While I recognize the impact the official list of top 30 adventures had on the game as a whole, I'd rather include my top 20 FAVORITE adventures. This is quite a different list than the GREATEST adventures of all time, as I would be obliged to include modules such as I6 Ravenloft or
B2 Keep on the Borderlands for their contributions to gaming. In making this list I took those adventures I had
DM'd more than once; half a dozen times or more automatically made it into the top ten, that's truly the mark of a great adventure when you have played it over and over:
1. B1 In Search of the Unknown
2.
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
3. G1-3 Against the Giants
4. D1-3 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth
5. U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
6. Ruins of Undermountain
7. I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City
8. L1 Secret of Bone Hill
9. A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords
10.
S1 Tomb of Horrors
11. WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
12. S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojancth
13. WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
14. U3 The Final Enemy
15. WGR6 City of Skulls
16. Gates of Firestorm Peak
17. S3 Expedition To the Barrier Peaks
18. X1 Isle of Dread
19. Night Below
20. B10 Night's Dark Terror
B1: I've
dm'd this one more than any other publishd adventure, over a dozen times. I think it's the perfect beginning module for both players and DMs, and I've never once not had a group have an absolute blast while running through it. May Kracky the Hooded One live long and prosper.....
T1-4: For most of us old school gamers, Hommlet was the first ever village we ever adventured in, and the Inn of the Welcome Wench the first tavern we ever got loaded in while hitting on the barmaids. I've used
T1 about a million times as a backdrop to a campaign, the fully fleshed out village is perfect. Just a classic in plot and design.
G1-3: The first foray into a continued theme and it was a success. Looking back it's mind boggling to realize how skimpy these adventures really were; the entire trilogy would barely make a good Dungeon Magazine adventure (
G1 and
G2 were EIGHT PAGES LONG EACH) yet everyone remembers them and it was a 1st edition rite of passage that every single gamer faced at some point.
4. D1-3: Building on
G1-3 and surpassing it, rarely (until the present) has there ever been a campaign of such magnitude and scope. I mean, an ENTIRE new race of evil underground elves with monstrous powers with an entire underground city; but to get there you had to pass through miles and miles and miles of the worst monsters ever (Mind Flayers, Kuotoans, and more). Then you got to battle the servants of a god, in their temple, and somehow make it BACK to the surface again, alive. The first moment when you hand the party the partially filled in map the players have found at the end of
G3 and the PCs eyes start to glaze over as they realize the job ahead of them....it sends goosebumps down my spine. The antithesis of cookie cutter, follow the path adventures that would follow unfortunately.
5. U1: I've heard this called the perfect 1st edition intro adventure, and it may be. Haunted House, backstabbing false hostages, nasty evil spellcasters, ship full of lizardmen, a mystery to solve, it has pretty much everything to get newbies interested in AD&D.
6. Ruins of Undermountain: An entire box full of fun, it reminds me of a mixture of a Judge's Guild supplement, with the scope of D1-3, and the very able writing of Ed Greenwood (whose fiction stinks yet is to me at least the closest to Gary Gygax in actual conception of almost any adventure writer). This one box set should provide years of adventuring (actual years, if the players feel like they want to map out all three levels given). Lots of room for the
Dm to add his own goodies, and for the players the adventure can be shaped to any party's likes (combat, thinking puzzles, roleplaying, etc)
7. I1: I love jungle adventures hearkening back to Conan's "Queen of the Black Coast" and Tarzan novels, lost cities have always intrigued me. The expansion of the Lost City lends itself to lots of
DM invention. As proof I took the time to write a 40+ page expansion of the adventure when I updated it for 2nd edition and it was a labor of love.
8. L1: If
B1 is my favorite starter adventure, and U1 the perfect beginning adventure, L1 is the perfect beginning of a CAMPAIGN ever put out by TSR. You get a village, with mysteries, politics, two adventures right underneath your feat, interesting and fleshed out characters....and you haven't even hit the wilderness yet with the nasty Bone Hill awaiting you. I've used this at least twice for the settings of entire campaigns that lasted years, both times the module went above and beyond the call of duty even after Bone Hill was sacked.
9. A1-4: Technically, this is really one of the weakest structurally as the series shows it's tournament roots a little too closely. If you get past that, and do a little fiddling, this can truly be a memorable gaming experience (particularly the end of A3 and beginning of A4, which in my entire experience of
DMing almost caused the only mass player desertion ever). The players went from the depths of "This sucks! My character is gone" despair and near tears to "That's kick ass! How cool!" when I read the intro to A4 and they found their characters while alive were left to defend themselves with a rock, loincloth and their own wits.
10. S1: Daddy Gygax showed us how to do the TPK for the first time, in stylish fashion, and it was good.....
11. WR4: I've run this numerous times, both myself and the various groups have always enjoyed it. It's really three adventures in one: The grueling outdoor exploration of the mountain range with a few nasty and unexpected foes; the assault on the Temple which turns into a fun and exciting exercise in assault tactics; and the eerie, spooky exploration of the chilling undertemple. Rarely has an adventure fully lived up to all aspects of the D&D experience like this one.
12. S4: Ok, so it's a monster hack from start to finish, but the entire caverns is a ball of fun. From the "What monster is next?" attitude of the party as they trundle from cavern to cavern meeting unusual and deadly creatures each one, to the final destination that rewards them with a horde of treasure that is mindboggling (along with the hottest vampire/fighter/demoness of all), rarely has there ever been a module that just embodied the sheer spirit of AD&D---Enter a cave, kill the monsters, search the cave, find the treasure, go to next cave---better than this one.
13. WG5: Everyone wants to try the dungeon that stymied Bigby and Mordy, and this one doesn't disappoint. From the Golem on the first floor to the demon at the bottom, this is classic dungeon adventuring at it's best. Don't stop to think about it too hard, it'll fall apart, just pull your sword or wand and start hacking....
14. U3: The only underwater adventure for 1st ed (I think) this threw characters for a loop and put them at a huge disadvantage the first time they learned that they were completely out of their element and oh yeh that two handed sword SUCKS when swung underwater and
BTW that Lightning Bolt spell? You just fried half the party moron. Plus, there were seas devils...LOTS andlots of them...a nicely underused but never underrated foe. Cmon now, did anyone really play the module as written and just "scout" the evil Sahaughin headquarters, or did it always turn into a veritable bloodbath in the arena like it did everytime I ran the module?
15. WGR6: The best high level adventure put out by TSR that didn't encourage munchkinism or merely present the players with lists of creatures triple digit hit points as a way of "challenging" them. If your players didn't truly get their ass in gear in this one and use their head, they got their ass handed to them, in Iuz of all places.
16. Gates of Firestorm Peak: This is the only adventure on this list I've never played. I don't know why it isn't better known, it's got a great setting, plot and foes, as well as excellent maps. Very underrated, I'd love to run it one day.
17. S3: For everyone that played fantasy games but also watched Star Trek reruns and wished SF had a game like D&D. Everyone remembers fighting their first robot or android, or shooting their own arm off trying to reolad the blaster, or taking on the Froghemoth. NOt to mention five adventures later when you were in the Tomb of Horrors pulling some spare Fragmentation grenades and a blaster with 3 charges out of your portable hole when in dire straits caused you saved them all thistime...
18. X1: I always like this one because I like jungle adventures (as I've said) and Isle of Dread led to all kinds of innovative and personalized designs for the
DM to use past the basic encounters. There were so many directions to go with this one you never got bored exploring or
Dming it.
19. Night Below: I've only run this once but it was some great fun. Toss the first booklet and get your party down into the underdark as soon as possible, to take on the troika of Derro, Kuo Toans and Aboleth in a battle for the fate of your world. Highlights: The Kuo toan city and it's Attrition chart; The Sunless Sea and environs, No Drow, and the slimy and deadly foes themselves who all are used to their highest potential.
20. B10: Very underrated, a really good campaign adventure that takes the party through several different types of encounters and situations as they rise in level and explore the Karameikos countryside battling a slavery ring but finding more in the process. Good use of a huge castle and many side adventures
Mike B.