"Enter a garden of earthly delights. The sun has stopped setting over the king's favorite garden. It seemed like a harmless curiosity at first but the animals have turned violent and strange alien beings have appeared. The duke has placed a bounty for enterprising sell-swords to end the curse of endless daylight. Hideous Daylight is an adventure module for Old-School Essentials, Cairn, and compatible with other pen-and-paper RPGs with old-school sensibilities. Player characters will navigate a 20 point hex crawl to end the strange curse affecting the land. An adventure for low-level characters. 33 pages of non-linear, character driven adventure in the OSR tradition. Two keyed dungeons and a 20 point hex-crawl. A bucolic fantasy setting easily insertable into fantasy RPG campaigns. Dangerous new monsters, weird magic items, and an unpredictable random encounters table. Features two gazebos."
Prison of the Hated Pretender is an introductory adventure for 4-6 characters levels 0-1. Originally published on the Dungeon of Signs blog, it is a short drop-in location-based adventure with a couple of interesting puzzles, a lack of "book" monsters, implacable foes with an obvious weakness, and a very weird roleplaying opportunity. The new 2020 edition republished by Hydra Collective adds suggested guidance for new Dungeonmasters who grew up with 5th edition and don't know how old-school works. Stats for both BECMI and 5th edition, and setting neutral (though there are some implied things about the history of the world).
The Tomb of Firkin is a challenging and varied Dungeon Tomb-Raid from Dunromin University Press Designed for 6 to 10 adventurers of 3rd to 5thlevel, this is a Tomb dungeon scenario with a more to it than just Undead. Suitable for any OSR flavour and 1st and 2nd Edition D&D. Thelkor Boghammer and his band of Dwarven murder-hobos opened up the tomb of the Gnomish Firkin family a few months ago. They had a bad time of it and the sole survivor, Tutlin, is drowning his sorrows and desperate to sell the map he made of the tomb to any eager adventurers he comes across. His map contains a clue to a secret way he never realised was there – can any more noble adventurers decipher the clue and find the riches without being slaughtered by the Undead guardians? Or, failing that, could your characters do it? ;-) The Tomb of Firkin is more than just another tomb; hidden in the depths are a humanoid tribe and a secret cult based on geometry. The adventure is 44 pages with quality maps and illustrations to help you visualise the encounters. The style is based on minimal set-up, total carnage, maximum fun - the Tomb of Firkin would also work as SOLO PLAY! SM13 The Tomb of Firkin is available in pdf, softback or hardback Print On Demand at amazing value for such a quality product! But the best quality playing aids at the best possible prices is what we do at Dunromin University Press...
It's like a 'Legend of Zelda' puzzle dungeon, but instead of Link, you play as a group of grubby grave robbers. Also, there's way more eyeball stuff. Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum is a system neutral adventure for characters of level 1 to 4. It will work with any old school games like Old School Essentials or B/X or the most recent version of the world's most popular roleplaying game. What's in it: * 10 room dungeon crawl where each location has its own mysteries to poke and experiment with * Cohesive puzzles that build on each other * Lets players to discover their own solutions in true OSR fashion * Magic items and equipment that change how the players interact with their environment and previously explored areas * Use as a 4-6 hour one-shot or the start to a planar hopping campaign for wherever you'd like to go
A 1st-level dungeon crawl for Shadowdark RPG where the characters delve into a ruined citadel hunting for legendary treasures while avoiding the wrath of the infamous scarlet minotaur! Inside the citadel are secrets about the downfall of the warrior-cultists who once ruled it, three legendary weapons they wielded, and several factions of intelligent creatures to turn into allies or enemies. This adventure is part of the free, digital Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set, which comes with two 68-page booklets (Player and Game Master guides), 8 pre-made characters with gorgeous art, and a form-fillable character sheet. Shadowdark RPG is what classic, old-school fantasy gaming would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation. It's the world's greatest roleplaying game in a whole new light! Download the free Quickstart set here: https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark
An adventure for 3-4 characters of Levels 3-4 exploring a ruined temple in a deep forest, with new monsters, new magic items, and all new original art. Deep within the Forest of Legressia lies a ruined temple of a long forgotten goddess. This ancient, crumbling temple is rumored to contain an artifact of the faith deep within its bowels, but also to be guarded by a shadowy malevolence. Your party has been tasked with reconnoitering the temple and retrieving the artifact. Great rewards await those courageous (or foolish) enough to delve into the Shadowed Temple of the Forgotten Goddess... https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/475049/OSR-One-Shot--Shadowed-Temple-of-the-Forgotten-Goddess?src=hottest_filtered The adventure includes: 5 fully fleshed out encounters within the temple. Traps, monsters, riddles, and mysteries abound Four new monsters, two of which are variants of the shadow-bound Umbrathi, charged as guardians of the temple's secrets Harvesting and crafting options, for defeated and destroyed foes A new magical item, the Amulet of Redemption Lore connected with the world, including tie-ins to adventures to come A professional battlemap/sitemap from the superb Silver Compass Maps Incredible orginal artwork from Simon Underwood and Carlos Castilho Map Pack: includes gridded and ungridded versions of both GM maps and player friendly maps. Also includes VTT compatible maps
Ancient port city on the edge of a desert. The city is stratified by social class and some of the slaves have formed a cannibal cult to Kthulhu. City + hexcrawl + dungeon. The Anthropophagi of Xambaala™ takes players into an action-packed realm of adventure: the mythical world of Hyperborea, a sword-and-sorcery campaign setting inspired by the fantastic fiction of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others. This adventure is inspired by Robert E. Howard’s “The Man-Eaters of Zamboula” and by various short tales of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. It is designed for use with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea ™(AS&SH™), a role-playing game descended from the original 1974 fantasy wargame and miniatures campaign rules as conceived by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. AS&SH is compatible with most traditional fantasy role-playing games (c. 1974 to 1999) and their modern simulacra, such as OSRIC™ and Swords & Wizardry™. This work is both a setting and an adventure. The setting describes the town of Xambaala, noting key people, locations, and local lore. The adventure proper provides players with a variety of environments and the several factions fighting over them for their own goals. With a bit of skill and luck, stalwart adventurers may emerge richer and maybe wiser. The situation that will develop in Xambaala will be determined by the players’ choices.
A level 3 temple incursion adventure by Brad Kerr. In a golden temple of healing on a sundrenched island, blissful amnesiac patients are held prisoner by monstrous caretakers. Intruding PCs will need their wits and their swords to unravel the temple’s secrets, snatch its treasures, and escape. For Old-School Essentials (OSE) Included as one of four adventures in "Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1"
The Golem Master, creator of pricey artificial servants, hasn’t been seen around for some time. His house stands dark and silent. Dare you enter?
(EQ1) The Cursed Ring is a generic fantasy short adventure for low-level players, themed around puzzle hunting, traps, and monster combat. It is designed to be solved in approximately 5-6 hours, depending on the size of the party and skill of the players. This adventure takes place in a cursed fortress, where they must find a powerful mythical ring capable of granting great power, in exchange for enormous sacrifices. Players must recover the ring and get out of this dangerous place alive.
Written in celebration of Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day 2017, Return to Fel’Valashar picks up where Dungeons of Fel’Valashar left off. In this book is a collection of mini dungeon adventures with a small region called Fel’Valashar that they take place within. Each of these adventures is written in such a way that they don’t have any ties to each other or to Fel’Valashar. This means you can easily drop them into your own world with no fuss. Includes: Details of the south-western region of Fel’Valashar. Four mini dungeon adventures. New monsters. New magic items.
Are you in need of a breeding factory that spews out torrents of mutated weretoads into your campaign world? Do your adventurers enjoy exploring slimy, wet ruins inhabited by depraved, vile creatures? The Towers of the Weretoads is a mini-dungeon you can plop down in the edges of any of the lakes/fresh water bodies in your campaign world. It's filled with treasure, danger and slime. The Towers of the Weretoads is presented in an innovative mapping style that eliminates the needs for flipping between pages as you run it. Everything you need to know about a dungeon level is right there in front of you on the same single page! This allows you, the DM, to focus on creating a dynamic, interesting and challenging dungeon experience for your players. This PDF includes a 3 level dungeon and 2 original and disgusting enemies for adventurers to fight. The randomness and non-linearity of the encounters means this adventure could be an appropriate challenge for a wide level range of adventurers. Published by Gorgzu Games
A small local area with ten locations and a big wizard dungeon with 19 rooms. The module is based around some rules lite system exclusive to the module, but for obvious reasons can be run in the system of your choice with little modification. (Some best guess approximations have been made for the creatures for search optimization.) Official description: "This adventure is a work of PARODY based on “Caverns of Draconis,” featured in Season 2, Episode 14 of NBC's TV series, “Community.” THIS IS NOT A TSR PRODUCT. This product was made in accordance with Wizards of the Coast's OGL Version 1.0a. The following game and adventure have been designed to reimagine what the fictional module featured in the episode might look like. This rules-lite RPG is meant to serve as an introduction for newcomers and fans of the show alike. The game can be played with 2-9 players and has everything you need to get started except for dice. "
Some time ago, the wind began to sing of death in the Sision River Valley, and if purgatory was a song, Glovakians are now listening to it. The source of this soul-crushing music was tracked to about 90 miles northwest of Ambir. What was found? A massive, oddly built stone tower that wasn't there before. Word quickly spread and the curious set out in droves. Many turned back however, as every passing day the music got worse, but a brave, or foolish few, managed to make camp and eventually go inside. If anyone's made it out, no one really knows, but there's no shortage of rumors as to what's really going on in the place that's come to be known as, Sision Tower. Sision Tower is an OSR styled, vertical dungeon-crawl where the PCs explore an odd domain of Holy origins. Here, they will test their survival skills as well as their Faith. Here, they will meet Saints and Seraphs. Here, in the struggle between Law and Chaos they have to decide.....Plunder??......Sacrifice??......or Both!!! Sision Tower includes: All original black and white art. Over a dozen, fully illustrated, new magic items. Unique monsters and a sample setting. A vertical dungeon-crawl of 35 rooms. A spiritual setting in the same vein as Praise the Fallen. Sision Tower is designed to challenge character levels 3-5 and is easily used with most tradtional fantasy role-play systems.
The Ocaulin Cult has stumbled upon the tomb, seeking to awaken an abomination known as the Spawn of Ocaulin. They have kidnapped a merchant’s daughter, Mornea, to serve as the final sacrifice for the creature. Meanwhile, undead have escaped the tomb, plaguing nearby settlements. The PCs must navigate the dangers of the tomb, confront the cult, and prevent the Spawn of Ocaulin from being unleashed upon the world. Multi-level tomb filled with traps, and undead guardians. Dynamic events and rumors in the City of Omere
NEVER MEET FORGOTTEN HEROES! Long ago a half-elf, half deer-centaur named Jayne led a small guerilla band against the armies of an evil fae witch. They prevailed at terrible cost. Monsters moved into her hideout-turned-sepulchre, still haunted by Jayne’s ennemies and companions, and a ghost longing to complete his vengeance... Adventurers will discover the fates and true faces of unremembered heres. Will they get out with forgotten riches, or become the latest victims of a centuries-old tragedy? A 39-room OSR dungeon module for character levels 5-7. Designed for use with the Old-School Essentials ruleset, compatible with most old-school pen-and-paper RPGs.
Dreams of the sleeping wizard seep into reality. Manifest familiars war over the fate of a remote islet. An infinite garden houses an escaped experiment. The god of purity is fooled for his blessings. Into the nightmare we go. 16 pages contain 3000+ words describing 10+ keyed areas to explore (complete the wandering monsters table), 10+ friends and foes to talk to, 10 magic items to use, and thousands of gold worth of treasure to plunder. The adventure is designed for B/X, or like-systems. It is suitable for 4 to 6 characters of levels 1 to 3. It is heavily inspired by the dungeon synth album The Sleeping Wizard by Umbría, which may serve as a soundtrack.
The ruined Thorp of Rhu once produced honey, apples, hard cider, and mead. Villagers now stay away as they believe Rhu is cursed. Years ago a witch, Katla, was cheated from a reward promised for chasing away an attacking giant. Furious, she waited for her chance at revenge. Over a year, Katla created many small sack dolls and gifted them to Rhu’s children. One night, each doll animated, killed the sleeping adults, and set the village on fire. Now Sorcha, the village elder, asks the PCs to go to Rhu to locate a lost dwarven friend, help a restless soul, and find out what really happened to Rhu long ago. These outsider sack doll spirits take great pleasure in tormenting and slaying weaker creatures. At Rhu, the PCs encounter murderous sack dolls, learn the villagers’ & dwarf’s fate, parlay with spirits, and clash with Bloody Tears, the witch’s minion & spirit familiar. Published by Wicked Cool Games
People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, Ravenloft, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction. It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano. I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic OSR dungeon for beginners that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process. If you like this dungeon, please share it, tell people about it, print copies and leave them lying around local game stores, or email this post to friends who have "always wanted to try D&D but don't know where to start". The entire thing is and always will be free.
The ancient world of Harth withers beneath its dying sun…but it’s not dead yet. High in the night sky, a vampire’s tower is torn apart by a rampaging angel. People and monsters are trapped. Magical treasure lies scattered everywhere. It’s all yours for the taking, if you can find a way out before the angel finds you. This adventure is a one-shot dungeon-delve into a wizard’s tower. In space. With vampires. This is an alien-survival-horror-movie of an adventure (or at least, you can choose to play it that way). ADVENTURE TYPE: One-Shot / Low Level / Level 3 / Dungeon Delve / Tower / Vampires / Survival-Horror DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for low-level characters (around level 3). It is focused mostly on exploration, with several social encounters and opportunities for deadly combat. It runs 3 to 5 hours. There are 17 unique magical items, 17 unique monsters, and 17 unique rooms. I swear I did not plan that, it just worked out this way.