Non-physical releases have a lot of problems cutting through.
D&D 5E Which was the most recent Wizards adventure you consider a classic?
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
Zardnaar
Legend
Yup my argument isn't if an adventure is good or not. But to be a classic it has to reach a certain point of cultural popularity.
3.5 had a lot of gion dungeon magazine adventures. Classic is debatable though because lack of popularity/obscure.
Some have been used in playtests or reprinted though so they are probably classics now.
Good adventures got made 1986-1994. How many are classics?
Hussar
Legend
I really, REALLY want to like Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Again, I had some problems with the group I was playing with - mismatching styles, which made running it go not great.
But, that being said, Danger at Dunwater is a TERRIBLE adventure. It's a great setting piece for how to build a lizardfolk town, but, as an adventure? It's awful. There's nothing really to do. Find the lizardfolk, talk to them for a bit, go kill a crocodile and go home. You're not supposed to fight the lizardfolk - so, 3/4 of the module will never be used. To me, this is an example of pretty much every mistake you could make in designing a module. Zero actual adventure, most of it is entirely background that the players should never actually see.
But, that being said, Danger at Dunwater is a TERRIBLE adventure. It's a great setting piece for how to build a lizardfolk town, but, as an adventure? It's awful. There's nothing really to do. Find the lizardfolk, talk to them for a bit, go kill a crocodile and go home. You're not supposed to fight the lizardfolk - so, 3/4 of the module will never be used. To me, this is an example of pretty much every mistake you could make in designing a module. Zero actual adventure, most of it is entirely background that the players should never actually see.
The original adventure is written with the idea that the party fights the lizardfolk and only later find out they're NOT the enemy. The entire point is subverting the (then) assumption that all non-humans were enemies.
Trying to recast it for a modern audience... has so many issues. Especially how it was done.
Hussar
Legend
I'll admit, I never saw the original. But, this one was SUCH a disappointment. I managed to reuse The Final Enemy in my Candlekeep campaign and it was a total blast. The party wasn't there to fight, just to slip through and it made a fantastic adventure for that.
Voadam
Legend
I am mostly going off of forum feedback from others here over time but I would say Curse of Strahd and Lost Mines are the most recent ones likely to be regarded as classics.
They were early and really popular with lots of people having played or run them and talked about them positively and have lots of good play aspects and design to them that stands up over time. Others are mentioned fondly by some but not nearly to the level of numbers of people that Phandelver and Curse have had lots of positive things said about them. Others have been talked about as really good ones or in some opinions better than those two, but none has really reached a consensus standout superstar adventure status the way Curse and Lost Mines has.
I own a handful of 5e WotC adventures, have read one all the way through (Starter Set Lost Mines of Phandelver), run one as a DM (twice, White Plume in Yawning Portal from a borrowed copy, I had also run it in 1e in the 90s so I was familiar and only had to read the 5e version on the spot as the two parties went down their different branches, mostly for the 5e monster conversions), and played in part of one (Curse of Strahd). The majority of my 5e DMing has been converting Pathfinder 1e adventure paths and adding on to those.
The later 4e adventures were generally regarded as much better modules over the initial adventure path modules. I would say Madness at Gardmore Abbey and The Slaying Stone are more likely to be considered classics from the 4e era than any of the initial HPE modules.
It is funny, 3e however is a mix. Sunless Citadel, the initial 3.0 AP module, was widely played and greatly liked and considered great design but Red Hand of Doom is a late 3.5 standout of high quality that reached a popularity level that makes me consider it a classic as well. I might add in the later and strongly themed Paizo D&D Dungeon Adventure Paths for Age of Worms and Savage Tide. From discussions a highly played and highly regarded set of adventures. I had great times playing in each of these 3e selections.
They were early and really popular with lots of people having played or run them and talked about them positively and have lots of good play aspects and design to them that stands up over time. Others are mentioned fondly by some but not nearly to the level of numbers of people that Phandelver and Curse have had lots of positive things said about them. Others have been talked about as really good ones or in some opinions better than those two, but none has really reached a consensus standout superstar adventure status the way Curse and Lost Mines has.
I own a handful of 5e WotC adventures, have read one all the way through (Starter Set Lost Mines of Phandelver), run one as a DM (twice, White Plume in Yawning Portal from a borrowed copy, I had also run it in 1e in the 90s so I was familiar and only had to read the 5e version on the spot as the two parties went down their different branches, mostly for the 5e monster conversions), and played in part of one (Curse of Strahd). The majority of my 5e DMing has been converting Pathfinder 1e adventure paths and adding on to those.
The later 4e adventures were generally regarded as much better modules over the initial adventure path modules. I would say Madness at Gardmore Abbey and The Slaying Stone are more likely to be considered classics from the 4e era than any of the initial HPE modules.
It is funny, 3e however is a mix. Sunless Citadel, the initial 3.0 AP module, was widely played and greatly liked and considered great design but Red Hand of Doom is a late 3.5 standout of high quality that reached a popularity level that makes me consider it a classic as well. I might add in the later and strongly themed Paizo D&D Dungeon Adventure Paths for Age of Worms and Savage Tide. From discussions a highly played and highly regarded set of adventures. I had great times playing in each of these 3e selections.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Its fun, but is lacking proper sailing rules or a good nautical adventure but with a couple of creative additions it can be awesome,
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Lost Mines is the only classic (the starter set)
Potentially Tomb of Annihilation; as it riffs off another classic the Tomb of Horror.
The rest have been fun to play in. But not classics in my mind. Not ones that folks will be clamoring to reprint in 2049 (75th anniversary)
Potentially Tomb of Annihilation; as it riffs off another classic the Tomb of Horror.
The rest have been fun to play in. But not classics in my mind. Not ones that folks will be clamoring to reprint in 2049 (75th anniversary)
Peter BOSCO'S
Adventurer
Tomb of Annihilation has a deeply flawed concept - you should not combine an urgent "everyone in the world who has ever died will die again in a few weeks" hook with a "picaresque, let's hex-crawl explore this large area" setting. They just do not go together. A group will either end up ignoring 80% of the adventure from their sense of haste, or they'll just give up and let all those NPC's die.
cole1312
Explorer
Just remembered this thread and came in here to say age of worms, that one's definitely a classic. God, I don't even know a good way to get it nowadays though. I guess hunt down the dungeon issues it was in? Double-checked and paizo sells them, so that's nice at least. That's one that would make for a fantastic remake for a newer edition, if only just to get it on VTTs.
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