Which OSR adventure (note: not classic D&D module!) would you think is the very best one to run for a group of complete newbies to gaming?
There is no best one, but there are a number that are good. One I'd suggest is The Sanctuary Ruin from Ludibrium Games. Solid intro module.
So I guess stuff like The Caverns of Thracia is out? http://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/46078/the-caverns-of-thracia
Then I got nothing.
Mortality of Green and Goblins of Mount Shadow for C&C are excellent.
My best experiences have not been with full modules (frankly I've not been too impressed by the OSRosphere modules* I've seen), but rather with seeding a bunch of "One Page Dungeon (http://www.onepagedungeon.info/)" contest entries into a small sandbox area. For somewhere to seed those, well Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh (nominally for C&C) is a great city/wilderness/loads of dungeons campaign setting if you can get a copy, but Rob Conley's various efforts (Points of Light etc) are nearly as good & lots of fun.
*The very worst was Maliszewki's The Dark Chateau, for which I paid a fair bit, too.
Edit: Currently though I'm running OSRIC but using Paizo's Rise of the Runelords, which works great but isn't within question parameters... Lost City of Barakus was great for 3.5e and has a Swords & Wizardry version coming out from Frog God, it's a great campaign dungeon + wilderness + city + loads of small dungeons fandango. I guess that'd be my recommendation for the future.
Quote from: S'mon;754452For somewhere to seed those, well Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh (nominally for C&C) is a great city/wilderness/loads of dungeons campaign setting if you can get a copy...
Yggsburgh is my nominal setting for most old school D&D these days. It's an excellent setting with lots of adventure built in.
Short one-shot, Prison of the Hated Pretender (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_4yfZaJH0e5UXBlMXlrN2hDMjg/edit?pli=1); longer sandboxy mini-campaign style of thing, Chaotic Caves (http://basicfantasy.org/download.cgi/JN1-Chaotic-Caves-r13.pdf).
They're both free downloads so the links go straight to the .pdfs.
Hated Pretender is ok. I like Gus L's work, but I'm not sure I'd use that. (I reviewed it last year (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=1254) ... because I review everything in the OSR.)
I would suggest perhaps two others.
"The Upper Caverns" from Fight On! magazine #2 [my crappy review] (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=669) is one of the best adventures ever written. EVER. It perfectly captures what a D&D dungeon exploration is supposed to be like. You know, nostalgia plays tricks on you. You remember things better than they were. This adventure is what you REMEMBER D&D to be like. It's so good it meets built-up expectations. David Bowman was one of the of the best creators in the OSR and Cal ranks right up in the top 5, almost certainly. This, a collaboration, beings the charm of old school dungeon crawl through some caves. I really can't praise it enough. I drew the map on some posterboard and covered it in newspaper, for a con game, and then cut away "torch distance" for the n00bs. I've got some AP reports somewhere I could dig up if you were interested.
The other one I would suggest is Shadowbrook Manor. [My review (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=509).] This is a classic old house adventure, ala Tegal, but updated. It's full of charm and exploring an old haunted house may be more accessible for total n00bs than exploring old caves/dungeon may be. It's Tegal done right, on a smaller scale, with just enough in each room to let the DM get a good grasp, without being 1970's sparse.
So, a haunted house that the players will be better able to relate to or one one of the best classic dungeon/cave adventures ever written. Which way do you want to go?
My review of Sanctuary Ruin. (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=853)
My review of Mortality of Green. (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=364)
My review of Goblins of Mount Shadow. (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=899)
I was looking at the Chaotic Caves just on Friday. I decided not to review it right now, because it appeared to be SUCH a knock off of B2. Ironwood Gorge (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=806) did something similar,but instead too inspiration from B2 and created something new & different rather than the close emulation that Chaotic Caves did.
The OSR is indeed full of crap. People get excited and want to share, but their visions don't make the translations to the written page. Or, they don't understand what the vibe of OSR D&D is. Then again, most things written for all games are crap. I've weeded out some of the GREAT ones on my "Best List." (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844)
Hmmm... not certain what the difference between OSR and "classic D&D" is. But I'll toss in a vote for two of my favorites: Village of Hommlet and Palace of the Silver Princess. Both are excellent adventures for noob players to practice on.
For sci-fi I liked the original Star Frontiers series Volturnus adventures (as I recall the first one came with the SF box.) Plenty of action on an alien planet for the beginner player and GM.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;754480The other one I would suggest is Shadowbrook Manor. [My review (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=509).] This is a classic old house adventure, ala Tegal, but updated. It's full of charm and exploring an old haunted house may be more accessible for total n00bs than exploring old caves/dungeon may be. It's Tegal done right, on a smaller scale, with just enough in each room to let the DM get a good grasp, without being 1970's sparse.
One of my all-time favorites. It really rewards smart playing over hack-n-slash, and it's peppered with a lot of humor without falling into gonzo land. If I ever DM a con game, this would be the adventure I'd run.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;754480The OSR is indeed full of crap. People get excited and want to share, but their visions don't make the translations to the written page. Or, they don't understand what the vibe of OSR D&D is. Then again, most things written for all games are crap. I've weeded out some of the GREAT ones on my "Best List." (http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844)
Crap is in the eye of the beholder (or smeller?). Shadowbrook Manor is pretty lame, IMHO, and why I stopped taking your reviews seriously. Maybe you like your adventures full of modern culture references, but I find them annoying. But it's mostly boring.
I'd go with Morgansfort, for Basic Fantasy. It's a Keep on the Borderlands rip-off, but well done.
http://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html
Or Menagerie of the Ice Lord
It covers the same ground as Shadowbrook Manor (dead Wizard's mansion), except it's done much better.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/110195/Menagerie-of-the-Ice-Lord?src=FrontPage
Quote from: RPGPundit;754441Which OSR adventure (note: not classic D&D module!) would you think is the very best one to run for a group of complete newbies to gaming?
(Bold added)
Quote from: Doughdee222;754484Hmmm... not certain what the difference between OSR and "classic D&D" is. But I'll toss in a vote for two of my favorites: Village of Hommlet and Palace of the Silver Princess. Both are excellent adventures for noob players to practice on.
*sigh*
:rolleyes:
Quote from: S'mon;754452...seeding a bunch of "One Page Dungeon (http://www.onepagedungeon.info/)" contest entries into a small sandbox area...
This is certainly a good strategy!
The Grinding Gear by Raggi
It's deadly, but the deadly bits are mostly easy to avoid. Traps, monsters, humor, and mystery.
By "introductory" does the OP means "campaign starter" or "introduce-people-to-OS-gaming"? Because the former will be limited to adventures appropriate for 1st level characters, whereas the latter could be a 'one shot' adventure for higher-level PCs.
Assuming that the OP means "campaign starter," I think that Peter Spahn's Blood Moon Rising (for LL) is rather good. I also like Grimmsgate (for S&W) by Matt Finch.
Mini settings > modules
Give me the keys, I wanna drive.
I always thought Matt Finch's Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom was good. My players had fun with it, at least. Lot of things to play with and a variety of environments.
Quote from: Scott Anderson;754494Mini settings > modules
Give me the keys, I wanna drive.
May I suggest
Frandor's Keep from Kenzer. It is written for the new Hackmaster system but the locales, adventure seeds, interconnected npcs, and adventure locations are all superb even if you replace all the stats with the system of your choice.
Quote from: S'mon;754452Lost City of Barakus was great for 3.5e and has a Swords & Wizardry version coming out from Frog God, it's a great campaign dungeon + wilderness + city + loads of small dungeons fandango. I guess that'd be my recommendation for the future.
Good to hear as I pledged for the S&W version on Kickstarter.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;754480I was looking at the Chaotic Caves just on Friday. I decided not to review it right now, because it appeared to be SUCH a knock off of B2.
You're inconsistent, mate. JD Neal's Hill Giant module that "channels the spirit of" G1 "without plagiarising it" gets two thumbs up from you. The same bloke wrote a humanoid-tribes module that channels the spirit of B2 without plagiarising it and you call it a knockoff.
It's got exactly as much to do with B2 as SG1 has to do with G1. Far as I can tell, the only difference is that you don't like humanoids. I like humanoids; from my perspective, humanoids lead to interesting positional battles where combined arms tactics matter, whereas most weird gonzo science-fictiony monsters are either boring hackfests or else they boil down to "Can you guess how to kill this one before it eats the whole party?" Which is arbitrary as well as boring.
Quote from: Scott Anderson;754494Mini settings > modules
Give me the keys, I wanna drive.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WTdyo9VddKk/SDjF_XMuOqI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/xGJvf6IuLhk/s400/Chuck+Norris+Approves.JPG)
Frandor's Keep. Yes, I will look at it. Thank you!
And a thumbs up from Chuck Norris. Wow. That's worth, like, One and a Half Internets, which I will now roll into my Roth IRA for later use... ^_^
Quote from: S'mon;754452My best experiences have not been with full modules (frankly I've not been too impressed by the OSRosphere modules* I've seen), but rather with seeding a bunch of "One Page Dungeon (http://www.onepagedungeon.info/)" contest entries into a small sandbox area.
This is a freaking EXCELLENT idea.
Thank you!
Quote from: ptingler;754514Good to hear as I pledged for the S&W version on Kickstarter.
Barakus is brilliant for old-school sandbox play; it's much more a fully detailed campaign setting than a 'module'. I think it should work even better in S&W than in 3.5; the fast levelling rate & power progression of 3e caused some problems even using the recommended halved XP awards.
The one thing I'd say could have been better was the wilderness map, an ugly greyscale affair. I hope they redraw* it for the Kickstarter, and ideally add a few villages - as written there's a big city with no real surrounding settlements; though adding a few was no big deal.
*Get Rob Conley to draw it! :D
Quote from: Spinachcat;754594This is a freaking EXCELLENT idea.
Thank you!
You're welcome. :)
Making a sandbox to put them in is easy enough - I've done it with the Labyrinth Lord 'Known Lands' map, and also with the Wilderlands. I also recommend Points of Light, which I see is still cheap on amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0981666361/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1401615404&sr=8-1&keywords=Points+of+Light&condition=used - PoL has three fairly 'normal' campaign mini-settings to choose from, each in a different historical era covering around a millenium of their world's history; plus the extra-planar lair of Set/Sarrath.
Quote from: S'mon;754452seeding a bunch of "One Page Dungeon (http://www.onepagedungeon.info/)" contest entries into a small sandbox area.
Agreed. I'm currently running ACKS using the City of Parsantium (http://parsantium.wordpress.com/) as the base and bolting on dungeons from Dyson Logos (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/) ; Dyson's Delves I & II. So far easy to populate and backstory as you go.
Quote from: Chainsaw;754500I always thought Matt Finch's Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom was good. My players had fun with it, at least. Lot of things to play with and a variety of environments.
I wholeheartedly agree; it was one of the first "OSR" modules, and still one of the best.
Some interesting suggestions here!
Quote from: S'mon;754598You're welcome. :)
Making a sandbox to put them in is easy enough - I've done it with the Labyrinth Lord 'Known Lands' map, and also with the Wilderlands. I also recommend Points of Light, which I see is still cheap on amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0981666361/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1401615404&sr=8-1&keywords=Points+of+Light&condition=used - PoL has three fairly 'normal' campaign mini-settings to choose from, each in a different historical era covering around a millenium of their world's history; plus the extra-planar lair of Set/Sarrath.
Thanks for the shout out. And there is Blackmarsh (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/89944/Blackmarsh) which sits directly to the north of Southland (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j3J9DcgJbCg/UsYk0Kw5ENI/AAAAAAAAJUU/4NttRTvuXLs/s1600/Blackmarsh+Southland+Combined+Rev+1.jpg) in the same time period. The book details a small city as well.
Blood Moon Rising is certainly a good choice, though not exactly what you'd consider the "conventional" OSR-style dungeon crawl.