Another recent fave of mine is Anomalous Subsurface Environment. Super creative and fun.

Quote from: estar;843845The adventure did had an inspiration and it wasn't 100 bushels of Rye.

Yes, but you still knew what I was talking about, though. Don't get me wrong, I am not shouting about plagiarism or anything, but it was just something I saw. It is a pretty good hook, even.
Again, I like the adventure. It remembers me a lot of the better Dark Eye adventures of the earliest days of my roleplaying career. The only thing's missing would be a Ugurcan Yüce cover, like this:

Quote from: estar;843846So how did it work out for the three group? I am curious as every group I ran through it handled somewhat differently.

The first time we played it, we used it with the Dragon Age RPG and setting, and I adjusted it slightly: the Wolf became a massive dog (due to the importance of dogs in that setting), the beggars became homeless elves, and the priest a more motherly matron. Most importantly the mage enclave become a secret hiding spot for persecuted renegade mages who obviously didn't trust the PCs, so there was a bit more intrigue and negotiating involved in convincing them. It worked really well in the context of that short-lived campaign.

Due to the fond memories for that campaign, I used it again when we playtested the new D&D edition. That run-through was a lot more straightforward, because the players immediately found their way to the bandit cave, slaughtered most of them and captured the second in command, found the wolf costumes and the connection to the beggars.

The third time we played was shortly after the D&D5 playtest run. I played it with my (former, since this week) Midgard group, again reconfigurating the adventure to fit the setting (pseudo-scottish highlands bordering on not-really Norman England this time, with the beggars replaced with uprooted war refugees and the mages with a slightly heterodox sect who also practices magic). That run-through was... a bit exhaustive, due to group's talent to create sidetracks leading absolutely nowhere even when told this and a strange fixation that the priest might be a werewolf or at least the actual culprit (obviously, finding no proof for that only meant that he was a very clever villain).

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;843844Death Frost Doom.

Just read two reviews on this. Do you guys think if it could work as a Dungeon Crawl Classics "funnel" adventure?

I'm going to also go with Death Frost Doom.

This thread made me feel old, though. Every adventure my brain initially reached for as "recent, kickass D&D adventure" is now more than 10 years old.

Death Frost Doom for me as well... maybe only because I haven't played through Deep Carbon Observatory yet... but I've played and ran DFD several times and it's always a hoot.

Quote from: Moracai;843893Just read two reviews on this. Do you guys think if it could work as a Dungeon Crawl Classics "funnel" adventure?

Yes. In fact Mandy kind of used it that way in our first game.

Quote from: Zak S;843997Yes. In fact Mandy kind of used it that way in our first game.

Good to know, thanks!

Quote from: Omega;843832I actually liked the two Tyranny of Dragons modules for 5e.

They are pretty well written and a lot of fun. (I've been running then at my local game store all year.) They also are a little linear for my personal style.

Barrowmaze scores pretty high in my books. So does Better Than Any Man, though.

last ten years?

i really love dungeon crawl classics sailors on the starless sea and peril on the purple planet. in fact i love the whole dcc line.

also, court of the shadow fey and kingmaker adventure path.

I'll second Madness at Gardmore Abbey. If it had been published for a non-4E edition it would be praised by grognards as an exemplar of an old-school, site-based dungeon. Actually, a lot of 4E adventures (Thunderspire Labyrinth, Ruins of Vor Rukoth, Gardmore Abbey) are far more suitable for sandbox D&D than most 3E or Pathfinder adventures.

The list of options expands if you include sandbox-setting books.

Quote from: Haffrung;844541I'll second Madness at Gardmore Abbey. If it had been published for a non-4E edition it would be praised by grognards as an exemplar of an old-school, site-based dungeon. Actually, a lot of 4E adventures (Thunderspire Labyrinth, Ruins of Vor Rukoth, Gardmore Abbey) are far more suitable for sandbox D&D than most 3E or Pathfinder adventures.

Reavers of Harkenwold was also quite cool, including a keep battle which can easily expand to be literally the entire keep charging the PCs if they're not careful.  

Sadly the early 4E stuff was absolutely unmitigated dreck.  Keep on the Shadowfell might go down as one of the top 5 worst adventures printed in the top 10 years, or possibly ever.  

That being said, still Death Frost Doom 2E (never saw the original, but if it featured an NPC named Grover Cincinnati in part of the 'horror tone' setting, there were issues)

Rise of the Runelords (either the original 3.5 version or the updated Pathfinder version)

I liked Souls for Smuggler's Shiv of the Serpent's Skull AP for Pathfinder. It is the only module I've ran in the last 10 years. It appeals to my DMing style as it is a sandbox with plenty of details, suggestions and the like. As soon as I read the 2nd installment, I dropped it like diseased blankets.