D&D 4E Best 4E module?

overgeeked

B/X Known World
I'm looking for tips on what people here think of as the best module for D&D4E. I'm looking for one module that you think best represents what 4E can do, what makes the system itself shine brightest, and puts the edition in the best possible light. If you had one module to run to convince someone that 4E is amazing, which module would you run?
 

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ccs

41st lv DM
I'm looking for tips on what people here think of as the best module for D&D4E. I'm looking for one module that you think best represents what 4E can do, what makes the system itself shine brightest, and puts the edition in the best possible light. If you had one module to run to convince someone that 4E is amazing, which module would you run?

What you need is a real life Wish spell, not a module.
Failing that you'd better start writing....

In all honesty I don't think there's a 4e module that could even come close to what you want.
At least not written by WoTC.
 

EzekielRaiden

Follower of the Way
While I cannot guarantee that they will make anyone who plays them fall in love with 4e, here's what I've said previously on the topic:

HS1: The Slaying Stone is almost universally recommended as the introductory 1st-level adventure for 4e. I haven't played it myself, but if you go looking for good 4e adventures it's on everyone's lips (fingers?). The general path people take is....

HS1: The Slaying Stone (1st)
Reavers of Harkenwold (DM's Kit, 2nd-3rd)
Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault, 4th)
HS2: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (5th)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (6th-11th)

Literally every single one of the list above comes up as An Excellent 4e Adventure, I've heard their names enough times to almost think they intentionally form a single plotline despite knowing they don't.
 

FitzTheRuke

Legend
While I cannot guarantee that they will make anyone who plays them fall in love with 4e, here's what I've said previously on the topic:

HS1: The Slaying Stone is almost universally recommended as the introductory 1st-level adventure for 4e. I haven't played it myself, but if you go looking for good 4e adventures it's on everyone's lips (fingers?). The general path people take is....

HS1: The Slaying Stone (1st)
Reavers of Harkenwold (DM's Kit, 2nd-3rd)
Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault, 4th)
HS2: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (5th)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (6th-11th)

Literally every single one of the list above comes up as An Excellent 4e Adventure, I've heard their names enough times to almost think they intentionally form a single plotline despite knowing they don't.
This is the list of some of the ONLY good 4e modules. There may be a lot of H4aters in the world, but even 4e-lovers will admit that most of the adventures were... not great. On the other hand, if you can get your hands on some of the Lair Assaults, well, they are at least fun to play. (The early ones are best, though I can't remember what they are all called).

I'd go with Madness at Gardmore Abbey, but mostly that's because I have been reminded of it lately, what with James Wyatt (who wrote it) recently returning to the D&D design team.
 

Lanefan

Victoria Rules
This is the list of some of the ONLY good 4e modules.
I think I'd add Marauders of the Dune Sea to that list. I modified and ran it for my 1e-style game and it really wasn't bad, all things considered.

The only serious change I'd recommend is to add at least one more connecting passage in the dungeon part, or even better add two or three, because without that it's completely linear meaning the PCs really only have one direction to go once they're in there (plus one short dead-end spur).
 

pemerton

Legend
I didn't encounter any really good 4e D&D modules.

Here is what I would recommend for making H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth a bit more playable:

For the Chamber of Eyes I did two things. First, I joined the introductory encounter (with the hobgoblins torturing the prisoner) onto the Chamber of Eyes: (i) run the corridor in the introductory encounter onto the entryway into the foyer of the Chamber of Eyes; (ii) add a secret passage exiting the NE corner of the hobgoblin chamber via a secret door and running diagonally, with staircases, up to the balcony in the Chamber of Eyes foyer; (iii) add a spyhole/arrowslit on the E wall of the hobgoblin chamber (near the barrels) looking onto the Chamber of Eyes foyer; (iv) add a portcullis that the hobgoblins can drop in the entryway to their chamber, making the secret passage the only easy path between their chamber and the Chamber of Eyes.

Second, I was prepared to run the introductory encounter, C1, C2 and C4 as a single encounter with waves. The PCs first heard the prisoner being tortured (I made it someone they had already met earlier in the campaign who they knew had been captured by goblins/hobgoblins and were hoping to rescue) and entered that chamber. The portcullis (iv above) was dropped, trapping them in that room. As they made fairly short work of the hobgoblin soldiers the warcaster opened the secret door and fled up the passage (ii above) with half the PCs chasing him while the others finished off the soldiers. The PCs correctly feared that he was going to get reinforcements. The PCs narrowly failed to stop him on the balcony, and he went through the other door and alerted the goblins in C2. I had the bugbear engage the PCs on the upper level, while the skull cleavers came out through the main doors to make missile attacks - some of the PCs jumped down to engage them, while others fought the bugbear and one who had been left behind in the first room attacked through the spyhole (iii above). The warcaster meanwhile went on and alerted the chief, who came forward to join the skullcleavers with his wolf while the archers controlled the long-ish corridor with cover from the shrine doorway (I eliminated the second warcaster as unnecessary).

This was a very dynamic encounter, with PCs moving around through the various corridors in the entry way, going back and forth into the original room to take advantage of the arrowslit, and in the end causing the hobgoblin archers to retreat after defeating the rest of the goblins. (They then took on the archers with the rest of C3 - roused from their drunken revelling - as a separate encounter.)

I also decided that the duergar would wait and see what happened rather than joining in on the potentially losing side of a fight - the PCs discovered the duergar in their rooms as they were looking for somewhere to take their short rest and ended up negotiating a contract with them, paying 300 gp to be delivered in a months time to pay for the release of the slaves (the players preferred this to the thought of having to assault a duergar stronghold).

In the Well of Demons I also ran the gnoll encounters together as a single more dynamic encounter (again leaving the tieflings out of the equation, figuring that they would make a more interesting encounter after the gnolls had been dealt with). The interesting aspects here were (i) the players thought the first chamber with the motely crew of monsters was the more challenging encounter, and so blew quite a few resources on it and therefore were really pushed to the limits with the gnolls, (ii) the use of the connecting tunnel from the boar room to the entry chamber as a way of making the PCs fight on two fronts (and yes, enemies were pushed into the well) and (iii) replacing the barlgura demon with a naldrezu (sp?) from MM2, which is a lurker that captures a PC and teleports it away to munch on it - combined with the two-fronts aspect this introduced extra mobility and tension into the fight.

And here's what I did for the only other module I thought was somewhat playable on its own terms, P2:

I have eliminated a lot of the cruft, trying to reduce it to a few interesting elements - the Mindflayers (I pluralised them), the slightly mad drow wizard, the two drow factions (soldiers; temple folk) and the demons and Orcus cultists. Given the PCs entered the outpost at 20th level, I've also upped the level of everything a suitable amount.

After crossing the bridge (which involved dealing with vrocks and haures demons as well as some spiders and wight minions) they found and dealt with the mindflayers (giving the dwarf the chance to raise his concordance with Whelm by beating up on the troll) and then met and treated with the wizard before going to the soldiers' barracks to recruit them as allies.

With their allies in tow, they started exploring the ruined areas on the left side of the map ("behind" the barracks), trying to get the lie of the land and also looking for clues to help with shutting down the Abyssal breaches. (I pluralised them too.)

In fairly short order they ended up in the ruined house with the blood pool and Orcus statue that anchors the breaches. The wizard/invoker started trying to shut that down (as a skill challenge), while the other PCs dealt with a sudden assault of enemy forces - a Husk spider from behind and waves of ghouls and mezzodemons, plus a flying nycademon and arctide runespiral demon attacking from across the bridge to the next ruined building. The previous session ended with the wizard/invoker succeeding, and the other PCs beating up on all the Abyssal forces.
That thread has a bit more about what I did to P2 if anyone's interested.
 

JEB

Legend
Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault, 4th)
Great premise, and starts out very well, but the dungeon itself is decidedly a mixed bag IMHO: some rooms have good use of the ice theme, but others feel like they were randomly generated. Dunno if I'd recommend it as a example of 4E done right. (But to be fair, 4E isn't exactly my favorite edition, so I may be biased.)
 

ccs

41st lv DM
While I cannot guarantee that they will make anyone who plays them fall in love with 4e, here's what I've said previously on the topic:

HS1: The Slaying Stone is almost universally recommended as the introductory 1st-level adventure for 4e. I haven't played it myself, but if you go looking for good 4e adventures it's on everyone's lips (fingers?). The general path people take is....

HS1: The Slaying Stone (1st)
Reavers of Harkenwold (DM's Kit, 2nd-3rd)
Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault, 4th)
HS2: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (5th)
Madness at Gardmore Abbey (6th-11th)

Literally every single one of the list above comes up as An Excellent 4e Adventure, I've heard their names enough times to almost think they intentionally form a single plotline despite knowing they don't.
But are those good adventures because of the mechanics? Or are they just plain good stories that capture the imagination & would do so regardless of the edition they appeared in? There is a difference.

Because the OP wants something that sells 4E. A reason for someone to play THAT edition.
 


DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
But are those good adventures because of the mechanics? Or are they just plain good stories that capture the imagination & would do so regardless of the edition they appeared in? There is a difference.

Because the OP wants something that sells 4E. A reason for someone to play THAT edition.
If all that matters is highlighting the mechanics of 4E, you might as well just buy and play any of the board games that were built with it, like the Castle Ravenloft board game.

The best modules in my opinion always have great stories, great hooks, as well as great uses of the mechanics for the selected fights, regardless of edition. So the list that was given was a pretty good one, all things considered.
 

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