D&D General 10 Adventures to Make You a Better DM.

[Zardnaar]

In no particular order the following adventures I would recommend that DMs could read to make themselves a better DM. This list is not exhaustive or in any order.

1. Isle of Dread (BECMI)
This adventure is a Hexcrawl and offers a good template to duplicate it.

2. Tallows Deep (2E Dungeon 18)
This adventure is not the best adventure ever made. However it's an example of Tucker's Kobolds where lowly Goblins are the main foes for for level 5/6 PCs. Terrain, tactics and traps can ramp up humble Kobolds and goblins.

3. The Night Below (2E)
Mostly for the 1st part but part 2 and 3 are also decent for megadungeons and non Drow underdark adventure. Part one is a good example of how to set up a home area. Part 1 is similar in a way to.....

4. Lost Mines if Phandelver(5E)
Similar in a way to part 1 of the Night Below. Most people agree this is a good adventure.

5. Labyrinth if Madness (2E)
A high level dungeon for level 15+. This adventure while not as notorious as Tomb of Horrors it is a bit if a stinker. Main use us as an example if a magical dungeon that counteracts high level PCs. Newer DMs I have noticed struggle around level 8 or 9. This adventure takes care of higher level PCs and expect some deaths (raise dead type effects level 15+ it's not that bad).


6. The Stolen Lands (Pathfinder)
Another Hexcrawl and perhaps the best example of a modern evolution. This adventure is a prime example of how to tie in side adventures, plot, and reward PCs for non combat things in the exploration pillar while trying previous locations to the climax giving the PCs several options to deal with the BBEG.

7. B5 Horror on the Hill
One of the better adventures of the B series. This adventure has an interesting above ground smaller scale area to explore and a medium sized dungeon underneath. Also had a Dragon and how difficult the adventure is depends on the the amount if effort the PCs put in with the social and exploration pillars.

8. There is No Honor (3.5 Dungeon 139)

Part one of the Savage Tide AP. Part one is so good it kind of makes you not want to do the rest of the AP. This is because if the setting specifically the city if Sasserine. If you wanted to find an example of a single location campaign where the PCs base themselves out of a city well here it is.

9. B2. Keep on the Borderlands (BECMI)
Not the best adventure of all times by any means but it's an interesting example of how to design a basic dungeon hack. If you've been playing for a while it's easy to forgett the basics sometimes. Before you need to worry about advanced concepts it pays to nail down the basics.

10. I6 Ravenloft. (1E AD&D)
Early D&D adventures were often dungeon hacks and this is an evolution of those. Recreated with Curse of Strahd this adventure fell between ye olde D&D and the terrible Dragonlance/2E metaplot type adventures. This adventure is argueably the template of more modern adventure designs from late 2E to the modern era.

 

[Ringtail]

Great list. If there is one thing I've noticed about some newer 5e adventures (Storm King's Thunder, Princes of the Apocalypse, Tomb of Annihilation) is that they lack a good home base. I'm sure you could establish one if you tried, but it doesn't come naturally like LMoP or other adventures.

I really like the additions made to Curse of Strahd, because even with all the vampiric corruption and other shadowy nonsense, Vallaki can become an adequate home base, especially if you befriend the Martikovs who run the Inn. I also like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, as Saltmarsh is undeniably the central hub around which everything else is based.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Great list. If there is one thing I've noticed about some newer 5e adventures (Storm King's Thunder, Princes of the Apocalypse, Tomb of Annihilation) is that they lack a good home base. I'm sure you could establish one if you tried, but it doesn't come naturally like LMoP or other adventures.

I really like the additions made to Curse of Strahd, because even with all the vampiric corruption and other shadowy nonsense, Vallaki can become an adequate home base, especially if you befriend the Martikovs who run the Inn. I also like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, as Saltmarsh is undeniably the central hub around which everything else is based.

I agree with that. I'm putting together my new campaign at the moment and want to try something that I have never had in my nearly 40 years of playing D&D - run a city based campaign with a strong home base. I feel this will be a challenge for me, but I will not do my usual thing of planning far ahead. I'll aim for a more episodic campaign this time.

 

[Lanefan]

What frightens me is that for all the many-dozen adventure modules I have here I'm still missing over half that list!

For an excellent example of how to design a basic dungeon hack I'd look to L1 Secret of Bone Hill (1e AD&D). Multiple entrances, numerous choice points, a decent variety of foes and encounters, and a nearby town presented in some detail if you need a home base.

I've never run or read Night Below but I've played through a fair bit of it, and from the player side it never struck me as anything special.

I'll have to give B5 another look, based on what you say here.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

In no particular order:

1) The Whispering Cairn (Age of Worms AP, D&D 3.5)
Best starting adventure, in which you learn how to menage a starting base, NPCs and dungeons. IMO better then Keep on the Borderlands, The Sunless Citadel and Lost Mines of Phandelver.

2) There is no Honor (Savage Tide AP, D&D 3.5)
If you want to create the feeling that your adventures are like a great movie, try this. Also, an example of a very very difficult adventure, in which optimized players will struggle to survive.

3) Isle of Dread (BECMI)
An hexcrawl that serves as an introduction to the middle game, in which the PCs exit the dungeon and explore the wildlands. To learn what an hexcrawl is, you can substitute with Tomb of Annihilation (5e) or Stolen Lands (Kingmaker AP, Pathfinder)

4) Ravenloft (AD&D)
Gothic Horror done right. You can substitute with Curse of Strahd (5e)

5) Against the Cult of the Reptile god (AD&D)
A mystery-solving and thrilling adventure. You can substitute with The Haunting of Harrowstone (Carrion Crown AP, Pathfinder)

6) Into the Wormcrawl Fissure (Age of Worms AP, D&D 3.5)
An example of very high level play (19-20)
You can substitute with Prince of Demons (Savage Tide AP, D&D 3.5)

7) Descent into Avernus (5e)
Best example of planar adventure.

8) Test of the Warlords (BECMI)
To learn late-game in which PCs are landlords.

9) Red Arrow, Black Shield (BECMI)
An example of diplomatical and political game of international scope, with a full military campaign.

10) The City of Skulls (AD&D2e, Greyhawk)
An infiltration mission, done right.

 

[Nebulous]

2. Tallows Deep (2E Dungeon 18)
This adventure is not the best adventure ever made. However it's an example of Tucker's Kobolds where lowly Goblins are the main foes for for level 5/6 PCs. Terrain, tactics and traps can ramp up humble Kobolds and goblins.

I'm glad you mentioned Tallow's Deep. I ran it from Dungeon magazine when it came out, and I did it again in 4e with one of the same players 20 years later (his first character in D&D died in the original Tallow's Deep). It's a fun, fun little slog through a trapped goblin warren, and I really enjoyed the 4e revision of it.

 

[Zardnaar]

In no particular order:

1) The Whispering Cairn (Age of Worms AP, D&D 3.5)
Best starting adventure, in which you learn how to menage a starting base, NPCs and dungeons. IMO better then Keep on the Borderlands, The Sunless Citadel and Lost Mines of Phandelver.

2) There is no Honor (Savage Tide AP, D&D 3.5)
If you want to create the feeling that your adventures are like a great movie, try this. Also, an example of a very very difficult adventure, in which optimized players will struggle to survive.

3) Isle of Dread (BECMI)
An hexcrawl that serves as an introduction to the middle game, in which the PCs exit the dungeon and explore the wildlands. To learn what an hexcrawl is, you can substitute with Tomb of Annihilation (5e) or Stolen Lands (Kingmaker AP, Pathfinder)

4) Ravenloft (AD&D)
Gothic Horror done right. You can substitute with Curse of Strahd (5e)

5) Against the Cult of the Reptile god (AD&D)
A mystery-solving and thrilling adventure. You can substitute with The Haunting of Harrowstone (Carrion Crown AP, Pathfinder)

6) Into the Wormcrawl Fissure (Age of Worms AP, D&D 3.5)
An example of very high level play (19-20)
You can substitute with Prince of Demons (Savage Tide AP, D&D 3.5)

7) Descent into Avernus (5e)
Best example of planar adventure.

8) Test of the Warlords (BECMI)
To learn late-game in which PCs are landlords.

9) Red Arrow, Black Shield (BECMI)
An example of diplomatical and political game of international scope, with a full military campaign.

10) The City of Skulls (AD&D2e, Greyhawk)
An infiltration mission, done right.

Damn forgot about diamond lake iirc. Whispering Cairn is a good example.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm glad you mentioned Tallow's Deep. I ran it from Dungeon magazine when it came out, and I did it again in 4e with one of the same players 20 years later (his first character in D&D died in the original Tallow's Deep). It's a fun, fun little slog through a trapped goblin warren, and I really enjoyed the 4e revision of it.

Yeah went a bit pear shaped when we played it. Once I read it I started designing more complicated Dungeons.