I'm looking for recommendations for the order of play of AD&D first edition (and second?) modules. The group I'm helping are first-time players and a first-time DM. Do you have any suggestions? Yes, I know there is no "official" order of play. I'm just interesting in hearing ideas. FYI, they are currently in the middle of Treasure Hunt. I have a number of 1st edition (and 2nd) modules, and I'm looking for ideas on which module to recommend for them next. Thank you.
Keep on the Borderlands is a pretty classic starting point. It was like Lost Mines if phandelver for us older folks.
After that, it’s all over the place. It’s good to remember that in that era, modules were just meant to be played across a couple sessions. They were (mostly) setting agnostic, and designed so the DM could drop them in real quick if they didn’t have time to prep, or didn’t have ideas for a session. They weren’t whole campaigns.
Temple of Elemental Evil is a good one, the village of hommlet is a great starter.
However the temple itself is overly long, and deeper areas not complete, so I would trim it way down and find a way to mix it up with Against the Cult of the Reptile God or Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.
Hi Greg, I was considering Village of Hommlet. It seems like it would indeed be a great starter module. If my group were to go to the Village of Hommlet next, would you recommend we follow it up withThe Temple of Elemental Evil? Thank you!
There is the super module chain that goes from T1-T4 (Temple of Elemental Evil), A1-A4 (Scourge of the slave lords) to GDQ1-7 (Queen of the Spiders, combining the Giant series, Drow series and Queen of the demon webs).
Now there are some issues with this chain (A1 is not very challenging after the T series), and you'll need to look into how to tie them together properly (plenty of forum posts on that in canonfire and dragonsfoot, but my suggestion is focus on the EEG/EEE (elder elemental god/eye) aspect, and Lolth's connection to T1-T4. There are also some extra Dungeon Magazine modules to slip in and some 2e modules (Such as expanding the Giant series with House of the Brothers (Fog Giants) from Dungeon Magazine #006 and the Cloud giants from Liberation of Geoff in 2e).You could also throw in Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for the Iggwilv connection, or Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun for the much later connection between EEE and Tharizdun. https://greyhawk.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Modules provides a list of 1e Greyhawk modules, including levels and areas on the map (not yet completed for the others).
Treasure hunt is a 'Novice' (N series, level 0-1) adventure, which intended to move onto the Moonshae setting (Then placed in Forgotten Realms), but I'm not sure there were many modules actually released for that specific setting- Halls of the High King (lvl 6-10) and the Nightmare Keep (18-20)? Both are a bit too high level after Treasure hunt though. Honestly Beyond the Crystal Cave could fit well in that setting and is level 4-7 but can be done with so little combat that lower levels can cope too. Or maybe try and make some of the Ruins of Adventure one shots fit? Or as some folk suggest, maybe try and work in the Basic D&D modules (easy enough to use for AD&D) Into the Unknown and Keep on the Borderlands as some easy low level, base building adventures to push into others.
I'm looking for recommendations for the order of play of AD&D first edition (and second?) modules. The group I'm helping are first-time players and a first-time DM. Do you have any suggestions? Yes, I know there is no "official" order of play. I'm just interesting in hearing ideas. FYI, they are currently in the middle of Treasure Hunt. I have a number of 1st edition (and 2nd) modules, and I'm looking for ideas on which module to recommend for them next. Thank you.
Keep on the Borderlands is a pretty classic starting point. It was like Lost Mines if phandelver for us older folks.
After that, it’s all over the place. It’s good to remember that in that era, modules were just meant to be played across a couple sessions. They were (mostly) setting agnostic, and designed so the DM could drop them in real quick if they didn’t have time to prep, or didn’t have ideas for a session. They weren’t whole campaigns.
Temple of Elemental Evil is a good one, the village of hommlet is a great starter.
However the temple itself is overly long, and deeper areas not complete, so I would trim it way down and find a way to mix it up with Against the Cult of the Reptile God or Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.
Thank you, Xalthu.
Hi Greg, I was considering Village of Hommlet. It seems like it would indeed be a great starter module. If my group were to go to the Village of Hommlet next, would you recommend we follow it up withThe Temple of Elemental Evil? Thank you!
The classic T1-4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temple_of_Elemental_Evil
has it all built together and includes Hommlet Great book but yeah you need to trim the fat.
There is the super module chain that goes from T1-T4 (Temple of Elemental Evil), A1-A4 (Scourge of the slave lords) to GDQ1-7 (Queen of the Spiders, combining the Giant series, Drow series and Queen of the demon webs).
Now there are some issues with this chain (A1 is not very challenging after the T series), and you'll need to look into how to tie them together properly (plenty of forum posts on that in canonfire and dragonsfoot, but my suggestion is focus on the EEG/EEE (elder elemental god/eye) aspect, and Lolth's connection to T1-T4. There are also some extra Dungeon Magazine modules to slip in and some 2e modules (Such as expanding the Giant series with House of the Brothers (Fog Giants) from Dungeon Magazine #006 and the Cloud giants from Liberation of Geoff in 2e).You could also throw in Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for the Iggwilv connection, or Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun for the much later connection between EEE and Tharizdun. https://greyhawk.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Modules provides a list of 1e Greyhawk modules, including levels and areas on the map (not yet completed for the others).
Similarly there is a list for Forgotten Realm modules, which is a tad more comprehensive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_modules_and_sourcebooks
Treasure hunt is a 'Novice' (N series, level 0-1) adventure, which intended to move onto the Moonshae setting (Then placed in Forgotten Realms), but I'm not sure there were many modules actually released for that specific setting- Halls of the High King (lvl 6-10) and the Nightmare Keep (18-20)? Both are a bit too high level after Treasure hunt though. Honestly Beyond the Crystal Cave could fit well in that setting and is level 4-7 but can be done with so little combat that lower levels can cope too. Or maybe try and make some of the Ruins of Adventure one shots fit? Or as some folk suggest, maybe try and work in the Basic D&D modules (easy enough to use for AD&D) Into the Unknown and Keep on the Borderlands as some easy low level, base building adventures to push into others.
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I think you should always find a way to squeeze in castle amber.
I wish I could upvote this more than once.