Any "ready to run out of the box" RPG games out there?

[smilinggm]

I would suggest joining the RPGA. The RPGA is free to join, there are many campaigns that you can choose from, and there are hundreds of adventures that you can download and run straight out of the box. All that you have to do is go here:http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga
You have a choice of Classic adventures and Campaigns.

The RPGA is about the best source of out of the box adventures that I know of.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

My Life With Master!

Not d20, not a boxed set, but a very interesting little game!
For the price of a scenario (U$13 in print/U$8.95 pdf) you get a whole game. Basically it's just one scenario with many variations.
The players are all minions to an evil master (hunchback free of charge) who are developing their relations to the rest of the world while doing his bidding.
It will naturally end with the demise of the master at the hands of a minion.

Pick it up, play it for a couple of sessions (that's how long a campaign generally is), and learn interesting things about roleplaying.

As a GM you get a lot of satisfying evil cackling and planning without the players interrupting to kill you all the time!

I love, love, love this game! All a gamemaster really has to do to prep for this game is to be able to plot out a town full of normal townfolk. Everything else is done in-game with the players.

I'll also recommend Donjon, which is the one true game. All other games are just pale imitations. Even if they were written before it.

 

[kengar]

A third vote for Savage Worlds. It's all that and a bag of chips.

 

[diaglo]

A third vote for Savage Worlds. It's all that and a bag of chips.

[Homer]Ummm... chips...[/Homer]

 

[Desdichado]

I am hoping to find a decent RPG adventure/campaign that can be run as is without DM tinkering or prepartion to make it work.

No DM preparation to make it work?! Pshaw! No such thing. One of the reasons I prefer to make my own adventures; it's much less work than trying to run one. Oh, I like to read adventures, like Dungeon Mag and such, and I shamelessly plunder ideas, maps, NPCs and the like. But if you're really pressed for time, using an adventure is more work. You can't just read it and run it. You have to really know it well.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

In terms of full rules sets, I recommend Eden Studio's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The rules are elegant and flavorful; they fit the genre very well. (Much better than D20 does.) Most importantly, they're very easy to learn, and anyone familiar with the show can be up and running with an improvised adventure in literally minutes. Other than the short "episodes" in the rulebooks, I don't know if any adventures have been published for the game, however.

 

[skinnydwarf]

<SNIP>
I'll also recommend Donjon, which is the one true game. All other games are just pale imitations. Even if they were written before it.

Donjon is alright. The mechanics leave a lot to be desired, though.* Too random, IMHO. Because of the "if I have one die higher than your highest, none of your dice matter" mechanic the game essentially turns into a dice-off. And you don't get to add skill or anything. You just get more dice. Combat takes forever sometimes because of that. "You have one HP left... but darn, you got higher again. OK, next round... darn, you got higher again! Ok, next round..." Give me d20+skill any day of the week.

On topic, might I suggest Castles & Crusades? Simple rules, and you'll be able to use old 1e & 2e modules with little trouble. There were some really great ones back in the day. Against the Giants, ToEE (though I only played that through in the computer game... but man, I love that adventure). And some really big ones- Night Below, Undermountain, etc.

For 3e large adventures, I'm a fan of the Vault of Larin Karr. Not quite a "mega-module" but big enough.

*I haven't played Donjon in a couple of months, and don't actually own the book (though I did play a bunch of sessions), so I might be misrepresnting the rules. If so, my apoligies.