What are the worst classic D&D adventure modules?

[olshanski]

From DragonLance Volume 1 (Adventures 1-4) Page 5, titled "Dungeonmaster notes".

Several NPCs, members of the the Draonarmies appear throughout this adventure. Try to make them have "obscure deaths" if they are killed; if at all possible, their bodies should not be found. Then, when the NPCs appear later, you have a chance to explain their presense. Be creative; think up an explanation for their "miraculous" survival. if this becomes awkward, or your players become suspicious, then let the NPC die, but be prepared to create a similar (but not identical) NPC to take the dead NPCs place later in the adventure. If you are willing to do this, you may eliminate the "obscure death" rule entirely.

I could find no similar quote regarding PCs.
Reading the introduction it appears to me that they have made several steps to try to make it a non-railroad... the adventures are pretty bad railroads nevertheless.

 

[olshanski]

IIRC its DL4...Because we used to play DL1-3 every Christmas holiday and we died a lot, destroyed Haven a few times, and generally ran amok before finding the temple. (even tried to attack the elves and unicorn)

I've just finished looking at the PDFs of DragonLance Vol2 and Vol3, (Each of these volume had 4 adventures, so VOL3 contains the adventures "Dragons of Dreams, Dragons of Faith, Dragons of Truth, Dragons of Triumph")
Vol2 had nothing to say about PC death, but repeated the "Obscure Death for NPCS" in Volume 1.
Volume 3 repeats the same "obscure death" for NPCs, and points out Fizban and Kitiara in particular. It then goes on to say:

This is true of NPCs only. The obscure death rule does not apply to player characters. If a PC dies in this or later adventures--say good-bye!

PS: before WoTC pulled the PDFs, I had gone back and purchsed every adventure module I had ever heard of but never played... mostly the 2nd edition adventures, since I was an avid player of 1st and 3rd edition D&D.

 

[Chris Knapp]

My recollection is similar, and I recall reading the passage in DL8, I believe, that stated that rule was no longer in effect for pcs.

Nothing about pc plot immunity is in the first installment of the DL series. It was introduced somewhere from DL2 to DL5.

Well, I stand corrected. I just pulled out my dead tree versions of DL1-4 and its DL3 where the Obscure Death rule starts applying to "name" characters and villains. It later says "characters" = PCs. All these years, I always assumed characters meant NPC's only, like Eben & Gilthanas, etc.

 

[Lanefan]

Whoah, I really liked these: these are C4 (To Find a King) and C5 (Bane of Llewellyn), they are competition modules with "scores" for how well you did. I think that there were some really clever bits in there, and they were extremely challenging.

I have recycled bits from these adventures in many campaigns for the past 20 years.

Did you actually read them or only play in them?

I ran them. A short way in, my players already couldn't wait to finish and get on to something else; but I'd tied the modules to the PCs and their fate in such a way that they pretty much had to finish...so they did.

20 years later, eyes still roll at mention of that series of adventures.

Lanefan

 

[Erik Mona]

3) Virtually all the 2e modules were terrible. However, for the same reason, there a virtually no classic 2e modules.

You make a compelling point.

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

The two best ones I can think of, Night Below and Dragon Mountain, suffered from some similar flaws to TOEE--they're simply repetitive and boring and almost impossible to keep the players interested throughout the whole thing. I ran Dragon Mountain for about a year, and even with an engaged group I had to cut out about a third of the last book. You can only fight so many cheese-tactic kobolds before you start getting bored. And I mean _really_ bored.

I like Carl Sargent's "City of Skulls" quite a bit, though I never got a chance to actually run it. Because it was from the short print run era at the end of the Greyhawk product line I imagine most people are not aware of this module, but it's one of the better ones from the edition.

Beyond that...

I like Monte's Labyrinth of Madness well enough, but a printing error actually makes the main puzzle in the module unsolvable, and it's more of a one-upped Tomb of Horrors than a classic module in its own right.

Any other 2e candidates?*

--Erik

* Please no one mention Terrible Trouble at Tragidore...

 

[NN]

The obvious 2E Classic would be Undermountain

I rate the Al-Qadim set "Cities Of Bone" highly.

 

[Steel_Wind]

You make a compelling point.

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

Mud Sorceror's Tomb gets the nod here Erik - though that's a classic adventure, as opposed to a module.

I don't know if Skip Williams' Rod of Seven Parts rates as a classic or not. The nature of the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set is that it is quite chaotic and not as linear as most classic modules. I think it failed, ultimately, but it was a valiant try.

I was not a fan of the similar treatment given to Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, but I attribute that to taste as much as anything. It's been a long time since I read it - and I never ran it.

Frankly, I think another kick at the Rod of Seven Parts in AP format would be well justified.

 

[Fifth Element]

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

The two best ones I can think of, Night Below and Dragon Mountain, suffered from some similar flaws to TOEE--they're simply repetitive and boring and almost impossible to keep the players interested throughout the whole thing.

One of my groups finished playing through a 3.5 conversion of Night Below last year. It took us 18 months of regular play to finish it - the second book (of three) is a complete and total slog.

The only classic 2E module for me is Fighter's Challenge, though I daresay very few would agree with me. It's a classic or me just because of the number of times I've been through it (or bits of it) as a player, and the number of times I've used parts of it as a DM. Never played it as a solo adventure like it was intended to be, always adapted it for a group.

 

[Mouseferatu]

The two best ones I can think of, Night Below and Dragon Mountain, suffered from some similar flaws to TOEE--they're simply repetitive and boring and almost impossible to keep the players interested throughout the whole thing.

Yep. I'm a huge fan of the concept of Night Below, but you couldn't pay me to run it or play in it unmodified. At the very least (as Fifth Element says), the second book has to be massively changed. If something is so much of a slog that a potential DM can't even bring himself to read through it (guilty as charged), actually running it seems a bit much to ask.

 

[Fifth Element]

Yep. I'm a huge fan of the concept of Night Below, but you couldn't pay me to run it or play in it unmodified. At the very least (as Fifth Element says), the second book has to be massively changed. If something is so much of a slog that a potential DM can't even bring himself to read through it (guilty as charged), actually running it seems a bit much to ask.

Indeed. "Finished off the quaggoths? Good, now go kill the hook horrors." (Spoilers, schmoilers.)

I'll give my DM credit for the sheer amount of work he put in to converting the thing to 3.5 (which did manage to make some of the fights more interesting that they would have been by a straight-up conversion, for instance adding levels of Dread Necromancer to one of the aboleths), but he should of omitted much of book two...