The Defining Adventure Modules for each Edition

[messy]

1e- tomb of horrors.
2e- return to the tomb of horrors.
3e- wotc's 3e conversion of tomb of horrors.
4e- someone's 4e conversion of tomb of horrors.

 

[Klaus]

1e- tomb of horrors.
2e- return to the tomb of horrors.
3e- wotc's 3e conversion of tomb of horrors.
4e- someone's 4e conversion of tomb of horrors.

WotC did a 4e Tomb of Horrors.

 

[kitsune9]

For AD&D-Against the Giants
For BECMI-Isle of Dread
For AD&D 2e-Probably Doom of Daggerdale since that's the only published adventure I ran several times.
For 3e-Rappan Athuk!! Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury are good seconds.
For 3.5-Age of Worms AP
For Pathfinder--haven't gotten there yet because the first campaign to make use of the rules, I wrote. I am running Carrion Crown so we'll see how that plays out.

 

[Raith5]

I think we are forgetting the first ed adventure: N2 The Forest Oracle

 

[ExploderWizard]

Desert of Desolation series - we greatly modified these to turn it into a series of archaeological and organized crime adventures, and it was superbly good to me, plus it was the first modules I ever used written by women, and they were good. I still remember the Boat of a Million Years.

These were cool adventures but Tracy Hickman is a guy. I3 was co-authored by a woman (Laura Hickman), the rest were written by Tracy (along with Phillip Meyers on I4).

 

[Shemeska]

2e: I really think you have to pick not one or two defining modules, but a module for each of several 2e campaign settings.

For 2e Planescape I'd have to pick either Dead Gods or Faction War.

 

[billd91]

I can't knock some of the suggestions made here. Lots of good choices.

For 2nd edition - Return to the Keep on the Borderlands is well done. It's a fairly late entry though. Undermountain probably serves as more of an iconic suggestion, as would Dragon Mountain.

I think one of the problems with 2e is less that the modules are forgettable as much as we share many fewer common experiences with them compared to the 1e modules. By the time 2e was around, TSR was cranking out a lot of specialized stuff that had more niche appeal. Meanwhile, the 1e modules we first started playing in 1e, when there was a lot less out there to play with, were still in use because the game rules were so compatible.

 

[delericho]

I'm rather partial to "The Shattered Circle" for 2nd Edition. And for 3e I had a wonderful experience with "Shackled City" - one of my top-three campaigns of all time.

That said, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that there are better ways to design adventures. Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the failure of the Delve Format is that I fear it will make WotC reluctant to experiment with different approaches again. And it also seems that too often adventures (even good adventures) seem to boil down to "there's some monsters over there; here's your excuse; go kill them!"

 

[the Jester]

I think one of the problems with 2e is less that the modules are forgettable as much as we share many fewer common experiences with them compared to the 1e modules. By the time 2e was around, TSR was cranking out a lot of specialized stuff that had more niche appeal. Meanwhile, the 1e modules we first started playing in 1e, when there was a lot less out there to play with, were still in use because the game rules were so compatible.

It's all a matter of opinion, of course, but...

No, I really think most 2e modules were crap. There were very few that I bothered to pick up, and most of them have fallen away from my collection over the years and I've no intention of picking most of them up again.

1e modules, OTOH, are gems, and I'd pick up almost any of the ones I no longer have, given the chance.

 

[saskganesh]

First edition:
Probably Homlett and the G&D&Q series. Everyone played those.

TOEE came out six years after T1. It didn't seem worth the wait. I still hold a lot of antipathy towards that module because of the lax production cycle.