How about a really "Old School" module?

[rounser]

Well, nostalgic window dressing like blue maps is just that....window dressing.

I think that the thing which some oldschool modules did well that has been abandoned to an extent is providing an environment to explore, rather than focusing purely on a plot with a predetermined beginning and end.

Create hexmapped wilderness thick with interesting locations and encounters, and a village with lots of little patches of potential adventure and NPC subplots, and you may well out-oldschool the oldschool modules.

As far as dungeons go, an emphasis on fun rather over making (eco)logical sense is a must, although with a modicum of thought it's possible to manage both. As an example, the Dungeon magazine adventure Gorgoldand's Gauntlet sets up a premise which makes the presence of puzzles and riddles make logical sense.

To that I'd add, no empty rooms, no timewasting areas which PCs explore and then wonder why they bothered, and no boring "cabinet contents" style dungeons with barracks and bedrooms and 2cp in the closet. It may help to think like a movie director - would play in would this room end up edited out as too boring? Also, don't overuse fights - there should be more to dungeoneering than rolling for initiative.

Of course, a lot of oldschool (and newschool) modules fit the "cabinet contents" or fight after fight after fight description, but not all that was oldschool was good, just as not all that is newschool is either...perhaps a "Ye Learned From Mistakes Both New Ande Olde Module" is a better descriptor, but not half as catchy as your title.

My 10 cents...

 

[HellHound]

Rounser -

You are talking RIGHT up my alley. Empty rooms are boring, boring = well.. . BORING. We are building this with a hex map like the old winderness map in Keep on the Borderlands (well, hexes though, not graph) with enoucnters, special areas, and SOME plot linking the encounters together.

 

[EricNoah]

You can't have an old school module without a rumors table!

I think you could do something that both honored old school and also poked some subtle fun at it. Maybe the old school module is actually set in an old school?

 

[rounser]

You can't have an old school module without a rumors table!

V. good point. Secret of Bone Hill has a rumour that the "Mayor is Lawful Evil", IIRC...better talk to him in our alignment tongues to make sure.

 

[HellHound]

You can't have an old school module without a rumors table!

Already there Eric... Already there.

 

[Turlogh]

Don't forget to have very strange, corny names for the pregenerated characters.

 

[HellHound]

Wow... I expected a lot more "if it was free" responses than this actually.

The project is moving merrily forward into writing, and most of the mapping is done.

 

[hong]

If you are going to go ahead with this project, I hereby grant permission for you to call it the Temple of Inexplicable Evil.

 

[HellHound]

Hong, I'm saving this thread to remind you of this in a year when (with luck) we release said module.

But the flagship of the line really has to be "Ye Olde School Module", because the title is so... catchy.

Or we can try to be newschool, and call it "The Fane of Inexplicable Evil"

 

[Dr Midnight]

I most DEFINITELY want an old school module. I never played in the old school days, but the look and feel of those old modules makes me squishy with glee.