# Best Forgotten Realms adventures.



## TavernBrawler (Aug 30, 2007)

Hi,

The title says it all.  What are your favorite FR modules?  1E or 2E only in this case.


----------



## DM_Jeff (Aug 30, 2007)

*Castle Spulzeer * was actually quite a ride for my crew. They enjoyed going through it and I enjoyed running it.

*Under Illefarn*, when properly stripped of empty/filler rooms was awesome.

As an aside, throughout 2nd Edition, my FR campaign was peppered with generic adventures from Dungeon Magazine, and my best memories seem to be from those! Also, the "Sword of the Dales" trilogy of modules for 2nd Edition are cringingly gawd-awful, beware.


----------



## Dragonhelm (Aug 30, 2007)

DM_Jeff said:
			
		

> *Under Illefarn*, when properly stripped of empty/filler rooms was awesome.




Agreed.  I used this module as the foundation for my old 2e FR game.  What's great about it is that it is a mini-campaign setting, plus it has three adventures (though the last one in Illefarn proper had some problems, IIRC).  Lots of personalities, shops in town, etc.  Everything you need to run a Daggerford campaign.

It's my love of Daggerford that prompted me to buy _The North_ boxed set.  Mostly the same info, but some updates and more info on the militia.


----------



## TavernBrawler (Aug 30, 2007)

I have all of those.  I have noticed a lack of non-Zhent Moonsea adventures.

I had thought of using Phlan as a good base to launch adventures from.

Any good Moonsea adventures?


----------



## DM_Jeff (Aug 30, 2007)

TavernBrawler said:
			
		

> I have all of those.  I have noticed a lack of non-Zhent Moonsea adventures. I had thought of using Phlan as a good base to launch adventures from. Any good Moonsea adventures?




Well, my original response was about *Mysteries of the Moonsea*, but that's 3.5. It has been fueling a campaign i started in January of thei year and we're just over half way through, I am certainly getting my money's worth out of this one, and the players love it.

-DM Jeff


----------



## BlackMoria (Aug 30, 2007)

> Originally Posted by TavernBrawler
> I have all of those. I have noticed a lack of non-Zhent Moonsea adventures. I had thought of using Phlan as a good base to launch adventures from. Any good Moonsea adventures?




Curse of the Azure Bonds

I liked it but given the nature of the 'Azure Bonds' compulsions and the initial setup, it wasn't liked by some players because you got locked into the railroad car on one big railroad of an adventure.  If you can look past that, it isn't a bad adventure as it starts you in Tilverton and runs you around the Moonsea with sub-adventures in Hap (Battledale), Zhentil Keep, Yulash and Myth Drannor.

Ruins of Adventure

Adventure set in Phlan so if you are using Phlan as a base and you are using 1e / 2e, this is a must have as it has the most information on Phlan.


----------



## drscott46 (Aug 30, 2007)

Gotta mention the original Ruins of Undermountain boxed set.  Yeah, I've seen some people on here complain how many of the rooms are empty, but that also makes it customizable.  The designed rooms are generally pretty great.  There's also enough background for an entire campaign to be set in Waterdeep/Undermountain, and plenty of further info on Waterdeep in other products.

Ruins of Adventure is very 1e-ish- little background, lots of areas with minimal story.  I personally don't care for these, but that's my style bias.  To my knowledge, Phlan was pretty much ignored after the RoA/Pool of Radiance CRPG was published, so if you're creating a lot of your own background, it's not a bad place to add homebrew to existing stuff.  (Contrast that with the Heartlands, which have received a ton of canon-changing events through sourcebooks and novels.)

It is my opinion, however, that Curse of the Azure Bonds is an excellent module.  There is some railroad, but it's certainly not as bad as, say, the Avatar Trilogy (which not only forces a single course of action but also treats the players as accessories/gofers in a conflict largely fought between gods and powerful NPCs).

My old 2e Forgotten Realms campaign also used mostly Dungeon Magazine adventures prior to my acquisition of the Undermountain box.


----------



## TavernBrawler (Aug 30, 2007)

DM_Jeff said:
			
		

> Well, my original response was about *Mysteries of the Moonsea*, but that's 3.5. It has been fueling a campaign i started in January of thei year and we're just over half way through, I am certainly getting my money's worth out of this one, and the players love it.
> 
> -DM Jeff




Good call, did not think to mine MooM for the information.  Have not looked at it since I got it.


----------



## Treebore (Aug 30, 2007)

Yeah, I liked Curse of the Azure bonds. Plus it wasn't railroading, it was blatant manipulation by powers far greater than mine.

Just be careful, I had to write up a new character because my cleric refused to do what was demanded of him by the "curse", so rather than violate the tenets of his god, I had him suicide. Blew my DM and groups minds, but I actually thought it was pretty cool to have a character I was having a blast playing stay so committed to his god. Its one of the coolest characters I have ever played, and considering how rarely I like clerics, thats saying something for me. So not only was he cool to play, I also think its very cool how he died, dedicated to his god, rather than valuing his own life more.


----------



## Mark Hope (Aug 30, 2007)

_Ruins of Undermountain_.  Yeah, there was lots of empty space, but the filled-in bits were top-notch, and the empty bits were filled in soon enough.  Good stuff.

_Curse of the Azure Bonds_.  Best 2e FR adventure out there, imho.  Inspired way to include railroading and not make it suck.  So long as you handled it right, the players would buy into it and have a ball.  Some great locations and excellent scenes (Zhentil Keep, where the beholder comes through the wall - priceless!)

_Ruins of Adventure_ was good once you had kitbashed it into shape.  Straight out of the book I found it very poor indeed, though.  Got a great deal of use out of it, though, once I had customised it.

(A while ago I was doing a series of threads on folks' experience with 2e-era adventures, including some from the FR, but I lost interest about halfway through, lol.  I'm fickle like that...)


----------



## TavernBrawler (Aug 30, 2007)

BlackMoria said:
			
		

> Ruins of Adventure
> 
> Adventure set in Phlan so if you are using Phlan as a base and you are using 1e / 2e, this is a must have as it has the most information on Phlan.




I plan on using it for source information, but the adventures are based off the Gold Box game and it shows.  I was mostly curious if there were any I might have missed.


----------



## ashockney (Aug 30, 2007)

I had really excellent adventures crafted from the ideas and game material found in sourcebooks like the grey box, The Savage North, Old Empires, City System, and The Unapproachable East.

I definitely recall taking some parts from curse of the Azure Bonds module.  I also have fond memories of playing through a version of Under Illefarn.  I don't recall much from the Daggerdale trilogy, and the Avatar trilogy was...interesting, but I wouldn't want to do it again.  For those that don't recall, that was the story that ushered the transition from 1st to 2nd ed.  Yikes.

It's interesting that nobody's mentioned the mega-module CoTQ.  I know that there have been a lot of people played through it. 

Dungeon magazine has had their share of FR modules printed.  I recall playing one, perhaps an SKR, that was a low level adventure set in the Dalelands and was a two or three part adventure that ended with a Count of some sort.

Ed did a couple of modules for the FR which a pilfered for my campaigns.  The Halls of the High King and The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar.  Those were both pretty good.

I've just recently picked up the new Shadowdale hardcover module and have really enkoyed reading it so far.  I would happily run it for a module/campaign.


----------



## Treebore (Aug 30, 2007)

My absolute favorite mods for FR are H1 to H4, The Bloodstone Lands.


----------



## 00Machado (Aug 30, 2007)

Tears of Twilight Hollow from Dungeon Magazine, and the more recent Sons of Grummsh are both good.


----------



## Greg V (Aug 30, 2007)

I enjoyed "The Return of Randel Morn," a good Daggerdale adventure rather than the weakers Sword of the Dales trilogy mentioned above.

"Steelheart" in Dungeon magazine was also great taking place in Vaasa and pitting the Zhentarim and the Cult of the Dragon against each other.

I'm also partial to "The Twilight Tomb" though it is 3.5.

The new hardback trilogy is very good as well.  Shadowdale rocks.


----------



## Tarek (Aug 31, 2007)

Under Ilefarn; like Keep on the Borderlands, it was as much a campaign setting as anything else, with a keep, an "adventuring guild" of sorts, etc.

There were also a couple of very short adventures that showed up in either Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine, I forget which.

Apart from those, there haven't been any Forgotten Realms modules that impressed me. 

Curse of the Azure Bonds was too much of a railroad; "Hey, let's rewrite the Curse of the Azure Bonds novel as a CRPG adventure, then translate it into a module, only making a few changes so it's not an exact ripoff of the books!" Ruins of Adventure was basically the original Pool of Radiance SSI CRPG translated into pen and paper.


----------



## Ghostwind (Aug 31, 2007)

Treebore said:
			
		

> My absolute favorite mods for FR are H1 to H4, The Bloodstone Lands.




I so agree with this. Loved those modules and the havoc they wrecked with my gaming group.


----------



## Jades Ditoyr (Aug 31, 2007)

How the Mighty Have Fallen.  How can you not love a campaign where you get the reagents that destroy magic for everyone?


----------



## RichGreen (Aug 31, 2007)

Tarek said:
			
		

> Curse of the Azure Bonds was too much of a railroad; "Hey, let's rewrite the Curse of the Azure Bonds novel as a CRPG adventure, then translate it into a module, only making a few changes so it's not an exact ripoff of the books!" Ruins of Adventure was basically the original Pool of Radiance SSI CRPG translated into pen and paper.




I agree with you about Ruins of Adventure but Curse of the Azure Bonds did not follow the same plot as the novel and I enjoyed running it. I also like Ruins of Undermountain but my favourite FR modules were the Horde trilogy which contained some great roleplaying encounters and featured some exotic Eastern locations.

Cheers


Richard


----------



## TavernBrawler (Aug 31, 2007)

All very good comments and suggestions.

Any one got good ideas for adventures from Dungeon?


----------



## funkysnunkulator (Aug 31, 2007)

best forgotton realms adventure?

greyhawk.

hahahhahahahhaha!!!

actually don't know. our group heavily modifies stuff from this milleu to fit ours.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

undermountain.


----------



## drscott46 (Aug 31, 2007)

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that Ruins of Adventure was written before the Pool of Radiance CRPG, while with Curse of the Azure Bonds it was the other way around.  Feel free to correct me.


----------



## Tarek (Aug 31, 2007)

Part of the problem may be that there were two "Pool of Radiance" CRPGs.

The original one was set in Phlan, on the coast of the Moonsea, and was published about a year, two years before the Curse of the Azure Bonds CRPG.

The Curse of the Azure Bonds pen-and-paper module was then published after the Curse CRPG, and the Ruins of Adventure pen-and-paper module was published AFTER the Curse of the Azure Bonds pen-and-paper module.

For the SSI Gold Box CRPGs, the publish order is Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Hillsfar (not quite in the same line but using the same game engine), Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness.

There was another "Pool of Radiance" CRPG, set in Myth Drannor, using the 3rd edition rules. It featured a bard ostensibly from Kara-Tur (the oriental setting) narrating the module using medieval european music...


----------



## Rhun (Aug 31, 2007)

Mark Hope said:
			
		

> _Curse of the Azure Bonds_.  Best 2e FR adventure out there, imho.  Inspired way to include railroading and not make it suck.  So long as you handled it right, the players would buy into it and have a ball.  Some great locations and excellent scenes (Zhentil Keep, where the beholder comes through the wall - priceless!)




I agree with this. I wish I still had my copy of the module.

I also really liked _Haunted Halls of Evening Star_, _Ruins of Undermountain_, and _Treasure Hunt_ (also a railroad, but a good way to get PCs started on their adventuring career).


----------

