Tuesday, September 09, 2025

Trawling

Not trolling, as many people mistakenly type online. Although I have pages for my trawls, I thought it makes sense every so often to review where I am and what I'm reading. 

FreeportThe Freeport Trawl is the most advanced, because I started it earliest, and because many of the products in it aren't really all that long. I'm currently halfway through Creatures of Freeport, which is the 10th product in the line. The next two, however, (chronologically) are third party products, not done by Green Ronin; Treasures of Freeport and Shadows In Freeport, so that will be a slight jag out of the thru-line, but it is part of my normal list. I'm also close to reading the Bleeding Edge modules, which are debatably related to Freeport at all (except for the last one, which overtly takes place in Freeport). But, in reality, the Freeport Trawl, while long, isn't really a huge thing, and I'm closer to finishing than it looks. Its possible that even with the massive Pathfinder Companion still looming over me that I'll finish the entire trawl before the end of the year.

Eberron. This one is a smaller list, but mostly made up of larger products with much more text and pages. Next up is my hardback on Sharn, but I'm reading a couple of other hardbacks first. I won't finish the whole trawl this year, of course, but I expect that I'll get a few more products into it before the year ends.

Adventure Paths. I had earlier read Shackled City and Age of Worms, but after starting Savage Tide, I lost my place a year or so ago. But I want to finish it still this year. Then I get to the Paizo specific adventure paths after that, starting with a re-read of Rise of the Runelords, probably early next year. 

5e Campaigns. I feel like this is the one that is the least advanced. I've read a few of them long ago, but I need to start over, and I've really only read Phandelver. The next one would be the two parts of what was later combined as Tyranny of Dragons. Because I'm playing that, it seems poor form to read it. Princes of the Apocalypse and Out of the Abyss would be next, if I skip them, which ironically I've already read, although long ago. But maybe I should read those this year still anyway, because up next would be Curse of Strahd, which is a 5e reworking of the 3e campaign Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (which is, of course, a reworking of the 1e module Ravenloft), although both 3e and 5e expanded it to a whole "campaign." Many of these 5e campaigns are reworkings of older material, either jammed together into a omnibus format, or expanded to be larger. I wonder if I'd like to take this one slower and read the original modules that they're based on in that case too. In any case, I've got the 3e product on my "to read" list already in the short term.

Forgotten Realms. The last of my trawls, and the one I'm perhaps doing the most reluctantly; I want to read all of the 3e FR books. I had forgotten (no pun intended) that the campaign setting book wasn't actually the first 3e product, so I read that a couple of months ago, but I need to review a very early module first, and then the paperback monster book, which I bought back when it was new—my earliest real exposure to the setting other than the Salvatore novels that I'd read years earlier. (Speaking of which, after reading the Halfling Gem trilogy a couple of years ago, the Legacy prequel trilogy has been on my docket for some time too. After relocating, I didn't find it until just a few weeks ago, so that's going to get read, I hope, this year too.) There are, however, at least some products on this trawl that I'm not doing dutifully; I actually have been wanting to read them for a long time. 

I should probably mention that I've got a few books nominally on my short-list docket to read that aren't part of any trawls, including Libris Mortis, which I'm reading now, Heroes of Horror, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, and the rest of the 3e era monster manuals (II-V, also counting Fiend Folio.) That list is too disorganized to be called a proper trawl, but it does interfere with trawl progress, obviously.

UPDATE: to add something else, here's a discussion on the best and worst things of 3e and 5e respectively. I'm not saying that I agree with all of these points (although mostly I kinda do), but I want to archive them for future reference. These are good points. Made a couple of years or so ago now, but I just found them. Go sue me. I stopped playing 3e years ago, and only recently started rereading it, and I only recently (and reluctantly) started playing 5e too. I'm not really all that interested in either anymore, and 5e feels like a revision of 3e; they're essentially the same game, or close enough.

https://theangrygm.com/the-best-and-worst-of-dnd-3e/

https://theangrygm.com/the-best-and-worst-of-dnd-5e/

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