Best non Pathfinder adventure that I could convert to Pathfinder

[noblejohn]

I am looking for some outstanding adventures or adventure paths that are from any other system (AD&D, Descent, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, etc..) that I could use with my group.

My guys are really up on all of the Paizo product and I want to surprise them with something different and fun.

[Tin Foil Yamakah]

Tomb of Horrors

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (3E) is one of the all-time great adventures in my opinion. Other 3E favorites of mine that might work are Three Days to Kill and Bastion of Broken Souls.

[Joshua Goudreau]

Red Hand of Doom was pretty fantastic and deserves it's place as one of the iconic modules from 3rd Edition. Also, the credits page has a few familiar names...

[clff rice]

Mud Sorcerers tomb from dungeon 37.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

'Outstanding' as in merely memorable or as in well-crafted?
Because lots of the old BECMI adventures I've been running for my group are rather absurd in their plot and scenery but are memorable like anything.

[KarlBob]

An 'oldie but goodie' is The Enemy Within, a campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

[GreyWolfLord]

Joshua Goudreau wrote:

Red Hand of Doom was pretty fantastic and deserves it's place as one of the iconic modules from 3rd Edition. Also, the credits page has a few familiar names...

This was the first one that came to mind for me, as it is from the 3.5 era and is perhaps one of the most fondly remembered modules of that time period.

[Antariuk]

Yeah, another vote for Red Hand of Doom. There is a massive GM's Handbook on the Giant in the Playground Forums with lots of tips on how to make this thing go smooth at the table (and some Pathfinder advice), so a lot of work is already done.

If you want to start a game at 1st level, then another iconic adventure would be The Sunless Citadel, the first volume of 3.0's "adventure path". It is a great little module with all the iconic game aspects in it, and you can easily link it to RHoD if you want to:

Sunless Citadel:

Make the goblins in the dungeon a scouting party of the Red Hand, looking for magic items for their leader. Either change some aspects of RHoD's backstory so you can fit Ashardalon in it, or replace Ashardalon with Tiamat and make the Sunless Citadel her temple.

[Gullyble Dwarf - Lvl 7 DM]

They familiar with Paizo's original pre-Pathfinder/Golarion 3.5 AP's. Shackled City AP is pretty good. My group is still roll'n through it (5+ years later).

The Shackled City Adventure Path

[wraithstrike]

Age of Worms and The Savage Tide area also good. AoW is difficult though so be careful if you run that one, not that Shackled City and Savage Tide are cakewalks.

[The Shining Fool]

I'd vote for "Shackled City." It was a great campaign, even if there are some obvious "issues" that the team learned to fix in later paths.

Failing that, I'd second "Red Hand of Doom." It had an awesome feel, and being thrust into the midst of a war is always great fun.

My third bet would be "City of the Spider Queen." It was ranked 24th greatest adventure of all time. It has Drow. It has a war. it has the Realms. What's not to love?

[Joshua Goudreau]

I've played and run Sunless Citadel so many times over the last 14 years since it was released. It really was a lot of fun. Forge of Fury and Heart of Nightfang Spire were also standouts in the Ashardalon series, which for the most part was pretty solid from beginning to end.

[Nimon]

There are a lot of 3rd Party APs that are well written. I think Way of the Wicked is a refreshing concept.

The legend of the five rings modules are fairly well written and the setting could easily be converted into a Tien city. The mechanics are different, though I think there was a d20 version at some point that might be helpful.

[idilippy]

With just "outstanding" to go on, and no idea what your group in particular finds outstanding, I am going to suggest a number of different potential adventures.

First to mind, with the Iron Gods AP looming, is the excellent Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Deadly, slightly (ok, more than slightly) crazy, and lots of fun, this adventure blends sci-fi elements in so if that's a turn off for your group you probably want to steer clear. Originally designed for AD&D.

Next are a pair of classic linked modules that make for pretty decent adventure paths when run together, Scourge of the Slavelords (A1-A4) and the massive Queen of the Spiders (GDQ 1-7). In the first your party works to stop the predation of slavers, and features a very challenging but fun (for some) 4th adventure. If your players get twitchy when you do things like sunder, use rust monsters, or otherwise separate their characters from their belongings, they might be less than pleased with the path of the modules towards the end (in which case I'd say run it and wrap up early, you'll know when). In the second the characters fight raiding giants before finding out that a worse evil is behind it all, potentially culminating in an epic showdown with a powerful demonic being. Originally designed for AD&D.

The Temple of Elemental Evil (T1-4) is another obvious seeming choice. A fun and deadly location that isn't just a dungeon crawl, lots of room in this for solutions other than killing everything if the Party and GM want something aside from hack and slash. Originally for AD&D.

Keep on the Borderlands (B2) is still a fantastic adventure starting point for 1st level parties. With a keep for a home base the wild Borderlands are open for exploration, dungeon crawling, diplomacy, and monster slaying as the keep just so happens to be close to a monster infested area. Perfect for starting parties with loads of room for a DM to branch them out into a wider sandbox from this more limited start. By adding a few hooks for their own adventures (or other published adventures) and building on any hooks players put into their backstory, by the time the players have completed this module they might have a multitude of other leads for further play. Originally for Basic D&D. Also notable for already having an excellent Pathfinder conversion done by another member who has a thread on this forum Here

There are loads of other excellent adventures out there, and it is certainly easier to convert a module designed for 3e or 3.5e like some of the other suggested modules have been, but you did mention any system so hope pointing out a few of the classics of older D&D editions works.

[noblejohn]

Thanks for the suggestions here. There are a lot of great ideas. I love the idea of going old school and converting to PF. I can start running and see if the players can figure out what it is.

I may just start with Keep on the Borderlands for grins, then maybe the red hand of doom or temple of elemental evil.

thanks again.

[Mulgar]

Ravenloft

Master of the Desert Nomads

Desert of Desolation series

and of course Isle of Dread

[Lord Fyre]

A word of caution. Encounter balance was very different in 1st & 2nd Edition.

[DungeonmasterCal]

1e's "Vault of the Drow".

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Modules and adventures I've enjoyed or would like to run from B/X and BECMI: "Death's Ride", "Tree of Life", "Red arrow, black shield", "Master of the desert nomads", "Isle of Dread"

The silly: Earthshaker! "Where Chaos reigns" "Into the maelstrom", "Castle Amber", "Palace of the Silver Princess"

[pachristian]

There are a lot of good suggestions here.

Check out Dungeon Crawl Classics:
“Prince Charming, Reanimator” (FT 0 - Purple Duck Games)
“Bride of the Black Manse” (DCC 82 - Goodman Games)

Also check out GRAmel's
"Amulet of the Dogskull" - absolutely not for lawful-goods! (Savage Worlds system; you'd have to take the storyline, and do the encounters on your own).

For adventures that will take less conversion, check out Goodman Game's 3E line - most are only $3 as pdf's.

I have converted a large number of D&D 1st through AD&D 2nd adventures, and I've never really found a problem with encounter levels. But you have to remember, in the older adventures, it was given that some encounters were going to be pushovers, and some were going to be encounters that the players should avoid or flee - knowing when to hold'em, and knowing when to run was just part of character survival.

[Cuchulainn]

One big difference between 1E/2E and Pathfinder: ORCS.

Old school orcs were mooks. They were the TIE fighters of the Monster Manual.

Pathfinder orcs are much, much more dangerous to a group of first level characters. Orc ferocity can be very difficult to overcome.

Keep on the Borderlands, for example, has a lot of orcs (2 full tribes). Make sure to adjust the encounters accordingy.

[Mike Franke]

AD&D Ravenloft is one of the greatest of all time.

[Mike Franke]

I also seem to recall that someone has put together a greatest adventures list, at least for D&D/Pathfinder, but I can't remember where.

[Itchy]

For an old school feel without any conversion, you could take a look at Frog God Games' catalog.

Slumbering Tsar is a massive sandboxy dungeon.

Rappan Athuk is all dungeon, all the time (and also quite deadly).

Razor Coast is a giant pirate sandbox.

From old 3.5 stuff: My group had a lot of fun going through Barrow of the Forgotten King, The Sinister Spire and Fortress of the Yuan-Ti, but we did that all under the old 3.5 rules.

[Sissyl]

Seconded Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, the Sinister Spire.

I really can't agree with Tomb of Horrors, though. It is rather incomprehensible why people think it is such a great adventure.

[Cylyria]

GDQ 1-7
Red Hand of Doom
Night Below campaign boxed set
Temple of Elemental Evil

[Nimon]

Sissyl wrote:

I really can't agree with Tomb of Horrors, though. It is rather incomprehensible why people think it is such a great adventure.

I totally agree, it is maybe fun for sadistic GMs that like to punish players, but it is not a well written adventure by any account. I think it gets put on lists for nostalgia sake alone.

[Sissyl]

Precisely.

Spoilers:

It is arbitrary. The clues given are screwed up. Most of the stuff is of the amazingly creative No save variety. A lot of it is stupid, such as the sex change and opposite alignment curse. There are three creatures in the entire sorry mess, all at severely different power levels. The entire dungeon is PASTEL, for the love of interior decoration. There are few opportunities for players to use their characters' abilities. The final combat against the demilich is similarly stupid (the thief's only option to do damage is to sling gemstones, which do damage in relation to their value, really Gary? Really?). It feels like a jumble of completely disconnected rooms, which is further reinforced by the fact that big A himself can realistically be taken out efficiently by using a trapped gemstone found two rooms earlier (which thankfully lets the PCs skip the combat with him). I played through it with some friends some time ago, and they looked pretty stunned at it. But its worst crime is that it keeps spawning homage adventures WHERE YOU USUALLY HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE ORIGINAL STINKING PILE OF CRAP AGAIN!!!

There. You can excommunicate me now.

[Majuba]

My vote is for Castle Amber (I think 1st edition module, maybe Basic)

Sissyl wrote:

There. You can excommunicate me now.

Qui de convallibus ista rapientes locus

Done.

[Friend of the Dork]

Cuchulainn wrote:

One big difference between 1E/2E and Pathfinder: ORCS.

Old school orcs were mooks. They were the TIE fighters of the Monster Manual.

Pathfinder orcs are much, much more dangerous to a group of first level characters. Orc ferocity can be very difficult to overcome.

Keep on the Borderlands, for example, has a lot of orcs (2 full tribes). Make sure to adjust the encounters accordingy.

They were quite dangerous back then. Remember, max hp at 1st lvl was a house rule, and you needed to roll a 15 Con or higher to get 1 more. Ad&d Orcs would pne-shot wizards, a a group of 4 could take down the party fighter quickly with a little luck.

If the Mage had used his only sleep spell and the party met 6+ orcs at once they were likely screwed.

[insaneogeddon]

Hellbound: The Blood War (AD&D/Planescape)

Utterly awesome - explore sigil, deal with elder evils, fight battles on dead gods, trek the planes, take the ability to teleport from every evil outsider in existence !!!

[stuart haffenden]

Red Hand of Doom

Twas my first experience as a player and I recently ran it with mythic rules for my players.

Great adventure!

[Joshua Goudreau]

insaneogeddon wrote:

Hellbound: The Blood War (AD&D/Planescape)

Utterly awesome - explore sigil, deal with elder evils, fight battles on dead gods, trek the planes, take the ability to teleport from every evil outsider in existence !!!

The Field of Nettles remains one of my most fondly remembered adventure sites. I harried and demoralized many a player character on that battlefield...

[Alex Smith 908]

With a bit of effort you could convert the Killing Jar (Dark*Matter) to be a low level Pathfinder adventure that introduces the Dark Lands.

[Kurzak]

Many of my favorites are listed already. I have been contemplating converting the AD&D 2nd Dragonlance modules. I ran them back in the day and the group loved them.

[Cuchulainn]

Castle Amber is a great adventure to convert. I actually converted it when 3rd edition first came out years ago, and ran it for my players. They still talk about it.

The Scourge of the Slave Lords (A1-A4) series would be another good choice.

The Desert of Desolation series.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan

[Jeffrey 'Zerzix' Swank]

I second A Night Below and Razor Coast! Both superb.

[HangarFlying]

1e-style already converted to Pathfinder.

[Kargoth Kargoron]

Dragonlance Age of Mortals trilogy was pretty epic 3.5 campaign.

[Squeakmaan]

Savage Tides for 3.5

[Jeffrey 'Zerzix' Swank]

(on a side note: I am almost finished converting Queen of Spiders (G-D-Q) into an adventure path style document)

[Bwang]

The little micro adventures of a dozen years ago were great one-offs. I have run Jerimond's Orb about eight times, using zombies at least twice, once at 4th of July as a game for the kiddies (disturbingly aware of all manner of zombie movies) till the rain quit. Most are geared for one evening and easy to swap foes without major problems. Just do not use the same map without changing serious features. I also keep a notebook of changes that scale the adventure to various levels and themes. Just by switching 'types' can upset the players that 'read ahead'. I had 2 players actually read a Fey monster while I was setting up the game in with I used that monster as an Undead. Neither has realized my replacement since.

[ParagonDireRaccoon]

The adventures from World of Krynn convert pretty well, and there is a conversion of Daargaard Keep to 3.5 on one of the Dragonlance websites (that one is pretty brutal). Along the same lines, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is really good (I've never played Castle Ravenloft, which is probably better, but it's easy to convert EtCS from 3.5 to PF).

[Bellona]

clff rice wrote:

Mud Sorcerers tomb from dungeon 37.

Dungeon 138 has the late 3.5 update of this classic adventure (for L 14 characters). I don't know if the dead tree version is still available, or if Paizo can sell the PDF.

[the David]

The Illithid trilogy is also good, and is a good excuse to throw some Illithid at your players.

[Set]

Green Ronin's Freeport Trilogy is pretty cool, and could be set in Ilzmagorti with minimal flavor-swapping.

[Mulgar]

the David wrote:

The Illithid trilogy is also good, and is a good excuse to throw some Illithid at your players.

Who needs an excuse?

[Lincoln Hills]

Almost all the adventures I've rebuilt date from 1st Edition AD&D. To me, at least, it's only a rare 2nd or 3E adventure that matches them - I have no idea why. Were authors encouraged to follow known successful patterns instead of breaking new ground? Was it the increased focus on 'plausibility' over 'creativity', putting an end to upside-down dungeons and rockets to the moon?

But I digress. I'll tell you which adventures impressed me enough to do the heavy lifting for conversion:

U1-U3: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh / Danger at Dunwater / The Final Enemy: Starts out simply and encourages intelligent play throughout. Leeroy Jenkins will die horribly: others will prosper.

B2: Keep on the Borderlands. Not the best adventure in any way, but with some redesign of the politics in the Caves, it can follow a more linear campaign progression. Too well-known not to play.

Return to White Plume Mountain. Much "deeper" than the original White Plume Mountain in both senses, and voted 'Most Likely To Give My Character PTSD' by my players. Treasure-light for the first 95%, then ends with the players receiving some of the best stuff in the CRB.

G1-G3: Against the Giants. Mentioned by others after its later incorporation into GDQ1-7, but I feel the later parts are too Greyhawk-specific to be suited for total transplant. The Giants trilogy taken by itself is epic-scale and memorable. The 'secret end bosses' can be rewritten if they don't fit your world. Again, Leeroy Jenkins will die horribly.

X1: The Isle of Dread. The odd thing about this one is that even though it was published as a 'module', it's really more of a mini-campaign setting. Easy to build a central plot and final boss for if that's your style.

One recommendation I've seen that I have to warn you about is X2: Castle Amber. It is quite memorable!... but mainly for its random-seeming structure and totally-out-of-nowhere plot twists. You might be better off converting Dungeonland, where the insanity is at least a nod to the source material it is homaging:

Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people!
Cheshire Cat: There's no helping that. We're all mad here...

[Jit]

+1 "The enemy within" Warhammer 1E.
A loose collection of encounters with an epic fight at the end. .Requires a lot of rebuilding but is worth it. Only campaign world requirement is a (very)large river with cities and castles on it. (The map in the module is essential:)