anthraticus
Banned
Didn't see this post dude. Sounds like you might know about Ray Dyer's 'Realms' series in FRUA, but if not, you or anyone else should def check it out...(especially if that gay elf and bear sex got you downStrong disagree here... the Gold Box games (well, at their best: Pool of Radiance, and the fantastic Unlimited Adventures community) feel much more authentically D&D.
That's mainly because they use 2e rules, so they actually handle things like morale correctly (shock a couple of the monsters with a brutal takedown and the rest of them might begin to flee, or even panic depending on the level differences; removing morale checks in battle was one of the worst changes made by 5e).
Having a 2e system also means much more of a "squad tactics" approach; old-school AD&D did not follow the corny approach of the new rules where "every character is a badass." Instead, you have to strategically protect your weaker members, bulid a front wall to your party with the slower but more armored members, move carefully, etc -- because it's guaranteed that even higher level mages can be obliterated easily if a foe reaches them. Different classes of the party absolutely need each other to survive, instead of this nonsense where everyone is tearing through the battlefield.
Pool of Radiance is also more classically sandbox-like, with a huge world of different directions to take and very few pre-set story beats to guide you. This is how D&D modules used to be written. I prefer that over the newer idea that "a module is a narrative and you just get to rearrange the path through that narrative."
(Click West, East, South & Final Diamond to see all of the available campaigns of The Realm.)
Recommended levels are listed for each module, in the North, South, East and West (which comprises about 33 of them). Ray also made another concurrent campaign of 7 or so called Realm Adventures that are meant to be played in order. We're talking classic here like Horror on the Hill, the original Ravenloft, Tomb of Horrors etc..!!
There's an entire campaign from level 1 to past 20 you can take the same party through, and he does things like removes the level cap for races and classes, so you can take your own, unique party straight through all the modules.
What you need to do in short is pick either West, East or South to start in, download and complete the campaigns from that list (you can also pick and choose a bit, as you want) and then when done with that head to the Final Diamond (North). Those are your higher level design areas.
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