I am curious to hear what you think is the best AD&D module and why? I have some ideas of which ones will rank highest, but I don't want to bias the discussion. So let's hear what you think....
i had played justa few modules (thats sad), but i must say i LOVE T1 Village of the Hommlet. Fascinating npcs, lots of "pano pra manga" (sorry, dont know the expression in english, but its like theres a lot of room to create), a dificult adventure even for 2nd level players. My players were FIFTH level, and i dont power up too much, and it presents a dificult chalange even then! They went with "2ed mind", got they a**es kicked really good. Now everyone is reading about "old school" (actually, this is a new fever here in brazil: lots of blogs are writing about old school and making projects and stuff).
My favorites are the offbeat ones, like the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and it's two sequels, the Desert of Desolation series and of course, White Plume Mountain. I love all the oldies but I've had more fun damaging players in the desert than anything else I've ever run or played in.
Sounds cliche, but Keep on the Borderlands brings back good memories. Also, Woody DM'ed us through Vault of the Drow & Queen of the Demonweb Pits. It was an amazing adventure when we were living in Puerto Rico.
I'm right there with you Dale. The Keep came in the Basic Box that got me started on D&D and I ran it for two or three different groups of friends. Cut to nearly twenty-five years later and now I'm running it for my kids.
I'm with Sir Jon. My top five favorite AD&D modules are in order: U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh U2 Danger at Dunwater U3 Final Enemy C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan X1 Isle of Dread While the last one is technically not an AD&D module, for me and my friends back in the early 80s we often used an amalgamation of AD&D and rules from the boxed sets. X1 makes the list because it was my first module that I ever owned. Unlike many others who had Keep on the Borderlands first, I wasn't so fortunate. The game shop which my first D&D book came from didn't have the boxed set so my first D&D book was this one: It wasn't until a very long time after I'd bought the Expert Boxed Set that came with X1 that I was able to get the above boxed set and the Keep on the Borderlands module. Of course, that's probably more than you want to know.
#1 one is probably Tomb of Horrors. As mean and ugly as it was, it was the first time we had a module with illustrations with it! Really made it even more exciting and sinister! We lost alot of party members in it, but what do you expect from a mad wizard demi-lich tomb anyway! Then, in no particular order, Ghost Tower of Inverness, The Giant Series, Village of Hommlet, Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth, and the Keep on the Borderlands. Though not an AD&D module, I really enjoy The Lost City as well! I know there's more out there, just never had a time to play through them all. I think I'll have to change that!
Geez, where to start? Much of my D&D'ing back in the day was me & my buddy the DM. Yeah, solo (with maybe an occasional henchman/follower or other npcs) - so my characters were pretty ... "gross" was the term we used. But OH THE UNDILUTED FUN!! There were probably more than a few things about our games that might send the more 'puritanical' (lol) gamers into fits of dry heaves, but really - what has the point of game always been? FUN. And my-oh-my, it was. Just a few that stand out to me immediately: Tomb of Horrors (I had this eons ago and don't think I ever even played or ran it - it just ruled. And Luke/Melf started running it @ GaryCon I. Awesome.) Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Queen of the Demonweb Pits Temple of Elemental Evil (again, never got to play or run it, but owned it, and it kicked major ass) I also really liked the module from Dragon #83 by Roger Moore (pretty sure) about Baba Yaga's Hut. Just found this mag on eBay & bought it - should receive within the week, & DAMN will it bring back some memories! As to the "why" of my picking these first few (of many) that popped to mind? Umm, they were just forged in the fires of Mount AWESOME, in their own various ways!
I've never played the following but hope to DM them someday when my group levels up quite a bit more: S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure WG6 Isle of the Ape S1 Tomb of Horrors I6 Ravenloft I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite, as I would change my mind after re-reading any of them!!
Wow. I expected to see more Drow, Temple of Elemental Evil and Tsojcanth votes. Good to see Isle of the Ape and others mentioned though. For me Tsojcanth is my favorite. I playested this for months with Dad as he developed the various parts of the module. Melf adventured this solo for the most part and went from about 6/7 to 9/11 in that module if memory serves me correctly. I did the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun as part of Tsojcanth too. I was very young for the Giant series and Drow- but those are both solid modules.
Well, I did have a fun time beating the snot out of our group when I DM'd it in the early 1980's. They did eventually make it through, but not without a bunch of bodybags and cursing!! :twisted: :lol:
As much as I enjoy Keep on the Borderlands and Village of Hommlet, I think I've overplayed them, driving them into "meh" territory. The finished Temple of Elemental Evil mega-module is a masterpiece, but I've never run it completely through. I'd have to restart my current game and rewrite so much to do so and that just won't work at the moment. I have had to redo many modules just to run the adventure, fit them into the current game being run and change them enough so prolific gamers don't recognize them, which is why I enjoy the U-series so much, they're good and not everyone has gamed them. I notice that the Slavers series isn't mentioned though, those were great, too.
The Slavers A1-A4 was the first multi-modules I ever ran as a DM. That was a great series of adventures. I enjoyed it- and the players had a good story line to work through.
I need to amend my choices with one addition: In Search of the Unknown. This is the module that was the best game aid for a fledgeling DM and I've used it and re-used it to great fun and baseline adventuring. Some of the most amusing game quotes and mishaps have occured in the lair of Quasqueton. "Who created this place, Salvador Dali?" The destruction of the cleric Insertia. The use of a captured Goblin ("Polly") to locate hidden traps. Clanggadina ('nuff said). It just boggles the mind how this one module sparked so much. Hell, I even like the HackMaster re-write, Quest for the Unknown. I do understand that this adventure lands on many "most disliked" lists, but I stand by it.
If choosing based on which AD&D module I had the most fun in as a player, I'd have to pick White Plume Mountain. The DM had a twisted sense of humor worthy of Keraptis. Whenever we got killed off(which happened over & over) he raised us from the dead ala Dragon's Lair style, EXCEPT, he would change something about our character, like gender, alignment, race, weapon proficiencies, exchanged stats, etc. :twisted: Drove us nuts. We did make it to the end however, and in those Monty Haul days we walked off with Black Razor, Whelm and Wave. My Fighter walked in as a CG Male Human named Ronan and left a NE Female Halfling named Rona. Jeeesh :roll:
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl B2 because it’s the best primer for DM and for players. Accessible, portable, reusable... it’s just genius! The other three because they are so epic! They stand out as particularly memorable for my group, I think. Honorable mention to S1, S4, WG5, and G1.
D3 VAULT OF THE DROW is such a great thing to look at. I know everybody thinks the drow are "totally played" now but thats besides the point. It was just such a great thing for everybody and just because its been regurgitated badly over and over by "story" game designers doesn't mean it still doesn't reign supreme. Plus the lead up to D3 is awesome. G1 STEADING OF THE HILL GIANT CHIEF G2 GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT JARL G3 HALL OF THE FIRE GIANT KING D1 DESCENT INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH D2 SHRINE OF THE KUO-TOA Of course, that said, a major flaw is the D3 followup Q1 QUEEN OF THE DEMONWEB PITS. While the legendary "Gygax written Q1" was never actually made at all (Gary broke my heart when he told me! ), the potential for it remains. Another big "bump" is that it suffers from being at the bottom of an unteleportable mountain in the middle of nowhere which is the exact opposite of B2's "go back to gas up" feel. So what if its in the middle of nowhere and has magic restrictions going in and out of it? Have a special "dimension door" that "works", etc. and its ready to go. I've used it this way several times. All this considered, it still comes down to the package itself and D3 is jam-packed to make the best freeform adventure that is not under the blue sky, which is a pretty tall order in my opinion. Tally that up with the notion that this is the broadest scope of D&D Advanced style wilderness innovation ever made and well how can you beat it for prepackaged adventure? Which is what these modules were supposed to be for in the first place: Something you didn't want to have to do yourself, right? D3 is the "Gandalf the White of D&D" that is "D&D as it should have been". While the subject matter is tired by lackluster redos it still remains the pinnacle of "official Gygax D&D" and represents a cipher on how to make a D&D world within a world. Not too shabby!