What 2nd ed AD&D Adventures are the Best? List them here! (Darksun, Dragonlance, etc)

[Psion]

What, no one's mentioned Ruins of Undermountain?! That definitely gets my vote.

I like it, but I sort of think as it more as a setting than an adventure. A book packed with intriguing encounters PLUS big, beautiful, PLUS lots of room to put in your own beasties and scenarios (*coff*featurenotbug*coff*). Good stuff.

Yeah, I'll add it.

 

[diaglo]

http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd1index.htm

They're intermixed with the 1e products, but it's usually pretty obvious from the scan of the cover whether it was for 1e or 2e.

The perception that TSR decreased module production during 2e's run is pretty wide-spread, but actually wrong. Through 1982, TSR did about a module every other month. From 1983 to 1999, TSR averaged over a module and a half per month. The only years they didn't put out 16 or more were 1988 (with 2e about to be introduced), 1997 (when TSR shut down and WotC took over) and 1999 (with 3e about to come out).

Two reasons people tend to think TSR stopped doing adventures during the 2e period: First, they were all campaign specific. If you weren't playing Ravenloft, for example, all those Ravenloft adventures never registered as an adventure for you. Second, TSR largely abandoned the classic 32-page gatefold format in favor of more elaborate packaging. Thus, a lot of people weren't seeing a product that looked like what they were conditioned to think modules looked like.

R.A.

they also stopped calling them modules.

 

[rogueattorney]

they also stopped calling them modules.

Which was accurate, because they sure weren't modular any more.

R.A.

 

[diaglo]

Which was accurate, because they sure weren't modular any more.

R.A.

quoted for troof

 

[Brakkart]

Well heres a list of my favourite 2E adventures.

Generic adventures:

Night Below (not FR specific as you have it listed)
Rod of Seven Parts
Axe of the Dwarvish Lords
Dragon Mountain
Return to the Tomb of Horrors

Ravenloft:

Vecna Reborn
Night of the Walking Dead
Bleak House

Greyhawk:

Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff
Cryp[t of Lyzandred the Mad

Planescape:

Dead Gods
Hellbound

Spelljammer:

Under the Dark Fist

Al Qadim:

Ruined Kingdoms

 

[T. Foster]

I had maybe a dozen 2E modules released between 1989-91, but every single one of them was terrible (with the possible exception of Ruins of Undermountain, which was just mostly terrible...).

 

[diaglo]

I had maybe a dozen 2E modules released between 1989-91, but every single one of them was terrible (with the possible exception of Ruins of Undermountain, which was just mostly terrible...).

sad to say i bought every single one.

 

[TerraDave]

BRAKKART: Perfect, thanks!

 

[Qualidar]

The Al-Quadim adventures were:
ALQ1: Golden Voyages
ALQ2: Assassin Mountain
ALQ3: A Dozen and One Adventures
ALQ4: Secrets of the Lamp
Ruined Kingdoms
Corsairs of the Great Sea
Caravans
Cities of Bone

and much later:
Reunion

With the exception of Reunion, they were all excellent and I would say that Golden Voyages, Assassin Mountain and A Dozen and One Adventures are well worth the label "classic".


I've never read or played the Planescape mods, but I expect great things.

Other classic 2e's:
A Paladin in Hell
The Gates of Firestorm Peak was also a bit classic, in that it was the first (and only?) Skills & Powers module, was vicious, epic, and introduced us all to the Far Realm. I'm still suffering from the Monty Haul excesses of that bastard!

~Qualidar~

 

[Staffan]

Since I'm the resident Dark Sun fan around these parts, I'm gonna point toward my favorite Dark Sun adventures:
One is Freedom! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the title). This is a pretty good, if somewhat railroady, adventure. The adventure starts with the party arriving in Tyr, and getting enslaved one way or the other. You then have to survive life in the slave pits working on Kalak's ziggurat. Stuff happens depending on what happened in previous encounters. Toward the end (spoiler for the adventure and the Verdant Passage novel)

Spoiler

the ziggurat is finished, you get to go to the inauguration gladiator games (and possibly take part), and when Kalak starts his evil spell to drain the life of all of Tyr, you get to take part in the ensuing confusion and make a name for yourself

. I like Freedom! because it shows that life is rough in the cities too, that actions have consequences (if you were enslaved due to hiding a preserver chick, said chick can help you out now and then in the pits), and it leaves quite a few plot threads dangling for the DM to spin further on on his own (an essential trait in an introductory adventure, which Freedom! is).

The other, rather more high-level one, is Dragon's Crown. I've harped about it before on the boards, but I think it's pretty close to perfect. It has a world-spanning plot (someone's trying to keep the common man from using psionics), lets PCs travel to one end of the setting and then to the other, features raiding tribes, the Sea of Silt, the Forest Ridge, ancient fortresses from the Cleansing Wars, dealing with sorcerer-kings, man-eating halfling tribes, thri-kreen hordes driven mad by the main plot, and lots of psionics. It uses many of the setting's defining elements, which I think any setting-specific adventure should do. In addition, a significant chunk of one of the books is made up of interesting random encounters, like the village that found a weird flammable black thick fluid while digging for a well, which has drawn lots of fire clerics there who think it's a holy site. In an adventure that features that much travel, some stuff like that is very welcome as a reminder that important as the current quest may be, it's not the only thing going on in the world.