In your view, which is the best published adventure ever made?
For me, this is a pretty tough call, and there's some great classic ones that would win for nostalgia reasons (Keep on the Borderland); but on a level of pure quality, I'd probably say Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu.
RPGPundit
I'm completely in Masks' corner. That module gets so many things right it's scary. I've never run it, sadly, but I wait for the day I can inflict it on my friends.
I would have to go with The Enemy Within campaign. All were pretty good except,Empire in Flames, the last adventure which suffered from poor...well everything.
Regards,
David R
Masks of Nyarlathotep is a good choice. I still have my box set of it.
Beyond that, The Broken Covenant of Calebais is a great adventure for Ars Magica. It's a great dungeon crawl, especially for a game that generally eschews dungeon crawls.
Red Hand of Doom, a recent D&D adventure, is astonishingly good, and is the model of how to do a D&D adventure.
Queen of the Spiders, which collects the old 1e D&D modules G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King, D1: Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, D2: Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, D3: Vault of the Drow, Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is, in my opinion, the greatest of the old-school adventures.
Traveller Adventure 1: The Kinunir is a great example of old-school scifi RPG adventure design, which shines due to the economy of the writing. It presents precisely the info needed for the GM to run the adventure, and doesn't lead by the hand or nose.
Ranger, for 2300, is a personal favorite. Something of a setting sourcebook/adventure, really, but sets up a lot of conflict that the PCs need to resolve by way of a lot of negotiation. Texas Rangers on a hostile alien planet, surrounded by enemies, presented with a lot of secrets that could change the course of history on their world.
EDIT: And, oh yeah, Hot Rods of the Gods for the first edition of the Ghostbusters RPG. Sheer lunacy, very fun.
Always wanted to pick up Masks, never did.
I'd have to go with Keep on the Borderlands. It's 100% awesome. I think I played through that 3 or 4 times, and ran it once or twice too.
(Damn you Mad Hermit for killing Questor the Elf and his brother Questor II!)
1st edition version of the Temple of Elemental Evil.
Chuck
Quote from: David RI would have to go with The Enemy Within campaign. All were pretty good except,Empire in Flames, the last adventure which suffered from poor...well everything.
Regards,
David R
Enemy Within was a really awesome adventure with two big problems:
1. The ending sucked ass.
2. It made the WFRP game become permanently filled with a bunch of Warhammer swine who try to argue that the ONLY way people should be able to play WH is like the "enemy within" campaign, a high-investigation game with no combat or dungeon crawling allowed.
These two things leave the adventure more negative than positive to me.
RPGpundit
I remember Tattooine Manhunt, for WEG Star Wars, as being pretty good.
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!I remember Tattooine Manhunt, for WEG Star Wars, as being pretty good.
How could I forget
Tattoonie Manhunt? This was an awesome adventure. Jodo Kast, built his rep with the pcs in this adventure and was a long term nemesis in my old SW campaign.
QuoteOriginally posted by RPGPundit
2. It made the WFRP game become permanently filled with a bunch of Warhammer swine who try to argue that the ONLY way people should be able to play WH is like the "enemy within" campaign, a high-investigation game with no combat or dungeon crawling allowed.
These two things leave the adventure more negative than positive to me.
Death on the Reik basically ended with a haunted house crawl. There were loads of combat opportunities littered throughtout the camapign. So, folks who say that TEW is all about investigation and no combat - well they obviously didn't read/run the campaign I did :D
But, mostly what struck most folks were the investigative nature of the campaign
because it meshed so well with the setting and it's themes of corruption from within.
Folks should play the game however they want. I've bought the new edition and some of the supplements, I still prefer pre Storm of Chaos Old World, though, but am really glad WFRP is getting the attention I always thought it deserved.
Regards,
David R
B10 Night's Dark Terror was extremely well done. So was the Saltmarsh trilogy.
The Duke's Dress Ball (from the Thieves' Guild series) was also pretty snazzy.
B10 Night's Dark Terror proves that an adventure can be epic without having to be huge scale.
Keep on the Borderlands, I think, is another stellar one. "Here's a bunch of adventure locations, a place to rest, some interesting NPCs and some subplots to go with 'em. Feel free to sketch in the rest, and by the way, here's how to do that..." Excellent for the beginning GM, or just someone looking for unfinished furtniture, as it were.
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!I remember Tattooine Manhunt, for WEG Star Wars, as being pretty good.
I liked the Black Ice one better. (I think that was the one with the big transport ship.)
Universal Brotherhood, for Shadowrun. Excellent jab at Scientology, innovative format, and very good adventure.
Quote from: JongWKUniversal Brotherhood, for Shadowrun. Excellent jab at Scientology, innovative format, and very good adventure.
Another vote for UB... very creepy.
Also, another vote for Keep on the Borderlands, my hands-down fav DnD module. It provokes the fondest gaming memories.
Dead Gods for Planescape.
Epic in scope, well executed, and with a great variety of challenges.
Quote from: KnightskyB10 Night's Dark Terror was extremely well done.
I was scooped! :watermelon:
Yeah,
B10 is quite possibly the best D&D adventure of all time.
Anyone who likes either D&D (any version) or Mystara owes it to themselves to get this module!
Another good one, from one of the authors of B10 (Graeme Morris), is
UK4 When A Star Falls.
Quote from: KnightskyThe Duke's Dress Ball (from the Thieves' Guild series) was also pretty snazzy.
Whoah! :eek: A 'Thieves Guild' reference. Man, I thought that I was the only person who remembered that game/series.
Something similar to the 'Dress Ball' scenario takes place in the original
Freeport trilogy.
Somehow I knew Jong would say Universal Brotherhood. And I have to agree, no doubt, its one of the best adventures ever written. Certainly its the best product ever written for shadowrun.
RPGPundit
Quote from: AkrasiaWhoah! :eek: A 'Thieves Guild' reference. Man, I thought that I was the only person who remembered that game/series.
Something similar to the 'Dress Ball' scenario takes place in the original Freeport trilogy.
The same basic concept also shows up in one of TSR's Lankhmar modules.
I enjoy the old AD&D module T1, Village of Hommlet. Much like Keep on the Borderlands, you get a base and an adventure location. What puts Hommlet ahead for me is the sense of intrigue in the town, with watchers aligned with both the forces of good and evil, etc. There's enough there to let the DM know that something is happening, but it's left vague enough for individual interpretation and tailoring.
I had a hoot as a GM running an Ars Magica adventure, The Pact of Pasaquine, for my group several years back. I converted it for AD&D, but the plot worked wonderfully anyway.
I haven't run any of them being new to the game, but many of the Classic Traveller adventures give the wide-open feel of Hommlet. I may have to find a way to get the Kinunir or Death Station into my campaign. On reading, those two have impressed me the most.
Quote from: jrientsB10 Night's Dark Terror proves that an adventure can be epic without having to be huge scale.
For anyone interested in B10, this review explains why it is so amazing:
http://www.mbertenshaw.plus.com/Mark/RPG/basic.html#9149
I'm going to post a weird one:
Cofee Break of the Living Dead is a perfect intro to All Flesh Must Be Eaten. It may be that I've had too much of a blast running it, but man o man is it an awesome, awesome adventure!
I've run it half a dozen times easy, with many different players. I've used it to make new gamers, get mpeople interested in the hobby again or show off Roleplaying.
It has everything in it: An intense Roleplaying moment, a killing spree with resource management (ammo), saving a damsel in distress, and killing things.
It rocks hard, man!
Quote from: RPGPunditIn your view, which is the best published adventure ever made?
For me, this is a pretty tough call, and there's some great classic ones that would win for nostalgia reasons (Keep on the Borderland); but on a level of pure quality, I'd probably say Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu.
RPGPundit
I agree with this. Also, I would cite some adventures for Aquelarre (but is a least known game), and Griffin Island for RuneQuest, on the same criteria as the Masks.
Quote from: AkrasiaWhoah! :eek: A 'Thieves Guild' reference. Man, I thought that I was the only person who remembered that game/series.
Remember it? Hell, I still own a copy of the game, as well as the first part of Haven: The Free City. Now if I could only unearth either of them...
Quote from: JongWKUniversal Brotherhood, for Shadowrun. Excellent jab at Scientology, innovative format, and very good adventure.
Odd. I always thought it was a jab at Mormons...
I rather enjoyed the prequel to
UB,
Queen Euphoria.
seeing howI have play few games with published modules , and leaving out the classic D&D ones I would say:
Austrian Holiday: A Day in the Country with Super Soldiers by Hinterwelt Enterprises
This was easily the best RPG one shot I ever played. How much was good GMing and party chemistry, i'm not sure, but i'm inclinded to think the adventure is good on its own.
I'll go with something newer, The Grey Citidel from Necromancer Games.
http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=product&productid=118592
The adventure has mystery, (with three different sets of clues for the pc's to stumble across,) great npc's, great combat, (with solid tactics advice that I totally messed up when I ran it :( ) and perhaps one of the most memorable adventures that I've run for the gaming group I was a part of.
After reading it, I would be willing to buy further adventures/sourcebooks by Nathan Douglas Paul at full price, which I pretty much never do.
Quote from: LostSoulI liked the Black Ice one better. (I think that was the one with the big transport ship.)
Black Ice had a fairly epic ending (how often do you get to ram an eight-mile transport ship into a mini Death Star?), but I'd have to agree with Rotwang - overall,
Tatooine Manhunt was a better adventure (for that matter, I'd also rate
Strike Force Shantipole and
Starfall above
Black Ice).
On the urban horror department, I think that
Garden Full of Weeds, for Unknown Armies, hits all the right notes.
Another vote for Keep on the Borderlands. I still run it for any new group, have adapted it for several systems, and will in all likelihood continue to do so, based on how much the players have seemed to love it.
Quote from: AkrasiaFor anyone interested in B10, this review explains why it is so amazing:
http://www.mbertenshaw.plus.com/Mark/RPG/basic.html#9149
In the 1980s, the British D&D adventure designers ran circles around their American counterparts. I can't put my finger on exactly why that is, but back in the 1980s a module with the Union Jack next to its letter/number code was almost guaranteed to be good. The guys at TSR UK were always willing to do fun, interesting stuff:
The Alderweg Series: Defend a mountain fortress against an attacking hobgolbin army led by a fire giant. Find and interact with an intelligent artifact that sets you off on a quest to destroy its rival.
Drums on Fire Mountain: Sneak on to a tropical island, make it past hundreds of orcs, descend into a volcano dungeon, and knock off the bad guy. Very James Bond-esque, and the puzzles to activate the teleporters into the dungeon were well done.
All That Glitters: Ride an ancient, magical subway system to a forgotten, sun blasted desert wasteland on the other side of the world. Save an entire civilization.
U-Series: Explore a haunted house, fight sahuagin in an underwater dungeon complex.
Night's Dark Terror: The best of the bunch, with a cool battle to lift a goblin siege on an elf community, an epic story where the PCs really made a difference, and lots of good, atmospheric encounters. One of the best D&D adventures in terms of story and package (cool maps, cooler counters).
Quote from: mearlsIn the 1980s, the British D&D adventure designers ran circles around their American counterparts....
The Alderweg Series...
Drums on Fire Mountain...
All That Glitters...
U-Series...
Night's Dark Terror: The best of the bunch...
I agree 100 percent. :D
My only complaint with your post is that you failed to mention
UK 4 When A Star Falls (it started with a 'memory web' in which the players were given the fragmented memories of a failed expedition of monks; it also included a Derro settlement devastated by a meteorite; a shadow assassin that trailed the PCs; a settlement of evil snirvneblin 'technicians'; and a book that foretold the future).
Quote from: AkrasiaI agree 100 percent. :D
My only complaint with your post is that you failed to mention UK 4 When A Star Falls (it started with a 'memory web' in which the players were given the fragmented memories of a failed expedition of monks; it also included a Derro settlement devastated by a meteorite; a shadow assassin that trailed the PCs; a settlement of evil snirvneblin 'technicians'; and a book that foretold the future).
Forgot that one, or more accurately confused it with All That Glitters...
The memories were particularly evocative and well-written. It was an interesting way to get the PCs involved in the story, give them exposition, and give hints as to what's going on.
Quote from: mearlsThe Alderweg Series: Defend a mountain fortress against an attacking hobgolbin army led by a fire giant. Find and interact with an intelligent artifact that sets you off on a quest to destroy its rival.
I played through the Alderweg series back in high school. It was an incredibly fun pair of modules. One of the high points of my times as a player rather than GM.