The New Classics

[Gary N. Mengle]

"Descent Into the Depths of the Earth."
"Secret of the Slaver's Stockage."
"Against the Giants."
"The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh."
"Ravenloft."

In ten years, which of today's D&D3 adventures will be talked about in the same company as these classics?

 

[Ravellion]

"Return to the temple of elemental evil"

 

[arwink]

To be honest, probably the adventure path series and the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. They have the greatest exposure out of the various adventures released for 3e, and the communal aspect of all of those adventures is part of what makes them classic. Most people playing 1e covered at least one or two of those, and most people who started playing 3e did the same with adventure path.

Personally, I'd like to see Of Sound Mind and Demon-Gods Fane taking up a spot or two.

 

[Crothian]

Three Days to Kill

 

[A2Z]

Three Days to Kill

Why don't you take a week and do it right?

 

[jmucchiello]

Nothing.

All of the examples listed are 1st edition modules. What are the 2nd edition classics? Nothing.

 

[Henry]

2nd edition classics?

you got me there.

can't remember a one that I could mention that a majority of people had said they played.

However, I seriously think that Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury are likely to be contenders for 3E. They were the first two adventures released for 3E, and likely got played by a large percentage of people in the first six months of 2001.

Keep in mind that the majority of 2nd edition players were trained likely under 1st edition players or GM's, and likely played all those 1st edition modules over again for their entries into the world of the "classics."

 

[MThibault]

I think that 2e might have been too fragmented to really create the shared experience that is needed for a consensus. It seemed like everyone was playing in a different campaign setting (or at least pillaging a different setting or two for their homebrews) so the adventures/modules weren't as portable as they were in 1e, even when they were generic.

3e has slimmed down the product lines so there is more commonality among new players than there was in the 90s. So I would have to say that the in 20 years the adventure path series and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil will probably be remembered fondly as formative gaming experiences by the most people.

I would probably like to see the Freeport series remembered as a classic, and it might be. But if it is, it will probably be due to the Woodstock effect: it seems like anyone who was old enough to attend the event claims that they were there, but mostly it is manufactured nostalgia.

Cheers.

 

[jmucchiello]

I think that 2e might have been too fragmented to really create the shared experience that is needed for a consensus. It seemed like everyone was playing in a different campaign setting (or at least pillaging a different setting or two for their homebrews) so the adventures/modules weren't as portable as they were in 1e, even when they were generic.

2nd ed had just as much fanfare. I think you have to be careful with the Internet effect. You may assume that just because many ENWorlders have experienced Sunless Citadel and other adventure path modules that many other people will as well. I doubt that. My adventure group tried to do the adventure path. We gave up doing Sunless Citadel because it just didn't work for us. We'll never return to the other modules. We have no desire to run a 4-14 level mega adventure like Return to temple of evil. I don't think they will be classics.

10 years from now, there will talk of a 4th edition. 10 years after that there will be talk of a 5th edition. Will WotC (or whoever) really create a 25th anniversary "Return to the sunless citadel"? Who will be nostalgic about 3rd ed modules when 5th ed is just around the corner 25 years from now.

I'll stand behind my first response. Nothing. For every "old timer" who says "Forge of Fury! That was a dungeon crawl. They don't make 'em like that anymore." There will be an even older "old timer" saying "Bah, There'll never be anything as good as Tomb of Horrors or White Plume Mountain. Forge of Fury's got Troglodytes and dwarves. Bah. Where's the giants, kua toa, drow, driders and spider goddesses of old?!? Now it's ecology this and social order that. Can you believe that a 5th edition monster has 10 lines of stats with no numbers in them before we find out it's attitude toward adventures and puppies? Hit dice are like a footnote in the monster description."

 

[WizarDru]

2nd ed had just as much fanfare. I think you have to be careful with the Internet effect. You may assume that just because many ENWorlders have experienced Sunless Citadel and other adventure path modules that many other people will as well. I doubt that. My adventure group tried to do the adventure path. We gave up doing Sunless Citadel because it just didn't work for us. We'll never return to the other modules. We have no desire to run a 4-14 level mega adventure like Return to temple of evil. I don't think they will be classics.

Except that you forget, a huge part of D&D's player base learned on 1e, and then left by 2e. I had stopped playing a couple of years prior to 2nd editions arrival. One of my friends at college bought the 2e PHB, and we all perused it, and then went and played GURPS Fantasy. FOR TWELVE YEARS.

Tons of fans have come back under 3e. There were not nearly as many active gamers five years ago. And with so many settings, there simply wasn't the same consensus.

SC and FoF are the two modules that most 3e players have played. I only played a handful of the 1e classics (though I read them all). Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is another classic, since it scratched a lot of people's itches, collectively speaking.

Like the last time we discussed 3E classics, there's more than one definition. One is the one we'll all be swapping stories about having played, the other is the one's well all remember seeing or hearing about. Not everyone has played or will play 'Of sound mind' or 'NeMoren's Vault', but they should. For the record 'Freeport' didn't do much for me, but it might be remembered this way as well, since it was another 'out of the gate first' offering.