D&D General Best and Worst Editions- For Adventures.

[Nebulous]

My Top 10 Adventures:

4) Tie between Tomb of Annihilation (D&D 5e) and Return to the Tomb of Horrors (considered inclusive of original Tomb of Horrors; AD&D2e)

I'm glad you mentioned Return to the Tomb of Horrors. I ran that boxed set YEARS ago. It was very challenging for the party, but fun. I loved it, but I don't see people mention it very often.

 

[Retreater]

There were some serious adventure highlights in 3e for me, so I'm a bit surprised to see the dismissal of the edition. Even cutting out the Paizo/Dungeon Magazine stuff, here are a few solid ones:

Red Hand of Doom (I'd put this up there as one of the best in any edition)
The Vault of Larin Karr (Necromancer Games' sandbox adventure that cranks Lost Mines of Phandelver to 11 - and honestly, I'd put several of NG's adventures on this list)
Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury (the two starting adventures for 3rd edition which captured the "back to the dungeon feel")

 

[lowkey13]

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[Odysseus]

I'd put 3E top. More because of volume than greater quality.
4E I'd put second. The Zeitgeist and War of the Burning Sky AP are both top 5 all time AP. Although 4E does have a lot of adventures that either look bad, or are bad.
OD&D/1E I'd put 3rd Desert of Desolation series is my all time favorite.
Pathfinder and 5E, equal 4th. The adventures look good, but I never seem to use them or run them
2E last mainly becasue of the adventures seem a little setting specific

 

[Enrico Poli1]

The following rankings are the products of logic and maths and cannot be reasonably disputed.

1. AD&D (1e).

Grade: A.

Why it's great: Any list of the greatest modules/adventures/whatevers will heavily feature these adventures, and for a reason. In fact, these adventures are so well-known and well-loved that they continued to be reprinted and updated throughout the editions, including 5e.

I'll like to discuss this point!
IMO, many AD&D 1e adventures are so well appreciated because they are the first examples or exemplars, so they became classics, and not always because they are at the top.
Yeah, for example, I played Against the Giants and it's great, but the plot is really "enter the dungeon and slaughter everything". Over and over and over. The same with Keep on the Borderlands.
Let's take White Plume Mountain. It's fun, but in the end it's an illogical dungeon, full of overpowered weapons that WILL destroy your campaign. The same could be said of the ultimate funhouse that is Castle Amber.

I dare to say that the early modules, even Gygax', were lacking story. You had to clean a dungeon, and more often then not it was a fun but incoherent mess.
After the "Hickman Revolution" with Dragonlance and Ravenloft, the story became predominant. And that had two limits: first of all, the adventures became railroaded. Second, especially in the good old days of 2e, the story was so important that the crunch was sacrificed. The encounters were not always well balanced, and in fact before the introduction of Challenge Rating it was a mess!
3e was the time of rationalization even for adventures, and in the Dungeon Magazine they achieved a good balance between story (again, railroady) and crunch. But high-level play became very complex because of the numbers.
(I skipped 4e...)
IMO, 5e is trying to produce adventures that are an alternative to Paizo's railroads. Each 5e Adventure is a mini-setting, so that it HAS a definite story, but at the same time it's NOT a railroady because It can be played in a number of different ways. And it is successful!
I am very very happy with the adventure design of 5e, in this sense they are the best because they combine a story without being railroady, and that was difficultà to achieve.

 

[lowkey13]

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[R_J_K75]

but in the end it's an illogical dungeon

Most dungeons seem illogical to me. Who built them, why havent they been long since plundered, how do these monsters inside survive? It never sat well with me that there seems to be so many, they should be few and far between, but it seems every town, village and hamlet has a keep, castle or dungeon 3 blocks away. Who says "Hey lets start a settlement where evil is right next door"? The biggest question of all is why dont you ever run into Joey, Vinny and Tony the movers restocking the furniture and larders in a 4000 year old dungeon?

 

[lowkey13]

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[R_J_K75]

Haven't you ever watched a horror movie?

"I know it's a Native American graveyard, but I has to build my condos somewhere!"

Right? If they really want to clear out the dungeon forget adventurers, call the Orkin Man. Those rust monsters and fire beetles dont stand a chance.

 

[Undrave]

Listening to you guys, it seems like no edition had good adventures

4e had that April Fools one shot with the Flumph and the Flail Snail, so that's gotta count for something