Favorite vs. Best Adventure Modules

[Jhaelen]

Are your favorite adventure modules also the ones you consider the best?

Not really. I think it's mainly the difference between an adventure _reading well_ and actually playing an adventure. That's mainly because a good DM is much more important for a good play experience than a good adventure module!

Some adventures I DMed didn't turn out to be as great as they read, others surprised me by playing extremely well, although reading them they didn't appear to particularly great.

In the 3e era, both Forge of Fury and The Standing Stone are examples for the latter.

I cannot think right now of any adventures as examples for the former, mainly because I haven't yet seen them in actual play. E.g. The Red Hand of Doom, Voyage of the Golden Dragon and Expedition to Castle Greyhawk are (three very different) adventures I'd love to run to see if they hold up to their promise.

If an adventure is badly written, I'll never find out if it plays well, since then I won't DM it. It's possible I may get to play it as a player, though.

 

[billd91]

In terms of favorite vs. good/well-designed modules, I think it depends a bit on what you consider a good or well-designed module. White Plume Mountain doesn't really make much sense. It's unrealistic to the point of silly at times. But it's a lot of fun to play (and DM). So is that good design because it's fun? Or is it bad design because it makes no sense as anything other than a playground?

I feel largely the same about The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. The dungeon itself makes little sense as anything but a survey of the newest (at the time) monster supplement. But I found it a lot of fun to DM and my players seemed to have fun at the time as well.

 

[Bullgrit]

Bullgrit, you mentioned in the Tomb of Horrors thread, that Temple of Elemental Evil is one of your favorites. I'm going to guess that you'll say that it's badly designed. I have never heard of anyone ever finishing it.

Temple of Elemental Evil and Keep on the Borderlands are two of my top three favorite adventure modules of all time, yes. I don't consider either of them badly designed, but I also don't consider them especially well designed. I consider them decent -- ToEE the better of the two.

I like their style and the play experience they support. But I would not say they are the best modules ever written. They have flaws and weaknesses. I can name other modules, even of the same era, that have good, tight design, that I think are better quality than my favorites.

Bullgrit

 

[Smoss]

My personal favorite is the first adventure I really truly played - "Jacob's Well" - from Dungeon #43.

A beautiful short solo adventure that can end in tons of ways depending on your actions.

I used it as a basis for writing the intro adventure for my word and RPG system as the design elements were so well done. Obviously I wanted some tweaks (Make it good for most any number of players, not just solo, etc).

But hey, it worked. Have had players unable to sleep at night after playing the module.
Smoss

 

[steeldragons]

If it is my "favorite", then it is the "best."

Both are utterly and intrinsically subjective terms, all attempts to define "best" as = "well designed" [vs. badly designed] to the contrary...which are, themselves, also completely subjective from player to player, DM to DM, playstyle to playstyle.

Have fun and happy playing favorites.
--SD

 

[Bedrockgames]

Are your favorite adventure modules also the ones you consider the best?

Do you have a favorite that you consider actually very badly designed?

Bullgrit

My all time Favorite Adventure Module is Feast of Goblyns (Ravenloft, 2E). I recenlty re-examined it for a 2E campaign I started earlier in the year; it is still my favorite, but I also realize I forgot about some of its flaws. There are a few areas where things don't line up or where the GM needs to do some work to make things function. On the whole however I still think it is one of the better modules from the period (and most of its flaws stem from the time it was made IMO) and well designed.

Another module that is one of my favorites, and also Ravenloft 2E, is The Created. I ran this just a few months ago (last time I ran it was in the 90s). It remains one of my favorites but it is definitely badly designed. Number one it is a railroad that claims not to be a railroad. The climax of the adventure is pre-determined and once set in motion is out of the PCs hands. There is actually an NPC it tells you not to allow the players to kill "no matter how much damage they do". And the whole thing looks like it was structured to resemble a movie in a way that limits what the PCs can do. The wost part of the module is it simply assumes the PCs will be doing certain things at any given time, and doesn't leave much room for alternatives. To run the thing, I really had to make some major changes.

 

[aco175]

I would 2nd Under Illifarn,(sp) from 2e around 1995. It would make a good 4e updated book. It comes with a small town and several npc's more or less detailed out with shops and stuff. There are several mini adventures and one major. These mini ones could be played in one night and the larger one would take three or four, but could be broken up with one night forays into the dungeon. I would like to see more tie in between all the adventures though.

 

[Hussar]

If it is my "favorite", then it is the "best."

Both are utterly and intrinsically subjective terms, all attempts to define "best" as = "well designed" [vs. badly designed] to the contrary...which are, themselves, also completely subjective from player to player, DM to DM, playstyle to playstyle.

Have fun and happy playing favorites.
--SD

I disagree. For one thing, there are certainly things we can look at with an objective eye to quailty - editing, production qualities, typos, that sort of thing.

For example, The World's Largest Dungeon is probably my favorite module of all time. But, there are some very serious mistakes in the module - text that doesn't work, mapping mistakes where some areas are actually completely cut off from all other areas, stat block errors and the like.

I actually contributed quite heavily to the errata section on the AEG forums for the WLD, so, I've got some leg to stand on here.

So, right there, the WLD has to lose some points for that. These aren't subjective criticisms, these are facts - X is outright wrong.

In the same way, we can point to some of the earlier TSR modules - Gygaxian prose is unique but, it makes for really, really poor modules. It makes the module harder to run. Again, this isn't subjective, this is a fact. Having the text and the statblocks and the descriptive text all blodged together in one great big stream of conciousness is poor design.

Thus, I really do think you can distinguish "I really like X" from "I really think X is well made". Heck, look at movies. I love "The Princess Bride". It's one of my favourite movies. But, I'm under no illusions that it's a "great" movie. Or, flip it over. Lots and lots of people think Avatar is a great movie. It's certainly some people's favorite. But, it's pretty easy to criticise it on an objective level - it's derivative and cliche for one - and show that it's not "the best movie".

 

[pemerton]

I'm one of those with a soft spot for the Keep on the Borderlands, although I think Mearls' criticism of its design has a lot going for it.

I've got a soft spot too for Castle Amber, but it's also very easy to parody.

I got a lot of play out of Bastion of Broken Souls - converted to Rolemaster - although I don't think it's very well designed. I changed much of the plot, but left individual encounters and underlying thematic ideas intact.

A well-designed module would imply (to me at least) something that can be played through more-or-less as written, without the need for adjustments. The only modules I can think of that I've GMed and that are like that are a couple of vignettes from the Eden Odyssey d20 module Wonders Out of Time. They were good adventures - but I don't know if I'd rank them as favourites. The ideas aren't as good as the execution.

I could also imagine GMing the Penumbra d20 modules as written, and could imagine these being favourites. They do have good ideas as well as what seems to be good execution.

 

[juboke]

My personal favorites are ...

B2 The Keep on the Boarderlands (TSR)
S2 White Plume Mountain (TSR)
Lich Lords (Role Aids)
Tegel Manor (Gamescience) *

* Never played the Judges Guild version.