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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Erik Mona" data-source="post: 5174879" data-attributes="member: 2174">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.I think a lot of people had burned out on old school dungeon crawling, and so you were more likely to get stuff like Fluffy Quest, the joke Castle Greyhawk module, Puppets, Gargoyles, and the like. Heck, many of the adventures I just listed started out as RPGA scenarios. Take a close look at the "generic" adventure modules released for 2e, and with a couple of exceptions (most fairly late in the edition cycle), these things were farmed out to the B or even C squad. The setting fragmentation of second edition definitely struck a blow against the "shared experience" feel that so often generates what we tend to think of as classic modules, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of the modules in second edition were sad crap written by hacks.The more I think about it, the more some better adventures start to come to mind. Bruce Cordell had a couple of really good ones in the form of Gates of Firestorm Peak and Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Monte Cook did some excellent work in Planescape with the Great Modron March and Dead Gods.I think there was a bit of a creative renaissance very near the end of TSR, with folks like Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, and Colin McComb. It's the stuff BEFORE that that's almost uniformly terrible.--Erik</blockquote>

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