Quote from: Kuroth;1053092Like  Spinachcat mentions, the off the beaten track adventures from the late 70s and early 80s that were often pretty difficult to actually find then are readily available today electronically.  The Black Ring in the Pegasus issue was written by Dan Hauffe. He wrote The Illhiedrin Book for Judges Guild, which I think is one of the better early low level adventures, with some tricky bits to it.  You could even combine the two!  Shoot, something I would like to do.

Labyrinth Lord's deep underground adventures would work well with Adventurer, Conqueror, King, such as Barrowmaze.

The art free version of Lamentations of the Flame Princess is available for free too, if you are starting the search for free D&D based games.  There are a ton out there.  Lots of creative people adjusting the concept around different ways.

Thanks, free is good for purposes of surveying the choices, but I like to pay the laborer for his/her work as well.

I'll say again that Goodman produces excellent old-school style D&D modules for various versions of D&D.  There are dozens and dozens of them.  It's their forte.  If you want a fresh look at D&D, DCC is a great place to start.

Quote from: Madprofessor;1053142I'll say again that Goodman produces excellent old-school style D&D modules for various versions of D&D.  There are dozens and dozens of them.  It's their forte.  If you want a fresh look at D&D, DCC is a great place to start.

Madprofessor, thanks I will.  

I am familiar with DCC in passing, but not in any depth.  Can you comment on DCC compatibility with original D&D?  As I mentioned upthread I am looking for a truly simple old school approach (e.g., no skills, feats, limited weapon/equipment lists, etc.).  Also if you don't mind, can you discuss how gonzo DCC is?  As I mentioned I'm not looking for over the top and my general impression of DCC is that it is pretty high-end gonzo.  I'm definitely not looking for grimdark, but Mister Mxyzptlk isn't what I am aiming for either.

Mmm...

DCC is a little gonzo I guess.  The system is quite simple, but maybe not "truly" simple.  If you want something really basic then it has some quirks that might annoy you like new funky dice.  I still recommend the modules, even the 3rd edition and 5th edition modules (which are a little less gonzo than the DCC line), though some conversion work would be in order.  I've used Goodman's modules for lots of different systems.


If you want something dead simple, I recommend Basic Fantasy (basically B/X D&D).  They have a bunch of adventures, and they're really inexpensive.  They're a little too generic for my tastes, but it might be just what you are looking for.

There is a ton of stuff out there for OSRIC, LL and S&W, but I don't have much experience with it.  I've got a few odd and end modules, but nothing that really stands out.

Players and DM that have seen it all! Let's see...If you would rather stay with the actual old adventures like Dark Tower, which it seems so, here is an obscure option I bet they haven't played or seen online someplace.  

Vaults of the Weaver. This collection brings together four modules written by David Hargrave in 1979, with two additional adventures from about the same time. There is a mix of low/mid/and somewhat high level adventures, with The Howling Tower one of the low level ones. All of these are of the high quality Hargrave was known.  Some of Hargrave's other material is made available by this company at Drivethru, but this collection is still only available in hard copy through the publisher, as far as I can tell.

Vaults of the Weaver at Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures

Not mentioned yet:  Tomb of the Iron God.  Nominally statted for Swords and Wizardry, but I ran it in ACKS and converted on the fly with no trouble.  It's a two level dungeon for starting characters; first level is a little bit vanilla in terms of opponents, but the whole thing has a lot of good tricks, traps and features to interact with.  Second level gets tougher, but by then the players should have enough clues to know when to run, and possibly enough tools to punch above their weight class.  (There's a room down there with 50 skeletons, that my players somehow beat with flaming oil and fighter cleaves.)

Quote from: amacris;1053043ACKS + The Sinister Stone of Sakkara will serve you in good stead.

This was my first thought, and I'm not associated with Autarch.  I placed this on my campaign map, but my players never bit the hook, and I still want to run it sometime.

Quote from: Madprofessor;1053053Run DCC, it has a ton of top notch modern adventure modules that are very old-school in style.

I've played in a couple of 0-level funnels now, and while they are old school in the pulp/gonzo sense, the ones I've seen were outrageous railroads.  I freely admit I haven't seen the whole line, and if there's anything they've published that's actually an old school dungeon in the branching exploration/Jacquayed sense I'd love to hear about it.

Quote from: Kuroth;1053092Labyrinth Lord's deep underground adventures would work well with Adventurer, Conqueror, King, such as Barrowmaze.

I was thinking of Barrowmaze until OP got to "medium deadly".  I had fun playing Barrowmaze, but it was fun of the "roll up characters after a TPK until we finally got lucky" kind.  Lots of mindless undead in the dungeon itself, and giant scorpions on the overland wandering monster chart make it pretty firmly "high deadly".

Quote from: S'mon;1053094Adventure - I'm loving Stonehell Dungeon (from Lulu), I've run dozens of sessions over the past year or so and it feels like barely scratched the surface of its potential. The presentation is brilliant, incredibly easy to run with minimal prep. Definitely recommend. A decent smaller & free alternative is Dyson's Delve - https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/dysons-delve/ - treasure on the upper levels needs toning down (a hobgoblin with 500gp) but overall very nice.

I thought Stonehell had a slow start to it, but mileage varies, and I suppose you could skip or spice up the surface works.

Ran Dyson's Delve for a starting adventure once (group never cleared it, they went on to other things), and I don't remember 500 gp on the first level being a problem.  Split 4+ ways, and in an xp for gold system that's nothing to worry about.

Moldvay/Cook D&D + the Caverns of Thracia.

System suited to exploration - check.

Dungeoncrawl - check.

Medium deadly - check.

Unknown to long time players - probably.

Incredibly fucking cool - check.

Quote from: Ted;1053119Thanks, this is intriguing for another reason; we all played the Dark Tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Tower_(module) at GenCon this year and I think it was a hit.  Our GM used Amazing Swordsmen et. al. of Hyperborae.  I will definitely look into it.

If you liked Dark Tower, you'll love Thracia (same author).

Halls of Tizune Thane.

I only play AD&D, so that's the only recommendation I can make, rule set-wise.

Quote from: Dave R;1053165I thought Stonehell had a slow start to it, but mileage varies, and I suppose you could skip or spice up the surface works.

Really depends on what the players want to do and how bold they feel. I used the free Brigand Caves supplement, which helps spice things up early on, along with Buried Secrets which has the Modnar's Cellar newbie dungeon. But the actual level 1 is viable with a strong PC group who use hirelings - or are played in 5e as I did.

Great stuff everyone, lots to think about. I checked out my drivethrurpg account and it turns out I've got about five OSR base systems so it think that is the big decision. Guess I've got some reading to do this evening!

Quote from: Kuroth;1053101Oh, the Judges Guild stuff is printed on left over newsprint from the 50s. The layout of Illhiedrin is good for Judges Guild, though. hmm...Looking over the Black Ring, it is for 10-15 all right.  So, that one probably isn't going to work  Spinachcat.  It brought to mind Illhiedrin, though.

I totally forgot to recommend The Illhiedrin Book!! That's an excellent low level mini-campaign adventure.

I would still recommend Black Ring especially because it's high level, yet very dangerous. I usually run it with 10th level PCs, but these are high level OD&D or S&W:WB PCs so by 3e or 5e standards, probably 7th level. The need for smart dungeoncrawling and "thinking instead of rolling" is readily there. For me, there's the extra bonus of handing powerful PCs to the players and then watching them over-confidently waltz into the meatgrinder. The player approach to the 2nd Island is ALWAYS far more cautious than their first foray.

I have heard of folks running Steading of the Hill Giant Chief with pretty low level characters, with tricks and no direct combat and such.  So, it may well be something that one could try with Black Ring.  Original D&D dwarves and hobbits are limited to 4th level anyway! ha

I have heard of people running Greyhawk with Gamma World.  The other way around can be done too.  Run Gygax's Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold under D&D, AD&D or similar.  The technological bits, which there isn't as many as you might think,  could be switched out with whatever the DM likes, or they could be left, like Expedition to Barrier Peaks. There is a D&D type set-up in the module, with only very simple conversion that could be done during the session. A lot of players from back in the day never got around to playing it under Gamma World.

I prefer 1E AD+D because it is directly consistent with the big back catalogue of pre 3E material and with most of the best OSR material, it was really well supported and produced during its run, and it has all the things you are looking for. As for dungeon, there are a couple dozen great ones to chose from, but I'll give a shout out to The Forbidden Caves of Archaia. It is an OSR mododule by the same guy who brought us Barrowmaze (another favorite), and it presents a Rappan Athuk scale collection of interconnected dungeons, all nested in a cool sort of grand canyon filled with monsters. It's really good and accessible to a wide range of power levels. Highly recommended.

Quote from: Kuroth;1053210I have heard of folks running Steading of the Hill Giant Chief with pretty low level characters, with tricks and no direct combat and such.  So, it may well be something that one could try with Black Ring.  Original D&D dwarves and hobbits are limited to 4th level anyway! ha.

We actually ran through the Steading of the Hill Giant using Dungeon World; it was an interesting experiment and didn't last long term (3 sessions?), but that is a great module.

Quote from: Larsdangly;1053219... I'll give a shout out to The Forbidden Caves of Archaia. It is an OSR mododule by the same guy who brought us Barrowmaze (another favorite), and it presents a Rappan Athuk scale collection of interconnected dungeons, all nested in a cool sort of grand canyon filled with monsters. It's really good and accessible to a wide range of power levels. Highly recommended.

Thanks, I'm adding both to the list now.  I toying with renaming the "base camp" Hommlet to evoke more nostalgia, but also to mislead the players into thinking the dungeon itself is a return to elemental evil.  Perhaps a bit Meta, but I need to be throwing up smoke as much as possible.