# What exactly is the Great Modron March?



## UltimaGabe (Oct 27, 2004)

Hello everyone. Over the years, my interest in the different planes of the D&D multiverse has, inevitably (pun intended if you get it, not intended if you don't) ended up in me seeing several references to something called the "Great Modron March". I've heard it mentioned in various places, and it got me wondering: What exactly is this "Great Modron March"? Despite its common reference, the best definition I could find was that it's an event that occurs only once every [insert long period of time here] when this race of beings, called the Modrons, march across the entire multiverse. Or something. Is that all they do? These beings, coming from who knows where, just decides to march. And so they do. Um... sounds like a great idea.

Anyway, would someone please be able to enlighten me as to what exactly the "Great Modron March" is? Just, assume I know nothing about the Modrons, or anything. Any info would be most appreciated.


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Oct 27, 2004)

The modrons are lawful automatons, part of the Planescape mythos.  The "Great Modron March" refers to them all getting up and heading out, in an unstoppable wave of ambivalently mechanized destruction.

"The Great Modron March" was a series of adventures written by Monte Cook for 2nd Ed, and were pretty highly regarded, as I recall.


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## Crothian (Oct 27, 2004)

Ya, its one product that has several adventures that all revolove around the Mondron March...ask PC how well it worked for his group  (I think it was PC that tried it out)


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## Len (Oct 27, 2004)

UltimaGabe said:
			
		

> Is that all they do?



That's not _all_ they do, but to find out the rest we should really play the module. http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1337& (I don't know the answer either.) Or, you could ask KidCthulhu. I'm sure she knows why the modrons were marching.

For more general info about modrons, look here or consult Google.


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## Tyler Do'Urden (Oct 27, 2004)

Every 17 cycles of the great cog of Mechanus (a cycle being 17 planar years), or 289 years for you berks who are canny enough to stay away from the grinding wheels of that plane, an army of Modrons- about 10,000 of em'- marches out of Mechanus and circles the great wheel, entering the Outlands, crashing through every gate-town, taking an excursion through the top (or outermost, or lowest) layer of each plane, starting with Arcadia and proceeding around until they return to Mechanus- a trip that takes about three years, I believe.

The purpose of the trip is to gather as much information for Primus, the supreme Modron hierarch, as they can.

Now, in the module The Great Modron March, the march accidentally starts about 200 years before it should- something that NEVER happens.  Much of the module is about trying to find out the dark of what's going on 



Spoiler



which isn't actually revealed until the sequel module, Dead Gods, in which it turns out that an "undead" god, Tenebrous (the shade of Orcus) slew Primus and usurped his position, and began the march in an attempt to use the Modrons to find his lost wand...


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## Dwarven Godfather (Oct 27, 2004)

*The Great Modron March!!!*

It's now a web enhancement that could be downloaded from Wizards under Manual of the Planes and talks about the different Modrons and their functions to one another along with the Hive, I think. I briefly read about it since I downloaded other Enhancements as well. If you haven't checked out the enhancements I recommend it since they deal with that specific book which 95% of the books have enhancements.


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## Jupp (Oct 27, 2004)

And the adventure "The Great Modron March" features a long lost "friend" that was thought being (and staying) dead for the rest of eternety  That alone makes it a very nice adventure. At least our group had a blast playing through it. 

Great Modron March is part of a campaign that ties together with another Planescape module called "Dead Gods".


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## mythusmage (Oct 27, 2004)

Around here we call it rush hour.


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## shilsen (Oct 27, 2004)

Is it just me or do you guys see a three-legged cat crying in the corner?


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## Piratecat (Oct 27, 2004)

Oh, no, *I'm* not bitter. Not me.  Nope. Uh uh.

For explanation, I was tremendously excited to run the module and its sequel, Dead Gods.  I had the PCs there as the modrons streamed out of the portal from Mechanus. Then one PC looked at another and said, "You know what? There are thousands of people here. I bet one of _them_ will figure out why the modrons are marching early."

Then they all packed up and went home.

Bastards.


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## Psion (Oct 27, 2004)

Rodrigo Istalindir said:
			
		

> "The Great Modron March" was a series of adventures written by Monte Cook for 2nd Ed, and were pretty highly regarded, as I recall.




As I seem to recall, I was not the only person on the PSML who didn't twig to the GMM anothology. It have potential, but the execution was botched.

1) The adventures showed a very poor attempt at motivating the characters. For example, the early adventures make you hate the little buggers, and the later ones expect you to sympathise with them. (Pkitty's experience also doesn't surprise me.)

2) The levels for the final adventures were above the recommended starting levels for _Dead Gods_, which these events were a prelude to. And if it comes between running _Dead Gods_ and... well, any other adventure, you run _Dead Gods_.


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Oct 27, 2004)

Psion said:
			
		

> As I seem to recall, I was not the only person on the PSML who didn't twig to the GMM anothology. It have potential, but the execution was botched.
> 
> 1) The adventures showed a very poor attempt at motivating the characters. For example, the early adventures make you hate the little buggers, and the later ones expect you to sympathise with them. (Pkitty's experience also doesn't surprise me.)
> 
> 2) The levels for the final adventures were above the recommended starting levels for _Dead Gods_, which these events were a prelude to. And if it comes between running _Dead Gods_ and... well, any other adventure, you run _Dead Gods_.




They came out during a lull in my gaming, so I never got to play them.  I missed most of the Planescape era, to my regret.  I was basing my impression on stuff I'd read here over the past couple of years.  Perhaps a bit of Planescape nostalgia has crept in.  I was also under the (mistaken) impression that TGMM was a series of which 'Dead Gods' was considered a part.  I didn't know it was a sequel, more or less.


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## Psion (Oct 27, 2004)

Rodrigo Istalindir said:
			
		

> I was also under the (mistaken) impression that TGMM was a series of which 'Dead Gods' was considered a part.  I didn't know it was a sequel, more or less.




Er, yeah. The product, the _Great Modron March_ is an adventure anothology that follows the Modrons around the great ring, an event which happens ahead of schedule. _Why_ this happens you don't find out until _Dead Gods_, which has the bad guy (



Spoiler



Tenebrous, AKA Orcus


) reflecting on the outcome of this event.


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## UltimaGabe (Oct 27, 2004)

Wow! Thanks for all of the info- I'm especially surprised to find out that The Great Modron March (the module) comes right before Dead Gods- because, as it happens, I have Dead Gods on my computer, via pdf. I read it over a while ago (most of it, anyway) because of my aforementioned interest in the planes- but as it's 2e, I didn't understand half of it. Oh well. Anyone know where I could find a copy/pdf of The Great Modron March? Also, anyone know if TGMM or DG have been converted to 3e or 3.5? I'd love to run them sometime if I could get my hands on a conversion. Any help would be most appreciated.

(Also, out of curiosity, did anyone get the pun in my original post?)


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## Kae'Yoss (Oct 27, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Oh, no, *I'm* not bitter. Not me.  Nope. Uh uh.
> 
> For explanation, I was tremendously excited to run the module and its sequel, Dead Gods.  I had the PCs there as the modrons streamed out of the portal from Mechanus. Then one PC looked at another and said, "You know what? There are thousands of people here. I bet one of _them_ will figure out why the modrons are marching early."
> 
> ...




ROTFLOLFDTSITKSSTSOTFBSABUDKKN! 


(Rolling  on  the  floor  Laughing out Loud  Falling  Down  The  Stairs  Into  The  Keller  Stösst  Sich  The  Schädel  On  The  Fußboden  bricht  sich  alle  beine  und  der  krankenwagen  kommt  net!)


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## Piratecat (Oct 27, 2004)

Oh, sure. Ha ha. Go ahead, laugh at the crying DM. 

Sniff.


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## RangerWickett (Oct 27, 2004)

Inevitables.  Hrm....

The first rule about Pun Club:  You don't talk about Pun Club!


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## Non-human Resources (Oct 27, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Oh, sure. Ha ha. Go ahead, laugh at the crying DM.
> 
> Sniff.




The roleplaying is always better when the DM is crying.


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## Crothian (Oct 28, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Oh, sure. Ha ha. Go ahead, laugh at the crying DM.
> 
> Sniff.




Do you include stories of the great march and all things going on with it as backdrops to anything or did you just give up on it?  When my players do that I contibnue the plot without them all the while introducing new elements and just showing them that it continues.


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## Piratecat (Oct 28, 2004)

Crothian said:
			
		

> Do you include stories of the great march and all things going on with it as backdrops to anything or did you just give up on it?




Give up on it? Fie! From my story hour, when the group meets a half-orc horizon walker named Shaw:

Nolin and Agar perk up.  “You’ve been to the Abyss?”

“Sure,” the half-orc gestures with both hands. “I’ve traveled the planes. You ever been to Sigil?”

“You bet!” exclaims Agar, and the rest of the Defenders gather round as well.

“I love it there, but it’s a little crowded. I don’t know if you know about it, but right now the modrons are marching. I actually got to follow them for a few months! Best decision I ever made.  I had some amazing adventures, met some fascinating people, and got some treasure I couldn’t be happier with.” He smiles contentedly.

“Do you know _why_ they’re marching?” asks Nolin, his voice sour.

“Got some theories,” considers Shaw, “but I promised someone I wouldn’t talk about them.”​
In addition, the Modron March is still a major plot point in the ongoing game six years later, tied to all sorts of continuing mischief. I'm fairly removed from canon, though; recently the last of the modrons made it back to Mechanus, and the entire race -- all 330 + million of them -- keeled over and died simultaneously. The PCs were in the middle of the capitol of Regulus at the time, and it was something of a shock. Now there's a rumor around that they caused the mass deaths. As you can imagine, they're wanted for questioning.


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## Steverooo (Oct 28, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Oh, sure. Ha ha. Go ahead, laugh at the crying DM.
> 
> Sniff.




"Hey, P-Daddy?  Why are the modrons marching?"

"Do you think we could find out?"


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## Kae'Yoss (Nov 2, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Oh, sure. Ha ha. Go ahead, laugh at the crying DM.
> 
> Sniff.




Sorry, I just couldn't help it. We did something like that once. With the end boss of the campaign. He told us he had no quarrel with us or earth (StarGate campaign with d20Modern), and so we went away without fighting him. 

Of course, he was overpowered by the Goa'Uld (or however you spell it) larva he wanted to dominate and then destroyed the earth 3 years later (I think the DM wanted to avenge his final battle).

And I have a list of things on how to annoy the DM (and another about how to annoy the players), which isn't meant serious. It mentions never falling for plot hooks (if you come upon the royal carriage where bandits just try to abduct the princess, don't save her. Go and help the raiders and split the profit. Or kill them and [do unspeakable things to] the princess, and then kidnap her yourself)


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## Tzarevitch (Nov 2, 2004)

Psion said:
			
		

> As I seem to recall, I was not the only person on the PSML who didn't twig to the GMM anothology. It have potential, but the execution was botched.
> 
> 1) The adventures showed a very poor attempt at motivating the characters. For example, the early adventures make you hate the little buggers, and the later ones expect you to sympathise with them. (Pkitty's experience also doesn't surprise me.)
> 
> 2) The levels for the final adventures were above the recommended starting levels for _Dead Gods_, which these events were a prelude to. And if it comes between running _Dead Gods_ and... well, any other adventure, you run _Dead Gods_.




I agree. Execution was lacking, the component adventures don't flow well together, and it is hard to convince the PCs that they should follow the march. "Figure out what is going on," is simply not a good enough reason to follow the March through its sillyness. 

Additionally, a lot of the premise behind the individual adventures assumes an unrealistic level of stupidity on the part of the immortal powers living on the planes. For some reason none of them seem to actually remember that the March comes through every 289 years and they don't take any precautions to keep the path clear and keep confrontations between the Modrons and the natives to the minimum. 

 I thought the IDEA of the Great Modron March was cool, the actual execution however left much to be desired. The only really good thing about it was that Dead Gods was the follow on. 

Tzarevitch


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## Tzarevitch (Nov 2, 2004)

Steverooo said:
			
		

> "Hey, P-Daddy?  Why are the modrons marching?"
> 
> "Do you think we could find out?"



.
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Spoiler
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Orcus had risen from the dead after he was slain by the drow deity Kiaransalee (sp?). He had risen as an undead quasi-demon called Tenebrous. In that guise, he went to Pelion (Mithardir in 3.5e) the lowest layer of Arborea and learned to use the original words of destruction that could be used to unmake anything (The Last Word). 

Tenebrous used the Last Word to slay Primus and took his place. He then sent the Modrons on an early March across the planes in hopes of finding a clue as to the location of his wand, which he needed to fully restore himself to life. In the end, the lawful nature of Mechanus and the Modrons forces Tenebrous out (after he finds the clue he was looking for) and one of the Secundi takes his place as the new Primus. 

Tzarevitch


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## HeavyG (Nov 2, 2004)

Psion said:
			
		

> As I seem to recall, I was not the only person on the PSML who didn't twig to the GMM anothology. It have potential, but the execution was botched.
> 
> 1) The adventures showed a very poor attempt at motivating the characters. For example, the early adventures make you hate the little buggers, and the later ones expect you to sympathise with them. (Pkitty's experience also doesn't surprise me.)
> 
> 2) The levels for the final adventures were above the recommended starting levels for _Dead Gods_, which these events were a prelude to. And if it comes between running _Dead Gods_ and... well, any other adventure, you run _Dead Gods_.




It's not quite as bad as Four Doors to the Unknown as far as expected levels are concerned though. It's a series of 4 (or was it 5) adventures that _must _ take place within a two months period of time. The first one is for beginning characters and the last one is for 10th level characters or so.


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## WizarDru (Nov 3, 2004)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> I'm fairly removed from canon, though; recently the last of the modrons made it back to Mechanus, and the entire race -- all 330 + million of them -- keeled over and died simultaneously. The PCs were in the middle of the capitol of Regulus at the time, and it was something of a shock. Now there's a rumor around that they caused the mass deaths. As you can imagine, they're wanted for questioning.



 Oh sure, Kevin...now *I* can't do it, or I'm copying you, Jerk.


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## Len (Nov 3, 2004)

PirateCat said:
			
		

> Now there's a rumor around that they caused the mass deaths. As you can imagine, they're wanted for questioning.



Heh, reminds me of the good old Eversink days.


			
				WizarDru said:
			
		

> Oh sure, Kevin...now *I* can't do it, or I'm copying you, Jerk.



Well, you could have all the githyanki die instead. I'm sure no-one would accuse you of copying then.


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## WizarDru (Nov 3, 2004)

Len said:
			
		

> Heh, reminds me of the good old Eversink days.
> 
> Well, you could have all the githyanki die instead. I'm sure no-one would accuse you of copying then.



Actually, I had something....different...in mind for them.  Which will soon be apparent.


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## Zappo (Nov 3, 2004)

Tzarevitch said:
			
		

> Additionally, a lot of the premise behind the individual adventures assumes an unrealistic level of stupidity on the part of the immortal powers living on the planes. For some reason none of them seem to actually remember that the March comes through every 289 years and they don't take any precautions to keep the path clear and keep confrontations between the Modrons and the natives to the minimum.



Uhm, the whole point is that the March has started more than a century too early. Everyone knows that the march comes through every 289 years and everyone takes precautions every 289 years. That doesn't help much when the modrons knock at your door only 120 years after the last time.


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## rounser (Nov 3, 2004)

> "Figure out what is going on," is simply not a good enough reason to follow the March through its sillyness.



Deja vu to RttToEE and it's almost nonexistant adventure hooks...


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## Tzarevitch (Nov 3, 2004)

Zappo said:
			
		

> Uhm, the whole point is that the March has started more than a century too early. Everyone knows that the march comes through every 289 years and everyone takes precautions every 289 years. That doesn't help much when the modrons knock at your door only 120 years after the last time.




Yes, but it has been every 289 years like clockwork since the dawn of time.  Everyone knows this. Why would people build a town in the way when you know this happens? Yes you have a reason to be surprised that they came early, but you know that they WILL come.  Why would you then have built houses there in the first place? 

I can see humans with a 100 year lifespan making that mistake once, but why would the immoral lords of Mt. Celestia build a town on the route that the modrons were granted by treaty (if I remember correctly). That implies that either the lords of Mt. Celestia are content to let the population of the towns and cities in their path get killed and their property destroyed every 289 years or they have such poor memory that they can't remember that the modrons come every cycle. That is just stupid. The fact that the modrons arrived early that time was irrelevant. 

If you live by the banks of a river and every 100 years (exactly) for the last 10,000 years, the river has flooded on the same day at the same time and to the same high water mark; after a generation or two, your society will learn not to build their houses below the water mark. It doesn't matter that the 10,000th time the flood arrived early. Unless it is a society of idiots, they'll pick up the pattern after the first five or so times and simply not build homes or anything else intended to be permanent below the watermark. 

Tzarevitch


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## Kae'Yoss (Nov 3, 2004)

PirateCat said:
			
		

> I'm fairly removed from canon, though; recently the last of the modrons made it back to Mechanus, and the entire race -- all 330 + million of them -- keeled over and died simultaneously. The PCs were in the middle of the capitol of Regulus at the time, and it was something of a shock. Now there's a rumor around that they caused the mass deaths. As you can imagine, they're wanted for questioning.




If they had killed 330+ million of modrons, I wouldn't seek them out. I would run away. Can you imagine how many XP that will bring them? They'll hit the far reaches of epic levels with that one, and then some ;-)


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