GMs: What (across all editions) was your favorite adventure to RUN?

[Southern Oracle]

I find myself running "The Keep at Koralgesh" from Dungeon #2 every time I launch a campaign with a new group, no matter the edition of D&D I'm running. It seems to be a perfectly balanced low-level dungeon crawl that hits all the elements of D&D I like to highlight in my campaigns. You've got your stereotypical tavern and gruff dwarf with a quest, secret entrance into a dungeon infested with humanoids, and an abandoned keep filled with treasure, monsters, undead, and rival explorers. Finally, you've got a tiny taste of multiversal/multiplanar exploration with one of the creatures unique to the adventure, the epadrazzil. I already find myself searching the playtest info for D&D Next for ways to adapt "The Keep" as soon as possible.

 

[Starfox]

"Mad God's Key" from Dungeon Adventures magazine. Short, to the point, well written, magnificent ending.

This is out of the top of my head. I might recall some other prime example of great adventuring if I gave it time, but they are likely to come from Dungeon.

 

[SonofaKyuss]

Rappan frigg'n Athuk

Gotta respect those Orcus a'philes at Necromancer Games!

It took a little shoe-horning to work in some extra hooks/subplots to make it more than pure hack and slash (and mopping up PC blood/bile/excrement)...but that place is incredible.

With the kickstarter Necro executed to round up funds for an update to Pathfinder....I'm gonna have to shell out more sheckles for the latest version (with even more BONUS levels).

My players have been slogging around in there for YEARS...and could be doing so for years to come.

Amazing!

 

[billd91]

I've run a number of modules multiple times including the A series, G series, Keep on the Borderlands, and I6-Ravenloft. They've all be fun in their own ways but since I've run Ravenloft in 3 different editions, I'd have to call that top of my list.

 

[Riley]

Temple of Elemental Evil.

Gotta love a campaign-sized, mostly-dungeon-based adventure with interesting villains, lots of little subplots, and which allows characters to progress from fighting frogs and zombies all the way to (demi-)plane hopping, and (would-be-demi-)god killing. Without leading them by the nose.

 

[Celebrim]

That's a real toughy. My favorite published adventurers are the ones that have been run for me, which is I think how it should be. The best way to experience a great adventure is a player.

But I will echo a lot of what is being said here:

1) I6: Ravenloft - It is a very fun module to run, albiet, not the easiest to put in an existing plotline. The best map that has ever been made for a dungeon, though the catacombs area is probably over large. My biggest beef with it though is that you have to put on kid gloves as the DM. If you really run Strahd as a killer, it's a nasty nasty nasty module.
2) 'Of Sound Mind' - I've run this one. I would run it again. I have two major problems with it though. First, I don't like psionics, so I had to rewrite it to a necromantic theme. Secondly, it doesn't follow the three clue rule well and it doesn't therefore flow as well as it should.
3) 'Mad God's Key' - I've also run this one. I would run it again. The biggest problems here are the Greyhawk specific trappings (which isn't a problem if you are on Oerth), and the somewhat illogical and overly crowded thieves guildhouse which seems to have challenges purely for the sake of having a requisite number of encounters. Overall, lots of memorable set peices make up for it, and it is easy to drop into any existing conspiracy or as a launching point for another one.
4) X2: Isle of Dread - I've run this one. I'm planning on running it again, because the overall concept of the expedition is hard to beat. However, the final dungeon is so anticlimatic and the module so thin on details that I'm going to have to put probably 100 hours of work into it to be happy with it. And since I'm not happy with how the setting has been revisited by others, well, my work is cut out for me.
5) B2: Keep on the Borderlands - The only module I've run twice. Honestly, I'm not that fond of it, and I'm not excited about running it again. It feels so primitive to me now that like X2, it requires a ton of work. The sandbox style of the map is great, but in actual execution the map is pretty flat and uninspiring with few really great set peices by modern standards and a whole lot of grind. I'm not sure what would be better, stripping it down to a core dungeon or expanding it out to a full lavishly mapped complex. Unlike X2, I'm not sure its worth it. I no longer much enjoy running a pure dungeon crawl with more than about 25 encounter areas.

 

[amerigoV]

I enjoyed running Eyes of the Lich Queen, the "big" module for Eberron. It had its challenges - the transitions between chapters were weak, and I changed around the ending. But it did a good job of showing off cool Eberron elements.

 

[jasper]

1. Raveloft I 6. Not only do the players choose their demise/plot lines, it is chance for the gloves to come off.
2. Temple of Elemental Evil. It nice to have a suggest on how the dungeon is restocked. And to see the fear on the players faces when they enter a level they though cleared.

 

[green slime]

U1 and I6 were both just fantastic, and get revisited when the opportunity arises.

 

[Griego]

White Plume Mountain is probably my favorite, but honorable mention has to go to Pharaoh and the Desert of Desolation series, just because it was the first time I really prepared before game time, instead of reading ahead a bit during snack, dinner, and bathroom breaks.