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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5173254" data-attributes="member: 22260">Good thread.As I noted in the other thread, one reason you may have so many early classic modules, is that you had so many modules, about 140 from 78-88 not including tournament one-offs, compilations, etc. But, with the 3rd parties, you also did have a ton of stuff for 3E. And some of it was really, really good. Still, the advantage here lies with the old, and most classics people still cite tend to come from the early years (83 or earlier). Here is why I think that is, and newer stuff has a harder time:Originality: The advantages of being first here are obvious. You can do a very good adventure with drow, slavers, giants, vampire in a castle…but you will never be seen as “original” as you could be.  Common Experience: Again, the advantage is obvious. The early modules were at first the only ones around, and then were kept in print for years. And they stuck, being a constant point of reference. Need to establish the product: Not as obvious…but those early adventures were actually pretty good. At that point OD&D had been out for a while, people had their own dungeons, so it was clear that the mods needed to provide something beyond the ordinary. And they did, often boldly so. They also tended to have a lot of it, with extensive detail and lots and lots of little tricks and twists. And it was something that the top designers would be willing to spend time on, and could often draw on their own years of play experience for. Latter on, “unneeded” detail would tend to disappear, resources devoted to the product would go down and the bar would lower as it was taken for granted that if you made a module, someone would probably buy it.  Now, newer products also have their advantages. And the idea that if you just print something it will be bought I think is long gone. Production values:  Are almost certainly higher, especially compared to the early classics. (though there are arguably some exceptions). Coherence: Again, a good modern module is going to be clearer. Mechanical soundness: Still a little hit or miss, but later editions do tend to provide more guidance in this area.Better mix of place or plot: It will be neither fully place or event driven, but should have a nice mix of the two, allowing a good amount of player choice, but still have some overarching elements. The problem: all these things are expected. You get 0 extra credit for it. Ok, now that I have set the bar so high, proceed <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.</blockquote>

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