Incline Old editions D&D Adventure Modules Thread (OD&D, B/X, BECMI, AD&D)

[DavidBVal]

Thread for discussing your favorite TSR adventure modules from the old editions of D&D, and maybe to share ideas on how to run them nowadays or just share the crazy oddities one can find in them or even memories, if you were lucky enough to play them.

We can also discuss classic settings and other sourcebooks like the Mystara gazeteers here. Basically everything except core rules.

Many of these adventures are easy to purchase digitally nowadays at DriveThroughRPG although not everything can be found. Other sources have pretty much everything released by TSR but they're a bit more "shady" so you'll have to search them yourself.

A good reference list of all the module series can be found here.

I am not a D&D "true veteran", since I started playing PnP in the late 80s, and back then in Spain D&D wasn't very big (popular games were MERP/Rolemaster, Runequest, Elric, Call of Cthulhu). I just played a couple AD&D Dragonlance adventures, plus what I could learn from playing Gold Box cRPGs. Later I played some 3e and recently 5e, so my knowledge of the TSR era is more theoretical than practical.

But this last year I've been "discovering" old adventures from the 80s and 90s and while quality is very uneven, there's absolute gems out there. Even the ones that are obviously flawed or just bad often include some very nice ideas. It's like a gold mine for a modern DM (or should I say, especially for a modern DM, given the terrible quality of adventures released).

Here's part of my newfag print-on-demand collection. I just hate reading on screen, and it's so cheap nowadays...

I plan to run some of these old adventures with my friends this year, assuming the current pandemic apocalypse allows it. I'm still undecided on what system I'll use, though.

So far I've read UK4, "When a Star Falls" and B10, "Night's Dark Terror".

B10 - Night's Dark Terror is absolutely amazing. I picked it after reading some opinions in forums, and indeed lives to its reputation as one of the best adventures ever, a love child between Robert E.Howard and Gary Gygax. The battles and challenges are full with interesting and potentially fun options for the players, and it includes a huge open-ended hexcrawl with around 20 locations to explore (from tiny tombs to huge dungeons). Only 60 pages long, but it has enough to run a full campaign for months. Some parts of it are a bit sketchy, others are questionable, but with a little work you can turn it into a memorable game.

UK4 - When a Star Falls is more of a mixed bag. Amazing ideas, very rich setting, characters, and a very original adventure with intrigues among treacherous librarians, plus the "Memory Web" addition as New Monster, which I loved. However it's pretty much linear and not in a good way. If I ran it, I'd probably replace half of it.

 

[agris]

I really enjoyed White Plume Mountain

Yet, I experienced it through the retroclone Hackmaster 4e, playing the module White Doom Mountain. It's quite good. Honestly, if you've got a boner for the old AD&D 1st/creme-de-la-creme 2e modules, look at the Hackmaster 4e modules. I won't go into the history of Hackmaster, but they essentially got to re-release those classic modules as well as the DM/player's guide with an eye towards (1) combative GM-player relationship (2) the hindsight of early 2000s such that the ruleset, while very much AD&D 1st ed, incorporates selective splat rules and handles edge-cases much better. This write-up covers it decently well, although the author didn't get their history quite right.

As someone who didn't play any PnP until their 20s, this was my first introduction to it and I absolutely had a blast. Not for the faint of heart tho... life is cheap in the realms.

Character creation is the best I have ever experienced, with strict race/class options, lots of sub-classes, and a building points system that lets you invest more in skills by randomly rolling for or cherry picking mental quirks, and physical flaws. Minor, and major. This is a game with a d10000 critical hit table, 80s-style sword and sorcery blood and tits, and its unbalanced to hell and back (against you). It's... wonderful.

 

[Mortmal]

The lost city an excellent dungeon crawl with some twist and original ideas , also can be played up to level 8 and further there's an extension in dragon magazine for further plot . There's an excellent port to FRUA(B4+extension) using ad&d 1e ruleset if you want to play it.

As for converting its extremely easy to convert any becmi content or any old content to 5E , the tiers are similar right now a 15+ party is similar to master in becmi. You copy paste all the text and you just change the monster and trap damage.
Use this to build your encounter D&D 5th Edition Encounter Calculator (kastark.co.uk) . Follow the guideline , but for a party of veterans, several X2 X3 deadly encounters may be needed between each long rest. At very high level it's really hard to keep things challenging or not one shotting players, not everyone can DM an horde like i do.
This list is pretty good when youa re lacking of inspiration too : Nerdovore: The Best Dungeon Magazine Adventure Modules . Exaclty as he said the best adventures are old ones, much decline there too.

 

[DavidBVal]

The lost city an excellent dungeon crawl with some twist and original ideas , also can be played up to level 8 and further there's an extension in dragon magazine for further plot . There's an excellent port to FRUA(B4+extension) using ad&d 1e ruleset if you want to play it.

As for converting its extremely easy to convert any becmi content or any old content to 5E , the tiers are similar right now a 15+ party is similar to master in becmi. You copy paste all the text and you just change the monster and trap damage.
Use this to build your encounter D&D 5th Edition Encounter Calculator (kastark.co.uk) . Follow the guideline , but for a party of veterans, several X2 X3 deadly encounters may be needed between each long rest. At very high level it's really hard to keep things challenging or not one shotting players, not everyone can DM an horde like i do.
This list is pretty good when youa re lacking of inspiration too : Nerdovore: The Best Dungeon Magazine Adventure Modules . Exaclty as he said the best adventures are old ones, much decline there too.

Ah, the Lost City. I already got that one and is in my "to read" list together with Isle of Dread and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Thanks for the FRUA reference, I might try that before I read it!

I doubt I'd be converting anything to 5e however. Already ran a game (my own adventure set in Dark Sun) and despite the strong points of the system, I am not looking forward to more 5e. Maybe for new players, but certainly not to run classic adventures to my hardcore friends. I am considering using 3.5 E6 variant, or a retroclone.

 

[Morblot]

I've been running The Keep on the Borderlands for my players using the Old-School Essentials ruleset, although I threw the larger-scale overhead map into the bin and substituted my own small 25-hex hexcrawl in its stead to insert some of my own dungeons and other random mayhem in the area as well. It's been great fun, the Keep itself works beautifully as a base for adventures and the Caves of Chaos are indeed challenging enough for four PCs. :D Luckily my players realized early on that they can hire some cannon fodder NPCs to help them; I think they've buried something like 2 PCs and 5 NPCs so far...

Ever since WotC declared old versions of D&D "problematic" I've been boycotting them, so I won't be buying any PDFs or PODs from DriveThruRPG either. Luckily my Keep on the Borderlands module is a TSR original, I think I got it from Noble Knight a couple of years ago. It has that lovely old book smell that makes everything so much more authentic somehow. I've got a few other original modules as well, some of them translated to Finnish, but I don't have them handy ATM. Maybe I'll dig them up and photograph them later.

 

[Bara]

The lost city an excellent dungeon crawl with some twist and original ideas , also can be played up to level 8 and further there's an extension in dragon magazine for further plot . There's an excellent port to FRUA(B4+extension) using ad&d 1e ruleset if you want to play it.

Did not know about the FRUA port planning to run this module soon and this will be a decent way to get a feel for the encounters. Thanks!

 

[Mortmal]

The lost city an excellent dungeon crawl with some twist and original ideas , also can be played up to level 8 and further there's an extension in dragon magazine for further plot . There's an excellent port to FRUA(B4+extension) using ad&d 1e ruleset if you want to play it.

Did not know about the FRUA port planning to run this module soon and this will be a decent way to get a feel for the encounters. Thanks!

There was a thread about them Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) thread | rpgcodex > strap yourselves in, 2021's going to be wild , "the realms" modules dont get enough credit , the guy really did a spendid job converting them. It requires a few addons as its modded FRUA however.Of course its not becmi but ad&d 1 is close enough .

The lost city an excellent dungeon crawl with some twist and original ideas , also can be played up to level 8 and further there's an extension in dragon magazine for further plot . There's an excellent port to FRUA(B4+extension) using ad&d 1e ruleset if you want to play it.

As for converting its extremely easy to convert any becmi content or any old content to 5E , the tiers are similar right now a 15+ party is similar to master in becmi. You copy paste all the text and you just change the monster and trap damage.
Use this to build your encounter D&D 5th Edition Encounter Calculator (kastark.co.uk) . Follow the guideline , but for a party of veterans, several X2 X3 deadly encounters may be needed between each long rest. At very high level it's really hard to keep things challenging or not one shotting players, not everyone can DM an horde like i do.
This list is pretty good when youa re lacking of inspiration too : Nerdovore: The Best Dungeon Magazine Adventure Modules . Exaclty as he said the best adventures are old ones, much decline there too.

Ah, the Lost City. I already got that one and is in my "to read" list together with Isle of Dread and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Thanks for the FRUA reference, I might try that before I read it!

I doubt I'd be converting anything to 5e however. Already ran a game (my own adventure set in Dark Sun) and despite the strong points of the system, I am not looking forward to more 5e. Maybe for new players, but certainly not to run classic adventures to my hardcore friends. I am considering using 3.5 E6 variant, or a retroclone.

Yes hardcore players and mensa registered girlfriend will ask you to DM pathfinfer or pathfinder 2 , some who just want a lighter, faster experience will ask for 5E. You can see on amazon best sellers the 80 first spots are 5E products then only pathfinder 2 , thats telling....
5E is good but lacking at high level and there's nothing on the world economy, while on becmi you knew how much a keep cost, how much for retinues , siege engines etc...Its important as at high level as the game gets political, massive battles, and realm shattering. You wont just do dungeon delving when you can fly teleport, passwall and planeshift . Pathfinder does not make that mistake.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I've got a few other original modules as well, some of them translated to Finnish, but I don't have them handy ATM. Maybe I'll dig them up and photograph them later.

Acaeum is missing cover scans of the Finnish versions of modules B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and B6 The Veiled Society, if you happen to have those, although they do have the cover scan for special combined module B36 released only in Finland.

 

[agris]

Morblot 's right on the money with little keep on the borderland. I've played through it (as a player) and our crew also used it as a home base for operations for a while. It's well suited to that, and definitely avoid player fantasy power trips (i.e. plenty of deadly surprises).

If I remember correctly, our party was so desperate for improved armor, when we rescued a (randomly determined) NPC craftsman of elven belt-buckles, we coerced him into opening a shop to produce elven "buckle-mail". It wasn't light, it wasn't quiet, but it got a goddamn elven armor bonus to it.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I am not a D&D "true veteran", since I started playing PnP in the late 80s, and back then in Spain D&D wasn't very big (popular games were MERP/Rolemaster, Runequest, Elric, Call of Cthulhu). I just played a couple AD&D Dragonlance adventures, plus what I could learn from playing Gold Box cRPGs. Later I played some 3e and recently 5e, so my knowledge of the TSR era is more theoretical than practical.

I'd wager most people on the Codex aren't "veterans" either. That being said, excellent thread. I love old TSR.

Do you include settings in your thread? If so, I'd definitively do a small write-up of Birthright, amazing setting. Dark Sun too is really cool.

Morblot Keep looks amazing. I've never had the chance to neither run it or play it. Might be my next campaign.

 

[DavidBVal]

Do you include settings in your thread? If so, I'd definitively do a small write-up of Birthright, amazing setting. Dark Sun too is really cool.

I think we could also include settings and non-rules sourcebooks, those Mystara gazeteers are a thing of beauty. Edited first post.

Dark Sun is a very strong setting full with great ideas, although adventures were pretty terrible and I ended up writing my own in my 5e game a year ago. It was a blast, although it's so strongly thematic as a setting that I doubt it can be used for more than one campaign without feeling repetitive.

 

[Morblot]

I've got a few other original modules as well, some of them translated to Finnish, but I don't have them handy ATM. Maybe I'll dig them up and photograph them later.

Acaeum is missing cover scans of the Finnish versions of modules B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and B6 The Veiled Society, if you happen to have those, although they do have the cover scan for special combined module B36 released only in Finland.

I don't, sorry. I guess I have only some of the most common modules, and not very many of those either. Will keep my eyes peeled, though.

 

[Mortmal]

Speaking of aventures anyone can recommend very high level adventures ? Preferably obscure indie sources , the ones of epic scale. Something to port to 5E.

 

[agris]

Not sure what qualifies as very high level, but check out the city of brass. Exotic setting, cool hook, classic module adapted from competitive 1st Ed ad&d.

 

[Bara]

Speaking of aventures anyone can recommend very high level adventures ? Preferably obscure indie sources , the ones of epic scale. Something to port to 5E.

Not sure what qualifies as very high level, but check out the city of brass. Exotic setting, cool hook, classic module adapted from competitive 1st Ed ad&d.

City of Brass by frog god games right? Bought it recently but its a good one that comes with a OSR version & 5E version. Currently the 5e version is on discount for $25 bucks for the pdf version. 500 pages of pretty good stuff but I am annoyed that you have to buy the OSR & 5E versions separately.

 

[agris]

Bara idk about that version, I’m talking about Kuntz’s original from ‘87. See here https://www.acaeum.com/library/citybrass.html

you can find a pdf of his original module with notes, I used it in a hackmaster campaign back in the day. Because it’s first Ed you’ll have to convert to 5E.

Pure speculation on my end, but I’m guessing what you’ve found is a bastardized reimagining of this module. Kuntz even drew a gridded map with encounters - use it! You’ll have to do some digging though, as most things worth a damn aren’t a click away on Amazon.

 

[DavidBVal]

Speaking of aventures anyone can recommend very high level adventures ? Preferably obscure indie sources , the ones of epic scale. Something to port to 5E.

Not indie, but Gygax Isle of the Ape (lvl 18+) is a notorious hi-level deadly sandbox, very light on plot but rich in original challenges and action. It features one of the strongest monsters appearing in a module, Oonga (AD&D version of King Kong).

Still with Gygax, Against the Giants is already updated to 5e with minimal changes. Again, if you want a lot of roleplay, mystery and interaction, look elsewhere. It's all dungeon crawling and big fights against giants, masterfully laid out.

I wonder if there's anything good amidst all the modules in the "C/M/I" portion of "BECMI". Did anyone here even play a Masters or Immortal adventure? I think it was mostly "porn for DMs", not really playable stuff. But maybe I'm wrong and there's a gem out there.

 

[Mortmal]

ok thanks agris and Bara for the suggestions, guess yes a planar adventure like this one is needed.
DavidBVal unfortunatly never played the CM and IM becmi modules and sadly never will , there's no port to FG2 or even roll 20 , and it would be extremely hard to find people for this . Getting a DM unthinkable...
But i've read some its like you say porn for DM, i doubt anyone played this ever.Was thinking to fetch ideas from those too.

 

[Azalin]

Do you include settings in your thread? If so, I'd definitively do a small write-up of Birthright, amazing setting. Dark Sun too is really cool.

I think we could also include settings and non-rules sourcebooks, those Mystara gazeteers are a thing of beauty. Edited first post.

Dark Sun is a very strong setting full with great ideas, although adventures were pretty terrible and I ended up writing my own in my 5e game a year ago. It was a blast, although it's so strongly thematic as a setting that I doubt it can be used for more than one campaign without feeling repetitive.

If you are interested in Dark Sun adventures,don't know which ones you tried but there were 2 main "series" ,one was the Black Flames,Merchant House of Amketch-Marauders of Nibenay-Black Spine series which imho wasn't any good except Amketch and the other was the Freedom-Road to Urik-Arcane Shadows-Asticlian Gambit-Dragon's Crown which was imho better, especially Road to Urik and Dragon's Crown. There were also a couple of others like Forest Maker

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Speaking of adventures anyone can recommend very high level adventures ? Preferably obscure indie sources , the ones of epic scale. Something to port to 5E.

From TSR:

Module H4 The Throne of Bloodstone is listed as being for characters levels "18-100", contains four pre-generated 100th-level PCs (as well as a larger party of PCs level ~20), and has the players descend into the Abyss to confront Orcus the Prince of the Undead. It also has classic cover art by Keith Parkinson:

BECMI D&D has a series of 3 linked Master-level adventure modules --- M1 Into the Maelstrom, M2 The Vengeance of Alphaks, and M5 Talons of Night --- dealing with the rivalry between the empires of Thyatis and Alphatia and an entropic Immortal.

See also the aforementioned module WG6 Isle of the Ape by Gary Gygax

 

[Mortmal]

Speaking of adventures anyone can recommend very high level adventures ? Preferably obscure indie sources , the ones of epic scale. Something to port to 5E.

From TSR:

Module H4 The Throne of Bloodstone is listed as being for characters levels "18-100", contains four pre-generated 100th-level PCs (as well as a larger party of PCs level ~20), and has the players descend into the Abyss to confront Orcus the Prince of the Undead. It also has classic cover art by Keith Parkinson:

BECMI D&D has a series of 3 linked Master-level adventure modules --- M1 Into the Maelstrom, M2 The Vengeance of Alphaks, and M5 Talons of Night --- dealing with the rivalry between the empires of Thyatis and Alphatia and an entropic Immortal.

See also the aforementioned module WG6 Isle of the Ape by Gary Gygax

Yes i've read this but they are a bit too campaign centric, reading M1 M2 et makes me remember how great mystara is . I mean they even provide events for players every years in the poor wizard almanac . Such lore such details, such world building,well thought planned adventures from the very begining to the immortal stage , you dont find that anymore .
Gygax adventure, such writing...

 

[Melan]

For modern high-level AD&D modules, check out Anthony Huso's releases. He plays by-the-book high-level AD&D, and his adventures reflect that knowledge. Very baroque, but very imaginative. His recent book takes 14th+ level characters to the first level of the Abyss, and the palace of Orcus himself!

 

[DavidBVal]

I'm running this one as a "family game" and decided to use 5e because 2 of the 3 players are new to RPGs. It is an amazing introductory adventure that works really well to teach your players to think and work together, with minimal changes. The town of Saltmarsh itself isn't described (instead the module tells you to create it yourself). The adventure has twists and features unusual RPG locations, especially for a 1981 module; the first part takes place in a supposedly haunted manor, which actually is the secret lair of a band of smugglers led by a wizard that uses illusions to scare the villagers away. However it turns out, there *is* a secret section which is a little haunted. The second part is about boarding the smugglers' ship, something the players need to carefully plan on their own. Both the manor and the ship plans and challenges are pretty nice, any attempt to win this by a kick-in-the-door romp will end in a quick slaughter, since both smuggler groups are pretty big and the ship officers are pretty strong. One thing I like is how the antagonists are clever and well organized criminals, not just idiotic monsters waiting for adventurers to trespass their dungeon.

I found out this was officilaly converted to 5e as part of "Ghosts of Saltmarsh", but I preferred to make my own conversion.

 

[DavidBVal]

I am reading PoD copies of X4 and X5, a mini-series meant for mid-level characters using the Expert set.

I am halfway through X4, and most of it feels... very modern. The departure from the basic dungeon delve & mindless adventuring is obvious: A border war is being lost by the Republic of Darokin, and the party is part of a poor-quality reserve army stationed in some backwards frontier town, along with drunkard mercenaries... the region is ransacked and scorched by war, nearly abandoned.

The plot involves a dark Master that is uniting the nomad tribes as well as orcs and bigger monsters, and organizing them in strong armies about to threaten Darokin. It is very reminiscent of Robert E. Howard's Black Colossus, which is a good thing. The encounters that set up the plot little by little seem to be well designed. Some interesting monsters, betrayals, twists... it has a great feel.

The adventure hook, however, is pretty terrible. Some random cleric (whose role in the story remains still unexplained after reading half the adventure) wanders into the camp bearing a map indicating vaguely the location of some evil. He casts a "quest" spell (i.e., Geas) to force one of the party members to go after this evil. Just in case, the army commander also orders them to go and investigate. Makes zero sense and may potentially rise a lot of problems, but if I ever run this module I am sure it's not too hard to come up with better motivations for the players.

Art is definitely a step up from what I've seen in B series, pretty cool.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Happy you reviewed it here, I thought about adding it to my sandbox. I guess it's too plot-heavy for that.