D&D General Rank the Goodman Games Reincarnated series

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No. They were bored. The dungeon was basically empty, laid out strangely, traps and enemy placements were illogical, etc. It was old-school, but not in a good way (like Lost City or Isle of Dread).

Yeah, Quasqueton is unstocked by default, because TSR thought DMs would be excited about that part of the process (a weird thought even at the time). Both the original and OAR have some suggested stockings for the dungeon, but it does mean you've paid up to $50 for a dungeon that you have to fill in for yourself.

I'd argue that it is old school in a lot of important ways, as the trope originator for the teleporters in the maze and the room full of magical pools, but I think both of those are less-remembered tropes today, and one of them is seen as bad design.

EDIT: Also note that, like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Dyson Logos has redrawn and tightened up this map, so it's not so many hallways.

 

[Cadence]

B2 to X1 (Keep to Isle) is the classic "adventure path" back in the day.

Lost City starts low level but eventually ends up higher, especially in this version. Likewise, a lot of X2 involves running away from or placating dangerous insane wizards, so it can certainly function as a higher level adventure site.

So yeah, your planned paths would work.

If they can stand it, my son's group is going to do Borderlands -> Amber -> Barrier Peaks

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If they can stand it, my son's group is going to do Borderlands -> Amber -> Barrier Peaks

The Y axis on that chart is for increasing zaniness (and danger).

 

[Retreater]

Both the original and OAR have some suggested stockings for the dungeon, but it does mean you've paid up to $50 for a dungeon that you have to fill in for yourself.

The 5e "conversion" of B1 has a defined encounter key and backstory. So that part is complete and expanded. I don't feel like I got a bad deal. It just didn't connect with my players - and it shows its age more than other conversions I've DMed from that era (Tegel Manor, Isle of Dread, Saltmarsh).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Showing its age more than Tegel Manor is a hell of a thing.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

My potential players come from a 5e pool. Despite some being my age they never played DnD back in the day and 5e is their first experience.

I kinda wanna get Old School Essentials and run these as they were meant to be run. 100% relive my lost youth (where I owned these but ended up playing in home brews) and run these bad boys with B/X

 

[Retreater]

I kinda wanna get Old School Essentials and run these as they were meant to be run. 100% relive my lost youth (where I owned these but ended up playing in home brews) and run these bad boys with B/X

Here you go. Give it a test run with the basic core rules. You can get at least a few weeks worth of adventure from that PDF.

Old-School Essentials Basic Rules

DOWNLOAD HERE Old-School Essentials is an award-winning role-playing game of fantastic adventure, monsters, and magic. Players delve into forbidden crypts and forsaken ruins, explore haunted forests and perilous mountain ranges, sail the high seas in search of lost lands, recover fabulous...

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[Retreater]

Showing its age more than Tegel Manor is a hell of a thing.

In all fairness, it was the Frog God Games version of Tegel, so I'm not sure how closely the conversion followed the original JG product.

 

[haakon1]

I have used 1) Into the Borderlands and 6) Temple of Elemental Evil.

Both are straight up excellent, and quite long.

 

[Starmaster]

Yeah, Quasqueton is unstocked by default, because TSR thought DMs would be excited about that part of the process (a weird thought even at the time). Both the original and OAR have some suggested stockings for the dungeon, but it does mean you've paid up to $50 for a dungeon that you have to fill in for yourself.

I really liked this concept, especially as a new DM. B1 was the first module I went through as a player in 1979. The first thing I did after buying my first set of PHB/DMG/MM books in 1980 was to get a copy of B1 and stock it with a selection of monsters from my shiny new Monster Manual. It was really nice to have an extremely detailed dungeon with so many highly-detailed rooms to start with. All that was left for me to do was the fun part of choosing cool monsters, deciding where to plop them in, and figuring out why they were there and what treasures they had stashed away.

I remember that, as a nasty trick, I decided to stick a vampire in one of the back rooms. Not exactly fair for a 1st level module, but I had him resting in a closed coffin at the time he was encountered, so the party could either yank it open and stake him right off the bat or they could run away and never come near that room again, so they did have a fair chance. If, however, they decided to just screw around the area for a few hours or to leave him undisturbed and come back later, the vampire would be awake by then and it was game over for the party. I also gave him a decent treasure to reward the party if they survived.

It was also great to be able to decide what kind big bad grand finale critter occupied the big cavern (area 55) at the end of the adventure. I think I may have decided on a juvenile dragon, but can't recall for sure since it's been so long.

The point is that the module did all the heavy work for me as a starting DM and just left the fun stuff for me to do. Also, I learned a lot about what kind of dungeon dressing an explorer might expect to find in a typical fantasy-medieval type of dungeon due to the level of detail in many of the upper rooms. All-in-all, I found it very useful for a new DM and also fun to play through (again, due to all the highly-detailed upper-level rooms).