Hillcantons has a GM advice PDF called The GM Challenge Compilation which is a super-old post from 2011 but new to me and worth checking out if you missed it way back then, its well worth the time.
Greyhawk Grognard has a post called T0 Journey to Hommlet which includes a PDF download of a short adventures for characters on the way to T1 (or T1-T4). I ran across B4 expansion once upon a time and love the idea and wish more would take up the task to fill out areas that modules left blank (for lack of space I presume). The missing T2-T3 in the Temple of Elemental Evil seems ripe. I might have to create interior maps for a few of the T1 buildings if I ever get any time.
Matt Strom at Ice and Ruin has a post called Politricks about giving goals to factions. Its short and worth a read and mostly seems to deal with lower level politics. Politics can make a game, especially a high level game. I'm talking wars, civil wars, and secession crosses. Bback in the day I GM's a game on Harn and had Rethem fall to civil war and their neighbors Kanday and the Thardic Republic moving in to take advantage of things and I guarantee the players remember it to this day (the world of Harn made it easy with the high level of detail). This sort of grand scale gives lots of chance for players to get into the middle of things. Ice and Ruin does bring up one thing I somewhat disagree with:
If the players don't really seem interested in engaging in the politics of the setting, don't foist it on them.
They don't need to be involved or know they are involved and the politics can still happen around them. They could end up working on behalf of a faction from time to time, or the bigger conflict could get in the way of their goals (enter the besieged city, or an army might show up and besiege a town if you take too long).
I'm surprised that more games don't talk about this sort of thing. If you're gonna get out of the dungeon then make the world move around a bit and break things.
