Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Best Dungeon Mags

Mon May 04, 2020 12:47 pm Best Dungeon Mags

I was thinking of picking up some Dungeon Mags and I had a question. Can any one tell me the top 10-20 issues that either are:

1.) Set in GH (good ones)
2.) Have really good low 1-10 lvl modules.

Thanks for any help.

Mon May 04, 2020 1:21 pm Re: Best Dungeon Mags

Mon May 04, 2020 3:18 pm

This might be of help...

https://archive.org/details/dungeonmagazine?sort=titleSorter

Mon May 04, 2020 4:13 pm

Some of my favorites include the ones that have expansions to the Isle of Dread. These include Dungeon #114 which has a new adventure for PCs that involves the villagers south of the wall, and Dungeons #139 - #150, which feature the Isle of Dread as part of The Savage Tide AP.

I also enjoy the following very much for the adventures I list alongside them:

Dungeon Magazine 006 [After the Storm, White Death, House of the Brothers];
Dungeon Magazine 105 [Warduke];
Dungeon Magazine 112 [Maure Castle - Eli Tomorast];
Dungeon Magazine 121 [Iggwilv and Fiend's Embrace].

Of course, these adventures span several editions of the game, so you may need to convert. :)

SirXaris
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SirXaris' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SirXaris?ref=hl

Mon May 04, 2020 9:53 pm

I've got a bunch posted to my site at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_dungeon_adventures.html#dungeon and have a draft blog post about my favorite magazine adventures to get back to work on....

Allan.
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Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html

Tue May 05, 2020 7:31 pm

Thanks Allan. This is fantastic!

Tue May 05, 2020 8:42 pm

dude, thanks this is truly awesome!!!

Tue May 05, 2020 8:43 pm

Thank you very much for your excellent suggestions. Very cool.

Wed May 06, 2020 8:54 am

Wed May 06, 2020 7:09 pm

Fri May 08, 2020 1:46 pm

Fri May 08, 2020 1:46 pm

Oops, put my reply in your quote.

Fri May 08, 2020 1:49 pm Re: Best Dungeon Mags

Fri May 08, 2020 1:54 pm

DUNGEON #107 has an article about Evard and his big, black tentacles…

(Also the artwork for him reminds me of Alucard from Hellsing.)

Fri May 08, 2020 2:00 pm

Sat May 09, 2020 8:28 pm

Hey all,

It has been many years since I posted here, so forgive me if I am breaking any rules. I have an excel file with a list of all the Dungeon Magazines, their levels (I have been adjusting them to be a 4 person party equivalent level), and some other info. I based it off another excel sheet I had from many years ago (I forget where I got it).

I have no idea how to upload my excel file to this forum :).

If anybody can tell me how to upload a file to the forum I will do so. Otherwise we can figure out how I can get it to you outside of this forum.
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Richard Di Ioia (aka Longetalos)

Mon May 11, 2020 4:52 pm

Thanks for the offer. I'm sure one of these wise folk will know.

On a side note, does any one know which Dungeon mag had the "Fingers of Iuz"?

Tue May 12, 2020 8:47 am

Fri May 15, 2020 6:42 pm

I'll argue the best twenty issues for GH gamers are the late-2e era, issues #60-80 or so.

Explanation and a little history:

Dungeon launched about the same time TSR briefly considered killing Greyhawk. The first publication of Dungeon's submission guidelines explicitly forbid Greyhawk proposals, so there was no support in early issues.

This changed fairly soon with House of the Brothers in #6 (supporting Queen of the Spiders) and Ruins of Nol-Daer in #13, but Greyhawk support remained spotty.

Overall, issues 1-30 are good because they contain the majority of the magazine's best-known classics and the generic modules from this period fit with Greyhawk's vibe.

30-40 were a mixed bag. GH got a couple scenarios to support From the Ashes.

45-60 were dark years. GH was officially discontinued, so TSR had less incentive to publish scenarios for it. New, idiosyncratic settings like Council of Wyrms, Birthright, Planescape, and Masque of the Red Death were filling space with large special features. Furthermore, the Dungeon editors were trying very hard to avoid clichés, which generated some innovative stuff, but also an excess of light-hearted, humorous, and linear adventures.

Around #60 things started getting good again. Dragon received a big makeover in January of 1996 and quality content increased in both magazines. Carl Sargent's Night Below inspired a wave of excellent underdark adventures. Waterborn adventures also became popular, providing solid (submerged) dungeon crawls by sidestepping the editors' cliché phobia.

#70-82 are my all-time favorite issues. WotC was excited to promote the GH revival and a new generation of fans who'd been sharpening their skills in the burgeoning internet community were ready to send in submissions. Numerous excellent GH modules appeared and even the generics are good and filled with GH adaption suggestions.

Early 3e (#83-100) are also good and some of my favorite GH apocrypha and overlooked canon comes from these. GH was D&D's default setting and WotC briefly tried hard to push that, with mixed results. Some modules are old-school, excellent, and firmly placed in GH. Some were good generics, but seem to have been shoehorned into GH with nonsense and conflicts. My main gripes are the excess of early computer art and the many modules with modern tropes (Greyhawk 2000, an insane asylum, an alien horror movie city, a Tharizdun-infused pregnancy, etc).

The remaining fifty issues are good and have by far the most GH content. Maure Castle is a high point.

The big change is the "Adventure Path" concept. 3e's rapid level advancement combined with serial adventures taking characters all the way to 20th level generated more scenarios for levels 10-20 than GH has ever seen.

High-level characters demand world-spanning challenges, interaction with mega NPC's, demons, and avatars. All of this combined to make Greyhawk feel a lot more like Forgotten Realms to me. I pick and choose from the issues. Take the cool dungeons and canon, avoid the overshadowing celebrity NPC's.
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Grodog, did some GH adventures get deleted from your Dungeon index? To Walk Beneath the Waves, House of the Brothers, etc?

Mon May 18, 2020 7:47 pm