Had to stop by for a bit to add to a quality classics thread. Late, of course.
Here's my classic modules list. If anyone asks you why they should play these old adventures, when things are so much flashier now, here's my reasons.
I feel these are eternal because they teach lessons that modern adventure writers rarely even comprehend.
#1 B10, Night's Dark Terror. A cinematic adventure set against a lavish campaign setting, where a sense of wonder supersedes the usual focus on power and treasure. It elegantly balances a single story against a larger backdrop, strongly encouraging you to use this as the focus of an entire campaign. Shows the
DM what campaign development and lasting locations have to offer. Also has a nice classic British pulp feel, for those of you who like things like Sorcery!, Fighting Fantasy and Warhammer as sidelines to D&D.
#2 S2, White Plume Mountain. The dungeon doesn't make any sense. But it gives an unequaled air of mystery and intrigue. The map of the mountain's environs is one of the perfect adventure hooks that will leave players yearning to explore "over the edge." Keraptis' poem is a darker echo of Tolkien's dwarven songs from The Hobbit. And everyone has to try to answer the question for themselves -- Is Keraptis alive? S2 is the adventuring spirit, in a single tiny package.
#3 A4, In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords. What happens when you strip away everything the players rely on? Either intense creative thinking, or horrible death. Or both. Either way, this is the best D&D adventure for challenging the bored and lazy.
#4
B2, Keep on the Borderlands. Gygax is the master at taking bland monsters (humanoid swarms) and giving them a heart and soul. The details of living quarters, behavior, tactics, methods of hiding treasure, etc. make the world and the opponents feel real. If you want the players to care, put them in a world, in conflict with other living, breathing creatures. A great lesson in dungeon design.
#5
D3, Vault of the Drow. Some of my most haunting childhood dreams came from descriptions of the Vault crystals, the evil and yet loving succubus and vampire, the dying race discovered and threatened with extinction by young upstarts from the world above, the cruel goddess forcing her believers away from the rise of a new-yet-ancient rival … if I had to describe this one in a single word, it would be Lovecraftian. D3, while shorthand, reeks of dark atmosphere.
#6
G3, Hall of the Fire Giant King. The ultimate way to turn a "kill the foozle" quest on its head. You walk into the dungeon, and one of your very first encounters is with your nemesis. Then, you find out he's a pawn to an ancient race, and horrible secrets begin to emerge. Plus the "purple temple" is classic. This is the guide to the "wheels within wheels" mentality, how to keep a campaign intriguing by offering ever-deeper circles of drama and revelation.
#7
S1, Tomb of Horrors. Although arbitrary and unfair, this one will cause your players to play harder and more desperately than they ever have before. The lesson here -- there is always a higher power. You can become epic, but you can never become unchallenged. A great look at elaborating on established game mechanics to keep veteran players forever challenged.
#8
T1, The Village of Hommlet. Everyone focuses on the Moathouse, but the real adventure here is in the village itself. Gygax's unique merging of medieval accuracy and storytelling flair comes to the front here. Characters like Jaroo, Burne, Rufus and Gundigoot will last a campaign a lifetime. It's the companion piece to
B2. First, we made the monsters come to life; now, the NPCs. Make the players care about a place, give them something to fight for. Plus, the rural Greyhawk atmosphere is great. The Welcome Wench drink list is a masterpiece of concise images and adventure hooks.
#9 WG4, Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. The mystery is intriguing because it has no real answer, even for the
DM. There are secrets in the world so deep that even the Dungeon Master will never fully fathom them. But best of all, this is a masterpiece of evil, coordinated monster tactics. This is how smart monsters fight. They don't sit in rooms and wait to be robbed. Read and play this one before the G series, then apply what you learn there (especially to the
G1 hall and
G3 in its entirety).
#10 X4, Master of the Desert Nomads. A surprisingly compelling desert adventure. It plays much better than it reads. Interesting encounters like the bandit raid, the sinister monastery (Should we fight? Stay? Leave?), and many others give this one a fascinating feel. But only #10, because this one requires a skilled
DM to come to life.
#11 N1, Against the Cult of the Reptile God. Remixes the classic dungeon crawl, giving a wonderful sense of danger, while keeping things relatively tame. It's a great example of how to make lower-level characters feel important. The end device, of an overpowered monster being evened out by protective magic, gives a nice sense of accomplishment. The town isn't nearly as compelling as Hommlet, however, so it's #11.
#12 A1, Slave Pits of the Undercity. A great example of the competitive dungeon crawl in its prime. Split your group in two, and have them run the adventure separately, and let them know they will be scored. This one will give your players a nice dose of tactical encounters, and teach them to expect the unexpected.
#13 B7, Rahasia. Another nice example of getting low-level characters to care about their environment and its inhabitants. Also a fairly good story. It's basically a primitive but revolutionary prototype, showing the promise that B10 later delivered on. Takes adventuring in directions Gygax probably did not envision.
#14 Q1, Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Although disliked for its uneven tone, this one is striking because it takes so many chances. Infinite worlds, the first in-depth exploration of outer planes, the steampunk ship (long before the genre became mainstream), the endless hooks for future games … it's a very bold, if flawed, package. The
DMG and early D&D focused on anachronism (starships, wild west, Gamma World, Blackmoor futuretech, etc.), so this one's reputation as "not really fitting" is quite unfair.
#15
D2, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa. Purely for the atmosphere of the dead society fighting against impossible odds, the description of the temple, and the beautiful architecture of the master map. Vastly down-ranked, however, for repetitive and boring encounters that are crying out for a
DM's hand. Take what you learn from S2, WG4 and
B2 and apply it here to create a masterpiece.
#16
EX1, Dungeonland. Probably the most unpopular of the Gygaxian adventures; I admire it because I'm an Alice and Carroll devotee. If you study Victorian literature and lifestyle at all, you have to nod in admiration at some of the "extensions" Gygax made to Wonderland. The humor, however, is trite and contrived and never really works. This is an example of how to create a wonderful tribute to an existing work, and also the pitfalls in the procedure. If you're thinking of adapting a classic novel and making an adventure out of it, read this. (
EX2, although not as well-designed, is worth a nod.)
#17
G2, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. A great example of the thematic and outdoor dungeon. Repetitive encounters, but lots of great traps and details. This one needs a lot of fleshing out, and begs to be expanded to 32 pages. But it's a perfect example of the "do it yourself" module. The basics are there, teasing you, daring you to make them come to life. (In a similar vein, a nod to the sample dungeon in the
DMG.)
#18 I2, Tomb of the Lizard King. A surprisingly strong dungeon crawl, with a memorable foe. This module, to me, marks the beginning of "classic nostalgia." It has all of the elements, but the Gygaxian feel and underlying knowledge of the medieval age are missing.
#19
B1, In Search of the Unknown. A wonderful setting -- an attempt to make the illogical dungeon make sense, with the now-contrived "mad wizard" plot hook. On the list because it not only encourages the
DM to develop it, it shows them how. Placing monsters and treasure leads to the deeper questions that drive future adventures and eventually campaigns. (How did this get here? When? Why?) The pool room and mushroom garden are great archetypes of mystery and exploration (hence the title). Plus, who can look at the map of the first level and not get an undeniable urge to go dungeon delving with freshly-rolled level ones?
#20 L1, The Secret of Bone Hill. A great extension of
T1, in that it shows how to link towns, wilderness and dungeons together into a cohesive whole. Could have used more plot (that came in the under-rated L2), but it's a great template to work from.
