My Game Master Bucket List – D&D Modules
Before I die, I want to run all these modules.
That’s what I said to a friend the other day in Starbuck’s. We were planning campaign dates and got to talking about Castle Amber, the classic Moldvay adventure, and possibly my favourite adventure of all time.
I waxed on about how I’d love to GM it again. Then it occurred to me that I should start planning to run the module instead of just wishing about it.
I Gotta Make the Time
With regular campaigns taking up a lot of my planning and gaming time, I could spend the rest of my life just running my campaigns. I might never get to running certain modules I’d be chafing to get at. I might never get to visit Castle Amber again, with its crazy NPCs and tricky encounters.
So, I decided in the coffee shop to make a published adventure bucket list and to make the time to work through it.
What’s on the List?
My list only contains published adventures. And there are two types:
- I have DM’d it before and want to do again
- It’s on my shelf begging to be run for the first time
I have Dungeon Magazine’s picks for top adventures of all time, and several of those made it into category two. Several other modules have a great reputation or rating online. And a few are just teasing me to try.
My Game Plan
The point of the list is to create a plan that will get accomplished.
Just making a wistful group of modules I’d like to run someday will not get the job done. It’ll always remain a fantasy. Then I’ll get hit by a bus, my family gets a bunch of insurance money, and those modules will land up in a garage sale without me having the opportunity to spill cola on them or get food crumbs lodged in that crevasse you can never reach between pages.
I will take a module from the list, prepare it to my game system de jour, and run it outside of my regular campaign. I’ll schedule a weekend day, or a few, to get the adventure complete.
That way, my main games go on unhindered, I get my bucket list slowly pared down over a period of years, and – the best part – I get additional gaming in!
I get to carve a new gaming island out of my schedule and be stranded on it for a multitude of adventures.
That said, I also will incorporate some modules into my regular campaigns (assuming I am still gaming fantasy at any given time). That will help me get through my bucket list faster, before that nasty DM Killer Bus hits.
Some modules are full campaigns, and they will not get gamed in one weekend, so they’ll have to be part of my regular gaming or a dedicated side group.
List A – Modules I’ve Run Before and Will Again
List B – Modules I Will Run for the First Time
What on your list?
What’s on your game master bucket list – things to do while you still can?
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July 25th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
It’s funny you should mention this, because I’ve been meaning to run Q1 (which will be my first module I’ve run in multiple years) for a while now, but always get sidetracked by trying out some new system or another.
If you could write a postmortem after you run the sessions, that’d be great. =)
Nick recently posted..Minor Magical Items
July 25th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Good picks. I think I’d add Expedition to the Barrier Peaks near the top of my list.
Geek Ken recently posted..Expeditions of Amazing Adventure: the clinging mists of Kymoria
July 26th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Dragon Mountain is AWESOME! I integrated it into my Dragonlance Campaign (with some tweaks of course) ages ago and it was a blast.
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July 26th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
The Witchfire Trilogy is amazing. I ran the first book using the Hero System and loved every fraking second of it. It took 1.5 years of real time to get through it. I am the type of GM that will not put up artificial walls when the characters go off script. Which is a shame. I would love to run books 2 and 3 as well. I guess they are all one big book now though.
I ran Expedition to the Barrier Peaks when it was new. Yep. I am old. Still, quite fond memories! I now have a version for Descent: Journeys in the Dark by FFG that I am looking forward to running someday.
You have a great list but I’d need to run twice a week to finish that list in the next 30 years!
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July 28th, 2011 at 3:29 am
Beware of Dragon Mountain.
I really liked the idea of the whole adventure.
But two things really p’ed me off!
1) The postermaps are terrible to handle. Much too big! Mostly unuseable during play.
2) Lazy work of the author. You know sentences like:”This area is left blank, so the GM can use content tailored to his/her campaign.”?! – In Dragon Mountain, there are far too many of those “empty” areay, which leaves the GM with a huge load of work. I cutted them.
And yes, there are some all-time favorites of mine on that list. I have fond memories of Castle Amber, Egg of the Phoenix, Red Hand of Doom and the Assassin’s Knot (whic is still one of the best modules out there, if you ask me!). :)
July 28th, 2011 at 8:51 am
City of Spider Queen has been on my list for a long time. I’ve played in Return to ToEE, waiting for the chance to run it myself — probably with a Modern or Steampunk flavor. I’ve mined so many various parts of Shackled City over the years, I don’t think I could go back and run it straight now. But there’s lots of goodies in that mega-adventure. FWIW, Red Hand of Doom does not disappoint, and with an experienced group, The Assassin’s Knot is a thrill.
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