OSR Best introductory BX/OSR scenarios

harunmushod

Explorer
I collated the responses to two separate questions about the best BX/OSR scenario for new players and DMs the questions was asked in 5 different threads/groups across three forums (two Facebook BX and OSE groups, two Reddit BX and OSR groups, and an BX/OSR Forum on EN World). The question was originally asked by Angelo Muscia (both Facebook groups and the Reddit BX forum) and then by me. I am posting this to the same groups.

Top 10 beginning scenarios for BX/OSE:

1. B2 Keep on the Borderlands - 40 recommendations
2. B1 In Search of the Unknown - 20
3. Tomb of the Serpent King - 14
5= B4 The Lost City - 8
5= Winter's Daughter - 8
6. U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - 7*
7. Hole in the Oak - 6
10= B3 Palace of the Silver Princess - 5
10= B11 Kings’s Festival - 5
10= N1 Against The Cult of the Reptile Gods - 5*

*AD&D1e scenarios that were suggested as suitable for BX.
 

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Gus L

Explorer
This is interesting data - though a small sample size I'd think. As someone who was part of the OSR scene and publishing in it from 2011 through 2019 and then Post-OSR spaces since then it seems to reflect a specific fragment or category of players in those spaces or scenes that is made up largely of newer players and may be somewhat detached from the larger space/history. Many of the source spaces listed are more closely linked to the 5E space (not a bad thing - but not often a font of B/X play experience), and so somewhat outside the legacy of OSR design from the 2006-2020, while a few such as r/osr often seems to be actively dismissive of it (such as when the reddit forum seriously considered banning links to blogs...)

We all start playing new games from somewhere (including old games that are new to us), but I would be shocked if the B series of D&D adventures from the early - mid 1980's were the state for teaching how to play, despite being well known. Most of the B series are experiments in different forms of teaching the game - and most fail to one degree or another.
B1 is a strange, effectively producing a randomly stocked monster zoo with the marks of early 1970's map design and much of the "boardgame" feel of that era. It has promise in parts but in play it often lacks a coherent sense of place and it lacks the treasure to really work as a Palace of the Vampire Queen, 1970's sort of meat grinder dungeon.
B2 of course has long been well regarded and is one of the most widely published and played modules. Yet it's actually pretty sparse on advice for running the faction intrigue rich, "cavalry story" Western plotline that it aims for, or the heist/crime one that it sometimes gets subverted into. The subject matter and focus on wholesale murder of various humanoids also leave some players with a bad impression.
B3 is interesting, but a mess due to the internal TSR conflict over its first printing and the changes made to it for the next. Great imagery, fairy-tale sensibilities, but in play a slog that has never been especially well regarded. Its intro tools largely consist of a sort of choose your own adventure that is moderately successful at best and teaches a very constrained rules focused referee style if it teaches anything.
B4, like B2 is well regarded, and has a stronger set of advice and more robust set up for running factions, but I have never heard it described as especially easy to run and it leaves an entire buried city the referee must complete if the adventure is to continue logically.
B11 is a BECMI module. A drab Orcs in a Hole adventure with tedious moralizing and an absurdly small scope. It has a few bright spots in the writing, but it's basically a one page dungeon with advice aimed at keeping Patricia Pulling from raising a mob to burn down Lake Geneva.

I could go on - but I think that's enough for now.
 

Simon Miles

Creator of the World of Barnaynia FRPG setting
Can I chuck this one into the mix? It's designed for OSR (OSRIC and OSE Advanced but will work with ANY of them). This has been written specifically for new players and DMS; heavy on the description and process to put in as many safety nets as possible - three small but challenging adventures in one: SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard from Dunromin University Press. It's set on their Barnaynia Gameworld but only needs some civilized lands within a few days travel of the Magic Guild the eponymous PC MU has newly qualified from: DriveThruRPG
 

The Sigil

Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
B11 is a BECMI module. A drab Orcs in a Hole adventure with tedious moralizing and an absurdly small scope. It has a few bright spots in the writing, but it's basically a one page dungeon with advice aimed at keeping Patricia Pulling from raising a mob to burn down Lake Geneva.
Interesting; while I certainly wouldn't nominate B11 in the list of "Best Modules Ever Written" I would posit that saying that a module has a "small scope" and relies somewhat on tropes ("Orcs in a Hole") actually refer to what makes it a good introductory module (emphasis on "introductory"). Sure, experienced players may find the scope or plot lacking, and might characterize it as having "tedious moralizing" ... but we're not looking for how experienced players will experience modules; instead, we're looking at new players and as an introduction (especially for beginning DMs) I think these things that may annoy experienced players actually IMPROVE the introductory experience. A new DM will be frustrated by the assumptions some of the other modules make (for example, B4's assumption that the DM has the know-how to run multiple complex factions AND stock several lower - and theoretically deadlier - levels of an enormous dungeon), while B11 and its limited scope feel a lot more "do-able."
 

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