OSR Modules with the best layout & presentation

[guachi]

I6 Ravenloft is still in many ways the gold standard, a height of combining aesthetics and usability to which we have not regularly (or ever) achieved since. I have a few quibbles with the module, most notably that the recommended levels on the module are about 2 lower than they should be for the challenge, but in terms of presentation of encounter blocks and the maps and the overall layout of the module, nothing has ever done better.

My choice was I3 Pharaoh. I don't think it's a coincidence that both were written by Tracey and Laura Hickman.

As to boxed text mentioning monsters last - it was standard TSR procedure to do that in more or less every module they ever published.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Remember that in old school DnD, the environment was important. What the area looked like and what was in it often had an impact to how you survived the encounter. So many times beating an encounter was done through clever use of the terrain and objects. So by putting that info first, the players didn’t hear “vampire” first and miss all of the detail because they got hung up on the big baddie.

 

[Celebrim]

My choice was I3 Pharaoh. I don't think it's a coincidence that both were written by Tracey and Laura Hickman.

I3 is also really good, though I do think I6 is the more sophisticated of the two. I think the big problem with I3 is it's not intended as standalone and I4 and I5 while ambitious are very flawed.

As to boxed text mentioning monsters last - it was standard TSR procedure to do that in more or less every module they ever published.

If you mention monsters first, you're going to have people immediately declaring actions (on the theory that if they say it fast enough they win surprise or something) and all sorts of other chaos and you might as well stop talking and deal with the chaos, because no one is going to hear anything else you say. Room. Exits. Important Furnishings. Sounds and odors. Monsters. It's the opposite order that someone would probably see a room, but it's the correct order for explaining one.

 

[Black Dougal]

Did someone say lay out?

I'm also going to bring up Necrotic Gnome which many have mentioned.

 

[Sausages]

I think burying the lede is ok as long as the GM lets the players then act as if their character had absorbed the information in a logical order.

The real sin is box text telling players what the characters feel, or even worse, do.