Best 'beer and pretzels' adventure

[Pielorinho]

The other advantage is that White Plume Mountain is just about the perfect length for a single marathon session... If the players stay moderately on task, they can run through the entire module in as little as 6-8 hours or so.

At my brother's bachelor party, I ran a homebrew adventure with about 4-6 encounters total. Silliness was in high supply that night--but so was tequila and beer. Players who are moderately on task, and players who are drinking a lot, don't often intersect IME . White Plume Mountain could be fun, but it might need some trimming down in order to be playable by a bunch of drunkards.

Daniel

 

[T. Foster]

Check out module B5: The Horror on the Hill, which combines pretty much all of the classic D&D tropes (stereotypes/cliches) into a single package, is low level, and is just about the right length to run straight through in a single marathon session.

For mid-level (5-7), S2: White Plume Mountain (as already mentioned above) and C2: Ghost Tower of Inverness are both lots of fun, heavy on the tricks/puzzles (C2 actually includes that cliche of old-school cliches -- a "chessboard" room) and nonsensical dungeon ecology, and both are fairly short (use the tournament version of C2, with fewer rooms and pregen characters). S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (dungeon portion only) is also a lot of fun, with lots of hack n' slash combat and a bit of trick/trap/puzzle stuff. R1: To the Aid of Falx is another fun tournament-based one, if you have or can find a copy.

For high level (9+) WG5: Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (what later became Maure Castle in Dungeon) is lots of fun and has the "old school vibe" in spades (because it's literally an expanded version of a dungeon created in 1972). The Abduction of Good King Despot (non-TSR) is another absolute gem, full of tricks, traps, puzzles, and wholly nonsensical ecology (this is Gary Gygax's favorite module that he didn't write). EX1 & 2 (Dungeonland & The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror) are both loads of fun and deceptively tough (there are several encounters that, if played straight, will almost certainly slaughter the party) but players might rebel against the premise (a D&D version of Alice in Wonderland) and declare the whole thing "too silly." Prisoners of the Maze (non-TSR) is another fun one (lots of tricks and puzzles and dubious ecology) that, because of its premise and canned intro, probably works better as a one-off with pregen characters than as part of an ongoing campaign, but you'll need to modify it a bit to make it self-contained (as written it's the lead in to the 4-part "Maze of Zayene" series).

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

What about Castle Amber? It's completely absurd, which is pretty much what I'm looking for. Is it doable in a one-off marathon?

 

[T. Foster]

What about Castle Amber? It's completely absurd, which is pretty much what I'm looking for. Is it doable in a one-off marathon?

Castle Amber as-written is almost certainly too long to run in a single session, even a marathon one, but you might be able to pull it off if you tighten it up a bit and eliminate the Averoigne section completely.

 

[broghammerj]

Rappan Athuk is a great beer and pretzels adventure. If I remember correctly, there is a toilet golem in the dungeon. How can any adventure even compare?

 

[Glyfair]

If you're looking for old-school, you could do a lot worse than "B2: Keep on the Borderlands" or the "Against the Giants" series in some form. Or even "Tomb of Horrors".

Or even use the random dungeon generator in the back of the 1E DMG.

If he hadn't specified D&D, I would have recommended any Paranoia adventure. That pretty much defines beer & pretzels roleplaying (a lost genre). Maybe find one and adapt it on the fly to D&D (give everyone so many clones, replace the computer with a hidden magical wizard behind a curtain, etc).

 

[Schmoe]

Castle Amber as-written is almost certainly too long to run in a single session, even a marathon one, but you might be able to pull it off if you tighten it up a bit and eliminate the Averoigne section completely.

And if you do as T. Foster suggests, I would highly, highly recommend this adventure. It's a ton of fun with some really interesting NPCs and quirky encounters.