Is Danger at Dunwater a well-designed adventure module?

Is the classic AD&D1 adventure module Danger at Dunwater a well-designed adventure module?



I’m not asking if you like it or had fun with it. I’m not asking if it is a great piece of D&D history. Just, is it well designed as a published adventure for general D&D play?

If it is, what could current module designers/authors learn from it? What should current module designers/authors try to emulate about it?

[Because so many people wanted to discuss the design of this adventure in the U1 discussion, I figured I should start this one soon.]

Quasqueton

D at D doesn't work because no intelligent or well-played party will attack the lizard men. So the party basically gets to pick up 5000 gp (and the consequent 5000 xp under the old school system) for very little risk or effort, and the bulk of the module is useless.

I remember the bullwug ambush being a little too tough for the recommended character levels - and while an extra tough encounter is okay for the climax of an adventure (see Against the Cult of the Reptile God) it is not so good for a "wandering monster" type thing (as far as I recall the bullywugs were not part of the actual smuggler/lizardman/sahuagin plot.

I voted "yes" but my real answer is "yes, but...".

It's a flawed adventure, to be sure, because if the PCs realize the lizardmen are not their enemies, then much of the carefully (indeed, beautifully) constructed dungeon is wasted.

Other flaws -- the bullywug ambush is pretty tough, and the fight against the giant crocodile and a pan lung dragon is really tough. For that matter, what is an Oriental dragon doing near Saltmarsh? However, tough encounters do not in and of themselves make an adventure poorly designed; they just make it tough.

But back to the main flaw, the potentially wasted dungeon. The adventure fails to adress strongly enough what to do with the PCs if they do not rampage through the lizardmen caverns, slaughtering everything and gaining XP. This XP gain is very important, because without it, the PCs will be too weak for Final Enemy. (They might be too weak anyway, because U3 has its own flaws, but that's a different discussion.)

The solution in current terms would be to give the PCs a massive XP award "as if they had defeated a CR 10 enemy", or whatever works out to the approrpriate amount. In other words, total up all the XP they could gain for slaughtering the lizardmen and give a "story award" of roughly the same amount.

I also think that a clever DM can make the lizardmen internal politics into a rich source of non-combat adventuring. While the chief and the old shaman (a great NPC, by the way), along with some of the underlings, are enlightened and want to form alliances with the other aquatic races (and eventually the PCs/Saltmarsh), there is another faction that does not want to do so. So the PCs could get dragged into this feud as each side tries to use them against the other.

There's also the other ambassadors in the dungeon (locathah, merfolk, others?) who could have their own agendas.

In closing, let me reiterate that the lizardman lair may be the best constructed dungeon of any early AD&D module. Every room, every monster/NPC, every mundane item, every magic item -- all of it fits together and makes sense. This is how dungeons should be designed, and this is my model when I design them. That alone make U2 a great adventure, despite its flaws.