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

[Mannahnin]

Point of order: you capped out before you gained enough for a SECOND level. So if you were, say, a 1st level Fighter needing 2,000xp for 2nd level, 4,000 for 3rd, and you stumbled onto a cache of 10,000gp, you could cart home as much as possible and gain up to 3,999xp before stopping to train. In 1E this meant you couldn't accumulate more in the meantime.

The Basic/Expert and BECMI lines didn't have training costs, but did cap XP garnered from a given expedition at the same point.

I believe 2nd ed had the same rule, but it might not have. Gold for XP had been turned into an optional rule and the intent was for xp to primarily come from story awards and monsters (the latter of which was somewhat increased over 1E).

 

[billd91]

Point of order: you capped out before you gained enough for a SECOND level. So if you were, say, a 1st level Fighter needing 2,000xp for 2nd level, 4,000 for 3rd, and you stumbled onto a cache of 10,000gp, you could cart home as much as possible and gain up to 3,999xp before stopping to train. In 1E this meant you couldn't accumulate more in the meantime.

The Basic/Expert and BECMI lines didn't have training costs, but did cap XP garnered from a given expedition at the same point.

I believe 2nd ed had the same rule, but it might not have. Gold for XP had been turned into an optional rule and the intent was for xp to primarily come from story awards and monsters (the latter of which was somewhat increased over 1E).

2e did have a variation on the rule. When XPs are awarded, if the XP total is enough to allow a character to gain more than one level, they gained one level and lost extra XPs subject to a DM choice. They could set the XP value of the PC to anywhere between halfway to that next level or 1 XP short.
That said, 2e also supported immediate leveling if that worked for the group. So if XPs were awarded every session and the optional training rules weren't in effect, a PC could level up as soon as they hit the right XP total - the likelihood of wasting XPs by having too many was extremely low. If the DM thought that might be disruptive to an adventure in progress, they certainly could hold the XPs until there was a more appropriate stopping point between adventures, in a pause as the PCs head back to town to resupply, whatever. The expected pace of 2e was for there to be multiple adventures per level, so there too it was unlikely to produce a lot of lost XPs due to being unable to level-up more than once, particularly past the very lowest levels.

 

[Gradine]

The only top adventure list I count on:
Iron DM Anthology

 

[pogre]

I have run almost all of the modules on the list and my judgment/rating of modules reflects the enjoyment my group and I got out of the module. Whether a module deserves to be on the list is always going to boil down to your play experience and style.

For example, in reference to newer 5e adventures - my group loved Dungeon of the Mad Mage. DoMM is regularly rated as mediocre at best by most reviewers. It was an amazing, epic experience for us - it involved lots of subplots and faction wars. Some of the same reasons I have fond memories of B4.

I will admit there are some quantifiably bad modules and adventures, but at a certain level it is a very personal taste thing.

 

[Bupp]

Played/ran a decent number of these. In many ways I agree with the nostalgia factor.

GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders: Played and ran the Giants series. Never saw the rest at my local stores. Big fan of the G series.

I6 Ravenloft: Owned and always wanted to run, but my groups were always "If we wanted vampires, we'd play Vampire." A good read.

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil: Ran this in high school with a decidedly murderhobo group. All the factions were just new enemies. The Moathouse is top notch, and have run it in 5e. The ending of the whole thing was half-heartedly thrown together.

I3-5 Desert of Desolation: Played in this way back. I don't remember the group, but I remember enjoying it.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands: Played and ran many a time. That "limited options and nostalgia" holds true here. Ran in early days of 5e, but spread out the lairs a bit more, and mixed in elements of Return and Hackmaster's Little Keep.

S2 White Plume Mountain: Ran and played many times. One of my favorites. My daughter is running her group through it right now.

X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville): Only ran once in high school, but it was a blast. Due for a re-read.

X1 The Isle of Dread: Started playing once in an aborted campaign. Started running once in an aborted campaign. No fault of the adventure, just the groups.

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan: Played once. Ran once. Long time ago, and I really don't remember it much.

A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords: I recently bought a POD copy of this. Was going to weave elements of this into a Saltmarsh campaign that the pandemic killed.

WGR6 The City of Skulls: Ran this in my Army days. I enjoyed it, but don't remember much of it (there was a lot of beer around the table in those days).

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh: Never ran this until early 5e days. Deserves it's rankings.

Dungeon does have a bunch of great adventures. The issue is that you need to separate the wheat from the chaff. I did run a long campaign by stringing together a bunch of Dungeon adventures, and still pull out copies to mine for ideas to this day.

 

[Ancalagon]

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

It is my understanding that The lost laboratory of Kwalish is a spiritual successor to that one. Said adventure is ... quite flawed, but has good elements in it.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

I played that in 3.5 and ... oof, what a slog. An endless wall of battles. We had a partial PK (about a third captured, a third dead, a third escaped), and at this point more than half the original PCs had died and been replaced.

Gates of Firestorm Peak

I have run this adventure twice and it is very good. Definitely deserves to be on this list. I've spoken about this adventure here before, and I'm a bit sad that this strong recommendation hasn't made an impact

The Ruins of Undermountain

We did most of the first level in our first ever D&D campaign. Then we moved on. It was ok? (I was a player, not the DM)

The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun

I strongly suspect that a GM converted that to 3e and ran it in my 3e days. I don't know if it was him or the module, but A+ material.

I also suspect the same GM took elements from kingdom of ghouls, but I am not sure (again, very strong stuff).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.

I've been away but I will give you my take on these.

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

I wouldn't say it's "best". Influential, as the first adventure path, is a better description. Parts need a lot of work to adapt to 5e. Personally, I've never liked adventures where you are fighting a lot of the same kind of creature, it gets repetitive.

I6 Ravenloft

Yup. Stands up well, better than 2nd edition Raveloft Campaign setting, better then 5e Curse of Srahd.

S1 Tomb of Horrors

Never run it, but is a good exemplar of the deathtrap dungeon archetype, and still works well.

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil

Poor.

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Classic, especially the art design and concept. In play some parts can be a bit large and repetitive, especially for completionist players.

I3-5 Desert of Desolation

I3 was a a classic, and still works well today. I4 and I5 are a case of cash-in-sequilitis, and where never more than okay.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

If this was published today people would demand their money back.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

Never read.

S2 White Plume Mountain

Classic, still works well.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Gates of Firestorm Peak

Never read.

The Forge of Fury

Vanilla D&D. It's fine, but I look for more novelty in D&D adventures. By my standards, it's too recent for classic status.

I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Dead Gods

Not read

X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville)

Classically brilliant. I have struggled to adapt it to 5e though, principally in terms of what level range to aim at.

X1 The Isle of Dread
The Ruins of Undermountain

Not read.

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

I've run this in 1st edition and 5e. It works well, so long as you remember that a) it was designed as a tournament module (the scorecard is useful to see the author's intent) and b) it makes no sense.

N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God
A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords
Dark Tower

Only really glanced at Slavelords, wouldn't be fair for me to comment.

S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

It's okay. It problem is it has lots of interesting lore, but no way for the DM to transmit it to the players. probably better for reading than playing.

WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun

When I ran this in 1st edition this the alarm was triggered and it turned into a mass battle in the entrance. Wouldn't want to run that in 5e! Would have been even worse in 3e! The players never found their way to the Heart of the Temple. I re-read it recently, and the writing style is interesting. It tells you a lot more about what the author was thinking than is typical in modern adventures.

City of the Spider Queen

Don't know.

DL1 Dragons of Despair

Yes, the dungeon part of this is excellent, and the isometric map innovative. Unfortunately, has the roots of the hard railroad that spoiled the rest of the series. But lift the dungeon, it's great.

WGR6 The City of Skulls

Not read.

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Excellent. Still works, but doesn't feel as revolutionary. The original Saltmarsh managed to have a distinctly British feel too.

B4 The Lost City
L2 The Assassin’s Knot

Not read.

C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness

Hm. Nothing really special here. It's a standard dungeon in the style of White Plume Mountain. I think the giant chess game was already a cliché! Also, as someone familiar with the real world city of Inverness, I find the name a distraction.

Missing from the list:

I10: The House on Griffin Hill. This did more to establish Ravenloft as a horror setting, rather than a movie parody setting, than I6. It added the nightmarish quality with is present in VGR.

EX 1-2: Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. Openly acknowledges the influence of Lewis Carol in D&D, which can be seen in many modules and modern adventures, most notably Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, he is not. He is the typical Gygaxian "screw you" that undermines the adventure whose purpose is to undermine the party ever trusting a NPC in the future. From level 1.

I can't imagine any party ever trusting Ned, he is pretty obvious. And really there is not a great deal he can do if they did. But whether or not to trust an NPC should never be an easy decision. That's where role playing and skill checks come in.

And of course, Gygax did not write it.

 

[Mannahnin]

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Classic, especially the art design and concept. In play some parts can be a bit large and repetitive, especially for completionist players.

This caution reminds me to plug Dyson Logos' revamp of the maps. You're 100% correct that this dungeon is huge, and there's a bunch of empty and time-consuming space in it. Dyson did an updated version of the maps turning it into a triangular cross-section instead of circular, which does a lovely job trimming a lot of that extra space off to streamline play a bit.

Return to the Barrier Peaks

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is one of my all time favourite AD&D adventure modules. I’ve run it about a dozen times in its entirety and run a few more games that ventured there over t…

dysonlogos.blog

 

[John R Davis]

Good spot on I 10

Remember having much with the might mcguffin in that!