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

[toucanbuzz]

What qualified these adventures was largely originality (of story, new monsters, and dungeon design). We take much of D&D today for granted, but many of these adventures paved the way for the ideas we have today. Also, many were designed originally for timed tournament play and were meant to challenge players to think-fast during a time when there was no skill system or class abilities to solve a puzzle. You had to meta-game it, and on-the-clock.

I'm reviewing the ones I DM'd instead of played in as I got a more intimate look at the material and player feedback.

I6 Ravenloft

It doesn't get better than this. It was something we'd seen and not seen before in D&D. The vampire trope was reborn with one of the most complex villains in the game along with one of the most amazing dungeons ever. We get a new setting, ideas on how to properly craft a master villain, and non-linear dungeon design all in one.

S1 Tomb of Horrors

I've ran this in AD&D, 3E, Pathfinder, and 5E, largely as originally written. It is an anti-D&D adventure, and not everyone likes that. Written for timed tournament play, it was lethal to eliminate players and to defy traditional "hack and slash" solutions. Gygax premised it as a "thinking person's" dungeon, and despite all the bad things, it really was. In theory, a 3rd level party could do better than 13th level. Ultimately, completing it became a badge, bragging rights. I don't know of any 5E adventure where that is the same.

I don't think the 5E (or 3E) conversions translated well. It's a puzzle adventure best run with players declaring what they're doing with little traditional combat. If you play it as "your passive perception allows you to spot the pit trap" instead of "okay, tapping the floor with your 10 foot pole makes a different sound on that stone," it won't be the same, both in original scope, design, and feeling of accomplishment that your wits got you through.

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Lasers, robots, and bunny on a stump. It's goofy fun by today's standards, but there was a boldness in stepping outside our traditional expectations and throwing players a curveball, seeing how well they could roleplay medieval characters picking up laser guns. It piqued sci-fi interest (yes, our rules can support it) as well as mixing genres.

S2 White Plume Mountain

Recreated for today, it's another nonsensical dungeon with some of the most imaginative encounters ever written, new monsters, as well as introduction of epic, take-you-over weapons. Who wouldn't want to test their mettle at conquering Blackrazor? A bit is lost in translation, however, as 5E has put much of the power in character classes. In AD&D, a 2nd level fighter with great gear could hang with much higher level characters.

The Forge of Fury

I'm iffy. It was a well-designed dungeon with a background story that made sense, reactive bad guys, and a traditional villain at the end. But I'm not sure why it falls in the "best of all time" categories. Nothing in it was "first time we've done this" originality.

The Ruins of Undermountain

It was something new. The never-ending dungeon, if you will. Keep the encounters fresh and unique and it became the "plug and play" of its time. You could indefinitely add on sections and levels, and the idea was you never knew what epic treasure might lie around the next corner.

C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

Lovingly recreated, the 5E runs a lot like the original, which was a tournament module. An inverted dungeon design (novelty to start inside the dungeon), new creatures and new challenges, it set another standard for design as well as taking us outside the traditional "European" dungeon. The "timer" element, from tournament design, translates well to "how do I make things challenging if my gamers can simply rest to full power all the time."

A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords

Later my players said they hated it because of the railroad element of

Spoiler

the bad guys took all their stuff and threw it overboard after a "you can't win" kidnap battle.

If you got past that, it's another novelty with bad guys you can take joy in hating, and challenges of surviving with only your wits and a homemade sling made out of your underwear. That part doesn't translate well to 5E due to monks and cantrips.

S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

Oh teleports. Players needing a challenge got one (originally tournament play) along with new monsters (a ton that fill up our MM today), great combats that defied traditional "hack and slash" and some great terrain challenges. There's so much in this one, not enough space to put it all. It brought so many fresh elements to an adventure that we now take for granted, perhaps one of the best "originality" examples.

DL1 Dragons of Despair

Dragonlance gets started here. While some lament it's too "railroady," if you played this one, you probably were expecting to be part of an epic story. And it delivered, especially if you'd read the novels and wanted to be a part of Sturm's journey, or Raistlin, and so on. This was brand new (taking on your story book heroes). The Xak Tsaroth map is a piece of art, both visually and in game design. Dragonlance set the stage for "mega adventures" to come and the idea that sales could be made by selling a campaign storyline rather than, to date, stand-alone adventures.

U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Scooby Doo time. We got a different take on writing complex adventure design where it all makes sense (that aha moment). We were starting to see some "put the clues together" adventures around this time, and this one just did it all right. My only complaint was having a +1 dagger just lying around for 1st level characters as random loot; they didn't have to earn it.

L2 The Assassin’s Knot

Like Saltmarsh, a mystery to be solved. This one gets a gold star for a timeline of events running in the background. My players had a blast solving the whodunnit, and when we add in a "contained sandbox" map, just a winner all around. Almost all adventures of the time were reactive to players, and it was refreshing to see something with a lot of moving pieces.

C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness

White Plume gets a nod for goofy dungeon design, but Ghost Tower wins the grand prize. Also a tournament challenge, we get a fresh set of monsters that stand the test of time and rooms with visuals that will stick in your imagination for years to come. The final encounter may not translate well to 5E because it was meant to reduce tournament players.

 

[glass]

Worryingly (or perhaps not given the general tenor of the thread), I have not run or played any of these with the possible exception of The Forge of Fury - I have a vague recollection of running the early fight with the Orc archers but I am not sure how far we got. In any case, I will be running it again in a few weeks. EDIT: I have now completed running TFOF - it was pretty good but I would not say top 30 ever.

Oh, and I have run I6 Ravenloft in its 2e House of Strahd incarnation - not sure how closely that resembles the original.

_
glass.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

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).

Well, about that ... it's one of those things you have to decode Gygaxian for. Luckily, for once, he uses all-caps.

All training/study is recorded in game time. The period must be uninterrupted and continuous. He or she cannot engage in adventuring, travel, magic research of any nature other than that concerned with level advancement, atonement, etc. If there is a serious hiatus in the course of training/study the character loses all of the benefits of the time spent prior to the interruption, as well as the total funds advanced for the training/study, and he or she must begin anew if a level of experience is to be gained. Under no circumstances can a character gain additional experience points by any means until he or she actually acquires the higher level through the required training/study course. Thus, a character who successfully adventures and gains experience points which not only equal a new level but are almost sufficient to gain yet a second such level, cannot opt to-forego the period of training and study necessary to go up a level in favor of gaining a few more points and training and studying for two levels at once. ONCE A CHARACTER HAS POINTS WHICH ARE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE MINIMUM NUMBER NECESSARY TO MOVE UPWARDS IN EXPERIENCE LEVEL, NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE POINTS CAN BE GAINED UNTIL THE CHARACTER ACTUALLY GAINS THE NEW LEVEL. This rule applies to bards, as noted (for failure to make the necessary contributions and payments).

(All-caps are in original. Source: DMG p. 86).

So while the phrasing is confusing given that weird sentence in there, it's pretty clear that the following two sentences control:

1. Under no circumstances can a character gain additional experience points by any means until he or she actually acquires the higher level through the required training/study course.

2. ONCE A CHARACTER HAS POINTS WHICH ARE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE MINIMUM NUMBER NECESSARY TO MOVE UPWARDS IN EXPERIENCE LEVEL, NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE POINTS CAN BE GAINED UNTIL THE CHARACTER ACTUALLY GAINS THE NEW LEVEL.


So while it is unclear as mud, the rule is that while you aren't immediately cutoff, you also can't gain new XP. Which means that (other than rulings) it would depend on the event that took you over the minimum. So while your example is correct, more often than not the individual would cap out from an event just after crossing over the threshhold.

(But I appreciate the reminder, as our table just houseruled that to "as soon as you cross).

 

[glass]

2. ONCE A CHARACTER HAS POINTS WHICH ARE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE MINIMUM NUMBER NECESSARY TO MOVE UPWARDS IN EXPERIENCE LEVEL, NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE POINTS CAN BE GAINED UNTIL THE CHARACTER ACTUALLY GAINS THE NEW LEVEL.

The problem is, if it always stops at "equal", why is the "or greater" there?

_
glass.

 

[Lanefan]

The problem is, if it always stops at "equal", why is the "or greater" there?

_
glass.

My guess is the "or greater" is to account for effects or situations that might give a fixed bunch of xp in a single batch e.g. one or two of the cards in a Deck of Many Things.

So for example if you're at 19467 xp and your next bump point is 20000, if some major effect gave you 5000 xp you'd still get all 5000, and then be stuck at 24467 until you could train.

 

[Gradine]

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.

Fun fact: There's been as much time between now and the release of Forge of Fury as there is between Forge of Fury and the release of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

 

[Parmandur]

Worryingly (or perhaps not given the general tenor of the thread), I have not run or played any of these with the possible exception of The Forge of Fury - I have a vague recollection of running the early fight with the Orc archers but I am not sure how far we got. In any case, I will be running it again in a few weeks.

Oh, and I have run I6 Ravenloft in its 2e House of Strahd incarnation - not sure how closely that resembles the original.

_
glass.

Chapter 3 or 4 is just I6 reprinted, and the rest plugs in around it.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm iffy. It was a well-designed dungeon with a background story that made sense, reactive bad guys, and a traditional villain at the end. But I'm not sure why it falls in the "best of all time" categories. Nothing in it was "first time we've done this" originality.

There's some recency bias at work, as in 2004 a lot of people playing D&D started with Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury (though it seems people just went off in theor own direction after that in their home campaigns, nobody talks about the rest of the "Advebture Path" modules).

However, I don't think that it is a coincidence that Forges of Fury and Lost Mines of Phandelver were written by the same designer. Richard Baker is one of the unsung heroes of Adventure design: he did Red Hands of Doom, too, for that matter.

 

[Lanefan]

Fun fact: There's been as much time between now and the release of Forge of Fury as there is between Forge of Fury and the release of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

So you're saying that according to this schedule we're about due for another truly excellent adventure, then.

I'll gat in line at the FLGS right away!

 

[Parmandur]

So you're saying that according to this schedule we're about due for another truly excellent adventure, then.

I'll gat in line at the FLGS right away!

Radiant Citadel looks pretty neat, actually.