So, Happy Easter! I recently picked up some 1e AD&D materials. Finally got some folks interested in maybe trying some old school (?) gaming with said set of rules just to try it out, so I sprung for the edition they said they were curious about. I've got some questions, though.

1. Does anybody have any recommendations or ideas on what might be a good module or approach to try? Likewise, I'm not always the best DM without prep, particularly of the published type, so tips and tricks are always appreciated. (This is also my first real foray into what I think may count as OSR gaming beyond just reading about different systems/supplements and trying to convince people to try it, so...)

2. Also, between UA, OA, and the survival guides, what have you allowed in your own campaigns, and what seems reasonable/gamebreaking supplements-wise?

3. As a separate question, which of those and what story approaches are most in the style of "traditional" 1e AD&D as it might have been played back in the day?

4. Are there any unspoken rules or houserules that were common back then that folks have used and  would firmly recommend?

5. Should I worry about authenticity more in rules or in style if they say they want to try 1e AD&D, and I have said I'll try to look into giving them an OSR-esque experience?

If you want an authentic experience, especially with players and GM new to it, be prepared to lose lots of characters.  Have everyone roll up their own characters right out of the gate, because they need to know how to do it when a character dies.

Don't get too caught up in the special abilities.  For example, don't assume because the thief has a climb walls ability or an elf has a shot to spot secret doors, that's the only way to do it.  Anyone can climb a rope or a tree, if it isn't too high, and they aren't sporting a terrible strength and/or dexterity (depending on the circumstances).  Anyone can find a secret door by specifically poking and prodding in a place that they think one exists.  It just might take time and allow wandering monsters to show up.  The thief can climb things (poorly at first) that a normal person simply can't.  An elf can sometimes spot secret doors merely by walking by them.  It's all based on rulings by the GM, depending on the plan of the characters and their stated actions.

Remind the players repeatedly that they get far more experience points by getting the treasure and getting out.  Fighting is a small part of it.  You fight when you must; run, hide, negotiate, or any other trick you can pull when you can.

B2 is the classic starting module for a new group.  But it's basically just go poke into some holes, fight things and take their stuff.  If you want something with a little direction it might not be the way to go.

Greetings!

I think that the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Player's Handbook, and the Monster Manual are essential.

For as adventure module, get Keep on the Borderlands!

If possible, the Monster Manual II, the Wilderness Survival Guide, and the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide are all worthwhile and useful books to get, as well as the Fiend Folio.

I would definitely track own the boxed campaign adventure, The Night Below. That will provide countess adventures for 6 months, a year, maybe more.

Stock up on binder paper and graph paper! Make them draw their own maps, and keep track of them. Also, make them manage their resources. Torches, Rations, Water, Food, Supplies. Oil, Holy Symbols, Rope, Arrows, 10-foot Poles. Make them use and keep all of this stuff in order. War Dogs are advisable as well. Keep  strong focus on these priorities, and a HUGE side consequence is your world will start to breathe and run itself. The world will be far more immersive and dynamic. The players will actually get to know NPC's and forge real relationships and alliances. The players will be spending considerable time in the nearby town, and maybe a few places further out--like cities or towns with more specialized services and craftsmen and libraries. Hirelings, servants, specialists, and eventually Henchmen are all going to be very important and meaningful.

Keep all of these things in mind, and enforce them. Good luck in the new campaign!

It should be fantastic and awesome!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Go the full Gygax (all are from Gygax), I'm currently doing it for a 5E modified group.  Read all of the modules and find a way to link them.  I used Professor Dungeonmaster's take on Keep on the Borderlands as my baseline.

1st) Keep on the Borderlands levels 1-3. 
-evil clerics of Thazirdun are using evil red dust mined by kobolds and turned into a brew by goblins and used to enslave the orcs and gnolls who will be used to raid the Red Keep and spread Thazirdun's will.
-find a club on a competing group to kill the party, the club is an elemental weapon used in temple of elemental evil.

2nd) Village of Homlett Levels 3
-Clerics had a map of a new target Homlett
-Fight moat house and find out Lareth is serving some evil called Temple of Elmental Evil

3rd) Temple of Elemental Evil  Levels 1-10
-Do the elemental nodes.  They are fully built out in the goodman games 5E conversion, its honking huge and is for 5E but can be used for 1E.
-The stones in the nodes used to travel, when they flub and don't go to a node, they time travel back to the temple (ancient caves of old elementals, current before temple was cleared, far in the future its now filled with undead, let party know that they are travelling time.
-After the players kill Zugg, have the relevant gods show up and help to push Thazirdun away
-Put in some elemental weapons that are used to destroy the elemental stones, slightly cursed, but mostly good.  The curse can be entertaining.

4th) Against the Giants 11-12
-When the players leave the nodes, let them know they temple seems extremely old and unkempt.  Its an undead mad house and they are trying to flee from it. 
-When players get out, they see lights in the distance (Nulb).  The town of Nulb's inhabitants are now working in fields with Hobgoblin task masters giving them red porridge (red spice from earlier, mind altering drug used to enslave)
-Nulb is bigger with a wood fence and a hill giant troll mayor.  The players find out that the Giant Empire has taken over the entire area
-Players then go to Homlette and see the future keep was destroyed, the town is enslaved and the Hill Giants steading is there.
-Players then go through the module hit the teleport to the Frost and Fire giants.  They find out its Thazirdun worshipping Dark Elves behind all of this and are trying to bring back Thazirdun for power

5th) Descent into the Depths of the Earth and Vault of the Drow 13-14
-Gygax flubbed this one, read some youtube videos to fix this one.
-Do NOT run that megacavern.  Break it up into a couple of encounters.  That lich should be special.  Maybe he's down there trying to extend his life because he fucked up his lichdom or maybe a halfling named golum stole his phylactory and is become an undead abomination and he's weakening and need the party to find it for him and will give them treasure.
-The KuoToa temple is a bit boring, read up on the tokens to be a pilgrim.  Perhaps have a party member be the high honor member being fed and treated as a god.  And the Kuo Toa are treating him as a god seed to become the new demi-god for them.
-Put in a Duegar Keep maybe acting as a toll check point OR it could be a neutral area with the duergar running a merchant area where all underdark races can trade its neutral.  Anyone breaking the law is kiilled
-The vault of the drow is weak.  read up on Drow and figure out some plots.  Maybe the party met a merchant clan loyal to lloth and they want to aid the party and send them against the house following Thazirdun to steal something (plot twist, the merchant house if following thazirdun and want to kill the other house to use their blood to summon thazurdon).
-Ultimately the players realize that lloth is the last demon standing and she intends to consume their world so they go to the Demonwebs to stop her.

6th) Queen of the Demonweb Pits 15
-Don Sotherland (artist of 1E cover books - not a module designer) took Gygax's notes and put out the module.  The encounters aren't great.  Make some new ones.
-There are doors to other planes not explained, have some adventures ready.
-Try Gary Gygax's Hall of Many Panes to fill out the various planes if you want to put them in.  I was really only planning on running the module where the players get transformed into nuts being chased by squirrels, I haven't read it yet, but saw a review mentioning it.
-Put in a lot more demons, and less trolls.  When trolls are present give them cool mutations.  Perhaps troll demon hybrids.
-The spider robot isnt' for everyone.  Dungeon Delver I believe on dragonfoot put out a small cavern that you could try or simply make a better ruling area for lloth to consume.

Decent quest path, all Gygax based, you'll have to do a bit of thinking ahead because most of these have little to no thought in linkage, or goals, its a funhouse.  That being said, you can read on the net to get some ideas.

There's some great advice here. 

I played AD&D for about 15 years, from first through second edition. 

Check out the alternative methods for character in the DMG p.11.  Experiment with them to find the one you like best.

I would recommend staying away from Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, and Wilderness Survival Guide, until you have a firm grasp of the rules.  The classes presented in Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures can get very powerful and quickly outstrip the "normal" classes. 

There are a lot of rules that we never used, such as "Weapon vs. Armor" modifiers.  Do not feel beholden to include every rule.  If you feel that they get in the way, simply omit them.

Some of my favorite starter modules are:
T-1 Village of Hommlet
N-1 Cult of the reptile God
U-1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
And of course... B1 Keep of the Borderlands

All of these adventures should give a good return.

He can also watch Seth Skorkowsky's take on old D&D modules OR captcorajus tak on old D&D modules.  Capt is damn good for old school reviews and what not.  Both on youtube.

1eAD&D is my very favorite game, been playing it all along and never stopped! Here's something I wrote up for another guy who wanted to start a 1st ed campaign. Feel free to hit me up with any questions.

https://wp.me/pa6KMw-4b

I also have house-rules docs for my game's chargen and combat method that I'd be glad to share. I think they're on my blog too.

Good luck!

Quote from: KindaMeh on April 09, 2023, 08:28:57 PM
1. Does anybody have any recommendations or ideas on what might be a good module or approach to try?

Roll everything up.

Quote from: KindaMeh on April 09, 2023, 08:28:57 PM
2. Also, between UA, OA, and the survival guides, what have you allowed in your own campaigns, and what seems reasonable/gamebreaking supplements-wise?

I'd recommend starting with just PHB, MM & DMG. If you feel the lack of nonweapon proficiencies etc you can add them later, but I was not very impressed by the later rules additions. After that I'd recommend Fiend Folio. If you are using Unearthed Arcana then you need Monster Manual II with its more powerful critters, but I find it a bit bland compared to MM & FF.

Village of Hommlet is cool - it's included in Temple of Elemental Evil https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17068/T14-Temple-of-Elemental-Evil-1e and I'd recommend that over B2 Keep on the Borderlands, I find the Caves of Chaos pretty dull.

One OSR AD&D campaign I like a lot is Arden Vul, but it's huge.  Gunderholfen https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265629/Gunderholfen is good and inexpensive.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron on April 10, 2023, 04:33:31 AM
Roll everything up.

I'd generally recommend a mix - ideally yes make your own starter town & dungeons, but modules are good for when you're not feeling inspired; and a megadungeon is good as a reliable 'tent pole'.

   For lower level characters I think a short adventure is best to give the gm a handle on the game.  I do use the weapons vs armor type tables as they make a lot more sense to me at this point than they did when I first played decades ago, but I do not think they are necessary for the old school feel.   Finding balance for your group is going to be pretty hard, so one of the best solutions is to do as suggested already....use the DMG to roll up the residents of a small dungeon (6-15 rooms with the old 1/3 occupied, 1/3 trapped or of interest, and 1/3 empty) and let the dice fall as they may (if you roll up a strong creature put it at the end or allow the players an out, because a big, big part of 1e is knowing then to fold em and walk away). 

    It is a good deal more deadly than 5e if you play it straight (bringing people back from the dead is horrendously expensive and not something the people capable of doing it just do for anyone), so leaving out critical hits and fumbles is probably best in the beginning (IME when the 4 adventurers are fighting 10 goblins, the goblins are going to be the ones finding 20's on the die rolls) and gygax explains this in the DMG.   I never cared for many of the early level modules but if I had to pick one, B2 as mentioned above would be my choice for a new group (it was designed for new players and a new DM), though I feel rolling up a short adventure dungeon is a good experience for a new DM.   The treasure tables being random can get out of control very quickly though and its ok to cut off the insane rolls (rolled an artifact for a 2nd level dungeon....vetoed that one) in the beginning.   As mentioned treasure matters a whole lot more than combat or even getting magic items (treasure in the sense of selling items etc) and I think keeping meticulous track of xp and advancement goes a long way to balance out different classes at the table (as some advance with fewer xp and have easier benchmarks to get a 10 percent bonus) and doing this got immediate buy in from my players. 

   One thing I did heavily modify was multi class characters advancement and simplified their HD.   My group has enjoyed it tremendously so far as a whole and given how easy it is to get the AD&D materials (there are a lot of online archives) the cost is extremely low to give it a try to see if you want to hunt down books or print off what you can download. 

If it's a one shot and you don't want to brave the funnel start them at fourth or fifth level.  It's not much extra work, you just roll Hit Dice equal to their level, that's it.  I'd suggest using the npc party generation rules from the DMG to allocate them some magic items.  You might want to use the Dungeon Geomorphs and Monster Treasure Assortment supplements instead of an adventure.  Against the Cult of the Reptile God is a decent mid level adventure.  If you had access to the Dragon Magazine Archives there's a number of good, shorter adventures in there.

Thank you all for the valuable feedback. I shall try to incorporate as much of it as I can.

I think I might start off just with the core books and mm2, from what's been said. Partly just to ensure I have a solid grip on the systems. Though if folks have strong opinions regarding the skill systems/nonweapon proficiency stuff I hear the survival guides have I guess now might be a decent time for me to ask if they warrant inclusion. I may only get one shot at this/adventure depending on how the players wind up feeling about the system.

It sounds like it's important to acknowledge player abilities and choices outside of just the x percent to whatever, so I'll do what I can to give reasonable outcomes to their decisions, as best I can. As well as trying to aim for player engagement through some of the methods y'all had suggested.

Deadliness being acknowledged, I may suggest folks have rolled up  backup characters or hirelings? Thoughts on that?

Also, it sounds like Keep on the Borderlands, Secret of Saltmarsh, and Hommlet are all strong contenders for a starting module. I'm currently on the fence as to which. What do you think has the best chance of getting the players hooked on 1e? Do you think (depending on the module in question) I should make any key changes?

Likewise, do you think it would make sense to roll up dungeon additions if that's a big part of how the system traditionally plays and the like?

Wow. I wrote up quite a few questions looking back. No need to feel obligated answer all of these questions point by point, kinda just airing what was on my mind. Thanks again for the help, though, and any thoughts or advice you all might have, especially if it's related to the above points, are more than welcomed!

I suggest that you leave out the non-weapon proficiencies and stick to the core books. You'll have enough to worry about, and you want rolling a character to be quicker, not longer. Also a list of "skills" leads to the conclusion that that's the sum of what a character can do. Keeping things nebulous means players don't have blinders on, they can try whatever they can think of.

Nowadays I always have players roll two characters, one for back-up. Expedites getting the player back into the game quickly. I would avoid hirelings and henchmen with twelve players! That's just too complicated! Which leads to another thought. Having twelve PCs in the party means that challenging them with opponents might be a bit of a tightrope-walk until you get used to it. Do some practice combat sessions on your own or with your kid's help, to get a feel for what's appropriate.
Edit: Sorry, wrong thread!

My vote for best starting module still goes to B1, In Search of Adventure. There, you already have a dungeon. Feel free to use the villages from B2 or T1 if you like.

In addition to a village and a dungeon, you might want a few nearby lairs. Could be a cave or ruins, but maybe you go for something very different to captivate your players. A well that leads to a spiral system of caves and ultimately an underground river. A giant statue monument carved out of a cliff that's wormed-through with tunnels. A giant tree with stairs and platforms and branch-walkways.