So I know we've done a thread like this before, but I'm always looking for stuff to help me in doing adventures, dungeons, encounters, etc. Which of the new OSR modules are good in your opinions?
RPGPundit
Anomalous Subsurface Environment, by Patrick Wetmore. This is a gonzo scifi-medfan mashup setting describing the world a bit, with a particular town in detail, as well as the first level and lairs pertaining to the mega-dungeon of the same name. This is good stuff for mega-dungeon oriented people, available in print from Lulu.
Quote from: Benoist;540793Anomalous Subsurface Environment, by Patrick Wetmore. This is a gonzo scifi-medfan mashup setting describing the world a bit, with a particular town in detail, as well as the first level and lairs pertaining to the mega-dungeon of the same name. This is good stuff for mega-dungeon oriented people, available in print from Lulu.
I'll second that suggestion. It's also got plenty of random tables!
I also like Matt Finch's
Demonspore: Secret of the Shrooms, but I haven't finished reading it yet.
These two.
I enjoyed reading through Barrowmaze and am looking forward to Barrowmaze 2. It's undead heavy, has an oppressive creepy feel and presents an environment where the adventurers can never feel safe. I'll run it when we finish working our way through the Fight On mega-dungeon.
I have Anomalous Subsurface Environment and ran a session of it as a one off. It's good if you like gonzo, robots and satellite deities. It's over the top. Not sure if it's all that new though.
I've used ASE in my campaign and liked it quite a bit.
As a player I've enjoyed Matt Finch's adventures Tomb of the Iron God and Spire of Iron & Crystal. The first of these was run by a high-school student in the New York Red Box group, the second by Jim Raggi at Ropecon some years back; some elements in common (evocative detail, interesting three-dimensional aspects to the level design) likely come from the adventure and not its referees.
IMO, Blood Moon Rising (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/83083/Blood-Moon-Rising) by Pete Spahn. Great campaign starter, with a sand-boxy approach and a little bit of everything D&D module-wise, tied together quite plausibly.
Edit: Oh, and for a darker, more horror feel that can make the players nervous without screwing over their beloved characters, Inn of Lost Heroes (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/84401/The-Inn-of-Lost-Heroes) can't be beat. Small disclaimer though, I made a simple map for that that one. I did it for free however so it's not like I'm gonna benefit really from recommending it :D
I think rather highly of the Haunted Keep (the expansion of the sample dungeon presented in Moldvay Basic by Dragonsfoot forum members).
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/DF23-The-Haunted-Keep.pdf
Lesserton and Mor. It's the OSR equivalent of the Pavis & Big Rubble campaign set with tools and charts for a 'ruin crawl' type sandbox.
Even if a rubble crawl campaign doesn't float your boat, there's some good stuff there to scavenge.
Quote from: Sigmund;540961IMO, Blood Moon Rising (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/83083/Blood-Moon-Rising) by Pete Spahn. Great campaign starter, with a sand-boxy approach and a little bit of everything D&D module-wise, tied together quite plausibly.
Edit: Oh, and for a darker, more horror feel that can make the players nervous without screwing over their beloved characters, Inn of Lost Heroes (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/84401/The-Inn-of-Lost-Heroes) can't be beat. Small disclaimer though, I made a simple map for that that one. I did it for free however so it's not like I'm gonna benefit really from recommending it :D
Mr. Spahn's Pyramid of the Dragon is also worth mentioning. I liked it even better than Blood Moon Rising, which is, indeed, a fine module.
These are all good suggestions; now, what might be helpful is if some of these were "compared" to similar well-known old modules (as in "X has similarities to Tomb of Horrors"), or failing that explaining in what way they are not like any older modules.
RPGPundit
Not new, but Michael Curtis' Fane of St. Toad is free and is a great creepy and grotesque weird sword & sorcery jaunt.
It a small-medium sized self contained dungeon with a "boss" monster and um, cool traditional dungeon stuff I guess?
I have used that one as a temple dedicated to Tsathoggus... but forgot one of the PCs in the party was a frog-worshipper. Oops. No looting was involved after that came out, but they held a somewhat friendly chat with a mummy-priest.
Awesome!
Expeditious Retreat publishes some of my favorite new adventures for AD&D1, using the OSRIC route. The two new modules Down the Shadowvein and The Mouth of the Shadowvein by Joseph Browning are quite excellent. They take up where The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom left off, making for a three part campaign that players will feel is similar in concept to the D series by Gary, but they will seem fresh with completely different scenarios. I also enjoyed The Riddle of Anadi by James C. Boney, also from Expeditious Retreat. They are all in the Gygax style, being rather compartmentalized. As long as one is used to pulling complex adventures out of that style, they are great.
The People of the Pit by Alphonso Warden from Brave Halfling is an excellent one for AD&D1, also using the OSRIC route. It is based upon the works of A. Merritt. It's a very cool one, though less new. Recently, Goodman released one of the same title for their new D&D based game, but it is not the same adventure at all. They only share the same name. I have not read or played the Goodman one yet.
In my campaigns these would be played under one of the actual older editions, usually OD&D/AD&D1, rather than OSRIC or some such. However, it is good to have new adventures that are written specifically with one of the old editions in mind, especially the handy OSRIC content.
Has anyone had the chance to read or play these new ones?
Snakeriders of the Aradondo by Tim Kask
Lich Dungeon - Level One by Frank Mentzer
Dark Outpost by James Ward
Quote from: Kuroth;543753Has anyone had the chance to read or play these new ones?
Snakeriders of the Aradondo by Tim Kask
Lich Dungeon - Level One by Frank Mentzer
I own these two, and have read parts of Lich Dungeon so far. It is a module straight out of 1974 (okay, 1977, but it's very OD&D), which means a maze-like map with not a square of precious graph paper wasted; stocked mostly with dungeon puzzles and monster/treasure encounters, some of which are "symmetric" (i.e. there are multiple control rooms with mechanical gizmos, multiple magic fountains, and lots and lots of barracks). There are literal dungeon maintenance crews (in different subcontractor groups no less, with phase spider locksmiths and gnoll demo teams). Inexplicable "these are my dungeon's challenges" mechanisms. Note that this is book one, covering general guidelines for the dungeon and one level of the approximately 12 planned.
As for the talented Mr. Warden, he has this to say about his various offerings (I am reposting bits and pieces of my own commentary from HOFRAT here because I am a bad person):
#1 (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51433&start=165)
Quote from: munafikThe main reason that I have lost interest in the OSR is that fewer and fewer modules are being printed now than at the beginning of the movement. Not having been an active gamer since 1987 or thereabouts, my interest in the OSR was always about new modules for use with 1st Edition AD&D/D&D. Further, I suspect that many one-time “old school” gamers are in the same situation as I, having schedules too hectic to regularly game anymore, forcing them to satisfy their gaming urge via collecting/reading OSR materials. In addition, I suspect that many “old school” gamers from the seventies/early eighties are probably not interested in purchasing new rulesets, even if they emulate those of said gaming era. In other words, this subset of customers are interested more in modules compatible with the classic rulesets, thereby allowing themselves to relive, at least in part, the glory days of their gaming youth. I, for one, have always enjoyed reading modules, imagining how I would implement the concepts therein into my games. Heck, I have never played most of the modules in my collection, but I don’t regret purchasing them because most were at least intertaining to read.
He has not been an active gamer
since the year I started elementary school.
#2 (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51433&start=210)
Quote from: munafikBe thankful if you receive any public response to your modules, good or bad! This is coming from someone who has had 11 of his OSRIC modules published thus far. Of those 11, a mere four or five, to the best of my knowledge, have been been reviewed on the Internet. Of the remaining six or seven, I have yet to hear a peep on the Interwebs. Being as I am obviously not doing this for the money — writers, on average, receive chump change for their efforts — I am somewhat disheartened to realize that I am basically writing into a void, a vacuum. To make matters worse, large publishing houses and agents rarely if ever consider gaming related writing credits when evaluating a potential client, considering such to be “low brow” literature. This is frustrating to me being as I have aspirations of becoming a genre fiction writer, having written several short stories and novellas over the years. Heck, about ten years ago I even wrote a pulp fantasy novel that has yet to be published.
But don't worry. He has written us no less than eleven adventure modules. As well as short stories, novellas, and a novel. Which has been languishing as a manuscript for a decade.
#3 (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=50902&start=45)
Quote from: munafikOne other thing I forgot to mention is that many RPG designers have aspirations of becoming fiction writers, and design adventures so as to build up publishing credits. I know that this is definitely the case for me. Speaking of writing credits, one of the main reasons that I only consider for-profit publishers is that they have the mains of printing hard copies of books and then getting them in the distribution chain. The sad truth is that fiction publishers and literary agents rarely if ever consider electronic writing credits, which is the only option for those designers offering up their products for free. Having your book offered up for print signals to potential fiction publishers and literary agents that your work is of high enough quality that the publisher of such is fairly confident that it will at least recover its production costs and possibly even generate some additional revenue for the company. Also, if a book is offered for print, such indicates to potential publishers and literary agents that it was likely professionally edited, type-set, and marketed, and is therefore worthy of consideration. If we are being honest here, most free RPG products are entirely the creation of their authors, and are rarely if ever edited or even playtested by others. Such means that the chances for typograhical/grammatical/rule errors are quite high. I can speak from experience that no matter how many times I edit my own work, I always discover yet another typo/grammatical error, much to my chagrin. This means that writers are their own worst critics/editors.
What all this means is that adventure modules are nothing but a means to an end for me, that end being getting my novel not to mention a series of novellas and short stories eventually published, all which have been collecting dust in my computer's hard drive for decades. I suspect that many other RPG designers are in the same boat as I. Heck, I haven't even regularly gamed since 1987. I design adventure modules for the abovementioned reasons and because I find such to be enjoyable and rather easy. Writing novels or even short stories I find to be considerably more draining and nowhere near as much fun.
"Most free RPG products are entirely the creation of their authors, and are rarely if ever edited or even playtested by others."? Well
excuse me if I am not up to these exacting standards of proofreading and publishing professionalism, and the prevalence of "typograhical/grammatical/rule errors" may be "quite high" in my materials, but
unlike other designers I'd prefer not to name right now, I happen to playtest my modules. And the two I didn't playtest before their release (for which I am sorry, although they turned out well) all came from active campaigns, reflecting, uh, a knowledge of how things work by the table.
#4 (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=52172)
Quote from: munafikStop wasting your time reading through threads like this and instead devote your time to designing a decent module or re-reading the core 1st Edition AD&D rulebooks, if need be. Back in the day, we didn't need no stinkin' Internet to improve our games. About 90% of the advice you will find on the Internet for improving your games is worthless, mine included, most likely. N.B.: I haven't regularly gamed since 1987, which is why I don't follow my own advice. Unfortunately, my only interface with gamers these days is via the tools that post on the Internet -- truly a sad state of affairs.
Oh. Oh! It seems this knowledge is useless. Never mind then, I must have been mistaken.
Ladies and Gentlemen: a published and prolific module author of our times. Publishing adventures that have not been played, to people who will probably not play them, which actually means nothing to him because he is in for the novel publishing opportunities, and considers gaming discussion on the Internet worthless, something he indulges in out of necessity. His markers for quality content are books which are "professionally edited, type-set, and marketed".
Buy with confidence! ;)
Quote from: Melan tears the ass out of Alphonso WardenJesus Wept
Yeah, but is People of the Pit any good? :D
Quote from: Melan;543801Ladies and Gentlemen: a published and prolific module author of our times. Publishing adventures that have not been played, to people who will probably not play them, which actually means nothing to him because he is in for the novel publishing opportunities, and considers gaming discussion on the Internet worthless, something he indulges in out of necessity. His markers for quality content are books which are "professionally edited, type-set, and marketed".
Buy with confidence! ;)
Rarely have I seem such a masterful beating.
Quote from: munafikWhat all this means is that adventure modules are nothing but a means to an end for me, that end being getting my novel not to mention a series of novellas and short stories eventually published, all which have been collecting dust in my computer's hard drive for decades.
This is SO wrong on SO many levels. :rant:
I hope there are many gamers left who write adventure modules because, you know, they
actually love role playing games,
actually love and played the fuck out of their modules, and
actually want to give the opportunity to other gamers to enjoy them too.
Matt Finch, David Bowman and Melan consistently put out good product.
The Darkness Beneath community megadungeon is very good, especially the Bowman levels.
ASE1 & Demonspore have already been mentioned.
The modules from Usherwood by Kramer are pretty good: Shadowed Keep, Shattered Skull, and especially Arachnaphobia!
Shadowbrook Manor, Wheel of Evil (from Faster Monkey) and The Thing in the Valley are good also, as is Tomb of the Iron God.
Hex Crawl Classics has a lot of good content, for hex crawls obviously.
From Troll Lord, Slag Heap and A Lion in the Ropes are good.
Voyage to Plague Island, Bone Mountain and The Ruined Hamlet are worth checking out.
AA12 The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor is pretty good, as is AA#1 (Pod Caverns) and AA 15 (Stonesky Delve.)
Your tastes may be different from mine. Check out www.tenfootpole.org (http://www.tenfootpole.org) for full reviews of those and A LOT of others.
BTW: People of the Pit is the best of Wardens modules and sorry for the terseness of this note; I just got to Origins.
WGH2, and WGH3-5.
Hopefully people will like WGH1, too.
Quote from: Melan;543790I own these two, and have read parts of Lich Dungeon so far. It is a module straight out of 1974 (okay, 1977, but it's very OD&D), which means a maze-like map with not a square of precious graph paper wasted; stocked mostly with dungeon puzzles and monster/treasure encounters, some of which are "symmetric" (i.e. there are multiple control rooms with mechanical gizmos, multiple magic fountains, and lots and lots of barracks). There are literal dungeon maintenance crews (in different subcontractor groups no less, with phase spider locksmiths and gnoll demo teams). Inexplicable "these are my dungeon's challenges" mechanisms. Note that this is book one, covering general guidelines for the dungeon and one level of the approximately 12 planned.
Very cool. Thank you for the synopsis Melan. Good to see these real deal back in the day guys taking the time to publish some of their private campaign material. I will probably get these.
Quote from: CRKrueger;543803Yeah, but is People of the Pit any good? :D
It really is. As to Alphonso Warden's comments around the internerd, it is not as if even the initial creators and promoters for role-play games haven't said off the wall somewhat pseudo-irrational comments at times, and if one took an opinion of the games in general solely from forum and similar online monologues, there would be zero interest in them. There are
plenty of role-play game writers that have expressed just plain goofy opinions on any number of issues, but they still write a lot of content that are of high quality. It is like any art in that way. I believe part of what makes therpgsite work is the general understanding of this aspect of the whole role-play game scene.
Back to the actual idea behind this thread, it is always good to know of interesting writing being done by folks that contribute here, like Melan, Misterguignol, BedrockBrendan, Silverlion, RPGPundit and many others.
In regards to Alphonso Warden's adventures, I own two of the, People of the Pit and The Nameless City, and although I quite like them, they both suffer from an awkward, arbitrary "Framing Device" that does come across as something that works better in fiction than in actual play.
I've used both of them, and both times while trying to understand and implement these framing devices I said screw it and discarded those portions.
Well that ought to tell you everything you need to know about aspiring writers treating RPGs as a launchpad. Fuckers.
Well, to be fair, when I used either of those modules as sandbox locations without the framing device, after probing the locales the party pretty much did this...
Spoiler
(http://gifs.gifbin.com/3204840swsw.gif)
Hotlinking is disabled for your image.
BTW anyone read Stonehell by Michael Curtis?
Quote from: Planet Algol;543596Not new, but Michael Curtis' Fane of St. Toad is free and is a great creepy and grotesque weird sword & sorcery jaunt.
It a small-medium sized self contained dungeon with a "boss" monster and um, cool traditional dungeon stuff I guess?
Excellent! That'll fit right into my Albion campaign, what with the whole Frogmen thing and all..
RPGPundit
Also, The Purple Worm Graveyard, by Tony Dowler of the Year of the Dungeon/Planet 13 Games; it's a very fun, cool, idiosyncratic low-level micro dungeon oozing with atmosphere
Quote from: RPGPundit;543944Excellent! That'll fit right into my Albion campaign, what with the whole Frogmen thing and all..
RPGPundit
It could work well as a creepy frogmen origin story...
Quote from: Planet Algol;544126It could work well as a creepy frogmen origin story...
Something like that, or an ancient frogmen outpost in Albion, long forgotten by the modern Frogmen...
RPGPundit