world before. Can still keep the veggipygmies and all that sort of thing.

[Old Man]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

You can also buy the PDF of it from Paizo publishing for $4:

 

Didn't the hardcopy version originally cost $4?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

The price level has doubled (at least) since then. Inflation and all.

 

And have you looked at modules these days? It's hard to find a short adventure for less than $20...

[EvilEmpryss]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

My GM husband has converted a number of old D&D games to HERO, and they ran beautifully. The Slavers series, Temple of Elemental Evil, all the classics are great.

 

As a matter of fact, our favorite fantasy setting is Greyhawk, and he converts everything for it

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

What bugs me about ETTBP in retrospect -- not that it occured to my 12-year-old self -- is how impossible the situation was. This is a problem endemic to Gygax modules, I know -- the unsupportable ecosystem. The ship's decks were each only a few hundred feet across, stuffed with hungry carnivorous monsters. Fully a third of the top deck was inhabited by a large tribe of vegepygmies (maybe two tribes? I don't remember). What the heck did they all eat?

[Markdoc]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

What bugs me about ETTBP in retrospect -- not that it occured to my 12-year-old self -- is how impossible the situation was. This is a problem endemic to Gygax modules' date=' I know -- the unsupportable ecosystem. The ship's decks were each only a few hundred feet across, stuffed with hungry carnivorous monsters. Fully a third of the top deck was inhabited by a large tribe of vegepygmies (maybe two tribes? I don't remember). What the heck did they all eat?[/quote']

 

Adventurers.

 

cheers, Mark

[CTaylor]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Most old modules were like that: the adventure was a box with monsters and way too much treasure. I've tried to avoid this by building "dungeons" when they exist with either one or distinct pockets of ecosystems.

 

There were a lot of problems with these old dungeons, such as air flow, water supplies, and room to move. Creatures were behind locked doors (which always jammed shut when closed, and always swung shut anyway), treasure wasn't used by the bad guys when it should have been, and so on. They often still were fun, and the really good adventures took all that into account

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

I'm converting AD&D modules to Fantasy Hero (set in my world) but I didn't like that one at all and won't be doing it. Sci Fi/Fantasy crossover stuff just doesn't work in my mind and it's just grossly cliche'd by this point. EVERY fantasy setting seems to have aliens and crashed spacecraft somewhere' date=' likely because of this module.[/quote']

 

Didn't Gygax (mourn mourn mourn ) do this interdimensional crossover stuff several times? In the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror the characters can come across a 20th-century stamp collection and some 1980s-tech stuff.

[CTaylor]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Ironically, one of the more fun kinds of adventures is to port fantasy characters into the modern world for one adventure. It's fun for role playing, you just don't want to overdo it.

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Ironically' date=' one of the more fun kinds of adventures is to port fantasy characters into the modern world for one adventure. It's fun for role playing, you just don't want to overdo it.[/quote']

 

Does anybody remember an old old old old old old Dragon magazine feature involving a group of evil DnD beasties fighting a WWII German Wehrmacht squad? I seem to remember this from Junior High -- harpies vs. halftracks, or something like this.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Does anybody remember an old old old old old old Dragon magazine feature involving a group of evil DnD beasties fighting a WWII German Wehrmacht squad? I seem to remember this from Junior High -- harpies vs. halftracks' date=' or something like this.[/quote']

 

Oh yeah. IIRC evil wizard and monsters coming down to deal with interloping adventurers or somesuch, while the Germans were heading up to the castle to track down partisans, pass through the mist and run into each other.

 

(ah, I love search engines)

 

In the December 1975 issue of TSR’s The Strategic Review* there appeared an article entitled ‘STURMGESHULTZ AND SORCERY, or, How Effective is a Panzerfaust Against a Troll, Heinz?’ by Gary Gygax. It described a World War Two battle between a Waffen SS patrol (thirty troops, an armoured car and two half-tracks) and an Evil High Priest and his minions (a magician, two ‘heroes’, three Ghouls, three Mummies, four Trolls, nineteen Orcs, and one Giant Scorpion) in a strange encounter on the Eastern Front. The D&D rules were used to run the Evil High Priest et al, but a new set was given in the article to play the German side. The game itself ended with the patrol driven off, unprepared for the nature of their opponents and rushing back to their headquarters with a strange tale to tell.

 

* (The actual issue is #5 and the article was later reprinted in The Best of The Dragon Vol. 1, which is where I remembered it from. It can also be found in the Dragon Magazine Archive CD-ROM -- I am indebted to both Kelly St. Clair and Lance Purple for pointing me to the article on the archive after its search engine proved too awkward. Thanks chaps).

[Susano]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Does anybody remember an old old old old old old Dragon magazine feature involving a group of evil DnD beasties fighting a WWII German Wehrmacht squad? I seem to remember this from Junior High -- harpies vs. halftracks' date=' or something like this.[/quote']

 

I recall a German halftrack rolling up with a dead giant scorpion draped across it.

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Now that the Allies have giant scorpions, the Reich's days are numbered.

[assault]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Dave Arneson was to blame for the mixing of magic and science in DnD. Quite a lot of magic in Blackmoor was more or less science.

 

The very first DnD module ever published - The Temple of the Frog, in the Blackmoor supplement - featured an alien as the Big Bad. (I can't see the point of putting a spoiler warning on something published in 1975.)

[Vestnik]

Re: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Hero

 

Temple of the Frog? Please tell me more -- I have never heard of it. I always thought the first module was Keep on the Borderlands.