What adventure module defines D&D to you?

[Vyvyan Basterd]

It's necessary if you're doing it right. D&D is at its best when the players are free to create their own motivations. They have to be free to be unprincipled, unscrupulous, even thieves or assassins. The GM shouldn't assume they're going to choose to fall into the heroic archetype.

-1 XP for you.

Yes, assuming such things is not a good plan. Setting parameters to your game at the outset is acceptable though, IMO. Telling anyone that they're not "doing it right" because they decide to set parameters for their game is nonsense.

 

[Lidgar]

D1-3 probably best "defines" my view/play style of D&D. These modules felt more like outlines, with long passages of very descriptive Gygaxian text to add flavor and mystery/weirdness. Many opportunities to spontaneously create side treks and surprises, as well as story lines between competing noble and merchant houses, religions (Lloth vs. Elder Elemental), and races (Kuo-toa, Drow, Bugbears, Trogs, Trolls, etc.). I strive to have these elements (openness, multiple story lines, bizarre/unexpected locals and visuals) in what I run today.

 

[EricNoah]

B1 and A1, for me.

 

[Ariosto]

That's why I found it so unusual that so many people--not everyone, certainly--focused on one edition's modules.

Because that "edition" (the leaders seem to be associated with several editions of TSR-D&D, actually) is definitive for so many people? It was basically the game that defined the role-playing game field in many minds from 1974 through 1999 -- a span of 25 years. WotC-D&D has been around for less than a decade, the 4e version for (I think) less than two years.

So, it's not just "the old stuff" that's favored but "most of the time" by a factor of more than 2 to 1. The oldest modules are perfectly playable with AD&D 2nd Edition! If it is slightly easier to do that than to retrofit a 2e module, that may further skew the appraisal. However you slice it, we're talking the modules that have probably gotten the most play (and maybe the most reading).

Other than mine, I have noticed but one other nominee (Tegel Manor) from the Judges Guild. General quality aside, the JG products just do not seem to have been as widely distributed (and TSR in the 1980s withdrew the license to use its trademarks, which cut that more). Not surprisingly, the JG modules are the only OD&D representatives; TSR's first module (G1) was issued under the Advanced D&D logo even though the core AD&D rules set was not yet complete.

Although my pick -- Paul Jaquays's The Caverns of Thracia -- was written for the Original D&D rules set, it was published in the same year (1979) as the first DMG. Necromancer Games published an expanded version for WotC's "3.5" edition in 2004. That's right: a quarter century after its initial publication, with a very different game in print under the D&D trademark, this was considered (and proven, I think) to have enough commercial appeal to warrant all the work that went into the colorful new hardback volume. People who had never seen it before, who were not even D&Ders when it was last in print, got it and played it and praised it.

The "d20 System" era saw the publication of a lot of scenarios. The sheer volume alone bodes against any one being such a common touchstone as some earlier modules have proven to be. My guess as to one standout would be the "Maure Castle" installments in Dungeon magazine ... the first of which basically recapitulated, and all of which expanded upon, Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure from 1984 (which in turn referred back to a campaign of a decade or more earlier, iirc).

The definition of the question itself makes it different from "what most represents the way I play" -- today or any day. It is specifically limited to published "adventure modules" (which I, at least, took as counting out "setting supplements", such as Wilderlands of High Fantasy, as well as more generally informative articles).

 

[Jack Daniel]

Seconds for Escape from Zanzer Tem's Dungeon and B10: Night's Dark Terror, but if I had to pick one that topped the list for me, it would absolutely have to be X3:

 

[Chrono22]

Savage Tide is pure, unadulterated D&D for me. It's got everything I look for in a campaign.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Why is what you experienced first necessarily definitive of the hobby?

I'll join the chorus and say that the first module I ever experienced was The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. When I considered the title question, I immediately thought of it, and quickly realized that while I have very fond memories of that adventure, it simply isn't a "definitive" D&D module to me.

So after thinking hard about it, I decided it's pretty much a tie between B1 and B2, which I didn't experience until a little later.

 

[CleverNickName]

Another vote for The Isle of Dread. It is the standard by which I compare all other published adventure modules to.

 

[Mark]

I've only sometimes been part of a group that would use modules/adventures with any frequency but I was lucky enough to play in the Giant series when they were part of the D&D tourney at Gencon in the 70s, so I'll say that Steading of the Hill Giant Chief would be my pick to run as a way to use a module as an introduction to D&D (and I would do so with the 1ED&D rules rather than the (O)D&D rules because I think they were a good advancement for the game).

 

[Riley]

It's fascinating that the vast majority of posters define DnD through modules at least 20 years old. Why is what you experienced first necessarily definitive of the hobby? I've played in or read all of these old modules and I'd never regard them as especially definitive of the game I play today.

My "defining" choice wasn't close to being my first experience of D&D; I played for about five years before coming to the Temple of Elemental Evil. I love its scope, and the interplay of its various parts, better than what preceded it. I also far prefer its openness to the more restrictive 2e and 4e module styles, which have never really done much for me. On the other hand, there are several fantastic 3e modules and Dungeon adventures that come close to the greatness of the Temple for me. However, I've now played or run the Temple three times, under three different editions, and it never seems to lose its magic.