D&D supplements/modules for non-D&D GMs

[Arminius]

This is inspired by a couple other threads that are floating around.

I’m wondering what D&D or D&D-adjacent modules are out there that would be of interest to non-D&D GMs. Particularly, adventures or settings that are:

* Not dungeons/labyrinths
* Not linear sequences of scenes
* Highly gameable, rather than filled with “mid level lore”

Sort of the Griffin Mountains of D&D, but wilderness wouldn’t be the only type of situation/setting.

 

[Mankcam]

Rime of the Frostmaiden could be retrapped to be any artic-style frontier setting rather than Forgotten Realms' Icepeak Dale
Odyssey of the Dragon Lords would be a decent campaign that could be ported into other systems, something like Mythras for instance.
The Dark of Hot Springs Island looks open enough to be ported into any setting. Very much a sandbox, more so than the other two.

Not sure if this is the kind of suggestions you are after

 

[Fenris-77]

Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh has a ton of great gameable material in it.

 

[Arminius]

Mankcam Thanks! The first two I’m not sure—I looked at some reviews and they were sort of lukewarm on the sandbox-vs-directed adventure structure. On the other hand, with enough detail, directed adventures can still supply content for further open-ended activity. The third sounds like exactly what I’m looking for, and that’s a good thing because I grabbed the PDF a while back when the publisher had a special offer, and then I forgot about it.

Saltmarsh is a name that keeps coming up. I should check it out.

 

[Kobayashi]

The old Jakandor series for AD&D 2e could be worth a look (there were 3 books in total), it describes an island where barbarians and necromancers have a showdown and the PCs get tossed in the middle.

EDIT: and on the D&D adjacent side, there's the Haunted Highlands stuff for Castles & Crusades, not my jam but well executed nonetheless.

 

[migo]

Not a module, but a supplement - DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide. It's largely system agnostic DMing advice, that could be used for constructing and running your own D&D-style adventures.

 

[johnmarron]

I'm a big fan of Shadows over Driftchapel. It's an "adventure kit", sort of a mini setting and adventure with lots of random tables to vary it up. It's a Lovecraft-inspired investigative scenario, and includes a brief gazetteer of a larger setting. I have run it with Shadow of the Demon Lord, and am about to run it again using ICRPG.

 

[JAMUMU]

You can use Against the Cult of the Reptile God as a starter for any fantasy game, I reckon.

 

[Arminius]

Thanks, I will check these all out. Part of my motivation here is (a) I never got into modules very much in the past and (b) for various reasons I really never gave D&D materials a second look, since from an early date (like, 1980 or so) my tastes diverged from what I perceived as the mainstream of D&D. Now in retrospect based on the sheer quantity of output, and the talent of some of the people involved, there’s probably been a lot of good stuff I’ve missed, which was structurally rich and/or innovative.

 

[hawkeyefan]

One of my favorite RPG products ever is "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil" from the Planescape setting. While it does have lore, it's all in the form of a bunch of NPCs who are interconnected in various ways, and tied to different factions in the city. It's a really solid way to craft situations that the players can engage with that's not a traditional adventure scenario. It could all be reskinned/repurposed to be less Sigil specific.

I'm still using material from that book decades later.

 

[ffilz]

This thread should be of lots of interest to me, though mostly I have converted dungeon modules.

Hmm, TSR module UK5 Eye of the Serpent which I have used twice for RuneQuest adventures might count. It's mostly a wilderness adventure. As written, it's pretty much a linear series of encounters, but when I ran it, I ignored the closing off paths so that it was a more open sandbox.

Right now I am using robertsconley 's Blackmarsh setting for Cold Iron which has required some adaptation of how Cold Iron splits up the spell list.

In the past, I have used the Blackmoor maps from The First Fantasy Campaign (and the color versions of these maps from the TSR DA series modules) for Cold Iron and Burning Wheel, but in that case really I was just using the map so I'm not sure that really counts.

 

[Vile Traveller]

X1 Isle of Dread is the archetypal lost world sandbox.

 

[robertsconley]

X1 Isle of Dread is the archetypal lost world sandbox.

If folks want a little more variety in a hexcrawl format I recommend my Points of Light 2: The Sunrise Sea

Points of Light II: The Sunrise Sea continues the Points of Light series with four new settings, each extensively detailed and mapped. Each new setting is ideal for novices launching their first campaign, or veteran GMs looking to challenge their players with the exploration of a new world.

• The Golden Shores: A land in the midst of being colonized, where adventurers can encounter unknown cultures, old enemies, and battle a darkness that has haunted the land for millennia.
• Amacui: A frontier land with only a single trading post representing the civilized world, but there are many ruins to explore and new civilizations to discover.
• The Misty Isle: The greatest threat to exploration is not the natives or ‘things man is not meant to know,’ but enemies from the old world. Here in the Misty Isles, enemies from different realms and factions fight amid the jungles and islands.
• Mazatl, the Realm of the Bat God: Rising from the vast Jungles of Zaracar is a massive shield volcano. Here the blood god, Azartac, lives in the city of Mazatl in the volcano’s caldera.

Four new worlds await exploration by the brave and the resourceful. Do your characters have the skill and fortitude to adventure in these undiscovered lands?

Amazon
DriveThruRPG

 

[Voros]

Mankcam Thanks! The first two I’m not sure—I looked at some reviews and they were sort of lukewarm on the sandbox-vs-directed adventure structure. On the other hand, with enough detail, directed adventures can still supply content for further open-ended activity. The third sounds like exactly what I’m looking for, and that’s a good thing because I grabbed the PDF a while back when the publisher had a special offer, and then I forgot about it.

Saltmarsh is a name that keeps coming up. I should check it out.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines the original Saltmarsh module with several other TSR UK modules in a good little sandbox setting. I'm a fan of the TSR UK modules im general.

Night's Dark Terror is a really good adventure that as a teaching module for runnimg what we now call a sandbox or pointcrawl. It is also full of flavourful and original touches.

Isle of Dread is a classic sandbox as well.

 

[Nobohom]

It's D&D adjacent, but the Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder 2e has an insane scope as far as building your nation up from scratch goes.
While there are some 'set' events, there are more gaps needing to be filled and explored, rather than just a linear adventure.
It's very hexcrawl as well, with some interesting if confusing Kingdom building elements as well.
And of course, it got a recent 2nd edition re-release.