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

[The Hierophant]

Probably fewer than you think.

It first come out in 1980.
It then shipped with the Moldvay set (1981-2). It was not in the Red Box (Mentzer) Basic set of 1983.
It went out of print in the mid-1980s.

The 10th Anniversary D&D Collector's Set in 1984 had it - 1000 copies of that was made.
The Caves of Chaos portion was reproduced in B1-9 In Search of Adventure (1987).
It was reprinted in full for the Silver Anniversary Collector's Set (1999).
The Caves of Chaos portion was used during the playtest. (2012).
It was reproduced in full in the prestige product, Into the Borderlands (Goodman Games, 2018).

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)

Actual editions that printed a version that was the original updated to the new stats? Basic D&D (Holmes), Basic D&D (Moldvay). D&D Next playtest.

Return to the Keep on the Borderlands has the same basic plan, but greatly changes the cave descriptions (and Keep descriptions). I wouldn't count it as a reprint. Likewise for A Season of Serpents.

Cheers,
Merric

And there’s the Hackmaster version which is basically a reprint.

 

[Clint_L]

And there’s the Hackmaster version which is basically a reprint.

True but those are really niche products; I think the vast majority of folks who played this will have done so because of the pack-in with Basic.

 

[Lanefan]

There's no doubt there are a LOT of copies of it out there... I myself have several.

That it wasn't in the 1983 set was a bit of shock to me. (I started with the Moldvay Basic set of 1981).

If times-played was tied to the number of copies out there then IME Isle of Dread would win in a landslide.

I swear that module self-replicates when left in a dark space for any time at all.

I'm really curious about the Village of Hommlet. A few people have suggested that was the most popular adventure and I can't see it.

Hommlet would be - at the very best - on the outer periphery of this discussion, along with about 20 other well-known modules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Thinking more on it, I suspect the answer to the OPs question is "Phandelver." It's been in print as a main title for longer than B2 was, during a period when more folks played D&D.

Yep. I think Keep on the Borderlands is probably a strong number two, and then there's a significant drop off after that. Most people are not rerunning Curse of Strahd a dozen times, which I know for sure I did with B2 back in the day.

Also, shameless plug before it's out of print forever, the Goodman Games Into the Borderlands is really good, and collects all the BD&D printings of B1 and B2 between two covers, creates 5E conversions, adds some additional areas and converts BD&D monsters, spells and magic items. It looks very much like Goodman Games has lost the license to the old TSR stuff, so if you see it, snatch it up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

I think a big challenge is that, in the AD&D days, we replayed the modules a lot, because there weren't many of them.

But the number of players was so small, that even if we ran the G, D, Q, I, U, L, A and especially S series over and over and over again, it isn't hard for a large number of 3E or 5E players to come along and just play the bejesus out of an intro module and jump past all of those.

Even back in the day, I'm skeptical that many people played through the big megadungeons even once, much less multiple times.

So instead of the Temple of Elemental Evil, I'd say the T1 Moathouse, because it's short, low level, well-designed and was one of the first adventures ever, is probably top 5 and certainly top 10.

 

[jasper]

Fun fact. I never played in it. And never own a copy of it.

 

[jasper]

True but those are really niche products; I think the vast majority of folks who played this will have done so because of the pack-in with Basic.

oR bought the base set just to get the module.

 

[MerricB]

If times-played was tied to the number of copies out there then IME Isle of Dread would win in a landslide.

I swear that module self-replicates when left in a dark space for any time at all.

Oh wow, yes!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Also, the intro modules in the rulebooks need to be part of the conversation. Lots of folks still curse Bargle's name, meaning he had to traumatize a lot of players. There's also the tower of Zenopus. And the AD&D DMG dungeon has been reprinted in multiple later books.

They can't compete with Phandelver or Keep, but I think a lot more people have played through those than we realize.

Also, the most popular Dragon and Dungeon magazine adventures were also very popular. I ran Citadel by the Sea -- a great classic PCs versus orcs adventure -- many times, for instance, and Fedifensor, by virtue of being one of the first planar adventures and featuring the githyanki when they were new and very hot, was also super-popular.

 

[Ancalagon]

Temple Of elemental evil is one that has existed through numerous editions, that might be a decent contender...