Worst D&D adventure of all time?

[diaglo]

The worst product I ever bought for D&D.

The Shady Dragon Inn...

it wasn't an adventure really.

but they packaged it like one.

even including a bunch of product placement for their plushie line and plastic toy line.

followed up by Quest for the Heartstone...

Pootie...

 

[Tinner]

The horror that was Hour of the Knife

Railroad plot that even included specal necromantic scarab imlpants that would burrow into your heart and kill you if you deviated from the plot. Horrible weak clues that left our party with no idea what to do to solve

The only way it could have been worse is if it had explosion dogs in it.
Wait ... actually, that might have made it better.

 

[wedgeski]

Expedition to Barrier Peaks gets nominated for the bunch of stupid, sci-fi garbage in the module. I can accetp warforged, but robots? C'mon!

One of my favourite... adventures... ever. I wouldn't want to play a campaign that mixed those elements, sure, but as a one-off it was a bit of an eye-opener for me back then. Suddenly RPG's weren't all about D&D/fantasy.

To get back on-message...

Tragidore was very bad; I have terrible memories of Dungeonland but I suspect that was more about the DM than the module (I'll have to get it and find out); and Castle Greyhawk still makes me weep when I think about it, deliberate parody or not. I'm actually stretching to think of other modules that I didn't enjoy in some form or another.

 

[Ambrus]

Egg of the Phoenix. It apparently was a series of RPGA modules strung together, as I recall. I remember it as a poorly-written mess. It just didn't hang together well.

I was wondering if anyone else remembered this stinker. You're right about it being a mess. Granted, we had a bad DM, but even once he'd pushed us through the entire adventure we still had no idea what the plot had been about. We were higher level and had killed some things along the way but had no real idea why.

I know this borders on blasphemy, but I'd have to nominate the original Tomb of Horrors. The words "save or die" show up way to often in the text. Also, it's usually a complete toss up whether a particular action will safely unlock the next part of the adventure or simply kill you outright. We eventually resorted to just flipping coins to decide what to do; a strategy that seemed to work as well as careful deliberation.

 

[Tetsubo]

Under the Storm Giant's Castle

I hate to throw Judges Guild under the bus like that, but I had to. It's a god-awful module.
And yes, JG had permission to produce "official" D&D products back then.

This module might be my fondest gaming memory. I can remember finally killing the Big Baddy and running outside to tell some players that were leaving. The entire group out on the lawn at 3 AM screaming and jumping around that we had "beat" the module. Ah... the good old days...

 

[Tetsubo]

Expedition to Barrier Peaks gets nominated for the bunch of stupid, sci-fi garbage in the module. I can accetp warforged, but robots? C'mon!

In Search of the Unknown gets nominated for being just dull. It's nice that Gygax and Co created an adventure specifically to help novice DM's (that's a worthy goal!), but the adventure outline is just dull.

That Epic Adventure in the ELH. My god. What a horrible adventure. What's the best way to showcase an Epic Level Party's abilities? Why, a dungeoncrawl of course! But, it's on the Elemental Plane of FIRE. You know, the Plane that's really HOT. And everything, every creature in the adventure is EPIC with a capital E with many exclamation points following. Ugh, please, this adventure just sucks.

Expedition to Barrier Peaks, one of my all time favorite modules. I've used the SF/D&D story line in EVERY D&D campaign I've ever run. Heck I've used in every Gamma World campaign I've ever run as well. Nothing like the look on a players face when something happens that is just outside their gaming paradigm. I love that...

 

[Shemeska]

Walk the walk of 1000 4-Siders is my new favorite phrase

I'll have to give a Dishonorable Mention to Die Vecna Die *shudder*. A Ravenloft/Planescape crossover module that wrecks the continuity and basic setting considerations of both (Vecna, a demigod, is powerful enough to force his way out of Ravenloft, then proves more powerful than the Lady of Pain (who kills Greater Gods with ease). Whoever wrote that module needs to walk the walk of 1000 4-Siders.

Hey now, don't talk like that, Vecna might send a cultist after you armed with the mighty "molar of Vecna" or the "medial finger", "left foot", or dreaded "index finger" of Vecna with its "poke melee attack" that "inflicts 2d6 points of damage".

Sadly I am kidding about none of those...

 

[VirgilCaine]

I have terrible memories of Dungeonland but I suspect that was more about the DM than the module (I'll have to get it and find out);

What was so horrible about Dungeonland (It's one of the only two modules mentioned here that I actually have--because it is available for free from WotC nowadays)?

 

[PatrickLawinger]

Well, from 3e I nominate ...
The Standing Stone

People have said good things about this one in the past but it is terrible. The only way a DM can run a reasonably skilled party through this and get to the final "surprise" at the end is to cheat. (won't give spoilers here)

If you have a paladin, and (or) a bard in the party and reasonably cautious players the adventure simply "breaks."

Our DM for this rocked. After the first encounter he knew we were essentially onto something so he made massive adjustments. Afterward, we discussed the module and what was "supposed to happen" and had to simply laugh.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Was Die, Vecna, Die the modual where he had a bunch of underlings which had costumes with giant eyes on their heads and giant hands on their hands (making them look like lame super villains). I swear, the guys with the hands on their heads made me think of the Hamburger Helper guy.

I know the modual was either Die, Vecna, Die or Vecna Lives. Either way, it was stupid yet had some tongue-in-cheek humor that I could appreciate. I have it somewhere at home but maybe a kind soul on here could save me the trouble if they remember it.