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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4912276" data-attributes="member: 4937">The first three modules I was familiar with were B1, U1, and X1.  I knew at the time that those existed, but I'd never played them (although I played the C and S modules a few years later).  The A and GDQ modules, I've never actually played, and looking back on them, don't really want to.  As such, I have no real attachment to them and a much broader feel for what is 'classic', even though my gaming also begins in like '82.I was actually in college before I got a hold of I3 and I4, and my admiration for them as modules vastly exceeds many things people would consider classic.  I still think that they are largely very well constructed modules, and having converted them to 3.0, I have come to conclude that many of the things I consider limited and 'immature' about them, have more to do with the limitations of space in the format than the limitations of the writer.  It's amazingly how terse old school D&D modules are.Of course, its quite possible that the same is true of the even more terse 'classic' modules you list.  Certainly I see less clearly how to turn G1-3 into something I'd consider running than I do I3-5, and that's even having read the silver anniversery update to the modules as well.For my part I think that you can make a good argument that I6 (and DL1, the other module you mention) are the dividing line between the first and second ages of D&D modules.  No, it jumped the shark with the release of 'Shadowdale' (FRE1), a module from which D&D would not recover for a very long time.I'd rather own and run 'The Forest Oracle' than own and run 'Haunted Halls of Eveningstar' (FRQ1).   Production values aside, 'The Forest Oracle' is a far superior module.  If I hadn't already dumped FRQ1, I'd happily trade you for N2.   The are definately worth owning.  The production values in the 1e MM are terrible.  But as a campaign guide, it exceeds any MM since.  I really could probably run a campaign that started with little more than random encounters from the 1e MM, because it does an extremely good job of world building.  It tells you for instance, what percentage of Hobgoblin lairs are underground, gives a rough outline of what their fortress would be like if it isn't, tells you what percentage of encounters with hobgoblins will be with a nearby lair, and what percentage are merely wandering in the open, tells you how many catapolts said lair will have, what pets they have, what treasure each individual hobgoblin will have, how they are armed, what value in total the goods in the lair will have, what the organization of a tribe is and how powerful its leaders should be, and so forth.  Each entry is practically an adventure in itself. The PH is probably the least interesting of the bunch, except for its descriptions of proper play.  But the 1e DMG in particular ought to be required reading for any well rounded DM.  It's a treasure chest and has never in my opinion been surpassed.</blockquote>

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