D&D General Best dungeons?

[RangerWickett]

Being as broad as possible, what's the best dungeon you've experienced - published or home-brewed? Was it the ambience? The peril? The game design? The storyline?

For me, the best published dungeon I've played was book one of the Pathfinder Strange Aeons adventure path, where you wake up with amnesia in an insane asylum surrounded by mists filled with monsters, and you've got to locate and end a ritual that is responsible for the building being drawn into some Lovecraftian dimension. Great vibes, tension from the get-go, and a surprising variety of monsters considering you're 1st level and most anything could rip you to pieces. So most of the encounters have a fair bit of preface to hint that there is danger nearby. That builds up dread, while also giving the players a chance to strategize or come up with ways to bypass the danger.

(The best bit was, after we figured out there were doppelgangers trying to lure people into torture traps, I used disguise self to look like one of the alter-egos of one of the doppelgangers we had previously defeated. So I was able to talk with another doppelganger, briefly trick it into thinking I was its buddy, and help the rest of the party get the drop on it.)

And best dungeon overall was the goblin camp in Baldur's Gate 3, with robust options to sneak or scheme your way in, and social interactions with mini-bosses you'd then probably end up fighting, and lots of tableaus where you could engage in different types of combat in close succession: surprising some jailers to rescue a prisoner in one area, then sniping from the rafters while a party of goblins below try to rush up and get you, then possibly being shoved into a pit full of giant spiders (or, if you're clever, you could open a gate that would release those spiders to attack the goblins), and different lairs of different goblin bosses with their minions, and all manner of side tunnels and hidden spots to find.

And a lot of exploding barrels which, if you've successfully bluffed your way in, you'd be able to pick up and move to useful places before you kick off a combat by shooting flaming arrows at them.

 

[payn]

For me, a good dungeon converges on great narrative, great encounters, and great exploration. I too find a Paizo product as one of my all time favorites. The Haunting of Harrowstone first chapter of Carrion Crown AP.

Spoiler: spoiler

This chapter is focused on ghosts and trap type called haunts that Paizo created. Harrowstone is a former prison that burned down during a riot. The prison contained some of the worst criminal minds in Ustalov history. It starts with a town suspicious of strangers (queue people are strange) where the PC's mentor met an untimely demise. Soon after arriving, the PCs discover some conspiracy is afoot. It leads them to the haunted remains of the prison. Jammed packed full of haunts, with intriguing stories, the PCs must navigate three floors of terrors. A+

 

[Mistwell]

Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury still hold up as truly excellent dungeons.

The entire tomb of Tomb of Annihilation is excellent.

Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan remains pretty good.

White Plume is still very fun, though short.

Dead in Thay is good if you realize you don't need to clear it you just need to focus on your mission.

 

[aco175]

I remember one that had a few options to get to places and figure out things. We had a dungeon, but a chasm now split through one room leaving a 30ft wide opening and also allowing us to see the next level up and down on the far side of the chasm. When we got close to the chasm, skeletons from the next level up could shoot arrows at us, but we could also see the next level below having something we needed to gather and disarm. There was a rickety ladder bridge that crossed to the same level as well.

We had options, but also as you crossed, more skeletons from above us could shoot with the ones on the other side. We split the party and some went above us and I think a fireball took out most on the far side. The rogue crossed the bridge and managed to lower himself and swing into the lower room where the thing we wanted was. The fireball attracted more undead to now investigate the room on the other side of the bridge. We needed to send more people across the bridge to fight in the opposite room while the fighter was now above.

We could see each other and the mage stayed in the original room trying to aid all the places. We won, but it was tense and fun.

 

[thullgrim]

My personal favorite is Forge of Fury. It’s a modern masterpiece of dungeon design and the best adventure context to come out of the 3.x era.

 

[Muso]

Castle Ravenloft and the Tomb of Annihilation final dungeon for me.

 

[Theory of Games]

Being as broad as possible, what's the best dungeon you've experienced - published or home-brewed? Was it the ambience? The peril? The game design? The storyline?

Jennell Jaquays' Dark Tower, published by Judges Guild in '79.

There's so much there: deep lore, a "sandboxy" town filled with interesting NPCs that all seem tied to the adventure in engaging ways, two dungeons actually laced together, at least three subterranean societies at odds with each other ..... there's A LOT here. Just the depth of design makes it a classic masterpiece. There's so many Sword & Sorcery tropes done well and dungeon-exploration is deadly without being unforgiving.

Ravenloft (I6) is also a masterpiece IMO because it shows the DM how to take randomly-created story arcs (the PC "fortunes") and scatter them across Castle Ravenloft for the PCs to later explore their destinies. I mean, it's a railroad, but it's one of the most elegant railroads IME (definitely more luxury-train than corkscrew-rollercoaster). The playing cards and PC fortunes and storylines and Strahd himself was ..... if you haven't run it, treat yourself and your group.

 

[jdrakeh]

Eyes of the Stone Thief is the best mega-dungeon that I've ever had the pleasure to play through. There is a 5e conversion manual, but I've only played the original 13th Age version.

Stonehell comes in at #2, but I ran it using Warlock (the Caltech OD&D variant), which is not the system it was designed for and probably contributed to a significantly different actual play experience.

Barrowmaze Complete, which I've played through but never GM'd (soon, though) is a lot of fun and takes the #3 spot for me. Warning, though, as the name implies it is very undead heavy. I like undead, though, so this was not an issue for me.

Honorable mention to The Lost City of Barakus (3.5 edition). A very fun dungeon crawl with a solid backstory. I've only ever played the D&D 3.5 edition, though there are both Pathfinder (1e) and Swords & Wizardry editions.

 

[Evaniel]

Another boost for Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury. 3.x has become my least favorite D&D edition, but those two modules are great.

As a player, some of the most fun I've had with a dungeon was probably at GenCon in a session for Stonehell. Old school crawlin' at its finest.

 

[Evaniel]

I'll also add that I've come to prefer a different approach to bigger dungeons than the megadungeon. That is, rather than deeper, I wish they'd go "broader." When I was younger, I always dreamed of getting to run Undermountain back in 2e. When I finally had a chance to run it a few times for 5e, we all got burned out on it by around its fifth level.

Rather, we had far more fun with Ythrin (from Rime of the Frostmaiden): a sandbox ruined city featuring a number of smaller dungeon sites PCs could explore. It felt more open and intelligible. Like, the PCs could make more informed choices about how to explore and less mired down in any one area. We're starting up Dungeons of Drakkenheim soon, and it's giving me similar vibes, so I'm pretty excited.