Instead of waiting around and letting other people tell us what their "Top 30" are (i.e. Dungeon 116). Why not be a little more pro-active and let people know what our favorites are?
I'll start.
In no particular order:
B4 The Lost City - I would love to see an extended Backdrop done for this classic "lost civilization" module by Tom Moldvay. This was one of the few modules that did everything right even down to the politics between the various Cynidicean factions.
X4-X5 Master of the Desert Nomads/Temple of Death I like X4 better but together they are both good. Master of the Desert Nomads (by David Cook) had great mix of survival, diplomacy, enemies, role-playing and an epic backstory that set it apart from the typical dungeoncrawl or wilderness adventure. The encounter with the bulk of the Master's army was great role-playing fun.
CM1 Test of the Warlords - by Douglas Niles - find a hunk of land in the middle of nowhere and carve a kingdom out of it. Kind of like Civ with frost giant raiders.
CM2 Death's Ride - Shows you what someone else has build and how horribly wrong it can go. Nice villians too. Not high on my list but a fun run nonetheless.
D3 Vault of the Drow - Who doesn't like this one?
Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits - Just seeing level four of the web which opens into a half dozen other possible game worlds is worth the ticket price to play this classic by Sutherland III and Gygax. Monte Cook did a nice 3.0 version cover of the Demon Web in the Harrowing (Dungeon 84).
Threshold of Evil - A mechanically great module for high-level play with one of the best/most powerful evil (or was he just mis-understood) wizards ever portrayed gets to strut his stuff (Dungeon 10). If you can find it Dungeon 10 was one of the best ever (6 solid adventures/backdrops - including Mosterquest - play funny monsters, The Artisans Tomb - Oriental Adv. and They also Serve for thieves only).
M1 - Into the Maelstrom - Role-play the Odessey.
I6 - Ravenloft - by the Hickmans. The best vampire genera piece outside of White Wolf or Bram Stoker.
S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks - What fighter doesn't want a laser rifle and some grenades?
Dragon 100 - Had a module in it that might have been called London Calling (but it wasn't and I don't have my copy handy). In this gem the characters are on a quest to find the Mace of St. Cuthbert which leads them to 1980's London, England. An absolute classic.
Well, this is way too long and far from inclusive, so til later.
-GGG
Man, what a trip down memory lane. It's difficult to differentiate between the best adventures and the most nostalgic ones, but in the end, what difference does it really make?
Keep on the Borderlands. I know, it's a no-brainer, but we all cut our teeth on that one. I still don't know how "Bree Yark" relates to "Hey Jude". I love that goblin guard that watches the cave entrance from a rack of the tribe's trophy heads. There's something about those beginner adventures, where one arrow can change the course of an adventure.
Against the Giants. Man, oh man, what a bloodbath. Infiltrating three giant lairs, the first full of drunken brutes, the second guarded by alert, intelligent frost giants, and the last being a nearly impenetrable volcano, where the slaves and minions (nearly 100 trolls!) are as deadly as the owners.
Then right on to Descent into the Depths of the Earth, watching the players get more frustrated and literally homesick the further they delved into the earth.
And it was equally fun to have them walking the streets of an underground city teeming with demons and evil in Vault of the Drow, on a blackmail-induced quest by one Matron Mother to destroy another.
I completed that campaign with the Dungeon adventure The Harrowing (Issue 89 or 90, I think), instead of Queen of the Demonweb Pits. The former felt like a true abyss, while the latter felt like a comic book.
The Gauntlet (UK2, I think) was a nice surprise, with the characters investigating and reclaiming a small keep that has been overrun by a gnoll warband. Of course, they immediately had to defend the keep against an invading army demanding the release of their fire giant king's daughter, who is locked somewhere inside.
Ravenloft was fun. That was maybe the only adventure I DM'ed where the players were genuinely scared. The flooded hall that contained no treasure or information, but DID contain a submerged swarm of zombies set the mood.
The Pharoah / Oasis of the White Palm / Lost Tomb of Martek series was fantastic. I love the irony in spending 3 modules trying to kill the demon you accidentally freed at the beginning of the first.
The Tomb of Horrors was so long ago, we barely knew the rules, but I do remember the beefy fighter falling victim to the "opposite" curse of the sceptre, turning him from a lawful good man into a chaotic evil woman.
Plume Mountain was a great, classic-style adventure. An evil, life stealing sword, a giant crab in the midst of a semi-protective dome surrounded by boiling water, a sphynx with a riddle, and a waterlogged inverted "ziggurat" teeming with giant crayfish. Nice.
Great topic. I should bolt before I get fired.
Yessir, them old memories come floodin' back.
1. Isle of Dread
2. Keep on the Borderlands
3. Curse of Xanathon
4. Against the Lizard King
5. Secret of the Slaver's Stockade
5. Rahasia
6. The Conan series.
7. Pharoah
8. Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, Final Enemy
9. First three Dragonlance modules
10. House of Strahd
my list would look like:
B1
B2
B4
G1
G2
G3
D1
D2
D3
S1
S2
X1
T1
A2
A1
A3
A4
U1
U2
U3
C1
C2
S3
I1
I3
I4
I5
X4
X5
X10
UK2
UK3
The sad thing is how many of those I can recognize, even without the names attached.
The sad thing is how many of those I can recognize, even without the names attached.
Why is that sad? i think that is great :D
my list would look like:
B1, B2, B4, G1, G2, G3, D1, D2, D3, S1, S2, X1, T1, A2, A1, A3, A4, U1, U2, U3, C1, C2, S3, I1, I3, I4, I5, X4, X5, X10, UK2, UK3
Ah, but what about X8?
GGG
my list would look like:
B1, B2, B4, G1, G2, G3, D1, D2, D3, S1, S2, X1, T1, A2, A1, A3, A4, U1, U2, U3, C1, C2, S3, I1, I3, I4, I5, X4, X5, X10, UK2, UK3
Ah, but what about X8?
GGG
well there are a lot more modules i would include on the list too. but i tried to come close to 30.
1. T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
2. A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords
3. B2
4. GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders
5. B5
6. C1
7. B4
8. DA2
9. I1
10. I2
11. S2
12. X6
13. X1
14. N4
15. I6 when run with I10
16. L1
17. N1
18. I7
19. U1
20. U2
21. U3
22. UK6
23. I12
24. X8
25. UK7
26. N5
27. S3
28. I3-5 Desert of Desolation
29. WG4
30. WGS1-2
For the clasics...but some of the new adventures that have begun to make their way into my game as regulars include
Sunless Citadel
Forge of Fury
Gryphon's Legacy (Gaslight Press)
The Lost City of Barakus (Necromancer Games)
There is also GW1 Legion of Gold that was the first Gamma World module that is an easy conversion for a Si-Fi encounter in a D&D worls, and then there was an adventure in an old Dragon Magazine called "Forrest of Doom" that is always the lead-in to my running the Scourge of the Slave Lords. The GW1, subaquatic lab also works as a good exit from A4 should the party fail to find another way off the island.
So there you have it.
ASEO out
How about my list of horrifieds? It much shorter. These are the ones I refused to run or was unfortunate enough to play as they were entirely too deadly or just plain silly:
DM: Monster Quest tops the list.
X1: Tomb of Horrors. Players simply couldn't get in.
Q?: Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Too cartoonie.
All those adventures with sex change characteristics.
LG: Turns of the Spiral. I fell asleep.
B3 & B4: No real direction for adolescent DMs.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Has no place in D&D.
Needle. Has no place in D&D. Good for Rifts or GURPS Time Machine.
I would put others in here, but all of them are from Dungeon Magazine. There were some real strange ideas in the early magazines.
Ah, to each his/her own.
As for the official panel's ruling I feel a bit cheated that they referenced compilations (like "City of the Spider Queen") rather than the original material. I don't know if I would put all of the modules in the G-D-Q series in a best-of-the-best list.
-GGG
Kobold Press
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Ah, to each his/her own.
As for the official panel's ruling I feel a bit cheated that they referenced compilations (like "City of the Spider Queen") rather than the original material. I don't know if I would put all of the modules in the G-D-Q series in a best-of-the-best list.
-GGG
Yeah, I enjoyed running the hill giant and frost giant sections, but honestly they were not great adventures. Nothing wrong with simple, straightforward monster bashing, but there's been better since.
That series really took off with G3, D2, D3, and Q1.
Yeah, I enjoyed running the hill giant and frost giant sections, but honestly they were not great adventures. Nothing wrong with simple, straightforward monster bashing, but there's been better since.
That series really took off with G3, D2, D3, and Q1.
Q1 was flat. it felt unfinished or rushed to publish. i had to do too much rework to make it fit.
we had a blast with the hill giant and frost giant modules.
they fit perfectly into the campaign. i didn't like how they tied them together with the magic loop and such... but that was easily adjusted.
some very memorable events came about because of things in the steading.
Q1 was flat. it felt unfinished or rushed to publish. i had to do too much rework to make it fit.
I couldn't agree more. Q1 was a headshaker, in my opinion. I ran the series a few years ago, and tied Vault of the Drow into The Harrowing from Dungeon 89 or 90. I found it a fitting and ironic end to the campaign that, in defeating Lolth's traitorous daughter, Laveth, in the Demonweb, the party was actually helping Lloth.
My personal favorite in the series, as far as how it was played, was G3 - Hall of the Fire Giant King. My players and I actually rented a cabin in the mountains for a weekend to play through it. On the 2nd night, the party was huddled in a dead-end cave on level 3, some of them dead, with a red dragon at one end of the exit tunnel, a gorgon on the other end, King Snurre and his elite guard yelling in various abuses, and Eclavdra and her drow watching on. The players were utterly depressed and hopeless. I thought the campaign was over. It's amazing what a hopeless situation does to creativity and the survival instinct. These guys actually got out of it.
It's the near-death encounters that I remember most, and G3 had a few of them.
Demonweb pits
Ravenloft
Baba Yaga's Hut (early Dragon mag?)
Tomb of Horrors
The adventures that always spring to my mind (but not in any particular order):
U1 - Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Just a plain 'ol fun mystery. Enough combat, but some intrigue and investigation, too.
B10 - Night's Dark Terror. The initial fight at the farmstead was a blast. Plus the maps were very cool.
I'll echo Greg's mention of CM2. As the player of the power-gaming wizard, it was an impressive way to die.
L1 - Secret of Bone Hill and L2 - The Assassin's Knot. Must have played and DM'd these dozens of times, but still love the setting and the plots. I pull them down from time to time just to read.
I don't think RttToEE would have made my top 30 let alone the top 10. Nothing against Monte Cook but it could have been so much better than it was, it really took the original ToEE in the wrong direction I think.
I was pleasantly suprised to see B4 in the top 30, I didn't realize it had a following, I loved that module.
I also think G3, D1-2, D3, Q1 could all stand on their own.
I also wouldn't have put S3 in the top 5.
A1-4 could have stood on their own, and certainly should have been represented in the top 10.
Just my two bits.
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Modules-
1. The Sunless Citadel
2. The Forge of Fury
3. The Speaker in Dreams
4. The temple of elmemetal evil
5. the return of the temple of elemental evil
6. 7. 8. The Witchfire Trilogy(Privateer Press)
9. Against the giants
10. The apocalypse stone
11. Die,Vecna,Die!
12. 13. 14. Rappan atuk-the dungeon of graves trilogy(necromancer games)
15. Black sails over Freeport(green ronin)
Boxed sets-
16. Tale of the comet
17. Night below
18. Night of the vampire(mystara setting adventure)
19. Mind lords of the lost sea
20. return to the tomb of horror
From Dungeon-
21.the lich queen's beloved
22.prison of the firebringer
23. pandemonium in the veins
24. maure castle
25. riding the snake
26. the stink
27. torrents of dread
28. Life's bazaar
29. Flood season
30. Tammeraut's fate
I had the pleasure of being a "judge" on the panel and thought I would post my list of top modules here for discussion. I dont have any illusions that my list is somehow the be all end all, it is just my list. This is very subjective. Also, I'm sure there are plenty of people saying "who the heck is this guy anyway." I agree with that :) But hey, Erik asked me to take part and since I love modules I wasnt going to say no. :)
I'm glad Erik gave permission for us to post our lists. Mine is, not surprisingly, slanted to an old school vibe. I dont agree with all of the final results. I dont like the "return to" modules. I thought in every case the originals are better. I am also surprised that Pramas didnt know that the first published module is actually NOT Temple of the Frog. :) (though actually his choice of Temple of the Frog is a GREAT choice and I wish I had included it as well, perhaps as a tie with Palace of the Vampire Queen). And I am shocked that FoF is on the list. Who voted for that?
Anyway, here is what I sent to Erik.
TOP 10 MODULES OF ALL TIME
1. Tomb of Horrors. This is the definitive module. It is not the best from a playability standpoint, but for sheer Gygaxian genius, which is what D&D is all about, it has no peer. This module has "total party kill" written all over it. Not just in one spot, but in practically every room, trap or encounter. The false lich. The introduction of the demi-lich. Plus, it is a high level adventure and those are so hard to write. The one knock on Tomb of Horrors is that it is so evil, so fully trapped and the PCs are so aware that a wrong turn means death that it can slow play to a crawl. But for pure inspired genius it is unmatched. Plus, to top off what is already perfection, two words: "player handouts." And with Trampier art I might add!
2. Tie: Hall of the Fire Giant King and Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. I might have to give it to Fire Giant by a nose, mostly for sheer size and scope and because it provides the first real taste of the then mysterious (now ubiquitous) drow. From the Trampier art to the great encounters, these babies have it all. The physical setting of Frost Giant is better. The rift is just such a cool setting for an adventure. It was probably the first module to be something more than a building, dungeon or caves. The rift itself was very unique. If Frost Giant had a third level, it might edge Fire Giant. For some reason, Frost Giant always plays the best of the Giant series. And for some reason the battles are always epic. It is just balanced perfectly to AD&D, in an old school way. No goofy ELs here.
3. Judges Guild’s Caverns of Thracia. Bill likes Thieves' Fortress, but I like Thracia. This module to me is what Judges Guild is all about. Great writing and design by Paul Jaquays. Great ideas, but plenty of room for you to flesh out in the way that classic products let you but that is for some reason seen as a bad thing these days.
4. Keep on the Borderlands. More players probably started their campaigns with this module than any other module in the history of gaming. And that right there qualifies it as being in the top 10. You have to put Village of Homlet in this category too, but I like the Caves of Chaos from Borderlands way better than the ruined keep from Homlet. Plus, Homlet doesn’t stand on its own and Borderlands does.
5. Vault of the Drow. Wow. Nothing like this had been done before (or, frankly, since). Sure, Judges Guild had done the City State of the Invincible Overlord, but this was an underground city of evil monsters—the drow, who, then, were new and mysterious as opposed to tired and overused as they are today. The Fane. Lolth. The Vampire/Succubus encounter before you even get to the city. More Gygaxian genius.
6. Palace of the Vampire Queen by Wee Warriors. What is a top 10 list without this one—the very first module ever produced, even before TSR. Just like “Video Killed the Radio Star” makes video top 10 lists because it was the first video ever played on MTV, Vampire Queen will forever go down in history as the first module ever made (even though they called it a “DM Kit”), and it was done by a tiny little independent company called Wee Warriors run by Pat and Judy Kerestan. Sure, Temple of the Frog appeared in the Blackmoor supplement as an adventure, but Vampire Queen was the first module published just as a module.
7. White Plume Mountain. The three artifacts, Wave, Whelm and Blackrazor. Heck, you could chuck out the first two and just have Blackrazor and this thing is a classic. I can't tell you how many players have wanted to take on WPM just to try to get Blackrazor. Because what kid playing D&D in the early 80s like me didn’t want to have Elric's sword? Everyone, duh! And the design—the cheesy puzzles, one-off rooms clearly designed to challenge adventurers and not for any practical purpose. I love it! That is D&D to me. I know that to many people, these things I am calling strengths are what they consider its problems. To those people I say "get a life, its a game." The only black mark on the module is the lack of detail on the wizard rooms above and the efreets that intervene in the end. I wanted that stuff detailed out, which is saying alot for me since I normally love a little room for expansion. But in this case, it hurt the module.
8. Greyhawk Ruins. I know there are Greyhawk pursits who will kill me for this, since this module wasn’t written by Gygax, but it was amazing to finally have the ruins of Greyhawk detailed, particularly after the embarrassing garbage that was the Castle Greyhawk module. This module is gi-normous, far surpassing anything else in size and scope. Even the love-it-or-hate-it Undermountain doesn’t come close to this many rooms and this much detail.
9. The Desert of Desolation series (Pharoah, Oasis of the White Palm and the Lost Tomb of Martek). I didn’t want to put a series of modules as a winner, since Giants and Drow could so easily have made the top 10, but I thought that this series was so good and so tight that it needed to be included as a series.
10. The original Ravenloft. This module spawned a setting. It had amazing maps, a great NPC antagonist—perhaps one of the best villains of all time behind Acererak the demi-lich and Eclavdra from the G-D Series. You could arguably put the first few Dragonlance modules here, but no single one of them is better than Ravenloft and the series as a whole is weak except for the first few. So Ravenloft takes it.
[I strongly considered Dragons of Despair. It was real good. But I thought Ravenloft was better. But that was tough.--Clark]
Runners Up:
These ones were really hard to leave out of the top 10.
11. Judges Guild’s Dark Tower. A total dungeon classic that embodies the coolness that is Judges Guild.
12. Village of Homlet. More Gygaxian flavor and a total classic campaign starter.
13. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. A hugely overlooked module. The second module ever written (behind Wee Warriors’ Palace of the Vampire Queen) and its original form is one of the most collectable modules ever.
14. The Dragonlance series (the first few). The first ones were good. Great story. Interesting setting. Great NPCs and adventure locations. And more awesome maps like Ravenloft. Maybe some of the only Second Edition stuff that I can tolerate.
15. Necromancer Games’ Rappan Athuk series. I thought we hit a First Edition home run with these three modules. Tomb of Abysthor (which was inspired in part by the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and the Temple of the Frog) is a better individual module, but the RA series just rules. Plus I guess I just thought it was too cheesy to put one of my own adventures in the top 10.
[edit: though now that I see the LAME Forge of Fury in the list, I think maybe I should have. --Clark]
HONORABLE MENTION
1. Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu. This is the best designed adventures of all times for any game system, period. It is that good. Certianly in scope and depth, this thing is unmatched. And on top of that it is for Call of Cthulhu, which may be one of the hardest games to design for both from a playability standpoint and from a literary one. It is nearly impossible to have a good extended CoC campaign because of the high rate of character death, but this thing pulls it off. Plus, the story is so Lovecraftian. You really feel the mythos. It is so true to the subject matter. If this were a D&D module it would be on the top of my list right there with Tomb of Horrors.
2. Gygax's Necropolis for Lejendary Adventures. This module just blew me away when I got the original. Necromancer Games redid it for d20, and I am tempted to put Necro’s conversion in the main list as a d20 module, but I don’t think that is right since it was just a conversion. Necropolis is a LA module, not a D&D module, despite the fact I think Necro’s conversion rules. This is right up there with Masks.
3. Twilight's Peak for Traveller. This is an amazing adventure. It took the dungeon concept and ported it to a future setting. With a great story, a great build up, and a challenging and significant conclusion that impacts any campaign that includes it. Very well done. And Traveller had some excellent “double adventures,” like Chamax Plague/Horde, Shadows/Annic Nova, and Argon Gambit/Death Station. Classic Traveller is one of the best game series that has ever been created in my opinion and deserves far more credit and recognition than it gets. If it were a D&D module it would easily be in my top 10.
Clark Peterson
Necromancer Games
For those who are interested, here are some of the factors I used in making my decision. Again, I dont pretend to mean these are the right factors. They were just my factors.
Some of my factors are more measurable or knowable. Like design influence or historical impact. Some are more subjective. Playability is a huge factor for me. Some are totally not objective at all, such as memorability. What is memorable to me may not be memorable to you, or it may be memorable to you but not favorably.
So I think we all just have to agree that these choices are very subjective. We have good reasons for them, but they are subjective to a large degree.
What I tried to do is take my DM style out of it somewhat and focus on the adventure itself. Sure, I cant take out of my evaluation that I will viscerally like the modules that I like. It is real hard for me to vote for a module as top 10 if I've had a bad experience with it as a DM. I'm not sure you can flunk a module just because you didnt like it as a player. So I tried to broaden my view.
1. The play of the module. This is a huge criteria for me. Which is why I rate Frost Giant so highly. That thing plays great. Same with White Plume Mountain. Over and over time in and time out the module plays great. It can accept the party doing lots of different things and somehow always ends up in an epic experience. Though that could just mean the module fits more with my DM style. This is a key factor. If it doesnt play great, it can have the best maps ever and not be a top 10 module.
Some criticize Tomb of Horrors on this point and it is true that TODAY Tomb of Horrors doesnt always play so great, particularly now that eveyone knows about it. But back in the day, there was nothing like it. Running players for their first time through that dungeon is amazing. But that is very hard to replicate today since so many people know what it is about. Plus, it is for real experienced players. You cant get newbies and say "here are some 9th level pregens, lets go in this module I have." Well, you can but the result will be death and death pretty quickly. It wont be fun. But when run for a good group of experienced people, that module is pretty much the definitave high level challenge. AND you have a lot of players who hate Tomb because their characters died there. To that I say too bad. It is still an awesome module. People dont properly appreciate an epic death. And dying in the Tomb is a story you can tell forever. In additin, it is without a doubt a developmental common experience of all people who played D&D for years and years. Everyone had been in in and died in it. Completing it is like winning a marathon or an olympic gold, there are so few who have actually done it (though many lie about it) it is truly an accomplishment. Which leads me to point 2...
2. Game History. This is important to me. How much of a defining part of what D&D is comes from this module? That is why, to me, Giants, Drow and Tomb of Horrors MUST be included. Same with Keep on the Borderlands (and some could argue In Search of the Unknown, but I thought that wasnt even a design, it was a map with some fill in the blank stuff, but I digress.) This is why I include "Palace of the Vampire Queen". You could easily (as Pramas did, and I agree with) also cite Temple of the Frog. They were the first. That alone is worth mention. This is objective if you know the history of D&D. Similarly, the "common experience" of D&D is a part of game history. Everyone has been in GDQ. Everyone has been in the Tomb of Horrors. And if you havent, you need to go do it now. That is like not having even one Stones or Beatles album. Like classic literature and classic rock, those adventures are a necessary part of the D&D cannon.
3. Design Influence. Did the module do something new and unique and did it influence other modules. Again, Tomb is unmatched here. It set the standard for what a "killer dungeon" is. Period. Ravenloft does the same. So do all three giants and drow modules--they created the "series" concept which is perhaps perfected in the Desert of Desolation series. This too is objective if you know the history of D&D. One could argue for Queen of the Demonweb Pits here, because planar adventuring was new and cool. But I thought that module was otherwise lame. It never played well (I played it many times). It isnt that significant, since you got to fight Lolth already in D3 (kind of). But from a design standpoint it is certainly fresh. So I dont mind it slipping in with the rest of the D series. And I think it is legitimate to take design issues into account. Not just because I am a designer. But because seminal modules shape the way future modules are done. Its the same with music.
4. Test of Time. I've been playing D&D for well over 20 years. I have run most of these modules bunches of times. So I am not basing my decision on "I ran it once and liked it" or worse yet (and actually unaccaptable, I believe) "I read it and liked it." If you havent played a module and played it repeatedly, it is really hard to rank a module. Similarly, there are some modules (some from Dungeon issues I dont have) that I have not run as much and maybe that hurt them. If the module didnt stand up to the test of time, I couldnt put it in the top 10. I will admit, I did not even consider a single module I never atleast played in. I wouldnt go on reputation alone. Which admittedly leaves out Raisia (since I have never owned it or played it). But I am hardcore and basically have everything ever (other than some rare stuff and some early Dungeon Mags where i let my subscription lapse and was out of D&D and playing other stuff).
5. Memorability. Call it excitement. Call it geek factor. I dont know. Some modules are just flat out more memorable and epic. Tomb. WPM. Maybe I am wrong, but if I dont get all geeky and smily about a module, I can't put it in the top 10. Sometimes it is the play of the module (like Frost Giant, a rather ordinary seeming module that always plays just great with epic battles), sometimes it is the "coolness" of the module--the artifacts in WPM, the drow in G3, the underdark in D1, the drow city in D3, the demilich in Tomb. etc. Some put Expediditon to the Barrier Peaks here. I just never liked that module. Maybe it was the cheesy vegepygmies. :)
So those are the things I looked at. I can't say that I picked things because I am a designer. These would be my choices if I never ever ran a d20 company. But being a designer gave me a deeper insight on a few of them. Like the difficulty of writing high level meatgrinders like Tomb. Man, that is hard to do. But that module is my #1 even without that insight. Or Masks of Nyrlathotep. That thing blew me away before I was a designer. And now that I am one, it is just all the more impressive.
I think Erik picked me because he knows I am passionate about adventures. I hope all of you are too. And by not including your favorite, I'm not saying you dont have the right to love it to death. Hey, you could like that stupid Castle Greyhawk with the Alice In Wonderland and all that other tongue in cheek junk. I hate it. It could be your number 1 and you could have bought 1000 copies of Tomb of Horrors and burned them. In the end, this list is no better than a list of top 100 albums. There are some there that I think deserve to be there, but I have never yet agreed with a top 100 list. Heck, I dont even like the results of Erik's survey--why, because it doesnt match my list :)
I love this discussion by the way :)
Clark Peterson
Necromancer Games
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I have to chime in with a relatively underappreciated module, though it does show up occasionally in the posts above.
B10 Night's Dark Terror
It had everything and opened with a bang, forcing the characters to defend a homestead against invading goblins and even vampire bats. This is the only published module I know that did this, and it did it so well on the first try. Siege of Kratys Freehold is basically a total ripoff of this part of B10, and it's a great module too.
But that wasn't all - the PCs travel all across eastern and northern Karameikos, fighting slavers and discovering a lost civilization. And all of this in 64 pages. You can't can't beat the density and level of detail, and it could take you months to finish the module.
The maps were gorgeous, and this was all for low-level characters who really got to do important things.
It's the best module I have ever seen, bar none.
Clark - it's great to get more insight into those rankings. I could read a book on people's experiences in those classic modules.
Let's not forget Ravenloft: Thoughts of Darkness! A high-level adventure on an alien plane where lightning bolts hit the PCs every 10 minutes (no matter what they do), and the party is ambushed by a half-dozen 15th level drow warriors with no house affiliation, no history, no distinguishing characteristics, no ulterior motives, and no reason whatsoever to be hanging out together peacefully on a lightning-riddled alien plane except to ambush any good party that happens to stroll by! AWESOME!
Which begs the question: How about a Bottom 10 list? I remember a fine Sunday afternoon back in the early 80's, during summer break in 7th or 8th grade, when a friend of mine began an adventure (something with Magic Mirror in the title). I remember my characters traversing some cartoonish landscape. I remember meeting the Cheshire Cat. I remember quitting the adventure, strapping on some sneakers, and venturing out into the SUN to PLAY, for god's sake. Of all the things a D&D adventure is NOT supposed to inspire a chubby, pale 14-year old to do.
Here it goes (no particular order, just off the top of my head)--
<B>Sleepless</B>, from Dragon Magazine. The first look at what D&D would become today. A wizard selling his soul to several different buyers? All of them coming to collect just as the PCs arrive in his castle? Brilliant! The monsters were way cool, too.
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<B>A Rose for Talakara</B>, another Dragon magazine classic. A long adventure where the PCs are manipulated by a skeleton warrior into freeing him from his high-level wizard mistress.
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<B>Treasure Hunt</B>, and old 1st or 2nd edition module. Start as a 0-level character, and the choices you make during the adventure tell you what character class you will become. A Rorshach for players!
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<B>Tomb of Horrors, Castle Ravenloft</B>. Always with the classics.
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<B>Tomb of Kings Unknown</B>, another Dragon magazine entry. Mutant orcs!
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<B>The Forest Oracle</B>. A 1st edition adventure. Nostalgic choice, it was the first module I ever bought with my own money.
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<B>Wonders of Lankhmar</B>, a bunch of short modules based off of the adventures of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser.
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<B>Rahasia</B>, a Basic D&D module. I wore this one out.
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<B>Diablo 2: to Hell and Back</B>. Let's wreck Diablo!
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<B>Epsilon Cyborg</B>, a Gamma World 3rd edition module. Had Oscar North (the mutant badger/cyborg who was on the cover of the 3rd edition box set) and rules for creating robots.
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<B>Isle of Dread</B>. Let's wander around and kill dinosaurs!
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<B>Ochimo, the Spirit Warrior</B>. a 1st edition Oriental Adventures dungeon crawl.
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<B>Black Gulch</B>, an old Paranoia adventure. Every time "The Bot with No Name" showed up, all the players had to whistle that old western tune. Good times!
Ain't it cool to see Clark Peterson hangin around here.
Interesting criteria and how you went with possible overall influence on the game as well as design/play. I'm surprised to see the absence of Temple of Elmental Evil on your list. I think a couple of Necro products deserve to be on that top thirty list since Crucible of Freya is going to be a landmark adventure for 3e. I think that Lost City of Barakus is another adventure that, as D20 continues to evolve, will be important.
Obviously JG and Wilderlands has been very influential on you as a player, and now as a designer/producer, so I'm surprised to not see more JG in the top thirty.
tmcdon-
I have more JG stuff that I love. I put Thracia and Dark Tower on the top of the list. There are others I love, but that arent technically modules. I love the whole Wilderlands series, most of all the City State of the Invincible Overlord and the City State of teh World Emperor. But I'm not sure those are "modules". It isnt an adventure, it is a sourcebook. The first sourcebook, in fact. And still one of the best (and I am proud that our version is even better). But JG has always been about expansive materials for the DM (though they certainly did some good adventures).
Clark
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Wow... all those numbers mean nothing to me. Sure I've heard of them, but had the opportunity to play them? Nope. Most of you must have at least 5-10 years gaming time on me (I'm 28 started at 12).
That being said the Modules I have run have been pretty damned fun.
Night Below (great player handouts!)
Dead Gods
Dragon Mountain
A Paladin in Hell
Hellbound: the Blood War (Squaring the Circle)
For Duty & Deity
The Eternal Boundary
Into the Abyss
The Fires of Dis
Undermountain lost levels (Maddgoth's Castle)
Dungeon adventures:
Umbra
Tulips of the Silver Moon
#1 - Dragon Mountain
Q - "How many times did you memorize Chain Lightning"
A - "About half as many times as I memorized Death Spell"
I am impressed with many of the choices you posters made on the modules... I made it easy though, the only modules I did not like were the Conan modules, everything else is good to go...
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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OMG Crumbles!!! Death Spell was the staple spell of our Party Wizard in Dragon Mountain!!! A necromancer of course... take that hordes of kobolds!
Of course my halfling rogue bit it at the gates. I took out one ballista with flaming oil, only to be skewered by the opposite one! Thank the heavens for the war priest and a lucky resurrection survival roll!
LOL - I remember running Dragon Mountain for a Basic D&D party during a bit of a powergaming phase. The party were so tanked up that the Kobolds could only hit them with a critical 20.
"Excellent" thought almost all of the player's simultaneously, "this is gonna be a cakewalk."
I have never rolled so many 20s as a GM and coupled with the fact that I was using a homebrewed critical hit table for what happened when a critical was scored (inspired by the MERP tables ;), the poor players never knew what hit them. I had to stop using my screen after a little while 'cos the players didn't believe I was actually rolling that many crits.
I've been tempted to convert Dragon Mountain to 3E and run it through with my current group, although I think that some of the Kobold leaders could do with being given a couple of class levels. Does anyone know whether this has already been attempted somewhere online, or is it in the works somewhere in the bowels of WOTC?