Best modules to teach player skill

[Raven Crowking]

In B2, the only thing the author specifically expects the players to learn is at the gate of the Keep: Stay in character!

Other things you might learn include:

1. Some monsters are tougher than you are.
2. Monsters can be smart and sneaky, too.
3. Not everyone in town is your friend.
4. Don't believe every rumour you hear.
5. Not every prisoner is your friend, either.
6. Some monsters work together.....intentionally or by accident.
7. Making a useable map is paramount to success.
8. Weird temples can be hazardous to your health (a Gygaxian speciality).
9. Not every treasure is worth the effort.
10. Things change over time....repeated forays meet more prepared monsters.
11. Sometimes the monsters flee, and take their loot with them.
12. Just because it's curvy doesn't mean its not a medusa.

I'm sure there is more.


RC

 

[jdrakeh]

Tomb of Horrors.

Not Basic or introductory level!

 

[the Jester]

Not Basic or introductory level!

No, but great for teaching "player skill"- pay attention and test every detail, etc. I have heard of a party of n00bs that made it through the vast majority of S1 using paranoid tactics.

 

[grodog]

Some key skills players could learn from some old-school TSR modules:

- B1: mapping (from level 1)
- B2: running away (and don't trust scary hermits, ever---to be shortly followed up by "don't trust hot babe prisoners, ever" either)
- G1: stealth and scouting are rewarded; don't rouse the entire steading against you, or you'll die; use the resources provided in the dungeon (orcs in rebellion vs. giants); you probably won't ever map the entire dungeon level
- G3: don't trust maps "dropped" by fleeing foes; prepare for intelligent, planned resistance to your incursions; reinforcement to use the provided resources (there's a titan the PCs can recruit!)
- L1: potion miscibility for the win!
- S1: think before you walk; look for secret doors at the bottoms of pits; think some more; know when to walk away from the module without "finishing" it
- T1: just because the NPC in town offers to join your party doesn't mean he's your friend; just because the path into the moathouse looks safe doesn't mean you're not giant frog food; PC actions have consequences (wheels within wheels = 10th level assassin comes for them if they kiil Lareth and blab about it)

 

[Ariosto]

The sample level in the original (Holmes) Basic Dungeons & Dragons set many an adventurer on the road to glory.

B1 In Search of the Unknown packs in a lot of classic dungeon situations. In my view, some of the traps are just too arbitrarily placed -- but I might say the same of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Those may reflect more the nature of the campaign dungeons as described in the original D & D set, but there is significant overlap with modules in terms of skills tested.

T1 Village of Hommlet, as grodog mentioned, is an education in intrigue. There's a similar scenario in N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God.

B4 The Lost City and Judges Guild's Caverns of Thracia combine elements in an Underworld a la the G and D modules.

Nothing comes immediately to mind with the "pressure cooker" atmosphere common to many modules (conceived as they were for tournaments). Low-level characters simply don't have much in the way of resources to use up in attrition; they cannot afford many mistakes.

Tunnels & Trolls offered many solitaire scenarios -- no Game Master required -- that often enough lived up to such titles as Deathtrap Equalizer, Naked Doom and City of Terrors. When a character met an untimely end, one could try again with another, and all at one's own leisure.

Then along came personal computers. They brought Zork and Rogue; King's Quest and Faery Tale Adventure; Phantasie and Ultima and Wizardry; Might and Magic ... and eventually the Advanced D&D game Pool of Radiance and its successors.

 

[Agglomérante]

Module A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords strips PCs of their equipment and spells and that pretty much forces players to improvise.