D&D General Favourite adventures from Dungeon Magazine

[el-remmen]

• "Roarwater Caves" (Dungeon #15) - I ran this back in 2E days and more recently early on in a 5E campaign.
• "Tallow's Deep" (Dungeon #18) - Classic, that we still talk about and I hope to run again soon.
• "The School of Nekros" (Dungeon #27) - I renamed this one "River of the Dead"
• "Through the Night" (Dungeon #27) - a sidetrek I ran through as a player and then ran as a DM in a recent 5E campaign
• "Beyond the Glittering Veil" (Dungeon #31) - Designed to introduce 2E Psionics, I adapted the site of it for an adventure I ran for my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign
• "The Wayward Wood" (Dungeon #32) - Another one I adapted to 5E and was a hit
• "Is There An Elf in the House?" (Dungeon #32) - ran it back in 2E days (written by Professor Dungeon Master of You Tube fame)
• "Isle of the Abbey" (Dungeon #34) - you might know it from Ghosts of Saltmarsh - and it is the most maligned of those included in that book, but adapted to include the specific of your setting, it is a great one.
• "The Whale" (Dungeon #35) - Another great sidetrek, I have run it twice. It was meant for the Viking sourcebook, but easily adapted to any typical D&D setting
• "A Wizard's Fate" (Dungeon #37) - I ran this in 2E days and didn't like it much, but adapted it to 5E and have run it several times since and love it (written by Chris Perkins)
• "Things that Go Bump in the Night" (Dungeon #38) - Literally running this for my current online group
• "Song of the Fens" (Dungeon #40) - Ran it back in 2E days and again in 5E to great delight!
• "A Hot Day in L'Trel" (Dungeon #44) - Ran this in 3E - a great adventure that is not about fighting monsters.
• "Rudwilla's Stew" (Dungeon #45) - Ran this in 3E
• "Janx's Jinx" (Dungeon #56) - Ran this both for "Out of the Frying Pan" (3E) and a more current 5E game
• "Bullywug's Gambit" (Dungeon #140) - Part of the "Savage Tide" adventure path, but I ran it on its own for "Second Son of a Second Son" (3E)

 

[jian]

I also rather liked The Matchmakers in issue 7, which is quite atypical - it’s basically a Romeo and Juliet story with little magic or fantasy (the bad guy has a ring of mind shielding to prevent PCs from blowing the plot early, but that’s about it).

I think I ran into it in an anthology of early Dungeon adventures (I think Kaermor is in there too).

 

[jian]

Found this (almost) exhaustive review from over a decade ago. What do you all think?

Dungeon Magazine – Final Retrospective | tenfootpole.org

tenfootpole.org

 

[RealAlHazred]

Found this (almost) exhaustive review from over a decade ago. What do you all think?

Dungeon Magazine – Final Retrospective | tenfootpole.org

tenfootpole.org

I just came here to post the link to Bryce's Dungeon reviews. I generally agree with his criticisms, though they are harsh -- I have to fight my nostalgia sometimes; it helps when I show an old adventure I liked to a younger gamer and use their perspective to anchor my own.

My favorites from back in the day were actually in Dragon magazine. The following came to mind:

• "Barnacus: City in Peril" (Dragon #80 (Dec 1983), 1e, 18 levels (4-8 lvl 1-5), 12pp) is a great sandbox location that I reused several times. The plot isn't bad, though only one of the Dragon villains really gets a lot of detail. If I ran it today, I'd probably try to fill out the "Snake Pit" (the group of bad guys) with a few more interesting characters. I think it's a great introductory adventure.
• "Can Seapoint Be Saved?" (Dragon #75 (Jul 1983), 1e, 33 levels (4-8 lvl 4-7), 8pp) is a fun seagoing adventure. I used Barnacus for Seapoint, and tied the pirates of this module to the villains of that one. Great fun, and I ran it in RuneQuest 3rd edition, so it got really crazy in there. This module was rereleased as "North of Narborel" (Dungeon #49, 2e, 25 [28] levels (4-6 lvl 4-7), 14pp) but I didn't care for the choices made in expanding it.
• "Citadel by the Sea" (Dragon #78 (Oct 1983), 1e, (4-8 lvl 1-3), 15pp) has great antagonists, and a neat low-level "artifact".

 

[el-remmen]

I also rather liked The Matchmakers in issue 7, which is quite atypical - it’s basically a Romeo and Juliet story with little magic or fantasy (the bad guy has a ring of mind shielding to prevent PCs from blowing the plot early, but that’s about it).

I think I ran into it in an anthology of early Dungeon adventures (I think Kaermor is in there too).

Ha! I offered this one to two different groups (in-game) in 5E games and neither took the bait!

Found this (almost) exhaustive review from over a decade ago. What do you all think?

Dungeon Magazine – Final Retrospective | tenfootpole.org

tenfootpole.org

I find his criticism too harsh and based on a framework of "can you run it as published?" Since I don't think that of even the best "official" modules, it is not useful criticism for me (even though, yes, I read every single post on that site for the issues I own ).

 

[el-remmen]

My favorites from back in the day were actually in Dragon magazine.

If we are including those, then I'd include "The Sword of Justice" from Dragon #92.