Quick question - one of the things that two of my players really miss is the 'style' of the old B series adventures from TSR.

What would folks consider the essential ingredients of a Basic D&D adventure?

Ones that stick in my mind are Keep on the Borderlands (Keep, wilderness, and cave crawling), Rahashia (rescue the prisoners), and Veiled society (town/mystery adventure).

*EDIT* Heh, forgot the 'why' - they want me to write an adventure for them to run using the Pathfinder Beginner's Box. They don't have kids themselves (yet) but want to visit their own halcyon days of yore.... Me, I predate the B series.... By the time Basic was out I was already into my sixth year as a DM, I think.

*EDIT 2* Ungh, a 16 to 24 page limit, 18 to 26 including maps....

The Auld Grump

B adventures.

Decent Basic story that the DM has to flesh out
Fast and deadly combat
No logic about how monsters live someplace. They just make good obstacles for the pcs
Basic puzzles and riddles ( in some cases)

At least that was the core of what I remember.

Borderlands was the 1st thing I DMed, back in the day

Another good old school set was the Assassins Knot series. (can't remember the AD&D numbers, sorry). (Not the old B series but similar in feel)

To me Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics series captures the essentials of a classic Basic D&D adventure. Pretty sure you know them already.

I like it so far, especially the Hag leaving a little something in the well, please continue... Wait! I want to cast magic missile.......at the darkness. Love that video. Len Lakafka actually wrote more for the series and some only recently. Part 4 is devilspawn. They are up for free over on dragonsfoot in the first ed adventure section. He even did a Lendore Isles companion. Bone hill was one of my favorites! Gambling with the clerics was fun. Sometimes its the little things that make the adventure really enjoyable. Have fun creating!

Splitting it in two - town and wilderness, 24 pages each - 28 including covers and maps.

Going for the feel of what I liked in the early days - Curse on Hareth, Village of Homlett, Bone Hill.

The Auld Grump

Village of Hommlet - my absolute favorite from D&D 1st ed. Changed my outlook on GMing forever from dungeon-crawling or plot-based to character-based environments.

Breeyark... a faint memory... that brain cell is about to die.. (I have two copies of B2 at home... Anyone else wonder why bears wander around in dungeons?)

First, I'd recommend picking up Castles and Crusades and playing that with the original old adventures. No fuss no bother.

Second, all of the low level adventures for Pathfinder are excellent. The first one is a simple crawl and quite fun.

Third, all of the first adventures for any of the Adventures paths are epic and likely compatible.


So... if you're still going to do it, I'd recommend that you set up a sand boxy town and run several adventures from it. Its way easier to integrate multiple plot lines that way, as well as break up any 'dungeon fatigue' which may set in due to going to the same place over an over. (Temple of Elemental Evil broke that up nicely.)

So start with a town, and add story\dungeon bits.

maybe instead of the doppleganger there could be some villagers that surrendered to the hag with the "promise" af not being murdered once she gets into the town as a ruler?

this could lead to them asking for help while leading into traps!^^

One thing I almost always try to do if I ever get the luxury to actually an adventure down (rather than the bare bones on the back of an envelope), is something I first saw in GURPS IST Kingston, which is when you enter a room, what each of the senses will register (what you see, what you feel, taste, hear & touch for the normal ones! ).
Also, if they make a spot check, what they will find at the different levels (say 15, 18, 20 etc) (can be very important if you have gnomes "spotting" scents).
If I'm tired when I'm GMing (so that's aways then! ), it helps me & the players visualise what I'd originally planned...

I'm sure this is teaching your grandmother though Gump!

The hag having an ally in town might work... missing children is always a good hook.

The only problem is that I did something similar with merrows and a hag in an old quarry for the kids game, and the Crone of Heggler's Point in the Elf & Orc War arc.

The Auld Grump

I thought you wanted 'old school' adventures like the original D&D modules.

For me what epitomized the old school adventure was lame story lines and dungeons in which there was an Orc standing by a box waiting to be attacked and finally released from his toil of guarding a box. (Often inexplicably waiting several extra days while the party healed from the hobgoblin ambush.)

I'm a big fan of short adventures that preferably feed into a larger story. i.e. 5 adventures that are seemingly unrelated yet if the players put together the clues, they lead to a final confrontation.

What you need is an over arching plot line onto which you can derive a series of adventures.

I wanted to do one where the villain was a the Lord over the Barony and was a Vampire... Night time parties, and, men who are condemned, are, well, a lot paler as the Lord insists on hanging just after sunset and doing the rope himself, out of sight. Its more fun if the adventurers condemn a man to that, and discover the ruse later, and that the evidence was fake. Toss in an NPC to befriend the players, and just when he's well liked, have him assassinated, writhing in pain from poison. (Villains don't have to be disliked... they have to be hated.)




By the way I did run a lot of what I discussed here; as a 2nd level PF adventure. The adventure was a blast and they found 'the weapon' at the bottom of the well.
viewtopic.php?t=9110

My players are quite worried about my traps because they know I'm really out to get them. The Flint Golem in the stinky methane room... *BOOM* "Wizard is blasted against the wall... unconscious, Fighter and Rogue, are dazed... Cleric has suffered severe injuries and unresponsive. The Golem moves in for the kill on the Fighter and Rogue. (The final clue was in a chest in that room, and it didn't matter how long the players took to get there.)

The definition I am running with is 'short and self contained' - Village of Homlett, Bone Hill are examples, but mostly I am going off of the old Companions adventures Curse on Hareth, Plague of Terror, Brotherhood of the Bolt, Street of Gems, and Gems for Death. Those were my first dabbles into writing for hire and playtesting. Good times, good times.

A base town, the wilderness surrounds, and a dungeon (or castle, temple, or etc.). Those were typically 64 pages for the town, then another 64 page book for the wilderness and dungeon.

A base of operations, things to do in that base of operations, and things to do outside of that base of operations. Typically tied together with a timeline.

The Auld Grump

Or I could go for the classic - two witches in town are being seduced by darkness, but can yet be brought back to the light. (Or fought and killed in a climactic battle) - two witches, the hag, and a... something else.) One is a mother, the other a young woman. Guess who will be the crone?

Need to tread carefully on that one - J & J are pagans themselves, but perhaps I can make most of the town pagans/witches - these three are the bad apples in the barrel.

The Auld Grump

Slept on it, came up with a solution in my dreams.

Multiple plots - with numbers tied to the encounters/events to say which plot they are tied to.

Two witches in town think they are part of a coven with the hag - they are not, merely tools, then lunch.

Two other witches know that there is something wrong, don't know what.

A fifth witch has a bad reputation, but as a rakehell, not as evil. He has power and a high charisma, and was, shall we say, a busy man in his youth.... He likes trouble, but is not malicious.

Three lycanthropes, two tied to a curse, with a vengeance plot tied in. Two are werewolves, with one seeking vengeance against the witch that cursed him. The other is his 'agent'. The third is a werefox - trouble and mischief, not tied to a particular plot. She gets along with the fifth witch....

The hag is rather free with her hexes, and is the one that gave one of the town witches a potion to cause lycanthropy.

The plot is designed for 28 days - one lunar month. On the night of the twenty eighth day all the birds come home to roost.

One of the times that I am glad to be a lucid dreamer.

The Auld Grump

My brain dredged up another classic detail: the fake prisoner/victim. NPC thief doing over the place hears party, hides and pretends to either a prisoner or victim. Upon being 'rescued' the thief teams is grateful and teams up with party, until a convenient moment to rob them and slip away.
Variant: the NPC is an assassin plant whose job is to try and kill at least one party member before slipping away.

My 2 favourites down that road are the CE Sorceress that is chained & unconscious as the baddies are scared of her.

The other is the frozen meat store with troll meat in it...