POLL: Greatest "Golden Era" Module for D&D.

[Stormonu]

My personal favorite classic:

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FAR better than the actual adventure.

There was a time I would have voted for S1, but no longer.

B2 - The caves of Chaos have a very interesting ecology, and I love the subtle push to expand the Keep. And most of all, I love the hermit.

B4 - Until I found out this was based on a Conan story and encountered a comic version of that story, I kinda hated this module. It’s certainly grown on me, and I’d love to run a campaign using it. Sargon for President!

I3 - Pharaoh caught me with the maps and the internal story. It and Ravenloft are my two favorite modules of all time.

S2 - Who doesn’t want Black Razor? And I love the myriad non-combat puzzles throughout the three gauntlets.

Though I didn’t vote for them, U1, N1, L1 and T1 are all great “starter” modules that have very different approaches to the idea of a PC starting town.

 

[Retreater]

Out of curiosity, has the community done a similar vote on 3.x-era adventures? And what would that era be called?

 

[Lanefan]

Out of curiosity, has the community done a similar vote on 3.x-era adventures? And what would that era be called?

I've heard it called both the Silver era and the d-20 era.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

B4 - Until I found out this was based on a Conan story and encountered a comic version of that story, I kinda hated this module. It’s certainly grown on me, and I’d love to run a campaign using it. Sargon for President!

This one was actually a fairly common pulp fiction trope, that seems to have dropped out of use. "Red Nails" was probably the most accomplished Conan novella though.

I remember the animated Tarzan series of the late 70s did "The Lost City" a couple of times.

 

[David Howery]

B4 - Until I found out this was based on a Conan story and encountered a comic version of that story, I kinda hated this module. It’s certainly grown on me, and I’d love to run a campaign using it. Sargon for President!

B4 is interesting in that you can use either just half of it, or use it for a whole underground campaign. The top half of the buried pyramid is detailed and interesting and can be an adventure by itself. Or you can use the bottom half (which isn't detailed all that well, but hey) and keep the story going all the way down to Sargon itself. And you can keep going below that to the underground city. And keep going below that into the catacombs. And presumably below that into the Underdark, if you like. There are several good 'stop here or keep going' parts of the module....

 

[billd91]

So, my picks:

A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade - I love the A series and if I could have vote for a few more in the list, I'd have voted for them all. This one has a well-done site to explore, a secretive way in, and interesting NPCs running the place that can make for a highly dynamic environment.

A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lord - the capstone of the A series. How resourceful are the players when their PCs have all their stuff taken away? Can they get it back? I've enjoyed this challenge as a player and as a DM.

G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief - The G series is another utterly classic series of golden age modules. I picked G1 because the site is well designed and adventure sets up a pretty potent challenge - can the PCs keep a low enough profile to explore the steading without accidentally triggering an overwhelming encounter with too many giants? It's my favorite of the G series.

S2 White Plume Mountain - The dungeon is weird, but there are lots of interesting encounters and chambers that will keep a group of players on their toes. It's unabashedly a collection of tricks and puzzles to get the players working on creative solutions.

S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth - There may not be much rhyme or reason to why these creatures are where they are, but the lost caverns were packed with (at the time) new and interesting monsters.

I've even taken these adventures and run them in 3e. I feel every single one of them holds up really well. There may be differences here and there (G1 runs better against a party at about 11th-12th level than as low as 8th), but there really is a fair amount of fidelity in the experiences I had in 1e with 3e.

 

[Cleon]

Let me see, in appropriately the order I went "I love this module" while reading and re-reading through the list my picks go:

Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits - What, no love for Lolth? The extraplanar weirdness of the encounters, the innovative map of the Demonweb itself, fighting a Demon Queen inside her giant spider mecha palace. It's one of the greats.

S2 White Plume Mountain - A classic monster-filled puzzle dungeon that might not make much sense is a quintessential example of the genre.

S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks - A wonderful fusion of science fiction and fantasy, AD&D-style. There are some similar SF-D&D adventures in early D&D (i.e. DA2 Temple of the Frog and DA3 City of the Gods) that came out a few years after the cut-off point, but I don't like them as much! S3 has that gonzo gygaxian approach and a wide range of weird equipment, creatures and locations for the PCs to encounter and try to avoid dying.

X1 The Isle of Dread - Mainly because it's the urstone for early D&D hexcrawl adventures with the added bonus of dinosaurs. I prefer WG6 Isle of the Ape, but that isn't an option.

A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lord - Being trapped in a cave system with nothing but a loincloth and your wits is a great challenge for players. I've only run it with the pregen characters since it didn't seem right arbitrarily dumping a party of established PCs into the adventure.

Hmm, a lot of my favourites are modules which stand out for having an unusual theme or location. The more generic D&D adventures may be fine examples of their craft or even better for broad playability, but just don't stand out for me.

Here's a few also-rans. I was seriously tempted to include S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth since it was a module I had fun running players through but as an adventure I mainly opened it up to read the New Monsters supplement (at least until they were reprinted in Monster Manual II). Also tempted by S1 Tomb of Horrors since it's such a well-known classic, but frankly it's the Gygax module I'd be the least likely to run - I prefer ones were the PCs have more chance of surviving - plus if I check Q1 and S1 to S4 it would look unimaginative!

Teased with the idea of voting X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’ Amberville) since it reads very well but I've never got around to running it .

Was thinking of including a "Lost City" type adventure, probably I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City although B4 The Lost City was tempting but X1 The Isle of Dread ended up scratching my wilderness-exploration itch. Since it has dinosaurs as previously mentioned.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits - What, no love for Lolth?

Too high level. And at the end of a long "adventure path" before that was a thing. So never got played.

 

[atanakar]

Top three modules after 106 votes :

• X1 & U1 tied for first place, 34 votes
• B2, 33 votes
• S2, 32 votes

X1 made quite a comeback.