Really great sandbox. The Beast That Waits gives you a nice small area to start with, A rumor table and notable NPC's.

-- The NPC's are written in a nice short summary

-- The wilderness is broken down into several areas. Each area has a marked goal that can be completed, but doesn't railroad the group.

-- Plenty of hooks that can be used to expand the adventure as much as you want

--- Nothing is set in stone. You can customize parts or all of the module as you see fit for your group or game setting.

SIX POINT SUMMARY

• I love random tables. Random encounter tables, weather tables, name tables, gossip tables? Awesome.

• A very interesting structure, with conditions on "clearing" each section of the map, with the PCs often being better off finding the root source of the trouble in each area, rather than hunting down the different minions.

• Some great layers are present in the area. Sure, you can "just" deal with the ghost on the road...or you can find out why she's there...and STILL not know everything (relevant to the game) that there is to know about her.

• This is very much a sandbox, and one that the author tried to pepper with enough material and hooks to help your players bite on.

• If you don't know anything about the world of Alia-Wor, it's not a big deal. I could easily see how one could fit this into the Forgotten Realms, for instance, and if my 5e group hadn't already hit level 9, I probably would. There's always the next campaign...

• The art is good, but perhaps a bit cartoonish. Your mileage may vary on how well it fits the tone of the area and adventure.

A very good product that reminds me of the output from Small Niche Games, which I am a huge fan of. It would take very little effort to turn this into a multisession campaign (or at least mini campaign), with the sandbox feel and the various plot layers that can be peeled away for sessions.

I won't sit here and pretend to know what is, or is not, good "old school"...but I know what I like, and I liked this..a bit more than I expected, even. Worth getting if you want a low level sandbox campaign with a slightly horror feel...and don't worry, most of you can convert it to your favorite D&D version (maybe even your favorite system) pretty easily.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2015/03/tommys-take-on-beast-that-waits.html

This is a really remarkable product, similar to the sort that Necromancer Games would put out during the 3e area. Basically it's a mini-sandbox setting. Lots of places and NPCs very well described, with the PCs able to wander about doing whatever they wanted. Really a good amount of detail (the 50 pages are all double column), including a 30 room dungeon.

Perfect standing module for an OSR game, especially one like Beyond the Wall. Really one of the best OSR adventures I've seen, and as good as anything Necromancer put out back in the day.