Melan
Explorer
#1 Dark Tower by Paul Jaquays; 1st edition AD&D: an epic multi-level dungeon crawl centered on warring gods, their semi-immortal worshippers and a bunch of overpowered artifacts. The dungeon has one of the best layouts I have seen (only overshadowed by #3 on my list); the antagonists and allies are well thought out and memorable personalities; the tricks and traps are variable and interesting, and the whole module has a tremendously well realised sword&sorcery atmosphere.
#2 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason; 1st edition AD&D: one of TSR's less known items. What I like in Tamoachan is that it uses a cool adventure setup ("you find yourself at the bottom of a weird old temple complex flooded by poison gas - now get out before it kills you!") and mixes it with a lot of inventive dungeon puzzle type encounters that manage to be ingenious, not impossible, quirky and an interesting reflection on Mesoamerican mythology at the same time. All three groups I ran through the module loved it, even the one that met a horrid end therein.
#3 Tegel Manor by Bob Bledsaw; Original D&D: a strange, once legendary dungeon about the rambling, dilapidated mansion an insane noble family stuffed chock full of plain wacked-out strangeness. Tegel is entirely unconcerned about verisimilitude, ecology or game balance, but it is an excellent example of playfulness for the sake of it. Also, the dungeon map is extremely well designed... just right in all respects. It plays well, too.
#4 Tomb of Abysthor by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb; 3e D&D: I think this is the best new adventure Necromancer Games released. The dungeon reads well and what is more important, it plays very well indeed, with a lot of adventuring possibilities.
#5 The Secret of Bone Hill by Len Lakofka; 1st edition AD&D: this is cheating a bit, since the adventure on its own is rather sparse. But there is something about the openness, little bits of cool imaginative detail that makes your imagination go. It is also a good realisation of the "mini-campaign setting" concept.
#2 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason; 1st edition AD&D: one of TSR's less known items. What I like in Tamoachan is that it uses a cool adventure setup ("you find yourself at the bottom of a weird old temple complex flooded by poison gas - now get out before it kills you!") and mixes it with a lot of inventive dungeon puzzle type encounters that manage to be ingenious, not impossible, quirky and an interesting reflection on Mesoamerican mythology at the same time. All three groups I ran through the module loved it, even the one that met a horrid end therein.
#3 Tegel Manor by Bob Bledsaw; Original D&D: a strange, once legendary dungeon about the rambling, dilapidated mansion an insane noble family stuffed chock full of plain wacked-out strangeness. Tegel is entirely unconcerned about verisimilitude, ecology or game balance, but it is an excellent example of playfulness for the sake of it. Also, the dungeon map is extremely well designed... just right in all respects. It plays well, too.
#4 Tomb of Abysthor by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb; 3e D&D: I think this is the best new adventure Necromancer Games released. The dungeon reads well and what is more important, it plays very well indeed, with a lot of adventuring possibilities.
#5 The Secret of Bone Hill by Len Lakofka; 1st edition AD&D: this is cheating a bit, since the adventure on its own is rather sparse. But there is something about the openness, little bits of cool imaginative detail that makes your imagination go. It is also a good realisation of the "mini-campaign setting" concept.
).
).
