Top 10 Adventures in D&D

Ran Tomb of Horrors years ago for my 2e AD&D players. fortunately for them, 'Groundhog Day' had come out the year before, so I ran it as a 'time loop' dungeon, where the game reset on the death of all the characters, allowing them to restart their session replete with the knowledge of their previous attempts. Played that way, my players were free to experiment and 'enjoy' the experience.

The Keep on the Borderlands was the first adventure that had a home base (the Keep) for the players to return to in between forays into the caves. It became the basis for "the players meet in a tavern" that got adopted by the other D&D co-designers for so many written adventures to follow. It is such a common concept now that even you fail to realize this is the adventure that invented it. It is also the model for the Sandbox campaign.

Way back in the 80's, we ran thru Barrier Peaks for the 1st time. The guy being the DM was great at explaining visualizations. The whole thing was theater of the mind and we were far into it before someone realized we were in a spaceship. If I remember right he said "F...! We're on the Enterprise".

I believe "Keep on the Borderlands" is actually the most played adventure of all time.

The reason that Keep on the Borderlands, is so high on the list is because it's where almost every player, and I mean almost 100% of players in the late 70s started playing.

Keep on the Borderlands didn't 'redefine' adventure making - it arguably defined it. At least in the style that Gygax and crew envisioned the game, before 'narrative' style play came into vogue. It was a setting based scenario with a secure homebase, no laid out plot, and capable of sustaining play for multiple overlapping groups - West Marches style before the term 'West Marches' had been coined. That one book can keep your group occupied for months. I do recommend it with OSR games, but if you're doing 5e check out Goodman Games' Into the Borderlands update.

Keep on the Borderlands is iconic. It defined the "small town surrounded by wilderness and a dungeon complex nearby" structure that works so good in D&D even to this day.

Queen of the Spiders combines arguably the best set of modules that create a cohesive story. Against the Giants starts hinting at the drow influence and then as you realize they’re behind thing, you go to Decent in the Depths of the Earth to chase them. This leads you to the Vault of the Drow to confront them and then the Queen of the Demon Web Pits to confront their god. Having gone through it, I can see why it was placed at number one.

I remember buying the basic and expert d&d. Then came advanced d&d. mind was blown. New character classes, combat was more developed, more spells, etc. thanks again for your show.

Keep on the Borderlands is my favorite module. I've probably run it two dozen times now. I just think the way it sets up the central hub town, with an open world and a bunch of dungeons to crawl is the heart of what I love about D&D. I have a lot of fun with the NPC's especially the evil cleric and his two acolytes. Leading a 1st level party into that ambush is way too much fun. I also love the factions. On the surface it seems like humans vs caves of chaos, but you learn that the chaos cultists are in town too, and in the caves, there is infighting or alliances between the monster tribes that allow for tons of creative roleplaying and strategy for the players. Make them fight each other.

Jorphdan, your comparison of Tomb of Horror to the Kobayashi Maru is surprisingly accurate. Kudos.

Keep On The Borderlands is the first module I played and got me hooked on D&D. Ravenloft is the best setting in my opinion. Great video series!

I have a special spot in my heart for B7, “Rhasia”, since it was the first module I owned.

B2 is so high up because it's ultimately a sandbox and teaches players old school concepts such as agency, piting factions against one another, and more! Also it's the only adventure where the title describes the town rather than the dungeon (Or maybe it still does describe the dungeon depending on your group.)

Ravenloft is the greatest in my opinion. It forces the group to really rely on each other and work as a team. It drew my group of friends even closer back in the late 80’s

The Slavers series A1-4 was my go to short notice series to run when friends wanted to play. It introduced the Thri-Kreen into D&D. But yes, the Against the Giants series leading into the Demonweb series was such a great arc for higher level characters.

I always liked Castle Amber. It had a Lovecraftian feel not experienced in other modules.

Queen of spiders is a collection of the earlier adventures of against the giants and drow series. Very good.

I can see why "Queen of Spiders" is #1 it was the first campaign module set (G1-3, D1-3, Q1) and should be considered the precursor to todays 5e module/books. "Temple of Elemental Evil"(T1-4) recast as "Princes of the Apocalypse", "Ghosts of Saltmash" is U1-3 plus extras, but< as I knew them, the GDQ series is what started the idea of publishing campaigns instead of just one off adventures.

Nice summary of the 2004 lists! Thank you! My personal adventure favourites of all time are both from the early "White Dwarf" magazine, and both by Albie Fiore, "The Halls of Tizun Thane" and "The Lichway". Fiore was a fascinating person and had a background in architecture, so the layouts for both those adventures were a totally new level of floorplan to us at the time. Another neat "first" (I think, and certainly as far as our adventures went back in the day) was in one of those adventures, there is another adventuring NPC party, that the player party can come across and work with or against. Fond memories of running both of those when they came out!