This is a weird question perhaps, but follow along if you will: Which D&D Adventure , old or new, helps define D&D for you?
For me, it's A1 - Slave Pits of the Undercity. It's not the best module / adventure I've ever read, but it was the first one I ever owned, and it showed me how you could take a dungeon and take it off the straight grid and give it some meaning.
Up until that point, everything we played was blocked on on graph paper to meet the gridded line and stocking a dungeon had little rhyme or reason.
It also showed me how lethal Tournament designed adventures were designed for the DM to increase his "body count", but that's a whole other story ;)
So, which adventure helps define D&D for you?
For me it's "A4 - In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords." It's module that has always stuck with me. Maybe it's starting the game with no gear that makes it memorable.
ReplyDeleteB1. That was the first one I owned, and there's certainly no small degree of nostalgia involved, but that just defines D&D for me (particularly Holmes Basic).
ReplyDeleteA second vote for B1 for much the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteI'll go with B2 for the same reasons as mentioned for B1. Honorable mention to G3 which I got out of sequence, but really loved even without understanding where it fit in the big scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteSadly fighting fantasy probably moulded us for several years before dnd - I series was my favorite but not ravenloft (buti liked maps) Dwellers of the forbidden city and lost city and castle amber are faves now - but i avoided castle amber for years cos i didnt like cover art. Giants decent drow series were the first high lv play mega quest that was a big influence. Undermountain last adventure i bought in early 90s. DCC modules are as fun as originals - no official dnd product has tempted me for 20 years - have got freebies and osd books of late
ReplyDeleteX2: Castle Amber, played it twice, DMed it twice. The best "atmospheric" dungeon ever wrote!!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Joseph, B1 defined D&D for me.
ReplyDeleteERIC!
And A1 has one of the all time coolest covers. for me it is T1 hommlett, with U1 saltmarsh a close second. However the first module I ever owned or dm'ed was queen of the demonweb, using only the expert set :)
ReplyDeleteS1 Tomb of Horrors. It was the first and probably the best.
ReplyDeleteB4. I never played 'adventures' until I found the Old School, and B4 looked the most interesting and it wound up being the first TSR adventure I played. Ancient underground cities, mutant monster gods, weirdo drugged people who thing they are birds--B4 made me realize how boring every adventure I had run up until then had been.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably going to be an oddity when I say U1 "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh." I remember loving that module so much when I DM'ed it in the Summer of 1983 that, come fall, my Sophomore English teacher had to tell me to stop using British spellings.
ReplyDeleteEither the mini-dungeon inside of the Holmes rule book (my red box did not come with a module) or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
ReplyDeleteB1, as noted by others. B2 expands on that, but B1 is the seminal one for me.
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ReplyDeleteIt is a toss-up for me between G1 and T1. The giants series was the culmination of a campaign that lasted over a year and set my personal limit on how high level a campaign I enjoyed. T1 was incredible and showed me how to start a campaign.
It was different in the UK where in the early 80s, certainly among my group, TSR's modules were not held in high regard when compared to those featured in White Dwarf. For me, the definitive modules of those early days were The Lichway (White Dwarf 9) and the Halls of Tizun Thane (White Dwarf 18). Running both of these were revalatory moments for me in understanding what defines great D&D.
ReplyDeleteB2. First owned and played. Still my favourite.
ReplyDeleteIt was also different in France. US-imported TSR modules were ridiculously overpriced (up to x10), so we mostly played the adventures in 'Casus Belli' (the French 'White Dwarf'). The defining ones for me were Le château des sphinx (http://joueursdurepaire.free.fr/casus_belli/cb-chateau_sphinx.html) and La gorge de Fafnir (http://joueursdurepaire.free.fr/casus_belli/cb-gorge_fafnir.html).
ReplyDeleteAs a Brit my formative experiences were all Fighting Fantasy, White Dwarf D&D adventures (Irillian!), and 'Shrine of Kollchap', the mini adventure for Moldvay Basic in 'What is Dungeons and Dragons?'. I must have run Kollchap a dozen times.
ReplyDeleteI did run Isle of Dread, Castle Amber, and later Against the Cult of the Reptile God, but they don't have the same resonance.
What if I said "none?" I started with Holmes and the dungeon geomorph maps. No one in my early gaming groups owned or used modules. We just made it all up ourselves.
ReplyDeleteDefinetely B4 & S3 !
ReplyDeleteL1, Secret of Bone Hill, is my definitive D&D module. It has a dose of everything; a home base, wilderness encounters, and an interesting dungeon to explore. Plus it offers more challenge than the ubiquitous introductory adventure.
ReplyDeleteL1/G1 here...
ReplyDeleteI loved the Desert of Desolation series, and still think it's a great adventure. I think that is the one that my players and I all remember best.
ReplyDeleteS2 White Plume Mountain was the one I liked the best. First one I DMed was T1 Village of Hommlet. Unfortunately without the Temple of Elemental Evil as a follow-on the campaign crashed and burned at 4th level
ReplyDelete"In Search of the Unknown" (1979) was the first module I DM'd. I would have played this circa 1982 before I got into ADND. We were actually playing off the original three booklets. They were barely workable as a rule set but In Search of the Unknown nicely filled in a lot of those rules gaps. So it always stuck in my memory as definitive. But most of my games after that were based in JG wilderlands settings after graduating to ADND. Always liked JG much better than TSR. Seemed to fit a lot better with the ODND concept if you ask me. JG was evocative and allowed for riffing and ad libbing off of one or two sentences of description. As opposed to TSR taking you by the hand . . .
ReplyDeleteUK again and reiterating the TSR cost issue. There was a local (?) fanzine called The Beholder that has some really good mini adventures where roleplay and atmosphere were emphasised. Loved the Judges Guild stuff though, Caverns of Thracia absolutely awesome and Dark Tower for higher levels.
ReplyDelete