Best Adventures…ever?

October 10th, 2004

Filed under: General

Dungeon #116The latest issue of Dungeon Magazine (#116, November 2004) lists the “30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time” compiled by a select panel. I think the list cheats a little because there are a fair number of “combined edition” modules on the list, for example Scourge of the Slave Lords (A1-4) is listed, instead of each individual A-series module. I can understand why they did this, and the combined editions were legitimately published, but it still feels like cheating to me.

The breakdown of the list is interesting:

  • Out of the 30 adventures listed, 18 are for the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 5 for 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 3 are for 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, and 2 each are for Basic and Expert Dungeons and Dragons.
  • 29 of the 30 are from TSR/Wizards of the Coast. 1 is from Judge’s Guild
  • 2 of the 30 are for the Forgotten Realms setting. Another 2 are for the Greyhawk setting. There is 1 adventure listed from each the Dragon Lance and Planescape settings. The other campaign settings are not represented. (I6, the original Ravenloft, is on the list. But it was produced before Ravenloft was split off into its own setting.)

The list is reproduced here, but if you have any interest at all, I’d recommend picking the issue up because it has a lot more to say about each adventure.

Here are some thoughts of my own about various entries on the list:

#30 Ghost Tower of Inverness (C2) – A favorite of mine. Sure it was full of clichés but it was before they became clichés. It should have been higher than #30.

#23 The Forgotten Temple of Tharzidun (WG4) – Tough. I lost more players in this module than any other (well, except maybe Tomb of Horrors). The fuchsia front cover and illustration were pretty ugly though.

#20 Scourge of the Slave Lords (A1-4) – In all my years of playing and DMing, I’ve never played this series, or even read it.

#16 Isle of Dread (X1) – Overrated. More of a mini-setting than an adventure. There was never much of a unifying theme for players to get into.

#15 Castle Amber (X2) – My all-time favorite module, both as player and DM. There was a quirky castle to explore as well as a magical “French countryside.” I’m surprised that there weren’t more X-series modules on the list, because with the exception of X1, it was full of great adventures.

#9 White Plume Mountain (S2) – The first module I ever played. I still have found memories of jumping from hanging disk to hanging disk.

#7 The Keep on the Borderlands (B2) – We always spent more time pillaging the keep than protecting it.

#5 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (S3) – I remember playing this one during lunch in 5th Grade. I thought the included book of illustrations was neat. Plus laser guns, in Dungeons & Dragons! Cool! That little bunny-on-a-log cost out best player (a monk) his foot.

#3 Tomb of Horrors (S1) – Did any player actually enjoy this module? I know DMs did, but did players?

#2 Ravenloft (I6)– The best atmosphere of any adventure, ever. Having some of the key locations depend on a gypsy’s fortune teller prediction was a clever twist. It definitely had one of the best maps ever.

#1 Queen of the Spiders (G1-3, D1-3, Q1) – I loved the Against the Giants part (G1-3), but once the Drow became involved, I lost interest. G2 (Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl) was the first module I bought. Queen of Demonweb Pits (Q1) did have a fascinating map, and it was the first adventure I knew where players actually could go against a god (well, goddess).

20 Responses to “ Best Adventures…ever? ”

  1. Mag
    October 10th, 2004 at 6:50 pm

    Tomb of Horrors was a beast. As DM, I liked it; the lone survivor might have had a good time, but the others didn’t. It’s been over twenty years since my group played that scenario and their still complaining about it.

  2. Dorian
    October 10th, 2004 at 8:49 pm

    And here my group just waltzed through Tomb of Horrors without any problems. I gather our experience was unique?

  3. matthew rossi
    October 11th, 2004 at 3:30 am

    White Plume Mountain was my first module, too, followed by Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. I was so disappointed that those robots didn’t have souls for Blackrazor to devour.

  4. Ammon
    October 23rd, 2006 at 2:58 pm

    I took a “pick-up” party of about 23 characters through the Tome of Horrors and no one survived. I will admit that I gave little to no lee-way when dealing with situations that might go the players way. All in all it is a death trap and one of the most satisfing Dungeons that I, as a player, survived after many attempts.

  5. Paulio
    November 8th, 2006 at 2:30 pm

    Nobody ever “walzted through” the Tomb of Horrors — unless, and there’s no polite way to say this, you had an incompetent DM. There were a huge number of places where a die roll meant instant death with no save allowed. Damage caused by traps, pits, collapsing ceilings, etc., was astonishing. To get to the chamber of the demi-lich with a party of any size or strength was next to impossible.

  6. Rob
    November 15th, 2006 at 1:52 pm

    Waltzed through? SPOILER ALERT

    Lessee, I watched an entire party jump into a sphere of annihilation. The warning after the first character leapt? “You feel a profound sense of loss…”

    Another entire party into a lava pit.

    Another entire party into a 200′ pit.

    This does not include all of the incidental deaths due to poison, green slime, etc…

    And my favorite-the fourth attempt party had a single survivor. A very happy thief who kept trying to pry gems out of the demi-lich’s skull. It kept popping up, sucking, and the thief would try again. He left with all the loot.

    Anybody who “waltzed through” in one shot is either had a very generous DM/monty haul campaign or a party memeber cheated by reading the module.

  7. Matt
    December 11th, 2006 at 10:50 pm

    My favorite was B4 - The Lost City. It gave you an interesting scenario of this whole lost society with different factions, totally unaware of the outside world the adventurers inhabited.

  8. dell
    March 3rd, 2007 at 1:37 am

    S2 was coll because of Blackrazor. Blackrazor though turned my charactor into such a weinie that I actually wrote an adventure to destroy the sword!

    Tomb of horrors was/is evil! I mean really any module that causes fatalities even before you enter the place is evil! About the only thing worst would be the Dungeons and Dragon’s movie!

  9. chrisg
    April 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

    Thanks for putting up this list–I’m mining old adventures for an “old skool” game and it’s bringing back a lot of memories. FYI though, Keep on the Borderlands is listed as “B1″ on your list, but it’s B2!

  10. Radagast
    April 24th, 2007 at 5:30 am

    Can I agree with an earlier comment about X2 “Chateau D’Amberville” (Castle Amber) being the best of all time. Subjective choice to be sure - and no doubt others will deride it (without them actually ever having played the module it of course) but such a solid campaign in every respect - plot twists, cool traps and monsters, odd - often bizarre - residents of the castle…transportation to a far-a-way world and back again without losing the thread and that final scene in the crypt of Stephen Amber - simply superb. The total package.

    Replies as you wish to rtb68@hotmail.com

  11. Radagast
    April 24th, 2007 at 5:39 am

    …and as an addendum. Tomb of Horrors was simply magnificent as well. I agree with all the above comments on it. We did that under competition rules with a starting party of 11. 2 dead before we got into the tomb, lost another in the first room (Sphere of Anhiliation if I remeber it rightly)…3 more dead before we’d finished mapping the third room. Enter the Tomb if you dare…just don’t expect to survive and tell of your tale….Transmute rock to mud a critical spell because it allows you to breach an important wall at one point and miss 6 rooms. Reminds me of a film called “Cube”…and B2 Keep on the Borderlands was a great hoot - still good for a laugh. B1 was the rubbish “In search of the Unknown”

  12. Ted
    April 30th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    I personally thought the Slave Lords series was just the best adventure ever — in either format (the originals or Scourge). However, I did want to put in a vote for an adventure that was published only a couple years before DnD went to 3rd edition. What about the “Labyrinth of Madness”. I just thought it was excellent in that things kept changing on the characters and they had to continually go back and recheck areas that they’d already covered (very computer game-like).

  13. old returning wizard
    August 29th, 2007 at 11:18 am

    I just wanted to chime in here on Tomb of Horrors and context.

    When I was a kid, I had a brother 5 years older than me who was the perfect demographic for D&D. He would only play with me if he could DM, and then, because he preferred to play alone, he would slaughter my first-level characters without mercy. In fact, with great relish. Games typically lasted ten minutes.

    Undeterred, I searched for friends to play with, and finally, begrudgingly, convinced the neighborhood Christian kids whose parents would only allow them to play fully plate-mailed clerics defending God. No, I’m not kidding.

    I had to do some serious marketing to keep them interested in D&D, and for about a month I was happy. I used the Random Dungeon Generator in one of the books to create dungeons and we’d all hack away at stuff. Then I bought a couple of modules and we hacked at some more stuff.

    I bought Tomb of Horrors and we all died. Characters we had invested serious identity in. We were like 10 and 13 years old. We were devestated. As the DM I was hated, accused of being a shitty friend. Rolling up new characters didn’t seem an option. It was not a learning experience. After half-heartedly playing solitaire for about another six weeks, I stopped playing D&D. Tomb of Horrors killed more than our characters, it killed the fun.

    Now, nearly 30 years later, I have found some geekazoid friends with a myriad of shared interests… and they happen to also play D&D, but in a relaxed, adult, laid-back way. Last night we played Castle Amber for five hours, great fun. Discovering secret doors, detecting magic, casting Burning Hands spells… there was only a little ridiculous stammering about +2 this and saving throw that. That DM is a good roleplayer and very descriptive, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I also didn’t give two shits about whether my fourth-level magic-user would expire from the punch of an ogre. I was more interested in acting out how, as we approached the bed with the drawn curtains, I was readying my spell with fingers outstretched, shaking a little.

    Tomb of Horrors lost sight of the target audience for D&D, and cost Gygax at least four eager fans.

  14. Collasus
    September 15th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

    Of course we are all showing our age just by talking about things like Tomb of Horrors. The fun was relived when I ran my son and his party of 20 somethings through the adventure as it was rewritten for the most recent format (still 3.5). We remember that adventure because it was a sudden death thing. The new rules have taken all that out of the game and made it near to impossible to challenge a party to that extreme. I explained my original difficulties with the Tomb of Horrors and my group relished the opportunity to show up the old man. Needless to say they all were creating new characters after the current “tomentor”. They were advised not to use their normal characters as I told them before hand the chances of success were slim. I came from a competitive background and was not “chastised” for killing characters or disheartened to the point of quitting, on the contrary it made it more fun.

    Another adventure that my players and I really enjoyed was the now difficult to obtain Dragon Mountain. It was also very difficult and had a huge Dragon at the end (which no player ever made it to). The thousand Kobolds were great fun to kill but they kept coming and coming like a green wave. The players loved that one but none of them ever completed it. I did not see that one mentioned at all.

  15. Kursor
    November 2nd, 2007 at 9:38 am

    I was never very impressed with Tomb of Horrors. It always struck me as a kill-show for idiots, and no challenge for an intelligent and cautious party, except for an overly uber final boss that only represented a problem because nobody had ever seen one before. Sure, twits just walk on in and eat the lava or jump into the sphere. But I mean has NOBODY ever heard of the find traps spell, or augury, or rock to mud or passwall or stone tell or commune? NOBODY??? In the original version the party is in no hurry, so theyre free to use as many spells as they like, and there isnt a single meaningful denizen in the place to stop them. I seem to recall that silly multi-armed skeleton thing was about it really, and thats no match for even half a party, let alone a full party, and thats if it was inclined to bother the party during the night in the first place, which it isnt. The one party I bothered to put through it were simply warned “Its supposed to be dangerous”, so after a couple of communes they promptly just sat back and rock to mud/move earthed most of the place into an open pit, using their flesh golem and spade of collosal excavation to help out. When they finally dug up Mr Demilich they just blew a few more communes playing 20 questions on the theme of “what the he** is that??” to find out how to deal with it then just squashed him. It was laughable. Even if you ARE on a time limit, a couple of find traps spells, a couple of auguries, and a commune will avoid darn near every problem in the place, and what party of that level with half a brain goes anywhere without those?? It boggles the mind. Ugh.

  16. Vanyar
    May 8th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    I have to agree with Kursor. When I ran through Tomb of Horrors my group had no problems. We made great use of Unseen Servants, Find Traps, Augury, Passwall, Stone Tell, Commune, and Fly. By Flying we missed all of the traps that you step on or fall into. 200′ pit everyone either levitated (one person had boots, another a spell) or got on the rug of flying. Same for the lava pit 75% of the party was able to fly or get off the ground so they just grabbed someone that was on the ground. Since we were not in a rush to complete the module it was no major issue. The problem with Tomb of Horror that I’ve seen in the past is to many people enter it like a hack and slash module. Our high level parties always have at least two Augury, one Commune, two find traps, 2 Fly, and 2 unseen servants.

    After killing so many unseen servants we started to joke that they were going to form a union in the after life and come after us. The party never picked up anything the unseen servants did. If they could not pick it up due to weight then it was left for later and Augury spells were used to determine if it was safe to move.

    At the level the party is for this adventure they should not have died at all.

    Same for the Throne of Bloodstone. While we never finished that module the Lich in that game was a joke. We had 25th level characters. The party again flew about half way up the tower. Used passwalls to get into the tower and then rock to mud to drop the ceiling on the Lich. The look on the game master’s face was price less.

    Things like this keep me playing in person RPGs over computer versions.

    As for my favorite S2 White Plume Mountain. I’ve run through it and run it both. Currently I’m running my son and his friends are running through it. When the got Blackrazor it was great. The sword took over the fighter that picked it up. The party managed to stop him before he killed anyone (Hold Person spells are great). They then used an Unseen Servant to slid it into its sheath and then bag it (my son got the idea from watching me play).

    I’m waiting to see how they do with the lava/mud pit challenge.

  17. Alain
    May 17th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    I have played most of the modules discussed and Ravenloft (I6) was clearly the best I have DMed and played.

  18. Elizabeth
    July 30th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

    Kursor you are *such* an idiot.

  19. Mystek
    August 4th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    God, these old modules bring back a lot of memories! Quite a few I bought without ever running them. Of the ones on the list:

    29. The Assassin’s Knot, 1983 (L2): Not a bad module. Underrated actually. City/town adventures were always fun to run.

    27. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, 1981(U1): This was truly a well-written module.

    25. Dragons of Despair, 1984 (DL1): When I ran this, the players ran like hell from the dozen black dragons until they realized that they were all hatchlings! Rofl

    23. The Forgotten Temple of Tharzidun, 1982 (WG4): I never thought much of this module. I felt that it was a real letdown after S4. It seemed like a weaker module and a step down for the characters.

    22. The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 1982 (S4): Definitely one of my favorite modules to run. Very well written with the final monster controlling one of the characters (and the player ran it excellently after I sent him a note telling what happened to his pc). Plus having a Monster Manual (1 1/2) inside the module made it a really nice treat.

    18. The Hidden Shrine of Tamochan, 1980 (C1): An old classic.

    16. Isle of Dread, 1980 (X1): All I remember from running this module was Umlat, tribal cleric. I had a riot running that NPC. I kept remembering the old Billy Crystal routine with the natives saying, “Poowaypoo, poowaypoo…” Lol

    9. White Plume Mountain, 1979 (S2): I played in this module. The three powerful items were nice. My character wound up with the third item (not Blackrazor or the trident). I can’t remember what it was. :/

    6. The Desert of Desolation, 1987 (I3-5): Not a bad trio of modules. This took the better portion of a year to complete this set.

    5. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, 1980 (S3): The first module that I ever ran way back in 1982. I know… I’m dating myself. But you could add all kinds of stuff to the empty levels of the ship. So I added a gamma ray gun that could give your character Hulk-like powers or kill you. :)

    4. The Temple of Elemental Evil, 1985 (T1-4): Village of Hommlet was fun, then I ran the characters through the T2 portion of the module. We never finished running this thing. It just seemed like it took forever for this module to come out. It was a running joke with players and Gygax.

    3. Tomb of Horrors, 1978 (S1): A DM’s favorite module to take care of those characters that think they are gods. I ran it three times and did major damage to two of the parties. Only the third party managed to finish relatively unscathed.

    2. Ravenloft, 1983 (I6): Probably my favorite module to run of all time! The maps were beautiful and the storyline was very well thought out. If ran properly, you could damage the party fairly easily.

    1. Queen of Spiders, 1986 (G1-3, D1-3, Q1): An epic quest. However, as a player, I got very bored with the Drow portion of the modules. The Giant series was exciting but when you take on an enemy who’s basically immune against magic in their backyard, it’s gets tired fast. I ran the Giants series and played in the Drow series. I was going to run Q1 but it never got off the ground.

    Modules not on the list: I9 The Cup & Talisman of Al-Akbar adventure was very fun to run. I ran two separate groups at the same time and they eventually met and sparks flew. Going after an artifact is always fun.

    I know that I’m leaving out some other modules but it’s late and I’m half falling asleep!

    M

  20. Mystek
    August 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    Oh yeah.. before I forget. Let’s not forget about Isle of the Ape and the Tarrasque (How the Mighty Have Fallen) modules. I love high level adventures where the PCs can be put into their place. Nothing cuts the smug look off character’s faces than an outer planar adventure without their knowledge. :)

    M

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