# Best D&D Adventures



## Doug McCrae (Jul 28, 2008)

What are your top 5 published D&D adventures? By D&D I mean any edition - OD&D, BECMI, 1e->4e - and I would also include Castles & Crusades, HackMaster and Pathfinder.

EDIT: Added HackMaster.


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## the Jester (Jul 28, 2008)

_Return to the Tomb of Horrors
The Gates of Firestorm Peak
The Red Hand of Doom
Ravenloft (I6)
The Secret of Bone Hill_

...in no partidular order. I might revise that list later; we'll see.


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## Grimstaff (Jul 28, 2008)

Keep on the Borderlands
Shrine of the Kou Toa
Temple of Elemental Evil
Rappan Athuk
Secret of Smugglers Cove


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## Wisdom Penalty (Jul 28, 2008)

The Lost City
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Isle of Dread
Horror on the Hill
Slavepits of the Undercity


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## AllisterH (Jul 28, 2008)

Ravenloft I6 (I'm sorry, but this got robbed when TSR/WOTC did its top 25 adventures of all time)
Dead Gods
Gates of Firestorm Peak


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## MrFilthyIke (Jul 28, 2008)

Temple of Elemental Evil
Lost City
Night's Dark Terror
Ghost Tower of Inverness
Blade of Vengeance
Tomb of Horrors	 	 
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

I cannot go less than 6.


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## radferth (Jul 28, 2008)

Night Below
A series (particularly A2)
S4 - Lost Caverns of Tso...
X2 - Castle Amber
N1 - Cult of the Reptile God (despite deus ex machina/railroad problems).


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## Alaxk Knight of Galt (Jul 28, 2008)

Four really stick out in my mind


Castle Amber
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
The Champion's Belt - Age of Worms
Dark Sun Box Set (there is a module in it, but the whole setting is just gold)


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## hazel monday (Jul 28, 2008)

Entombed with the Pharoahs
Carnival of tears
Burnt Offerings
Beast of Burden
A History of Ashes


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## DaveMage (Jul 28, 2008)

Against the Giants (G1-2-3)
Ravenloft (I6)
Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Tomb of Abysthor
Rappan Athuk Reloaded


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## Crothian (Jul 28, 2008)

*Of Sound Mind:* Piratecat wrote this and I'm still waiting for the sequal!!  I've ran two D&D campaigns since the module was written and I have used it in both campaigns, the only module written for 3ed that I've done that with.  It is creative and fun and a little bit off which realyl helps it.

*Tomb of Horrors:* I know it is a meat grinder and has huge problems with the new school way of gaming.  But it is one of the few modules I try to run for each new group because I think it is important for people to know what gaming used to be like.  

*Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh*: This is a very good little mystery and investigation.  It doesn't feel like a typical dungeon crawl and it isn't.  

*White Plume Mountain*: I like the odd rooms and the wierdness of the module.  The weapons are classic and I run this one a lot.  

*The Dragonfiend Pact*: Of all the DCC's this is my favorite.  It has a lot of neat encounters and creative uses of a dungeon for a first level party.


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## Psion (Jul 28, 2008)

GDQ1-7 (esp. D series (esp D3, though D2 close second))
Dead Gods
Rappan Athuk
Of Sound Mind


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## ExploderWizard (Jul 28, 2008)

Castle Amber
Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Secret of Bone Hill/ Assassins Knot
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
Test of the Warlords


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## Jhaelen (Jul 28, 2008)

Wow, I have a hard time coming up with 5 adventures I REALLY liked. I dislike most of the 'classic' D&D adventures and I mostly dislike the traditional dungeon-crawl adventures.

I guess, Red Hand of Doom is among the top five.
Forge of Fury was pretty good despite being just an extended dungeon crawl.
Standing Stone was mostly good but required lots of customization.

I vaguely remember several pretty good mystery-type adventures from DSA and at least one from Midgard: 'Smaskrifter' comes to my mind.

All of the really outstanding adventures I remember have been written by one of my friends or myself. I guess, I shouldn't be surprised about this, but I never really thought about this before...


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## darkbard (Jul 28, 2008)

The Banewarrens (Malhavoc)
The Night of Dissolution (Malhavoc)
The Whispering Cairn (Paizo-Dungeon mag)
The Styes (Paizo-Dungeon mag)
Burnt Offerings (Paizo-Pathfinder 1).

I surprise myself by not listing anything by WotC in my top 5.  Speaker in Dreams was quite a fun adventure, but not quite as good as any of the above.


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## Festivus (Jul 28, 2008)

*Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh* - Just mix Shaggy, Scooby and the gang with weapons and spells, comes complete with lots of suspects and a creepy haunted house.  It's a fun adventure, even translated to 3rd edition.  Hmm, perhaps I'll do a 4E version of it... skill challenges could be really fun in that setting.

*The Isle of Dread* - Dinosaurs in D&D?!?  Awesome!  I was recently reminded of this when I ran Here There Be Monsters from the Savage Tide module, and I forgot how really cool the Isle of Dread could be.  I remember when I was young and read this, my reaction was listed above.

*The Village of Hommlet* - How many adventures have kicked off from this little village and explored the nearby moathouse?  Classic adventure in every sense of the word.

*Siege of the Spider Eaters* - This short adventure from Dungeon magazine is still one of my favorites.  I love those sorts of adventures that involve intrigue.

*The Whispering Cairn* - Another great low level adventure that pits the group against all sorts of problems, both dungeon and town related.


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## Arnwyn (Jul 28, 2008)

These are off the top of my head (as I'm at work without access to my collection), and there's a bit of cheating here, but:

1) Savage Tide AP
2) GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders
3) Lost City of Barakus
4) Shackled City AP
5) The Red Hand of Doom


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## Philotomy Jurament (Jul 28, 2008)

Night of the Walking Wet
Caverns of Thracia
Tomb of Horrors
The Lost City
Vault of the Drow

Not necessarily in that order.


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## Lord Xtheth (Jul 28, 2008)

radferth said:


> Night Below
> A series (particularly A2)
> S4 - Lost Caverns of Tso...
> X2 - Castle Amber
> N1 - Cult of the Reptile God (despite deus ex machina/railroad problems).



 Yeah, Night below was killer!


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## Obryn (Jul 28, 2008)

(1) Temple of Elemental Evil.  Strictly awesome, and everything an adventure should be, imho.

(2) The Banewarrens.  Another huge, sprawling adventure with intrigue and combat aplenty.

(3) While I'd love to say GDQ1-7, I'll limit myself to just D1-3, which IMHO was the heart of the adventure.

-O


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## Korgoth (Jul 28, 2008)

*The Lost City*
*The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan*
*Castle Amber*
*Night's Dark Terror*
*Dwellers of the Forbidden City*


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## Invisible Stalker (Jul 28, 2008)

1. Tomb of Horrors
2. Temple of Elemental Evil
3. Keep on the Borderlands
4. White Plume Mountain
5. Ghost Tower of Inverness

I think my entire top 20 would be taken up by 1e D&D modules.


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## StickPerson (Jul 29, 2008)

1. Castel Amber
2. White Plume Mountain
3. The Lost City
4. The Isle of Dread
5. Keep on the Borderlands

Honorable mention
Night's Dark Terror


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## Dykstrav (Jul 29, 2008)

• T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil
• I6: Ravenloft
• When Black Roses Bloom
• S1: Tomb of Horrors
• Rappan Athuk Reloaded


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## Sunderstone (Jul 29, 2008)

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil
RA1 Feast Of Goblyns
S1 Tomb of Horrors
The Shackled City Hardcover
Castle Whiterock

The above is not in order and are one shot products (so I didnt cheat). Theres just way too much good stuff in Goodman, Necro, and Paizo to limit the list to just 5.


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## Rabbitbait (Jul 29, 2008)

1. Red Hand of Doom
2. Keep on the Borderland
3. Return to the Keep on the Borderland
4. Temple of Elemental Evil
5. The Gauntlet
6. Castle Amber (very weird)


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## Erik Mona (Jul 29, 2008)

1. QUEEN OF THE SPIDERS
2. RAVENLOFT
3. THE VILLAGE OF HOMMLET 
4. EXPEDITION TO THE BARRIER PEAKS
5. AGAINST THE CULT OF THE REPTILE GOD

That's my list. It appears I like rural adventures for low-level characters and off-the-wall epic weirdness.

Surprise.

--Erik


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## jdrakeh (Jul 29, 2008)

1-3. U1, U2, and U3 (Saltmarsh Trilogy)
4. B2 (Keep on the Borderlands)
5. B1-9 (In Search of Adventure)*

*This _is_ a single product, merely one that builds on previous products to form a "mega-module" (the BD&D equivalent of an Adventure Path).


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## seskis281 (Jul 29, 2008)

5. Assault on Blackooth Ridge (C&C Mod A1)
Best New Setup for a Campaign in a long time - perfect intro module

4. U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (D&D 1e)
A Classic that wasn't a standard dungeon crawl

3. The Lost Tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali (Kalamar 3.0)
This one rocked, and was deadly to boot!

2. The Sunless Citadel (3.0 First Core mod)
Works well with any incarnation I think - Running it again now

1. X1 Isle of Dread (D&D 1e)
My favorite - ported into my current campaign and it was fantastic!
Captures my gaming from childhood to present.


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## Erik Mona (Jul 29, 2008)

jdrakeh said:


> *This _is_ a single product, merely one that builds on previous products to form a "mega-module" (the BD&D equivalent of an Adventure Path).




This is true, but I recall that they also butchered some of the modules mercilessly to make it all fit in.

Not a practice I can really get behind. Individually, many of those modules are classics. Together, they are a mess.

The same is true with the oft-forgotten Realms of Horror, which also butchered classic modules to smoosh everything into a "super"module.

--Erik


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## jdrakeh (Jul 29, 2008)

Erik Mona said:


> This is true, but I recall that they also butchered some of the modules mercilessly to make it all fit in.




I think that "butchered" is a pretty strong word, as many of the modules that were reworked for In Search of Adventure started life as little more than completely random or largely unrelated encounters set in vaguely defined locations. Still, I know some people that really think there is something special about completely random and unrelated encounters set in vaguely defined locations. I'm not one of them, though


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## catsclaw227 (Jul 29, 2008)

Wow.... there have been so many over the years...


1ed A1-4 - Slaver series.  Complete Awesome.
Lost City of Barakus, Necromancer Games.  Did this twice with two different groups in th 3.5 days.
The Drow War series, Mongoos Publishing.  This was a great adventure series and one of the early APs in 3.5.  It had all the embarassing requisite editing gaffs MP was known for, but the story was ultra-cool.  It had everything.
Freeport Series. Green Ronin.  This was the very first 3.0 adventure series I DM'd.  It was the reason my friends all came back to playing D&D again.


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## meomwt (Jul 29, 2008)

In no particular order: 

_NeMoren's Vault_ - cute little module which had a great MacGuffin for getting a first level group to work together, had a nice dungeon crawl with a story and could create a base of operations to work out of. Run twice, and different each time. 

_Tomb of Abysthor_ - read, but never run, sadly (one day). Great crawling, but with added intrigue between the nasties in there. 

_The Whispering Cairn_ - another read only, again, dying to run. Mr Mona takes a deadly dungeon and adds a bait-and-switch twist to it. Filge is one mean nasty. 

_The Grey Citadel_ - a great mixture of investigation, role-playing and dungeon crawling. 

_Return of the Eight_ - one of the few 2e modules I ever bought and ran. Started out as a gentle night out in Greyhawk and had my players cowering by the end. 

Honourable Mentions: _The Crypt of St Bethesda_ (played and DM'ed, it was a doozy), _The Lost City of Barakus_ (a great city setting and a wonderful dungeon crawl), _The Star Cairns_ (another one which had my 2e group running for cover).


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## WereSteve (Jul 29, 2008)

In no particular order ...

The Lost Tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali (Kalamar)
Rappan Athuk:Reloaded (Necromancer)
The Halls of Tizun Thane (White Dwarf)
The City of Irilian (White Dwarf)
City State of the Invincible Overlord (Judges Guild)
Dark Tower (Judges Guild)


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## Draksila (Jul 29, 2008)

Ravenloft/House of Strahd - Watching my father DM this module led me into gaming.  I've run it often since then, including the House of Strahd incarnation (which updated some of the statistical anomalies, I freely admit).  Two groups have lived through it, one survivor of two other groups, and a good dozen found it to be lethal... but enjoyable.  They often wanted to go back for more, but I avoided running it multiple times for any particular group just to keep some of the mystery.

Night of the Walking Dead - A classic opening module with a difficult but cinematic ending, stories are still told in my longest-running group about this little gem.  Of course, they were fans of the entire Hyskosa cycle... but this is the module that got their interest peaked.

Curse of the Azure Bonds - More or less just a conversion of the SSI Gold Box video game, my groups still got a lot of mileage out of this adventure.  Run well, it's a mini-epic all on its own.  The lead-in adventure, Paths of Adventure (the module based on Pool of Radiance) was clunky and needed a good deal of work, but this one functioned really well.

Night Below - If I could still find a decent copy of this boxed set, I might be tempted to dig it back up.  Maybe eBay... anyway, we never got further than book two before the group composition was shattered by real life changes, but there are some very memorable scenes from my uses of that campaign set.  Hardcore negotiations with green dragons, rambling barfights, vendettas with NPCs, elaborate funerals for fallen heroes, and betrayals from within the group that led to disaster... this one ended up having a little of everything.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors - I never got a chance to run this one, but it read beautifully.  Take the old grindhouse of an adventure, put a full and complex story around it, add in a city of obsessive necromancers... it just sounded like it would have been incredibly interesting.  Too bad I lost my group before it came to be.

(Added a sixth) Dragon Mountain - Okay, so I liked the old boxed set adventures.  This one was a bit difficult to run due to its dungeon crawl nature, but it was the first official module that exhibited the cleverness and ingenuity of kobolds as a species.  After years of being noted as sly and inventive trapmakers and survivalists in monster manuals, they were finally used as more than cannon-fodder.  Add to it another case of vendettas sworn against NPCs, and it went over rather well in play.


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## MerricB (Jul 29, 2008)

1. Pharoah
2. Oasis of the White Palm

Yes, I know that these are part of the same series. However, they're different enough from each other, and I really don't like the final installment (Lost of Tomb of Martek) as much. Tracy Hickman had a fine appreciation of the importance of plot in D&D, and Oasis is perhaps his finest hour with it.

3. Keep on the Borderlands
4. Necropolis

I feel that these two adventures show Gary Gygax at his best. Keep isn't a "deep" module by any means, but it is probably my favourite introductory module (although Keep on the Shadowfell has much to recommend it). Necropolis is mature Gygax, and has many elements seen in his early work (such as Hommlet, Tomb of Horrors and other dungeons) but done very well indeed.

5. Dragons of Despair

Oh, this was a hard one to pick, but, ultimately, DL1 just has so many cool elements. The series went dreadfully wrong in DL2 (most railroaded beginning to an adventure ever, with about 10 encounters in a row before the PCs get a choice!), but I really like the first adventure in the Dragonlance series. Oh, and DL10.

Cheers!


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## Beckett (Jul 29, 2008)

In no particular order:

1. Against the Cult of the Reptile God; first adventure I purchased.
2. Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh; I've run this in 1E, 2E, and 3E and am thinking about converting it to 4E
3. Dragon Crown- Epic Darksun adventure to find out what is going wrong with psionics.
4. Lost Cavern of Tsojcanth; some great memories from this one.
5. Against the Giants; my on the fly 3E conversion sputtered out for various reasons, but I did manage a full run of a 1E/2E blend that still has some stories told (like the "lone" elven commando who had the whole tribe of frost giants running scared)


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## Lanefan (Jul 29, 2008)

First off, nice to see all the 1e love here! 

Now for me, counting only those I've either run, or played through, or both (and in no particular order):

* Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
* Castle Amber
* Pharoah
* Against the Giants G-1-2-3
* Sword of Hope (judges' guild), for the sheer insanity factor!

Honourable mention: Keep On the Borderlands, Forge of Fury, Secret of Bone Hill, For Duty and Deity, Quest for the Heartstone, Tomb of the Lizard King

I've a sneaking suspicion that Keep On the Shadowfell might wind up on this list; I haven't run/played it yet, but it has loads of potential.

So many people putting Night's Dark Terror on their lists tells me I perhaps ought to pull it out again someday and give it another look over; until then, I just can't understand the love for it.  I spent half a year once DMing that module and developed a healthy loathing for it that has never gone away...

Lanefan


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## Dm_from_Brazil (Jul 29, 2008)

Well, in Dungeon #116 (November, 2004) appeared the famous "30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time" - voted by the fans, IF I´m correct:

The Top 5
1) Queen of the Spiders, 1986 (G1-3, D1-3, Q1)
2) Ravenloft, 1983 (I6)
3) Tomb of Horrors, 1978 (S1)
4) The Temple of Elemental Evil, 1985 (T1-4)
5) Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, 1980  (S3)

Obviously, it only goes up to 2004 -so, no "Red Hand of Doom" here - by the by, the only 3rd edition adventures in the list were:  
8) Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, 2001
12) The Forge of  Fury, 2000
24) City of the Spider Queen

...And the only "non-TSR/WotC" was
21) Dark Tower, 1980 (from Judge´s Guild)

The 30th was:
30) The Ghost Tower of Inverness, 1980 (C2)

And some tidbits:
7) The Keep on the Borderlands, 1979 (B2)
9) White Plume Mountain, 1979 (S2)
15) Castle Amber,  1981  (X2) 
17) Ruins of Undermountain, 1991 - the FR mega-adventure
20) Scourge of the Slave Lords, 1986 (A 1-4)
22) The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 1982  (S4) 
25) Dragons of Despair, 1984 (DL1) - the first of the Dragonlance adventures


It´s interesting to notice that, in 1st edition, D&D was defined by its´s ADVENTURES, in 2nd and 3rd editions, by it´s SETTINGS, and, up to this point, 4th edition has been defined by it´s RULES.

DM from Brazil / Daniel Lira de Oliveira


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## PeelSeel2 (Jul 29, 2008)

Keep on the Borderlands
Temple of Elemental Evil
Horror on the Hill

Those are the only ones that stick out in my head.


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## Melan (Jul 29, 2008)

#1 *Dark Tower* by Paul Jaquays; 1st edition AD&D: an epic multi-level dungeon crawl centered on warring gods, their semi-immortal worshippers and a bunch of overpowered artifacts. The dungeon has one of the best layouts I have seen (only overshadowed by #3 on my list); the antagonists and allies are well thought out and memorable personalities; the tricks and traps are variable and interesting, and the whole module has a tremendously well realised sword&sorcery atmosphere.

#2 *The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan* by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason; 1st edition AD&D: one of TSR's less known items. What I like in Tamoachan is that it uses a cool adventure setup ("you find yourself at the bottom of a weird old temple complex flooded by poison gas - now get out before it kills you!") and mixes it with a lot of inventive dungeon puzzle type encounters that manage to be ingenious, not impossible, quirky and an interesting reflection on Mesoamerican mythology at the same time. All three groups I ran through the module loved it, even the one that met a horrid end therein.

#3 *Tegel Manor* by Bob Bledsaw; Original D&D: a strange, once legendary dungeon about the rambling, dilapidated mansion an insane noble family stuffed chock full of plain wacked-out strangeness. Tegel is entirely unconcerned about verisimilitude, ecology or game balance, but it is an excellent example of playfulness for the sake of it. Also, the dungeon map is extremely well designed... just right in all respects. It plays well, too.

#4 *Tomb of Abysthor* by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb; 3e D&D: I think this is the best new adventure Necromancer Games released. The dungeon reads well and what is more important, it plays very well indeed, with a lot of adventuring possibilities.

#5 *The Secret of Bone Hill* by Len Lakofka; 1st edition AD&D: this is cheating a bit, since the adventure on its own is rather sparse. But there is something about the openness, little bits of cool imaginative detail that makes your imagination go. It is also a good realisation of the "mini-campaign setting" concept.


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## Alaxk Knight of Galt (Jul 29, 2008)

Summary of the Adventures (3 Vote Minimum)

*13 Votes*

Ravenloft (I6)


*9 Votes*

Temple of Elemental Evil (T1-T4)
The Red Hand of Doom 
Tomb of Horrors 
Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh (U1)


*8 Votes*

Age of Worms AP(Whispering Cairn / Champion Belt)

*7 Votes*

Keep on the Borderlands (B2)
Castle Amber (X2)

*6 Votes*

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth 
Against the Giants (G1-2-3) 
The Lost City (B4)
Isle of Dread (X1)
GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders 
Desert of Desolation I3 - I5 (I3 Pharaoh, I4 Oasis of the White Palm)


*4 Votes*

Against the Cult of the Reptile God 
The Banewarrens
Dead Gods

3 Votes Each

Return to the Tomb of Horrors
The Secret of Bone Hill (L1) 
Tomb of Abysthor			
Rappan Athuk Reloaded	
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
The Gates of Firestorm Peak
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks


Updated through Post #74


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## Schmoe (Jul 29, 2008)

Limiting this to the ones I've DM'ed or played through...

1.  Rahasia (B7) - A beautiful starting adventure, with an interesting dungeon, a trapped covey of witches working agains the party, and a sinister foe.  I've run it 3 times, and each time was a great success.

2.  Ravenloft (I6) - Only played once (and died), but it's a brilliant module.

3.  Night of the Walking Dead - A low-level Ravenloft module.  Great atmosphere, a neat little mystery, and a cinematic conclusion.  Ran it twice, and my players were extremely happy with it both times.

4.  Isle of Dread (X1) - Ran it in my early days, so I missed a lot of the potential in this one, but the setting and scope is wonderful.

5.  Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Q1) - Nothing fired my imagination more than the pocket planes off the top layer of the web.  This module alone could be a year or more of campaigning.

Honorable mentions to modules I own and would love to run:

Dark Tower - Genius.  Old-school.
Red Hand of Doom - The highpoint of 3.5.
Hellstone Deep - This is what high-level adventuring should be!
Prince of Redhand - Revolutionizes (for me) the idea of social adventuring.


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## thedungeondelver (Jul 29, 2008)

*G1 STEADING OF THE HILL GIANT CHIEF*
*G2 THE GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT JARL*
*G3 HALL OF THE FIRE GIANT KING*
*S4 LOST CAVERNS OF TSOJCANTH*
*WG4 FORGOTTEN TEMPLE OF THARIZDUN*

...played in that order.


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## El Mahdi (Jul 29, 2008)

Sorry, I couldn't cut the list down to less than 7 so I included Honorable Mentions.

Honorable Mentions:

_Greyhawk Lost Tombs Series_: _The Star Cairns_, _Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad_, _The Doomgrinder_
 - You can make a pretty good campaign from these three adventures alone.

_Thaldigars Tower_
 - A fun little tournament adventure written by Ed Greenwood

5: _*Labrynth of Madness*_
 - It had its issues but it was just crazy deadly.  A lot of fun to just make up high level characters and see how long you could keep them alive.

4: _*The Apocalypse Stone*_
 - Really good for mid-level to high-level and great for ending a Campaign or changing your campaign world.  If you decide you are going to use this while still early in your campaign (lower levels) you could really incoporate some great subplots throughout the life of the campaign and then end with this adventure.

3: _*Temple, Tower and Tomb*_
 - This was the first adventure I played in as a brand new D&D player (you never forget your first).

2: _*The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh*_ (and volume 2 & 3: _Danger at Dunwater_ and _The Final Enemy_)
 - This is the favorite I played through (did not DM).  It had everything: fun story, nice locations, interesting and deadly adversaries - a good story based, investigative mystery, dungeon crawl.  sidenote: when our group first encountered the lizardmen, they demanded we put down our weapons and surrender, so we did (the entire group).  No battle, instant allies.  We almost nullified the entire second module (Sorry Rao).

1: _*The Object of Desire*_ - Dungeon Issue 50
 - An AD&D adventure but easily adaptable to any rules-set and very easily scaleable.  Exceptional story, well thought out and believable backstories, interesting and useable subplots, great locations and npc's, almost unlimited opportunity for continued adventures, and can leave your PC's with one of the coolest headquarters/hideout/lair ever.  I love running groups through this one.


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## messy (Jul 29, 2008)

tomb of horrors
maure castle
the dancing hut
in the dungeons of the slave lords
the quicksilver hourglass

messy


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## Korgoth (Jul 29, 2008)

Erik Mona said:


> This is true, but I recall that they also butchered some of the modules mercilessly to make it all fit in.




Quite so. For example, the "B4: The Lost City" segment doesn't even include the Lost City.


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## guivre (Jul 29, 2008)

Dm_from_Brazil said:


> Well, in Dungeon #116 (November, 2004) appeared the famous "30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time" - voted by the fans, IF I´m correct:
> 
> The Top 5
> 1) Queen of the Spiders, 1986 (G1-3, D1-3, Q1)
> ...





FYI, it wasn't a fan vote (though I'm sure the 18 ppl involved are fans), it was Eric Mona and James Jacobs, who solicited top ten lists from 16 others and put together the top 30 via voodoo and black magic.


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## El Bob (Jul 29, 2008)

Night's Dark Terror
Whispering Cairn
Crown of the Kobold King
Dead Gods
Red Hand of Doom


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## RichGreen (Jul 29, 2008)

Here's mine:

1. Desert of Desolation
2. Ravenloft
3. Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw
4. Red Hand of Doom
5. Wildspace


Richard


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## Lancelot (Jul 29, 2008)

1) B4 - The Lost City (OD&D)
2) GDQ1-7 - Queen of Spiders (1e)
3) Dead Gods (2e Planescape)
4) S4 - Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1e)
5) Red Hand of Doom (3e)


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## Morpheus (Jul 29, 2008)

Ravenloft (I6)
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
The Red Hand of Doom
The Banewarrens
Fane of the Witch King


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## knightofround (Jul 30, 2008)

It would be interesting to see people post how long they've been playing along with their choices. I am shocked to see so many 1st/2nd adventures in here, because quite frankly I found them to be incredibly boring compared to more modern ones. The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons.

Like I picked up keep on the borderlands just because I heard it was a cool old-school adventure, and I thought the thing was terribly designed. Good for its time perhaps, but not something I would prefer to play today. The same goes for a large number of "oldies" here that I've read; T1-4, G1-G3, U1-3....

So here's my more "modern" list =P

1. Drow War, Mongoose
2. Banewarrens, Malhavoc
3. Return to Temple of Elemental Evil, WotC
4. Ravenloft I6, TSR (See I can appreciate some old stuff =P)


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## Korgoth (Jul 30, 2008)

knightofround said:


> It would be interesting to see people post how long they've been playing along with their choices. I am shocked to see so many 1st/2nd adventures in here, because quite frankly I found them to be incredibly boring compared to more modern ones. The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons.




Oh, well if "knightofround" found them boring then they must be. There's no chance that he might have missed the point of their design philosophy. I must have been experiencing some Matrix-type illusion all that time they were rocking my face off. If only I could take off my rosy-colored glasses. It's like the opposite of _They Live_ or something.



Or, I may be going out on a limb here... maybe they were written with a different set of priorities. Maybe they still stand up after all this time because they were actually good. Maybe modules are different nowadays because they have a different set of assumptions and priorities.

Let's take "Sunless Citadel" for example, a module many here have probably played. It was basically linear in nature, with at most two paths, a sub boss or two and a main boss. To people who are looking for a "story" then that may work, but where I come from it's boring design. Where's the labyrinth of passages, the sublevels, the spelunking, the challenge? If the players don't (or can't) miss half the encounters, it's not a dungeon.


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## James Jacobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I'd have to pick...

1: Queen of the Spiders
2: Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
4: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
5: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (despite it having the worst art ever)

Unless we're expanding out to include other game systems, in which case Call of Cthulhu's "Masks of Nyarlathotep" and "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" would probably bully their way onto the list.


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## Fedifensor (Jul 30, 2008)

** Against the Giants (G1/G2/G3)* - it feels like cheating, since it's actually three modules, but there is enough of a link between the three to justify it.  One of my favorite D&D memories is the epic fight in the center room of the Hill Giant keep, where we barely survived.
** The Lost Island of Castanamir (C3)* - A wonderful module.  Loved the room portals, which made things very interesting for the party.  The Gingwatzim were also a nice addition that added a lot of flavor, particular the naranzim.
** The Gauntlet (UK3)* - Technically, this should also include The Sentinel (UK2) because the modules were a single story in two parts.  Defending the keep against an entire attacking force (including a giant!) was very, very cool, and the final encounter was well done.
** Treasure Hunt (N4)* - 0-level characters trapped on an island trying to escape, reaching 1st level in the process.  Written by Aaron Allston (who has moved on to bigger and better-paying gigs), this was very well done.
** The Hall of the Rainbow Mage (Necromancer Games G3)* - Perhaps the pinnacle of "3rd edition adventures, 1st edition feel".  I DM'd this module instead of playing it, but I think both the players and myself had a lot of fun.


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## vazanar (Jul 30, 2008)

In no order, my favorite have been to DM (and the first play)

Temple of Elemental Evil
Adams Wrath
Night of Dissolution (with the Ptolus path intro)
Rise of Runelords: Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders


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## Dykstrav (Jul 30, 2008)

knightofround said:


> It would be interesting to see people post how long they've been playing along with their choices. I am shocked to see so many 1st/2nd adventures in here, because quite frankly I found them to be incredibly boring compared to more modern ones. The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons.




I chose a superlative adventure from each major edition (1E, 2E, and 3.5), it just so happens that I like the style and narrative of 1E adventures, so that's what rounded out the list.

There have been some good modern adventures too--the _Forge of Fury_ and _Heart of Nightfang Spire_ stand out in particular. But since the question is about opinion, I'm not terribly surprised to hear some common elements among the opinions.


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## RichGreen (Jul 30, 2008)

James Jacobs said:


> Unless we're expanding out to include other game systems, in which case Call of Cthulhu's "Masks of Nyarlathotep" and "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" would probably bully their way onto the list.



That would get Horror on the Orient Express on to mine!


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## Erik Mona (Jul 30, 2008)

jdrakeh said:


> I think that "butchered" is a pretty strong word, as many of the modules that were reworked for In Search of Adventure started life as little more than completely random or largely unrelated encounters set in vaguely defined locations. Still, I know some people that really think there is something special about completely random and unrelated encounters set in vaguely defined locations. I'm not one of them, though




The changes I was referring to were not "improve by fleshing out" but "make fit in 128 pages (or whatever) by cutting out whole levels and subplots.

Or am I mistaken? It's possible, as I am far more familiar with Realms of Horror (which fits my criticism perfectly) than I am with In Search of the Unknown.

--Erik


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## meomwt (Jul 30, 2008)

James Jacobs said:


> Unless we're expanding out to include other game systems, in which case Call of Cthulhu's "Masks of Nyarlathotep" and "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" would probably bully their way onto the list.




Only if you played these using D&D or Pathfinder rules...


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## Aus_Snow (Jul 30, 2008)

meomwt said:


> Only if you played these using D&D or Pathfinder rules...



Yikes! What a thought. 

Bit like CoC d20, I s'pose.


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## Erik Mona (Jul 30, 2008)

BTW, I am surprised and humbled to see "The Whispering Cairn" on so many lists. It's one of my favorite things I've written, and I tried to distill a lot of what made my 1e favorites favorites when writing that adventure. 

So thanks, and I'm really pleased you guys enjoyed it.

--Erik


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## pemerton (Jul 30, 2008)

Most of the D&D adventures I've GMed have been converted to RM, and often pulled apart and put back together again with other adventures or to fit into an ongoing campaign.

Played as D&D modules, I've had good experiences with:

*Against the Giants (as a new GM many years ago);
*U3, The Final Enemy  (ditto);
*The Keep in B2 (I've never GMed the Caves of Chaos).

Converted to RM, I've had a lot of fun with:
*A2, The Secret of the Slavers Stockade;
*D1, Descent into the Depths of the Earth;
*O3, Ochimo: The Spirit Warrior;
*O7, can't remember the name but it involves fighting an evil animal lord and a snake cult - as written it's a bit railroady in parts but that was easy enough to ignore, and the situation and some of the encounters were pretty memorable for my group.

When you convert a module to a different system its really the characters and the situations that have to inspire, rather than the mechanical implementation, and the above certainly delivered. I think that's why I've got less use from 3E modules, which seem to emphasise mechanics over situation to a greater extent than earlier editions of D&D. Malhavoc is a bit of exception in that respect, howver: I've got pretty good use from Beyond Countless Doorways, Requiem for a God and When the Sky Falls - not from ready-scripted adventures, but from ideas for situations and events.

Bastion of Broken Souls was a 3E module that promised a lot but, for me at least, didn't really deliver after the first half (I haven't actually tried to play the Positive Material Plane part - it was a terrible let down given the promise of the situation developed in the first half). But some of the NPCs/enemies have been memorable in my campaign.


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## Melan (Jul 30, 2008)

knightofround said:


> It would be interesting to see people post how long they've been playing along with their choices. I am shocked to see so many 1st/2nd adventures in here, because quite frankly I found them to be incredibly boring compared to more modern ones. The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons.



Not very much; you are just guilty of the rose coloured glasses fallacy here. There are several good reasons for liking old modules, and only one of those is nostalgia. I, for one, have only discovered most of the classic modules since ca. 2000, and am younger than a considerable number of them; yet I find them imaginative, highly playable and full of concepts usually missing from more recent releases.


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## gdmcbride (Jul 30, 2008)

1. I6 Ravenloft (TSR 1983) by Tracy and Laura Hickman

Spine-tingly well written and powerfully and potently evocative, this one is easy to recommend.    This should have been number one on the Dungeon 30.

2. Red Hand of Doom (WotC 2006) by James Jacob and Rich Baker

This is a new classic.   Exciting and cinematic, the players get to decide the course of a fantasy war.   

3. D3 Vault of the Drow (TSR 1978) by Gary Gygax

The 'Queen of the Spiders' super-module was ranked number one by Dungeon but really where does the genius in that series lie?    Could it be the adventure where you infilitrate the world's most evil city and discover a wonderland of intrigue and evil?    Could it be the one set in a subterranean Sodom -- a dark and decadent fairyland -- where drow and daemon freely intermingle?    Could it be that one?   Or is the adventure where we discover that the Abyss looks like a 70s bath towel?

By the way, someone adapted Vault to Mongoose's Conan and boy does it work!  http://hyboria.xoth.net/adventures/index.htm

4. J1 Entombed with the Pharaohs (Paizo 2007) by Michael Kortes

Another new classic.   This is like I3 Pharaoh with the volume turned up to 11.   Derivative?   Certainly!   The genius is incorporating such familiar tropes and still keeping them fresh and exciting.

5.   The Age of Worms AP (Paizo 2005-2006 in Dungeon) by Lots O' People

This adventure path is the definitive D&D campaign at last written down, fully fleshed out and placed in Greyhawk.   Obviously an act of pure love and concentrated genius.   Yes it is a little uneven in places ('Three Face of Evil' anyone?).   But its highlights more than correct for it.   That and you get to fight Dragotha.    Yeehaw!

Gary


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## gdmcbride (Jul 30, 2008)

James Jacobs said:


> Unless we're expanding out to include other game systems, in which case Call of Cthulhu's "Masks of Nyarlathotep" and "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" would probably bully their way onto the list.




Completely agree. If you allow non-D&D and just create a Top 5 adventure list then my list turns into:

1. Beyond the Mountains of Madness (Chaosium 1999) by Charles and Janyce Egan et. al.

2. I6 Ravenloft

3. Masks of Nyarlathotep (Chaosium 1985) by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis

4. Enemy Within Campaign (Games Workshop 1986) -- Everything up to 'Power Behind the Throne'

5. Red Hand of Doom

Gary


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## PetriWessman (Jul 30, 2008)

In random order:


Against the Cult of the Reptile God (fantastic low-lvl adventure)
Tomb of Horrors (classic and fun deathtrap dungeon)
Ravager of Time (very cool and atmospheric)
Ravenloft (very innovative for its time)
Desert of Desolation trilogy (just a ton of fun, all around)


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## Schmoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Erik Mona said:


> BTW, I am surprised and humbled to see "The Whispering Cairn" on so many lists. It's one of my favorite things I've written, and I tried to distill a lot of what made my 1e favorites favorites when writing that adventure.
> 
> So thanks, and I'm really pleased you guys enjoyed it.
> 
> --Erik




Actually, you and James have been much too humble.  You should have included at LEAST 1 of your adventures on your lists!


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## gargoyle2k7 (Jul 30, 2008)

I guess I'm pretty old school.  It was a hard decision, since I do have so many favorites, but my top five would have to be:
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Temple of Elemental Evil
Against the Giants
Gates of Firestorm Peak
Tomb of Horrors


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## Prism (Jul 30, 2008)

1. Ravenloft
amazing stuff this one. played it several times, never completed the deed
2. Red Hand of Doom 
Best of the 3e adventures. Just finished it before moving to 4e. Great at providing the illusion of total choice while keeping things on track. A weaker adventure could easily have lost the party from the main plot
3. Mordenkainens Fantastic Adventure
Had great fun with this in 1e, played the 3e updates from Dungeon and the Gencon special last year. IMO the best dungeon crawl module
4. Sinister secret of Saltmarsh
We played this numerous times in the early days. great plot
5. Sons of Grummsh
Loved it. Here is a keep full of nasties. Work out how to get in avoid/kill everything and save the captives. Very freeform


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## Odysseus (Jul 30, 2008)

Desert of desolation series 
Secret of saltmarsh
Whispering cairn
Borshaks lair
Dungeon of kubla khan


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## thatdarnedbob (Jul 30, 2008)

I suppose I'll be showing my relative lack of age and experience by posting this list, but oh well. Started playing in 2006, and my faves so far:

Red Hand of Doom (WotC, standalone)
The Skinsaw Murders (Paizo, Pathfinder #2)
Burnt Offerings (Paizo, Pathfinder #1)
Vault of the Iron Overlord (Goodman Games, DCC #50)
Voyage of the Golden Dragon (Wotc, standalone Eberron)

The first three are ones I melded together to form my most recent campaign, the DCC is something that just screams "use me!" from my shelf, and the last is the only prepared module I've played as a player, so it holds a special place at the moment.


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## Arnwyn (Jul 30, 2008)

knightofround said:


> The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons.



That's very unfortunate that it's "the only way you can see" - since I have updated the 1e adventures on my list (as well as many others listed here) to 3e and actually played most of them _recently_ in that edition.

Nostalgia? You are demonstrably wrong. Whoops!


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## El Mahdi (Jul 30, 2008)

knightofround said:


> It would be interesting to see people post how long they've been playing along with their choices. I am shocked to see so many 1st/2nd adventures in here, because quite frankly I found them to be incredibly boring compared to more modern ones. The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons...




knightofround: In opposition to some that have posted on this thread, I appreciate your oppinion and apoligize for those who have slapped you down for it.  I enjoyed your list just as I have enjoyed everyones list on this thread.

To be 100% honest with myself, I would say there is a bit of nostalgia in my choices, but not the only reason why I picked them.  I tend to pick adventures to run based on story and plot.  That's not to say that others choices don't have good story and plot, or that your picks don't have story or plot.  I haven't read every RPG adventure in existence and don't know much about most of the ones you picked as your favorites (however they seem to be an interesting mix after looking up and reading synopsis on the internet).

As concerns my picks, I'm sure there are some newer adventures that would be, from a purely subjective view, better adventures, but nostalgia is a powerful thing.  For example Highlander is one of my favorite movies.  However, if this movie came out today, and I saw it for the first time, I would probably hate it.  I would pick it apart for its historical inaccuracies and lack of understanding of weapon construction, pan it for its simplistic story line, and never watch it again.  But, because I saw this in High School (dating myself here), at a time when this really appealed to me and stood up well with other movies of its time, I love it.  It will always be one of my favorites.

I would imagine that nostalgia probably plays a role in everyones picks.  But thats part of the fun of this thread.  After reading some of the other lists, I keep thinking "Ahh, I wish I had put that on my list too!".  But then my list would have quickly gotten out of control.  I think that shows though, that the classics have withstood the test of time fairly well.

P.S. knightofround - just because some have higher posts counts than you doesn't mean your oppinion matters any less.  I look forward to more posts from you.


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## T. Foster (Jul 30, 2008)

_The Abduction of Good King Despot_ (Will & Schar Niebling and Russ Stambaugh; New Infinities, 1988)
_Caverns of Thracia_ (Paul Jaquays; Judges Guild, 1979)
_Necropolis: The Land of AEgypt_ (Gary Gygax; GDW, 1992 (for _Dangerous Journeys_ -- re-release for d20: Necromancer Games, 2002)
_EX2: The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror_ (Gary Gygax; TSR, 1983)
_D2: Shrine of the Kuo Toa_ (Gary Gygax; TSR, 1978)


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## S. Baldrick (Jul 30, 2008)

*The Village of Hommlet*
*Pharaoh* (The whole *Desert of Desolation* series was great but I think *Pharaoh*was the best of the bunch.)
*The Lost City*
*The Sentinel* and its sequel *The Gauntlet*.
*The Destiny of Kings*
*Keep on the Borderlands*
*Return to Keep on the Borderlands* 
*Night Below* boxed set adventure.
*The Forge of Fury*
*The Crucible of Freya*
*The Whispering Carin*
*NeMoren's Vault*
*The Shackled City Adventure Path* 
*The Red Hand of Doom*
*The Night of Dissolution*
*Dro Mandras*  Technically not D&D but C&C is close enough in my book.


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## Jhaelen (Jul 30, 2008)

Korgoth said:


> Oh, well if "knightofround" found them boring then they must be. There's no chance that he might have missed the point of their design philosophy.



Umm. Would you allow for the possibility of someone not liking 'the old classics' despite fully understanding their design philosophy? The often praised 'openness' and 'number of choices' in many old adventures don't create excitement in everyone when they basically consist of random encounters in a randomly generated dungeon.
An adventure isn't inherently better because it offers more paths to get from A to B or because the entry room has doors leading to twenty other locations.


Korgoth said:


> Let's take "Sunless Citadel" for example, a module many here have probably played. It was basically linear in nature, with at most two paths, a sub boss or two and a main boss. To people who are looking for a "story" then that may work, but where I come from it's boring design. Where's the labyrinth of passages, the sublevels, the spelunking, the challenge? If the players don't (or can't) miss half the encounters, it's not a dungeon.



I typically enjoy 'basically linear' adventures with a good story more than a sprawling complex that is completely illogical.

To me it's like the difference between Doom and Half-Life. Obviously I prefer the latter.

I also enjoy playing Hack/Rogue from time to time, but ultimately it's just killing time, nothing to get excited about.

This isn't entirely black or white either. If an adventure is nothing but a railroad that doesn't offer any choices at all, it cannot be more than mindless fun even if the story is absolutely exceptional.

Back in the days I had an eye-opening experience when I read my first MERP adventure. It was a dynamic, a 'living dungeon'. It was neatly divided into a description of the static elements (rooms) and a list of inhabitants, their typical time-schedule, tactics, etc.
It didn't have any pre-planned encounters or set-pieces like all the D&D adventures I had read before. I.e. it offered a completely different kind of freedom. _Meaningful_ choices rather than 'door A' or 'door B'.

As a final disclaimer: Not all old D&D adventures were bad, imho. Some of them also included elements of a dynamic, living dungeon and some actually did a good job of telling an interesting story along the way. I just can't remember the title of any of them...


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## Keldryn (Jul 30, 2008)

I've been playing since 1986, starting with BECMI D&D, then moving on to 1st Edition AD&D, then through 2nd, 3rd, and now 4th Edition (though I haven't actually played a real session of 4th yet due to time constraints).

My favourite adventures (not in any order) would be:

B7 Rahasia - Great intro adventure, more than just a mindless dungeon crawl, with some great flavour and several encounters that require some thought.

B10 Night's Dark Terror - This one really defined the flavour of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos and is a fairly long adventure that was designed to get players out of the dungeon and into wilderness and urban adventures.  Just a great adventure all around.

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - lots has been said about this one already.  It's a great one to start a campaign with, even if you don't move on to U2 and U3.

The Sunless Citadel - this one is more or less a dungeon crawl, but it's a very good one and again rewards players for not just running through killing everything.  It's sort of the 3e equivalent of Keep on the Borderlands, but I think it's a much better-designed adventure.

X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield - a war spanning the known world, the players rushing to recruit allies for their side before the emissaries of the Master do... what's not to like?  Okay, it needs some fleshing out because some of the nation entries are quite sparse, but it's a great foundation for a significant story arc within the campaign (much like CM1 Test of the Warlords).

I usually preferred the BECM adventures to the 1e AD&D modules, perhaps because many of them were rooted in and developed the campaign setting, so they started to feel less generic.  I didn't care for the A series (Slavers), or any of the GDQ stuff, or really even the S series.  The I, U, and UK series probably had the most of interest to me.

When I get the time to start up a 4e game, I think I'm going to run it as a "Known World" campaign.  B10 will be the anchor for the early-to-mid Heroic tier, X10 for the early paragon tier, and CM1 for the late paragon and early epic tier.  X1 (Isle of Dread) can be the launching point for the mid Heroic tier, perhaps culminating with X4 and X5 (Master of the Desert Nomads and Temple of Death) to finish off the Heroic tier.


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## knightofround (Jul 31, 2008)

Yeah I wouldn't say that I categorically hate *all* the classics; hell I even included one in my top five =P

Its just that when I go through the old adventure books, they seem to be very vague compared to adventures found today. I mean, I look at the Caves of Chaos in B2 and although I can see "hey-there's some nifty encounters here", its largely just a bunch of rooms. Or I can look at the Giants series and say "hey this is a neat concept, but where's the plot to tie this together?"

I dunno I guess I just tend to prefer adventures that have strong plot and fascinating villians. Stuff like B2 just doesn't interest me because I see a stat block for a Dark Knight...but there's little/no detail into why he's in the caves, whats his motivations/alliances. He's just another guy in a room. And I know this is a fantasy game, but dungeon ecology is pretty much lacking in 1st/2nd ed. Its more of a room-room-room-boss-town experience, and I'm sure thats fun for some people...its just not my cup of tea.

Thats why the adventures I've picked are more focused on having great plot (drow war) awesome dungeon ecology (banewarrens and RttToEE), and settings with a lot of depth to them (ravenloft).

Again I'm not bashing all the classics, I'm just shocked that so many people here prefers 1st/2nd ed adventures when it seems like everybody on this forum discusses 3rd/4th ed.

I'm curious as to what you think the "design philosophy" of earlier adventures are compared to modern ones? To me, it seems to be a dichotomy between vague sandboxes which give the DM alot of room to maneuver (early) against more-defined storylines that the PCs flesh out.


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## Psion (Jul 31, 2008)

Dm_from_Brazil said:


> It´s interesting to notice that, in 1st edition, D&D was defined by its´s ADVENTURES, in 2nd and 3rd editions, by it´s SETTINGS, and, up to this point, 4th edition has been defined by it´s RULES.




Curious that you put it that way...
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showpost.php?p=3268778&postcount=8


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## Korgoth (Jul 31, 2008)

Jhaelen said:


> Umm. Would you allow for the possibility of someone not liking 'the old classics' despite fully understanding their design philosophy?




Yes, I would allow for that possibility. It just wasn't operative in this case.

Here's the sentence that set me off:
"The only way I can see all those 1st e stuff being on the list is for nostalgic reasons."

So this guy can only see so many 1E (and, presumably, the older material) modules being on people's lists because of "nostalgia". 

That is simply wrong.  There are perfectly reasonable factors that would cause a person to put older modules on their list.  There are a number of differences between many of the classic modules and the sort of stuff that is produced nowadays. And I can see a person being aware of those differences and still perferring the more recent offerings. Just like I can see a person saying that they prefer V-Larp to tabletop gaming... I have nothing in common with that kind of aesthetic position and probably wouldn't be inclined to hang out with that person, but there are differences between the two pursuits and therefore grounds for distinguishing one taste from another.

It's offensive to just toss off a handwaving dismissal of appreciation for old school modules as mere "nostalgia". Nostalgia in many, if not most, cases has nothing to do with it. They are genuinely good modules for the sort of things they set out to do. Now if "knightofround" doesn't want to buy what they're selling, no problem. But he shouldn't throw around such rude dismissals. I mean, I could say that everyone who likes 3rd and 4th ed modules is just some candy raver whose mind has been blown on X, but it would be both erroneous and extremely unfair.


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## AllisterH (Jul 31, 2008)

I kind of agree with knightofround which is why my top 3 are Ravenloft, Dead Gods and Gates of Firestorm Peak.


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## Freakohollik (Jul 31, 2008)

*Tomb of Horrors*
My favorite. I loved this one on my first reading. I finally got to run it recently and it was great fun. Characters die frequently, but we knew this going in, so I just let them instantly return to life. Going in with that kind of attitude is essential to enjoying this one.

*Maure Castle / Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure*
Now this one I was a player in. We did the 3.5e update with a really small group and had a blast. Huge place with tons of fun rooms, encounters, exploration, etc. All that classic 1e adventure style greatness. Sure its a dungeon crawl all the way, but thats what I like.

*Ravenloft*
I ran the 3.5e update of this. Best part is exploring a spooky castle and fighting Strahd. As a vampire, he can escape every fight, and as a wizard and master of the castle, he provides for so many great encounters. There is just so much stuff you can do with him. Then you can keep reusing him. It's giving the DM the power to put in an exciting BBEG fight whenever he wants. Brilliant.

*Forge of Fury*
I've only read this one, so I don't have too much to say. Plays at a good level range for 3.5e and the encounters look like a lot of fun.

*Gates of Firestorm Peak*
I'm currently converting this one to 4e. It should be a lot of fun. My only worry is that it won't be able to sustain itself for how long it is.


As far as this old adventure style vs new adventure style goes, I'm clearly in the old style group. There is much more focus on exploration and being cautious, whereas in the newer adventures, you follow a straight line, win every fight and you're done. The good 1e adventures really make you think about what you're doing, where you're going, and plan ahead. And I'm sure this isn't nostalgia because I started with 3.5e.
For the complaints about monster details, thats really nonsense to me. Monster ecology is something that the players don't need to know about, and never find out about. A monster is on stage for very little time. I don't care what it eats, why its here, and so on. This is a big thing that bugs me in the Paizo adventures. They're all really interested on telling you every monster's life story. Thats a total waste of space. That information is not relevant to the players or the DM.

On other choices I've seen

*Temple of Elemental Evil:* To all the people that picked this, did you finish it? This adventure has some good stuff, but its just so long that I don't think it would be able to sustain itself.

*The Whispering Cairn:* This adventure I like a lot. I ran it and we had good fun with it. The dungeon is good, but the real fun comes when you travel back to town and to the observatory. I also liked the The Three Faces of Evil, but I never played/ran it.

*Rise of the Runelords:* I played through the first 3 adventures in this path, and they are quite poor. The things I see people praise these adventures for make me wonder if we were playing the same adventures. Whatever overarching plot was going on was completely hidden from the PCs. Uninteresting encounters/locals. Painful amounts of description on every monster. Plot that strings the PCs along. Towards the end of the 3rd adventure a pixie shows up and makes the PCs go to a dungeon on a fetch quest for her powerful wizard master. We all started making Forest Oracle jokes when this happened. After that we gave up on this AP.

*Sunless Citadel:* A good adventure, a little too linear, but otherwise very good. I would have put it on my list if Forge of Fury wasn't a bit better.

*Whispers of the Vampire's Blade:* I'd like to give this one an honorable mention. It didn't have any exploration, and was way too linear, but it has some really great big encounters in it that make the whole adventure.


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## Korgoth (Jul 31, 2008)

knightofround said:


> I dunno I guess I just tend to prefer adventures that have strong plot and fascinating villians. Stuff like B2 just doesn't interest me because I see a stat block for a Dark Knight...but there's little/no detail into why he's in the caves, whats his motivations/alliances. He's just another guy in a room. And I know this is a fantasy game, but dungeon ecology is pretty much lacking in 1st/2nd ed. Its more of a room-room-room-boss-town experience, and I'm sure thats fun for some people...its just not my cup of tea.




I obviously don't mind if it's not your cup of tea. But you're close to touching on the differences here.

First, old school adventures are not about having a "plot", especially not a "strong" one. To most old schoolers, a "story" is not something you have during play... it's something you tell about the play session once it's over. As I believe the great Papers&Paychecks (OSRIC guru) said: "We explore dungeons not characters."

Old schoolers don't really view D&D sessions as if they were movies. You know, the best Star Trek movie is Wrath of Khan not just because it's the only one with cool ship to ship combat but also because it explores the character of Captain Kirk. If I'm the moviegoer I want the movie to explore Kirk... but if I'm Captain Kirk I don't want to explore Captain Kirk, I want to explore outer space! We the moviegoing audience might want to see the character explored, but the character himself wants to explore outer space not inner space. And in D&D you get to be the character. So let's go exploring!

Second, one of the reasons that extreme detail was not given in the earlier products is because you were expected to _make it up_! Why is this "Dark Knight" character here? I don't you... you tell me. Maybe he's under a curse. Maybe he's trapped. Maybe he's running from the authorities of the Realm. Maybe he's running from the Furies, and they can't find him while he's in the Underworld. Maybe he has amnesia. Maybe he's just a weirdo. But unless it's relevant, we don't really need to know where he poops or how his mother treated him as a child. We need just enough for him to be an interesting and cool challenge to throw in the way of the players.  Also, old school games often operated under the assumption that you were going to be rolling for NPC Reactions. Maybe the Dark Knight doesn't want to fight. Maybe he wants to challenge somebody to let them pass. Maybe he will give up his magic shield if they win (maybe he's got a lot of shields already on his wall). Maybe he will join the party... and maybe he will betray them later.

The DM can make up all that kind of stuff. He can tailor it to fit his campaign and his group. If you're all engineering students, maybe the "Dark Knight" needs help repairing a Dwarven mining device (break out the slide rules, boys).

Part of the "old school way" is to give the player or DM something partial and see what they make out of it.  Look at how characters are made: you roll randomly for your attributes.  What if you roll high Strength and low Constitution? Maybe he's a wiry character, or maybe he's big and strong but has a weak immune system. That's part of the challenge: take these raw numbers and make them into something imaginative and fun.

Third, remember that dungeons were originally called "underworlds". You suggest that they don't make sense. And you're right... they don't. They're the city of Chaos, the "anti-city", which stands as an opposite and counterbalance to the organized and logical realm of Law, the city.  Ever notice how, in Greek myths, the monsters and crazy cultists and strange visitations all usually happen out in the wilderness or underground? That's because you're safe in the city, where reason and order prevail, but outside the city walls you are in the realm of the mythic. It's basically that way in D&D, too. Especially with regard to the "dungeons" component of "Dungeons and Dragons". The dungeon or underworld is the opposite of the civilized realm, and things work differently there than they work in the realms of men.

Well, that's enough for now. Just a few points for you to munch on. Again, if you're into a different kind of experience, that's fine. But I hope you come to see that there are reasons why things were done the way they were, and why those of us who still run and play in old school games continue to do so. It's not because we're unable to keep up with change (like, we're on the internet and all) or that we have "rose colored glasses" or something. It's just a different approach to gaming which aims at delivering a different kind of experience.


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## MerricB (Jul 31, 2008)

I've forked a thread to continue discussion of Dungeon Design Philosophy.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=237519

If you want to discuss that, continue over there.

Favourite adventures may remain here. 

Cheers!


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## TheSleepyKing (Jul 31, 2008)

I actually find it hard to judge the 1e adventures. On the one hand, they’re often burdened with illogical dungeon structures and ecologies (you have manticores happily living one room over from oozes and orcs). But the era also produced some of the most daring and innovative adventures, the kind of which you don’t see very often anymore. You know, there are freakin’ spaceships, portals through time, shrinking magic that made household pets dangerous and trips to fairy tale realms. I love those adventures that really push the envelope beyond “go to dungeon; kill stuff.” (That’s not to say that I don’t like the occasional dungeon hack, but the adventures I remember best are the ones that took players on weird and wonderful journeys, or mixed things up from regular modules

That said, some of my favourite adventures include
From 1E:
I6 - Ravenloft
I3-5 - Desert of Desolation
S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
X2 - Castle Amber

From 2E:
Reverse Dungeon (which I think would work really well in 4e
Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (which actually made goblins fun)
Golden Voyages and Assassin Mountain (both Al Qadim adventures

From 3E:
The Last Dance from Atlas Games
Dungeon Crawl Classics #51 – Castle Whiterock
Shackled City Adventure Path


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## vazanar (Jul 31, 2008)

Freakohollik said:


> As far as this old adventure style vs new adventure style goes, I'm clearly in the old style group. There is much more focus on exploration and being cautious, whereas in the newer adventures, you follow a straight line, win every fight and you're done. The good 1e adventures really make you think about what you're doing, where you're going, and plan ahead. And I'm sure this isn't nostalgia because I started with 3.5e.
> 
> For the complaints about monster details, thats really nonsense to me. Monster ecology is something that the players don't need to know about, and never find out about. A monster is on stage for very little time. I don't care what it eats, why its here, and so on. This is a big thing that bugs me in the Paizo adventures. They're all really interested on telling you every monster's life story. Thats a total waste of space. That information is not relevant to the players or the DM.
> 
> ...


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## Schmoe (Jul 31, 2008)

S. Baldrick said:


> *The Destiny of Kings*




Cool, someone else liked this as well.  I remember running it long ago, when I was still learning the ropes as a DM.  I'm fairly confident I botched the whole thing, as I had very little idea what I was doing with it.  Strangely, the players seemed to enjoy this part of the campaign more than many of the other modules I ran for them.


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## DrunkonDuty (Jul 31, 2008)

Wow, reading thru everyone's lists just make me aware of how few actual purchased modules I've run/played. Almost none from 3.X at all. But anyhoo, here (in no particualr order) are my top 5.

*Isle of Dread*. As someone above said: dinosaurs in D&D!! And the first feeling of a more expanded world hinted at within a module.
*Tomb of the Pharoah*. A classic hook followed by a classic dungeon, with Prit the Gnome and a flying ship at the end!
*Mad Monkey vs Dragon Claw*. I'd forgotten this one until seeing it in the list above. But it has everything you could want in a martial arts adventure, including a training montage!
*Tomb of the Lizard King.* Deadly, fricking deadly. Almost Tomb of Horrors style deadly but the deadly is not quite so predestined/inescapable.
*G1-2-3:* I like giants. Not so excited by the follow ups (and never played Demonweb) but a mad hack fest against very strong, intelligently run opponents. A good lesson in thinking before kicking in the door.


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## Tervin (Jul 31, 2008)

I am going to be awkward and not include anything 3.x or later, and still avoid the big 1st edition classics. I honestly think both the really early ones and the latest stuff are often too combat centered, and simply lack the feel of what I think of as the golden age of D&D adventure design. 

On the other hand I will play nice and only include stuff that was sold in the stores, even if I honestly think that the best D&D adventures I have seen were fanmade material from round about 1990.

The list (in no special order)
OA5 Mad Monkey & the Dragon Claw
OA2 Night of the Seven Swords
RA2 Ship of Horror
DSE1 Dragon's Crown
DSM1 Black Flames


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## catsclaw227 (Jul 31, 2008)

I loved the old 1st Ed adventures when we were playing them.  We were in high school and didn't care about ecologies or consistency.  We even would take turns making dungeons on graph paper, putting monsters in the rooms and then going for it.  No Story Necessary.

But as I got older, my preferences for style of play changed.  I won't say they evolved, since a story driven plot, mystery and intrigue are not any more evolved than dungeon hacking, but I am more satisfied now by a challenging story, layered NPCs, and overarching purpose for my players and my PCs.



Korgoth said:


> Second, one of the reasons that extreme detail was not given in the earlier products is because you were expected to _make it up_! Why is this "Dark Knight" character here? I don't you... you tell me. Maybe he's under a curse. Maybe he's trapped. Maybe he's running from the authorities of the Realm. Maybe he's running from the Furies, and they can't find him while he's in the Underworld. Maybe he has amnesia. Maybe he's just a weirdo. But unless it's relevant, we don't really need to know where he poops or how his mother treated him as a child. We need just enough for him to be an interesting and cool challenge to throw in the way of the players.  Also, old school games often operated under the assumption that you were going to be rolling for NPC Reactions. Maybe the Dark Knight doesn't want to fight. Maybe he wants to challenge somebody to let them pass. Maybe he will give up his magic shield if they win (maybe he's got a lot of shields already on his wall). Maybe he will join the party... and maybe he will betray them later.
> 
> The DM can make up all that kind of stuff. He can tailor it to fit his campaign and his group. If you're all engineering students, maybe the "Dark Knight" needs help repairing a Dwarven mining device (break out the slide rules, boys).
> 
> Part of the "old school way" is to give the player or DM something partial and see what they make out of it.  Look at how characters are made: you roll randomly for your attributes.  What if you roll high Strength and low Constitution? Maybe he's a wiry character, or maybe he's big and strong but has a weak immune system. That's part of the challenge: take these raw numbers and make them into something imaginative and fun.



Now, see this is another reason why the older adventures don't work well for me as a DM.  I don't have TIME to do all this making stuff up.  I need to use published adventures. Though I will always add my personal touch, I don't have time to add all the why's and how's.

When I find published adventures that can be fit into any campaign, are well fleshed out, and offer a story thread that I can attach to my campaign arc, then this is all win for me.



			
				knightofround said:
			
		

> Thats why the adventures I've picked are more focused on having great plot (drow war) awesome dungeon ecology (banewarrens and RttToEE), and settings with a lot of depth to them (ravenloft).



I am glad someone else is getting some good gaming out of the Drow War series.  I think this is one of the better plotted APs out there, even if the production values were lacking.  The first book (lvl 1-10) was a huge race across an island, mini-plots everywhere, and finally save a city (or not!) before starting out on Book 2.


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## catsclaw227 (Jul 31, 2008)

> ...Village of Hommlet...




Does anyone remember the adventure for 3.x by Open World Press called The Hamlet of Thumble?  It was for World of Whitethorn, which I think was going to be more fleshed out, but never happened.

Excellent 1st level adventure and an homage to Village of Hommlet.


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## foehammerx (Jan 28, 2010)

Return to Tomb of Horrors
The Banewarrens
Ravenloft
Whispers of the Vampires Blade
Die Vecna Die


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## Starfox (Jan 28, 2010)

Mad God's Key (from Dungeon Magazine)

I can only say I seem to differ a lot from most of you dungeon-lovers.


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## Evilhalfling (Jan 28, 2010)

*GDQ1-7  * ran G1-2  used Ds as insperation for more games than  can count. 
*Isle of Dread * played it orginally, loved the adventure path, inspired my own  campaign.
*Keep on the Shadowfell* (as player)  Although what I remember best is the nocturnal, manic-depressive, kobold. Bard.  Meepo litterally rocked.   Mostly as played by DM.
*Greyhawk Ruins. *  3 towers - 2 with intelligently designed intra-dungeon conflicts, and the last with just pure weird.   
*Thunderspire Laberinth.*  Warned by enworld of its problems, I managed to put a tighter link between sets and integrated plots into the greater world.  The last tower was a litlte anti-climaxtic, but the well of demons and the seven-pillared hall itself were top noch.


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## rogueattorney (Jan 28, 2010)

B2 Keep on the Borderland
B4 The Lost City
WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
X2 Castle Amber
Caverns of Thracia (Judges Guild)


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## David Howery (Jan 28, 2010)

I'm limited to knowledge of BD&D/1E/2E, so...

1. I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City (I have a 'thing' for jungle/lost city adventures... shocking, ain't it )

2. GDQ mega-module (probably the most famous adventure of all time)

3. T1-4 Hommlett/TOEE (I imagine the Homlet section, as the original T1 adventure, started out more 1E groups than any other)

4. Dungeon #1, "Into the Fire" (the best basic "let's go kill this dragon" adventure I've ever seen)

5. B2 Keep on the Borderlands (nostalgia, first loves, yadda yadda)


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## JRRNeiklot (Jan 28, 2010)

knightofround said:


> Yeah I wouldn't say that I categorically hate *all* the classics; hell I even included one in my top five =P
> 
> I dunno I guess I just tend to prefer adventures that have strong plot and fascinating villians. Stuff like B2 just doesn't interest me because I see a stat block for a Dark Knight...but there's little/no detail into why he's in the caves, whats his motivations/alliances. He's just another guy in a room. And I know this is a fantasy game, but dungeon ecology is pretty much lacking in 1st/2nd ed. Its more of a room-room-room-boss-town experience, and I'm sure thats fun for some people...its just not my cup of tea.
> 
> Thats why the adventures I've picked are more focused on having great plot (drow war) awesome dungeon ecology (banewarrens and RttToEE), and settings with a lot of depth to them (ravenloft).




Old school adventures are cool exactly because of their lack of a huge plotline.  Give the dm 2 sentences of why the pcs are here - enough to get started, then the players create their own plot.  That's what makes a story.  I want to make my own story, and on the fly, not be shoehorned into someone elses plot, no matter how wonderful it may be.

edit:  Teach me to post before reading the entire thread.  Korgoth beat me  to the punch, and stated it much more eloquently than I.


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## JRRNeiklot (Jan 28, 2010)

My 5:

5:  Tomb of Horrors
4:  Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
3:  Hall of Many Panes
2:  Isle of the Ape
1:  Ghost Tower of Inverness


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## Lancelot (Jan 28, 2010)

Difficult question. I'll go with "What's my Top #1 from 5 separate editions?", rather than my Top #5 overall. Otherwise, it'd likely be all Basic/Expert modules...



B4 - The Lost City (Basic/Expert)
GDQ - Queen of Spiders (AD&D)
Fires of Dis (2e)
Red Hand of Doom (3e)
Hook Mountain Massacre (Pathfinder)
Note that I don't actually play Pathfinder but, as much as I love 4e, I've yet to find a 4e module that really impresses me.


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## Sordath (Jan 28, 2010)

1) Night Below
2) Lord of the Iron Fortress
3) Under Illefarn
4) Rod of Seven Parts (boxed set)
5) Return of the Eight


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## grodog (Feb 1, 2010)

My top 5:


G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax (D&D; TSR)
Maure Castle (Paizo)/WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Rob Kuntz (AD&D; TSR)
T1 Village of Hommelet by Gary Gygax (AD&D; TSR)
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity by David Cook (AD&D; TSR)
Maze of Zayene #4 Eight Kings by Rob Kuntz (AD&D from Creations Unlimited, or d20 from Different Worlds)

I haven't played 2e or 4e, so I skew to 1e and 3.x/d20.


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## FormCritic (Mar 1, 2010)

G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chieftain
G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King

These three pretty much stand above all other modules and module series.  This is ironic, because they were the first modules published (unless you count Temple of the Frog in the Blackmoor supplement).  Gary Gygax got it exactly right on his first swing of the bat.

Other adventures I found excellent:

Verbosh (Judges Guild)
Dark Tower (Judges Guild)
D3 Vault of the Drow
R1, R2, and R3 Rappan Athuk (Necromancer Games)


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## jcayer (Mar 2, 2010)

More old school love in no particular order

Castle Amber
Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain
Ghost Tower of Inverness
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth


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## FellGleaming (Mar 9, 2010)

Your list is very close to mine, Jcayer.  Though I'd put it as:

Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain
Temple of Elemental Evil
Castle Amber
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh


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## Derulbaskul (Mar 9, 2010)

*Pre-2E*

_Caverns of Thracia_
_Dark Tower_
_D1-3_ 

*2E*

_Gates of Firestorm Peak_
_Night Below_
_The Shattered Circle_: often overlooked and underrated

*3.xE*

_Sons of Gruumsh_: it's easy to ignore because it's FR 
_Red Hand of Doom_: it's a travesty that Scales of War claimed to be the successor to this because there is no comparison
_Tomb of Abysthor_
and stacks of stuff by Paizo (including _Dungeon_ adventures).

*4E*

Nothing yet. I hope Moridin's thread bears some fruit.


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## GregoryOatmeal (May 16, 2011)

Bump because this thread totally deserves it. Running old models with C&C is my new thing so I should be kept busy for a while.

I haven't played enough modules to make my own list but I see a lot of love for 1E. I was frankly expecting to see more 2E modules. The consensus seems to be that 2E had the most, most unique, and best-supported campaign settings (Dark Sun, AQ, Planescape, Ravenloft, etc.). So I'm curious why there are few 2E modules on the list.

I just read Dungeonland and I'm floored by how readable and entertaining Gygax is. The rules are loose and insanity reigns. I expected this would carry into 2E with the spelljammers and thri-kreen and reverse dungeons and all the other crazy stuff in 2E. So why does 1E dominate the list? Are those modules inherently better? Did this crowd start homebrewing more by 2E? Did TSR start playing it safe when 2E came around? Is the consensus that 2E had good settings but bad modules?


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## knightofround (May 16, 2011)

Yeah this was a really great thread that I forgot about, thanks for the bump.

I think it's especially relevant today due to 4E's movement away from adventures into more supplements and campaign settings. Sadly I cannot think of a single published 4E adventure that would come anywhere close to matching many of the adventures listed in this thread. Its sad to think of how many quality adventures we've missed due to the 4E GSL.

In the past 3 years, the only adventure I've played that I consider worthy to adding to this thread is the Red Hand of Doom. I was pleasantly surprised to see it already mentioned in this thread several times. It opened my eyes to a brand new way of doing the classic "adventuring party". Instead of casting the PCs as the classic "band of roving explorers and do-gooders", it casts the PCs as an elite strike force of warriors in the middle of a massive war. Kinda like a fantasy version of delta force.

I've searched high and low for similar adventures but I've found nothing. It's worth mentioning Drow War (3E), Heroes of Battle (3.5E) and Wraith Recon Campaign Setting (4E), but none of those captured my interest like RHoD. If anyone out there knows of an adventure similar to RHoD, please let me know!


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## Odhanan (May 16, 2011)

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
GDQ1-7 Against the Giants - Descent into the Depth of the Earth - Queen of the Demonweb Pits
S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
B2 Keep on the Borderlands


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## Ariosto (May 17, 2011)

Caverns of Thracia
Dark Tower
- for sure! The other three may vary depending on when you ask me.

Today:
Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
The Halls of Tizun Thane (White Dwarf)

It's especially tough to make the 'final' pick. Which of the great Gygax scenarios is greatest? I will side-step by considering them all to fill a "hall of fame" of their own, and making instead an honorable mention of a lesser known adventure that was memorable to me:
The Temple of Poseidon (Dragon magazine #46), by Paul Reiche III


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## Ariosto (May 17, 2011)

It's neat to see the nods to "fun house dungeons" such as White Plume Mountain. Such elements seem to me of the essence of the classic "mega" dungeon game that was responsible for so much that became D&D. Naturalism or verisimilitude is easily taken to what I consider dull excess in the context of fantasy gaming.


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## crazy_monkey1956 (May 17, 2011)

My list is almost purely based on nostalgia rather than quality (though there are some quality modules here I suppose).

X1: Isle of Dread - First module I ever played.

X6: Quagmire - First module I ever DMed.

Dark of the Moon (Ravenloft) - Really the only 2E module I ever ran, but many memorable moments (run as an "evening in Ravenloft" with a group of Dragonlance characters, including a Kender).

The Sunless Citadel - I've run this one several times and enjoy it every time.

Bastion of Broken Souls - Epic conclusion to my first 1 to 20 3rd Edition campaign (which started with the aforementioned Sunless).


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## Ariosto (May 17, 2011)

A "Best in Category" thread might be worthwhile, considering the diversity of D&Ders' interests.

The "best" of what many dungeoneers dig might be pretty bad from the perspective of some plot-line aficionados, and even dungeon lovers differ on "wacky" and "sci fi" ingredients. Dramas can be of epic sweep or intimate sagas. Combat mavens and puzzle solvers might have different ideals.

A scenario might be outstanding in its own particular sub- or sub-sub-genre (and those can increase as needed to express different merits).


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## Hussar (May 17, 2011)

Interesting to see what people love.  My list isn't too much different from most people's here (In no particular order):

1.  The Lost City - just a freaking excellent module - it's got everything.  Intrigue, investigation, and a spinning elevator.  Fantastic.

2.  Cult of the Reptile God - yeah, it has that Deus Ex Machina ending, but, it's a really fun module and Orlane featured as a home base in a lot of my campaigns.

3.  World's Largest Dungeon.  Just cos I spent SO many hours with this bad boy.  

4.  The Land Beyond The Magic Mirror - I love weird.  Bring back the weird.  Please.

5.  Isle of Dread.  On of the first modules I ever played and the main reason I subscribed to Paizo's Dragon when they did the Savage Tide.  Paizo's treatment of the Isle was fantastic too.  Like Cult of the Reptile God, IoD has featured in way, way too many of my campaigns.


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## rogueattorney (May 17, 2011)

GregoryOatmeal said:


> Is the consensus that 2E had good settings but bad modules?




Yes.  I believe that is the consensus.

At the tale end of 1e, in the late '80s - about 1986 or 1987, TSR completely changed their module style and format.  While there were certainly exceptions on both sides of my dividing line, you could generally say that prior to the change, adventures were typically...

a.  Generic - they weren't specifically tied to a campaign setting or were tied so loosely that they could be easily adaptable to pretty much any campaign world.

b.  Self-contained - usually they were stand alone adventures, those part of a larger series could generally be played on their own just fine, and generally you did not need any products other than the core rules to run them.

c.  Site-based - Focused much more on the geography of the area and the inhabitants therein than specific events that can occur to the party.  In other words, once the preliminary set up was staged, what happens to the party was largely controlled by what area of the adventure the party traveled to and what they did once they got there.

d.  Short - as short as 8 pages long, and rarely more than 32 pages long, saddle-stitched paper backs.

After 1986 or 1987, TSR's adventures became more tied to specific campaign settings, almost always parts of larger series and were frequently tied to non-core rules and sourcebooks, event-based rather than site-based (in other words, with a number of pre-set events that would occur to the party regardless of what actions the party took), and much longer - often 90+ page perfect bound books, with a number of boxed-set adventures.

Another big distinction between earlier adventures and later adventures is that there were far fewer of them produced, but were printed in much, much larger quantities.  Adventures from the late '70s and early '80s were printed in the hundreds of thousands, while adventures from the later period usually had print runs under 10,000.

So from this you can probably tell why 1e adventures get mentioned far more often than 2e adventures.  (And I'm using "1e" loosely, as the change in design really occurred just prior to 2e coming out.)  There were far fewer 1e adventures to choose from but they were (and are - check ebay prices) more easily available, they generally weren't advertised as being part of a campaign you weren't playing, were more easily plugged into existing campaigns, more easily completed, and generally more utilitarian to a broader selection of D&D'ers.


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## GregoryOatmeal (May 17, 2011)

rogueattorney said:


> There were far fewer 1e adventures to choose from but they were (and are - check ebay prices) more easily available, they generally weren't advertised as being part of a campaign you weren't playing, were more easily plugged into existing campaigns, more easily completed, and generally more utilitarian to a broader selection of D&D'ers.




Thanks for clarifying. After 13 years of occasional gaming I'm finally finding these are about the best thing since sliced bread. Even with the C&C conversions they look like tons of fun to read and run.

With regards to the 2E modules...without resurrecting a 20-year old edition war  - would they legitimately compete with the 1E stuff if it weren't for the accessibility barrier? I'm surprised more setting fans haven't posted lists more focused on Al-Qadim, Ravenloft, or Planescape. Is it worth buying the compendiums and setting books? Because those modules look really great...

The non-setting modules look really cool, particularly the "25th anniversary" sequels to White Plume Mountain, KOTB, etc. I've been meaning to run Return to the Tomb of Horrors since I saw it in the hobby shop in the nineties.


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## Ahzad (May 18, 2011)

Mine would be 

Return to the Tomb of Horrors
GDQ1-7
Skull & Crossbones (hands down the best SJ adventure)
The Shackled City
A1-A4


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## Ulrick (May 18, 2011)

In no particular order: 

The Crucible of Freya
The Keep on the Borderlands
The Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Rappan Athuk (original and reloaded)
The Red Hand of Doom

Although there's lots of runners up from 1e. I've never played in or DMed The Return to the Tomb of Horrors, but place it among my top five because its an awesome read.


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## Jimlock (May 18, 2011)

*1. Night of the Walking Dead*  (2e Ravenloft)
*2. The Created* (2e Ravenloft)
*3. Touch of Death* (2e Ravenloft)
*4. DragonLance Classics Vol. I,II,III* (2e DragonLance)
*5. When black Roses Bloom* (2e Ravenloft)


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## Celebrim (May 18, 2011)

Crothian said:


> *Of Sound Mind:* Piratecat wrote this and I'm still waiting for the sequal!!
> I've ran two D&D campaigns since the module was written and I have used it in both campaigns, the only module written for 3ed that I've done that with.  It is creative and fun and a little bit off which realyl helps it.




Indeed.  One of the better modules ever written.  I adapted this to my latest campaign as well by changing the psionic theme to a necromancy theme and expanding the map a bit.  The conversion of the backstory from sapphire dragon to green dragon seeking to convert to a dracolich was easy and fit well.  I can't help but think the module was unfairly overlooked because of the psionic hook.   Like me, a lot of people probably just don't like psionics, but its a great module that does everything a module should do.

I even ran the next stage of the campaign as what I thought was suggested by the text for the sequel - an adventure to stop an evil cult at one of the foundries from stealing the bell in order to melt it down for an evil plot.

I'd love to here from [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION] about what he was intending to follow up the module with.



> *Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh*: This is a very good little mystery and investigation.  It doesn't feel like a typical dungeon crawl and it isn't.




This would make my list if only the next two modules weren't so fatally flawed.


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## Crothian (May 18, 2011)

Celebrim said:


> This would make my list if only the next two modules weren't so fatally flawed.




I've ran the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh many time but never ran the two sequels.  The module stands alone perfectly and doesn't need the others.


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## Mark CMG (May 18, 2011)

Celebrim said:


> Indeed.  One of the better modules ever written.  I adapted this to my latest campaign as well by changing the psionic theme to a necromancy theme and expanding the map a bit.  The conversion of the backstory from sapphire dragon to green dragon seeking to convert to a dracolich was easy and fit well.  I can't help but think the module was unfairly overlooked because of the psionic hook.   Like me, a lot of people probably just don't like psionics, but its a great module that does everything a module should do.
> 
> I even ran the next stage of the campaign as what I thought was suggested by the text for the sequel - an adventure to stop an evil cult at one of the foundries from stealing the bell in order to melt it down for an evil plot.
> 
> I'd love to here from [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION] about what he was intending to follow up the module with.





I believe I heard a rumor that a sequel was being commissioned.


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## Lanefan (May 19, 2011)

Ariosto said:


> The Temple of Poseidon (Dragon magazine #46), by Paul Reiche III



I actually just finished running this one last weekend, somewhat modified to fit my campaign.  It's not bad at all - particularly for a Drag-Mag throw-in - and the author goes into some of the "what ifs" decently enough; but there's still some places early on where the party can easily stand the module on its head by doing something fairly obvious e.g. approach by land instead of by sea and-or fly or climb into the balcony rather than row into the caves.

Lan-"I put a part of Cthulhu in the basement - fortunately the party didn't wake it up"-efan


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## daemonslye (May 23, 2011)

I'm such a sucker for these things. Here's my list: 

1. Gary Gygax, "Dungeon Module G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Games: 1978)
2. Harold Johnson and Tom Moldvay, "Dungeon Module A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Hobbies, Inc.: 1981)
3. Tracy and Laura Hickman, "Ravenloft" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1983)
4. Mark Acres, "Tomb of the Lizard King" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Hobbies, Inc.: 1982)
5. Gary Gygax, "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Hobbies, Inc.: 1982)

Continuing on past five:

6. James Jacobs, "There Is No Honor" (Bellvue, WA, Dragon Magazine #139: October 2006)
7. Aaron Allston, "Skarda's Mirror" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1987)
8. Monte Cook, "A Paladin in Hell" (Renton, WA, Wizards of the Coast Inc.: 1998)
9. Daniel Greenberg and Sam Shirley, "Swordthrust" (Chicago, IL, Mayfair Games: 1984) - pure nostagia
10. Frank Mentzer and Paul Jaquays, "Egg of the Phoenix" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1987)
12. Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer, "The Temple of Elemental Evil" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: May 1987)
13. Greg A. Vaughan, "Curse of the Crimson Throne: Skeletons of Scarwall" (Bellvue, WA, Pathfinder Adventure Path #11, Paizo Publishing, LLC.: July 2008)
14. Richard Pett, "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" (Bellvue, WA, Paizo Publishing, LLC., Dragon Magazine #141: December 2006)
15. Roger E. Moore, "Return of the Eight" (Renton, WA, Wizards of the Coast Inc.: 1998)
16. Philip Meyers, "Baltrons Beacon" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1985)
17. David "Zeb" Cook, "Vecna Lives!" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1990)

This was much harder than I thought, once I started writing them down and force-ranking. It is hard (for me) to separate nostalgia from well written adventures, but I suspect many of these combine the two (with a couple exceptions).  Also, some of these were totally new formats when written (ex. Ravenloft) which increases their weight with me.  This kind of list helps me prioritize as I'm in the middle of converting a few of these to Pathfinder RPG Rules (in the Paizo Messageboards). So, thanks!

Cheers,

~D


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## Lidgar (May 23, 2011)

1. GDQ - Queen of Spiders
2. T1-4 - Temple of Elemental Evil
3. A2 - Stockade of the Slave Lords
4. DCC #28 - Into the Wilds
5. DCC #51 - Castle Whiterock

Had a blast with all of these...


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## Ariosto (May 24, 2011)

Lanefan said:
			
		

> ...the party can easily stand the module on its head by doing something fairly obvious e.g. approach by land instead of by sea and-or fly or climb into the balcony rather than row into the caves.



I don't recall any reason to consider those possibilities disastrous to a fun game. Maybe I should have a look to refresh my memory of the situation. Not, as I tried to make clear, that I seriously mean to place the scenario in the top 5 of all time! Paul wrote in his introduction that he had learned some things since that design.

Sometimes people want very different things from a D&D scenario, though. A case in point:



			
				daemonslye said:
			
		

> 17. David "Zeb" Cook, "Vecna Lives!" (Lake Geneva, WI, TSR Inc.: 1990)




That is #1 on my personal hit list of _worst_ D&D scenarios! Granted, that may be because it was the last nail in the coffin of my interest in TSR's 2e AD&D output. It might be nice reading material for a DM interested in Dave Cook's version of Greyhawk, but for my money (Oh, rue that dark day!) it's a big steaming pile as a game for players.


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## Ariosto (May 24, 2011)

FA2 Nightmare Keep, by Rick Swan, also came out in 1990, I think -- and was for my taste much superior to "Vecna Railroads!".

Edit: Wikipedia says 1991, so maybe "Vecna Lives!" was not really quite the last nail. I do know that after '91 I pretty much lost interest in TSR product, so there could be worse rubbish I never encountered (along with some gems, too, perhaps).


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## Lanefan (May 24, 2011)

Ariosto said:


> I don't recall any reason to consider those possibilities disastrous to a fun game. Maybe I should have a look to refresh my memory of the situation. Not, as I tried to make clear, that I seriously mean to place the scenario in the top 5 of all time! Paul wrote in his introduction that he had learned some things since that design.



No the possibilities are not at all disastrous (in fact I prefer it when such things exist); my quibble was simply the writer made no account for them whatsoever and simply assumed the party would enter as the writer intended.

Lan-"1st law of adventuring: go in through the back door, out through the front"-efan


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## lordxaviar (May 27, 2011)

Doug McCrae said:


> What are your top 5 published D&D adventures? By D&D I mean any edition - OD&D, BECMI, 1e->4e - and I would also include Castles & Crusades, HackMaster and Pathfinder.
> 
> EDIT: Added HackMaster.




A series.. love A-4 - (learn to improvise)
U series - especially 3 (learn to run away)
S-3 Barrier Peaks  (omg techno- cant wait to work on this for 3.5)
Temple of Ra accused by set - Judges guild
Dark tower - Judges guild

guess that works..


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## RainOfSteel (May 29, 2011)

*Queen of the Spiders* (G1-3, D1-3, Q1; and as far as I am concerned, we must include *A1-4 The Scourge of the Slave Lords*, and you could possibly include *T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil* in there somewhere as well)
*B2, Keep on the Borderlands*
*X1, Isle of Dread*
*H4, Throne of Bloodstone*
*Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil*


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## Steffen_the_Wolf (Feb 11, 2013)

Keep on the Borderlands
temple of elemental evil
Against the Giants
Vault of the Drow
Ruins undermountain


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## Drinkingbear (Feb 11, 2013)

This is starting to get familiar:

                    Keep on the Borderlands
                    Against the Giants
                    Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
                    TOEE
                     Queen of the Demonweb Pits (all inclusive)

                    Let's play one of these sometime.


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## Rbledsaw (Mar 30, 2014)

City State of the Invincible Overlord (which there is a Kickstarter for btw)
Temple of Elemental Evil
The Eye of the Beholder series
Ravenloft


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## DonEsteban (Mar 31, 2014)

*Summary*

A (probably imprecise) summary of the results so far:

22 votes:

Ravenloft (I6) 
21 votes:

Temple of Elemental Evil 
16 votes:

Red Hand of Doom 
Keep on the Borderlands (B2) 
12 votes:

Tomb of Horrors 
The Lost City (B4) 
11 votes:

Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh (U1) 
Castle Amber (X2) 
Isle of Dread (X1) 
9 votes:

Age of Worms 
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth 
Desert of Desolation (I3-5) 
5-8 votes:
GDQ1-6, Against the Cult of the Reptile God, The Banewarrens, Dead Gods, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, Rappan Athuk, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Gates of Firestorm Peak, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Slavers, Dark Tower, Night Below, Burnt Offerings, Shackled City, White Plume Mountain, Caverns of Thracia

I don't feel qualified to nominate the 5 best adventures, but my honourable mentions would go to Desert of Desolation, The Freeport Trilogy, A Paladin in Hell.


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## Morrus (Mar 31, 2014)

Yikes, what's with all the thread necromancy recently?


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## Storminator (Apr 1, 2014)

Morrus said:


> Yikes, what's with all the thread necromancy recently?




It's the "Similar Threads" links at the bottom of the page. This one, frex, throws up a thread from 2002. So really, it's all your fault. 

PS


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