D&D General The most played D&D Adventure of all time

[MerricB]

How many editions (not to mention the 5e playtest) has there been a version of Keep on the Borderlands for?

Funnily enough, I think Tomb of Horrors may have more editions of the game it's been made for. And then with more adventures inspired by it!

Cheers,
Merric

 

[TerraDave]

I think we know the top two. Ravenloft, if CoS is treated as a version of I6, has to pretty much be number 3.

I don't think Sunless is 4. 3e was pretty popular, but not B/X or AD&D popular. And it had some serious competition, lots of good adventures for 3e thanks to the OGL.

So for #4...Those old modules were huge sellers and like B2 also converted into other editions. G1/2/3 has straight 4e and 5e conversions. As does ToH, but I don't think its been played as much. Its more infamous, so maybe talked about more, but played less.

T1, by itself and with the Temple probably sold more pre-5e. But the giants have received more attention since.

Top six is probably:

LMoP
KotB
CR/CoS
AtG
VoH/ToEE
SC

 

[Ancalagon]

It's possible Ravenloft is one of the most-read modules but I'd really hesitate to say it's the most-played. At absolute best it's second, but now far more likely a distant third behind B2 (1st) and Phandelver (2nd).

(odd thought just occurred to me: I've never played through any of these three. The closest I've come is that I've DMed B2, once.)

I've played in Ravenloft a ton in my teens. We had a large group, and 3 main GMs. One of them was a huge fan of the setting, I wasn't really that into it - I couldn't get out of the "traditional D&D mindset" and really engage in the setting. We must have done at least half a dozen adventures (modules), but never did anything significant in Barovia itself.

I wonder how many people played Ravenloft the setting (with the multiple domains of dread) vs just the main adventure (CoS in 5e terms)?

 

[Muso]

I wonder how many people played Ravenloft the setting (with the multiple domains of dread) vs just the main adventure (CoS in 5e terms)?

Me. I run castle Ravenloft (as a DM or as a player in AD&D 1E) at least 5 times and I also run several adventure/campaign in the other domains of dread.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Considering there are more people new to D&D with 5E than all players of every other edition combined, it’s an easy guess to say it’s a 5E adventure. It’s most likely Phandelver but could be Curse of Strahd.

No, there's not a chance it's Curse of Strahd over Lost Mines. The Starter Set has sold nearly 10 TIMES as many copies as CoS, AND spent some time as a free download. (This matches my store's Sales too - CoS is a GREAT selling Adventure, but it's not in the same ballpark as the starter!)

Keep on the Borderlands has a chance, if you were somehow able to add up everyone who ever played it ever, just due to 35 extra years over LMoP. But I bet it's still likely that Lost Mines beats Keep. Could be very close.

For myself, I've played for 37 years, and I don't actually know if I've ever played Keep on the Borderlands. Probably, but not in recent memory. I've run Lost Mines at least twice.

 

[Hussar]

Modules inspired by it:

• Return to the Keep on the Borderlands (AD&D 2E, 1999).
• Keep on the Borderlands: A Season of Serpents (D&D 4E, 2010)

I'd also add the Chaos Scar series of adventures for 4e as well.

 

[Burnside]

I don't think we should underestimate the fact that Lost Mine of Phandelver was available for free on DNDBeyond from March 2020 until late 2023, and also free on Roll20 for part of that period as well. That's way bigger than how well the 5E Starter Set sold when evaluating the prevalence of that adventure.

 

[ezo]

How many editions (not to mention the 5e playtest) has there been a version of Keep on the Borderlands for?

The versions of B2 don't really matter. It is a B/X module, but easily adapted to any version of D&D and played using rules from that edition.

So it's basically a question if the extra 35 odd years is enough time to make up those numbers.

That was precisely my point and IMO would be more than enough to "keep" B2 on top.

But, since this is all opinion and speculation, we can never know for certain... Which is too bad, really, since it is a very interesting question IMO.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I've played in Ravenloft a ton in my teens. We had a large group, and 3 main GMs. One of them was a huge fan of the setting, I wasn't really that into it - I couldn't get out of the "traditional D&D mindset" and really engage in the setting. We must have done at least half a dozen adventures (modules), but never did anything significant in Barovia itself.

I wonder how many people played Ravenloft the setting (with the multiple domains of dread) vs just the main adventure (CoS in 5e terms)?

I ran the setting during 2E into 3E and I ran the original module

 

[MockingBird]

My kids fell in love with Meepoo. They just don't realize how truely evil my Meepoo is.