So what 3E adventures were worst?

[Lancelot]

As a DM, I consider the most worthwhile thing about Necropolis to be EGG's writing style. It makes me smile every time. The constant emphasis on never cutting players an even break, the overwrought pulp 30's style curses, the text boxes where a simple chair takes a couple of paragraphs to describe...

The rest of the module is absolutely... hmmm... "not to my tastes". Bad stats, lethal traps that rely less on intelligence rather than luck, the mishmash assortment of creatures. 1e feeling, indeed.

It's simply a new Tomb of Horrors, and you can count me as one of those who think Tomb of Horrors is massively overrated. I've been DM'ing 25 years now. I fully recognize ToH as a classic, but it's not fun. It's not in the spirit of the kind of games I like to run. And I disagree that it's a test of intelligence. In many cases, it's a test of trial-and-error... where error is punished with instant death. The module virtually mandates the group has serious divination magic available. They should continually check auras, cast augury or divination or commune, and so forth. Now, you could claim that any group (of powergamers) worth their salt should have access to all that... but I dislike any module that forces a group to bring along X clerics or X wizards. The best modules can be adapted to the party of four roleplayers who all want to play gnomish barbarians (...perish the thought).

In terms of WotC modules, I was most disappointed with Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. Railroad plot, a scheme that is more diabolical than demoniac, lip-service to Planescape entities and locations (...but with the tagline on the back of the book reading: "Go to the Abyss. Meet demon-lords. Kill everything." - the antithesis of Planescape), bad stats, repetitive encounters, dozens of wasted pages on Delve format write-ups for non-combat encounters.... Such a waste.

 

[meomwt]

My vote for worst goes to The Pit of Loch-Durnan. Poorly developed dungeon, bad hook, terrible assumption of player actions - not good.

And I even played in it after reading the module (the DM didn't know I had the book) and had realised it was a bummer

 

[VirgilCaine]

In many cases, it's a test of trial-and-error... where error is punished with instant death. The module virtually mandates the group has serious divination magic available. They should continually check auras, cast augury or divination or commune, and so forth.

Instant death? Only a few places. Most of the time it's not nearly so harsh.

Detect Magic at will for 9th level characters is serious divination magic?
Augury, sure. That's a good idea. Wand of augury, there you go. Not too heavy a cost.

Divination or Commune would certainly be helpful to cast each day (or even a couple times a day), but not needed every room.
However, if you don't have a cleric and a wizard, it gets harder to provide this, yes.

 

[JoeBlank]

One of the largest threads on ENWorld here would seem to disagree with you there. I'm biased, of course.

I think WLD gets bagged on so severely by some because, frankly, there are sections that could have been done a hell of a lot better. The first version of the Pyrefaust was a wreck before it was edited, but Region A, the intro, the hook that should have drawn players into the Awesomeness...well, it's a lot of empty rooms and repetitive descriptions.

I'm personally very, very glad that fans of the WLD took the time and made suggestions on how to fill regions out or change them entirely out. As written, though...Region A is dull. Bad thing for a mega-dungeon to be.

I do wonder what folks thought of the other Regions; I've gotten a lot of good to excellent feedback on things like the World Tree and celestial garrison. Both Regions, I note, that I didn't write.

Agreed. You can't damn the whole adventure on one region, but the fact that it is the very first region does hurt. If I run it again I will seriously rework A, or start elsewhere.

 

[Jim Hague]

Agreed. You can't damn the whole adventure on one region, but the fact that it is the very first region does hurt. If I run it again I will seriously rework A, or start elsewhere.

Hell, man, I seriously advocate hitting the thread here for anyone running WLD. It's a tremendous resource. And I again agree - Region A is quite possibly the worst way to start off WLD as written. Empty rooms don't seem to hold a lot of promise, y'know?