OD&D and AD&D without the classic modules

[fanboy2000]

Incidentally, I think this thread deserves a poll.

It does. When I wrote this post it was late at night for me and I had trouble coming up with a poll that wouldn't lead to a bunch of "none of the options work for me" posts.

I think it would be a blast to play through a classic adventure/series, with a seasoned DM and a few other players who are old-timers to the game, yet unfamiliar with most of the D&D canon.

The adventures of yore await!

I often think about running the Dragonlance modules (you know the ones that formed the basis for the first books) with a group that's never read the novels. We could invalidate an entire fiction line!

 

[Mark]

Through the first couple and a half decades of RPGing, there were four or five people I knew (and myself) who primarily ran homebrews or settings cobbled together from multiple settings but without running modules/adventures. However, the big D&D Open at Gencon was usually previewing some upcoming module/adventure (I played in the Giant series and Kua-toa tournaments way back when, and others). Also, those who wanted to try out DMing for a session or two almost always ran modules/adventures from published sources. Since 3.x, there has probably been fewer people I know who run homebrews, or at least homebrews that don't incorporate a lot more published material. I think this has to do with how much easier it is to work with the materials available on a computer and through the Internet, as much as due to people having less time to be whole-cloth creative. I think, too, that even if one holds to 90% of everything being crud, there is such a great quantity of material available that there is usually also a great deal of quality material readily at hand.

 

[Festivus]

I couldn't afford the adventure modules when I was a kid, so we made our own adventures up. Even graph paper was hard to come by back then.... no idea why other than lack of funds to buy it.

God forbit my dice wear out, that was like all my Christmas money to replace.

 

[delericho]

I only very occasionally used modules (a little of X1 "The Isle of Dread", a very small amount of X2 "Castle Amber" and R7? "Rahasia"; I also ran I6 "Ravenloft", but that was much more recently, under 3e rules). Truth be told, when I did run modules, they really didn't 'gel' with my group at the time; we vastly preferred homebrew.

More recently, I think I have managed to get a better handle on the proper use of modules. I count "Shackled City" as one of my top-three campaigns of all time.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Hmmm, yeah, I can't say I NEVER ran a classic module, but back in the fabled days of yore before AD&D appeared there really WERE no modules. It was like you weren't really a DM if you didn't have your own dungeon! After a while I did end up with various copies of modules, the Gs and the Ds and I think a copy of ToH. I did sort of run some parts of those, but mostly reworked or just specific parts that fit in with my own homebrew stuff. I recall running a couple ToH one-shots (nobody ever survived of course).

I think the most recently published module I own is actually Q1 (the original version), lol. Some of my friends ran some of the other modules, but none of us ever tended to like modules that much. Our games were always pretty far from your average D&D campaign.

 

[Ariosto]

I remember starting Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and Slave Pits of the Undercity, and Temple of Elemental Evil, and Dragons of Despair, and probably some others -- but never getting very far. I think (although offhand recollection is not impeccable) that the only modules I played through when they were fairly new were Keep on the Borderlands, Tomb of Horrors, and Judges Guild's Under the Storm Giant's Castle.

I ran Temple of the Frog (from D&D Supplement II), and In Search of the Unknown, and Judges Guild's Dark Tower, and at least used some material from When a Star Falls (IIRC, maybe another of the modules from the UK).

I'm sure there was more piecemeal use of material from modules, and from scenarios in The Dragon. The City State of the Invincible Overlord, and other such stuff aimed more at integration into a campaign than at presenting "an adventure", certainly saw a lot of use.

When there were very few modules, especially very few from TSR -- as other publishers got little, and in many years no, local retail presence in my town -- it was hard to avoid the situation of someone's having already encountered Module X. As exploration and discovery and surprise were key components of fun, repeating a scenario was not very appealing.

Then there was the well-funded fellow who owned and had read pretty much all the "classics", but (partly because of that) never actually played them!

He is a member of my current group, in which I seem to have experienced notably more of modules even in my abortive encounters.

In that group, the assumption is that a D&D game means "home-brewed" material. There are some classic modules that I would be pleased to run, but there's not much interest. There's no terribly strong objection, either, except to certain ones. It would just be a bit "odd" in that circle.

 

[Votan]

For some reason, I ran or played in Keep of the Borderlands many times. I also played in the G and part of the D series. But homebrew was the rule and not the exception; with some memorable plots having been ripped off.

 

[Stormonu]

For the first 2-3 years of playing, I pretty much ran everything off the cuff. However, when I found the official modules extremely educational once I started to collect them.

Over some twenty-five years, I haven't run a whole lot of them (to completion) - A1-A4 (Slavelord Series), Q1 - Queen of the DemonWeb, B8 - Journey to the Rock, X1 - Isle of Dread, I6 - Ravenloft (many times), I10 - House on Griffon Hill, S1 - Tomb of Horror, S2 - White Plume Mountain and most recently C1 - Lost Shrine of Tamoachan (as a 3E adventure). I've started a couple more (N1, B2, I1, DL1), but never finished them.

But I've read most of the classic modules over the years and used a lot of the tricks, traps and ideas I've found in those modules all through my gaming years. Those old modules have been a tremendous help in tutoring me about good adventure design - both by what they do include and those things they avoid.

 

[fanboy2000]

I remember starting Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and Slave Pits of the Undercity, and Temple of Elemental Evil, and Dragons of Despair, and probably some others -- but never getting very far. I think (although offhand recollection is not impeccable) that the only modules I played through when they were fairly new were Keep on the Borderlands, Tomb of Horrors, and Judges Guild's Under the Storm Giant's Castle.

I'm curious about the aborted attempts. Were they aborted one-offs, or did the PCs in the regular campaign start the adventure and go "eh, forget it" and then go do something else? Because I always find it funny when my players do that.

 

[hagor]

Dungeon FTW!

I believe I started with AD&D in 1990 or shortly thereafter.

First campaign with a friend as DM was set in Forgotten Realms, but I'm pretty sure he didn't use one of the classics.

When I started DMing I had a homebrew world (note to self - find map) and did not use any of the "classics". I mainly used Dungeon Mags as source of adventures to fill in the main plot, have sidetracks, etc.

A few years ago, I used a modified "assassin's knot" in my Middle Earth 3.x campaign (in short: it was not really suited for our monthly-bimonthly sessions - but that's another story).
I still use Dungeon Mags though.

Hagor