What are the new 'Classics'?

[DnD_Dad]

Not really a full blown adventure but I still use "Storm-peace" any time I have a group of new players, and they love it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I agree about the "classicness" of adventures like Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury, but recent? They're a decade old, folks!

My, how the time flies. C'mon August!

 

[Wycen]

Pathfinder is so new I don't consider anything classic yet, but going on my experience...

The first Paizo modules, the earlier the better, may become classics. For me, the Seven Swords of Sin will get there only because I played in the dungeon delve at Gencon where they had that dungeon designed with terrain and everybody who waited in line got a turn.

Also the first non Wotc AP, Rise of the Runelords.

Also, some of the other modules, but I couldn't name any except Crucible of Chaos because it was based on a passed over Open Design idea.

Maybe Crown of the Kobald King or whatever the name is.

 

[Celtavian]

If I had to predict:

1. Kingmaker: I think this module will be legendary one day. I've been playing D&D a long time. I can't recall a module that let the PCs become the rulers of their own land in such a satisfying and well-integrated way in the adventure. My players were very pleased to be rulers and have their own kingdom to manage and build as they wish. They even came up with a flag, spent time coming up with names for their cities, designed their thrones, and enjoyed fighting wars that mattered.

2. Rise of the Runelords: This adventure is very fun.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'd say that both Goodman Games' Castle Whiterock and Rappan Athuk 1-3 (or reloaded) are superior large dungeons to WLD, though Whiterock is much less well known, and I suspect fewer have played RA than WLD.

I don't know Rappan Athuk, but I have to give some praise for Castle Whiterock. Normally, I'm not a fan of megadungeons but this one is really excellent and most importantly for this kind of thing: It's well organized!

I've not yet played it, though. I've read (most) of the books and the excellent series of reviews over at rpg.net.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

For me the one adventure that I can honestly say may deserve "classic" status are Age Of Worms Part One - THE WHISPERING CAIRN. Holy Crap was that a good module to run (and for my players at the time) a good one to play in.

I would also nominate a few of the Necromancer Games mods - Tomb of Abysthor and Crucible of Freya to that list.

From WOTC Red Hand of Doom and The Sunless Citadel.

 

[kitsune9]

Hello out there,

I play Pathfinder, so I'm vaguely aware of what might (and I stress might) be considered the new classic adventures for Pathfinder. 'Stolen Land', perhaps? 'Burnt Offerings' (which, of course, was actually a 3.5 mod...)?

I thoroughly enjoyed running Age of Worms, but that set was for 3.5, so I don't know if that counts or not. I am reading the Carrion Crown AP which is really shaping up to be cool and think will be a "classic" (at least for me).

Since other posters offered up 3.x mods--here's mine:

Crucible of Freya (Necromancer Games)
Rappan Athuk ( as above, and my character died horribly)
Bloody Jack's Gold (from Goodman Games)
Sunless Citadel (I ran this mod three times for three different groups--really fun)
NeMoren's Vault (from Fiery Dragon)

 

[SoldierBlue]

For me the one adventure that I can honestly say may deserve "classic" status are Age Of Worms Part One - THE WHISPERING CAIRN. Holy Crap was that a good module to run (and for my players at the time) a good one to play in.

I would also nominate a few of the Necromancer Games mods - Tomb of Abysthor and Crucible of Freya to that list.

From WOTC Red Hand of Doom and The Sunless Citadel.

Funny, I just finished GMing 'Whispering Cairn' with PF rules with a couple that hadn't gamed for a few years. Second time GMing it; I get more out of it each time - the crashing elevator and the 'geyser' of acid beetles remains forever etched in many players' memories...

Unfortunately, because the Paizo crew were not able to put the 'Age of Worms' in a hardcover as they had with 'Shackled City', the only way the kids will find it is in some dusty pile of Dungeon mags in the corner of Dad's closet.

Too bad - I thought it was a far superior AP overall than had been 'Shackled City'. 'Shackled City', while it was unique for its time, was really just a collection of mods that took PCs to high level - the meta-plot was an afterthought in some of them ('Zenith Trajectory', anyone?). As great as those mods were, they weren't held together with a legitimately engaging plot. 'Age of Worms' did this.

There's only one problem with 'Whispering Cairn' - it's too good. I don't think any of the other mods in the AP measured up to it in the same way. I've never GM'd past this one on the AP for that reason....

 

[SoldierBlue]

Mind you, I'm not sure any of the Pathfinder APs, other than perhaps Kingmaker 1: Stolen Land, also have the shared experience element to rate as a true classic, either.

That will change next June when Burnt Offerings is re-released as part of the RotRL hardcover complilation. Then I think its classic status will be assured.

Hmm...which begs the question - if 'Stolen Land' isn't on its way to being a classic, then what is?

Is the hobby too fractured to ever have the 'shared experience' that existed with the 'Ravenlofts' and 'Dragons of Despair' of days of yore?

Maybe something else is at work here - maybe the module itself is on the wane - in the traditional, 32-page sense. I don't know much about 4e, but the focus on "D&D Encounters" that I see over on the WoTC boards suggests a focus on that vice the published paper module...

Is this akin to the death of the album at the hand of iTunes and Napster?

(I'm not sure I really believe this, but the idea is worth exploring further...)

Steel - BTW - love the podcast...

 

[SoldierBlue]

Further to my last, I am concerned that the focus on encounters (in any edition of the game for the past 11 years) versus overall adventures has the potential to damage overall narrative flow within adventures, and that games increasingly become lurching from one well-balanced CRed encounter to another, with little link or synchronization between them.

This focus on the encounter has the danger of becoming, to quote from the film History Boys: "One damn thing after another." More worringly, it harms the grand narrative adventures I think our game(s) does so well, and hence why perhaps there are now so few 'classics' in the offing...