Identifying "old school" adventure modules

[Philotomy Jurament]

How about Castle Amber, written by Tom Moldvay and published in 81 as an example of a departure in style? As I recall it has several non-combat encounters with the demented members of the Amber family.

Hmm. X2 might seem like it's atypical for an old school module, but it draws strongly on source material (i.e. Clark Ashton Smith's fiction) that fits right in with D&D's other early influences. I never considered it odd (probably for that reason, although I never considered the question, before).

As an aside, I think Moldvay was really good at doing drawing on literary and cinematic sources and turning them into a cool adventure (or even a whole mini campaign) in a very limited number of pages. B4's setup seems very similar to some of REH's stories ("Red Nails," and others) and has a Mythos-style big bad evil guy (i.e. Zargon). X1 draws directly on pulpy adventure tales and movies like King Kong, complete with bearers, lost cities, cannibals, dinosaurs, and natives walling off the dangerous areas. X2 offers a completely CAS-style approach, including the "go to sleep and wake up elsewhere" entrance into the otherworldly realm where the adventure takes place.

 

[rogueattorney]

In thinking about this subject, I would tend to say that the more the module is simply presenting an adventuring locale, the more old school it is. The more the module is presenting a series of events, the less old school it is. This, to me, is the single most important consideration.

 

[Ariosto]

As an aside, I think Moldvay was really good at doing drawing on literary and cinematic sources and turning them into a cool adventure (or even a whole mini campaign)

Lords of Creation, a Moldvay design, remains my favorite among Avalon Hill's late entries into the RPG field (a choice made easier as I prefer the first two editions of RuneQuest). It's packed with literary and cinematic references -- even the visionary poetry of William Blake! -- and the stuff is not too hard to "convert" to old D&D.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Lords of Creation, a Moldvay design, remains my favorite among Avalon Hill's late entries into the RPG field (a choice made easier as I prefer the first two editions of RuneQuest). It's packed with literary and cinematic references -- even the visionary poetry of William Blake! -- and the stuff is not too hard to "convert" to old D&D.

Sounds very cool; I missed that one, but now I'm off to track it down…