OSR Opinions wanted and help getting started (primarily for 1st ed AD&D OSR)

[John R Davis]

I have just started running AD&D 1st ed, for the first time since 1992. Three sessions in and very enjoyable change to the skill check based games of 5th ed and PF1.

 

[Voadam]

if there are exceptional adventures/modules I would love to be pointed in that direction.

A couple stand out to me.

Ardun Vul by Expeditious Retreat Press is a massive Megadungeon with neat Roman/Byzantine, Egyptian, and Babylonian type historical empire aspects and a ton of setting and history and factional material to use. It is expensive and would take a big commitment of reading but it is basically a setting and megadungeon that would not be easily exhausted. It is OSRIC.

XRP also has a whole line of OSRIC materials including 39 short Advanced Adventures line of modules, a great monster supplement taking 3rd party 3e OGL monsters and converting them to OSRIC, and zines and such. If you wanted easy to pick up and run short adventures Advanced Adventures has good variety to pick from.

BRW's Castle of the Mad Archmage is a 162 page 1e megadungeon redo imagining Castle Greyhawk. Adventures Dark and Deep is the BRW 1e AD&D system. So if you want new Gygaxian style 1e megadungeon this is designed for that. I got and liked BRW's monster book, and was getting and enjoying the initial incarnation when it was being built on his website, but his commercial PDFs are copy/paste disabled which I find a real pain for actual use of the material.

Northwind Adventures puts out Hyperborea/Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea the 1e redone as a Conan world game with different classes and such. They have a strong module line that just seems to ooze Howardian pulp Sword and Sorcery 1e fantasy. These are all decent sized (Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess is 60 pages as an example).

There are a couple one off adventures from smaller guys as well that seemed neat, but these were what came to mind.

 

[Voadam]

Also worth considering for modules to use in a 1e game, most all Basic/Labyrinth Lord/OSE adventures should be usable fairly straight out of the box. Monsters are built off of d8 HD same as 1e. The big differences in the system are on the player end with different stat adjustments and character classes. This can come out in some NPCs like elves all having MU spells or NPC fighters having hp calculated off of a d8 HD instead of d10 and with no percentile strength. Minor differences like 3-point versus 9-point alignment are not a big deal. AD&D is built with a little more power potential for some PC aspects, but not enough to really see a difference in modules.

Opening up the Basic/LL/OSE stuff means a huge expansion on adventures to pick from.

 

[Mezuka]

I went through the same process re-reading 1e, OSRIC, 2e, looking at LL and then getting OSE + Advanced. In the end I just couldn't play with the old school systems. I'm currently enjoying Castles & Crusades.

C&C gives you the 1e vibe but with the SIEGE system that is not 3e or OGL. The current 8th printing of the Keepers Guide, with the AD&D homage covers, is full of optional rules to customize your campaign. You can play beyond level 14.

I finally found a game that feeds my nostalgia for old AD&D. The search is over. It is well supported with many adventures and campaigns series.