The 7 Old Dungeons & Dragons Adventures That Should Get Remade
- Thread starter JonB
- Start date
It would be great to see these adventures reissued akin to the hardcovers WotC put out for Against the Slave Lords and the Dungeons of Dread series'.
Great article, Jon!
Great article, Jon!
I'd love to see Al-Qadim get remade, and it was technically part of Faerûn, so it would fit with it. Though, to be honest, my greatest hope out of FR being the centerpiece setting is to see a reprint/update to the greatest D&D book ever made, Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue.The Great JT said:
A lot of the old modules were fun, but I think they might be a little too weird for "High fantasy adventure" that WotC seems to be aiming for. Didn't Lolth have a spaceship in Queen of the Spiders?
Honestly, I'd love to see them remake Temple of Elemental Evil and Keep on the Borderlands. Those are great modules for beginning groups and getting the ball rolling; a big space filled with lots of stuff that players can mess with and see what happens. I've always loved modules that encourage people to make their own fun, rather than following a set path (mostly because players will happily disregard that path to go become salt merchants or something).
Honestly, I'd love to see them remake Temple of Elemental Evil and Keep on the Borderlands. Those are great modules for beginning groups and getting the ball rolling; a big space filled with lots of stuff that players can mess with and see what happens. I've always loved modules that encourage people to make their own fun, rather than following a set path (mostly because players will happily disregard that path to go become salt merchants or something).
New player, never heard of these... but they all sound fantastic!!!
Hope Wizards has these lined up rather sooner than later
Hope Wizards has these lined up rather sooner than later
Gotta chip in my 2 bits on this one. I always had a fondness for the old Ravenloft adventure that's listed here. Played through it as a player 5 times, and only on the final attempt did we get rid of old Strahd.
However, Night Below was probably the longest running campaign. That series of adventures was truly epic in scope. (again, as a player).
As a GM though, I gotta say that running the Runelords Campaign from end to end with a final fight planned months and months in advance, including having built terrain for it was REALLY worth it. Though I suppose asking them to remake that one, after just a few years is a bit much.
I'd love to see a remake of the whole Convocation series for Ravenloft redone. Some of the adventures are great, but some could use a revamp.
However, Night Below was probably the longest running campaign. That series of adventures was truly epic in scope. (again, as a player).
As a GM though, I gotta say that running the Runelords Campaign from end to end with a final fight planned months and months in advance, including having built terrain for it was REALLY worth it. Though I suppose asking them to remake that one, after just a few years is a bit much.
I'd love to see a remake of the whole Convocation series for Ravenloft redone. Some of the adventures are great, but some could use a revamp.
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and White Plume Mountain along with Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (all part of a special line of unrelated tournament adventures) are all favorites of mine. I used Caverns as a huge part of a campaign at one point because of the Iggwilv ties and such. Great adventures all.
And let's not forget the legendary Tomb of Horrors, also known as "GM's revenge."
And let's not forget the legendary Tomb of Horrors, also known as "GM's revenge."
As someone who has never played any of these, I've got one question for a few of the veterans here: Isn't a frequent "problem", depending how you look at it, that old adventures tended to be total meat-grinders in comparison to more modern campaigns? I don't mean quite "Tomb of Horrors" levels of fatality rates, but still oftentimes more punishing and suddenly deadly than what most gamers these days are used to and expecting?
Because if so, that would definitely be a factor which would discourage the remaking of old adventures. Stay faithful and piss off the younger generation when their party gets wiped by something they would consider total bullshit, or enrage the old guard when the adventure gets made more "wimpy".
Because if so, that would definitely be a factor which would discourage the remaking of old adventures. Stay faithful and piss off the younger generation when their party gets wiped by something they would consider total bullshit, or enrage the old guard when the adventure gets made more "wimpy".
I've been exploring these old modules with my kids recently but it's been a frustrating experience because they are so fucking useless at staying alive I have to use every DM trick in the book to stop the whole party getting wiped out.
In Village of Hommlet, they went into the inn, drank the wine offered to them by the suspicious innkeeper, and were all immediately captured and defeated. I had to find an excuse for the mysterious high-level NPC magic-user to come to their rescue.
Recently I had another go, giving them some higher-level characters and trying out the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Where they promptly went into the most dangerous room in the place, broke a precious urn full of sleeping gas, failed all their saving throws and were sent to sleep for a thousand hours. Except one of them. Who then broke the other urn.
My all-time favourite AD&D adventure was Tomb of Horrors. It was just ludicrously unfair.
In Village of Hommlet, they went into the inn, drank the wine offered to them by the suspicious innkeeper, and were all immediately captured and defeated. I had to find an excuse for the mysterious high-level NPC magic-user to come to their rescue.
Recently I had another go, giving them some higher-level characters and trying out the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Where they promptly went into the most dangerous room in the place, broke a precious urn full of sleeping gas, failed all their saving throws and were sent to sleep for a thousand hours. Except one of them. Who then broke the other urn.
My all-time favourite AD&D adventure was Tomb of Horrors. It was just ludicrously unfair.
See my post above - my solution to this has always been to be very generous as a DM - my job is to make the game fun, not to kill my players. So I put them in difficult situations but then I reward their ingenuity in trying to get out of them. These aren't ordinary people, after all, they're fantasy heroes. They should have narrow escapes and come through victorious.Fat_Hippo said:
My biggest problem with AD&D was the ridiculous all-or-nothing effect of poison. I never understood the point of it - you've got a player who's been carefully nurturing a character for years, then one poisoned needle and a failed saving throw and you're supposed to chuck the character sheet on the fire.
This article brings back so many good memories!
It also reminded me of the Judges Guild City State of Invincible Overlord.
That thing was so much fun. You could just wander the streets and have random encounters.
You just had to make sure you were somewhere safe by nightfall. That place could kill anyone.
It's getting remade once again via Kickstarter.
It also reminded me of the Judges Guild City State of Invincible Overlord.
That thing was so much fun. You could just wander the streets and have random encounters.
You just had to make sure you were somewhere safe by nightfall. That place could kill anyone.
It's getting remade once again via Kickstarter.
I'm super pissed about the FR become the default. Mostly because the last 3 1/2 editions have been catering to it when it's one of the least interesting campaigns. Eberron, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Ravenloft. All have unique flavor that makes it feel different, some practically feel like a new game.
I'm going to be upset if this new 'FR default setting' means the others get no attention.
I'm going to be upset if this new 'FR default setting' means the others get no attention.
I don't really see why. The whole point of D&D is that you have a DM guiding everything. Aside from complete beginners, there's no DM in the world who follows every rule and every part of an adventure exactly to the letter. See Flatfrog's posts above for a perfect example. Adventure modules are great as introductions to the game and general outlines for an adventure, but a good DM will always be adapting them to their specific game, or just coming up with their own stuff entirely. When it comes to older adventures, translating them to newer rules is going to be much less of a job than coming up with something entirely new yourself, and it's not like there isn't plenty of information on the internet to aid translation if you don't already own all the old editions yourself. So I don't really see the point in re-releasing lots of old adventures. The reason there's a focus on new content is that the old content already exists and can be used by everyone regardless of which edition they have. Depending on the exact details it may be more or less work for the DM, but it's almost always going to be less work overall than actually planning an adventure themselves from scratch.JonB said:
Remake whatever adventure it was that featured Blackrazor and make it the center of the story. Along with that, bring back the 3.5 edition of minis cause whatever it is now sucks and has been sucking for several years !
Also, for the love of Gyrax, please make a gargantuan green dragon. I mean really, I have black, blue, white, red but no green ! Why ???
Also, for the love of Gyrax, please make a gargantuan green dragon. I mean really, I have black, blue, white, red but no green ! Why ???