What are the classic adventure modules of 3E? (with a tally!)

[JeffB]

WizarDru reminded me ...

I really, really like the Kalamar modules. The Coin series (even with it's slight amount of railroading), Siren's Prize, Midnight's Terror, and Kruk Ma Kali (very TOH-ish without quite the meatgrinder attitude) are all very, very good. Whether they will be classics I don't know, but they should be!

 

[Psion]

Trust me Darrin. I definately enjoyed it and so did my players.

I think the thing that would keep Riddle of the Arcanexus from being a classic is that it doesn't have very good exposure. I did rather like the adventure.

Darrin, I saw your ad in the Dragon for it. It wasn't clear to me: is this just more advertising for the PDF version, or are you coming out with a print version. That would probable improve it's exposure immensely.

 

[Psion]

That not everyone agrees with that statement?

My aren't we catty?

Sorry, I suspect if you don't agree Cordell is a great author, you are probably in the minority. E.G. See who the author of this year's ENnie winning adventure was!

 

[WizarDru]

My aren't we catty?

Sorry, I suspect if you don't agree Cordell is a great author, you are probably in the minority. E.G. See who the author of this year's ENnie winning adventure was!

Hey, I put up a smiley, didn't I? I actually think Cordell is a very good author. Notice that I rate SC as one of the classics, and mentioned my high opinion of the PsiHB. In fact, I never intended to touch Psionics until 3E, when Monsieur Cordell made right what was made wrong so long ago. But HoNS is just, to quote the Outlaw Josey Wales, "Mad Dog Mean."

 

[Dr Midnight]

RttToEE left me a little sour. It was very grand in scale, sure, and lots of NPC information and anything you'd need to know... but so much of it was just seven (creature)s in a room, you open the door, attack, loot, repeat.

Sunless Citadel really pleased me. It had everything I want in a module... and the imagery from the descriptive text was vivid and wondrous in my imagination. I really liked it. Of course, when I told Mr. Cordell this at last year's Gencon, he didn't really seem to care.

NeMoren's Vault is just something I keep pulling out to read through now and then. I haven't played or run it for anyone yet, but I can't wait. It's very very good. I think it's already a classic.

I may have to look up some Freeport stuff, what with all these recommendations. Those covers are just horrible, and yes, they've kept me from looking inside. Shame on me.

 

[Henry]

...I actually think Cordell is a very good author....But HoNS is just, to quote the Outlaw Josey Wales, "Mad Dog Mean."

Although I have not read Heart of NIghtfang spire, it is my opinion that D&D needs a "mad dog mean" module, every once in a while - for two reasons:

1) Tomb of Horrors set a very high bar way back in 1E. If you had a character that LEGITIMATELY survived that module, you one heck of a cerebral D&D player. The traps were cunning, but the clues were there, if you used them. It's a bar to be set, and people take appreciation in surpassing something they know is difficult - even in fun. Think "D&D extreme."

2) There are some DM's that like to have areas in their campaigns that no one same would go. They don't want to make insta-kill death traps, but they want something that if the Company of Crazed Venturers decides to go into, they can pull out a game-legal scenario and say, "OK, here's what you're getting into." Where's the fun in saying "POOF, you're dead", when you can say, "The 12 Iron Golems that guard the inner courtyard advance mercilessly. Make a Fortuitude save 11 times versus DC20."

It's nice to know that Bruce helped D&D set a new high-bar. I just may have to pick up that module, with that glowing recommendation.

 

[WizarDru]

1) Tomb of Horrors set a very high bar way back in 1E. If you had a character that LEGITIMATELY survived that module, you one heck of a cerebral D&D player. The traps were cunning, but the clues were there, if you used them. It's a bar to be set, and people take appreciation in surpassing something they know is difficult - even in fun. Think "D&D extreme."

2) There are some DM's that like to have areas in their campaigns that no one same would go. They don't want to make insta-kill death traps,
...[snip]...
Where's the fun in saying "POOF, you're dead",

But see, here's the problem: the module is full of "Poof, you're dead" situations. There are multiple set-ups for make a save or die encounters and traps. Most of these don't have any warning or way that a clever character can avoid them. The "If you can read draconic and fail a Will save, you DIE" trap is one example. The Tombstone Golem who has a "Slay Living" power instead of Slow is another. Unless the cunning trap was "Don't play a class that has a weak save against this situation".

I understand that some folks find that enjoyable. My group didn't then, and we don't now. Some groups enjoy tapping with 10' poles and using the Paladin's Detect Evil power every two rounds as they LITERALLY crawl through the dungeon. Again, not us. I think parts of the module are brilliant. But my party threw up their hands after 9 sessions, and walked away from the dungeon. They told their patron to get someone else to deal with the problem, and their patron did.

To me, Tomb of Horrors works as a wargame abstraction, but not as an actual module. It's hilarious reading about the horrific traps and ways to slaughter characters. But I wouldn't have many friends left I actually used it on the characters my group has spent nearly 3 years leveling up.

 

[Henry]

But I wouldn't have many friends left I actually used it on the characters my group has spent nearly 3 years leveling up.

That's partly the difference in what makes a good module now versus 20 years ago - there is much more emphasis among players on consistent character building, and minimization of chances for resurrection of characters. While still valid, it is very much in the minority.

I'll let you in on a secret - I don't think I'd run a permanent group through Tomb of Horrors now, either. But it still doesn't take away my admiration for what is to me one of the great classic watershed concept modules for D&D - the tournament-meat-grinder. TOH's tradition still lives on in the Gencon Yearly Dungeon Delve - which I really want to recreate for and gather all my players for one day to do. Maybe throw a big "D&D" party for all the gaming groups I have gamed with in the past few years - around 20 people, total - and throw a big bash, gather a bunch of pre-drawn maps, or spring for those dwarven forge sets one day, and just run a continuous crawl for 4 PC's that regularly get killed every 10 minutes or so, so that people can bring in fresh character sheets with pre-genn'ed characters. The ultimate Beer and Pretzels D&D session!

 

[Blackthorne]

IMHO, these 3E modules are soon-to-be classics:

RttToEE - The granddaddy of all 3E modules. I can´t praise Monte highly enough for this.

The Forge Of Fury - Now this is what I call a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl in the best sense of the word!

The Standing Stone - IMO the best module in the andventure path series.

Lord Of The Iron Fortress - Very well done and with a cool and memorable location.

Freeport series - Great story, lots of fun!

Of Sound Mind - Experienced it as a player some weeks ago and loved it.


For the record: HoNS is in my view one of the most uninspired (no pun intended, really) H&S modules I´ve seen in a long time. I don´t like Sunless Citadel either, although I am really a big fan of Cordell´s work in general (PsiHB, Bastion, some of his 2E modules). And it could be worse (just look at Deep Horizon!).

Finally, some of the best modules I´ve seen for 3E appear in the pages of Dungeon. Check it out if you haven´t yet!

 

[BlackMoria]

I enjoy 'Mad Dog Mean' modules. I enjoy their challenge and the lethality keep me at my peak.

Tomb of Horror - Loved this one. Of course, I was the only character who didn't die.

Labyrinth of Madness - Oh, my.... Our party lost 3 out of 6 characters before we even got into the labyrinth proper. Again, I enjoyed very much (I was the only one who didn't die at least once)

Return to the Tomb of Horror - (how many ways to die, let me count the ways...) Only original character that survived yet again. Again, I enjoyed.

Heart of Nightfang Spire - not quite on par with the above, but still fun. Several people survived this one, but not all

Bastion of Broken Souls - oh, my god. The opening encounter really sets the tone. The Bastion itself is killer, particularly the energons. I was the only one to walk away with an original character who didn't die from this one.

RttToEE - Nasty. The body count was high and the other players went through the motions of creating characters. This was the adventure that I realized that the only person having fun was me. I had a character who didn't die. Each other player had 2-3 character each.

That is when it struck me - I was having a great time, but I now wonder about the other players who had to create new characters or who had their characters raised several time. None of my fellow players complained, but RttToEE was the first time I noticed the other players were just going through the motions after they had lost their characters for the second time.

I may be weird but I like the challenge of 'living on the edge'. So far, I've 'come up spades' in every adventure, which might be the appeal for me.

Maybe 'survival = fun' for the Mad Dog Mean modules. If you survived, it was fun. If you are on character No. 3 for that adventure, I can see where the adventure would lose its luster.

Still, I like the high bar these adventures set.