[Dungeon] Which TSR Modules are "Classics"?

[herald]

The greats

The S series. Plus the Lost Temple of Tharizdun. S4 and that module were designed to work together. If you run one, you should realy run the other.
The U Series. 2 and 3 should not be overlooked. The spy mission in U2 was awsome.
The C series as it related to Greyhawk.
The UK modules with "The Sentinal" and "The Guantlet"
The Supermodules. I loved them all. The filler between the old modules was great in the Slaver series. It felt great to have material to do instead of just saying, alright you travel from here to there.
The G Series

 

[Mach2.5]

Temple of the Frog and its successor
The Lost city of the Gods

The first for fleshing out the scenario originally presented in the Blackmoor supplement which gave us much joy to see happen and the second for letting wizards get lasers instead of wands . . . well, okay, maybe the second one was merely nostalgia, but it was still a cool adventure that has been mimicked to death since then.

 

[Wraith Form]

X2: Chateau D’Amberville.: A great example of taking existing fiction and transplanting it into a D&D campaign w/out it seeming out of place. Plenty of opportunity for Roleplaying w/ some great NPC’s, puzzle solving and combat, along with some cool demi-plane hopping. Highly underrated.

I'm behind you 100% on this one, for the same reasons. Those crazy Amber family members were just too cool. Early example of how using diplomacy vs. hack'n'slash was important, as most of the Ambers were able to wipe the floor with ya.

I6: Ravenloft...the first module I ever purchased. This just oozes with gothic dread. Everything you loved about Bela Lugosi's Dracula (the movie as well as the character he played) was exemplified here. Even the choices of Wandering Monsters and descriptions of architecture were appropriate and added to the feel/flavor of the module.

Barrier Peaks was incredible--as others have mentioned, the plant/sci-fi tech combo was fascinating...the laser guns and "tricorder" thingies were fine examples of having to separate between player vs. character knowledge...and the theramin joke several posts back just about killed me (a core of truth in all humor, as they say)!

At the risk of exposing my extreme age, I'd also like to mention that some of the adventures in the OLD Dragon magazine (back when it offered one in each issue) were pretty cool. (I'm thinking specifically of Baba Yaga's dancing hut and the one that let your party travel to "modern" London, but there were others!)

The old adventures worked because it was all "new" then, every aspect of the game--there were no archtypes to base the modules on, no pre-conceived notions of how adventures were "supposed" to be written/run, no rules or "how-to's"--every module trailblazed a new path, as it were. Good stuff.

So what's up, Erik? Can you give us a little taste of what you have in mind??

 

[Harlock]

Hey Mr. Mona, I look forward to your devious project. I have a top three:

B4 - The Lost City. It was just a fun adventure. There was lots of action, some fun strategy and you had enough hooks smattered about that youcould easily build a campaign from it.

X2 - Castle Amber (Chateau d'Amberville). What a very excellent module. I played this and DMed this MANY times. So much roleplaying opportunity to be had from a family of psychotic and clearly insane nobles. I cannot eat roast beef to this day without thinking, "... tender, tasty and pink in the center."

I6 - Ravenloft. Woohoo! What more can you say then this was just a fun and creepy module? We tried it once without a cleric and man, we got pasted.

Anyway, those are my top three 80s TSR modules. Good luck with the project, Erik.

 

[mhensley]

My all-time favorite is the Sample Dungeon that was included in the 1st version of Basic. Those damn ghouls killed me everytime.

 

[Xorial]

I liked Isle of the Ape. Saw it mentioned earlier & that he thought it was easy. Mainly because they really didnt know the rules. I still have that module. The DM that ran it on us knew the rules. We lost EVERYBODY on the second encounter, except my barbarian. I read the module later and saw in the forward (I think that is were it was anyway) that this module was written by Gary Gygax to be exceptionaly deadly.

 

[KB9JMQ]

B2 - Cause we all have a story
B4 - It's was my default campaign start module
B7 - Overall I have always liked it.
Slaver Series - Very Interesting, had an overall story to it
G1-3 - Fun and tough
White Plume Mountain - Good story, fun to play.
Temple of the Frog

Just think in 10 years we will all probably have the Sunless Citadel in this list

 

[jasper]

G1 - G3 against the giants
x2 castle Amber
U1 Secret of Saltmarsh
I6 Ravenloft loved the first one hated the second.
I2-I5 Desert series
s2 white plum mountain

Not Trs or are they?
Old modules in Dragon need to be looked at also. Only one I remember is belt of etheralness one.


Loved but would not buy if converted
Temple of Elemental Evil. It is locked imc got to much enjoyment and is still a living part of my campaign

However since it appears you may convert and publish in Dungeon Mag I will pick up issues with the classics redux just for light bathroom reading.

 

[Tewligan]

Ooh, I'm all about The Lost City, baby. The ziggurat was packed with stuff, and then there's loads more goodies underground. I remember thinking that the largely undeveloped map of the underground city was about the coolest thing ever - between that and the rival societies, that module had SO much room for expansion, exploration, and roleplaying. Mr. Mona, I'm afraid I have no choice but to demand a 3.5 remake of The Lost City immediately. Get crackin'!

 

[ashockney]

Erik, if you do ANYTHING related to ANY of the modules listed above, we'll all go ga-ga.

All time favorite, no question: Against the Giants.

What a kick ass module that had interesting NPC's, a truly 'fantastic' setting (giant's keeps), that were richly detailed, a variety of encounters, and it had a very well-thought-out design (putting scent creatures with the giants to overcome invisibility for example). Finally, the great moment of truth: The true first ever appearance of a drow villian...at the end of ATG. If you had the joy of playing it with a group who didn't know what a drow was or could do, you know how awesomely challenging this encounter was! What a great experience top to bottom.

Keep on the Borderlands. Total nostalgia. The module is nothing more than a crawl.

White Plume Mountain. Awesome stakes. Great NPC's and villians. Multiple mysteries to be solved. Great weapons to be wielded, which has brought a smile to many players faces. The heart of the adventure takes place around a live volcano. Very nice.

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Completely because of the unique loot and spells, when no such thing really existed elsewhere. Here was a whole book FULL of such things. Agreed, that it is otherwise a total dungeon crawl.

Rahasia, I3, and I4. Play them again and again. Still some of the best sources to "pull" an encounter from with puzzles, mysteries, interesting NPC's, and challenging encounters (with new monsters). Very cool. Fear the unknown.