Favorite non BRP adventure.

[jackleg2010]

Listening to an old podcast. The people are talking about the classic D&D adventure B1: In Search of the Unknown. I was wondering what are your favorite non BRP adventure(s) you've adapted to run BRP, Runequest, Magic World, etc?

[Mechashef]

D&D Adventure B5: Horror on the Hill

[Dr_Zarnak]

I adapted a nice little Dark Matter mystery, “London Calling”, for a Cthulhu Now campaign. 

[rsanford]

22 minutes ago, Dr_Zarnak said:

I adapted a nice little Dark Matter mystery, “London Calling”, for a Cthulhu Now campaign. 

Ooooh, could you tell us a little about it? I love x-files type stuff!

[Bill the barbarian]

Tegel Manor comes to mind...

[rsanford]

Oooh, a topic I have been investigating myself lately. Here are a few of my favorites (in no particular order):

The Teeth of Gwahlur (Conan)

D&D adaption of Robert E. Howard story. The party hears about the legendary Jewels of Gwahlur and have travelled to the mythic kingdom of Kush to see if they can get them. However, the players are not the only party to seek the treasure. Story involves overland travel, travel to a mythical country, ancient city, natural dangers combat and investigation skills. I really like this one and it’s east to adapt to BRP or Magic World. It’s also free, get it here -> https://hyboria.xoth.net/adventures/wc_The_Teeth_of_Gwahlur.pdf. Will probably need to use heroic hitpoints to make this work.

Reality Check (D20 Modern)

A young reporter has gone missing while investigating a strange industrial facility in the mountains. What happened to her, and what does the mysterious company called UberCorp have to do with her disappearance? This is a really good adventure including both investigation and combat aspects well suited to a Fringeworthy or SG1 type game plus it’s easy to adapt to BRP or Magic World. A couple of caveats though… This is the first part of a planned eight sessions and the other sessions will never come (because D20 Modern is canceled). However, the adventure is complete unto itself so you won’t have any troubles there. For best results GM to should read the web supplement Project Javelin: A Campaign Primer which is a setting describing cross-dimensional, technically advanced NAZIS. It’s free but not particularly easy to find (I think it’s on the wayback machine) but I can email it to you if desired.

Foul Weather (D20 Modern)

Four years ago, the I.S.S Beagle was sent out to chart a habitable planet in the 14 Herculis system but after 3 months the ship ceased communications with earth. Two years ago, Robert Ender, Owner of the salvage ship End’s Run arrived at 14 Herculis and set out to salvage I.S.S Beagle; Earth soon lost communications with him as well. Now your ship has been dispatched to find out what happened and to rescue any survivors. Lots of room for social conflict and combat with just a little bit of investigation. This adventure does require skills for zero-g combat, vac-suit, navigation, computers, and weaponry. I used straight BRP and just added a sci-fi skill set but it might be best to use either M-Space or World’s Beyond. Free but hard to find on the archive. PM me if you want it.

Trail of the Gold Spike (Justice Inc)

The Gold Spike Mining Company is under siege by a mysterious mastermind known as the Condor. The Condor has arranged several accidents and mishaps for the company, with the intent of forcing management to abandon the site. Truly awesome and excellent pulp adventure in the vein of Doc Savage. Has potential for players to be straffed by biplanes, fly biplanes, fight on conveyor belts leading to a furnace. Features the "pale" ones and a Condor hideout. Costs $5.00 on DrivethruRPG but absolutely worth it. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257102/Trail-of-the-Gold-Spike-3rd-Edition. Note you will need to pulp up your BRP or Magic World game with heroic hitpoints, a modern skill set and luck points.

Frozen City of Terror (Hollow Earth Expedition, Perils of the Surface World)

It’s 1936 and an expedition to the south pole looking for an Atlantean artifact goes silent. Are the NAZIs responsible or has something else gone wrong? Investigators will trek across the south pole to ultimately uncover an ancient city and terrors. I think this is only available in print but the whole book is good. The plot is combat and adrenaline intensive I used Call of Cthulhu for the base. You are going to need heroic hit points and luck.

PX Poker Night (Delta Green)

Not sure if you are including Delta Green as BRP but regardless you should look this scenario up. You play lowly Air Force non-commissioned officers living on Platte AFB in Nebraska and decommissioning old aircraft, when aliens come to call – and the government is behind it. Short but super fun adventure. Free on DrivethruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112460/Delta-Green-PX-Poker-Night.

Massacre on Cass Avenue (Bureau 13)

Nearly forgot this one but it would have been a shame because it's the finest monster of the week type scenario that I know of. This scenario begins with the Bureau alerting the party to a potential vampire attack in Detroit. That turns out to be true but there is so much more than that going on. The party must find the source of the sudden influx of all types of monsters and stop it at the source. This is a pure investigation scenario as attempts to deal with the supernatural with violence will likely lead to failure. Easily suited to any BRP game as long as it has a mechanism for sanity so perhaps Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green. We used Delta Green with great results, much better than the Tri-Tac system that Bureau 13 normally uses. You can find Hellsnight here -> https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/291226/Bureau-13-Stalking-the-Night-Fantastic--Hellsnight. Easily worth $9 or $10.

Edited March 4, 2022 by rsanford

[Dr_Zarnak]

13 hours ago, rsanford said:

Ooooh, could you tell us a little about it? I love x-files type stuff!

It’s an Alternity adventure for the Dark Matter setting that appeared in Dungeon Magazine #83 (October/November 2000). A series of grisly murders in London draws the investigators into a plot by an Indian diabolist. The twist is that some of those murders may have been committed by a retired detective trying to foil the sorcerer’s plans. David Conyer’s “Darkest Calling” (The Stars are Right! 2nd Edition, 2004) confronts players with a similar dilemma.

[AndreJarosch]

D&Ds "Castle Amber" 

I set it in Lovecrafts Dreamlands. 
Can say i adapted it; i used it as an entry point for more adventures in Averoigne (i adapted some CAS stories my players never heared of, i used Jekyll & Hyde, and a sorcery version of Frankenstein there also). 

[Atgxtg]

For me it would probably have to be Judge's Guild's Frontier Forts of Kelnore.

While it's not really an adventure per say, but instead a standardized series of forts that can be individualized by random tables, it has served me well in many games. Although written for D&D (the pre-AD&D version of D&D at that)it's generic nature makes it fairly system independent, and very easy to adapt to other fantasy/historical RPGs.. Over the year's I've used it for adventures in RuneQuest, Stormbringer, MERP, Pendragon, and, recently, Tunnels & Trolls. I can't recall if I've ever used it for any version of D&D, though. 

But then I primarily use Chaosium's Bermuda Triangle supplement for CoC, sans Mythos stuff,  as a sorucebook on the Caribbean for the James Bond 007 RPG. 

 

[Greville]

I really enjoyed the first part of the DnD 2nd Ed Night Below Campaign. There were a lot of different things to do and they all connected you with the people in the region. There were multiple solutions to each problem (non-combat ones too). It taught me a lot of good techniques for introducing characters to an unfamiliar area and ensuring they give a crap about what happens.

Spoiler

It turns out that this was all to get the characters to build relationships with people so they would care when they got kidnapped. Once that happened the campaign became very linear, there was a long, boring dungeon that was just there to level the characters up so they could face the big bad.

I really liked the premise, and the first act was fantastic, but the 2nd part just killed it for me.

[svensson]

22 hours ago, Greville said:

I really enjoyed the first part of the DnD 2nd Ed Night Below Campaign. There were a lot of different things to do and they all connected you with the people in the region. There were multiple solutions to each problem (non-combat ones too). It taught me a lot of good techniques for introducing characters to an unfamiliar area and ensuring they give a crap about what happens.

  Hide contents

It turns out that this was all to get the characters to build relationships with people so they would care when they got kidnapped. Once that happened the campaign became very linear, there was a long, boring dungeon that was just there to level the characters up so they could face the big bad.

I really liked the premise, and the first act was fantastic, but the 2nd part just killed it for me.

I liked Night Blow a lot, and converted it to PF1 [which was some effort, especially as you got later in the game]. For one thing, 'Look, Mom! No Drow!' For another, my favorite TSR /WotC milieu is Greyhawk [cuz I'm old, that's why!] and I plugged TNB into that setting. And I also really liked TNB for having one of the premises of RQG in it... the adventurers are PART of society, not separate from it.

I also really like the al'Qadim setting, but the mythological Arabian Nights thing hasn't been a real thing in the US since 9/11, for obvious reasons. I live in an area with a lot of veterans, and a correspondingly large number of GWOT vets, and there are still some hard feelings.

[svensson]

Almost everything RE Howard can be easily plugged into BRP /Magic World.

It would take a bit more work to do Fritz Lieber or ERB, but it could be done.

Ditto, Kathryn Kurtz' Deryni books.

One of my favorite old TSR modules was UK5: Eye of the Serpent, a solo module where your character was grabbed by a roc and you were dropped off on its nest at the top of a mountain and you had to adventure your way down it to get to freedom. All the while the adventure sandbox gets bigger, you encounter more and different environments and so on. It was an 'outdoors dungeon crawl' that had very limited choices as you started but greatly expanded as you went on. For the era, it was pretty innovative.

[g33k]

2 hours ago, svensson said:

...

It would take a bit more work to do Fritz Lieber or ERB, but it could be done.

Newhon would take a bit of jiggering, because of the magic; and Barsoom, because of the tech.  Some of the other works (e.g. Pellucidar) might reasonably be approximated via BRP (or a close ally) with little to no extra effort.

 

3 hours ago, svensson said:

...

Ditto, Kathryn Kurtz' Deryni books...

For those that enjoyed those novels, but don't already know of this tidbit... there is already a Deryni RPG:
https://fudgerpg.com/products/deryni-adventure.html
 

Nothing stopping you from rolling-your-own on a BRP chassis, of course!  But the "official" product might be worth a gander (specially the map!)

[rsanford]

5 hours ago, svensson said:

I liked Night Blow a lot, and converted it to PF1 [which was some effort, especially as you got later in the game]. For one thing, 'Look, Mom! No Drow!' For another, my favorite TSR /WotC milieu is Greyhawk [cuz I'm old, that's why!] and I plugged TNB into that setting. And I also really liked TNB for having one of the premises of RQG in it... the adventurers are PART of society, not separate from it.

I also really like the al'Qadim setting, but the mythological Arabian Nights thing hasn't been a real thing in the US since 9/11, for obvious reasons. I live in an area with a lot of veterans, and a correspondingly large number of GWOT vets, and there are still some hard feelings.

GWOT?

[svensson]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

For those that enjoyed those novels, but don't already know of this tidbit... there is already a Deryni RPG:

https://fudgerpg.com/products/deryni-adventure.html
 

Nothing stopping you from rolling-your-own on a BRP chassis, of course!  But the "official" product might be worth a gander (specially the map!)

I own the book. 😉 But I'm not that big a fan of the FUDGE so-called 'system'. YMMV and all, but my tastes tend to run towards games systems with a bit more structure than FUDGE's 'describe it and we'll figure it out as we go' narrative style. That doesn't mean I want a math test either, but percentile scores a bit more helpful than rating something 'Good' or 'Below Average'.

Also, the big danger of a 'some have power and most don't' game is the same problem that occurs with Star Wars RPGs. You're either a Jedi, or a Jedi's pet. One of the guys who wrote the 'DC Heroes' games summed it up really well. 'I had to design a game that made Superman and Jimmy Olsen equally playable.'

[svensson]

1 minute ago, rsanford said:

GWOT?

Global War on Terror, the US term for everything our military has been up to since 9/11. Also called by their operational initials 'OEF' for Operation Enduring Freedom, etc. when referring to specific portions of the whole effort.

[rsanford]

You know, I think Mongoose did a RuneQuest Newton book. Has anyone seen it? Is it any good?

[rsanford]

15 minutes ago, svensson said:

Global War on Terror, the US term for everything our military has been up to since 9/11. Also called by their operational initials 'OEF' for Operation Enduring Freedom, etc. when referring to specific portions of the whole effort.

Ahh - thanks!

[Bill the barbarian]

Anyone remember Irilian? This is the one that got away. Would have love to play this bad boy! A city module delivered over 5 or 6 issues or WD for A DnD.

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[svensson]

And then, of course, we have the Most Medieval of All Medieval Games... Columbia Games' 'Harn'....

[Bill the barbarian]

Sorry svensson, that title goes to my neighbour city's fine Chivalry and Sorcery; crafted for your enjoyment in Alberta! Hey, did you ever play the Harn RPG?

Edited March 7, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[Questbird]

22 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Anyone remember Irilian? This is the one that got away. Would have love to play this bad boy! A city module delivered over 5 or 6 issues or WD for A DnD.

 

 

Yes! I ran that one for my players. I got it out of 'The Best of White Dwarf'. I set the town in Nehwon up the Hlal from Lankhmar, near the Mountains of Darkness. It was a really atmospheric town in decay, and the way it was introduced over those 5 or 6 episodes was really good. It was AD&D but it would suit a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay vibe too (or any dark fantasy really). One of my favourite fantasy cities.

[svensson]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:58 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Sorry svensson, that title goes to my neighbour city's fine Chivalry and Sorcery; crafted for your enjoyment in Alberta! Hey, did you ever play the Harn RPG?

I've played both, C&S and Harn. I can't say I'm a huge fan of either system. Harn is... 'excessively complicated'...

What I appreciate about Harn is that it ISN'T Europe. The societies developed feudalism for their own reasons and it looks very much like the Terran historical version, with some very key differences... the addition of magic and the manifest power of multiple deities not the least.

[Qizilbashwoman]

6 hours ago, svensson said:

What I appreciate about Harn is that it ISN'T Europe.

What I appreciate about Hârn is the gargûn. Yes please, well-detailed communal mammaloids from an alternate universe. Hârn is still pretty much old-school white people and frankly, the religious elements are terribad.

Just take the gargûn (I wish I still could get my hands on the book I used to have about them) and add them to another setting, presumably one that learned more from Glorantha. There's a reason the Elder Scrolls series are beloved, and it's that despite being pretty Eurocentric their primary influence is Glorantha.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dragon_Break

Edited March 8, 2022 by Qizilbashwoman

[svensson]

3 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

What I appreciate about Hârn is the gargûn. Yes please, well-detailed communal mammaloids from an alternate universe. Hârn is still pretty much old-school white people and frankly, the religious elements are terribad.

Just take the gargûn (I wish I still could get my hands on the book I used to have about them) and add them to another setting, presumably one that learned more from Glorantha. There's a reason the Elder Scrolls series are beloved, and it's that despite being pretty Eurocentric their primary influence is Glorantha.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dragon_Break

The book on gargun that you're looking for is 'Nasty, Brutish, and Short'. For some reason, I'm not seeing it on drivethru [everything else 'Harnish' is] or at the company website, columbiagames.com.