D&D 1E Crowdsourcing suggestions for 1e or 2e module for a 5e game

[jrowland]

I've a soft spot for UK1 The Sentinel and UK2 The Gauntlet. I ran those as a mini campaign, so there was a lot of alteration on my part, but I ran it for two different groups and it was much loved. I know there are some "issues" with them, but for a crowdsourced re-do, expanding on a the sentinels region and adding some more sandbox elements goes a long way. Plus, how cool it is to get a sweet keep at the end of it all?

 

[not-so-newguy]

B10 Night's Dark Terror is one I want to run. A small, railroady sandbox with a nasty cthulhu-type surprise at the end (an excellent chance to use the Madness mechanic).

Edit: I just realized, B 10 is basic DnD. Doesn't fit the criteria of being 1e or 2e, if that makes a difference to anybody

 

[ExploderWizard]

B10 Night's Dark Terror is one I want to run. A small, railroady sandbox with a nasty cthulhu-type surprise at the end (an excellent chance to use the Madness mechanic).

Edit: I just realized, B 10 is basic DnD. Doesn't fit the criteria of being 1e or 2e, if that makes a difference to anybody

Well, X1,X2,X4 and X5 have been discussed as candidates and they are all B/X adventures too. 1E, 2E and B/X adventures are all really easy to mix and match with any of those systems.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Doesn't matter to me whether the module is for Basic, 1e, or 2e. At this point, I probably prize Basic or 1e over 2e, though.

 

[Schmoe]

I'll bring up a couple that haven't been mentioned yet.

UK4 - When a Star Falls, is a great adventure that spans several different sites. I ran it many years ago, and it was very memorable.

C4 - To Find a King, and C5 - Bane of Llewelyn. If you are looking for non-dungeon crawl, these are both good adventures. They are a mix of role-playing, wilderness exploring, and dungeon crawling, with some really interesting scenarios. They were originally tournament modules, so they are definitely a bit of a railroad, but that's something you could probably work around. I would definitely recommend taking a look at these two with an open mind.

 

[the Jester]

I was going to suggest I2, Tomb of the Lizard King. I think it's a solid choice and offers some of what you're after (it's not very dungeon crawly as best I remember). I1 is a solid choice, too.

Another one- thought it's 3e- that really hits a lot of the marks you're after (sandboxy, lots of variety, etc) is Red Hand of Doom, which is pretty close to the best adventure ever published for for any edition. But it is 3e.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=80727]Candi[/MENTION]enneBacon I wouldn't be too concerned about using an AD&D adventure of "just the right level."

I've found that AD&D adventures throw larger groups of monsters than what you'd expect for "level-appropriate" encounters in 5e. Just be tweaking the number of monsters you can scale an AD&D adventure up easily enough.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I looked at Red Hand of Doom, [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION]. What do you think, easy to convert to 5e? I tried my hand at converting Lich Queen's Beloved (high level Planescape 3.5) this spring and it flopped, but that was because the adventure is filled to the gills with nasty high-level traps and converting high-level 3.5 to high-level 5e was too much effort for me!

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Well, wish me luck, folks. I'm off on an adventure. For the next month, I'll be running X2 Castle Amber as a PbP here on EN World.

 

[the Jester]

I looked at Red Hand of Doom, [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION]. What do you think, easy to convert to 5e? I tried my hand at converting Lich Queen's Beloved (high level Planescape 3.5) this spring and it flopped, but that was because the adventure is filled to the gills with nasty high-level traps and converting high-level 3.5 to high-level 5e was too much effort for me!

I think so. I mean, you'll have to do a little work statting up some of the weird monsters and stuff, but overall, I think it would be a breeze. That said, I don't have it in front of me to refer to at the moment, so I could be overlooking some major elements- but I think the adventure is so good that it's well worth any required amount of effort.

 

[Morley_Dotes]

I think you've got a great spread of classic dungeons there!

The only old one I would suggest is L-2: The Assassin's Knot (from the Lendore Isles series) for a change of pace from all the dungeon crawling. It's a convoluted murder mystery that will keep the characters guessing, designed for AD&D levels 2-5. It's the rare event-driven adventure among old school adventures, and is often overlooked by GMs. Also, few players I've run across are familiar with it, so it should be a surprise.

A retrospective about it: https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20001229b
DnDclassics link: L2 The Assassin's Knot (1e) - Wizards of the Coast | AD&D 1st Ed. | Adventures | AD&D 1st Ed. | Dungeon Masters Guild

Conversion-wise, you're looking at almost entirely NPCs who fit the mold 1:1 with existing NPC stat blocks in the Monster Manual. The main villain, however, you have a decision to make: You COULD use a certain MM stat block for, though it won't be a direct 1:1 conversion and will be CR 9. Alternately, you could write up the villain's stat block from scratch using the DMG guidelines or PHB rules.

What I like about it is that because it's not a combat-driven dungeon crawl, it scales very well to whatever level you want to run it at. And it's short (30-pages) and generic enough that the GM can easily adapt it to his or her campaign. As a mystery, it's well designed because it seems like half the castle is evil alignment - plenty of scoundrels for the PCs to suspect guilty of the murder!



Oh man, Umbra! My favorite adventure ever That's how I first learned about Chris Perkins too. Fabulous adventure.

I've run the Desert of Desolation (I3-I5) for four different groups back during the 2e timeframe. It always ran well for me. The super module blends them together a little better then the individual modules. I can't say it will run well for every group (or your group) but I've had success with it and have been considering converting it myself to run for an entirely new group of gamers that have never played, nor heard of, the Desert of Desolation.