Mine are:
1. A Little Knowlede, the pack-in adventure for the Dark Sun boxed set. I've used it many times, and it's always a hit. I do tweak it a bit to make it a bit more challenging. For instance, limiting the amount of resources the PCs find.
Tip: Waterskins are just as valuable, if not moreso than water itself. Being able to store and carry water is pretty important in a survival adventure.
2. White Plume Mountain. I don't care, I like the funhouse adventure. Erol Otus' map in the module is evocative and very cool. The question of what the players do with the three magic items always intrigued me, and my brother made a whole campaign around them, which we are currently playing.
3. I6 Ravenloft. Never played it, but I find the tarot reading and the randomized aspects of the module intriguing. I do hope to run it or play in it one day.
I never ran modules much before 5e; the few I read back when were not great, and so remained few. My experience with White Plume Mountain is from Tales from the Yawning Portal; it was very bad indeed. But I liked Forge of Fury from that book (played it and later ran it). Of the AL modules I've played or run, Outlaws of the Iron Road is probably my favorite; less railroad than most.
BX
Keep on the Borderlands: Still one of my go-to modules for starting adventuring and free roaming within a relatively small area.
Isle of Dread: My other go-to for wilderness exploration.
Master of the Desert Nomads: This and its followup module span a fairly good Arabian tales style adventure with lots of intrigue and plots.
The Lost City: This one I received as part of a batch of gaming material from a friends former DM who passed away. Its a really interesting adventure that takes things outside the usual.
A few others from that era.
AD&D
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks: This one is just so fun to spring on unsuspecting players.
Ghost Tower of Iverness: One of the first modules I ever bought. A pretty good puzzle adventure packed into a small area.
Dwellers in the Forbidden City: Got this ages ago at a con. Another fun exploration heavy adventure.
2e
The Darkness Gathering trilogy: This is hands down my favourite module set from 2e. It is a sprawling adventure that takes the players ever deeper into a possibly universe spanning threat. Together they form a large campaign.
5e
Tyranny of Dragons: These two modules are much maligned by some. But I had a blast DMing it. This is another sprawling adventure, a campaign really.
Descent into Avernus: Just got this and still reading through it, but several elements in it I am enjoying allready.
Tomb of Annihilation: Have this but have not finished reading through. Looks to be another good one.
For me it tends to be The New Hotness, but I do love Jean Wells' B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and hope to run it again soon.
Currently running Red Hand of Doom, definitely a classic adventure that lives up to the hype, players have frequently commented that it feels like being in a fantasy movie (it's closest to The Two Towers, if Rohan were Alabama).
Several of the Primeval Thule adventures I ran this year were fantastic; Night of the Yellow Moon and Watchers of Meng are probably the top ones from outside the campaign book, while Cavern of Golden Tears in the setting book is great too.
Quote from: Ratman_tf;11064512. White Plume Mountain. I don't care, I like the funhouse adventure. E
My then 9-year-old son absolutely loved White Plume Mountain when I ran it in my Classic D&D Karameikos campaign; the power weapons were needed to fight the upcoming war with the Master of the Desert Nomads.
S1: Tomb of Horrors!
It's iconic, its brutal and its so damn hard that players just yearn for the street cred of saying they beat Acerak.
BX:
The Lost City - It's a classic pulp sword & sorcery adventure and a good bridge from Basic to Expert levels. I feel like I need to run this one again soon.
AD&D:
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - This one is just pure nostalgia for me.
5e:
Curse of Strahd - This is one of the more sandbox-y and least overwritten of the WotC adventures. And it's genuinely fun.
OSR:
The Tomb of Sigyfel - This is a very sparse intro dungeon for Labyrinth Lord. It shows you can do a lot with a little as a DM. It's a good intro to OSR-style play. Also really easy to re-skin into any campaign.
Maze of the Blue Medusa - I ran about half of this in 5e a couple years back. Great sandbox, very table-friendly and gives the DM lots of room for improvisation. For me the best part may have been crafting the setup to get the PCs to the maze itself.
OD&D: Caverns of Thracia by Paul Jaquays. This is still, IMO/IME, the best megadungeon and model for a megadungeon.
2E: The Shattered Circle by Bruce Cordell. This came late in 2E's run and is often overlooked but it's a very solid large dungeon with an interesting backstory that is easy to customise for a range of settings.
Old School:
-Keep on the Borderlands (D&D): A classic for a reason. No need to expand upon this.
-Feast of Goblyns (AD&D2E): Lots of moving parts, memorable NPCs, and an interesting plot combined with plenty of "regular" D&D stuff. IMO the best of the 2e Ravenloft products.
-Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes (Star Frontiers): Probably the best sci fi adventure I've yet come across. While on a survey mission on a feral alien planet, your vessel suddenly is forced to crash land due to sabotage, far from your base. The players must use their minimal survival equipment to get back to base, through many miles of hiking and white water rafting, and innumerable alien animals. Meanwhile the saboteur is back at home base alternating repairing the ship that is the only way off the planet, fortifying the perimeter, and sending security robots after the PCs, while hopped up on amphetamines. This was really ahead of its time and holds up well. The fantastic artwork is a bonus.
New School:
-Sailors on the Starless Sea (DCC): Enormously entertaining, small dungeon crawl. We ran this as a regular low level adventure, I'd love to run it as the 0 level funnel as intended. There is nothing really special about it, its just exceedingly well done. Really all of the DCC stuff by Harley Stroh is like that.
-Observer Effect (Delta Green): Challenging to GM with a large number of NPCs doing different things at different times in different places under different frames of mind, with (hopefully) minimal combat. This adventure succeeds at creating an increasing sense of panic and desperation in a way I haven't seen before.
-Curse of Strahd: Very well done for what it is. If you want to expand your proven adventure into a campaign this is the way to do it.
I dont use a lot of modules as a rule. My favourite from the 2e days was the Night Below.
For B/X D&D: Good ol' Keep on the Borderlands. 32 pages packed with adventure and good basic DM'ing advice.
AD&D: Desert of Desolation series, GDQ series.
Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play: The Oldenhaller Contract, great beginning scenario. Any part of The Enemy Within, but for me especially Empire In Flames.
Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting, which has probably launched a thousand CoC games. Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, because Cthulhu is hungry and needs to eat those 1d6 investigators a round. Masks of Nyarlathotep, because if you don't stop ol' Ny, he's going to make sure the stars are right RIGHT NOW.
The One Ring: The Darkening of Mirkwood. Things get worse for Rhovanion, but in an epic way. Lets you interact with Tolkien elements as things build to the War of the Ring, and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other classics.
Quote from: Conanist;1106639-Sailors on the Starless Sea (DCC): Enormously entertaining, small dungeon crawl. We ran this as a regular low level adventure, I'd love to run it as the 0 level funnel as intended. There is nothing really special about it, its just exceedingly well done. Really all of the DCC stuff by Harley Stroh is like that.
Nice! I did run it as a funnel, and you'd be shocked (maybe not) at how many 0 level characters fell into the damn sinkhole on our first run.
I have fond memories of running the 2e Ravenloft Ship of Horror module back in high school. I may dig that up and see how I can work it into a Ghosts of Saltmarsh-based campaign.
For D&D variants:
I6 Ravenloft is an excellent module that nicely fits the genre and has story elements without being railroaded. It was followed up by I10 The House on Gryphon Hill (Ravenloft II) which has a more involved plot that is also non-railroaded.
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a little linear from being a tournament module, but it is full of unique flavor -- especially how it incorporates the player illustrations of most rooms. The fantasy Meso-American flavor is very well-done, and shows D&D branching out.
The Sunless Citadel for 3E is my favorite introductory module. There is a storyline to it with some meat, but simple enough for the PCs. It's got a nicely non-linear structure, with different branching while still making sense and having merges that bring things back together.
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For Champions, there are some great sourcebooks, but my favorite adventure module is The Coriolis Effect. It's nicely comic-booky in having a plot that encourages incorporating the PCs into it, rather than being a railroaded story or just villains to fight. It's a rare medium between an out-of-the-box adventure and a sourcebook. It has blocks, but also good discussion to direct the GM in creating something that fits the PCs more closely. Superhero games work better when there's some comic book drama, which the PCs should be a part of.
For Call of Cthulhu, there's The Golden Dawn, which is also a similar medium between a drop-in adventure and a sourcebook. It encourages PCs who are really a part of the story, rather than random elements that stumble onto an already-written plot. The flavor is also important - I thought it was excellent in merging Victorian mysticism, English mythology, and Lovecraftian horror.
For James Bond 007, there's Back of Beyond (second-billed as "You Only Live Twice II"). Most of the modules are poorly handled retreads of the movies, but a few tried to go beyond. This was an nicely original James Bond mission centered in Australia, which hits a lot of James-Bond-like tropes while also working as a challenging adventure.
My favorite RPG adventure/module ever is Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu.
The longer answer:
My favorite D&D adventures of all time (roughly in order):
- G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax (D&D - TSR)
- Maure Castle (Paizo)/WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Rob Kuntz (AD&D - TSR)
- T1 Village of Hommlet by Gary Gygax (AD&D - TSR)
- A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity by David Cook (AD&D - TSR)
- Maze of Zayene #4 Eight Kings by Rob Kuntz (AD&D from Creations Unlimited, or d20 from Different Worlds)
- WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun by Gary Gygax (AD&D - TSR)
- Dark Druids by Rob Kuntz (1e/Guy Fullerton's Chaotic Henchmen)
- D3 Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax (AD&D - TSR)
- Starstone by Paul Vernon (OD&D - Northern Sages)
- S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax (AD&D - TSR)
The rest of my favorites are @ https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/05/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-things.html
Allan.
A lot of great ones already mentioned in this thread. I'll add X2 1981 Castle Amber for Dungeon & Dragons Expert Set. I loved that adventure so much when I was younger.
My absolute favourite would be "Tegel Manor" by Judges Guild.
For a weird change of pace, my favourite would be "The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow" from Dragon #42.
There's a DCC module called Enter The Dagon... an intentional pun on 'Enter The Dragon'. It's about a tournament of wizards on a remote island. There is exploration and mystery and maybe a dungeon... but the tournament itself is the main concern and I found it very tense as things progressed.
The One Ring: I really enjoyed running (part of) the first adventure from the Bree-land book: Old Bones and Skin. Evocative stuff in there, very fun.
MCC: A Fallen Star for All and the one that came with the rulebook, forget the name.
DCC: My favourite modules of any system. Sailors on the Starless Sea and Doom of the Savage Kings being my two favourites. I've only run a small number of DCC modules though, sadly. They really have spoiled my appetite for more vanilla adventures. I'll start reading something like Red Hand of Doom (I started running that, only got to the lake up north before I became dissatisfied with the whole thing, and my gaming group), and although I see that it is solid for what it is, I grow a little bored of how neat everything is. Where's the weirdness? Everything is so... on-brand. The D&D brand that is. The black dragons are all poisonous, the red dragons breath fire, the hob-goblins are militant, the wizard in town sells potions, etc. etc.
5e: The Starter Set, the Phandelin one, was the first thing I GM'd, so I have a soft spot for it. I don't think I'd run it now though. Not unless someone paid me quite a bit.
Call of Cthulhu: I read the heck out of Horror on the Orient Express. I'd still love to try running that again. When I did we only made it two sessions in. Frickin' love the setting though, and the little vignette adventures interspersed throughout, flash-backs to the past. Perhaps too gory over all, in a way that becomes a little repetitive (how many times can the flayed skin animate and try to suck your fluids out through your stomach before you grow bemused with it all?), but man what an epic campaign. Has a little bit of everything.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess: I've never played LotFP, but I picked up the PDF of A Red and Pleasant Land recently, and although the edgier content has never been my bag, as I started reading it the creativity of the setting was really inspiring. Perhaps this is not technically a module though.
L1: The Secret of Bone Hill
One of the first true sandbox modules published and it still stands up well even today. It is packed full of content for such a small book. The adventure doesn't assume anything of the players, and for the most part they are left up to their own devices as determined by the rumors they discover. Running the module more than once will often result in a different campaign.
T1-4: Temple of Elemental Evil - I think it's a masterpiece, even if it is a hot mess.
I'm a little biased because I have a lot of memories with ToEE, both as a player and referee. I know the adventure inside out and that has certainly helped me to expand the setting and create the right mood for the adventure. Done right, ToEE makes for a great campaign full of lovecraftian horror with a dungeon containing distinct and apposing factions that can be played off one another.
Age of Worms (Chapter 1 and 2)
An interesting grim and urban sandbox set in an industrial mining town. Diamond Lake and its inhabitants are detailed to the point where there's a lot to do and see in the town alone. I'd recommend GMs be mindful of the events in chapter 2 from the onset, because that knowledge can deepen the experience due to some of the political elements that come into play. I wouldn't bother with the continuing story line however, because it takes you away from Diamond Lake and it has a distinct Paizo 'Adventure Path' feel after chapter 2. The dungeons are actually well designed as well.
Barrowmaze by Greg Gallespie
I think I would place it higher if it was not for certain editorial issues with the book. It's huge, and more importantly, it has a traditional theme. If you like gritty and gold for experience adventuring this is for you, especially if you want something of a larger scale than something like Keep on the Borderlands. You could easily use something like Fever Swamp and Dolmenwood alongside it as well, if indeed you wanted to expand the setting.
Okay. some old, some newer..
TSR - B1-B4
B1 In Search of the Unknown. 1977
Written by Mike Carr, this is still the perfect adventure for new D&D players, a descent into the ruins of an ancient keep in search of missing (NPC) heroes. The layout of the dungeons and caverns, as well as the open blocks for new GM's to add monsters and treasures ensure a high replayability factor. Clear the entire dungeon, six months goes by, new critters with treasures have taken up abode in the labyrinth of dungeon rooms and caverns. Originally released in the spring of 1977 with the J Eric Holmes Bluebook Basic D&D Boxed set.
B2 Keep on the Borderlands 1979
Gary's early design, based loosely on a combination of The Frontier Forts of Kelnore, and Blackmoor, This module for D&D beginners features a small hamlet with a Keep that the players can base out of, with the nearby Caves of Chaos populated by all manner of nasty critter that have been as of late, attacking the Hamlet and the Keep. An excellent beginners adventure that was originally released in 1979. Released with the later Moldvay/Cook edition basic D&D Boxed set.
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess 1981
Everything both right and wrong about D&D in one module. Recalled and destroyed due to objectionable art, only a rare few of the original still exist commanding premium five figure and up prices in collectors circles. This module features an evil Barony, and a ruined palace rumored to be the resting place of a fabled legendary Ruby. Notable for the large number of new monsters included with this module
B4 The Lost City 1982
Lost from a Caravan in a desert sandstorm the players run out of water and stumble into the ruin of an ancient city buried under the sands. Descending into an ancient stepped Pyramid the players find the first gateway to a subterranean city on the periphery of the Underdark. Notable for being an adventure that starts at for characters level one, but can easily be played and include adventurers of the 10th level and higher.
The Frontier Forts of Kelnore (Judges Guild) 1978
From Judges guild, this book provides a basic, modularized map of a border fort. All Kelnore forts were very similar border strongholds designed to support a small infantry and cavalry detachment. Since their construction, the forts have fallen into ruin and many have been populated by various monsters. Tables are provided to put in random groups of creatures and individualize the forts, including treasure and features. There are three sample forts already included, filled out according to die rolls on the tables, to illustrate their application. The built-in generators provide nearly an endless variety of strongholds in various conditions from just a pile of rubble, to a pristine brand new frontier fort. Great as an introduction to a wilderness campaign for a low level adventuring party after their first dungeon expedition.
The Thieves Fortress of Badabaskor (Judges Guild) 1978
The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor is a scenario set in the five-level dungeon lair of a band of brigands. The upper levels of the dungeon are for low-level characters, but the deeper levels are more difficult. It includes a description of a new evil deity, Angall of the Perpetual Void. The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor was written by Marc Summerlott, Bob Bledsaw, Mike Petrowsky, Craig Fogel, Bill Owen, and Tony Floren, and was published by Judges Guild in 1978 as a 32-page book. Notable because the first edition sold over 15,000 copies, and many more were printed, in several later editions. This also features a dungeon where low level players can begin, however difficulty rapidly escalates and this becomes more difficult the deeper one travels into the dungeons. Recommended is a party of 12th level or higher characters to complete this adventure.
Newer Modules...
The Forge of Fury (WOTC) 2000
Published with the release of 3rd edition, the Forge of Fury is a dungeon crawl, or site-based adventure, that describes the ruined stronghold of Khundrukar. The great dwarven smith, Durgeddin the Black, founded this secret stronghold within a great underground cavern system two hundred years ago when he and his clan were driven from their home by a horde of orcs and trolls. The orcs discovered the location of Khundrukar, Durgeddin's home, a century ago when they captured one of Durgeddin's clansmen. The orcs raised a great army that stormed the stronghold and slew the dwarves there, allowing the stronghold's five levels to fall into ruins. Now goblins, orcs and other monsters use the ruins as a base. Legends tell of the extraordinary blades Durgeddin forged in anger, enticing the player characters to come to the ruins of Khundrukar to obtain them. A tremendously good adventure suitable for new and veteran players playing low level characters.
The Bloody Sands of Sicaris (Paradigm Concepts, LLC.) 2001
This adventure features the party traveling to a wondrous desert city secretly hidden within a high mesa located deep in the desert in search of the missing daughter of an Imperial Noble. The balance of power in an ancient and venerable kingdom is shifting and the tides of history are surging around this ancient oasis in the desert. This was one of the first low/mid-level third edition adventures that focus on political intrigue, and is a masterpiece worthy to be included with any edition of D&D. Written and published by Henry Lopez, Pedro Barranechea, William Rivera, Eric Weiner and Nelson Rodriguez this was the Introduction for the world famous Arcanis campaign setting.
Kingmaker (Paizo Publishing) 2010
In 2010, Pathfinder's Kingmaker Adventure Path consisting of six modules, raised the bar on what a tabletop fantasy RPG campaign could be. With open-ended sandbox-style adventures, Kingmaker beckoned players to claim their throne and carve a new nation out of the treacherous River Kingdoms, map hex by map hex. Tens of thousands of gamers answered the call, ranking Kingmaker among the best-known and best-loved tabletop campaigns in history, and introducing a new generation to sandbox style wilderness exploration play.
Sailors of the Starless Sea (Goodman Games) 2012
A Dungeon Crawl Classics game, Since time immemorial, you and your people have toiled in the shadow of the cyclopean ruins. Of mysterious origins and the source of many superstitions, they have always been considered a secret best left unknown by the folk of your hamlet. But now something stirs beneath the crumbling blocks. Beastmen howl in the night and your fellow villagers are snatched from their beds. With no heroes to defend you, who will rise to stand against the encircling darkness. The secrets of Chaos are yours to unearth, but at what cost to sanity or soul?
In no particular order:
Return to the Tomb of Horrors
When a Star Falls
The Iron Orb of the Druegar
Wards of Witching Ways
Threshold of Evil
Hidden Caverns of Tsojocanth