Best old style AD&D dungeon crawlers ever

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

Hi everybody, after reading with much interest the discussion about the famed Tomb of Horrors here,



http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...omb-horrors-spoilers-spoilers-everywhere.html



I understood that this could not be my players' cup of tea. I' d like to have a dive in a quality, old style dungeon crawl: even if I'm a long time DM, I never really had in recent years the time to develop a sensed, engaging, diverse dungeon crawl for my players to just rediscover some of the old style sense of exploring a dangerous delve.


TOH seemed like the natural answer but after reading the thread I have some doubts about it being too much, for lack of a better word, "Gygaxian", and too centered about traps for my players' tastes. I'm playing with 6 to 8 players, so I don't want a fighting only nightmare, but some more than TOH.


What I'm looking for is an engaging dungeon module/adventure with a satisfying theme, sensed traps, engaging encounters, well balanced fights, not overly large and under the Ad&d (1E or 2E) rules for quickness & that added nostalgia touch.


The question for you experienced guys is: could you suggest some top notch dungeon adventure fulfilling these points?


I suppose this has been discussed before, but I just wanted to make a question tailored to my group tastes, also speaking of dungeons never grows old for us old guys

I'd really appreciate if you could spend a couple words on the content and general tone of the dungeon, so be warned that some spoiler may be spilled here.

Time is not of essence as I'll play this in September.


Thanks in advance for your passion, guys...any suggestion?

 

[Pbartender]

You might try looking at White Plume Mountain... It's a bit of a fun-house, with regards to the traps and some of the encounters, but I found it a lot more fun and a lot less "gotcha", than Tomb of Horrors.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

I agree White Plume Mountain, just make sure your characters have the "right" alignments to use Wave, Whelm, and Black Razor
I always liked Expedition to the Barrier Peaks as well.

 

[steeldragons]

White Plume Mountain is a great recommendation and probably the one I, personally, think of as "closest" to ToH style-wise.

My personal favorite/recommendation, though, would be Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

Might be a bit higher on the "fighting" side than the "traps" side, but the traps are definitely there, as well as a practical Monster Manual's worth of (then) "new" races/creatures to encounter (might be fights, might not) and a good overall background/story to bind the whole thing together.

So that's my two coppers.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Bullgrit]

I would suggest Keep on the Borderland and Temple of Elemental Evil. KotB is for levels 1-3, so your Players could take in 3rd level PCs and make good time through it. ToEE is a big module, but you could skip the Moathouse section and just run the Temple parts, with the Players playing 4th-5th level PCs.

Of the ones suggested above, personally, I dislike White Plume Mountain. I ran a group through it a couple years ago, and they decided to give up on it after finishing just one branch of the dungeon. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth could be good for your stated intentions.

Bullgrit

 

[Stoat]

I'm a fan of I6, Ravenloft. Castle Ravenloft is a great dungeon -- multileveled, non-linear, flavorful, and logical. It feels like a real place, but it has the technical components that make it fun place to play. The number of traps is kept to a minimum, but the traps it contains are good ones, usually more than just "step and die" random damage dealers.

The Castle can be a real meatgrinder, but two things give the DM a chance to adjust the difficulty. First, for the most part the worst of the combat encounters are randomly generated. Second, althrough Strahd can be a devastating foe, a lot of his power comes from how the DM runs him.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

My personal favorite/recommendation, though, would be Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth could be good for your stated intentions.

This. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is my pick.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm a very big proponent of The Lost Island of Castanamir. It's a level 1-4 module where the party gets shipwrecked on an island, in the center of which is a stairway down to the abode of the wizard Castanamir. His abode seems to be in its own pocket plane, with the rooms of his home connected through black portals. It's very much an exploration type module, as the wizard's home is quite funky, with no real way to get out until you discover it. It's a really cool low-level adventure in my opinion.

 

[Celebrim]

Of the ones suggested above, personally, I dislike White Plume Mountain. I ran a group through it a couple years ago, and they decided to give up on it after finishing just one branch of the dungeon. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth could be good for your stated intentions.

I would not be surprised at all if either WPM or LCoT racked up body counts in them higher than ToH. Both are serious meat grinders.

If you want a pleasant old-fashioned dungeon crawl, you should steer well away from any of the tournament modules especially at the suggested levels of play. Don't play the C series or the S series. They aren't designed to be finished by the majority of groups, and in fact quite the contrary. They are designed to ruthlessly and efficiently wipe out 99 groups out of a 100.

My suggestion would be to play I3: Pyramid. It's not a pushover, but most groups should finish it especially if you err on the high side of the suggested levels of play.

 

[olshanski]

The judges guild module "Caverns of Thracia" is to me the best of "old-school gaming".

It has multiple factions, multiple interconnections between levels, an awesome backstory, and really interesting little bits that make the whole place really seem alive.

Spoiler time:
Caverns of Thracia was an an ancient civilization that retreated far underground. Then another civilization moved into the ruins and built an empire before being overthrown by their beast-man slaves. Now, a great deal of time has passed and a few of the old empire death-worshippers have returned to take back the city from the beastmen... meanwhile deep underground the ancient civilization stirs.

The adventure has underground bridges high above other underground caverns... also traps and chimneys between levels. It is really interesting that the party can head off in any direction and the adventure just keeps on going. When a party falls down a pit trap, they aren't in a box, they are in a whole new level.

The whole place really seems alive. I've run it in its original form with AD&D, but the blue book has disintigrated over the past 30 years. I also ran it with the updated version published by Necromancer Games for 3.5 D&D. This adventure has stood the test of time.