The Classic 1E modules - an exclusive list

[francisca]

I wouldn't disagree that much.

T1 or T1-4? It's an interesting dilemma. I don't think T1 holds up that well without the Temple being designed as well, and I have problems with the danger level of the moathouse... but T1 is well known and probably deserves classic status over T1-4 for various reasons.

Well, it worked well for us as the jumping off point for several sets of characters, without the temple.

C1 and C2: I find them marginal between "almost classic" or "true classic", so...

Well, you never claimed this was scientific! they are classic to me and my buddies.

 

[Geoffrey]

I have a deep and abiding love for In Search of the Unknown.

As do I.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

As do I.

Third me for that one!

 

[johnsemlak]

I'll throw my vote in for a promotion for X1. One of the greats. If dinosaurs are the reason it's not a classic--don't dinosaurs really not play a central role in the mod?

Would the first Dragonlance mod be a worth inclusion perhaps?

Merric, would you be willing to reiterate (or, iterate) your criteria here for a 'classic mod'?

 

[MerricB]

What makes a classic module?

If I feel it's a classic, it is. Heh.

More seriously, probably the most important criteria are that it is both well known and popular. It would be hard to find better known modules than the Keep on the Borderlands, Against the Giants and Tomb of Horrors. There is an important shared experience with those modules, common to most older D&D players.

After that, there is a necessity to examine what the module brought to the D&D game. S1 is the archetypal "Killer Dungeon". GDQ, apart from being the first AD&D modules, also gave us an epic quest, the concept of the underdark, the drow, and the idea of actively demons interfering in events, as well as many other factors.

T1 gives us a campaign setting (with attached adventure) that could evolve.

As I said before S2 is a good example of "Monsters, Traps, Tricks and Treasure".

B2 is the fun introduction to D&D. The module also looks outwards, allowing the DM to build up the entire setting even more. There are parallels here to T1, although B2 handles the adventure section better than T1, and T1 handles the PC's base (slightly) better than B2.

X1, which I really should list in the classic section, is important in how it handles the wilderness: it's one of the few modules that is almost entirely wilderness, and the exploration of the wilderness at that. There's something extremely important implied by that blank map of the Isle of Dread with all the hexes for the players to fill in. Exploring the Unknown! I do think there should be more adventures like this one.

Apart from that, a classic module requires a certain amount of thematic cohesion. The theme in the GDQ modules is extremely strong - defeat the giants, then descend into the depths (although this isn't apparent at the beginning of the quest!) It's one reason I'm not so sure about the A series of modules as a whole: the grand theme of the slavers is extremely strong, but there are encounters in some of the modules (like the Aspis in A1) which I don't think quite fit in - a legacy of the tournament origins of these modules. A4, however, is definitely a classic.

U1, I3 and I6 bring in a new style of play: more role-playing or story-orientated than what came before. As I mentioned, I think that overall the U series is too slight on gaming material. To a large extent DL1 is a stage further in the progression from these modules - it suffers from being one of the Dragonlance modules. It is one of my favourite modules - it is a "near miss" for inclusion in the list of classics. In fact, DL1 suffers from a confusion as to how to get the PCs into the story, and this structural flaw is severe. It's great once the players are into the main story, but the DM can have a lot of problems getting them there. I've run it three times, so I've had a lot of experience with it!

There is a type of module that I regard as a "tournament" style of module: it has a quest, and then various monsters, traps and tricks to challenge the players. There are plenty of these sorts of modules, and to some extent they blend into one another. S2, S4, C1, C2, A1, A2 and A3 all are of this sort. So are other modules I've listed, and a few I haven't listed, but I do think that these are most noticiably of this sort. Of course, these module all originated as tournament modules, but they are more homogeneous in approach than, say, G1 is. You could probably list them all as "classics", but I prefer to only list those that I consider exceptional for one reason or another. I list A1-4 due to the great theme of the Slavers, and S2 because I consider it to be exceptional in its presentation.

The actual presentation of the module is important as well. When I think of the formatting and artwork of I3, B2 and S2, I am near my ideal of module presentation: easy for the DM to assimilate and use in his or her game. This is one reason I'm not so fond of L1: I don't like the presentation of the material very much.

N1 suffers (for me) in its presentation as well. I don't like how the text looks on the page, and I abhor Holloway's art.

In any case, that's how you discover which modules are classic or not. Simple, isn't it?

Cheers!

 

[Derulbaskul]

I had never heard of "Caverns of Thracia", which automatically disqualifies it - quite frankly, most non-TSR modules didn't quite have the distribution to build a classic status. (This is a major drawback to me being in Australia).

Actually, I'm in Australia too. We used to get a lot of the Judges Guild stuff here in Brisbane in the 80s.

As for T1 and T1-4, at the risk of being accused of being a heretic, I thought T1 was great but T1-4 (well, the non-T1 bits) was appalling... as in, really, really bad.

I remember waiting five years or whatever for it to be published and then all it was was a huge, logic-less dungeon crawl. Part of the problem for me was that there was no effort to make the clerics of Elemental Evil seem like anything other than generic clerics (although that was a bugbear for me, anyway, all through the dark days of 1E... and pre-FR Adventures/Faiths & Avatars 2E).

Actually, I would probably also include the Dragon adventure, Fedifensor, as a classic 1E adventure. It was the one that introduced us all to the delights of the githyanki on their own plane as well as their astral ships. Very, very cool and worthy of updating.

Can I also add another criterion to be considered when "classic" is defined: the product is considered worthy of updating to 3E/3.5E (or 4E when it eventually arrives).

 

[trancejeremy]

Hmmm, I would probably drop the T1-4 supermodule and the H series, because by then, it was past the "classic" era, IMHO. T1, OTOH, should count.

X2 Castle Amber, although for Expert D&D, should be included, as it was great, and most people who didn't have Expert D&D, just AD&D, still had this module. (Along with X1 and B1-B2)

I also wouldn't consider S3 just a "borderline" classic. If nothing else, it introduced the Vegepygmy.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm not sure if I would put them as classic modes according to Merric's criteria, but I definitely love X4-X5.

Great new monsters; challenging encounters, nasty problems to solve.

I'm not sure how widely it was played or distributed. As modules go, it was harder to adapt to settings besides Mystara (though I just ran them in Kalamar).

 

[diaglo]

i gotta agree T1-4 is 4 Suxx0rs. it was the end of the golden age. and the beginning of the crappiness. i waited years after using T1 for the followup and it turned out to be crap. with a capital C.

also gotta agree a little with PKitty and B3. white dragon riding knights just don't cut it in my book. i'll fourth B1 as a classic. i'm currently running another group thru it... OD&D style.

 

[MerricB]

B1 is an interesting case. I don't quite think I can call a module where you have to fill in a lot of it yourself a classic of the first water - though it probably qualifies as a minor classic.

We used to get a lot of the Judges Guild stuff here in Brisbane in the 80s.

I wish I'd seen more of it, then! Most of my 'classic' modules I've obtained through secondhand stores, and I've very, very rarely seen the JG modules.

T1 vs. T1-4: I came to those modules through T1-4 not T1, so I don't have the great memories of playing through T1 when "that was all there was".

With further regard to the 'tournament' modules: I was introduced to S2 before the others of that sort, which is probably why I place White Plume Mountain above the others: there is a certain "seen that" with later efforts in that genre.

Incidentally, do you notice how many of the classics or near-classics are tournament modules? D1-3, A1-4, S1,2,4, C1+...

Cheers!