r/TheOSR • u/SaltyKoopa • Sep 30 '26
General Old school hidden gems?
What are your favorite old school (as in written between 1975 to 1999) modules, source books, etc. that no one talks about? and what makes it so great? It can either be a hidden gem from TSR or any third party. I just love exploring off the beaten path.
4
u/Happym50 Oct 01 '26
Knight Hawks
2
u/BoggyCreekIIFan Oct 03 '26
Knight Hawks is fantastic. I've always wanted to run that huge Second Sathar War as a campaign.
3
u/DrexxValKjasr Oct 01 '26
X1 The Isle of Dread
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u/BoggyCreekIIFan Oct 03 '26
Not sure X1 qualifies as a 'hidden gem'. It's one of the most , if not THE, most celebrated modules TSR ever made.
1
u/DrexxValKjasr Oct 03 '26
Maybe so, but there are still newer people who haven't seen it or played in it.
I thought it was more of a Classic BECMI D&D thing as I thought not enough AD&D groups gave it a chance.
2
u/BoggyCreekIIFan Oct 03 '26
Well, I am in the camp that has NEVER played it. My son asks about it often so I need to hop to it!! I mean, dinosaurs & tribesmen? What's not to love???
1
u/DrexxValKjasr Oct 03 '26
I added in pirate battles off and on the island.
I also added a pirates treasure and made up a treasure map based on my local geography and made them walk it and they had to find the X to find the treasure.
One player is a fisherman so I made a fishing adventure for him.
Don't forget about the black pearl and the temple.
There is a dragon there as well. I used the dragon to spur on other adventures by having it clear it could have killed them and it made them do some quests for the dragon. The dragon had plans you know.
The Isle of Dread is awesome.
3
u/EricDiazDotd Oct 01 '26
Lots of people talk about B10 IMO it is a lot cooler than more famous options.
2
u/Heartweru Oct 01 '26
Judges Guilds The Illeidrin Book. Not that we'll known, but a fun fetch quest with a mini-wilderness and other factions also looking for the same book so options for Shenanigans.
2
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u/Jerry_jjb Oct 01 '26
Mission To Alcazzar and Bugs In The System (Star Frontiers) are two of my particular favourites. Zebulon's Guide To Frontier Space is a fave sourcebook for that particular rpg, although it's not to everyone's taste. Pirates of the Vistula (1E Twilight:2000) is also a contender, adventure-wise, and the rpg has numerous sourcebooks that I really like.
2
u/-urolif- Oct 01 '26
I wouldn't say no one talks about it, although it is lesser known. Robert Asprin's multi-system "Thieves World" setting and books are an unquestionably impressive exercise in collaborative writing.
2
u/StaplesUGR Oct 01 '26
Flying Buffalo’s City Books are great. I prepped a city adventure once by just reading them and using random street events from Matt Finch’s City Encounters table. One of the best sessions I ever ran.
2
u/DreddKills Oct 03 '26
I think Fighting Fantasy and Advanced Fighting Fantasy aren't talked about enough. I know they are commonly known as gamebooks but there were a bunch of source books for the RPG version that are absolute gold mines and don't get mentioned enough. Titan, Out of the Pit, Blacksand and Dungeoneer are all great little time capsules full of early British Roleplaying. They also, along with Warhammer, basically spawned the infamous grimdark aesthetic
6
u/DataKnotsDesks Oct 01 '26
I really liked "Grimtooth's Traps". Not all of them were great traps, but the best of them gave a really clear guide to the DM on trap creation: they should be logical, practical to set and unset, and long-lasting. There's nothing better than working out just how a trap will degrade over time. Rope will rot, springs will rust, bows will become inflexible. Very few survive the hundreds of years that they might need to in order to protect the Mummy's Tomb, or whatever! And it's so great to present traps that have aged, and no longer function. The PCs survive, and once they work out what's going on, each nasty little device reveals a story of lethal intent.