Worst D&D adventure of all time?

[Capellan]

Four pages in and I haven't seen anyone mention the steaming pile of garbage that was Dragon Mountain?

The Grim Harvest trilogy for the Ravenloft setting was awful, too.

We had fun with Baltron's Beacon until we got to the stupid puzzle corridor at the end, which was an enormous exercise in irritation.

 

[GuardianLurker]

If you're referring to the orange covered version that is now available for free download from the WotC OOP downloads page, that is precisely what happened, it was recalled and completely rewritten.

If you're referring to the green version that was mass produced back in the 80's, then I don't have the slightest idea of what you're talking about. There's a lot of reasons why the green version of PotSP isn't my favorite module of the day, but poor editing isn't one of them.

R.A.

Yep. I have both. The green (rewritten) one is better - it's only mediocore (true back then too), but it still has problems. But I believe the original B3 is the *only* module ever recalled by TSR. DL1 is the worst I've heard so far, but as someone else pointed out, it was an experiment - and those fail. B3 wasn't an experiment - and failed even more spectacularly.

 

[JFOLSEN]

Worst in a Monty Haul fashion

Special category, worst adventure in a Monty Haul style:

My nomination is N5, Under Illefarn.

For 4-6 characters of 0-3 levels (basically an intro level you can play till about 3rd level).
There are pregenerated characters in the back that are all first level.

So, would you consider putting a Helm of Brilliance with most of the gems still working in an intro mod? No? How about two of them? But wait, the second one is also a Helm of Telepathy, Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, Ring of Protection +3 AND a Periapt of Proof against Poison in addition to being a Helm of Brilliance all rolled into one! Never buy another magic item ever!

And the "penalty" for not turning Super Helm over? It will cause a diplomatic incident between the Dwarves and Daggerford, IF you are discovered. Yeah, players lose a lot of sleep over that one.


John Olsen

 

[Orius]

Terrible Trouble at Tragidore, the adventure that came with the 2nd edition DM screen. It was a railroady convention module with absolutely lame encounters (like bandits pretending to be vampires by keeping sharpened wooden stakes in their mouth) and a background that made no sense.

Never ran Tragidor, as it never really seemed all that interesting an adventure to me. However I did yoink the "vampire" bandits for an encounter in my campaign. The party cleric decided to surrender, and they ended up losing a couple of magic items they collected when the bandits did the "tax collecting".

 

[Orius]

Crazy death traps of all sorts
invisible trolls with metal staves that had glass globes that contained black puddings - whack an adventurer and enjoy

I like this idea.

 

[Arnwyn]

Castle Greyhawk
Puppets
Gargoyles
Child's Play
Terrible Trouble at Tragidor

These ones are all some of the worst.

Also:
- The Avatar Trilogy (as noted by many others)
- every Ravenloft (campaign setting) module ever printed. Every single one. All utterly terrible.

Do you know all the bad things you hear about 2e modules? You can thank the Ravenloft modules for that.

 

[Turanil]

So...of all the _______________OFFICIAL_______________________ D&D/AD&D/oD&D scenarios you've played or DM'ed, which one is the worst.

Throne of Bloodstone (AD&D level 100 adventure) was so awful...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Surprised that no one has mentioned Terrible Trouble At Tragador yet.

 

[tetsujin28]

There IS no point to The Secret of Bone Hill. Modules in that day, like Keep on the Borderlands, featured places to loot and that's it. Make your own adventure.

My groups always ended up invading the baron's castle (which was totally statted out for such misbehavior, incidentally) and trying to rob his treasure. If you can't have fun robbing the lord of the manor, you may be clinically dead.

Totally. Those old modules gave PCs the room to create their own stories, rather than being led down trolly tracks.

 

[tetsujin28]

- every Ravenloft (campaign setting) module ever printed. Every single one. All utterly terrible.

Despite my love for RL, you are 100% correct. They stank to high heaven.