D&D General Planning a D&D editions tour

[Mark Hope]

As a 50th anniversary celebration I'm planning a tour across past D&D editions with my players. I want to run a short-ish module for each edition, preferably a "classic" one like Keep on the Borderlands, using just the core rulebooks. The candidates are:

OD&D: honestly, I'm skipping this one since it's really hard to run it without a retroclone, and I think using a retroclone that makes the rules coherent would defeat the purpose of playing OD&D. If someone have another idea I would be glad to know.

D&D B/X: B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. I think it perfectly encapsulates the pitch of a classic short-ish adventure to showcase the edition.

AD&D 1e: T1 The Village of Hommlet or U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, both really good low level modules. I'm more inclined to U1, even though T1 is the most remembered one.

AD&D 2e: I don't know yet, but I want something to showcase where 2e era was different from 1e. Maybe something with Planescape or Spelljammer.

D&D 3.X: Maybe Red Hand of Doom, but I think it's too long for the premise of this tour.

D&D 4e: I really don't know, I never played 4th edition but I'm curious to give it a shot without judgements.

D&D 5e: Lost Mine of Phandelver, of course.

For BX, I would go with Lost City over KotB. It's a great dungeon with a cool premise and has more weird atmosphere than the Caves of Chaos. Alternatively, send them to the Isle of Dread and have them be brain-fried by kopru in a volcano.

For AD&D, absolutely Saltmarsh over Hommlet. U1 is one of the greatest adventures of all time.

For AD&D2e, consider Curse of the Azure Bonds. It's railroady as hell and basically takes the PCs from one awesome set-piece to another. Battle a beholder in Zhentil Keep. Fight the corpse of a dead god. Infiltrate a thief guild's sewer hideout. Face the BBEG in the ruins of Myth Drannor. I love this adventure and if your players buy into the concept, they're in for a great ride.

 

[pete284]

For that OD&D experience I would try Delving Deeper (or Iron Falcon), both are so close to the Original game. I have played DD several times and it such a different experience to B/X it is a ton of fun, it also shows how B/X moved it on.

 

[Zardnaar]

Agreed. Sunless Citadel or the follow-up Forge of Fury are the best 3e adventures in my opinion.

Completed FoF few weeks ago for 5E TftYP.

OP for B/X I woukd suggest B3, B4 or B5 over B2. We had a bit of fun with B5 using a clone.

Personal List
B/X. B5 or B4 (in that order)
1E. T1 Village of Hommlet
2E. Hmmmn maybe a 1E adventure tweaked or B/X adventure (whatever you didnt pick from B3,4,5)
3E Sunless Citadel
4E KotSF

You coukd for B3,4,5 one after the other using B/X 1E, 2E.

 

[Voadam]

For 2e I would recommend one of the better 32 page Ravenloft modules. I had great experiences with these three:

Night of the Walking Dead

Howls in the Night

Touch of Death

 

[Voadam]

If you go

Keep on the Borderland
T1 The Moathouse
Sunless Citadel
Keep on the Shadowfell

Then you get repeated starter dungeon delves.

This could either be repetitious and something you want to avoid, or highlighting the differences of the feel of the various editions.

I would go for different stuff.

Perhaps a different world each edition
B/X or BECMI Known World/Mystara/ or even Thunder Rift
1e Dragonlance
2e Planescape
3e Forgotten Realms
4e Eberron

 

[Voadam]

For 4e the later modules have much better reputations than the early HPE series.

HS1 The Slaying Stone is only 32 pages so a comparatively short one.

 

[Hriston]

Deleted

 

[Hriston]

Here's a post I made last year in response to this thread which had a similar premise:

I’d be tempted to run a 20-level campaign premised on the PCs becoming slightly different versions of themselves as they move to each new “world” (edition). This is how I’d divide things up:

OD&D - levels 1-4. I think The Keep on the Borderlands would be good for this, maybe throwing in "Tower of Zenopus" from Holmes Basic and/or In Search of the Unknown. The wider setting, if it enters into actual gameplay, would be as described in KotB which looks like the setting of Three Hearts and Three Lions with the “Realm” of Law to the west and lands of Chaos to the east. Caverns of Thracia also sounds good to use here but recommended character levels might be too high to fit in along with B2. Once 4th level is reached, the "Cave of the Unknown" could contain a portal to Greyhawk...

AD&D 1E - levels 4-7. Greyhawk (folio/boxed set). I think Temple of Elemental Evil (T1-4) might slot in well here, but (edit: after consideration, T1-4 appears to have too much content to get through in the desired range of levels, but see 3E below) it might be better to string together 1) Dwellers of the Forbidden City, 2) The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, and 3) White Plume Mountain, in that order. The Aerie of the Slave Lords (A1-4) could also work here.

AD&D 2E - levels 7-10. Greyhawk (From the Ashes)/Planescape/"The Shirelands". I might use Fate of Istus to transition the characters to 2E. Then, I'd run 1) The Gates of Firestorm Peak, 2) Dead Gods, and 3) The City of Skulls.

3E - levels 11-14. Greyhawk (The Adventure Begins). Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil could, I think, be done within this level range.

4E - levels 21-25. Nentir Vale. 1) Death's Reach and 2) Kingdom of the Ghouls.

5E - levels 17-20. The Multiverse (Forgotten Realms). The only published 5E adventure for tier four is Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, so it's an easy choice. I suppose a conversion of 4E's Prince of Undeath would work well here too, to complete the epic tier trilogy.

ETA: I’m really liking this idea and am going to continue adding to this post as I flesh out the details.
Update: I started with @Reynard's idea of using the settings that best exemplify each edition, but the focus changed to hitting the "greatest" published adventures, mostly influenced by the "30 greatest adventures of all time" list.

 

[Stormonu]

My 2E vote goes to the Ravenloft Night of the Walking Dead. Or something out of Dungeon Magazine (why does 2E have the best lore and the worst adventures?)

Really though, if you're doing all the editions, I think it would be a lot funner if you did adventures in the 3rd-5th level range and skip those first couple of levels. Level 3-5 the characters are still pretty easy to get up to speed, are getting into the groove of skill over luck and aren't too complex in their abilities.

 

[Zardnaar]

My 2E vote goes to the Ravenloft Night of the Walking Dead. Or something out of Dungeon Magazine (why does 2E have the best lore and the worst adventures?)

Really though, if you're doing all the editions, I think it would be a lot funner if you did adventures in the 3rd-5th level range and skip those first couple of levels. Level 3-5 the characters are still pretty easy to get up to speed, are getting into the groove of skill over luck and aren't too complex in their abilities.

2E doesn't have the wirst adventures. 4E and 5E say hi.

Late 2E and Dungeon means 2E has more quality than those editions.