TSR/WotC Adventures - Are they REALLY any good? (Warning: Possible Spoilers)

[Votan]

It's well known that adventures don't sell well compared to rule books, which gives one reason why their quality control is subpar.
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Perhaps, but some really cool adventures can really improve a games popularity. I know that some early good modules helped teach us how to play and led to a fair amount of loyalty to the AD&D brand

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yup dragonlance, you need to throw some classic epicness once in a while...

Mentioning the Dragonlance adventures in the same sentence as Forest Oracle isn't a compliment ... most of that series is a horrible railroad.

Most of the best TSR/WOTC modules are either sandboxes, or adventures that at least have a series of meaningful choices in how they can be attacked. A large number of published adventures don't fall into those two categories.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but I would be contracting Paizo to write the adventures for me. Paizo's adventures are "way" better than what Wizards can dish out.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

One of the best adventures I ever went on was from the old "Night Below" boxset.

A few others I enjoyed:

C-1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
C-2 Ghost Tower of Inverness
G-1-2-3 Against the Giants
I-2 Tomb of the Lizard King
I-6 Ravenloft
S-2 White Plume Mountain
U-1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
B02 Keep on the Borderlands

 

[billd91]

A1-4 (Slave Lords) can't transcend its tournament origins.

The A series' tournament origins may be evident, but I'd say that the series easily transcends its tournament origins. The A1-4 supermodules, with its additional elements to anchor it into the Wild Coast of Greyhawk, works very well as a story within the campaign's narrative. I'd even say it's one of the best series for doing so among the 1e modules.

 

[haakon1]

the Baron's chancellor (an evil wizard plothread that I had brought in from some of the other modules I was weaving in).

Once the PCs had revealed that the chancellor was a traitor

Wah? I did the same thing. The evil Castellan of the Keep is a traitor in my version, allowing for the inside job elements of the plot. Maybe that should have been in the module.

 

[pemerton]

I've been going through and reviewing the old AD&D modules, and I've got to say that a lot of their mystique is purely due to them being "first". A lot of them aren't very good. The Slave Lords series is a case in point, with A1 in particular suffering very much from its tournament origins.

<snip>

A1-4 (Slave Lords) can't transcend its tournament origins.

A1 and A2 can be greatly improved simply by adding a few secret passages and-or doorways in the right places.

A3's "dungeon" part is pretty linear, but if you can somehow find a way to let them loose in Suderham there's all kinds of fun to be had.

It's a long time since I've looked at these modules (and I have them in the compiled "supermodule" version).

I ran bits of A1 converted to Rolemaster, and my memory is that it was pretty good. In the supermodule version, there is a slave ship episode (at least as best I remember it), and raiding the slave galley was a memorable play experience. And I think A2 is the one with the stockade - with Markessa the wizard and the blind fighter in the helmet - and I remember having some fun with that too in Rolemaster (although the PCs certainly didn't clear it completely).

 

[MerricB]

It's a long time since I've looked at these modules (and I have them in the compiled "supermodule" version).

I ran bits of A1 converted to Rolemaster, and my memory is that it was pretty good. In the supermodule version, there is a slave ship episode (at least as best I remember it), and raiding the slave galley was a memorable play experience. And I think A2 is the one with the stockade - with Markessa the wizard and the blind fighter in the helmet - and I remember having some fun with that too in Rolemaster (although the PCs certainly didn't clear it completely).

Mostly I'm talking about the original modules, not the compiled ones. The slave ship is part of the refitting for the supermodule (which improves them somewhat).

There are definitely good encounters throughout the adventures, but the originals are probably the 1E adventures that are most like 4E adventures in linear structure and set-pieces.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Mentioning the Dragonlance adventures in the same sentence as Forest Oracle isn't a compliment ... most of that series is a horrible railroad.

Mind you, Dragons of Despair can be run extremely successfully. It's trying something new, has one of the most amazing maps/dungeons in Xak Tsaroth, and the 'forcing' of characters to Xak Tsaroth is actually done so that players have a choice of how to get there; you can actually do a lot with the module.

That's a problem with it, actually; it needs a really good DM to pull it off. When I ran it - and it was one of the first modules I ran properly, a very long time ago when I was still in high school - the group found the old storyteller in the Inn of the Last Home, he told them they had to go to Xak Tsaroth, and they said "Right! Let's go!" and bypassed the first section entirely.

It's an adventure I really want to run again, because it really is quite brilliant. Lots of flaws, definitely, but it's one of the most interesting and accomplished works of the best writer of adventures for D&D ever. Where classic Doctor Who has Robert Holmes, D&D has Tracy Hickman. (This makes Terry Nation=Gary Gygax, which might be appropriate).

Unfortunately, it's in the beginning of the next module, Dragons of Flame, one of the most linear railroads I've ever seen, that things fall over. It's the weakest module of the first four - and #3 (leading the refugees south) is again an adventure that can be fantastic but needs a DM at the top of his or her game to pull it off.

Cheers!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Mind you, Dragons of Despair can be run extremely successfully. It's trying something new, has one of the most amazing maps/dungeons in Xak Tsaroth, and the 'forcing' of characters to Xak Tsaroth is actually done so that players have a choice of how to get there; you can actually do a lot with the module.

I agree with you there -- the Xak Tsaroth dungeon itself is good, and the maps are excellent. There are individual sub-dungeons later in the series that are decent as well.

But it's the embedding in the horrible railroad, with dragonarmies appearing to cut off PC options, the "uncertain deaths", forced split of the party ("What do you mean the character I'm playing isn't in this module?"), etc that lets the series as a whole down.

It's OK if you want to mine it for useful bits, but those bits don't save the series from being collective dreck.