Iconic D&D Campaign Adventures

[Erekose]

I'm considering running an adventure in Dark Sun. As I've no experience of Dark Sun, I was going to post a request that people let me know which of the published adventures makes best use of the setting (and by definition is least similar to a generic D&D adventure).

I'd still welcome that information but it got me thinking about other settings and which are the most iconic adventures. This isn't edition specific but I could see how that might feature (e.g. is Ptolus the iconic 3E setting?).

A few ideas to get started with:

• Greyhawk - while it was never published properly, Castle Greyhawk, would probably be the best example but which one of those that were published? The Temple of Elemental Evil?
  
• Blackmoor - City of the Gods - science fiction meets fantasy?
  
• Ravenloft - even though it's not set in Ravenloft would I6: Ravenloft be the classic example?

 

[Yora]

Against the Giants and the rest of the GDQ series would be pretty high up the list. It first introduced the Underdark, drow, and kuo-toa.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I played non-stop from about 1979 through 1986, so here are my choices for the earlier adventures that still hold up:

BD&D

•In Search of the Unknown
• Keep on the Borderlands
• Isle of Dread
• Castle Amber
• The Lost City

AD&D (1E)
• Village of Hommlett
• Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
• Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
• Hall of the Fire Giant King
• Descent into the Depths of the Earth
• Shrine of the Kuo-Toa
• Vault of the Drow
• Queen of the Demonweb Pits (although it's a much weaker module than the six that precede it)
• Tomb of Horrors
• White Plume Mountain
• Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh
• Danger at Dunwater
• Final Enemy
• Beyond the Crystal Cave
• Against the Cult of the Reptile God
• Ravenloft
• Dungeonland
• Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• Secret of the Slavers Stockade (the rest of the A series is a lot weaker)
• Secret of Bone Hill

If you can track down (very) old issues of Dragon magazine, I'd look for Citadel by the Sea for a solid low level assault on a humanoid lair (orc, in this case, but it could easily be changed).

The final issue of Dungeon magazine also had a good list of the greatest D&D adventures of all time that you'd probably find useful.

 

[Desdichado]

I see that the responses so far seem to be more to your thread title than to the body of your post.

I don't know that I agree that there are iconic adventures for most settings, or if there are, that's necessarily a good thing (cue reams of Dragonlance complaints now.)

I think Isle of Dread's association with Mystara is an exception there. The d20 Freeport setting is one that was built on adventures first. Iron Kingdoms was as well. Other than that, I'm kinda scratching my head thinking that any adventures are really iconically linked to a setting.

Also, no--I'd say Eberron is clearly the iconic 3e setting. Ptolus was both unofficial and came along way too late in the 3e life-cycle (as a product, at least) to have any shot at that claim.

 

[Erekose]

I see that the responses so far seem to be more to your thread title than to the body of your post.

Always a risk

I don't know that I agree that there are iconic adventures for most settings, or if there are, that's necessarily a good thing (cue reams of Dragonlance complaints now.)

I'm not sure I agree but I guess it depends on how you define "iconic". I've tried to be as specific as I can. In that a typical dungeon crawl could be considered "campaign independent" which can be a good thing in that it can be used in any campaign. However, what I'm trying to identify are published adventures that maximise the differences in the campaign setting from "vanilla" D&D.

Hope that makes sense

 

[Desdichado]

I'm not sure I agree but I guess it depends on how you define "iconic". I've tried to be as specific as I can. In that a typical dungeon crawl could be considered "campaign independent" which can be a good thing in that it can be used in any campaign. However, what I'm trying to identify are published adventures that maximise the differences in the campaign setting from "vanilla" D&D.

Oh. Well, that is a slightly different interpretation than what I'd said.

Hmm... I think in the past, many of the adventures were more "generic" rather than specific, and they didn't always attempt to highlight the differences between settings. Ravenloft was one of the early ones that did so (although curiously, it predates the setting.) Castle Amber is another one that's closely tied to a setting (although it's a fictional setting from the works of Clark Ashton Smith; technically it's meant to take place in the Known World, not Averoigne.)

The Eberron modules (I think there were about half a dozen of them) really tried to emphasize the nature of the Eberron setting and contrast it with generic D&D, I think. The Witchfire Trilogy definitely focused on Iron Kingdoms stuff; this was before the release of the setting, so the modules were an early source of quite a bit of setting info for its fans.

And Dragonlance; like I said, this will probably bring out more detractors than not, but at the same time, the modules did tend to focus on elements unique to the setting, at least.

 

[Yora]

I think Dragonlance and Ravenloft did start out as adventures first and were developed into full settings later on. But I think they are the only ones.
Dark Sun and Planescape were very distinct settings long before Eberron, but they don't really have any famous adventures I'd heard about.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dark Sun and Planescape were very distinct settings long before Eberron, but they don't really have any famous adventures I'd heard about.

Dead Gods for Planescape. Dark Sun had adventures, but no one really got excited about them.

You're best off just taking good adventures and Dark Sunning them up.

 

[Erekose]

Dark Sun had adventures, but no one really got excited about them.

That's a shame - from what I've read in the Wanderer's Journal it seems such an evocative setting!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's a shame - from what I've read in the Wanderer's Journal it seems such an evocative setting!

TSR in the 2E era was fantastic on settings, but rarely measured up in the adventures department. (In many ways, the 1E era was exactly the other way around.)