The Top modules of all time according to Dungeon

[RPG Dinosaur]

Here's the full list of top modules ranked by Dungeon and it includes ones from 2 and 3e. Again, the list comes from the November '04 issue of Dungeon (#116).

44 C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness Hammack 1980 AD&D
43 L2: The Assassin's Knot Latofka 1983 AD&D
42 B4: The Lost City Moldvay 1982 D&D
41 U1: The Siniser Secret of Saltmarsh Browne 1981 AD&D
40 City of Skulls (Greyhawk) Sargent 1993 2nd Ed
39 DL1: Dragons of Despair Hickman 1984 AD&D
38 City of the Spider Queen (Forgotten Realms) Wyatt 2002 2nd Ed
37 WG4: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun Gygax 1982 AD&D
36 S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth Gygax 1982 AD&D
35 Dark Tower (Judges' Guild) Jaquays 1980 AD&D
31-34 A1-A4 Scourge of the Slave Lords D.Cook 1986 AD&D
30 N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God Niles 1982 AD&D
29 C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Johnson 1980 AD&D
28 Ruins of Undermountain (box) Greenwood 1991 2nd Ed
27 X1: The Isle of Dread Moldvay 1980 D&D
26 X2: Castle Amber Moldvay 1981 AD&D
25 Dead Gods (Planescape) M.Cook 1997 2nd Ed
24 I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City D.Cook 1981 AD&D
23 The Forge of Fury Butler 2000 3E
22 The Gates of Firestorm Peak Cordell 1996 2nd Ed
21 Return to the Tomb of Horrors Cordell 1998 2nd Ed
20 S1: White Plume Mountain Schick 1979 AD&D
19 Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil M.Cook 2001 3E
18 B2: The Keep on the Borderlands Gygax 1979 D&D
15-17 I3-I5: The Desert of Desolation Hickman 1987 AD&D
14 S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Gygax 1980 AD&D
10-13 T1-T4: The Temple of Elemental Evil Gygax 1985 AD&D
9 S1: Tomb of Horrors Gygax 1978 AD&D
8 I6: Ravenloft Hickman 1983 AD&D
1-7 GDQ 1-7: Queen of the Spiders Gygax 1986 AD&D

[JadedDM]

I haven't played in any of those. Maybe some day I'll get the chance.

[RPG Dinosaur]

Like I clarified in my 1e post, the list was first published in Dungeon magazine, not Dragon.

[rredmond]

Good list.
Most I'd agree belong on the list, though I'd argue the order a bit.
thanks!
--Ron--

[Billy_Buttcheese]

On the recommendation of the RPGDinosaur, I'm casting raise dead on another older subject.

I find it most telling that this list is made up of almost exclusively 1st Edition modules, although there are a couple of token 2nd and 3rd Ed in there and one of the 3rd Ed is based on a 1st Ed (ToEE). I would have liked to see how they compiled the data.

My own personal favorites are, in no particular order; the Slaver series, the Giant series, the U series, and the Desert series. I've been a player in all of them but have only DMd the first two series. Damn I miss those days.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

Well, no such list can be accurate unless Ruins of Undermountain is #1.

City of Skulls is one of the finest modules I've ever run. It definitely needs to be in the Top 5.

I'd also personally add in Temple, Tower and Tomb. It was a small, 3 part adventure. Every time I ran it, the players loved it. It was nothing earthshaking or groundbreaking. But somehow it remains one of the most memorable modules ever played for me and for various player groups I ran it for. Can't explain why.

Haunted Halls of Eveningstar was another one that was simple but lots of fun. I'd add that one.

And while it was an over-the-to insane acid trip-like adventure, how can Throne of Bloodstone not be on that list? It was as wild and fun an adventure as any I've ever played. Crazy, insane, overpowered, ridiculous. But once played, never forgotten.

[JadedDM]

Three years ago, I said I had never played any of these. That's no longer true. I've run Dragons of Despair twice now. I also played in The Secret of Saltmarsh.

[RPG Dinosaur]

My own personal favorites are, in no particular order; the Slaver series, the Giant series, the U series, and the Desert series. I've been a player in all of them but have only DMd the first two series. Damn I miss those days.

Bill, I wanted to ask you about U3: The Final Enemy, and the Desert Series. As far as U3 goes and to the best of your memory, how did your party fare invading the lair complex of the Sahuagin? I never played or DM'd this module in the series, but did read it. *Spoiler Alert* Did your party have allies like the Lizard Men to accompany them? Did you find that secret room on the one and only floor above sea level that had all those magic weapons and magic items with water breathing capabilities? After I got done reading U3, I thought to myself "Man, with all the modifiers to melee, range weapons and spell casting because of the large portion of the adventure being underwater, not to mention the sheer numbers of Sahuagin in the complex, this is a VERY difficult adventure to succeed at." How did your party ultimately do?
As far as the Desert Series, I was wondering which edition version of the adventure you played? Also, how far did you make it and how long did it take in real time (again, if you remember!)? Thanks for any feed back regarding those adventures.
While I did DM a portion of the U Series, the Desert series is one that just didn't come my way in a Player/DM capacity. Just two years ago I got my hands on a copy of the revised 2nd edition version, and have to say that I've never had two more different reactions for a module (and am talking about all three modules as a whole). The first half I was really, really enthused by and thought from just reading that it seemed well designed. The second half seemed to me to just steadily decline in quality until it 'jumped the shark'. It seems to me that the man, Wm. John Wheeler, who did the 2E revision, didn't do any playtesting, and there are no playtesters listed in the credits. After reading the revision I honestly think it would take a group who actually got all the way through it, playing say three and a half hours a week, a full year in real time to complete the adventure. And that is why I think the quality IMO really suffered for the second half. Maybe I shouldn't name Mr. Wheeler in this critique of the 2E revision, after all, I haven't read the original version and don't know the extent of liberties he took in his rewrite.

Three years ago, I said I had never played any of these. That's no longer true. I've run Dragons of Despair twice now. I also played in The Secret of Saltmarsh.

Excellent! How did you like SSoSM?

[JadedDM]

Excellent! How did you like SSoSM?

Hard to say. The DM modified it heavily, by adding real ghosts to it so that their DMPC cleric could charge in and 'rescue' the rest of the party by turning said ghosts. Then that DM quit and another DM took over, and made even more changes to it. So by the end, it was probably unrecognizable from the original module.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

My own personal favorites are, in no particular order; the Slaver series, the Giant series, the U series, and the Desert series. I've been a player in all of them but have only DMd the first two series. Damn I miss those days.

Bill, I wanted to ask you about U3: The Final Enemy, and the Desert Series. As far as U3 goes and to the best of your memory, how did your party fare invading the lair complex of the Sahuagin? I never played or DM'd this module in the series, but did read it. *Spoiler Alert* Did your party have allies like the Lizard Men to accompany them? Did you find that secret room on the one and only floor above sea level that had all those magic weapons and magic items with water breathing capabilities? After I got done reading U3, I thought to myself "Man, with all the modifiers to melee, range weapons and spell casting because of the large portion of the adventure being underwater, not to mention the sheer numbers of Sahuagin in the complex, this is a VERY difficult adventure to succeed at." How did your party ultimately do?
As far as the Desert Series, I was wondering which edition version of the adventure you played? Also, how far did you make it and how long did it take in real time (again, if you remember!)? Thanks for any feed back regarding those adventures.
While I did DM a portion of the U Series, the Desert series is one that just didn't come my way in a Player/DM capacity. Just two years ago I got my hands on a copy of the revised 2nd edition version, and have to say that I've never had two more different reactions for a module (and am talking about all three modules as a whole). The first half I was really, really enthused by and thought from just reading that it seemed well designed. The second half seemed to me to just steadily decline in quality until it 'jumped the shark'. It seems to me that the man, Wm. John Wheeler, who did the 2E revision, didn't do any playtesting, and there are no playtesters listed in the credits. After reading the revision I honestly think it would take a group who actually got all the way through it, playing say three and a half hours a week, a full year in real time to complete the adventure. And that is why I think the quality IMO really suffered for the second half. Maybe I shouldn't name Mr. Wheeler in this critique of the 2E revision, after all, I haven't read the original version and don't know the extent of liberties he took in his rewrite.

As I said, I only played in this series and it was in, I think, 1984ish. To the best of my recollection, we discovered that the lizard men were actually not the threat and did in fact work together with them to defeat the Sahuagin. Yes, we found the water breathing stuff, probably couldn't have beat it otherwise. I'll be totally honest and say that I don't remember this adventure as being that difficult. We actually had more difficulty in U1 on the Sea Ghost and came very close to a TPK on that one. When we finished the series, we had been made honorary citizens of Saltmarsh ( ) and I think one of the players actually bought some land there. Keep in mind this was 33 or so years ago in a galaxy far, far away.

As for the Desert series, I don't even recall specifically when I went through that one but probably mid-80's. But, yes, I do seem to recall those 3 as taking quite awhile to complete (several months, for sure). I have both the original 3 individuals as well as the compilation but have never done a side-by-side comparison of the two sets. That applies to the A-series as well. Having only played in the Desert series, I still recommend that, if you can afford to, you try to pick up copies of the individual modules as sometimes when they compile them, some of the original "magic" doesn't seem to hold up. A good example of that to me is Return to the Keep on the Borderlands which is almost totally different in feel to me than the original. I've played and DMd those as well and other than the maps, are almost diametrically opposed in the way they play and run, to me. Both are playable, as written, but Return required some pretty intensive modification on my part to make work. Fortunately I found a document online that handled the fixes pretty well.

[RPG Dinosaur]

Excellent! How did you like SSoSM?

Hard to say. The DM modified it heavily, by adding real ghosts to it so that their DMPC cleric could charge in and 'rescue' the rest of the party by turning said ghosts. Then that DM quit and another DM took over, and made even more changes to it. So by the end, it was probably unrecognizable from the original module.

Awww, I hate to hear that, that's too bad. Yeah, adding Ghosts to the low level module is, ahh...head scratching to say the least . Sounds like the whole adventure was a cluster from the beginning. Wish you could play it the way it was meant to be played.

As I said, I only played in this series and it was in, I think, 1984ish. To the best of my recollection, we discovered that the lizard men were actually not the threat and did in fact work together with them to defeat the Sahuagin. Yes, we found the water breathing stuff, probably couldn't have beat it otherwise. I'll be totally honest and say that I don't remember this adventure as being that difficult. We actually had more difficulty in U1 on the Sea Ghost and came very close to a TPK on that one. When we finished the series, we had been made honorary citizens of Saltmarsh ( ) and I think one of the players actually bought some land there. Keep in mind this was 33 or so years ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Heh Heh, awesome, congrats on conquering the adventure! Yeah, although some people seem to think the storyline is, U1 is no joke if the party is the appropriate level when they go through it (it doesn't need the DM adding Ghosts!). The crew of the Sea Ghost has that spellcaster and some muscle. I am glad to have gotten a first hand account from someone who got through U3 The Final Enemy.

As for the Desert series, I don't even recall specifically when I went through that one but probably mid-80's. But, yes, I do seem to recall those 3 as taking quite awhile to complete (several months, for sure).

Thanks for sharing your memories, I figured as much. If I could ask you one more question Billy: Do you have any memory about whether or not you enjoyed the series?

[Billy_Buttcheese]

Thanks for sharing your memories, I figured as much. If I could ask you one more question Billy: Do you have any memory about whether or not you enjoyed the series?

That's why I added it to my list of favorite adventures. After I responded to your last inquiry, I went back and checked through my adventure notes. It was in 1986 when I was stationed in Korea and it took the better part of 6 months to complete. But that was interrupted by a one month trip to the Philippines.

The last module was a beast!

As I said, you really should try to get the originals. I've found whenever they put those compilations together, they frequently take liberties to mash things together to try to make them "fit" but usually end up making things...more difficult.

[RPG Dinosaur]

That's why I added it to my list of favorite adventures.

Of course, Of course,* head slap to self* ! I lost track.

As I said, you really should try to get the originals. I've found whenever they put those compilations together, they frequently take liberties to mash things together to try to make them "fit" but usually end up making things...more difficult.

You know, I pretty much just decided to forget about the Desert series after reading what I consider, and have already stated, is a debacle of a last half of the 2E version, but you're right. I should make the effort to get the three original modules and read them. At your encouragement, I'm going to do just that. Need to remind myself what a pleasure the 2E first half was and that I might actually really enjoy the entire 1E version.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

Desert of Desolation had one the most awesome covers ever!



I was so inspired, I made that mummy a major villain in three different campaigns!

[RPG Dinosaur]

Desert of Desolation had one the most awesome covers ever!

True that!!

The last module was a beast!

If the 1E version contains half as many undead placed in the path of getting to Martek as the 2E version does, I bet it is!