D&D 5E D&D Adventure Design Eras

[GreyLord]

Hmm...

On AD&D...

Series that stand out (no idea when they were published, memory does not serve me well here)...

Temple of Elemental Evil modules and the Super Module

GDQ (THE module series). And the GDQ super module.

Dragonlance of course.

Tournament modules (Tomb of Horrors, etc).

Bloodstone series (Throne of Bloodstone being the most epic of any module ever made).

3e had the Expedition series (Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft).

4e had one of the greatest Module series...interesting that people forget about it in this thread...maybe because they appear to be anti-4e fans? (which is crazy because I loved 4e, but ALSO have a COMPLETE collection of all the PF1e APs...twice over).

These are the H1-E3 series. They also had a bunch of yearly adventure modules released for their living campaigns. Some of these you can buy on DMsguild.

I'd say WotC released more modules and adventures for 4e overall than they actually have for 5e thus far.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I don't think the current adventure design is to drastically different conceptually than 2004 Age of Worms.

Dragonlance the execution was off along with the 2E stuff that did actually change around 1995.

The first "modern" adventure imho is the first book of Night Below imho. I've been looking earlier stuff to find an earlier example but that's it imho.

The crappy Dragonlance adventure format did not end with 2E launch. It didn't really survive post 95 though.

The first book of night below is always a real success. A metaplot. Actual player decisions. Interesting sites. Sidetracks. Everything you need.
Sadly the second and third books are a bit weaker in that regard.

 

[Zardnaar]

The first book of night below is always a real success. A metaplot. Actual player decisions. Interesting sites. Sidetracks. Everything you need.
Sadly the second and third books are a bit weaker in that regard.

Yup I've run it for 5E.

Kinda reminded me of LMoP.

Like most APs the adventure falls apart later. It's main plot hook doesn't work so well. Searching for missing people you never met at level 14 or whatever since lvl 1.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yup I've run it for 5E.

Kinda reminded me of LMoP.

Like most APs the adventure falls apart later. It's main plot hook doesn't work so well. Searching for missing people you never met at level 14 or whatever since lvl 1.

The plot rather is finding out, where all the magical items come from. But you really need to telegraph that to thr players.