What Pre-1990 adventures do you think are essential for old school gaming?

I went from poor parents to being a poor student to a poor grad student so missed a fair number of products, which I've haphazardly been filling in, mainly from Half Price Books.  There were also products that I didn't buy because others in the group had them but those groups were long ago.

I don't want to make this all about me by listing what I already have or have played.  Please list up to five old (I want essentials, not encyclopedic lists) modules/adventures for either AD&D or basic D&D.  No need to limit it to TSR products.

Caverns of Thracia (Judges Guild, D&D)
Dark Tower (Judges Guild, AD&D)
Night's Dark Terror (TSR, B/X D&D)
D Series (TSR, AD&D)
White Plume Mountain (TSR, AD&D)

No repeats, right?

Keep on the Borderlands (TSR, BXD&D)
Starstone (Paul Vernon, AD&D)
Against the Giants 'G' Series (TSR, AD&D)
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (TSR, AD&D)
Slavers A Series 'A' Series (TSR, AD&D)

I agree with all the above (damn "no repeat rule" :mad:).

Tegel Manor (Judges Guild)
Wraith Overlord (Judges Guild) - Need City State of the Invincible Overlord to get the most out of it.
Damn there is a TSR module and I can't think of the name...Tomb of something or other...had some really great ideas for traps, very inspirational....crap I'm going to have to hunt through boxes in the closet now...

Night of the Walking Wet (Realm of the Slime God) [Judges Guild/Dungeoneer]
Dungeonland!
Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
Lost City

Quote from: Nicephorus;240904What Pre-1990 adventures do you think are essential for old school gaming?

Frontier Forts of Kelnore
Thieves Fortress of Badabaskor
B1 & B4

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Secret of Bone Hill
Tomb of Horrors
Village of Hommlet
Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
U Series

Skip the old school modules since most were written for convention play (and thus are little more than a dungeon). Buy the Hackmaster modules instead. All you need to convert is the monster hit points, since everything has 20 hit points. That's it, really.

Then buy:

Little Keep on the Borderlands
Slaughterhouse Indigo
Smackdown the Slavers
The Temple of Existential Evil
Road to Aster

They have more "meat" on 'em than the old AD&D modules (most Hackmaster modules range in at around 150 pages of sheer awesomeness).

-=Grim=-

Quote from: GrimJesta;240942Little Keep on the Borderlands

If you want a Keep on the Borderlands love fest, don't forget Return to The Keep on the Borderlands (1999).

Thanks, repeats are fine.

Ravenloft.
One of the most atmospheric modules ever.
Works less well as a "full setting" (not because the module lacked anything, but because they tried to make it all weird/multiplanar crap--which takes away from the darkness.)
Keep on the Borderlands
White Plume Mountain

I'm not sure what year it was, I think it was 1989, but Treasure Hunt and its 0 level PC's is awesome

Quote from: Silverlion;241021I'm not sure what year it was, I think it was 1989, but Treasure Hunt and its 0 level PC's is awesome

Don't take this the wrong way...but fuck Treasure Hunt. I was in a long campaign game that started with that module. Our DM thought it was realistic and cool that we would all start out at 0-level with stats topping out at 11 (supposedly we'd train & buff up later). Yeah, it was different and we role-played the shit out of it - until the 'rescue ship' arrived. That turned out to be the beginning of the Slavers' Series Shafting. It's pretty underwhelming when you realize even goblins have a higher CHA than you do.

The D&D modules which come up again and again for me are:

B2: Keep on the Borderlands = I don't think I've used the Keep or the Caves as is for about 20 years.  But it does work well when used as a random monster lair resource.

B3: Palace of the Silver Princess = A personal favorite.  Good for "kick in the door" gaming.

X2: Castle Amber = A favorite of a friend of mine.  A good one to play when you want to emphasize "everything you know is wrong" and desire to throw any logic to the four winds.  It's a good one if everyone is in a silly mood.

S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth = Another favorite of the same friend.  Personally, I find this one more than a bit dull, and it just drags itself out.  But, my best friend loves it, so I find myself playing it everytime my character reaches the appropriate level.

T1: The Village of Hommlet = No.  I'm not suggesting Temple of Elemental Evil.  Everytime my friends and I have attempted ToEE, the game has ground to a painful halt at the Temple proper.  But the Village and Moathouse have always been cool, and a general crowd pleaser.

I2: Tomb of the Lizard King = This is an awesome module.  I'm hoping this one replaces Tsojcanth as my friend's favorite, because it's much more fun.  If there's a old school module which needs a modern remake, this is it.

Dragonlance (series) = Every once in a while, we haul out the Dragonlance modules and try to play through the whole thing.  DL1 is OK, as is DL2.  DL3 and 4 tend to stall out games and we've never played them to completion.  DL6 has always been the most fun.  DL7 was fairly fun the few times we tried it, but the game tended to disintegrate before we could reach Foghaven Vale.  I've never played or run any of the modules past DL7.


And a few more which have got multiple plays over the years, but no one seems to have found them very fun.

I6: Ravenloft = I'm going to commit heresy, but this one is just dull.  I've been through this one at least a half dozen times under 3 DMs and it's always a plodding mess.  It ends up feeling a lot like Castle Amber's randomness with none of the insane charm.

X1: The Isle of Dread = I know this one has gotten a lot of love over the years, but my experience playing it always boils down to a boring process of filling in empty hexes on the map.  Last time I played it, I fell asleep during the game.

The Lost Island of Castanamir the Mad - Exploring a dead arch mage's hideout (tournament options)

Baltron's Beacon - a fun "dungeon crawl" through an old castle in the swamp with more than a few neat twists.

The Curse of Xanathon - everything about this module should suck (backtracking, unbeatable enemy, etc.), but I ran it twice and had a blast both times.
 
The Assassin's Knot and the one that went with it - a good little investigative module that was a nice changeup for back in the day.

I'll also repeat KotB, Night's Dark Terror, Tomb of Horrors, Ravenloft, and the Slave Lords/Giants/Lolth series.  

If you're wanting to get a lot of use out of these purchases, I'll also suggest you start snatching up old DUNGEON Adventures modules.  Lots of bang for your buck there.

Pete

Quote from: Gabriel2;241097T1: The Village of Hommlet = No. I'm not suggesting Temple of Elemental Evil. Everytime my friends and I have attempted ToEE, the game has ground to a painful halt at the Temple proper. But the Village and Moathouse have always been cool, and a general crowd pleaser.

The one time we played ToEE, it started off ok but just kept going and going for too many sessions of the same stuff.  We jumped past much of it to get to the end.  For a module that many consider a classic, it seems tedious.
 

Quote from: pspahn;241115If you're wanting to get a lot of use out of these purchases, I'll also suggest you start snatching up old DUNGEON Adventures modules. Lots of bang for your buck there.

Yep, I have a fair number of Dungeons.  If you can find them cheap, they're great at least for ideas, maps, and monsters.