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Saw someone post that before D&D 3e there weren’t dedicated parties going on adventure paths, it was troupe style play. That goes counter to my experience. Yes, a lot of the old designers did run troupe style tables, but even those tended to have a lot of continuity of characters. You can find their names in the history of Greyhawk or Glorantha, or spell names.
I started in the 80s, and my experience was always small dedicated parties going through linked adventures.
Examples of early “adventure paths”, or campaigns or series.
Against the Giants 1978
Descent Into the Depths of the Earth 1978
The Traveller Adventure 1983
The Enemy Within Campaign 1986
I’m sure there are lots more, but a dedicated party of adventurers progressing through a series of linked modules was pretty common by the 80s.
The first set of books I had were the AD&D Player’s Guide, GM Guide, and the In Search of Adventure book which collected modules B1-9. (It would take me years to realize technically those adventures were written for a different system.)
In the introduction it gave possible ways to turn the previously disconnected modules into a campaign.
Published 1987.
@deinol I had the B1-9 super adventure as well, long after I had most of the individual modules. Never ran it all the way through. I have to wonder though, what level would a party be after going through all those adventures... I really think they would hit level 6 before they even got to the veiled society.
@deinol that's so cool! We started on 5e and have just a small note recommending linked adventures in a handful of books. I'd been tempted to lay out an open world Sword Coast and just plop a party in but there's nothing as nicely structured as this for guidance
Somewhere in my lizard brain I recognized that flowchart when I was scrolling through. In the warmest of fuzzies that only nostalgia can give you I boost this post. I love this so much!