OSR This tells me OSR is alive and well.

Mannahnin

Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
This thread seems as good a place as any to ask: what is a great adventure for running in AD&D 2E from the OSR? I am looking for something in the 4th to 7th level range that could last maybe a half dozen sessions.

ETA for clarity: I would be using just the core books for AD&D 2E, not the splats or Skills and Powers.
In addition to classic adventures, my go-to is Bryce Lynch's reviews on TenFootPole.org. I would start with his "The Best" tag/sub-page and look for something level appropriate. The "No Regerts" category has a lot of playable stuff too, but everything he rates "The Best" is usually great by my lights as well.
 

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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
In addition to classic adventures, my go-to is Bryce Lynch's reviews on TenFootPole.org. I would start with his "The Best" tag/sub-page and look for something level appropriate. The "No Regerts" category has a lot of playable stuff too, but everything he rates "The Best" is usually great by my lights as well.
Yeah, I would go off of his list instead of using any TSR adventures. Those are "great" largely because of nostalgia. The best OSR adventures being produced today are dramatically better and still feature similar vibes.
 

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
Supporter
Yeah, I would go off of his list instead of using any TSR adventures. Those are "great" largely because of nostalgia. The best OSR adventures being produced today are dramatically better and still feature similar vibes.

.... Look, I think that there are a lot of amazing adventurers written today in OSR.

But it's not just nostalgia. If you want to look at the entire list of TSR modules, you will see more than a fair amount of duds. I am not saying you should go and run The Forest Oracle.

But I honestly find the casual dismissal of a lot of amazing and classic modules to be kinda sorta offensive. Not to me. Because, after all, I don't have any particular stake in the game.

But to the people who wrote them. From Jennell Jaquays (Caverns of Thracia) to Tom Moldvay and David "Zeb" Cook (the X modules, parts of the A series to I1) to Lawrence Schick (A4) to the Hickmans (I series) ....

I could keep going. These people wrote great modules that still influence the game today. So, yeah, I'm going to push back on that.

We can celebrate the great work that people are doing now without tearing down the amazing work that they did.
 

DarkCrisis

Spreading holiday cheer.
Yeah, I would go off of his list instead of using any TSR adventures. Those are "great" largely because of nostalgia. The best OSR adventures being produced today are dramatically better and still feature similar vibes.

Ive been running Keep on the Borderlands and I can see why it's as beloved as it is but at the end of the day its a homebase with a dungeon nearby full of goblins and orcs etc. And a few extra encounters in the wilderness if they players want to go look around
 

The I series. A lot of good ones, including the Desert series and the OG Ravenloft, as well as I1 and I2.
This would be my recommendation - the Desert of Desolation trilogy (I3, I4, I5) are excellent and a good mix of sandbox, dungeons, roleplaying, and plot. There's the supermodule compilation but I would stick with the three originals because they're leaner and tighter.

I12 Egg of the Phoenix is also fantastic but completely bananas and needs a bit of work to make it really sing. The Desert trilogy work more or less out of the box.

EDIT: If you don't mind a railroad, FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds is a collection of excellent set-pieces strung together into a larger whole. The PCs are stuck with magical tattoos that compel them to go from A to B to C etc. If that's not your thing, stay away but with buy-in, the set piece encounters are a blast.
 

Gus L

Adventurer
This thread seems as good a place as any to ask: what is a great adventure for running in AD&D 2E from the OSR? I am looking for something in the 4th to 7th level range that could last maybe a half dozen sessions.

ETA for clarity: I would be using just the core books for AD&D 2E, not the splats or Skills and Powers.
So a few things...

A) 2E will work, but you may have to do a few adaptive tweaks, most OSR adventures are written in a variety of house ruled formats that while broadly compatible with 2E will not be close to the stat blocks and such. It should be pretty easy.

B) Levels 4-7, have not been especially popular for OSR releases, and especially in the late-OSR period and the present are fairly rare as published work from the OSR tends toward levels 1-3 for a variety of reasons.

Not knowing exactly what you want or what sort of design ethos is your fave I'd suggest looking at the following.

For "High OSR" - or the period when early forum OSR started to be less concerned about retro-clones and the blog OSR was really blooming the best published stuff was Mega Dungeons. Stonehell's lower levels are level 4-7 I think. Likewise maybe take a look at the ASE - it gets close level range in Book 2.

For Mid-OSR (G+ OSR and blog OSR ... the Renaissance) I think Deep Carbon Observatory is still your best bet. It's not, not levels 4-7 but it's more a set of puzzles and vibes then a careful balanced crawl. It is also very much of that era and space.

Not sure what to recommend for late OSR at those levels. Most of the stuff I know of that era is low level. Maybe Lorn Song of the Bachelor by Zedek Sew, though you would like have to pump up the power of the Bachelor (a giant crocodile), village chief and a few other things. It's a solid late OSR adventure, but it tends towards ultralight style play and bends under a proceduralist approach. Great factions, ideas and writing though.

For a step to the modern Old School Revival (that is the continued impulses of Forum/Revivalist OSR and specifically the AD&D side of things) Anthony Huso's work is well regarded. He's sort of a unique auteur type dealing in a system and set of tones that aren't super "of the moment", but he does his own thing very well and I have nothing but good things to say. The old games space needs more people doing their own thing.

Now - as others have suggested, old games with old adventures are worthwhile. I think Jaquays' Dark Tower is Level 4-7 and it's great. Not as good as Thracia, but nice and an example of her design style. Likewise Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (G1) - Gygax wrote a great open ended problem there - a siege/infiltration scenario that captures a certain open to hijinxs feel. It's not detailed like a Jaquay's dungeon or beautifully written (DCO is my bet for that) but it's a good adventure - especially for the late 1970's. You could always try Tomb of Horrors as well...but only if your players really like puzzles, annoying ones.

Personally I think my own Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier is the best OSR adventure of the past 3 years - but it's a level 1-3 and also this is partially vanity. For intros I like Arnold's Lair of the Lamb and my own Prison of the Hated Pretender ... but again these are 0-1 level one shots (Prison is specifically designed as a one session thing - but that doesn't always work). Honestly I think there are some issues with mid-level adventures if one wants to write an exploration focused dungeon crawl (it's something I'm working on personally but it's a tough nut) due to the various tools that the Greyhawk campaign injected to deal with exploration challenge and the way combat works in early D&Ds at mid-level.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
But to the people who wrote them. From Jennell Jaquays (Caverns of Thracia) to Tom Moldvay and David "Zeb" Cook (the X modules, parts of the A series to I1) to Lawrence Schick (A4) to the Hickmans (I series) ....

I could keep going. These people wrote great modules that still influence the game today. So, yeah, I'm going to push back on that.

We can celebrate the great work that people are doing now without tearing down the amazing work that they did.
I don't think any of those authors would disagree that, because they were making it up as they went along, they made a lot of choices that today we regard as suboptimal.

The Model T is a much worse car than a contemporary Ferrari. It doesn't tear down anyone who did that foundational work making the Model T to say so.

Also, are we not supposed to give honest advice, in case authors of modules -- who are not participating in this thread and in some cases are dead -- might get offended by that honest advice?
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
Ive been running Keep on the Borderlands and I can see why it's as beloved as it is but at the end of the day its a homebase with a dungeon nearby full of goblins and orcs etc. And a few extra encounters in the wilderness if they players want to go look around
Yeah, it's a good template. Apparently Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is great and (not surprisingly) follows a similar framework, as does the module published by the Merry Mushmen last year (which even featured a screen/map front cover, just like the old TSR modules).

Once I get my time machine, my second stop -- after killing Baby Hitler -- is going to be to ask EGG why he didn't want to name anyone at the keep. I've seen the list of pregens in TSR modules -- no one was any better at making up names on the fly back then than they are now.
 

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
Supporter
I don't think any of those authors would disagree that, because they were making it up as they went along, they made a lot of choices that today we regard as suboptimal.

The Model T is a much worse car than a contemporary Ferrari. It doesn't tear down anyone who did that foundational work making the Model T to say so.

Also, are we not supposed to give honest advice, in case authors of modules -- who are not participating in this thread and in some cases are dead -- might get offended by that honest advice?

Naw. My objection is different. Writing (even module writing) isn't car design. We're not talking about adding cup holder, or GPS, or air bags.

At any given time, there's a lot of crud out there. The majority of new OSR adventure material is crud. But some of it is absolutely amazing!

It's the same with the "Golden Age." The reason we celebrate certain modules isn't nostalgia- it's because they are genuinely good. You are welcome to look at the list of TSR-era modules; you will find a lot that isn't very good. There's more than Forest Oracle.

But that doesn't mean that the ones that are great, aren't great. I am pushing back on this dismissive attitude that people like to claim is just due to nostaliga.

And I know this to be true, because I have run these adventures for teens, and they find them as amazing and magical.

So you are welcome to give your honest advice, but if you wander into a literary forum and say, "Shakespeare ain't all that, nostalgia man," or a film forum and say "Citizen Kane ain't all that, nostalgia man," you're going to find people disagreeing with you.

I liked @Mannahnin and his post recommending the cream of the current OSR modules because they are good! But that doesn't mean the best of the past isn't good.
 


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