Best premade OSRish dungeon doable in 10 hours?

[Eldariel]

So schools are ending and I'm going to run a long one-shot to end the season for my TTRPG club. They'll have level 4ish characters. We've been running a long character-driven narrative loosely based on various modules but largely homebrewed. To give them a taste of something different, I'm thinking of a longer session or a pair of sessions (maybe 5 + 5 hours) to close out the season with a proper dungeon crawl feeling somewhat old-schoolish. Catch is, I'm in the middle of my grading so I have very little time to do prep work before this takes place and I'm thinking, which of the official modules would come the closest to this? Many classic dungeons have gotten updated so I'm thinking, which of them is the most faithful to the original?

What I'm looking for: something that challenges the player as much as the character, is a little bit unfair (or requires you to guess at times), is quite lethal (I'm thinking I'll just give everyone 3 characters or something and have them find a new one soon after the old one dies - many have two already so it isn't much of extra work; a bit of Paranoia mixed in), and is doable in 10ish hours for a group of newish teenage players. And something I can run with minimal prep (just reading it through once), since again, I don't have much more than perhaps an hour to prep for this at this juncture.

EDIT: Originally the title said "10 minutes". Obviously I meant 10 hours.

[Waterdeep Merch]

I ran Tomb of Horrors basically like you just described. If you give them multiple characters, the ability to 'tap out' on a short rest if they want, and let them know that silly deaths are expected, it can be quite fun. I nearly TPK'd my guys twice (all but one character once, all but two the second time against Acererak himself), but it was okay because they could just send in new characters immediately afterwards.

Maybe increase the limit to 5, though. Tomb of Horrors isn't a dungeon so much as an adventurer sausage maker.

[RogueJK]

Check out "Strahd Must Die Tonight" and "Strahd Must Die Again", which are versions of Curse of Strahd distilled down to 5ish hour one-shots centered around a Castle Ravenloft dungeon crawl.

Either one could likely be padded out to more than 5 hours. Or you could probably link the two into one continuous 10 hour hour one-shot with some tweaking. (Or just run one with one set of characters one day, then run the other with another set of characters the other day, as they're similar with a bit of overlap but also different and randomized.)

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/647-strahd-must-die-again-and-again-and-again

[Eldariel]

I ran Tomb of Horrors basically like you just described. If you give them multiple characters, the ability to 'tap out' on a short rest if they want, and let them know that silly deaths are expected, it can be quite fun. I nearly TPK'd my guys twice (all but one character once, all but two the second time against Acererak himself), but it was okay because they could just send in new characters immediately afterwards.

Maybe increase the limit to 5, though. Tomb of Horrors isn't a dungeon so much as an adventurer sausage maker.

What level did you run it on? The players are kinda new so I probably don't wanna toss them on Tier 3-4 but Tier 2 is fair game. I think they frankly are better at creative problem solving than the mechanical D&D itself so I think ToH might just suit them quite well. Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan was another that interested me, but I don't have experience running it myself.


Check out "Strahd Must Die Tonight" and "Strahd Must Die Again", which are versions of Curse of Strahd distilled down to 5ish hour one-shots centered around a Castle Ravenloft dungeon crawl.

Either one could likely be padded out to more than 5 hours. Or you could probably link the two into one continuous 10 hour hour one-shot with some tweaking. (Or just run one with one set of characters one day, then run the other with another set of characters the other day, as they're similar with a bit of overlap but also different and randomized.)

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/647-strahd-must-die-again-and-again-and-again

Cheers. I could let them vote on whether they'd rather have vampires or floating skulls or fiends.

[Waterdeep Merch]

What level did you run it on? The players are kinda new so I probably don't wanna toss them on Tier 3-4 but Tier 2 is fair game. I think they frankly are better at creative problem solving than the mechanical D&D itself so I think ToH might just suit them quite well. Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan was another that interested me, but I don't have experience running it myself.

I set my guys at level 8, since I wanted to keep the danger real. I also let them pick three uncommon magic items, four common magic items, and 5,000 gp that they were allowed to spend on their characters in whatever way they liked.

Oh, and I banned monks. Their abilities can bypass some of the traps too easily for my tastes. I outright told the players this, and ended up seeing a lot of feather fall's prepared. Heh.

EDIT: Oh, addendum! I made a scorecard for the players when we played. Every room they cleared and every bit of treasure they managed to attain counted towards it, as well as how many characters they still had left at the end, with a big boost if the party finished the dungeon. I put together a list of treasures and character upgrades they could purchase for use in our regular campaign. That really lit a fire under them.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Tomb of Horrors isn't a dungeon so much as an adventurer sausage maker.
No, no, no, no, no. Tomb of Horrors isn't a dungeon or a sausage-maker, it's a torturous exercise in paranoia. It combines *the* two things that most slow down games--obscure puzzles were you have to poke everything to figure out what's going on, and a legendarily lethal reputation for traps that makes you afraid to touch anything. I played a 3e version once; it was about six hours of tedious boredom and then the floor tipped over and we all died.

Under no circumstances should you run Tomb of Horrors.

[Waterdeep Merch]

No, no, no, no, no. Tomb of Horrors isn't a dungeon or a sausage-maker, it's a torturous exercise in paranoia. It combines *the* two things that most slow down games--obscure puzzles were you have to poke everything to figure out what's going on, and a legendarily lethal reputation for traps that makes you afraid to touch anything. I played a 3e version once; it was about six hours of tedious boredom and then the floor tipped over and we all died.

Under no circumstances should you run Tomb of Horrors.

The 5e version from Yawning Portal is much easier than that one. It's still deadly, but things like instant death spikes are toned way down. It *is* more about exploration and careful observation than fighting (I think there's only maybe six fights in the whole tomb?) which won't appeal to everyone these days, but it's a good challenge for the right group with the right mindset. I had an eight player group make two nights out of it and had a blast. We still tell stories about it, like when the megalomaniacal kobold proclaimed himself king and turned to dust, or when a T-Rex was pressed into a comedy pancake.

[Rfkannen]

I HIGHLY recommend the 5e version of winter's daughter. Its by necrotic gnome, which is one of the main osr companies. You can literally run that adventure without reading the book first, its that well laid out and clear. Just overall one of the best rpg adventurers ever written and perfect for what you want, its an old school dungeoncrawl, I highly recommend it.

The old school essenstials version is a bit better, but the 5e version is still amazing.

[Unoriginal]

So schools are ending and I'm going to run a long one-shot to end the season for my TTRPG club. They'll have level 4ish characters. We've been running a long character-driven narrative loosely based on various modules but largely homebrewed. To give them a taste of something different, I'm thinking of a longer session or a pair of sessions (maybe 5 + 5 hours) to close out the season with a proper dungeon crawl feeling somewhat old-schoolish. Catch is, I'm in the middle of my grading so I have very little time to do prep work before this takes place and I'm thinking, which of the official modules would come the closest to this? Many classic dungeons have gotten updated so I'm thinking, which of them is the most faithful to the original?

What I'm looking for: something that challenges the player as much as the character, is a little bit unfair (or requires you to guess at times), is quite lethal (I'm thinking I'll just give everyone 3 characters or something and have them find a new one soon after the old one dies - many have two already so it isn't much of extra work; a bit of Paranoia mixed in), and is doable in 10ish hours for a group of newish teenage players. And something I can run with minimal prep (just reading it through once), since again, I don't have much more than perhaps an hour to prep for this at this juncture.

EDIT: Originally the title said "10 minutes". Obviously I meant 10 hours.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage can provide what you seek, I think. At least if you take a couple of the megadungeon's levels and separate them from the rest to make your own dungeon and have the PCs be a bit weaker than what is suggested by the module.

[Eldariel]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage can provide what you seek, I think. At least if you take a couple of the megadungeon's levels and separate them from the rest to make your own dungeon and have the PCs be a bit weaker than what is suggested by the module.

I haven't run it. How trap vs. encounter heavy is it? I definitely want something with lots of puzzle challenges for the players specifically (since this is a school club: I want to make them think), with a lesser amount of combat and preferably very tactical combat at that.


I HIGHLY recommend the 5e version of winter's daughter. Its by necrotic gnome, which is one of the main osr companies. You can literally run that adventure without reading the book first, its that well laid out and clear. Just overall one of the best rpg adventurers ever written and perfect for what you want, its an old school dungeoncrawl, I highly recommend it.

The old school essenstials version is a bit better, but the 5e version is still amazing.

Oh, this sounds good! Can you give me a quick rundown of it?

[Unoriginal]

I haven't run it. How trap vs. encounter heavy is it? I definitely want something with lots of puzzle challenges for the players specifically (since this is a school club: I want to make them think), with a lesser amount of combat and preferably very tactical combat at that.

Well it depends which level. And many fights are optional. Some of the encounters are puzzles as well, like "you need to figure out how to do X or Y to lift the curse on Z".

[Rfkannen]

Oh, this sounds good! Can you give me a quick rundown of it?


Its a fairy themed adventure! The players run through the ruined tomb of an ancient knight, getting through some fun and not too complicated traps that are solved with player creativity instead of character abilities, and wind up in a quick jaunt to the feywild/world of fairy! The feywild bit works best if the pcs really want gold, but its still a very fun section either way. The ending has a very fun reward that is VERY good for a oneshot or the end of a campaign.

overall, the whole module is really all about using your creativity and quick thinking to make your way through the dungeon as easily as possible, and my players had a ton of fun with it!

[Eldariel]

Well it depends which level. And many fights are optional. Some of the encounters are puzzles as well, like "you need to figure out how to do X or Y to lift the curse on Z".

Hmm, if I'd like to run Tier 2ish PCs, any recommendations on what level to run if I want to specifically highlight players over characters?


Its a fairy themed adventure! The players run through the ruined tomb of an ancient knight, getting through some fun and not too complicated traps that are solved with player creativity instead of character abilities, and wind up in a quick jaunt to the feywild/world of fairy! The feywild bit works best if the pcs really want gold, but its still a very fun section either way. The ending has a very fun reward that is VERY good for a oneshot or the end of a campaign.

overall, the whole module is really all about using your creativity and quick thinking to make your way through the dungeon as easily as possible, and my players had a ton of fun with it!

That sounds pretty good and I have a player whose characters are without fail supergreedy and they have had some brush-ins with fey in the past so I could work with that. How long would you estimate for it to be? I need for it to be about 5 hours or 10 hours.

[sithlordnergal]

Do you have Tales from the Yawning Portal? If so, there are two Tier 2 dungeons you might enjoy. The first is Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, its a large dungeon delve with a lot of rather fun traps and puzzles, with a few combat encounters thrown in. The other is White Plume Mountain, its another dungeon delve but it focuses more on combat then on puzzles. From what I remember the puzzles aren't quite as unique as Hidden Shrine, but they're still pretty fun. The suggested level is 8 for both of those, but you don't have to run it at level 8. I've seen a party of level 6 do both.

Sunless Citadel, also from Tales from the Yawning Portal, is a fine Tier 1 dungeon delve. There isn't much in the way of traps or puzzles, but you do get some interesting RP stuff out of it. Basically you guys enter a sunken castle where a tribe of Goblins and Kobolds are at war trying to control the castle. You can try to side with either group, try to avoid the conflict entirely, or go full on nutter mode and try to kill both sides. There are also rp interactions with a White Dragon Wyrmling that you can either save, kill, or bring back to the Kobolds.

I will say, when I ran Sunless Citadel, I mixed it with Forge of Fury, which is also in the book, and its pretty easy to mix the two and turn them into a single adventure.

[Eldariel]

Yeah, Hidden Shrine was one I had on my radar before posting this. Hidden Shrine and ToH, really. Now I've got DotMM, Strahd shorts and Winter's Daughter to think about as well. Of course, I'm not familiar with any of the ones beyond Hidden Shrine and ToH (I know CoS but not these shortened versions), so this is totally based on second hand information: like I said, I won't have time to really prepare properly before the session so I'll have to wing most of it.

[Rfkannen]

That sounds pretty good and I have a player whose characters are without fail supergreedy and they have had some brush-ins with fey in the past so I could work with that. How long would you estimate for it to be? I need for it to be about 5 hours or 10 hours.

Took me two four hour sessions, I think you could run it in less!