This is my first post but I'm a long time lurker. Here's the situation. You will be the DM for a group of players for a face-to-face game using some OSR rule set. Doesn't matter which rules for this question.

You'll be playing three hour sessions twice a month. So you have limited playtime, but that's the best you can do with everyone's busy schedules. The game will start at first level.

You've decided for the sake of simplicity, to run a published adventure of some sort for your group.

You need something that will make the most of that time. Something that will hit the ground running and keep it coming.

So DM, what do you choose to run?

My go to special is Murder on Arcturus Station.

It's a murder mystery in a bottle.  There's plenty of suspects and lots of ways to approach solving it.  I've run it on an island castle in fantasy settings, a deep sea oil rig in modern settings, and of course a space station in scifi as it was intended.

IMO, the big advantage to running this is that it really gives the players the chance to feel out their PCs, get to know some of the setting I'm using in a controlled way, and be challenged without being threatened too much.  (There's no combat unless the players start it.)  I've run it as a starter adventure for multiple systems and multiple genres.  I almost never have the players roll dice; they make a decision and I give them the results.

If someone wants to run this then I have two pieces of advice.  First, make a roster of facility staff, give them names and a base line personality. Second, change the intro from the silly "searching for rebels" to the players delivering a shipment of some kind and the contents are damaged; this will make things easier for you the GM and make sense when you read the adventure.

Stick with the classics:

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

I second B2. The nature of the caves means breaking things down into small bits won't be a problem.

I don't run published adventures for the most part. What works for me now is to go to Pinterest, look up the type of map that I want to run, and print it out. I often start off with a 'One Page Dungeon' which might be considered published, some are populated, some aren't. I have 16 years of my own blog posts to pick stuff from to use in a scenario alongside the classic items, monsters, spells, etc. If I have a specific terrain or area type in mind I just use Inkarnate and make my own. I have used ideas from supplements like The Stygian Library/Gardens of Yinn too.

Quote from: Vanadium Angel on March 06, 2025, 10:11:53 AMStick with the classics:

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

My favorite D&D (or D&D-adjacent) introductory adventure is "The Sunless Citadel". It's made for 3E, but easily adaptable to other D&D editions or OSR.

It's a classic dungeon in that everything is about exploring one site (as opposed to multiple locations), but there is flavor and logic to how the elements and factions of that site are put together. Introductory adventures often feel contrived, in my experience, and this is one of the better ones for that.

Quote from: nematode on March 06, 2025, 08:37:18 AMThis is my first post but I'm a long time lurker. Here's the situation. You will be the DM for a group of players for a face-to-face game using some OSR rule set. Doesn't matter which rules for this question.

You'll be playing three hour sessions twice a month. So you have limited playtime, but that's the best you can do with everyone's busy schedules. The game will start at first level.

You've decided for the sake of simplicity, to run a published adventure of some sort for your group.

You need something that will make the most of that time. Something that will hit the ground running and keep it coming.

So DM, what do you choose to run?

Your OP is both a good question, and a good first post on the forum.  Welcome.

I would either open up my copy of Tales from the Yawning Portal, and run the adventures contained therein; or else just homebrew.  When it comes to 5E releases, TftYP is one of the best. 

Quote from: nematode on March 06, 2025, 08:37:18 AMThis is my first post but I'm a long time lurker. Here's the situation. You will be the DM for a group of players for a face-to-face game using some OSR rule set. Doesn't matter which rules for this question.

You'll be playing three hour sessions twice a month. So you have limited playtime, but that's the best you can do with everyone's busy schedules. The game will start at first level.

You've decided for the sake of simplicity, to run a published adventure of some sort for your group.

You need something that will make the most of that time. Something that will hit the ground running and keep it coming.

So DM, what do you choose to run?

If I get to DM, Dark Sun, I'm running A Little Knowledge. The pack-in adventure for the original boxed set. It's a great intro to the setting and how it differs from traditional D&D settings.

Going traditional, I'd run Palace of the Silver Princess. I really like the backstory of the module and would lean into that aspect of it.

Quote from: jhkim on March 06, 2025, 12:11:15 PM

Quote from: Vanadium Angel on March 06, 2025, 10:11:53 AMStick with the classics:

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

My favorite D&D (or D&D-adjacent) introductory adventure is "The Sunless Citadel". It's made for 3E, but easily adaptable to other D&D editions or OSR.

It's a classic dungeon in that everything is about exploring one site (as opposed to multiple locations), but there is flavor and logic to how the elements and factions of that site are put together. Introductory adventures often feel contrived, in my experience, and this is one of the better ones for that.

The Sunless Citadel is a great module, but since OSR was requested, I figured the original TSR offerings would require less tweaking.

Keep on the Borderlands is tough to beat. It's been reprinted and adapted so many times in the past 40 years for good reason.

Night's Dark Terror is another good one.

Are your players new-ish?  If so I'd go for B1.  Like B2 it's good for newbs, and everything is in a single dungeon, making for fewer options than B2 which is good for newbs who get overwhelmed with too many options.

The Keep on the Borderlands is the classic choice

Stonehell is really good, but huge

The free Dyson's Delve mini-megadungeon is smaller, but also good:

https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/dysons-delve/

BX's Keep on the Borderlands is pretty good for a start. But it is a free roam adventure. Combile it with the follow up of Isle of Dread.

BX D&D has alot of modules that are pretty good for adventuring from srart to mid level.

From 2e a personal favorite is the Darkness Rising campaign trilogy of modules.

One of my favorites from 5e is Wild beyond the Witchlight. A good mix of direction and free roam. It is though leaning more to ineracting with NPCs instead of the usual lean to combat.

Another good one from 5e is Curse of Strahd. Free roam with an end goal. Good balance of interaction vs combat. Warts and all its still a a solid campaign module from 5e.

I'd bump them to 2nd level and run the classic, N2: The Forest Oracle. A masterpiece should be shared.

Greetings!

Yes, well, I would highly recommend B2 Keep On The Borderlands. Goodman Games has created a uber-deluxe B2 homage that reprints the original module--AND--includes the B2 module updated for 5E. AND includes expanded material, side-adventures that can readily be used. In addition, due to Gygax's brilliance, B2 Keep On The Borderlands embraces many open sand-box kind of areas that can easily be expanded and developed by the DM for additional adventures. B2 Keep On The Borderlands can very easily accommodate a party of adventurers advancing to 3rd level and beyond. I would say you can very easily expand things out to reaching 5th or 6th level. Within the material there are so many open-ended hooks and loose ends, the possibilities for also developing additional side adventures that even take on different flavours and themes is also easily accomplished. Adventures that feature some kind of economic development, learning new professions, starting a business of some kind, that kind of thing. You can establish a Wizard's Tower, perhaps a small monastery, and the like so as to provide enhanced training opportunities for Player Characters, research, and different kinds of mentors and allies for the party of adventurers.

So many possibilities and rich potential! I have run this module numerous times for different groups, and every time it has delivered in spades. Absolute fun and excitement, flexibility, and more. Also worth mentioning, is that in the process of using and developing the B2 module, the DM will very likely easily be fleshing out and detailing many aspects and details of the local campaign environment. These foundations, then, also make the development of larger dynamics and campaign elements also much easier. These kinds of considerations and elements also provide a springboard for future adventures for the party, when they rise in level beyond the immediate environment of the B2 module.

B2 Keep On The Borderlands is simply the best!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK