D&D General Dungeon Magazine's Top 30 Adventures: Do they hold up?

[Urriak Uruk]

Way back in ye' old 2004 on the 30th Anniversary of D&D, Dungeon Magazine published its list of the top 30 published adventures of all time. The list was dominated by classic TSR adventures from the game's earliest editions. Notably, only one adventure (The Dark Tower) was not published by TSR, but considering how the list was published by the successor WotC it's not surprising.

My question is... does this list hold up under scrutiny? Do you agree with the choices? Many of these adventures have been criticized, such as Matt Colville calling the Temple of Elemental Evil "un-runnable," and the Tomb of Horrors is notorious for being... unpleasant for players. Is the list too heavily tilted to the earliest editions of D&D, or does this erase the good work of 3rd-party publishers? Or perhaps, are the critics just contrarians and these are indeed the best adventures of D&D?

I'm curious of people's thoughts. In my opinion, some of these are indeed very good, others more mixed. Tomb of Horrors being number 3 is probably my biggest gripe.

The list, from starting from the best:
GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders
I6 Ravenloft
S1 Tomb of Horrors
T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks SONY DSC
I3-5 Desert of Desolation
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
S2 White Plume Mountain
Return to the Tomb of HorrorsSONY DSC
Gates of Firestorm Peak
The Forge of Fury
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Dead Gods
X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville)
X1 The Isle of Dread
The Ruins of UndermountainSONY DSC
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God
A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords
Dark Tower
S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
WG4 The Forgotten Temple of TharizdunSONY DSC
City of the Spider Queen
DL1 Dragons of Despair
WGR6 The City of Skulls
U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
B4 The Lost City
L2 The Assassin’s Knot
C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness

 

[Mannahnin]

It's a good question, though challenging to answer. I wonder how many of us have even read most of these, never mind run even half of them?

I've read a fraction and run only Castle Amber, from that list; and I've been involved in the hobby for 35+ years.

From my understanding Temple of Elemental Evil is indeed overrated. I think Tomb of Horrors is a genuine classic, though it may want slight adaptations when running it outside a competitive tournament context. Making sure the party gets Acererak's Riddle, for example.

I suspect that if the poll were re-run we'd see Jacquays' other famed dungeon, Caverns of Thracia, on there.

 

[iserith]

The Forge of Fury is the best in the list in my opinion.

 

[Jer]

Let's see - I can only really comment on the ones I've played or run, and should probably stick to ones I've played or run relatively recently...

The list, from starting from the best:
GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders

It's been years - I remember putting a lot of work into it to make it work under 3e and my players still weren't all that into it. Haven't had the urge to touch it since.

I6 Ravenloft

Still good. Curse of Strahd is probably slightly better at doing what the original wanted to do though (to be fair, gaming has a lot more tools to do what the Hickman's wanted to do with it back then).

S1 Tomb of Horrors

Fun as a one-off - as it was intended. Not something I'd use in a campaign, but works if you approach it like a slasher movie with disposable characters that you want to see how horribly they can die and/or who gets to be the Final Girl and make it to the end.

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil

Not worth the effort to make it work. I like Metzner but it just doesn't hold up these days IMO - even as a location setting it's just kind of boring.

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks SONY DSC

Definitely worth the effort to make it work. An adventure that I've run under at least 3 different editions of D&D.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

Nope. Doesn't work with my current groups. Tried to run it with a group to show them how the game was back in the day and they noped out of it from the premise alone - a few of them suggested burning down the keep and sending the humans back where they came from. We switched over to In Search Of The Unknown and they had more fun with exploring Quasqueton.

S2 White Plume Mountain

Holds up! Ran a conversion of it for my 13th Age group and didn't have to change much at all. If anything the weirdness of it has aged better than some of the more "straight" adventures from the same era.

The Forge of Fury

Mostly holds up - also ran a conversion of it for my 13th Age group and the orc encounter at the top of the mountain played a lot differently than it did when I ran it under 3e for a different group back in the day (this time my players negotiated passage into the Forge from the orcs instead of just jumping in ready to fight, which gave the whole adventure a different tone).

X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville)

Holds up surprisingly well, with a few tweaks. I think the Averogine parts are better now that I'm older, but that's probably more on me and the fact that I've read a lot more Clark Ashton Smith than I had when I was 13 and ran it for the first time...

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Holds up! I love this Scooby-Doo adventure and the look on player's faces when they figure out what's actually going on.

B4 The Lost City

Wish I could say it holds up, but I haven't tried to run it in years. I love this adventure, but the "you're trapped in a pyramid and could run an entire campaign in this one dungeon alone" model just doesn't work for my group.

I'd add the Sunless Citadel to that list, actually, after running it multiple times under 3 different editions of D&D. The ending is a bit of a dud, and the lower level is mostly underdeveloped, but the first level is a really good intro to dungeon crawling and every time I've run it its turned out differently (just ran it again within the last couple of years for my 13th age group as well).

I'd also add Palace of the Silver Princess to that list - another adventure that I've run under multiple editions of the game for different groups - but I know that it doesn't get as much love because it does need a lot of work to make it actually work (As a Moldvay fan I hate to say it, but the Orange cover edition is actually a bit better IMO, though both suffer from maps that are kind of nonsense).

 

[Greggy C]

Tomb of Horrors was one of our most enjoyable sessions. They went through with their campaign characters, which were fairly powerful and they were careful players. Template of elemental evil was pretty cool, but when we played it I had it cut it down as it is very long.

I think overall the list is accurate, and it was created by quite a prestigious panel.

Btw I have most of them with their goodreads scores, levels and nbr of characters in a sortable list here: TSR Modules

Does it hold up to TODAYS writing and modules. No of course not, hence why wizards redid some for 5e.

 

[Parmandur]

The rankings were always an arbitrary epiphenomenon of the voting preference system and the individual tastes of the Editors at the time (including, importantly, Chris Perkins), but as a list of recommendations it remains pretty sound.

A lot has been published in 18 years, though, so not an all time list anymore.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The Forge of Fury is the best in the list in my opinion.

i second this

 

[billd91]

I ran or played a number of these in the original, 3e, and/or 5e. So I'll mark my experiences:

GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders

Ran all of it in 1e and the G parts 3e. Absolutely holds up. You generally have to be at the higher end of the levels as listed for the original modules. It also helps to give giants the feat that allows them to use their strength bonuses with thrown boulders or you run into their weakness in 3e (and only in 3e) - ranged combat. Back in 1e/2e, their attack rolls were the same for melee and ranged, but in 3e, their much lower Dex really weakens them at range. Fortunately, this is better in 5e. Should run quite well there too.

I6 Ravenloft

Ran in 1e, 2e, and 3e. Holds up very well. I've run this with 3 very distinct groups of players and had a blast every time.

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil

Ran in 1e. After the Village of Hommlet part, which is really good, the rest of it largely sucks. It's rated WAY too high. I like Princes of the Apocalypse better.

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks SONY DSC

Played in 1e. It was... ok, but so much of it is based on being weird or surprising. And that's kind of hard to do again.

I3-5 Desert of Desolation

Played in 2e. Had a lot of fun with it. I think it would convert well to 5e.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

Ran in 1e, Return to the Keep on the Borderlands in 3e and 5e. Return is better and holds together better and still works in later editions.

S2 White Plume Mountain

Played in 1e, ran in 3e. It's fabulous. Silly in its structure, but fabulous. Holds up extremely well.

A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords

Ran in 1e and 3e. Converts well. Also holds up really well. Built much of the 3e campaign around it. I'd move it farther up the list. Great premise, great villains to take on.

Dark Tower

An excellent choice. Played in 1e and loved it.

S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

Ran in 1e. A bit on the silly side, but it was a good, nonsense dungeon crawl.

WG4 The Forgotten Temple of TharizdunSONY DSC

Played in 1e. A bit like Lost Caverns in the sense that it was a fun dungeon crawl.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Adventures that I have run at some point are in BOLD.

GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders
I6 Ravenloft
S1 Tomb of Horrors
T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
I3-5 Desert of Desolation
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
S2 White Plume Mountain
Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Gates of Firestorm Peak
The Forge of Fury
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Dead Gods
X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville)
X1 The Isle of Dread
The Ruins of Undermountain
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God
A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords
Dark Tower
S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
City of the Spider Queen
DL1 Dragons of Despair
WGR6 The City of Skulls
U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
B4 The Lost City
L2 The Assassin’s Knot
C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness

I'm sure you can see a pattern.

I think that the selection of adventures, mostly from the "golden age" of modules is largely accurate. When it comes to the classic great modules, I think they have a good representation here.

That said, they are definitely cheating (GDQ is one module? I3-I5 is one as well?).

I think that a person could make an argument for one of the UK modules (I would go with UK1). But the only real AND SERIOUS omission is X4-X5 (the Nomads two-parter, still one of the classics).

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I've never played the original Temple of Elemental Evil, but earlier today I listened to a podcast that previously had praised Queen of the Demonweb Pits and had pretty much nothing nice to say about Temple of Elemental Evil, going so far as to question why people even remember it.