Erik Mona said:
If individual contributors want to post their own lists, that's fine by me.
Here's mine, with super-bonus comments, straight from the MS Word file I sent to Erik back when he first asked me to contribute to this project.
Top 10 Adventures for D&D
Submitted by Mike Mearls
Ranked from 10 (10th best) to 1 (best).
I have to admit that it's difficult to separate nostalgia from an objective design analysis. Most of these made the list because they're so memorable. I ran and loved almost all of them, and in many ways they define what I do as a designer.
10. B2: The Keep on the Borderlands
The granddaddy of all adventures, the Caves of Chaos launched untold thousands of gamers into the hobby. Who cares that no in the keep had a name? Who cares that the dungeon doesn't make much sense? This was wahoo adventure at its best, and I think we need to keep that in mind when building adventures for today's audience.
9. CM1: Test of the Warlords
Another one of those modules that did a lot with few pages, in 32 pages you have months of adventure. The basic premise is that the party participates in a land rush in a far north region. Once everyone carves out a territory and becomes a baron, the real fun begins with a frost giant incursion, a tournament, and a civil war.
8. X1: The Isle of Dread
Who doesn't like hopping on a longship and sailing for days across the open sea to battle dinosaurs, pirates, cannibals, and the horrid kopru? This was the first wilderness adventure for a lot of gamers, and it remains a good example of how to do things right. It's hard to believe that all that material is crammed in 32 pages.
7. Siege of Kratys Freehold (Dungeon #33)
Ted James Thomas Zuvich really needs to get back into the adventure writing business. This adventure takes a simple premise – the PCs must defend an isolated manor from an attacking orc army – and has a lot of fun with it. It's incredibly wide open, with the players limited only by their inventiveness, imagination, and cunning. Isn't that what D&D is all about?
6. S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
I'll always remember the first time I flipped through this module. I had this terrible, terrible conflict within myself to immediately tell me friends about it at war with a maniacal, desperate drive to keep it hidden at all costs. You only have once chance for this module to surprise you, and I'm jealous of everyone who entered the Barrier Peaks expecting the standard dungeon.
5. S1: Tomb of Horrors
How could anyone's list NOT include this bad boy? The traps and tricks are the stuff of gaming legend. Anyone who claims they made it through without losing a single PC from the party is a liar, a cheater, or both.
4. D3: Vault of the Drow
This module perhaps best exemplifies the genius of a good module. The background material and concepts give you enough fodder for years of adventure. Modern designers would do well to learn that intricate plots, pointless backstory, and railroading need to be kicked to the curb.
3. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
A worthy successor to the original, this epic packs more action into 4 pages that most other modules manage in 32. All of WotC's "Return to…" modules were great, but this one stands above the rest. Probably the single most memorable, unifying experience in 3e. People who made it through this adventure can rightly brag about it.
2. S2: White Plume Mountain
This was the puzzle dungeon to end all puzzle dungeons. While it lacked Tomb of Horror's sheer brutality, it made up for it with crazy, over the top, pure fun. A battle against a giant crab in a dome at the floor of a volcanic lake? Check. Reverse gravity water tubes with kayaking bad guys? Check. A completely frictionless surface, studded with pit traps? Check. All that's from memory, and if this module's anything it's memorable.
1. T1-4: Temple of Elemental Evil
This is the ultimate challenge module for a DMs and players – did you have the guts to finish this thing? I've started campaigns for it at least 3 times, but no one ever made it far into the temple before the game had to end due to school, work, or other concerns. Hommlett is the original "town & dungeon" module for D&D, and its mix of treacherous residents, a deadly dungeon in the moathouse, and the epic sprawl of the temple itself make it a classic.
Honorable Mention
The Haunted House – Call of Cthulhu
Any adventure that can end with two PCs dead, the third utterly insane and imprisoned (wrongfully) for the murder of the other two characters, and all three players demanding that we play Call of Cthulhu again as soon as possible has to be a winner. The Haunted House has appeared in every edition of CoC, save the d20 one. It's nothing complex. The PCs investigate a haunted house and must deal with a murderous spirit, but it sums up everything that makes CoC such creepy fun.
