Saturday, April 16, 2016

A to Z of Adventure! N is for Novice Series

N is for Novice Series.

Although I also thought these were called the N series because the first one was written by Douglas Niles.

The idea behind the N series was to provide yet another set of adventures for starting players. It makes sense really. You will have far more low-level characters than high-level ones.

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God
N2 The Forest Oracle
N3 Destiny of Kings
N4 Treasure Hunt 
N5 Under Illefarn

Of these, it is N1 that interests me the most.   It is ranked as 19 of the top 30 greatest adventures of all time and Douglas Niles was an author I have grown to respect over the years; especially for his contributions to AD&D.   Plus for me this module was published in that "Golden Age" of adventure design in 1982 when so much great stuff was going on.

Against the Cult of the Reptile God is also the unofficial name I give to my "Second Campaign" adventure series. These adventures include:

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God, levels 1-3 (novice)
U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, levels 1-3
U2 Danger at Dunwater, levels 1-4
U3 The Final Enemy, levels 3-5
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, levels 4-7
C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, levels 5-7
I2 Tomb of the Lizard King, levels 5-7
I3 Pharaoh, levels 5-7
I4 Oasis of the White Palm, levels 6-8
I5 Lost Tomb of Martek, levels 7-9
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads, levels 6-9
X5 Temple of Death, levels 6-10
I9 Day of Al'Akbar, level 8-10 (if I can find a copy)
Gary Gygax's Necropolis, levels 10+

Just so much good stuff out there.

Of the N series, N1 is the best known to me.  I have read through it many times and always wanted to do something with it.
I started playing N3 once, back in my college days, but I don't think we got very far.
N4 Treasure Hunt is an interesting one since it is the only AD&D adventure I know of that has the characters start at 0-level.  Very interesting choice if you ask me and maybe something I should try for my "Second Campaign".

For people reading this and have no experience in gaming, these are all great places to start. Well except for N2 and nobody likes that adventure!





6 comments:

Nathan Irving said...

I think N5 was the first module I owned. Never ran it (never really ran any module), but it was nice to have.

Jonathan Linneman said...

N4 looks very interesting indeed. 0-level AD&D is worth checking out.

JB said...

@ Tim:

I actually LOVED The Forest Oracle, though I lost it years ago. Maybe I'd look at it through different eyes today.

N1 is a gem.

Nilanjana Bose said...

That's great you are up to date with your A-Z posts, congrats!

Nilanjana
Madly-in-Verse

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

I still have no experience with any of these modules, but I am constantly amazed at the titles people give them :) That's a genre in itself...

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
The Multicolored Diary
MopDog

Anonymous said...

Great topic for A-to-Z. As someone who has never played D&D, but has always been interested and fascinated by it, this is very interesting!