D&D 5E Poll: What adventures would you want officially updated for 5E

[Ruin Explorer]

For reference, I collected several responses from this thread into the poll here. I didn't include every suggestion made on that thread (there were a lot), but I did do my best to collect all the modules that I saw were recommended at least twice.

I can expand the poll if I see more popular suggestions in the comments, however the results will likely skew towards modules who are initially on the list, so this poll is obviously not very scientific. Just a fun exercise!

I'm giving everyone 5 votes as well, as obviously WotC can adapt many modules to 5E, not just one! Also, some modules are collected as a single response (Slavers for example) as they really belong together and shouldn't be split up. Also, I am aware that some of these are already adapted by Goodman Games; this is not a critique of their work.

Are we talking merely updated as in modern stats and layout and so on, maybe rebalancing some stuff, or are we talking as in "retain the basic concept but re-write the whole thing in a modern way, including potentially massive structure and plot changes - as long as the concept was similar"?

If it's a largely aesthetic/rules update literally the only one I'd pay money for would be The Night Below - or Dragon Mountain, which isn't mentioned. I voted on that basis so far.

If it means a complete re-working, retaining only the concept and maybe the maps? Then suddenly a huge number start looking attractive, especially with good writers.

EDIT - I am impressed that 4 people voted for Keep on the Shadowfell. Not only does it have one of the most misleading adventure titles in D&D history, it's one of the very worst official adventures, certainly of the WotC era. Maybe y'all are envisioning it being entirely re-worked? The original is a remarkable combination of both nonsensical and terminally boring, which is kind of a hard combination to nail. I loved 4E but I cannot defend the terrible, terrible adventures released for it early on (I can defend Dungeon Delve at least).

 

[CleverNickName]

Given how WotC's legal team reacted to Pathfinder, with a nearly pointless GSL to prevent that from happening again, even if it ended up hurting 4E (which I firmly believe it did), I have a hard time picturing WotC/Hasbro senior management doing anything with Paizo-created content any time soon.

It's hard to say just how damaging the GSL was to 4th Edition, but I'm inclined to agree. The GSL was a course-correction for the company, intended to protect their IP from direct competition...it was necessary, and it worked. I think it went too far, though, and caused things to cascade in the wrong direction for the brand. The GSL was less useful to third-party publishers, so less third-party material was published under it, so the 4E brand shrank while the Pathfinder brand grew, which made 4E appear weaker than it really was (and made Pathfinder appear stronger than it really was), and down the ladder we went.

I feel like 4E didn't really get a chance to grow...or at least not enough of a chance. I'm happy that things turned around for WotC with the 5th Edition. (Thanks, I'm sure in no small part, to the DM's Guild and its "community content" program.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Styes says otherwise.

Including the Styes inside Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a whole order of magnitude different than updating Age of Worms to 5E.

It's easy for a casual fan to miss that the Styes has anything to do with Paizo. There's almost no way to miss it with Age of Worms.

 

[Mistwell]

I ran and really liked Savage Tide back in the 2000s, but it'd need major surgery these days, since a large portion of the plot is basically 'PCs actively aid in colonising a place inhabited by fantasyAztecs'

Isn't Kobold Press's Empire of the Ghouls AP already basically a 5e version of Kingdom of the Ghouls?

To be fair, that part of the adventure was already pretty meh. The great part of Savage Tides takes place in Sassarine.

 

[ART!]

How weird is it that I've been playing D&D on and off since the late '70s and do not recall ever playing any of these adventures? I guess most of the groups I've been part of have leaned toward homebrewed stuff. Weird!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's hard to say just how damaging the GSL was to 4th Edition, but I'm inclined to agree. The GSL was a course-correction for the company, intended to protect their IP from direct competition...it was necessary, and it worked. I think it went too far, though, and caused things to cascade in the wrong direction for the brand. The GSL was less useful to third-party publishers, so less third-party material was published under it, so the 4E brand shrank while the Pathfinder brand grew, which made 4E appear weaker than it really was (and made Pathfinder appear stronger than it really was), and down the ladder we went.

I think the GSL was also a signal to a lot of third party companies -- who waited for years for clarity so they could play nice with WotC -- that they needed to create their own systems and not rely on them.

I don't know how much WotC sweats Dungeon Crawl Classics, for one, but Goodman Games made it very clear they were ready to play ball with WotC. And it's not hard to picture them marrying their heavy metal aesthetic (remember their Wicked Fantasy line?) with 4E and just going nuts with it.

 

[Undrave]

How about that one with the crashed space ship and laser guns?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How weird is it that I've been playing D&D on and off since the late '70s and do not recall ever playing any of these adventures? I guess most of the groups I've been part of have leaned toward homebrewed stuff. Weird!

The list is a real mishmash of different eras, including some Dungeon magazine adventures. I've played every version but 4E, but I've missed more than half of this list myself. I would be surprised if there were many people who'd run the entirety of this list.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How about that one with the crashed space ship and laser guns?

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Goodman Games did a 5E OAR version and WotC did a spiritual sequel as an Extra Life fundraiser.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Are we talking merely updated as in modern stats and layout and so on, maybe rebalancing some stuff, or are we talking as in "retain the basic concept but re-write the whole thing in a modern way, including potentially massive structure and plot changes - as long as the concept was similar"?

If it's a largely aesthetic/rules update literally the only one I'd pay money for would be The Night Below - or Dragon Mountain, which isn't mentioned. I voted on that basis so far.

If it means a complete re-working, retaining only the concept and maybe the maps? Then suddenly a huge number start looking attractive, especially with good writers.

Well, I meant which adventures would you want to be given treatment in the style of either TftYP, CoS, and GoS. So not just updated.