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.

 

[Parmandur]

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?

Check this out, the first two intro adventures for old time D&D updated to 5E:

Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands Hardcover|Goodman Games Store

goodman-games.com

Sunless Citadel in Tales from the Yawning Portal was the intro for 3E.

Lost Mines of Phandelver, however, is the best starting module ever.

 

[JeffB]

Advenures from starter sets-
4E- Reavers of Harkenwold in the DM Kit is fantastic and will give you a lot of bang for the buck. The other starter set from 2008 or so- not worth your time.

3E-I've got the 3.0 and 3.5 (lack dragon)sets. Neither are all that great if you have experienced players,but are very good for newbie players.

2E- The Intro to AD&D (also the Big black box, the first quest and the big yellow box have the same thing) has 3 decent adventures. The Silver Anniversary starter set is not bad either.

1E, no such thing, but T1 (by itself), L1, U1 N1 are great low level starters (And L1 is a real sandbox)

For 3E- I'd look at D20 products outside WOTC-
The Coin Trilogy (Kingdoms of Kalamar) is a great starter campaign and it's official!
Of Sound Mind, by our very own PirateCat.
The Crucible of Freya by Necromancer.
I know The Sunless Citadel gets a lot of love, but it always plays out the same IME, which IMO, makes for a boring/mediocre adventure.

Goodman Games best D20 stuff were 4E modules- Mists of Madness, Isle of the Sea Drake, The Forgotten Portal, etc.

Of course B1-6 are classics for a reason. As are X1-X5.

 

[JeffB]

Totally forgot. Well worth your $-I would dive into Troll Lord Games' - Aufstrag campaign- The A series modules. A0-A5 is like LMoP on steroids. I've run them in C&C, but they have 5E versions now too.

Edit- Actually A0 & A1 are probably more adventure material than LmOP is. But it's worth picking up the first 3 or-5 anyway. A big sandbox area, that also has a central campaign plot/theme if you want to run it that way,

 

[NineLizards]

Actually, I own pretty much every starter set since 2e, en I have to say the (regular) 5e starter set just might be the best... (Though I like the box of the 4e starter set.)

 

[darjr]

Wait, older editions. I love the starter set.

 

[delphonso]

Anyone remember what the 3.5 box set was? It was a dungeon crawl - and only a one-shot. Ended with slaying a blue dragon. The adventure was printed in a little paperback book and came with a PHB, one set of dice, and some figurines.

It wasn't Sunless Citadel, honestly it might not even have a name. That was the first DnD thing I ever bought. My buddy and I got it our first year of high school.

 

[darjr]

That paper back phb was fantastic.

 

[NineLizards]

I didn't even ever see a 3.5 starter set in real life, our here in the boondocks... But a quick Google shows that there were actually two versions, one with and one without character creation rules.

Still, can't help it: IMHO the 5e starter set had been the best of all. Only took 20+ years to finally get it right

@darj, what paperback?

 

[darjr]

One of the 3rd edition starter boxes had a paperback PHB

 

[S'mon]

The B-series adventures in B/X & BECMI were designed for novice GMs. The ones actually packed with the Basic rules were B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

I think 5e has done vastly better on Starter Sets than previous editions, Moldvay Basic excepted. The 3e (and 4e?) stuff was pretty throwaway & unsatisfying.