best non TSR/WotC/d20/OGL published fantasy adventures

[pogre]

You want someone to mention "The Enemy Within"?

Specifically, Shadows Over Bogenhafen is the finest adventure ever. Carl Sargent and the gang did not write a hit everytime, but he put out some fantastic stuff!

 

[Monte At Home]

Oops.

 

[Monte At Home]

Thanks for the replies guys,

Monte,

I think you and I frequent the same movie theater. If I ever see you there, I will be sure to say hey.

Please do!

Thanks for the ICE recommendation of The Court of Ardor. I also love the old ICE stuff.

There's a lot of good old ICE stuff. If you do find Court of Ardor and like it, check out any of the old Shadow World products. Terry Sure, you have to convert them to use them, but they're worth it for the ideas. There's one that's practically unusable as an adventure... Demons of the Night, Shadows of the Night, something Night... or something like that. (Anyone know what I'm talking about here?) Anyway, it's a muddled mess, but what a wonderful mess! Full of amazingly creative ideas dealing with a society that binds demons into things in order to give them magical abilities.

As far as old MERP stuff goes, any of their old Fortresses of Middle Earth series are just great for the maps alone! Back in the day, a strangely large percentage of the creative staff at Iron Crown were architecture majors, so their building maps were just incredible. I wrote recently in my on-line journal that I'd still love to run a short-run campaign using Nazgul's Citadel where all the PCs are orcs or evil servants trying to get ahead in that vast fortress (a place that certainly rivals, if not surpasses, the World's Largest Dungeon in sheer area and probably number of rooms, but it's all organized and run by, well, Sauron, when he was still the Necromancer).

Edit: It's Demons of the Burning Night.

 

[T. Foster]

Which system was the adventure simply titled 'Borderlands' published under (not the Keep on...). I read some comments on it a while back and was intrigued. IN fact, I beleive there was a very similar thread to thsi a while back.

Borderlands was also a RuneQuest adventure/campaign-pack (Chaosium, 1982). More structured (and thus probably more beginner-friendly) that Griffin Mountain (and it even includes a tie-in to GM at the end so you can use them both together). Unfortunately this hasn't been reprinted yet by Moon Design Publications, but it is next up on their production schedule so hopefully the wait for it won't be too long.

 

[T. Foster]

Specifically, Shadows Over Bogenhafen is the finest adventure ever. Carl Sargent and the gang did not write a hit everytime, but he put out some fantastic stuff!

I didn't mention these both because I don't like them quite as well as Griffin Mountain, and also because AFAIK they're currently out-of-print and my impression was that the OP was looking more for things that are currently in-print. But since they've been brought up, I'll second the recommendation for the "Enemy Within" series as a whole, and Shadows Over Bogenhafen, Death on the Reik, and Power Behind the Throne in particular. Very atmospheric, and very good.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Pagan Publishing's Walker in the Wastes for Call of Cthulhu.

It took almost a year of play to finish it, and it was great!

The Auld Grump, who wishes that Pagan would reprint Grace Under Pressure as well...

 

[Monte At Home]

Pagan Publishing's Walker in the Wastes for Call of Cthulhu.

It took almost a year of play to finish it, and it was great!

The Auld Grump, who wishes that Pagan would reprint Grace Under Pressure as well...

I ran both of these as well, and had a blast. Walker is amazing mostly for the research that went into it--it has some major holes and problems as an adventure, but they were actually easy to fix (I found, because it does take a year or more to run, that some scary side bits had to be incorporated to keep things from getting dull or bogging down). The author did all the hard work for the GM, though, and anticipated a lot of the hard stuff (rules for dirigibles, etc.). I recommend it highly.

Bruce Cordell and I co-GMed Grace Under Pressure, the only adventure I know of written specifically for two GMs. The adventure, in and of itself, isn't all that remarkable. What makes it so unbelievable is the GM advice and tips for how to set an atmosphere, stage the encounters, and pace the whole thing, as well as how to deal with having 2 GMs. Really worth tracking down if you want to run a one-evening Call of Cthulhu adventure set in modern times in a unique location (an underwater research station, kind of like the one in the movie the Abyss).

 

[Eosin the Red]

I have always been fond of The Lich Lords by Mayfair but my DM obviously fudged/Added a whole lot since it took nearly a year to play out using 9th grader game styles (i.e. game Friday, Game Saturday for 15 hours, game Sunday afternoon).

Hudson City Blues by Hero Games is one of the most astounding campaigns that I have ever played in which also ran more than a year but this was in adult game time.

Last but not least - The Old GURPS Zombie campaign was a riot.

PS - neven played Masks of Narlyethotop (sp?) but by word of mouth it has a standard all to itself.

 

[Boddha]

Have to agree with the Enemy Within. I love the WFRP stuff and am currently running my players through the ruins of Mordheim.

Also enjoyed the Dragon Warriors adventures. Simple yet full of flavour and great for detailing the world of Legend (where the game was set).

 

[diaglo]

the May Fair Role Aids line was hit or miss.

Judges Guild had some interesting concepts too.

and i still use some of my Harn accessories ... Columbiagames

i always laugh when people say there weren't other companies out there in the old days. i look back at my collection and say wtf are they talking about. i have as many other company products for my old collection as i do third party d02 products for my newer editions dust collection.