D&D General Starter set campaigns from older editions?

[Scottoz]

Is this something they do with each edition like how they did lost mines of phandelver for 5e?

Im curious if this is the case as i consider lmop to be a great story and introduction to dnd but you can only run it so many times. If this is not the case are there any other older edition starter campaigns held in high regard that could be or have been adapted to 5e rules?

 

[lhx]

Keep on the Shadowfell
Sunless Citadel

 

[sunrisekid]

Mysteries of the Moonsea (3E). I've run the starter adventure many times for new players, always goes over well. First adventure fits into a single session. but the rest should be considered extras for whatever else you come up with for the setting.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I love 4E but the starter adventure - Keep on the Shadowfell - for that was pretty bad. It committed the greatest sin an adventure can commit - it was extremely boring. The sequels were less boring but they were a bit tacky and ridiculous. So we would definitely not want to revive that.

With 2E the "classic" is what came with the DM's Screen - Terrible Trouble at Tragidore, which is exactly awful as the name suggests. Again, not a good adventure by any means, definitely not worth reviving.

Some 2E settings had introductory adventures too. The first Dark Sun one is pretty cool, but very heavily scripted in a way that would make it feel a bit too contrived for modern audiences, I think. The Forgotten Realms one from the part-way-through 2E FR boxed set (blue box? I forget. Not grey box that was 1E) which featured Gandalf, er... I mean Elminster poncing around and giving the party an adventure (basically rats in the basement stuff) had a surprising amount of atmosphere, but it wasn't killer. It did give my party an enduring fear of badgers, so there's that.

I think looking at older editions you'd mostly want to focus on L1-3 adventures which were not edition-starters, because they'll be more competently-written and engaging than edition-starters.

 

[Shiroiken]

The Keep on the Borderlands has been the classic go to starting adventure forever, updating it isn't hard for 5E. I has social encounters in the keep, exploration areas around the keep, and the caves of chaos for dungeon crawls. It's easily expandable, but not quite as much as LMoP is.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Regarding introductory adventures for 4e, Reavers of Harkenwold is far better regarded than KotS.

Most editions have had starter adventures, though I don't recall them having been framed at such until 4e. I was vaguely aware of Sunless Citadel back when it was released, but if you had asked me about it back then I would have described it as a low level module, rather than a starter adventure.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

LMoP could be the best of any edition: solid adventure, great production values, real introduction to the game.

Keep on the Borderlands was iconic, but really an hackfest - "enter the dungeon and slaughter all the humanoids and their families".

The Sunless Citadel was better, but was not exceptional at all.

 

[orangefruitbat]

Under Illifarn was a great 1E starter for the Forgotten Realms.

 

[darjr]

My personal favorite is the Moldvey set. But that's because it was my first set. The Holmes has a weird dreamlike presence in my mind because it was what was used the VERY first time I saw D&D. A neighbor hood kid had it at school and was making characters and dungeons. I had no idea what was going on, but I was fascinated. Pieces of the art from that set are mythical images in my memories. I REALLY need to get a copy of that box.

Anyway the two 3rd edition (was there more?) were great. An easy introduction into the game with a cool dungeon crawl and tiles and miniatures. I got those after my kids saw the D&D miniatures game, it was my reintroduction to D&D after I had bought the Black Company book from Green Ronin.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I changed my mind. The Mentzer Basic Red Box with Elmore art can be considered a starter set, so that is the best.