Are there any *classic* 2E adventures?

[Bloodstone Press]

When thinking of great 2e adventures I think mostly of ravenloft modules. THe one with the wearwolves and the one with the fleas of madness were a lot of fun at the time (don't know if you'd call that "classic").

There was also Dragon Mountain, but I didn't have good experiences with it. I played in twice and both times the DM screwed it up.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I just thought of a couple that might qualify but I don't own 'em so someone else would have to tell me if they're *classics*. They are:

Ruins of Undermountain
Ruins of Myth Drannor
Menzoberranzan

I know these are more widely known as campaign accessories, but I *think* there's an adventure in each.

I've got to go with Ruins of Undermountain. It wasn't the first big, "Here is a dungeon with a lot of stuff but you can add a ton of yoru own", but it was well supported (two boxed sets and three adventurers) and was fun.

 

[WizarDru]

I just thought of a couple that might qualify but I don't own 'em so someone else would have to tell me if they're *classics*. They are:

Ruins of Myth Drannor

I know these are more widely known as campaign accessories, but I *think* there's an adventure in each.

I purchased maybe two pieces of material from 2e (as I wasn't playing it at the time)...and I'm sad to say that Ruins of Myth Drannor was one of them. I can't speak for people actually playing at the time, but I can say that, as a source of inspiration for fantasy games using another system, it was a complete failure.

There is no adventure, just a big map, and lots of cards with map details of individual tombs. It had some alternate beholderkin, iirc, a booklet with precious little useful information (mostly just some vague ideas and some NPC stats) and a little flash, but not sizzle. The whole thing comes off as a bizzarre amusement-park-esque setting, with players and NPC adventurers camping outside the city/park, and making daily forays into the tombs to fight monsters, get loot and head back to the makeshift village by night. It was a big disappointment to me.

 

[DaveMage]

Classic vs. great?

Hmmm....

The Undermountain box set (the first one) is the only one I think I would consider "classic" and even that gets points off because, while the detailed areas were great, the blank rooms were a disappointment. I realize that the DM was supposed to fill these in, but there were just too many blank rooms for my liking.

A GREAT one was Return to the Tomb of Horrors. I never got to play the other TOMES adventures: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords or Rod of Seven Parts. Did anyone play these - and if so, were they any good?

 

[Arnwyn]

I can think of three that could be considered classics:

1) Ruins of Undermountain
2) Night Below
3) Dragon Mountain

Others that should be there include Return to the Tomb of Horrors and Axe of the Dwarvish Lords - but I'm unsure if they were widely distributed/played enough to be considered a "classic". Beats me.

 

[SkidAce]

Gates of Firestorm Peak...first? introduction of the Far Realm.

Loved it, gonna covert it, already a part of my worlds mythos.

 

[Orius]

Yeah, I'll stick in a vote for Night Below too. A big campaign-sized Underdark adventure that did not once rely on drow. (I think there was like one drow in an optional side area, tops.) Hell, Haranshire is well enough described to make it a base for the PCs even if they don't head down into the Underdark.

Maybe RttToH might count as a classic too, it's kind of hard to say since it builds on one of the biggest classics ever.

I would say overall, it might be harder to find an agreement on what the "classic" 2e adventure are. Look at 1e. It had GDQ, Slavers, the original Temple of Elemental Evil, the DL modules, and so on that everybody played back in the day.

I don't think it was the same with 2e, and the campaign fragmentation I think is to blame for that. Not everyone played the same campaign worlds, and many of 2e's modules were campaign specific. So it would seem there's less of a shared experience with 2e than with 3e.

 

[dead]

I just thought of 4 more but I don't own 'em so someone else has gotta vouch for them.

They are:

- Rod of Seven Parts by Skip Williams
- Axe of Dwarvish Lords by Skip Williams
- Dancing Hut of Baga Yoda by Lisa Smedman
- Labyrinth of Madness by Monte Cook

The last two on this list are nominatively listed as "S5" and "S6" on one TSR archive site.

http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd1/dd1.htm

Were "Dancing Hut" and "Labyrinth of Madness" going to continue the "S series" of *classic* 1E adventures in the 2nd Edition?

 

[Derulbaskul]

My list of the 2E classics (IMO):

- Gates of Firestorm Peak
- Night Below
- Return to the Tomb of Horrors
- Shattered Circle

and possibly, A Paladin in Hell.

Dead, I personally would drop the two Skip Williams-authored adventures from the list of classics. Like anything Skip has written, be it a product or a ruling as the sage, there are too many "misses" to go with the "hits". Also, FYI, Baba Yaga's Hut first appeared in a Dragon magazine for 1E.

 

[johnsemlak]

The last two on this list are nominatively listed as "S5" and "S6" on one TSR archive site.

http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd1/dd1.htm

Were "Dancing Hut" and "Labyrinth of Madness" going to continue the "S series" of *classic* 1E adventures in the 2nd Edition?

That site is not an official WotC site.
The Acaeum has some info. I imagine the two modules were actually released much later than originally slated, and were probably completely different from what was originally intended to be S5 and S6