D&D 5E Looking for "lore-rich" adventures (with a strong sense of history, myth, bits of lore, etc)

[Mercurius]

You know how some adventures seem more or less "lore-rich," the feeling that history, legend and myth--story in all its forms--is alive and enmeshed in the adventure? A more generic adventure might seem as if grown in a test-tube, while a more lore-rich setting seems as if it is grown from a deep and complex history and setting. The locations and sites have a feeling of context and history that doesn't feel paper-thin. A lore-rich adventure tends to carry a feeling of myth and vitality to it, as if it is part of a larger Story.

I'm not necessarily talking about how much an adventure is linked to a setting, mind you. That could have something to do with it, but an adventure can be "setting-agnostic" and still be lore-rich.

An example of a lore-rich setting is the old AD&D Tomb of Horrors. The presence and history of Acererak is palpable in every room (should we call it demi-lore-rich? Bad pun). Certainly it has the feeling and soil of Greyhawk, but it could be transplanted into nearly any fantasy world. Some like to bag on Ruins of Undermountain, but there's a lore-rich quality to it -- at least from my memory; I haven't looked at it in years.

What say you? What adventures--any edition, any type--are particularly lore-rich? If you feel like it, what adventures are particularly "lore-poor"?

 

[Quartz]

The Istivin adventures in Dungeons 117-119 are lore-rich, with plenty of call-backs to classic adventures.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I don't know if I correctly understand what you understand as lore-rich, but there's a lot of lore (and politics) going on Night Below. Technically, it's more a complete campaign than an adventure, though.

 

[Mercurius]

I don't know if I correctly understand what you understand as lore-rich, but there's a lot of lore (and politics) going on Night Below. Technically, it's more a complete campaign than an adventure, though.

Here's an example of what I mean. Let's say the adventuring party is in a dungeon and finds a shrine in which they discover a magical scepter. In a typical "lore-poor" adventure that scepter would just have a simple function, say to open a door in another part of the dungeon, or perhaps it just has certain powers. In a "lore-rich" adventure, that scepter would have history. Perhaps it was stolen by the jealous brother of a long-dead king. The jealous brother used its powers to create the dungeon, within which he buried the remains and trapped the souls of his brother and his court. The scepter is made from a kind of meteoric ore that came from an exploded world; within the metal are trapped the life-essence of the beings of that world, who cry out for release - which in turn placed the curse on the family. The owner of the scepter will begin to hear the voices of the trapped spirits, which will eventually drive him or her mad....and so forth.

Or it could just be little tid-bits, like they find the journal of a former adventurer who died in the dungeon, and the notes include some tid-bits of information and history about the dungeon. Or as they explore the ruins of a place they gradually piece together its history. It isn't just a dungeon with monsters and stuff, but a place with history, with a Story. That sort of thing. A "lore-weak" adventure is very functional - it has maps and dungeons, even plots and characters, but it doesn't have history, myth, or legend. It doesn't feel "drenched" in the flavor of the world it was grown out of.

And I'm not really talking about politics either. That's fine, but its another thing altogether. The emphasis here is on a feeling of historical (and legendary) context.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Since I just mentioned them in another thread, I'll mention them again here:

The AD&D TSR UK modules had some great examples of this.

The two-parter The Sentinel and The Gauntlet.

The magical When a Star Falls (neat mechanic at the start gives everyone fragmented memories of a monk from the monastery which helps in the adventure later, plus lots of flavour)

The classic Dark Clouds Gather (c'mon, how many adventures were you get to invade a cloud giants castle IN THE CLOUDS!)

 

[Inchoroi]

If you don't mind converting, any of Pathfinder's Adventure Paths are very lore-rich. I'm running Rise of the Runelords, and everyone is loving how connected the story is to the lore of the world.

 

[Eric V]

It's very setting specific, but the Al-Qadim mods are swimming in lore.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Halls of the High King (2e).