1. Egg of the Phoenix (R3)
2. Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (U1)
3. Night's Dark terror (B10)
4. Secret of Bone Hill (L1)
5. Villiage of Hommlet (T1)
6. Nightwatch in the Living City (LC3)
7. Temple of the Frog (DA2)
8. Legacy of Blood (CM9)
9. Castle Caldwell and Beyond (B9)
10. Talons of Night (M5)
11. Against the Cult of the Reptile God (N1)
12. Doc's Island (R4)
13. To the Aid of Falx (R1)
14. Saga of the Shadow Lord (X11)
15. Danger at Dunwater (u2)
16. Final Enemy (U3)
17. Temple of Elemental Evil
18. Inside Ravens Bluff (LC2)
19. Investigation at Hydell (R2)
20 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (G1)

All right, I'll give it a shot. And you're absolutely right, BC: these forums are in such desperate need of some lightheartedness, or whimsy, or ... or anything that's just not so damn life-and-death.

+++++

Brian, you said you wanted to keep it easy to read but to add some notes if we had them; mine are footnoted and indicated by the brackets [].

1. S2—White Plume Mountain
2. T1—Village of Hommlet [1]
3. S3—Expeditious Retreat from the Barrier Peaks
4. A1—Slave Pits
5. JG—Caverns of Thracia
6. G1—Steading / Hill Giants
7. Q1—Demonweb Pits
8. B1—Search of the Unknown
9. TSR—Gates of Firestorm Peak
10. TSR—Return to White Plume Mountain [2]
11. D3—Vault of the Drow
12. GG—The Mysterious Tower (DCC#3) [3]
13. TSR—Return to Tomb of Horrors [4]
14. C1—Hidden Shrine of the Long Name
15. B2—Keep on the Borderlands
16. I1—Dwellers of the Forbidden City
17. G2—Glacial Rift / Frost Giants
18. H1—Bloodstone Pass [5]
19. C2—Ghost Tower
20. JG—Book of Treasure Maps I [6]

+++++

[1] But definitely not T1-4. I always thought the deep, abiding love for the super-module was more a product of all that waiting and not for the actual product itself.

[2] I really do consider this a separate adventure than S2. RTWPM takes the concept and really runs with it; I'd rank it five places higher if I thought the "K-imprint" concept had been done better.

[3] After nearly 40 entries, this is still the best of the DCC series.

[4] I really prefer this to the original S1. I feel the addition of some background, etc., makes Gary's hole-in-the-ground-with-a-bunch-of-traps much more palatable.

[5] Hi, Cougie! I sincerely hope you develop a very unsightly and painful rash very soon.

[6] This might be a stretch, but these adventures can easily be linked to form a longer, "full-sized" adventure. Either way, it's always been an extremely under-rated product.

I am really surprised that so far I am the only one that has included L2  The Assassin's Knot on my list. If DM'ed well, this is an excellent adventure and quite a rarity among D&D modules (i.e. a town based mystery module). I gather this isn't so popular then?

Bear in mind that this will be  a Top 30 of all time.  I am asking everyone to post their Top 20 down to help ease what is going to my workload and also to help weed out ones that are not worthy of being in the top 30.

Here is my list, in no particular order:

1. B2 Keep on the Borderlands  
2. A1 Slave Pits of the Under City
3. A4 In the dungeon of the Slave lords  
4. D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth  
5. D2 The Hidden Shrine of the Kuo-toa  
6. G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
7. G2 Glacier of the Frost Giant Jarl
8. G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King
9. A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade  
10. I3 Pharaoh
11. I4 Oasis of the White Palm
12. I5 Lost Tomb of Martek
13. S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
14. U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
15. Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits
16. T1 Village of Hommlet
17. B3 Palace of the Silver Princess  
18. L1 Secret of Bone Hill
19. A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
20. D3 Vault of the Drow

Of course im not saying there werent some good ones in that batch.. but I think 2nd edition had many more of much higher quality that seems to be totally left out...

Afrika Corps wrote:many of the earlier 1st edition mods were not that good, in fact they were rather crude and simplistic.

You say that as if there were something wrong with that.  
But there is something to be said about simplicity. Many of those modules ran effortlessly and they were fun!!! Something missing in many of the later mods.

All kidding aside, I think you can see that most of those lists have at least 50% commonality. Out of the 100 or so TSR mods for D&D and first edition, we are seeing the same 10-15 on virtually everyone's list.

I am beginning to think we need to do a worst 30 of all time...

bbarsh wrote:I am beginning to think we need to do a worst 30 of all time...

I'm willing to bet more than one module would appear on both lists...

deimos3428 wrote:I'm willing to bet more than one module would appear on both lists...

Agreed. There's more than one old-school D&D adventure that would fit into the "love it or hate it" category. The "puzzle" modules — including my beloved White Plume Mountain — are the first group that springs to my mind. Some Judges Guild stuff also seems to produce wildly varied reactions, too (at least in my experience).