D&D General The most played D&D Adventure of all time

[MerricB]

I can't think of any 2e modules that got nearly the airplay that a lot of the 1e-era ones did before and some key 3e-4e-5e ones did since.

2e, for all its good settings and other material, really was a wasteland for adventure modules.

And I suppose somebody should at least mention them: the Judges' Guild modules Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia are two more of the few dozen modules in outer orbit around this discussion.

Wouldn't it be funny if Terrible Trouble at Tragidore (the adventure with the 2E DM's screen) was the most played adventure of that era?

2E does have a few adventures that come up in conversation (e.g. Night Below, Dead Gods), but they tend to be massive campaign adventures that likely weren't played by that many.

It's definitely worth mentioning the Judges' Guild modules, though I have a suspicion they're much more influential amongst designers than widely played. (I have physical copies of neither. Argh!)

Cheers,
Merric

 

[MerricB]

That would explain why I've never seen it, I pretty much gave up on Dungeon magazine after about issue 12.

I have a complete set of 3E era Dungeon Magazine. I'm very sad I don't have the earlier ones. Not that the adventures were often great, but every so often there was one that people refer to.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Thanks Merric. Yeah, I think we old-timers think B2 is more ubiquitous than it actually was.

I think it was only dominant in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But it was very, very dominant in the pre-Dragonlance era.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pretty sure there were more AD&D players then 3e ones, and, at least for those modules, much higher sales

Not according to the data, as I recall.

 

[Zardnaar]

I can't think of any 2e modules that got nearly the airplay that a lot of the 1e-era ones did before and some key 3e-4e-5e ones did since.

2e, for all its good settings and other material, really was a wasteland for adventure modules.

And I suppose somebody should at least mention them: the Judges' Guild modules Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia are two more of the few dozen modules in outer orbit around this discussion.

Misprint I meant 1E adventures. There's ToEE and another one that sold 200k+ iirc.

Apart from B2 maybe X1, ToEE, the 1E one i cant remember and X1 the next biggest selling is Horde of Dragon Queen and CoS.

That Bookscan data shows several 5E adventures have outsold every other adventure ever except those few I mentioned.

 

[Parmandur]

It has? I've never stumbled across it.

It's in the 5E DMG, at least.

 

[Parmandur]

Misprint I meant 1E adventures. There's ToEE and another one that sold 200k+ iirc.

Apart from B2 maybe X1, ToEE, the 1E one i cant remember and X1 the next biggest selling is Horde of Dragon Queen and CoS.

That Bookscan data shows several 5E adventures have outsold every other adventure ever except those few I mentioned.

And @Alphastream has speculated thst those BookScan numbers might be the tip of the iceberg, due to lacking FLGS, Beyond, Eoll2p, Fantasy Grounds, etc. numbers.

 

[Zardnaar]

And @Alphastream has speculated thst those BookScan numbers might be the tip of the iceberg, due to lacking FLGS, Beyond, Eoll2p, Fantasy Grounds, etc. numbers.

Yup but we have approximate estimates on some of the big selling tsr adventures.
Book scan on some 5E adventures alone have outsold them.

Print Run

Tomb of Horrors 250k+, White Plume Mountain 175k.

No figures for ToEE but it got reprinted 6 times, 1 million+ B2. Speculation X1 would be up there as well the rest don't matter.

So several 5E adventures have outsold those big sellers so then it comes down to amount of time vs higher sales. No one cam answer that.

We don't have solid numbers for LMoP either but it's probably the biggest selling adventure ever.

Probably safe saying B2 or LMoP most played adventure ever there's not really any other contender.

 

[Parmandur]

We don't have solid numbers for LMoP either but it's probably the biggest selling adventure ever.

The BookScan puts the 5E Starter Set over a million...without FLGS or VTT sales or the years Loat Mines was free on Beyond.

 

[Zardnaar]

The BookScan puts the 5E Starter Set over a million...without FLGS or VTT sales or the years Loat Mines was free on Beyond.

I'm confident it's outsold B2.

B2 did see play over 3 editions+ conversions in other editions+reprint in 5E and 40 years old so personally wouldn't claim more people have played LMoP. It's plausible more people have played it but the reverse is also true