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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5146567" data-attributes="member: 80487">"Playing modules" as a staple was actually pretty feasible in 1988, but not so much in 1978.If it were not for the Judges Guild -- whose flagship products were the "sandbox" City State and Wilderlands materials -- there would have been mighty slim pickings for "dungeon modules" the first few years. If one was not acquainted with those, then Wee Warriors was probably also not a household name."The Temple of the Frog" occupied half of Supplement II (1975) -- so reading it was certainly a common experience (one not so conducive to exciting play afterward). I think there were also some scenarios in Dragon Magazine.TSR's first separate modules came out in 1978: the Giants trilogy used for the Origins tournament that year. Those were for levels 8-12. Also published that year were the Drow trilogy (9-14), The Tomb of Horrors (10-14), and B1 In Search of the Unknown (1-3, although easily restocked for higher levels).So, the Players Handbook had just become available (no DMG until the next year) -- and 7 modules out of 8 were for "name"-level characters! As I recall, it would take a lot more treasure in B1 just to get half a dozen PCs to second level.Hey, if you had been playing for four years, or maybe even just a couple, then you could have old-style characters of high level, right? For all Gygax's hot air about it being a whole new game, it didn't look all that different. It ought to be possible to transfer experience. Ah, but where would one have gotten that experience? 1979 brought B2 Keep on the Borderlands, T1  Village of Hommlet -- a couple more low-level modules -- and S2 White Plume Mountain (5-10, not likely to occupy many sessions). (8+3= 11 modules in 1979) You would still need a lot of other material to get characters (and players) from 1st level up to 8th+ so they could play the previous year's releases.1980 gave us the World of Greyhawk folio. "Sandbox", anyone? Also A1, the first of the Slavers series (4-7) and time-limited scenarios C1 (3-7) and C2 (5-7). S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was another high-level affair (8-12), as was the probably superfluous Q1 (10-14). (11+5= 16 modules in 1980)Leaving out the G-D reprints, '81 gave us 8 more modules: the other three Slavers; B3, L1 and U1 (more low levels); X1 and I1 (4-7). (16+8= 24 modules in 1981)We got 9 more in '82: B4 and U2 (low); X2 and X3, I2 and I3 (mid); N1 (low to mid); S4 and WG4 [no such things as WG1-3] (mid to high) (24+9= 33 modules in 1982)There was a bumper crop in 1983 -- 13 (IIRC), not including the invisible-ink solos -- with several "adventure paths" possible. One might still need to "fill in gaps", but 47 modules sure provided more packaged fun than zero.Again, there had been dungeon modules from JG starting with Tegel Manor (1977). Citadel of Fire came out in 1978.In 1979, JG published about another dozen, including a solitaire dungeon. The 1980 output was about half a dozen, as other games got attention -- along with more "sandbox" material. There were another 8 (I think) D&D or AD&D modules in 1981, which IIRC was the year TSR withdrew its licenses and the "Universal Fantasy" releases began.All along, there were assorted materials of other utility, such as the Village Books, the Books of Treasure Maps, and the Dungeoneer and Pegasus magazines. Strictly in terms of what I offhand would call "dungeon modules", though, I estimate totals of 2 in 1978, 13 (not counting the solo) in 1979, 19 in 1980, and 27 in 1981.Adding those "Approved" modules to TSR's, the totals are1974: none1975: none1976: *01977: *11978: 101979: 241980: 351981: 511982: 601983: 73* not counting Wee Warriors' Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976), The Dwarven Glory (1976? 77?), and Misty Isles (1977?), which I don't think got much distribution.In 1984, TSR turned out about 30, including the first 5 in the Dragonlance Saga. 1985-87 were about 20 new modules per year -- or about as many in the 3 years 1984-86 as with JG combined in the 7 years 1977-1983 -- for 160+ total (not counting later JG, or Mayfair's "Role Aids"). By the debut of 2E, figure about that many from TSR alone.</blockquote>

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