What will eventually be the classic adventures!

[Argyle King]

I know it's a very simple adventure, but I'd venture to suggest that Paizo's current Beginner's Box will become a classic. The adventure contained in it was (imo) a great introduction to the game. It was simple, but very effective and clearly written.

 

[Starman]

Goodness me, I never expected to see Lord of the Iron Fortress on such a list - I thought it was awful!

I thought that was the general consensus too.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Goodness me, I never expected to see Lord of the Iron Fortress on such a list - I thought it was awful!

Doesn't that list simply capture a large majority of the 3E adventures released by WotC at the time the DM's for Dummies book was released?

They should just call it the Ten Best WotC Third Edition Adventures.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Goodness me, I never expected to see Lord of the Iron Fortress on such a list - I thought it was awful!

Indeed. I have to hear a good report of that adventure from anyone who has either read or DMed it. Utter rubbish.

Sons of Gruumsh definitely belongs on that list, IMO. I think that one will hold up well if people can look past the Forgotten Realms logo.

 

[Stormonu]

They should just call it the Ten Best WotC Third Edition Adventures.

I don't think I'd even call it that - more like "This is the only 10 official adventures we have out at the time of printing"

1E has a lot of classic adventures, not necessarily because they were good, so much as they were the only ones available and there was a lot of shared experiences (Some were quite good however). If you started talking about, say, Tomb of Horrors, you'd get a lot of nods because other folks had played it as well.

For the most part, I mostly remember 2E for the settings, not adventures. The only ones I can think of that really stand out are:

- Labyrinth of Madness
- Return to the Tomb of Horrors
- The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (from Dungeon Mag - apparently fairly popular, as it was reprinted twice)

By 3E, there were tons of adventures available - and most of them weren't coming from D&D's publisher. The ones that stand out to me:

- Sunless Citadel
- Forge of Fury
- Shackled City
- Of Sound Mind
- Red Hand of Doom
- Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

Sadly, for 4E, I am not really familiar with the adventures. The only ones I have heard much about (or played) are:

- Keep on the Shadowfell (if only because it was the first adventure release)
- The Slaying Stone
- Thunderspire Labyrinth(?)

I think, overall, the gaming base has gotten too fractured for there to be many more "classic" adventures down the road. With the general disdain leveled towards WotCs adventures and the fact most adventures now appear through Dungeon or part of other sets instead of stand-alone adventures we'll see fewer and fewer in the future. If 5E opens up to 3rd party publishers I'm guessing we'll see even fewer as the "everyone's familiar with this one" aspect of the classic adventures will be spread across the large volume of adventures available.

 

[OnlineDM]

I really only know 4e, but I would say that Reavers of Harkenwold (from the Essentials Dungeon Master's Kit) and Madness at Gardmore Abbey are both good enough to rise to the level of classics. However, since that requires them to be widely played, I'm not sure that will happen.

 

[milo]

I would vote for three adventurers. Red Hand of Doom, Rappan Athuk, and RtToEE. Probably in that order, I have played Red Hand twice and DMed it twice.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Red hand of doom - I have only read it, but it looked awesome to run.
- although by the time I found it (library) I was so over the 3ed stat block. For my last 3e campaign I was just using a table of hp/defenses/damage and throwing in powers. Basically winging all my monsters.

Sunless citadel - played modified. It was the first for 3ed and Meepo was such an icon. In my game he was a manic-depressive nocturnal bard.
Ever try to get 8 hrs sleep with a nocturnal manic-depressive bard?

Kingmaker - the best treatment of kingdom building since BXCMI (which I also ran. Challenge of the Champions I think it was. I ran KM as a solo game, talked another DM through the first two books, and then adapted it to 4e and a purely urban setting. Which is currently in month 11.

Thunderspire Labyrinth modified to increase connectivity, including putting the whole thing below an existing city. One of the PCs turned out to be the daughter of Suruun. Had a blast. All hail the "Spikey Ball of Elemental Death!" the PCs treated that rolling ball like a sphere of annihilation.

 

[howandwhy99]

I really only know 4e, but I would say that Reavers of Harkenwold (from the Essentials Dungeon Master's Kit) and Madness at Gardmore Abbey are both good enough to rise to the level of classics. However, since that requires them to be widely played, I'm not sure that will happen.

Not a problem. I'd like to hear more about great 4E adventures. I know the Meetup group around here talks up the 4thcore guys pretty heavily. I may not know of them, but I suspect there's more destined to be come class adventures out there. What about the Nentir Vale setting?

EDIT: Adding to the list.
MonkeyGod had some good adventures too, but I'm not sure they were as broadly played to be classics.
In that vein Necromancer's "Crucible of Freya" might qualify.
There must be tons of Dungeon magazine adventures I'm forgetting too. "Mad God's Key", for instance.
The Dungeon adventure paths might be considered classics, if in a G1-2-3 way. Enough people played them.

 

[delericho]

Sunless Citadel
Red Hand of Doom

and maybe Shackled City, Rise of the Runelords, and/or Kingmaker.

Virtually nothing else is both widely enough known and good enough to qualify as a classic.