What are the worst classic D&D adventure modules?

[Lanefan]

You make a compelling point.

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

It may or may not be considered a classic, but I got quite decent mileage out of "For Duty and Deity" once I got done tweaking it to fit my storyline.

Probably the best use I ever got out of a 2e module, though, did not come from running it - or even from reading the whole thing. At the end of "Howl From the North", maybe as an appendix, is a brief write-up on 5 swords named (I think) Dreamsinger, Greenswaithe, Stalker, Edge and Harmonizer. Those write-ups and the corresponding swords became the kernel for what ended up as a 6-adventure arc - of which "For Duty and Deity" was the core of the last. Well worth the money!

Lanefan

 

[Mark Hope]

You make a compelling point.

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

I wondered about this a while back and did a series of threads on potential "younger classics" inspired by Quasqueton's original groundbreaking series and based on suggestions from other posters. I did about 15 until I got bored of it (yeah, fickle like that) but I came to more or less the same conclusion. There are very few 2e adventures that rate as classics, for various reasons. Quality aside, some of it seems to be that the customer base was so fractured that acheiving a shared play experience was pretty hard.

I can't find the index thread (think it got lost in the crash) but here are the adventures we discussed. Those without links also seem to have disappeared, which is a shame, because some of those were pretty interesting:

1. The Night Below

2. Greyhawk Ruins

3. Ruins of Undermountain

4. Return to the Tomb of Horrors

5. Dragon Mountain

6. Curse of the Azure Bonds

7. Dead Gods

8. Rod of Seven Parts

9. The Gates of Firestorm Peak

10. Dragon's Crown

11. Wildspace

12. Return to White Plume Mountain

13. Avatar Trilogy

14. Tale of the Comet

15. Vecna Lives!

There were about a dozen other suggestions from posters that I never got around to, including stuff like City of Skulls, Ruins of Myth Drannor, Nightmare Keep and Gargoyle, heh heh. Either way, though, it's clear that the heyday of classic adventures was the early 1e period. 2e had some great adventures, but many were flawed in one way or another. Interesting to see how the approaches in adventure design differed over the years.

 

[Echohawk]

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

Too late! You mentioned it. Horrible memories surfacing.

TTaT was the first published adventure I ran. Until then, I had always prepared homebrew adventures, but since TTaT was a freebie with the DM's screen, I thought I'd give it a try. It was an experience that turned me so completely off published adventures, that the next one I ran was Red Hand of Doom (a much more pleasant experience).

 

[Doug McCrae]

How about Wolfgang Baur's Assassin Mountain for Al-Qadim. Any good? Or Bruce Cordell's Reverse Dungeon? Seems like a strong concept.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think that's part of it, but I also think that TSR bought into the "modules don't sell" (because they _don't_) mindset before WotC was even invented. So they farmed out most of the 2e modules to the RPGA. And what works wonders in a 4-hour pick-up game at a con doesn't necessarily translate well to a real campaign, especially because the late 80s and early 90s were a particularly "hokey" era for the RPGA.

And yet so many of the classic 1e adventures started out as tournament modules - G1-3, D1-3, A1-4, Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Dwellers of the Forbidden City.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

I always thought that 2e wasn't much for adventures/modules anyway. They excelled in settings, and so their worlds were much better than any plot-driven happenstance within them.

That suited me just fine; very quickly I started running my own adventures in 1e and stopped buying or looking at modules. Honestly, I can't think of a single module I ran through. Tamoachan perhaps, because it was my favorite, but that was about it.

 

[Stoat]

You make a compelling point.

Were there _ANY_ "classic" second edition modules?

Not many.

I'd vote for Paladin in Hell and Gates of Firestorm Peak.

I also suspect that a lack of shared experience arising out of 2E's plethora of settings is part of the problem. Frex, I hear a lot of good things about Modron March and Dead Gods, but I was never a Planescape fan, so I don't know anything about 'em.

2E is most notable for classic videogames. Starting with Pool of Radiance and going all the way up to Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.

 

[billd91]

I also suspect that a lack of shared experience arising out of 2E's plethora of settings is part of the problem. Frex, I hear a lot of good things about Modron March and Dead Gods, but I was never a Planescape fan, so I don't know anything about 'em.

I think your suspicion is pretty good one. I never got into Planescape either so I don't have the shared experience with those mods. My friends and I also really liked the Al Qadim materials, including several of the modules. The Oriental Adventures modes of the time are also pretty good. Test of the Samurai, Ronin Challenge, and Ninja Wars were pretty well done and a lot of fun. But as far as widely shared experiences, not nearly the same as the old 1e mods in the early days of that edition.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Oh - another potential classic I recall from the 2E era was Christopher Perkins "Seeking Bloodsilver". An awesome map and a great adventure that I have used twice over the years... Chris Perkins, as always, was one of TSR's best adventure authors, periodical editor of Dungeon / Dragon and remains one of the guilding lights at WotC. Seeking Bloodsilver was published at about the same time as the Birthright boxed set was released in 1995.

Which of course is the point. Once again, the best adventure was published in Dungeon #59 and not as a stand alone module.

*sigh* I really did enjoy the Birthright setting. One of the best things about the 2E era. It came later in the product cycle, however. I can't say as I was much of a fan of the "Player's Secrets" aspect of the product line as that seemed a blatant attempt to come up with a way to "sell crap modules to players" ...but the core design of the world and the idea of bloodlines, etc. was very cool.

Which of course might speak to the issue at hand and highlight it more clearly. TSR put effort and "A" list creative talent in to their settings products, but did not devote the same care with their stand-alone module lines.

From what I recall, Birthright appealed to older grognards and veteran gamers, but caught very little traction among newer and younger gamers.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Everything TSR ever published was 100% amazing and awesome.

Just kidding. In fact, just typing those two sentences made me puke a little.

The worst I have ever actually played (and later had to apologize profusely for) was Tomb of Horrors. We picked it out because it was rumored to be "the hardest module ever" or something, and we wanted a challenge. But this module wasn't challenging; it was boobytrapped for the sole purpose of destroying PCs. A sphere of annihilation in a statue's mouth? Give me a break. After the fourth character died MOST unfairly, the players began threatening me with violence. I actually had to use that lame "it was all a dream" cop-out, from the Dallas television show, to save my hide.

A close second was Earthshaker, but for a different reason. A giant steam-powered robot attacking the city? The concept was so absurd, everyone kept making fun of it. Like when the machine comes to life with the booming words "I AM EARTHSHAKER!!!!," everyone at the table started singing Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" instead. And oh my gods, the railroading: page 22 even states that no matter what the PCs do, Earthshaker will be stopped with or without their help. "They eventually hear how it was defeated and how some local noble became rich selling the scrap iron." Really? That's it?