Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Favorite Greyhawk adventure or accessory

Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:21 pm Favorite Greyhawk adventure or accessory

I'm currently in the process of moving so I had all of my D&D stuff out today and it made me start thinking about which Greyhawk product is my favorite. It's a hard decision for me to pick my favorite out of so many excellent products but here goes. My favorite adventure is Greyhawk Ruins, but I have to say close behind are Return of the Eight and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. My favorite accessory is definitely The City of Greyhawk box set. I have used that boxed set so much that I think I have memorized the text in it. My runners up for best accessory are Iuz the Evil, and Slavers. I can't wait to hear what everyone else's favorites are. I am already prepared to be convinced that I picked the wrong ones!

Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:20 pm

My choices are nearly identical. My favorite adventures are GH Ruins (ran twice!) and not Tsojcanth but Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (and by extension Dungeon #112, Maure Castle).
As accessories go, I agree City of GH is the best and I too have gone through it so much that I wore out one copy and had to get a second. Iuz the Evil is chock full of good info for sure, I always have that one at my desk for reference.

Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:56 pm

Iuz the Evil for me, followed very closely by Ivid the Undying. Best execution of the supplement format for Greyhawk products(although even these could be improved a bit). The other supplements mainly fail in that they try to cover too broad an area, and in doing so do not flesh out all areas they cover in an in depth way("The Scarlet Brotherhood" and "The Marklands" being prime examples of this).
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Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:07 pm

Vault of the Drow and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth have always been my favorite modules. As far as accessories, that has always been the original World of Greyhawk Gazetteer. It opened up a world for all of my characters to call home, gave them more definition of character, and gave me years of roleplaying fun!
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Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:08 pm

I'ma go old-school on y'all. Favorite adventure, S2 - White Plume Mountain. Favorite accessory, although it is arguably a module, T1 - Village of Hommlet. Based partly on nostalgia, but I still think they are fine products.

Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:11 pm

Hehe. Such an obvious answer- the thing that started it all(for me at least). If all things Greyhawk spontaneously combusted, and I could choose to save only one thing from that fate, it would be the 83' World of Greyhawk boxed set.
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Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:05 am

The Sinister Secret At Saltmarsh.

Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:13 am

T1- The Village of Hommlet Happy

Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:00 am

Adventure: T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil: In my opinion, the BEST campaign adventure TSR ever made, hands-down.

Best Supplement/Accessory: Pretty much anything Carl Sargent wrote; but I find I can't choose between City of Greyhawk and From the Ashes

Honorable mention: A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords: Nothing like starting an adventure off with all the PCs having nothing but loin clothes, in caverns, on a volcanic island about to erupt!

Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:43 am

Picking a favorite mod for me is rather tough, but I guess I'd have to say T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil. Close behind that Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, Isle of the Ape, and perhaps one or two others are running neck and neck.

The '83 WoG boxed set has to be my favorite accessory, with the City of Greyhawk boxed set running a close second.

If you want to talk about fan-made material, then it REALLY gets difficult. (But I'd pick my own material just to spite Samwise! Cool

)

Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:09 am

If you preclude the '83 boxed set, which is so important it pretty much rules itself out of any such discussion imho, then I'd have to go for the "From the Ashes" and "The city of Greyhawk" supplements. Both are such a mine of info, plot hooks and npc's that they are phenomenal and essential tools to any DM. :)

Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:04 pm

Adventure for me would have to be the Drow (I have a soft spot for them), closly followed by Ravenloft (original). As for Greyhawk specific accessory I think it would have to be Iuz. That is not saying there aren't many other very good adventures but these are my personal favourites

Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:56 pm

For Supplement materials:
1) The '83 box set
2) The City of Greyhawk Box Set
3) The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
4) Iuz the Undying
5) Greyhawk Adventures
6) Oerth Journal

For Published Modules
1) Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
2) Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
3) Village of Hommlet
4) In Search of the Unknown & Keep on the Borderland
5) The Age of Worms adventure path
6) Labyrinth of Madness
True, the last three are specifically Greyhawk but that's where we've always set them when we played them.

For Living Greyhawk Scenarios
1) CORS4-03 Castle Greyhawk (Played this one at GenCon with a table of all high level worshippers of Zagyg - Hilarity definitely ensued... with lots of cheese... really, I mean it, the adventure started with our cleric of Zagyg casting a Heroes Feast composed entirely of cheeses.)
2) NYR3-09 Kiss of Incabulous (We ignored/missed repeated hints that we really needed to have a couple of special potions to cure a disease when we went into the cave... The Mummy cleric of Incabulous hit one character with its enhanced mummy rot and nobody could save him... the player roleplayed it perfectly, his character sadly pulling out a large sack and stood in it as he rapidly dissolved into a vile goo so we could carry him out with us and get him Raised.)
3) NYR4-01 Towers of the Abbor-Alz (DMed this one 7 times at a convention - absolutely crazy fun every time, especially when the barbarian got two natural 20s... one on a jump check to jump on top of a beholder and a second on a grapple check to hit, grab and stay on the beholder - thus starting a long series of checks to stay on and keep as many eyestalks pointed away from him as possible. At another table a young player with a rogue found a box and opened it when the other characters weren't in the room. I took the player aside and told him that the box was empty. Returning to the table the other players asked what was in the box, the young player looked at them calmly and announced "nothing.... now." Que suspicions, plotting and intra party espionage for the rest of the scenario)
4) NYR2-05 Silence of the Gnomes (because Gnomes just need to die! Just kidding, it was well written and had great combats and roleplaying opportunities)
5) COR3-19 Folly (this is the famous one where players had to switch characters)
6) NYR3-03 Monkey Business (Several of the first two years of Nyrond adventures had monkeys in them - Apes, Baboons, and common monkeys. There wasn't any reason or organization behind it, just the various authors had picked them for a combat or for some bit of flavor... but after a the 3rd of 4th time you ran into a combat or just some flavor text with the suckers players began to ask why were there all these monkeys running around Nyrond. This scenario was written to make up a reason - the Scarlet Brotherhood was training them as combatants and infiltrators. Quick! calling adventures go save the poor beasts from their cruel masters! The scenario included meeting an awakened ape druid and finding a scarlet brotherhood army training to invade Nyrond.

Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:39 pm

I think my two fav's are L1 The secert of bone hill and L2 Assassin's knot.L1 i think is a good all-a-round module with a little bit of every thing to do for the players.With L2 giving a story to play out.

UK 1 Beyond the crystal cave come's in a close 3rd. Happy

Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:18 am

I have to go with the Supermodule T1 - 4, from a pure enjoyment and nostalgia point of view. Happy

An old group adventured in the old desert series, I think the modules were OD&D actually but we set them in the Sea of Dust.

I will never forget the first time I held the '83 boxed set in my hands ... it was magical. I had just started High School and couldn't even comprehend the amount of work that went in to that production.

aah ... The Good Old Days!

Smile

Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:37 am

For me it would have be WG4 Lost Temple of Tharizdun. What a creepy dark module and the toughest opening room of anything I have played. And a very close second would be U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. What a well put together module. I still use it to thsi day to start off new groups

Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:11 pm

Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:26 pm

I see that several people have listed the Lost Temple of Tharizdun as one of their favorites, and to each his own, but I admit I never really liked that adventure very much. I thought the pacing was slow and the monsters underwhelming, especially for a party as high as 10th level, which is the highest the adventure is rated for. I admit I haven't played the adventure in about 14 years and have never DM'd it, so maybe I should run it again to see if it will grow on me. Great posts from everyone so far and looking forward to more.

Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:45 am

Although T1-4 is my favourite campaign, I actually like Against the Giants a bit more as a stand alone if for no other reason than Obmi turns up!

My favourite supplements are City of Greyhawk and From the Ashes, with the latter actually requiring taped spines to keep them intact after many years of overuse.

Damien.

Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:39 pm

Still haven't decided on a favorite module, but I would definitely have to have the '83 Boxed set and the Adventure Begins supplement. Both are essential for the basic foundation of Greyhawk.

But that's just me. Wink

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Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:57 pm

Favorite module is a toughie-- but I think T1 "Village of Hommlet" has to win out.

Supplement, well, I think the gold boxed set would certainly win, but I'm not sure if it would qualify (is it really a "supplement"?).

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My Greyhawk blog: http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com

Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:25 pm

T1 seems to be doing pretty well! Smile

Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:52 pm

Favorite modules:

G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax (D&D; TSR)
Maure Castle (Paizo)/WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Rob Kuntz (AD&D; TSR)
T1 Village of Hommelet by Gary Gygax (AD&D; TSR)
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity by David Cook (AD&D; TSR)
Maze of Zayene #4 Eight Kings by Rob Kuntz (AD&D from Creations Unlimited, or d20 from Different Worlds)

Favorite supplements:

1983 Greyhawk Box Set
Dragon Magazine Archive
Living Greyhawk Journal #2 (City of Greyhawk!)
Dungeon and Outdoor Geomorphs
tie: Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk/Greyhawk The Adventure Begins

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Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:47 pm

Tsojcanth! And the original folio