What's hot?

[Ariosto]

Ghost, MFA is one I greatly enjoyed. Are the Dragon installments just a conversion of that, or do they expand it -- or are they all new material?

 

[aboyd]

I'm also a fan of The Grey Citadel which combines role-playing, investigation and high-stakes combat in one delicious module.

Hmm. I'm glad you mentioned that one. A while ago I was participating in another thread and that module came up with high regard. I told them thanks, and said I would buy it. However, being prompted by your comment I went to review my copy, as I don't recall anything about it, and it turns out I really don't have it. So immediately after writing this post I'm going to head out over the Internet to buy it somewhere, if it's still around. Thanks.

The Secret of Bone Hill - This module showed me early in my DMing career how to do a sandbox style game.

Yes, agreed. In fact, to answer the OP, here is my favorite "module" from way back: I used to run B4 The Lost City, and then with heavy conversion I would place L1 The Secret of Bone Hill onto "The Island of Death" in B4's underground city. The two modules took a huge amount of time to finish, even back then when my jr. high buddies would come over twice a week to play.

Man, that was so much fun. I can still remember the dark heavy wooden dining room table, with all my buddies positioned around it. Every now & then crazy Cyrus would join us for a game, bring weapons, and try to act out the fights. Good times.

I also like the B4 module even now, because Zargon (the BBEG) was updated to 3.5 in the book Elder Evils.

Anyway, nowadays the modules that I've had the most fun with are the DCC module, The Cage of Delirium, and the Bleeding Edge module, Dirge of the Damned. For Cage of Delirium, I got a hard copy so that it came with the CD, and the group I'm playing with actually likes hearing the creepy music as we go through the rooms. And for Dirge of the Damned, I just like that it's a bard-centric module that involves a play and a murder-mystery. I like these more "balanced" modules where the fighting is only part of a bigger game that includes skill checks, character interactions, sleuthing, etc. I also enjoyed the DCC compilation The Adventure Begins for something similar. I mean, all the modules in that compilation are hack & slash, but a few are really trappy and rogue-friendly. I had a great time with those mini-modules. I'm in favor of anything that mixes up the standard pattern, "I hit, is it dead yet?"

The only problem I have with Cage of Delirium is that the haunted mansion is so big. I mean, I drew it onto a Chessex megamat (4 feet by 3 feet), but discovered that each floor is so huge that I need two battle mats. The floorplan ends up requiring me to put two dining room tables together, just to display one level of the map. Since that isn't always feasible, I end up keeping each battlemat separate and we plop 'em down as the players explore. Kind of a pain, but I still love the module.

 

[Lancelot]

BECMI: B4 - The Lost City (10 level dungeon, 4 new religions, an entire campaign setting in one of the earliest isometric maps, and an incredibly vicious and evocative uber-villain... in one basic module. Awesome!)

1e: G1/2/3 - Against the Giants (...primarily for the "weird bits", like the carrion crawler cave you can only get to by swimming underwater... or the random ancient temple under the stedding... or the cave of popsicle adventurers... or the remorhaz dome... or the wall of tentacles...)

2e: Dead Gods (Epic, with a capital "E"... return to the original Vault of the Drow, race for time to recover an artifact, and face down an undead god)

3e: Age of Worms (the only complete campaign that we've run from 1st-to-22nd level in recent years; particularly memorable for the first module, the arena module, the all-roleplaying module, the dragons-vs-giants module, and the final encounter)

4e: ....have only played KotS so far, and all my DM'ing has been own creations, or conversions from previous editions.

Honorable mentions: X1 - Isle of Dread, I6 - Ravenloft, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, Night Below, Red Hand of Doom, the first three modules of Rise of the Runelords, and an obscure module from an old Dragon magazine called Chagmat.

 

[Lancelot]

Yes, agreed. In fact, to answer the OP, here is my favorite "module" from way back: I used to run B4 The Lost City, and then with heavy conversion I would place L1 The Secret of Bone Hill onto "The Island of Death" in B4's underground city. The two modules took a huge amount of time to finish, even back then when my jr. high buddies would come over twice a week to play.

B4 is indeed awesome, and that's a very cool idea. I enjoyed the 3e updates to the Lost City in Dragon (campaign classics), Dungeon (short module) and Elder Evils (Zargon)... but I'd really love to see a more extensive treatment.

I've run variants of B4 several times over the last 20+ years, each one being an entire mini-campaign. Haven't done it for my current group though, so it might be time to dust her off again...

 

[LostSoul]

N4 Under Illefarn.

That is a cool module. I ran it multiple times (sometimes with the same people, though years apart); always fun.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Maybe it is no coincidence that these two campaigns had the same DM in my group, but my favorite ones would have been:

- Banewarrens (Monte Cook). An underground dungeon with a real purpose and a lots of encounters are based on story elements - you fight competing parties, are tricked by an imposter/traitor.

- Shackled City (Dungeon/Paizo). We had a lot of fun in this campaign, despite suffering a lot of PC deaths in the beginning. Rumors on a monster living in the sea in Cauldrons middle? Cauldron being an old Volcano?

Spoiler

Something had to happen with it, and it did.

 

[meomwt]

- Banewarrens (Monte Cook). An underground dungeon with a real purpose and a lots of encounters are based on story elements - you fight competing parties, are tricked by an imposter/traitor.

Twice, now, I've had compaigns with nearby huge mountains, ready to drop The Banewarrens in when the party hits the right level.

Twice, now, the group had disintegrated before we've got anywhere near the power levels for this bad boy.

<why isn't there a head-desk smilie?>

 

[Keith Robinson]

The Secret of Saltmarsh - this is probably the module that I've got most mileage out of. It's a very simple premise, but nonetheless works very well and holds the player's interest throughout. I recently ran a slightly modified version of this for a 3.5 game as a prelude to my other choice...

Red Hand of Doom - certainly the best 3.5 adventure I've DM'd to date, with plenty of variation, thrills, spills and the unexpected. We all had a great time with this.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Twice, now, I've had compaigns with nearby huge mountains, ready to drop The Banewarrens in when the party hits the right level.

Twice, now, the group had disintegrated before we've got anywhere near the power levels for this bad boy.

<why isn't there a head-desk smilie?>

I don't know, but I have another one for you:
neomwt

Mustrum

 

[The Ghost]

Ghost, MFA is one I greatly enjoyed. Are the Dragon installments just a conversion of that, or do they expand it -- or are they all new material?

If I am remembering right Dungeon #112 is a follow-up to Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure. The map and its descriptions are roughly the same while the story takes place after the events of the original MFA. The feel of the original module is maintained quite well. There is a new level added in #112 and further additions and updates in #124 and #139.