What's hot?

[Ariosto]

Whatever "swords, magic, and monsters" set of rules one might prefer is for this purpose probably not terribly relevant.

What modules/scenarios/adventures have stood in your memory for years, and remain "Top that!" examples? What have you played lately that really rocked? What would really rock? What is passé or otherwise unappealing?

Different strokes for different folks; we won't all agree!

 

[Jack7]

The Tomb of Horrors is the best store bought module I ever played in. If only more dungeons had much more thinkey and real danger and less fight as the only kind of danger or challenge.

A friend of mine though though (same guy who ran us through Tomb of Horrors) made up a campaign back in the late Seventies/early Eighties about a group of Giants who had seemingly set up a base on a small deserted island and had built some very strange towers and structures. The magic always seemed to operate contrary to what we assumed and the whole place was very bizarre. Only later did we figure out that these giants weren't like D&D giants at all but had crashed landed and were from outerspace. It was a brilliantly created dungeon which had all kinds of Chimeras (genetic experiments conducted by the giants mixing the genetic codes of their creatures with creatures native to our planet) and a group of Mind Flayers who were the natural enemies of the giants. Or their allies. We never could quite figure it out.

The structures they had built were concealed partially by optical illusions and were the disassembled sections of their starcraft.

It was an impressive campaign in nearly every way because our sailing ship was also sunk upon the reefs and so we were in effect trapped on the same island with the trapped "Giants" and their creations and technology.

The science was ahead of its time (building the Chimeras), the story was outright thrilling and puzzling, it had a real sense of danger and mystery and it had Giants and Mind Flayers. I've always hated Mind Flayers. That dungeon will always stay in my mind as a first rate example of a really well done campaign.

 

[RefinedBean]

Night Below gave me all sorts of love for aberrations in D&D.

The original Ravenloft module also rocked. Immense castle, chock full of fun little encounters, and a foreboding sense of dread.

Recently, the same adventure popped up in two different games I play in, pretty much during the same week. (it involves a face set into a hillside, that leads to a dangerous dungeon where some nasty ritual is being performed). Funnily enough, both DMs changed things up so much that I was pretty much always guessing as to what was next, and had a great time with both.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For a high-level campaign, my 2 fave adventures were Barrier Peaks and Vecna Lives.

Barrier Peaks because it was, IMHO, the best fantasy/sci-fi mix for quite a while.

Vecna because of its opening scene, in which the major wizards of the setting are fighting Vecna and winning, when [sblock]the REAL Vecna shows up and kills everybody...[/sblock]

 

[Ariosto]

Jack7, that (double!) shipwreck scenario, especially the mention that some things remained mysteries, reminds me that I would like someday to convey something like the nuances of atmosphere in the Conan story "The Pool of the Black One".

 

[Lanefan]

Favourite adventures played in: mostly homebrew, though I remember having a grand old time in Tomb of the Lizard King largely due to the wacko collection of characters we took in (most but not all of whom came out...) Forge of Fury rocked pretty good for a 3e adventure, and I say this even though I lost 4 characters in it!

Favourite adventures DMed: Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (WGH4) heads my list, mostly because it's such a straightforward punch-up - both sides can just rear back and give 'er against opponents who can give it right back - yet it still generates memorable moments every time I run it. The rest that leap to mind as memorable are all either homebrew or so much modified from the original module that they might as well be.

Lanefan

 

[ExploderWizard]

I have gotten the most use and re-use out of Dwellers of the Forbidden City. There is so much cool material to make your own mini campaign with.

 

[Dyson Logos]

I posted this to my blog four days ago, so it's pretty topical

B1 In Search of the Unknown – My module of choice « A character for every game

While I have a soft spot for The Keep on the Borderlands, my true favourite is without a doubt the classic underground fortress of Quasqueton. The first time I explored Quasqueton as a player, every room was stocked with some monster and treasure, and the trick was finding the treasure as the DM we had enjoyed things like hiding the gold inside the mouldy cheese, or behind the wooden panel with the name of the fortress on it, or in the stomach of the monster that managed to escape from the battle…

For those who don’t have a copy, Quasqueton was similar to the first Top Secret module, in that every location was described but not “keyed” – the placement of monsters and treasure were up to the DM who would key the module before the game. For younger gamers, the temptation was to include something (or two somethings – a monster and a treasure) in every room, and stocking was done pretty randomly with kobolds living next door to orcs and so on.

The benefit for me is of course that I can stock the module as I want to suit the feel of the game I’m running. I’ve pulled out Quasqueton at least a dozen times over the years – it has been a place to explore, a place to escape from, a target for a hit-and-run mission, the home to a small city of gnomes, a goblin fortress, and even the home to the big villain of one of my campaigns – a powerful naga wizard that the party had to destroy to end it’s reign of terror and the campaign around level 10.

For me, In Search of the Unknown has all the old-school reminiscence of the Keep on the Borderlands, but with incredibly flexibility built right into the module. You can change the whole feel of the module without once actually changing a single element of the written material in the booklet.

 

[Mallus]

I have gotten the most use and re-use out of Dwellers of the Forbidden City. There is so much cool material to make your own mini campaign with.

Same here.

I'm also fond of the original Ravenloft module (before it was a setting/demi-plane). I was never too keen on the Tomb of Horrors, though.

 

[C_M2008]

Modulewise I've always had a softspot for U1: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Couldn't tell you why, just like the whole vibe from it.

For non-module adventures my favorite is probably "Thiondar's Legacy" from dungeon magazine, issue #30.