What is the Greatest Dungeon Crawl Ever Published?

[howandwhy99]

You mean Dungeon Crawl Classics? #17 Legacy of the Savage Kings. It inspires me to homebrew mod it every time, so maybe it becomes even more awesome seen through inspired eyes.

Choosing the best of the old school is hard. Ravenloft is probably my #1, but Strahd is still so overpowering as to make it unplayable straight up. Jaquays Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower deserve mention and B1 In Search of the Unknown is still far and away the best DM starting stereotypical dungeon module of all time. I have to give it up to the Rahotep's Tomb portion of Gygax's Necropolis adventure for best tomb dungeon. There are so many more. It's just not like there's one great dungeon module out there.

 

[Jester David]

Interesting question. [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] should turn this into one of his polls.

I loved Ptolus and Ravenloft but I think my vote would go to the Temple of Elemental Evil for the combination of classicness, size, and scope.

 

[Crothian]

White Plume Mountain. I like the smaller dungeon crawls as those big ones tend to have way to much boring areas with a few cool places.

 

[TerraDave]

Ravenloft is my overall fave, but the "dungeon crawl" part is not the best. (though its there).

Tsojcanth is good. Tharizdun is good, in a different way (semi organized monster army and creepy atmospheric lost temple). The dragon version of Baba Yaga's Hut (which I feel compelled to mention in every thread) is also good in a different, different way---48 magically interlinked areas give it an extreme sandbox feeling. I remain intrigued by the controversial ToEE, which I haven't run, but really like on re-reading. And I would also like to run the quirky B1 and the really quirky Castle Amber, which, like the Hut, may not all be "dungeon" but is very much in the vein of an old, old school crawl, and also hidden shrine of tamoachan, which is I think the original "reverse" dungeon crawl.

But I think the ultimate has to be Tomb of Horrors. Its very pure in its approach and shows you what dungeon delving is really about.

Albeit preferably in a diluted form.

 

[Mercurius]

Like the one that took 234 pages to describe three dungeon levels (when a good adventure like Castle of the Mad Archmage can do 4x the content in fewer pages)? What a senseless waste of human life.

See, reading through that link there makes me want to check it out again. I like the fact that its rich in backstory, even if I can see how it could get in the way of running an adventure.

@TerraDave , for me Tomb of Horrors is also (still) ultimate. I think its partially because it was the most evocative adventure to me growing up - the story of Acererak, the deadliness of the tombs, and the interesting encounters. Its a gem.

I also love Tsojcanth. If I had to pick two "From my dead, cold hands" adventures from the bygone years of D&D, it would be Tomb of Horrors and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I really enjoyed Necropolis. My players loved my elaborations on the mini-encounters on the way. And then they got to the dungeon itself.

I never knew until that moment how much some of my players (especially my wife) hated dungeon crawls. Interesting scenery? Unusual objects? "Probably dangerous - leave them alone and move on to the next room." The group was so goal-oriented they didn't want to interact with the setting at all.

It's amazing how much difference there can be in game-style assumptions.

 

[billd91]

I'd go with either White Plume Mountain or Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Both were a lot of fun to run and play without being too slow moving.

 

[N'raac]

Lots of love for Tsojcanth (which I share), but did it meet the OP's criteria? It was mainly cavern, not carved out dungeon.

 

[Plaguescarred]

For me its Undermountain

 

[Baron Greystone]

Caverns of Thracia. Ran it a few times, always loved it. Dark Tower comes in for second place, probably because it's for higher levels, and the fact that I only ran it once.