Best D&D Adventures

[Lancelot]

Difficult question. I'll go with "What's my Top #1 from 5 separate editions?", rather than my Top #5 overall. Otherwise, it'd likely be all Basic/Expert modules...

1. B4 - The Lost City (Basic/Expert)
2. GDQ - Queen of Spiders (AD&D)
3. Fires of Dis (2e)
4. Red Hand of Doom (3e)
5. Hook Mountain Massacre (Pathfinder)

Note that I don't actually play Pathfinder but, as much as I love 4e, I've yet to find a 4e module that really impresses me.

 

[Sordath]

1) Night Below
2) Lord of the Iron Fortress
3) Under Illefarn
4) Rod of Seven Parts (boxed set)
5) Return of the Eight

 

[grodog]

My top 5:

1. G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax (D&D; TSR)
2. Maure Castle (Paizo)/WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Rob Kuntz (AD&D; TSR)
3. T1 Village of Hommelet by Gary Gygax (AD&D; TSR)
4. A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity by David Cook (AD&D; TSR)
5. Maze of Zayene #4 Eight Kings by Rob Kuntz (AD&D from Creations Unlimited, or d20 from Different Worlds)

I haven't played 2e or 4e, so I skew to 1e and 3.x/d20.

 

[FormCritic]

G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chieftain
G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King

These three pretty much stand above all other modules and module series. This is ironic, because they were the first modules published (unless you count Temple of the Frog in the Blackmoor supplement). Gary Gygax got it exactly right on his first swing of the bat.

Other adventures I found excellent:

Verbosh (Judges Guild)
Dark Tower (Judges Guild)
D3 Vault of the Drow
R1, R2, and R3 Rappan Athuk (Necromancer Games)

 

[jcayer]

More old school love in no particular order

Castle Amber
Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain
Ghost Tower of Inverness
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

 

[FellGleaming]

Your list is very close to mine, Jcayer. Though I'd put it as:

Tomb of Horrors
White Plume Mountain
Temple of Elemental Evil
Castle Amber
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

 

[Derulbaskul]

Pre-2E

Caverns of Thracia
Dark Tower
D1-3

2E

Gates of Firestorm Peak
Night Below
The Shattered Circle: often overlooked and underrated

3.xE

Sons of Gruumsh: it's easy to ignore because it's FR
Red Hand of Doom: it's a travesty that Scales of War claimed to be the successor to this because there is no comparison
Tomb of Abysthor
and stacks of stuff by Paizo (including Dungeon adventures).

4E

Nothing yet. I hope Moridin's thread bears some fruit.

 

[GregoryOatmeal]

Bump because this thread totally deserves it. Running old models with C&C is my new thing so I should be kept busy for a while.

I haven't played enough modules to make my own list but I see a lot of love for 1E. I was frankly expecting to see more 2E modules. The consensus seems to be that 2E had the most, most unique, and best-supported campaign settings (Dark Sun, AQ, Planescape, Ravenloft, etc.). So I'm curious why there are few 2E modules on the list.

I just read Dungeonland and I'm floored by how readable and entertaining Gygax is. The rules are loose and insanity reigns. I expected this would carry into 2E with the spelljammers and thri-kreen and reverse dungeons and all the other crazy stuff in 2E. So why does 1E dominate the list? Are those modules inherently better? Did this crowd start homebrewing more by 2E? Did TSR start playing it safe when 2E came around? Is the consensus that 2E had good settings but bad modules?

 

[knightofround]

Yeah this was a really great thread that I forgot about, thanks for the bump.

I think it's especially relevant today due to 4E's movement away from adventures into more supplements and campaign settings. Sadly I cannot think of a single published 4E adventure that would come anywhere close to matching many of the adventures listed in this thread. Its sad to think of how many quality adventures we've missed due to the 4E GSL.

In the past 3 years, the only adventure I've played that I consider worthy to adding to this thread is the Red Hand of Doom. I was pleasantly surprised to see it already mentioned in this thread several times. It opened my eyes to a brand new way of doing the classic "adventuring party". Instead of casting the PCs as the classic "band of roving explorers and do-gooders", it casts the PCs as an elite strike force of warriors in the middle of a massive war. Kinda like a fantasy version of delta force.

I've searched high and low for similar adventures but I've found nothing. It's worth mentioning Drow War (3E), Heroes of Battle (3.5E) and Wraith Recon Campaign Setting (4E), but none of those captured my interest like RHoD. If anyone out there knows of an adventure similar to RHoD, please let me know!

 

[Odhanan]

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
GDQ1-7 Against the Giants - Descent into the Depth of the Earth - Queen of the Demonweb Pits
S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
B2 Keep on the Borderlands