Making great modules

[Yora]

In my planning for an open online game with rotating players I decided to step back from an open world approach and go full out oldschool module style instead. Open world tends to work best in a confined area and PCs tend to get involved in long term local affairs. Which isn't so great when players are meant to drop in and out without losing track of what's going on in any given session.

Modules seem to be just the right content for this, though. A stand-alone ruin, dungeon, or cave that has various inhabitants and all kinds of treasures and magic to find, perhaps with a bit of wilderness around it. The instruction to the players is to go and find the place and grab what treasure they can. I always thought that to be very boring sounding and without any goal or purpose than to gain more levels. But when the module also includes different factions of creatures that are in some kind of conflict and might be willing to talk with the PCs you have a small sandbox in which the players decide what their adventure should be.
But you also have everything pretty self contained and you can easily move each module to almost any place of the world and adapt them to the local environment and culture.

But so far I only ran one module and read a handful to any real detail. Against the Cult of the Reptile God was fun, but probably the most plotted of the pre-84 modules. I read and very much liked The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun and Death Frost Doom but neither seem beginner friendly, either for players or GMs.
I am looking for advice which modules to read as great examples of such sandbox dungeons and how to make your own to be fun to explore and interesting to play in. Any ideas?

[Beleriphon]

http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.ph...-west-marches/

Imma leave that there.

In seriousness though a good way to go is have the home base town but not allow more than minor interaction with the town. Its a place to be safe and get leads, but it isn't a place to adventure. The adventure is out there, in the wilds.

[Tiktakkat]

It sounds like you want multiple things that are not always present in every module, so it may be difficult to find exactly what you want.
Also, if the group really does rotate a lot, you are eventually going to wind up with level disparities between the PCs and available adventures.
That said, if you want low-level, multi-option, starting point adventures, the oldies but goodies would be:

B1 In Search of the Unknown
The ultimate in intro friendly.
If you want to expand it, get the Hackmaster version, Quest for the Unknown.

B2 Keep on the Borderlands
The namer for multi-faction locations. It has lots of potential for repeat attacks if you keep stocking it.
Again, the Hackmaster version, Little Keep on the Borderlands, provides a lot of expansion. In particular, it combines directly with Quest for the Unknown.
The anniversary version, Return to the Keep on the Bordlands, has some material, but is distinctly inferior to the Hackmaster version.

B5 Horror on the Hill
In addition to the dungeon, which has 2 main sub-sections, it contains an extensive surrounding area that constitutes a third level.

B10 Night's Dark Terror
The first mini-campaign module. Comprised of several sections, each with multiple mini-dungeons, and significant interaction with the setting. It will take work to convert for other settings, but it is an incredible mine of campaign background and seeds for further adventures.

L1 The Secret of Bone Hill
The original sandbox. Rumors, mini-quests, and interaction with the local villagers. And it jumps to . . .

L2 The Assassin's Knot
Brings hard politics to the setting of L1. Not as random group friendly, but a solid expansion quest from the L1 base.

T1 The Village of Hommlet
The original base. Not as sandboxy as L1, but great detail for a base the PCs can get involved with.

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
U2 Danger at Dunwater
U3 The Final Enemy

Another mini-campaign. Nowhere near as much detail, and the second and third parts have expectations that my not work with many groups.

UK 2 The Sentinel
UK 3 The Gauntlet

More of an extended quest than a mini-campaign, it uses a lot of "unusual" monsters as it was meant to showcase the Fiend Folio. The core is quite good though it doesn't have the extensive background of things like B10, L1/2, and T1.

I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Very much a side-quest from a set base centered campaign. Also meant for higher levels. However it does feature the multiple faction element you mentioned.

[RazorChain]

http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.ph...-west-marches/

Imma leave that there.

In seriousness though a good way to go is have the home base town but not allow more than minor interaction with the town. Its a place to be safe and get leads, but it isn't a place to adventure. The adventure is out there, in the wilds.

Homebase is always a good way to go.

I once played in a great game where the characters were all from the same small remote village and we started as teens and it kinda was how our characters became adventurers.

The villagers knew the world outside the village was dangerous so everybody just stuck to their routine and farmed and hunted etc and the caravan from the city came twice a year.

So our characters were left to explore the cursed forest, the haunted ruins, the gutted tower, the dank cave, the faerie ring and the ancient burial mound. It was great fun and worked well.

[Digitalelf]

Paizo made a couple of (linked) modules when they first started out that (I think) fit what you're talking about.

One is "H0 - Hollow's Last Hope", and the other is "H1 - Crown of the Kobold King".

Yes, they are modules written for 3.5 D&D, but that's an easy fix. :-)

I am pretty sure that "Hollow's Last Hope" is a free PDF download from their site.

[Psikerlord]

You might take a look at my Patreon: $1 Adventure Frameworks

Basically mini-advenutres to drop into locations - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=645444

There's a free example, Tomb of Horutep, at the link :D

[Stan]

If not the first, the first famous sandbox module was the Isle of Dread, which was played by most players in the 80s because it came with the expert set. It has a nice mix of mini-dungeons or adventures along with sandbox wandering into trouble. It is a wilderness adventure, though, and not a dungeon crawl though it might be hard to apply to your own adventures.

The Keep on the Borderlands is a classic module, also boosted in popularity but being in a box set. It's nice is that it has a home base, stuff in nearby areas, and a series of small dungeons that are each good for a session of gaming. There are things you can use from the wilderness and keep for more complex plots if you want or you can just use it as a place to rest and buy stuff. There's only modest interaction between the caves but it's still an excellent module. The late 2e remake Return to the Keep on the Borderlands redid a few things and depopulated the keep somewhat and is also good.

I like In Search of the Unknown because it has some weird things that aren't just fighting stuff. I like mysteries that make players think but some people dislike effects without an explanation of how they could be created with the existing rules.

The Temple of Elemental Evil is potentially interesting with conflicting factions but I found it a long slog through a big dungeon that got tedious.

I've read only a few 3e and 5e modules but some were good - I'm blanking on names at the moment.

[Psikerlord]

If not the first, the first famous sandbox module was the Isle of Dread, which was played by most players in the 80s because it came with the expert set. It has a nice mix of mini-dungeons or adventures along with sandbox wandering into trouble. It is a wilderness adventure, though, and not a dungeon crawl though it might be hard to apply to your own adventures.

The Keep on the Borderlands is a classic module, also boosted in popularity but being in a box set. It's nice is that it has a home base, stuff in nearby areas, and a series of small dungeons that are each good for a session of gaming. There are things you can use from the wilderness and keep for more complex plots if you want or you can just use it as a place to rest and buy stuff. There's only modest interaction between the caves but it's still an excellent module. The late 2e remake Return to the Keep on the Borderlands redid a few things and depopulated the keep somewhat and is also good.

I like In Search of the Unknown because it has some weird things that aren't just fighting stuff. I like mysteries that make players think but some people dislike effects without an explanation of how they could be created with the existing rules.

The Temple of Elemental Evil is potentially interesting with conflicting factions but I found it a long slog through a big dungeon that got tedious.

I've read only a few 3e and 5e modules but some were good - I'm blanking on names at the moment.

Isle of Dread is pretty much my fav module of all time. I only discovered it a couple years ago.

[Mutazoia]

The Hidden Shrine of the Tamoachan is a pure dungeon crawl, with a good mix of traps, puzzles and combat, as is White Plume Mountain.

[shatterspike1]

I've got a question before I do recommendations: are you going to allow players to go back to these dungeons? A lot of these modules show their best side only from repeated interaction and exploration. My suggestion would be to run the game menu style: offer your players a list of dungeons they know about, and expand that list over time. Ask "where do you want to go today? The village of Hommlet is having some trouble, a local church wants a relic located on top of that spooky mountain, and there's a keep a couple days travel from here that has some issues clearing out hominids." It also has the advantage of never forcing a player into a negadungeon, instead giving them enough rope to hang themself with, without the complexity of a hexmap or local politics.

Now, onto the recommendations. I've run through or played in all of these myself, so these are experience based recommendations.

Tower of the Stargazer (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) is excellent. It's very good at teaching both new players (through clearly telegraphed deathtraps and dangers) and new refs (through Raggi's design notes). Read through it once (it's short), and it's generally easy to run. Figure out something other than Chess for the game though; that takes forever. You can get the PDF from DTRPG.

Death Frost Doom, you mentioned above. I experienced this one as a player, and it's got a lot going for it (the session was a TPK - 1, and I wasn't the guy who lived). The treasure there is decent enough, the central trick of the module is built up to that there can be no doubt something bad will happen to the players. The caveat with this one? You cannot, CANNOT force your players to go there. It must always be an option, not "the module I'm running this week" with the implication that there's no game otherwise.

Stonehell, a relatively recently made megadungeon. This has many factions, lots of weirdness, and a lot to explore. May be a tad loot light for your tastes. Very easy to just pick up and run, as each section follows the one page dungeon format, with a handful of extra things that require more explanation. You'll want a copy of B/X handy, probably, since many of the monsters are by the book, though. You can pick it up off Lulu (it comes in two parts, detailing the upper and lower halves of the dungeon).

Anomalous Subsurface Environment is 3.5 levels of a megadungeon along with some setting you may want to strip off (it doesn't jive with the more generic fantasy or sword & sorcery theme and is very much its own setting). I recommend ignoring the initial quest and changing the method of entry into the dungeon if you want the outside world to remain more traditional fantasy. That being said, the setting itself is excellent (you might want to steal it for your game instead), and the megadungeon is pure gonzo. You can get it from Lulu (it comes in two parts, one is the setting and first 1.5 floors, the other is the other 2 floors).

Shout out to Maze of the Blue Medusa, which I have but haven't run yet. Take a look if you're interested.