D&D 5E Which was the most recent Wizards adventure you consider a classic?

[Shardstone]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh remains the best set of adventures/campaign as written in 5E IMO.

 

[Quickleaf]

Descent into Avernus is the nadir of Wizards' horde of freelancers strategy, and from what I've heard, was a very, very troubled production. It's got a great concept, but while the conclusion reads as if the players have a lot of freedom in the middle act, it plays as some linear stories without the deal-making you'd expect where you could go between factions and play them against each other. I can see some groups connect with it, but for me it's just not working.

Cheers!

I wonder if cohesiveness (unity of effect) is one of the critical common features of D&D adventures that come to be considered classic over time?

I’m not as well read on a diversity of adventures as you and others are, though, so for me it’s an open question.

My observation of Out of the Abyss, Tomb of Annihilation, Rime of the Frostmaiden, and other older 5e adventures is that in all those adventures there are core concepts that don’t work together once a GM is “under the hood.” There’s brilliant pockets of ideas, but they lack cohesive connective tissue.

Whereas with just one or two authors, 16-32 pages, and perhaps a less demanding audience…that’s easier to stick the landing with a unified effect.

 

[mamba]

Whereas with just one or two authors, 16-32 pages, and perhaps a less demanding audience…that’s easier to stick the landing with a unified effect.

I think it is more about length itself than it being unified. It simply is easier to write 20 good pages than 200 of them. All things being equal, that would be a series of 10 good 20-page adventures, and no AP ever managed that

 

[THEMNGMNT]

The two stone cold classics in the 5E period are Curse of Strahd and Wild Beyond the Witchlight. And both of them have the strongest authorial voice. Coincidence? Maybe not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's a bit hard to say, since to me a classic suggests it has withstood the test of time. I don't know how the future will regard 5E adventures but my first instinct was honestly to say Madness at Gardmore Abbey.

Yeah, that's my issue too. None of the 5e adventures are old enough to count as "classic" to me, and none of the 4e ones qualify on personal preference grounds. Not sure how many adventures they even did for 3e. Might have to go back all the way to 1e and Ravenloft as far as published adventures go.

For 5e, Tomb of Annihilation is my favorite, but I still wouldn't call it classic.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The test of time is already here for a lot of those adventures! It's over 10 years since Tyranny of Dragons, for instance!

10 years isn't enough for that test IMO. I'd say at least 20.

 

[MerricB]

10 years isn't enough for that test IMO. I'd say at least 20.

We knew pretty shortly after the release of a lot of adventures back in the day that they'd be considered classics.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The most recent for me is Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. It has serious overarching flaws but I found them really easy to fix, and there is a LOT of great detail work, and it plays heavily into what I consider 5E's strong suite (site-based adventures with good maps that can mostly be finished in 1-2 sessions). The first two chapters are about as well-executed a sandbox as I think you'll find in official 5E. Caves of Hunger is a great tier 2 dungeon and Ythryn is really good (would have been great with more maps, which are available from third parties).

I also think Lost Mine of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd, and Tomb of Annihilation will be regarded as classics (Phandelver and Strahd already are really).

I forgot about Phandelver. That might actually be a classic.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The only issue I have with Tomb is the sense of urgency that is seeded at the start. This is an adventure where the adventurers should take their time and feel open to explore. There is so much more that my players missed because they were hyperfocussed on achieving the end-goal. They still got lost in the jungle for a couple of weeks though.

I just really prefer hexcrawls to adventure paths, and ToA was the only real attempt at that WotC 5e made.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If by "recent" you mean "for the current edition," my vote is for Dragons of Icespire Peak.

And if by "recent" you mean "post-TSR," my vote would be for The Sunless Citadel.

And if by "recent" you are referring to geological time, and I could choose from all official adventures published over all time, I think X1: The Isle of Dread is the ultimate classic.

The Isle of Dread is my favorite official D&D adventure content.