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.
Quote from: Nicephorus;241134The 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.
Like Gabriel said, ToEE is pretty much ass. T1 by itself is fantastic, a classic, and it's open enough that you can use it as a springboard to a completely different campaign.
Quote from: Kellri;241048Don'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.
Not to laugh at your pain, but this post gave me the first hearty laugh of the day. The story plus the text's 'tone' was perfect.
-=Grim=-
Keep On The Borderlands is probably the best for old school adventure. That's the way I see it anyway, though I'm fond of Castle Amber and the Conan modules for personal reasons...
Anything by Paul Jacquays, but particularly Lost Caverns of Thracia and Night of the Walking Wet.
Moldvay's Basic/Expert work: B4 The Lost City, X1 The Isle of Dread, X2 Castle Amber.
Any adventure with Gygax's name on it published prior to Temple of Elemental Evil.
The original version of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess.
Quote from: Kellri;241048Don'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.
Bad GM, not bad module (at least in that respect), your supposed to get attribute increases through the game and be first level by its end. (With solidly buffed scores and such.)
QuoteBad GM, not bad module (at least in that respect), your supposed to get attribute increases through the game and be first level by its end. (With solidly buffed scores and such.)
I agree with you in theory. I generally love all of Aaron Allston's stuff (a bit of a game design renaissance man in my opinion). I think the idea of starting at 0-level Normal Men is an interesting one, just not really supported too well by anything else in 1e AD&D. There's no workable method elsewhere for raising Ability Scores. This module seems to be implying only 0-level characters can do that easily while 1st and higher levels would need significant training or a wish to do so. Even with the 'buffing up' in the module itself, our characters were still much weaker in comparison to say the Pre-gen Characters in most 1e modules. A YMMV situation.
Quote from: jrients;241951Anything by Paul Jacquays, but particularly Lost Caverns of Thracia and Night of the Walking Wet.
Moldvay's Basic/Expert work: B4 The Lost City, X1 The Isle of Dread, X2 Castle Amber.
Any adventure with Gygax's name on it published prior to Temple of Elemental Evil.
The original version of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess.
This (except that you misspelled Jaquays :p)
Crap.
I never played even single pre written adventure (if Shab-Al-Hiri Roach doesn't count) and I don't want to... Why would I waste my money on something I can create myself/my GM can create... And I don't understand why would anyone consider even single of them essencial...
Quote from: Fritzs;242111I never stop thread crapping.
truth.
QuoteI never played even single pre written adventure (if Shab-Al-Hiri Roach doesn't count) and I don't want to... Why would I waste my money on something I can create myself/my GM can create... And I don't understand why would anyone consider even single of them essencial...
Never played but can't shut up, right?? Do you also like to condemn novels because you've never read one? You don't understand because YOU can't create a decent pre-written adventure with your infantile understanding of game design. A good one takes upwards of 70 hours of work and can be played by a variety of groups without losing the essential goodness.
Quote from: Fritzs;242111I never played even single pre written adventure (if Shab-Al-Hiri Roach doesn't count) and I don't want to... Why would I waste my money on something I can create myself/my GM can create... And I don't understand why would anyone consider even single of them essencial...
Why go to a restaurant when you could cook for yourself? Much of it is about time/money tradeoffs.
I just bought Queen of the Spiders for $4 - 150 pages of maps, stat blocks, treasures, and plots that would have taken me 20+ hours to make just for the bits I plan to use. And even I'm not arrogant enough to believe that others can't come up with ideas that I wouldn't have thought of.
Plus, there is the matter of historical curiosity - what were adventures like 30 years ago?
Quote from: Fritzs;242111And I don't understand why would anyone consider even single of them essencial...
Maybe you don't understand because you
haven't played any of the greats?
Do you write your own books? Write/pencil/ink your own comics? If not, why not?
This type of RPG snobbery stretches back as far as gaming itself. It was as silly then as it is now.
Quote from: Nicephorus;242249I just bought Queen of the Spiders for $4 - 150 pages of maps, stat blocks, treasures, and plots that would have taken me 20+ hours to make just for the bits I plan to use. And even I'm not arrogant enough to believe that others can't come up with ideas that I wouldn't have thought of.
I picked that one up also. I may tweak it a bit and run a PbP or IRC game with it. I still need to read it over and get the details squared away. I also picked up a nostalgia favourite, X2, Castle Amber. An adventure for the Expert ruleset, levels 3-6, but it was some of the most fun we had.
QuotePlus, there is the matter of historical curiosity - what were adventures like 30 years ago?
Brutal.
We had to kill dragons uphill, in the snow. Both ways. After ten miles of solid orcs. When we got back to the inn, there was no fire, because it had typically been ransacked by goblinoids led by a gnoll or three, who reported to an ogre, who was employed by the local necromancer.
We had to make our own maps, none of this fog of war nonsense on the DMs laptop. "The room is at a thirty degree angle to the hallway, with the north wall running forty five feet to the east twenty feet above the door you just entered. The door on the southeast wall is bound with iron bands..." God help you if you missed a step.
And a pile of treasure was just another chance to get your character into more trouble. "Oh, the ring is definitely your size, although you could have sworn it looked far too big a minute ago. Inside the small box is a deck of cards, and the bag contains a wide belt or girdle." The number of items in any hoard that could be cursed was staggering. Including the gold. And that is assuming you even made it back out to enjoy the curse. In accordance with Murphy's Laws of Combat, if it's easy getting in, it will be impossible to get back out. Re-inforcements are the DMs oldest trick.
This isn't a shared story, or some kind of wish fulfilment. They don't hand out trophys to everyone at the end of the season, and the only monsters with one hit point are kobolds. And with a decent plan, the DM can wipe you out with those, too. This is the DM being the most devious, sneakiest bastard you can imagine, and the players wracking their brains for the best way around a courtyard full of skeletons and zombies so they can get to evil cleric who is preparing to summon a demon, devil, daemon, devilkin, demonite, cenobite, vampiric cenobite, or a hyperintelligent (but insanely evil) shade of the colour blue. Any or all of the above.
After all this leaves your sanity drained and your characters tattered, you won the right to finally give your character a name. No longer "Dave's Magic User", you could now be referred to as "Evad Kranthil the Warlock".
Congratulations. By the way, there are three mind flayers waiting for you in the common room at the tavern. Roll for initiative.
Essential old school adventures - two of my favourites are both 'giant mansion' adventures:
X2 - Castle Amber
Tegel Manor
Every room has something cool, you never get bored.
For introductory stuff, B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the orange-cover B3 Palace of the Silver Princess are both very nice, B4 The Lost City for more advanced players & GM.
Quote from: StormBringer;242279...or a hyperintelligent (but insanely evil) shade of the colour blue.
That just made me
lol. Like, twice.
-=Grim=-
Quote from: S'mon;242367Tegel Manor
Good call. I have a Gamescience version of it, and I think it's the best of the "haunted mansion" adventures out there (but YMMV, of course). I'm hoping Necromancer Games can get their version of it out soon.