The Greatest AD&D Modules Ever - Part 1 - The Methods

[@davidleonard8547]

I remember that poll, and I participated in a few. I must say that "most popular" may not equate with best module. Provocative and fun. Thanks for sharing. Definitely worth a share on my Musings FB page.

[@yeoldegeek71]

Sadly, 'provocative' gets engagement. My most watched video is my dissection of N2 - I doubt it would have got half the view if I had called it something like 'Criticism of N2 The Forest Oracle'

[@Lightmane]

Thank you for telling the truth about that article and the super modules. I've never understood why so many think The Temple of Elemental Evil is a great module. It's literally a random generic dungeon with creatures that could never possibly all co-exist. I was very disappointed when I read it.

[@stephenclements6158]

It really is terrible, isn't it? Gorgeous and evocative cover, fantastic title, and then room after room after room of fighting gnolls. I didn't see what was elementally about it. Big disappointment.

[@Lightmane]

@@stephenclements6158 I'm shocked how many people think it's a great module. Fun computer game to play, but a silly design for a dungeon.

[@Snoil]

I re-worked Temple Evil itself completely, aside from the maps. I left the T1 part (Hommlet is fine by itself) and the town of Nulb essentially intact and already had a different storyline which actually made it pretty easy. I just re-populated with proper elementals (and obvious counterparts) on the corresponding levels with Priests & Acolytes being present with obviously a wholly different focus from anything in T1-4. Worked out really good!

[@Lightmane]

@@Snoil sounds like a cool module 🙂

[@Snoil]

@@Lightmane Yeah it worked out really great, ran it more than once and the players all really liked it. In fact it's being meshed into my latest (and hopefully last!) world build. I did notice some of the notebook pages are getting brown around the edges, how did that happen?! I swear I was 20 yrs old just yesterday! 8>D

[@midnightgreen8319]

The Lost City and The Isle of Dread not being in the running is a crime.

[@yeoldegeek71]

If I'd added all the B/X modules the voting list would have got out of hand, so the poll was restricted to only 1E modules. I agree though, B4 and X1 were both great!

[@midnightgreen8319]

@@yeoldegeek71 I know, I'm only fussing because those are my favorites. Lost City in particular.

[@dougfleming1708]

Lost City is a real cool module Out of Red Nails from Conan stories. Even had for rhe inventive and experienced DM a 2nd half expansion

[@dougfleming1708]

Lĺpm

[@thatpatrickguy3446]

I remember some of these polls. I wondered about those.

[@michaelr00ney]

An admirable recounting of an admirable project. You have scrupulously noted some of the flaws in the method; I will underscore one. The initial random match-ups created “groups of death” where two massively popular modules sucked up votes, making it impossible for the other, only slightly lesser-known modules in that group to advance. Thus, if you re-ran the process with different random groups, you might easily get a different top 16.

[@yeoldegeek71]

Hi Michael. Glad you remembered it all :) .. Yes, the random 1st round draw did create a few tougher groups... though the seeding system used to sort the qualifiers ironed a lot of that out for round 2. I would agree that there were quite a few modules that finished in places 17 to 30 that could have easily pushed for a top 16 spot.

[@weray7605]

The article in Dungeon 116 is Spectacular -- absolutely Magnificent -- despite it's shortcomings and everyone's varying criteria (or rubric) opinions. More importantly, it was *absolutely* compiled by grognard players and design luminaries, *not* industry shills! .... Personally, I don't think 28-32 page adventures should be compared with 96-128 page adventures, and I would have given less value for "Nostalgia" -- but the simple fact that SOOOO many gamers have Loved TOEE and 'Keep on the Borderlands' despite them being poorly designed should not be ignored. (That's like the movie that everyone loves and made gazillions at the Box Office despite not being really good.) Nonetheless, I enjoyed looking at the results of your little 36 hour poll, despite your ludicrous attack attack on Paizo, and give the video a Thumbs Up.

[@yeoldegeek71]

Haha, not sure how to take all of that..tongue slightly in cheek?? My poll was a little more than 36 hours, it involved 100s of enthusiasts voting in a series of polls over the course of a couple of months. I left the voting for each poll open for about 36 hours, but there were numerous individual polls slowly whittling the pool of modules down, with more and more people getting involved as the competition went on.

[@jrytacct]

The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb was one of my favorites.

[@davidtaylor9593]

you had me at dark tower

[@ClassicRollPlayer]

this is FANTASTIC content! Subbed! Cant wait to listen/watch more!

[@mykediemart]

DL1 is a good example of a bad module. Its a railroad where you are playing the DM's story and aren't supposed to die... so might work for 5e. That list in the magazine always seemed a bit sketchy to me.

[@manfredconnor3194]

Yessssss, Yesssss, Yessssss.

[@BlackOrc1988]

Hello, could you please tell, can I play these adventures using Lamentations of the flame princess system?

[@yeoldegeek71]

I've not played Lamentations, but given its OSR underpinnings I'd imagine the lower level modules in the list could be converted with a bit of work.

[@Snoil]

Excellent content, but for myself, I would have had to include the Judges Guild materials. Tegel Manor, Dark Tower, City-State, and others, too much stuff I love there. I'd likely have to put in B and X series too, tbh. But that's just me. I always found repurposing straight D&D stuff like JG did a lot of, as well as B and X series type stuff, for AD&D really wasn't too hard and often made for fun solo-work times, as well as occasional inspirations for plotline variants.

[@yeoldegeek71]

It was specifically an AD&D 1E group in which I conducted the polls, which may have skewed results if I'd added in unofficial or non-AD&D stuff... plus, the list would have become more than a little unwieldy!!

[@iamscorchy]

[@pccleric]

No dragon lance? Great. Dragon lance destroyed d&d