So what are the best OSR modules? Any recommendations? I'm looking to start a campaign again soon but these days time is a premium so anything to lighten the load.

The things that have been most useful to me, running D&D:

Dyson's Delve I & II - for my swords & sorcery Wilderlands campaign. Tons of great dungeons, and then tons of beautiful unkeyed maps to make your own.

Most of the adventures from Basicfantasy.org - Adventure Anthology 1, The Glain Campaign, and Monkey Isle in particular are all great. Saga of the Giants looks cool too. They are in the style of Moldvay-Cook/Marsh Basic/Classic D&D adventures, the printed versions are sold at-cost from amazon. Most very good, and unbelievably good value. I use them for a Mentzer Classic D&D campaign set in Karameikos.

I also enjoyed Venger Satanis' Liberation of the Demon Slayer (for the Wilderlands game), tons of inventiveness but it's a bit of a mess, the maps need re-keying.

I think the key for me is that OSR adventures need to be modules I can plug in to my own campaign. I recently bought Stonehell & Dwimmermount - these are well done megadungeons, Dwimmermount especially is fantastically well presented, but they are designed as tentpoles for your campaign, not plug-in elements.

If you wanted to kick off a megadungeon-focused OSR campaign in OD&D style, then I'd recommend Dwimmermount. If you are doing your own wilderness sandbox dotted with dungeons in the Judges Guild mode then the Dyson's Delves (you can plug them in to eg Rob Conley's Blackmarsh or Points of Light). If you are doing episodic 'dungeon of the week' - the default Moldvay & Mentzer Classic D&D approach - then the BasicFantasy.org stuff is best, though much can also be used for sandboxing.

This guy thinks highly of my Scourge of the Demon Wolf adventure for Swords & Wizardry.

In addition to the adventure,  you will get a complete fantasy medieval village, a fantasy medieval hamlet, a small fantasy medieval barony, and a conclave of mages living together. The adventure in the front half and a sourcebook comprises the back half. You don't need to read the sourcebook to run the adventure.

Yeah I am tooting my own horn on this one.

Thanks for the shoutout S'mon for Blackmarsh and Points of Light.

Those work well to get you up to speed on having a setting for your campaign. What S'mon doesn't mention is that Blackmarsh dovetails with the campaign map in Dwimmermount. (Blackmarsh to the north, Dwimmermont to the south).

Just to confuse things, Southland in the first Points of Light also dovetails in the same location. James Mal asked if he could do this when he ask me to draw the Wilderness Map. I said "why not."

Note that Blackmarsh and Southland are free to download. You can get Blackmarsh in print from RPGNow and Points of Light from Goodman Games.

Quote from: estar;872582Those work well to get you up to speed on having a setting for your campaign. What S'mon doesn't mention is that Blackmarsh dovetails with the campaign map in Dwimmermount. (Blackmarsh to the north, Dwimmermont to the south).

The Dwimmermount map slots in south of the Southland map? Thanks, knowing that'll make it easier to slot into my Yggsburgh/Points of Light/Willow Vale campaign world.

Quote from: S'mon;872604The Dwimmermount map slots in south of the Southland map? Thanks, knowing that'll make it easier to slot into my Yggsburgh/Points of Light/Willow Vale campaign world.

Sorry I meant to say it is south of the Blackmarsh map. You can use either Southland or Dwimmermount for what south of Blackmarsh

Quote from: estar;872606Sorry I meant to say it is south of the Blackmarsh map. You can use either Southland or Dwimmermount for what south of Blackmarsh

Ah, right... not so useful for me, I already have Southland sited, but I guess I could use Blackmarsh + Dwimmermount together further east.

Expeditious Retreat Press was running a deep discount on their print line of Advanced Adventures - I'm not sure if it was still going on, but a print module for $4 is a good deal.  They also have compendiums of 15 modules at an even better per-module rate.  I would especially recommend modules in the line authored by Matt Finch and James Boney.  Both authors also have modules written for other companies as well.

The recent AS&SH kickstarter resulted in 3 very excellent modules available from North Wind Adventures.

Dragonsfoot has a thread compiling a few hundred free modules at the top of its general forum.  While the quality is hit or miss, for the price it can't be beat, and there are some very good ones in the lot.  But most people can probably find something that matches what they're looking for.

AA#26 The Witch Mounds is really, really, really good. I think the best "regular" OSR module. It's for mid levels though. Menagerie of the Ice Lord is a very good starter module from Dylan Hartwell.  Had a lot of fun running those.

Dwimmermount is IMHO the best megadungeon, with Stonehell next.

Autarch's recent Sinister Stone of Sakkara is a pretty good Keep on the Borderlands homage. It's for ACKS but is easy enough to convert, only the armor class is strange.

I can't recommend Liberation of the Demon Slayer as a module, it's completely incoherent, incomplete, and the stats nonsensical. It's got some nice ideas, lurid art (always a plus), but it's not really even a finished module, it's to modules what Spawn of Fashawn is to rules.

I haven't been overly impressed by the North Wind adventures in play. Great art though.

Quote from: JeremyR;872680I can't recommend Liberation of the Demon Slayer as a module, it's completely incoherent, incomplete, and the stats nonsensical. It's got some nice ideas, lurid art (always a plus), but it's not really even a finished module, it's to modules what Spawn of Fashawn is to rules.

I kind-of agree, but (a) we had a great time playing it, and (b) the "O5R" stats convert very easily to the 5e system I'm using.

Quote from: Arkansan;872496So what are the best OSR modules? Any recommendations? I'm looking to start a campaign again soon but these days time is a premium so anything to lighten the load.

I can't say what the best are, but I'll tell you which ones I have enjoyed, based on either actually running or actually playing, rather than based on impressions from reading or skimming the modules or reading someone else's reviews of the modules. Note, what follows are not formal, objective, thorough reviews (pros, cons, production value, etc), just my thoughts on modules that I had fun running or playing. I especially like the Hyperborea setting, so my experiences are weighted toward it. I'm sure any referee worth his salt could easily convert them to his system of choice though. Also, there will be spoilers.

Operation Unfathomable [Knockspell #5, Jason Sholtis, OD&D, Level 1, Played] I played this one at Gary Con VII (March 2015), as a pick up game in the bar Thursday night. We had a blast! Someone sends you on a foolish quest to a gonzo underdark area to find something. The gonzo underdark area is the star: there was batshit crazy, weird stuff around every corner that kept us wide-eyed and laughing. Guys were fucking dying left and right, but it was fun. One of my guys suffered 118^2 damage when a wandering lava god stepped on his prostrating form (yeah, he died), and another tried to hack into an infinitely long googlepede traveling through two holes in one room like a freight train, got his axe stuck in the body, then got pulled down a tunnel, never to be seen again (he died too). Lots of good stuff like that. If you run this one, bring a lot of extra character sheets, but you'll have a good time. Also, I heard he's coming out with a bigger version this year, which could be very cool.
 
Advanced Adventures #13: White Dragon Run [Expeditious Retreat, James Boney, AD&D, Levels 2-4, Ran] This module began a face-to-face campaign that lasted around two years (30 sessions). My guys have all played, read and discussed classics like B2 to death, but still wanted a borderlands adventure area. I like making dungeons, but don't really care to create towns and NPCs. White Dragon Run presented a good solution - a well-detailed town that forms the base of a sand box area (small hexmap included) and two small, standard dungeons (the Grey Temple w/15 rooms and Forgotten Outpost w/21 rooms). Several NPCs became recurring characters (good guys and bad guys). After a couple of sessions, I expanded the hexmap and both dungeons, even making the Forgotten Outpost the first level of my megadungeon (at the time). I also ended up plugging in other modules in different spots (Dunwich/Gann in the hills, Pod Caverns in the megadungeon). Beware, although it says levels 2-4, it's pretty deadly. For example, 75% of the party died in the first random monster encounter in the wilderness on the way to the dungeon. So, after the very first fight of the campaign, everyone was pretty much dead and we had to roll up new characters, heheh. We still laugh about it, especially one guy who was worried his bow specialized fighter was unbalanced (he died quickly).

Advanced Adventures #1: The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom [Expeditious Retreat, Matt Finch, AD&D, Levels 2-4, Ran] In this one, some strange plant men have been kidnapping people and you track them down, only to discover there's a sorcerous mushroom guy running the show. I liked all of the encounters/rooms, because they feel weird and trippy (mushroom bad guy, duh!) and are very interactive, but my guys only played through the first of three levels (50 rooms total) because they almost TPK'd and had to haul ass back to town. I think they planned to return, because everyone was laughing and having fun, but they got distracted doing something else and never came back. I plugged the Pod Caverns entrance in my Forgotten Outpost megadungeon (from White Dragon Run).

Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes [North Wind Adventures, Jeff Talanian, AS&SH, Levels 2-4, Played] I played this one at Gary Con VII (March 2015) and had a lot of fun. A wealthy wizard has hired you to help him find a legendary Viking shipwreck (17 rooms) in the cold desert and recover some mysterious green diamonds. We quickly realized the wizard was insane and likely to betray us, but it took us a while to figure out how to take him out best because he was super paranoid (wound up being backstab, luckily EOTB rolled a 20!). Also, in the desert on the way to the ship, we fought some fun radioactive ants and one night, when the titular Ghost Ship made an appearance, we had a guy join it (EOTB), become part of the crew and sail away into the night, which made everyone laugh. We ended up battling radioactive berserker zombies and a winged ape in his lair below the shipwreck and finding an Amazonian sky ship, which was cool. The module itself also has a detailed town (20 locations, NPCs, and so on) and another small dungeon (17 rooms), but those weren't part of the convention game because of the time constraint. I haven't run this one, but it could easily jump-start a campaign like I did with White Dragon Run – similar format of good, detailed town and two small dungeons.

Many Gates of the Gann [Chaotic Henchmen, Guy Fullerton, AD&D, Levels 3-5, Ran] My guys explored some of this dungeon as part of my White Dragon Run Campaign. They had fun, but like Pod Caverns, it kicked their asses on the first of three levels (120 rooms) and they hauled ass and never returned (this happens a lot with my group – they want the easy score). The dungeon here has a really cool story, where some alien from another world came to hide and protect a badass weapon, so he constructed a big dungeon and a system of ape-man guardians. Since then, different creatures have infiltrated the complex and so now there's a mix of shit inside. There are lots of traps and puzzles and different monsters and stuff. For example, in the very beginning, at the entrance, there are two stone heads that shoot laser beams at anyone who approaches. They're supposed to be turned off (so people can get inside to do the adventure), but I misread it and ended up disintegrating all of my group's NPCs and the magic-user's familiar, haha! We still laugh about that fuck up. Like I said, though, once inside, they really got their asses kicked and just barely escaped. Sadly, never went back and played with any of the other cool stuff on the other levels.

TAKEN from Dunwich [North Wind Adventures, Jeff Talanian, AS&SH, Levels 4-7, Played and Ran] I played this small dungeon (15 rooms) at Gary Con III (March 2011) and then later it ran it in my home campaign. In this one, some beast-men wearing head circlets with blinking lights are raiding the village of Dunwich. You're to figure out what the heck's going on. Once you track them to their lair, you find out it's actual the alien lair of one of Lovecraft's Great Race. This thing's using the circlets to control beast-men so that they will kidnap people from Dunwich and steal their locally mined mineral corundum for his diabolical purposes. As a player and a referee, people had fun figuring out what was going on and exploring the lair. I think everyone's favorite part was deciding whether to free the four-armed white ape imprisoned in the Yith's laboratory. He says he can help you if you free him...  

Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent [North Wind Adventures, Jeff Talanian, AS&SH, Levels 4-7, Ran] I kicked off my G+ Hangouts AS&SH game with this small dungeon (18 rooms), though I modified it a little bit. The original story is that during the Green Death plague, a wealthy family had their necromancer put them into deep sleep and create a serpent guardian to protect them. Supposedly the tomb has lots of treasure and the serpent sheds gems from its eyeless sockets. My guys were investigating a death cult at the time. I rewrote this so that the tomb had already been half-plundered and was now the death cult's hide out. As written, the module has some fun rooms and traps that make it a solid little dungeon. We had a good time with Charnel Crypt and I think you could pretty easily put this dungeon anywhere.

The Tomb of the Sea Kings [The Scribes of Sparn, Lawson “Blood Master” Bennett with Jimm Johnson, OD&D, Levels 5+, Played] Lawson and Jimm ran this adventure at NTRPG Con VI (June 2014) for a table of maybe ten guys. The story's pretty straight-forward, involving an “antique dealer” who has a friend who can get you inside the ancient tomb of the Sea Kings (two levels, 48 rooms), wherein lies lots of treasure and a special black sword that he wants. There are a lot of light-hearted, gonzo, deadly rooms and traps and it's all fun. We didn't have time to complete the module and get the sword, but we went back to town anyway and all got killed when the “antique dealer” summoned a horde of flying monkeys to kill everyone (“I told you not to come back without the sword.”). Ha!

Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess [North Wind Adventures, Joseph Salvadore, AS&SH, Levels 5-7, Played] I played this one at NTRPG Con VII (June 2015) and enjoyed it. The story here is that we acquired a treasure map pointing us to a temple on the Isle of the Serpent where we can find the valuable Feathered Crown of Nanasa. The module itself presents The Isle of the Serpent as the main island in a large hex map (180 miles across) of the Lemurian Remnant (with a pirate town, the temple and other lightly detailed locations). You could spend a long time here, but constrained by a convention format, our session was much more focused. We started off on a bridge in the jungle near the temple - with a giant dinosaur attacking us! My chaotic evil fighter leaped off the bridge, stuck his pick into the dinosaur, then let gravity drag the wound open as he fell, heheh. Inside the temple, we fought snake-man worshippers (and their smaller dinosaur pets) and a snake-man priest. Sadly, there was no way we could hope to finish the temple (31 rooms) given the time constraint and so we didn't get to some of the fun superscience toys the snake-men had on lower levels.

Beneath the Comet [North Wind Adventures, Ben Ball, AS&SH, Levels 6-9, Played] I played this module at Gary Con VI (March 2014) and had a great time. The surface story is that the adventurers have come into possession of a treasure map showing where some good loot lies buried. The real story is much more diabolical. A long time ago, an evil sorcerer double-crossed the god Xathoqqua and then isolated himself in a protected fortress. Xathoqqua wants revenge and has distributed several maps through the realm so that adventurers would break into the trap-filled fortress-tomb (13 rooms) and kill the sorcerer (now a lich), unknowingly helping the god get revenge. The rooms have some cool puzzles and traps, but we didn't make it all the way through because of time constraints I've already mentioned. More broadly, the module also includes the lightly detailed village of Bogrest, some pretty cool random encounters for the bog journey (almost like mini-adventures, really) and an alchemist's lair (8 rooms), but except for one of the random encounters (the fortune teller), our convention setting pretty much involved exploring the primary dungeon.

My players didn't much care for the Pod-Caverns.  On the other hand, they quite liked Scourge of the Demon Wolf.

Pete Spahn has some pretty good adventures.

Oh, and The Ghost of Jack Cade on London Bridge is a spectacular adventure!

You can run it with pretty well any system.