Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

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Deewun
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Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

I have been collecting hard copies of Dungeon magazine for awhile now. And for Christmas, my wonderful wife got me 22 issues for the collection. So I've been combing them for adventures that work really well in Ravenloft, especially ones that aren't specifically for Ravenloft, which I'm sure are the ones we here in the Frat know the best. So I figure I'll make a thread to go over these adventures both as I read them and I run them in my campaign. So yeah, stay tuned.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

“The Murder of Maury Miller” – Dungeon Magazine 57

While not a particularly spicy adventure, as it doesn’t have a dungeon to go through or a lot of creatures to combat, I found that it makes for a great introductory mystery adventure. Internal politics in a small town have led to a lot of problems. A new tax collector, Rander, has been making life miserable, charging “Protection Taxes” with his thugs on top of the already high taxes. The mill got seized and shut down by the government, and now a series of arsons have begun to not only destroy property but put lives in danger. The mayor is in desperate need of help, sending his deputy to a crossroads, looking for “heroes.”

What goes on from there is an intriguing mystery with ghosts, scarecrows, and comeuppance. The adventure itself isn’t particularly “horrific” but it is certain Gothic. And it can easily be put into Ravenloft with very small tweaks. If your group is more combat focused, or you prefer that as a DM, add a few more thugs to Rander’s men, and don’t have the ghost of Maury Miller be as benevolent, especially during a chase when hunting down his possessed scarecrows or upon entering the abandoned mill.

There is a pretty significant issue with a “king” or some other political body that is necessary to make the adventure run. Again, a few minor changes in names and you have an adventure you could easily drop into your campaign, or use as a side-road encounter for higher level parties, if you wanted a quick two-session sidequest. I give it a 4/5, merely because you have to put a little work into it and it is a smaller adventure.

RAVENLOFT SETTING SUGGESTIONS: My campaign was starting in Liffe, which I felt made a great home for the adventure, changing the town to Aferdale and using the write up in the Book of Crypts to flesh out the adventure. “Rite of Terror” has some incredible NPCs and an intriguing mystery of its own, with ghosts and arson as its plot, so it makes for a nice marriage, especially since I plan to come back to the city for that adventure.

Darkon, Falkovnia, Nova Vaasa, and Mordent could also all make good settings for the adventure in the Core, though all flavored differently. The central government is the important part for the plot, as the tax collector is needed. I could see it being done in Nidala with a heavier hand on revisions.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

"The Lady of the Mists" - Dungeon Magazine 42

Well well well, for an adventure that was written to be in Ravenloft, I think this may be the most perfect gothic horror adventure. A mystery, a semi-dungeon, interesting fights, cool magical items, a tragic backstory, and a lot of seeds for the future! This is an adventure for level 6 to 8 PCs, though it is super easily scaled.

Hundreds of years ago, an alchemist figured out immortality. She gifted it to her friends. And it only brought pain, to herself and to others. A man tried to trick his way to her heart and her potion, releasing a fiend (not in the adventure) to kill everyone and get his hands on the potion. That ended well for no one but the immortals. So she retreated. And has been on a path, killing her former friends with an antidote. Fast forward to now, there is a myth of the ghost of the Lady of the Mists, in her castle in the middle of the lake. And a higher up in the political landscape of the area has gone missing. Because of the PCs being foreigners, they are considered more trustworthy because of a secret police in the nation, and are sent to find the missing man.

This adventure is fabulous. Great atmosphere, an amazing story, lots of difficult encounters, lots of ways for tricky PCs to think outside the box, and ultimately it is about the tragedy of this woman who just wanted to help those around her, but was doomed by human errings. I cannot recommend this adventure enough. It could easily be run without any changes for a Ravenloft campaign. On top of all that, the fiend in the backstory of the adventure does not appear, which can very easily be adapted and added to this adventure to ratchet up the difficulty, or as a next step. This really is one of the best adventures I've read in Dungeon magazine so far. Right up there with Felkovic's Cat and the Siege of Kratys Freehold. 5/5

RAVENLOFT SETTING SUGGESTIONS: Kislova makes a lot of sense, with its alchemical history. Darkon and Hazlan both fit remarkably well. Magic and secret police are necessities for the story. Tovag could be incredibly interesting. And you could have it be a single island of terror, unnamed in the Mists, as a one-off. My plan is to set it in Rokushima Taiyoo, where the only changes I'd need to make are the names.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by alhoon »

OK, sold. How I find the Lady of the Mists adventure with the antidote to immortality?
Immortality recently entered my campaign after all. Is it in the DMGuild?
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

I own it in hardcopy. Bought off of ebay in a lot. There are a few copies on ebay and amazon that you could buy. Dungeon 42 also has the excellent printed Ravenloft adventure The Price of Revenge in it and a few other things of interest, so it is absolutely worth your time to own.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by alhoon »

Favorite quote from the adventure so far:
"Look out for the lake monster!"
There's no lake monster, but doesn't every lake have its legend about one?
My (slight) problem with the adventure is that as written, it requires dedication to break in and a sincere lack of self-preservation instinct by the PCs. For example some doors that are required for the players to proceed, are next to impossible to open (wizard locked, stuck and barred), except by battering them down. And there are several warnings and attempts by NPCs to turn them back.
The lock problems are solvable easily (remove the locks), so is removing the huge amount of treasure in the castle. And PCs are usually ignoring wise people that tell them "lad, it's not worth it, turn back".
Last edited by alhoon on Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

"The Ghost of Mistmoor" - Dungeon Magazine 35

The wonderful thing here is the little blurb by the author in the beginning, bemoaning his lack of knowing that Ravenloft existed when he wrote this adventure, or it would be set in Ravenloft. Kind of says it all, really. It's a really nice ghost story, haunted house adventure. There are some bits that need some tweaking for your taste as a DM, such as the zombie dragon (I find I'll probably end up treating it like Evil Dead, and making it closer to a taxidermied oddity that resembles a dragon instead of actually being one), perhaps a few too many magic items for the low level of the adventure, and the physical setting, but I really liked this one.

A man just became a duke, and now owes a LOT of backtaxes. He knows his family has a fortune hidden inside a secret vault in their family home, but a tragic double murder + suicide has left the place haunted by ghosts. Our PCs show up in time to hear it and offer to stay a single night. And everything goes mad from there. In a semi-predictable fashion, there is no ghost, there is a pair of thieves who are using ghostly tactics to scare people away so that they can find the vault. And of course, twist the first, there really is ghosts! From there, though, things unfold a little less standardly, making the night a lot more interesting, leading to a great climax with the true villain of this ghost story, which I don't want to spoil.

The adventure has a lot of great chilling moments, and a lot of good atmosphere. It hurts a little from a lack of things to DO, but a good DM can really milk the atmosphere and backstory to make this a truly unique and interesting ghost story for their adventure. I'd give it a 4/5.

RAVENLOFT SETTING SUGGESTIONS: If you want to play it as written, then Mordent is your friend. Fits right in perfectly. But honestly, with very little change, you could set this adventure in basically any of the less magical domains. Borca, Barovia, Liffe, even Nova Vaasa all could handle it. All that's required is a tax system if you are willing to work with the backstory some if you don't like the duke story. My plan is to set it in Estrangia, since it is a completely open domain to do things in.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Joël of the FoS »

alhoon wrote:I found it, XXX has the copy on their site. Not sure if it's legit, so I don't link it here.
I'm quite sure it is from someone who doesn't own the rights. So please do not post any link, thanks.

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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Deewun wrote:"The Ghost of Mistmoor" - Dungeon Magazine 35
Indeed a classic. Given the author's lament, I deem it "honorary Ravenloft". This is really random, but the one part that sticks out most for me is the trap where you can fall down the privy into a portable hole. The bad guy then rolls up the portable hole and empties it into a locked cell, leaving your friends to wonder where you went. :) Not the most Ravenloft sequence of events, (more like Wile E. Coyote) but it amuses me.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

"The Siege of Kratys Freehold" - Dungeon Magazine #33

My wife loves zombies. She loves everything about them. So every time I run a game with her as a player, I try to find good zombie adventures. They are few and far between. Rarely does that "horde" feeling happen. That sidenote is important because of this adventure!

The PCs come upon a tiny little town, doing its best to survive after a lot of accidents have basically made trade routes all but unusable. While this is happening, there's lots of orcs planning a siege of this place. Our PCs show up in the nick of time, but this isn't a standard "go to a place and kill the stuff" adventure. Instead, the PCs have to manage their time, use the limited resources of the freehold against the oncoming army, including the NPCs, and find a way to survive.

The adventure is super well written, with three provided hooks to use to get your players into the adventure, two of which are really superb hooks. It is easy for a large group as their first adventure, or later on in power with a smaller group. Or power up the enemies and use it later on, because the bones of the adventure work no matter the level of the party or the monsters you throw at them, within limits. The town is incredibly well detailed, and the villainous orcs are smart and make formidable enemies. The NPCs are interesting, and the problems the players have to solve make this really stand out. It is a superb adventure ...

And all of it as written doesn't fit into Ravenloft, like at all. The adventure is part of a larger Dungeon series of adventures, using those NPCs and locations. Now, this is why I brought up zombies. Zombies, ghouls, and wights in place of Orcs make this adventure really shine for Ravenloft, and that "survive against the horde" adventure that is so difficult to do in printed material really works here. And because the adventure encourages relationships and quick thinking over dice-rolling, it really does mesh well into Ravenloft, if you are willing to do a lot of work.

I cannot recommend this adventure enough, but it requires a lot of tailoring to make it fit our favorite setting. 4/5

RAVENLOFT SETTING SUGGESTIONS: This is part of the difficulty using this adventure. The setting only requires a forest and a single hill, so most domains could work, allowing you to drop it really anywhere if you are good to do the work. The large number of undead, in my suggested way to use it in Ravenloft, is the concern. Darkon makes sense, in theory, depending on your timeline. Souragne makes a lot of sense as well, as a nice alternative to always running Night of the Walking Dead. Using Toben the Many as the villain here could allow you to make this fit in Valachan, Borca, or even Barovia. I'm toying with the idea of putting it in Tovag, and having the forces of Cavitus come to this little freehold. Vorostokov is a very interesting twist, making it feel very Game of Thrones-esque if that is your cup of tea.

Siege of Kratys Freehold requires some work to make it fit in Ravenloft, but it is absolutely worth it.
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by The Giamarga »

Nice reviews, keep the coming. A short summary of the adventure would help.

Check out Dungeon #62 if you have it, a scarecrow adventure, "The ghost at Widder smither's" sidetrek (not an a tail ghost), an undead crocodile, a town with a rat problem...
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Nox »

I just saw this today, and really Like this project,
Any chance we can have some more?
:mrgreen:
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Dungeon Magazine Adventures reviews

Post by Deewun »

Absolutely. I've been working on other projects, so this has been taking a back seat, and my main campaign has been doing other printed material (headed towards Nova Vaasa to do the Awakening, Feast of Ravenmoor after hearing Gonzoron's review, and looking for something in Dungeon to use as a horse race). My second lunch campaign is doing the Siege of Kratys Freehold, and that is going really well using zombies and skeletons instead of Orcs, set in Tovag! Plus, the VRGttWD has been REALLY helpful in making that a much more interesting, great entry level adventure for them. They tried to take out one of the skeletal drummers and lost a PC in the process, which is always a wrinkle to get the new character in, but it has been very fun!

I haven't abandoned the project, just busy elsewhere. Got a huge stack of Dungeon magazines to still go through. I'll return here soon. Thanks for the kind words. :)
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