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

[TiQuinn]

My votes are for Forge of Fury, In the Belly of the Beast, and Three Days to Kill. The modules from the Penumbra line have been awesome! Gritty, plenty of roleplaying opportunities, and with a good deal of action. They also had some very unique twists that were out of sight!

As for Forge of Fury, it featured the first battle in 3rd edition in which I feared for my character's life! Great stuff!

 

[Mithriltooth]

Classic Modules...

Basic D&D- B2 The Keep On The Borderlands

1st Edition- The Tomb Of Horrors (by far the best), The Lost Caverns of Tsocanth (another excellent module), White Plume Mountain, The GDQ series and of course Castle Ravenloft.

2nd Edition- Id go with "The Night Below", "Rod Of Seven Parts" and the "Return To The Tomb Of Horrors" boxed sets.

2nd Edition Ravenloft- "Feast Of Goblyns" (Excellent), "From The Shadows", and "Roots Of Evil".
2nd Edition PlaneScape- "The Eternal Boundary" (possibly the best starting module since B2)

3rd Edition so far- "The Sunless Citadel and " and currently "The Raiders Of Galath's Roost" - Skip Williams, Dungeon Magazine #87


***LATE EDIT- the above is based on experience and fun factors. Ive been playing D&D for about 20 years.

 

[Knightfall]

Best setting tie in, tie for me. The Serpant Amphora Series and the White Robes Black Hearts by Dark Portal Games.

Thanks for the ego boost Nightfall. Darrin and Tony will love White Robes, Black Hearts being considered a future classic series.

I am somewhat biased, but I think modules from Necromancer Games, Fiery Dragon and Troll Lord's are all excellent. I have also been impressed by Dark Portal Games (specifically, Enigma of the Arcanexus). Another company I haven't really seen mentioned is Kenzer Co. I don't have a huge amount of their material, but at least one module I have is extremely well-done.

Thanks for the kind words about EotA. The print version will be out soon with new artwork and new content so keep an eye out for it. DPG also put out a rewritten/revised version of the free PDF adventure Dead Fire. It's a great lead in for EotA.

 

[MerricB]

My list of classic modules:

Basic D&D: B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands
* designed as a fun module, not as one needing much game logic, etc. I've run this in my new 3E campaign. It led onto...

1E AD&D: I3, I4, I5: Desert of Desolation
* The clarity with which these modules were written hasn't been surpassed. NPCs have personality and knowledge that means roleplaying with them is useful. Traps & Tricks are inventive and fiendish. Their only flaw is in how you get the PCs into them. (In my case, the passage to the Caves of the Unknown in the Chaos Shrine in B2 led to a magic portal - and the Desert!)

S1: Tomb of Horrors
* Very early module, showing what not to do in design, but fun for the DM (if not for the players).

GDQ: Against the Giants, Descent into the Depths, Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
* Although more of an outline than a fully detailed adventure (particularly in D3), this showed the possibilities of an epic campaign. It also showed how successive mysteries could be layered on top of each other to provide interest and wonder throughout the series. Alas, Q1 is not anything near as good as it should be, and doesn't mesh well with the rest of the adventure.

2E AD&D: I never played many of the modules of this series, but I do agree that Feast of Goblyns is a fascinating adventure. (Is Dead Gods a classic? Alas, I've never seen this, but heard much good about it).

3E D&D: The Sunless Citadel
* I just like it, though I've never DMed its entirity.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
* Big, epic and a masterful weaving together of threads from scattered Greyhawk products. (For those who criticise Cook for using the EEG in a way not intended by Gygax... well, Gygax had his chance to lay it out years and years ago).

Cheers!

 

[Morpheus]

Classics of 3e

This is a tough question to answer for many of the reasons given in previous posts. Part of the problem for me is what I consider "classic" may not necessarily be considered "classic" by the majority (or even the minority, for that matter). Case in point-I consider Dwellers of the Forbidden City to be a classic 1e module in the same vein as The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and the Ghost Tower of Inverness. Others do not agree that it should be labeled with those two. To each their own...Here are some that I think might be considered classics later on...

1) Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil-The return of the epic adventure (that isn't a series).

2) The Freeport series-Solid story, high adventure...

3) The Witchfire Trilogy-It gets a bad rap because of its railroading tactics, but this is great addition to 3e.

 

[Nightfall]

Not a problem Rob! You, Darrin and Tony do great work and I'm certainly planning on getting CoA and Veil as well.

 

[FDP Mike]

Re: I apologize..

I was referring more to rules additions, which i still believe wotc, for all the flac they, still dominates...

Fair enough, I think.

This focus was not entirely clear before, though I began having my suspicions.

In some ways, the matter can still be debated, as d20 publishers definitely are catching up in this regard. Yet, true, WotC perhaps does lead in this sense -- and its products and rules additions will always be "official."

Thanks for clarifying, tjasamcarl, as it was helpful.

 

[Knightfall]

Not a problem Rob! You, Darrin and Tony do great work and I'm certainly planning on getting CoA and Veil as well.

While I didn't work on Veil of Malice I'm glad to hear that you're looking forward to it. Tony announced a long time ago that the module had gone to the play testers and I'm thinking it is pretty much finished (Don't Quote Me On That).

Maybe Darrin or Tony can post details on where Veil of Malice is in its stage of development. Guys?

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

originally posted by ColonelHardisson

There were a few late-2e modules that really should have been held for 3e, in my opinion. Had they been released for 3e, I think they would have had a good shot at classic status:

* The Shattered Circle - a very good low-level module. One of the last 2e modules.

* Axe of the Dwarvish Lords - the last of the 2e "Tomes" adventures, and the last big adventure for 2e. I love this module, and I'm about a third of the way through a conversion for it.

* Return to the Tomb of Horrors - a truly scary module/boxed set. My favorite Bruce Cordell work.

* A Paladin In Hell - lost in the shuffle of TSR's collapse/WotC's resurrection of D&D/the impending release of 3e, this is a great high-level module, and has an "Odyssey" feel to it.

I wholeheartedly agree. The Shattered Circle is quite simply the best low-level adventure that TSR/WotC put out for 2e, hands down.

The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords looked very cool, but I never really checked it out.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors...oooh this one was fun, I'm semi-sorta running my own little 3e conversion of this one with some throw-away characters. It would be an incredible experience for my players if I emphasized more than the combat.

A Paladin in Hell looked and sounded marvelous... I'm sort of sad I didn't give it more than a second glace.

 

[Mithriltooth]

S1: Tomb of Horrors
* Very early module, showing what not to do in design, but fun for the DM (if not for the players).

wow

This felt like such a great module at the time. It had players nervous, fearfull and extra carefull to say the least. It had great forboding atmosphere that had my players(well their characters) yearning to see the light of day again outside the crypt. It was great to see my players roleplay putting aside their bickering natures (which they had at times) and actually depend on eachother to survive.
I consider ToH a milestone for AD&D.

I do agree with your assessment of the GDQ series, particularly D3 "Vault of the Drow" being an "outline". It took alot of work for me to further detail some of Erelhei-Cinlu.
Q1 might not have fit as well as intended (especially in the case of the Spider Ship which I didnt care for), but we found it entertaining. Had there been Planar rules as detailed as they are now, Q1 might have been stellar.