What are the worst classic D&D adventure modules?

[thedungeondelver]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Everything TSR ever published was 100% amazing and awesome.

Just kidding. In fact, just typing those two sentences made me puke a little.

The worst I have ever actually played (and later had to apologize profusely for) was Tomb of Horrors. We picked it out because it was rumored to be "the hardest module ever" or something, and we wanted a challenge. But this module wasn't challenging; it was boobytrapped for the sole purpose of destroying PCs. A sphere of annihilation in a statue's mouth? Give me a break. After the fourth character died MOST unfairly, the players began threatening me with violence. I actually had to use that lame "it was all a dream" cop-out, from the Dallas television show, to save my hide.

You didn't read through the module first before running it?

 

[Celebrim]

The worst I have ever actually played (and later had to apologize profusely for) was Tomb of Horrors. We picked it out because it was rumored to be "the hardest module ever" or something...

First of all, IMO, for the suggest character levels, I6: Ravenloft is a much harder module than S1. Strahd is a proactive villain, and Acererak not only sits back and waits, but 'plays fair' by providing honest clues, rewarding heroics, and correctly labeling the stuff in his tomb. (This is so obvious, that RttToH feels the need to provide an in game reason why he does this.) I6: Ravenloft is an almost gauranteed TPK with a good DM that plays the module straight and doesn't put on the kid gloves. With Tomb of Horrors I would expect most experienced players to get through with 50% or fewer fatalities, though granted I wouldn't expect any of them to have actually 'won' the module, just survived it.

...and we wanted a challenge. But this module wasn't challenging; it was boobytrapped for the sole purpose of destroying PCs.

No, it is challenging AND boobytrapped to destroy PCs. Your players weren't up to the challenge. That's ok. It is challenging. No one faults your (or your players) lack of skill for not winning 'ToH'. We've been there. It severely tests even the best and most experienced of us. However you died, at least some of us made the same mistakes. If it was easy, then it wouldn't deserve its reputation.

A sphere of annihilation in a statue's mouth? Give me a break.

That really ought to be in a spoiler tag, but yeah, that's completely fair. If you crawl into a devil's mouth, then you ought to expect to be destroyed. And Acererak plays fair. It's not random or arbitrary. Random and arbitary would be if some devil's mouths were good and some were bad, or if the path to destruction was covered by an illusion that made it appear safe and inviting. That's one of several reasons why most attempts to emulate ToH fall flat. If you crawl into a pure black hole without testing to see if it is safe with a 10' pole, you get what you deserve.

Look, I sympathize with the fact that you (or rather your players) died that way. I knew a really good experienced group of players who the first time through the ToH lost the whole party to the SoA trap (party loyalty and cohesion convinced them that they had to 'go in after' the first character through so they could save him from whatever fate befell him). Having learned that Acererak the Eternal doesn't play around, they made it through his tomb the second time with no deaths.

The proper response to losing a character in ToH is to laugh about it, because it happens to just about everyone. It is challenging.

After the fourth character died MOST unfairly, the players began threatening me with violence.

Now, I'll say this. I'd never run long term characters that players were attached to on ToH. Unlike what players are used to, ToH is not stacked in their favor. And unlike most modules, ToH has very little mercy on mistakes. Your hit points won't protect you very much from errors. And saving throws can't be relied on to let you luck through the module with good dice rolls. Likewise, I'd never run long term characters on Ravenloft until they were a level or two above the suggested levels.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I regard crawling into a devil's mouth as skillful play - something interesting and exciting is more likely to happen and that's what I want when I play an rpg. Prodding everything with a 10' pole, or getting your orc slaves to enter every room first, is the play style Tomb of Horrors encourages. This, to me, is a bad play style.

In fact, Gary says how much he dislikes this play style in the 1e DMG:

Assume that your players are continually wasting time (thus making the
so-called adventure drag out into a boring session of dice rolling and
delay) if they are checking endlessly for traps and listening at every door.
If this persists, despite the obvious displeasure you express, the requirement
that helmets be doffed and mail coifs removed to listen at a door,
and then be carefully replaced, the warnings about ear seekers, and
frequent checking for wandering monsters (q.v.), then you will have to
take more direct part in things. Mocking their over-cautious behavior as
near cowardice, rolling huge handfuls of dice and then telling them the
results are negative, and statements to the effect that: "You detect
nothing, and nothing has detected YOU so far - ", might suffice. If the
problem should continue, then rooms full with silent monsters will turn the
tide, but that is the stuff of later adventures.

Make up your frikkin' mind, Gary!

EDIT: Using the 10' pole on the devil's mouth won't even tell you it's dangerous. It comes back with the end missing, but it's reasonable to assume it's been teleported rather than disintegrated. The former being more common dungeon weirdness than the latter. I think this is what people mean by arbitrary - it could be a teleporter, it could be a disintegrator, how are you to know?

 

[CleverNickName]

I was sort of being tongue-in-cheek when I wrote that post. But yes, I read the module beforehand, and we all tried our best to have fun with it. It was just too forthright in its eagerness to destroy the PCs. Not just kill--this module wants to crush, humiliate, even annihilate them. So halfway through, I decided to make this one "not count," and everyone relaxed and enjoyed the (very short) ride.

Still, it wasn't what I would call a great adventure module. Even without the sucker-punch boobytraps, it's kind of weak. The plot is unimaginative, the setting is cliche, and the rewards do not merit the risk. IMO, of course.

That really ought to be in a spoiler tag...

(snip)

If you crawl into a pure black hole without testing to see if it is safe with a 10' pole, you get what you deserve.

Woops, sorry about the spoiler tag (or lack thereof.) But come on. Does a character really deserve to be annihilated--not just paralyzed, or cursed, or even slain--for failing to carry a ten-foot pole? FWIW, they did "test" the opening by throwing pebbles into it. All that did was reinforce the theory that they had found a portal.

I knew a really good experienced group of players who the first time through the ToH lost the whole party to the SoA trap (party loyalty and cohesion convinced them that they had to 'go in after' the first character through so they could save him from whatever fate befell him).

Yep. This is exactly what happened to the rest of the party. (Well, those that survived all of the previous traps and such leading up to that point.) They were convinced that they had discovered a magical gate to the Abyss, or Hell, or somewhere. Which is not an unreasonable assumption, given the setting, the wizard's reputation, the supernatural-looking blackness, and the demonic frame around it. I had to sit there silently and watch as they all marched into oblivion like ants.

I suppose a lot of DMs would think this was funny.

Now, I'll say this. I'd never run long term characters that players were attached to on ToH. Unlike what players are used to, ToH is not stacked in their favor.

Agreed. And these are the biggest reasons why we didn't particularly care for it.

I guess I was a bit too harsh when I implied it was a "bad module." It is a classic, after all. What I probably should have said was "of all the modules we have played, this was the one we enjoyed the least."

 

[Celebrim]

I regard crawling into a devil's mouth as skillful play - something interesting and exciting is more likely to happen and that's what I want when I play an rpg. Prodding everything with a 10' pole, or getting your orc slaves to enter every room first, is the play style Tomb of Horrors encourages. This, to me, is a bad play style.

Well, you have a right to say that it is a bad play style, but I wish that you wouldn't redefine terms to make your point. It may be true that playing in a way that interesting and exciting is more fun than playing in a manner that is skillful and that might make skillful play a bad play style, but lets not reappropriate the term just because everyone would like to be thought of as skillful lest we no longer have terms that mean anything.

By skillful play, generally it is meant 'play that by the creativity, experience, and intelligence of the player, allows hazards to be overcome and the life of the character to continue'. Whether this is fact 'fun' or desirable is a different question.

Make up your frikkin' mind, Gary!

Gary has made up his mind. You just don't agree with it. Read that passage again. How does Gary plan on dealing with players that are overly cautious? By punishing blind and excessive caution with instant death in the form of probably the most arbitrary lethal monster in the game - the ear seeker.

Using the 10' pole on the devil's mouth won't even tell you it's dangerous. It comes back with the end missing, but it's reasonable to assume it's been teleported rather than disintegrated. The former being more common dungeon weirdness than the latter. I think this is what people mean by arbitrary - it could be a teleporter, it could be a disintegrator, how are you to know?

All this is true, and it was the assumption made by the party of the experienced player aforementioned. However, two things mitigate this conclusion. First, even by the time you reach the Devil's mouth, the Tomb should have already installed in you the attitude of expecting the worst from everything. And second, if you make the correct assumption that Acererak doesn't use alot of reverse pyschology (on the grounds that that would indeed make the module unfair and arbitrary), you will correctly assume that whatever else happens, you aren't climbing into the devil's mouth. Thirdly, the general practice of not going into something blind encourages you to look for an alterative to the obvious exit, and one is standing right nearby. Now... if attempting to solve the nearby puzzle resulted in instant death (and by this point, I was afraid to touch anything), then yeah, that would be arbitrary, but it doesn't.

 

[billd91]

Yep. This is exactly what happened to the rest of the party. (Well, those that survived all of the previous traps and such leading up to that point.) They were convinced that they had discovered a magical gate to the Abyss, or Hell, or somewhere. Which is not an unreasonable assumption, given the setting, the wizard's reputation, the supernatural-looking blackness, and the demonic frame around it. I had to sit there silently and watch as they all marched into oblivion like ants.

I suppose a lot of DMs would think this was funny.

I confess, I would find that funny. But then, even without a 10' pole, there's no way I would be walking into something I suspected was a portal that gave me no reason to believe I'd be able to come back out again. Tossing in pebbles won't do that - I'd toss in the knotted end of a rope or something and make sure it came back. If it got cut off, I'd be imagining what would happen if I started going into the "portal" and stopped briefly. Would it teleport only part of me like it did the rope? At that point, I'd be avoiding the supposed portal as too mysterious to risk.

Now, as luck would have it, when I played through ToH, my character did have a 10' pole. He did prod at the darkness in the demon's mouth. He successfully avoided that doom.

 

[Celebrim]

Still, it wasn't what I would call a great adventure module. Even without the sucker-punch boobytraps, it's kind of weak. The plot is unimaginative, the setting is cliche, and the rewards do not merit the risk. IMO, of course.

You are entitled to your opinion, and in general, I agree with this one. The plot is thin. The setting is cliched, albiet, you could argue that it created the cliche, and the rewards certainly do not merit the risk. In fact, at one level, the module is an interesting test in recognizing when the rewards don't merit the risk because normally one of the meta-assumptions is that rewards always merit the risk.

Does a character really deserve to be annihilated--not just paralyzed, or cursed, or even slain--for failing to carry a ten-foot pole?

Well, yes.

I'm not going to defend whether or not it was a good module. I don't think that's something that can really be asserted objectively. But I do get irritated when people dimiss the module as arbitrary or unfair. I feel those are claims that are just objectively wrong. Of all the modules I've ever played, it felt the least unfair and seemed to put my fate in my hands better than any other module. Moreover, while its harsh, because it is less arbitrary I don't even consider it the hardest module out there. So many modules come down almost entirely to luck, even if you do make the 'right' decisions you still have to pass saving throws and hope you don't get hit by the monster that has the death touch. When whether you succeed depends on whether the DM throws a high number, or whether you throw a high number regardless of your actions as a player, then that is arbitrary. ToH is almost never like that.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Well, you have a right to say that it is a bad play style, but I wish that you wouldn't redefine terms to make your point. It may be true that playing in a way that interesting and exciting is more fun than playing in a manner that is skillful and that might make skillful play a bad play style, but lets not reappropriate the term just because everyone would like to be thought of as skillful lest we no longer have terms that mean anything.

By skillful play, generally it is meant 'play that by the creativity, experience, and intelligence of the player, allows hazards to be overcome and the life of the character to continue'. Whether this is fact 'fun' or desirable is a different question.

I would stand by my use of the word. To be skillful is to do something well based on experience, on learned practices. The question is, what is it to play a roleplaying game well? People disagree quite a bit on this. To Gary in the 1970s it was the ability to win the game of D&D - keep your PC alive, gain treasure, go up levels. To me it's to entertain the other participants.

I admit that terms like 'skillful play', 'the superior player' and the like are strongly associated with the Gygaxian play style. I normally refrain from using them partly for that reason and also because I'm uncomfortable with saying that one way to pretend to be an elf is better than another. Very uncomfortable. That's why I feel the need to add an 'imo' or the equivalent.

 

[olshanski]

Yep. This is exactly what happened to the rest of the party. (Well, those that survived all of the previous traps and such leading up to that point.) They were convinced that they had discovered a magical gate to the Abyss, or Hell, or somewhere. Which is not an unreasonable assumption, given the setting, the wizard's reputation, the supernatural-looking blackness, and the demonic frame around it. I had to sit there silently and watch as they all marched into oblivion like ants.

I suppose a lot of DMs would think this was funny.

When I played, as soon as my wizard stuck his head in the portal, the remainder of his body from the neck-down dropped lifelessly to the floor. That was our first indication that this was a seriously deadly dungeon, as we were able to get past the other traps fairly easily: I believe my corpse was ressurected, so I was able to continue on with the adventure. I died again when a green slime curtain fell on my character and disolved him... most of the rest of the party bought it soon afterward at the juggernaut. We had a blast!

*In the long hall with all of the pit traps: we just had a person using LEVITATE to choose to put just enough weight on the floor to see were the traps were, without falling in. When we got trapped in a false entrance, we used "stone to flesh" and cut our way back out. The adventure really didn't seem that deadly until the sphere of annhilation.

 

[Lidgar]

Best 2e Module

Supposed this is almost forked at this point - but it seemed like I played all of 2e in either Undermountain or Al Qadim. For Undermountain, Skullport and the Lost Levels were "classics". For Al Qadim it was more about the setting. Oh, and Menzoberranzan was quite fun - although we tweaked that quite a bit.