When I’m talking about D&D modules, they are the adventures that when added together, make up campaigns. They are not settings and they are not campaigns. They don’t have to be added together, but I like to do that.

I’ve run all that are on the list of 10. I cannot honestly include modules that I have not run.

Here is a list of Honourable Mentions, the modules that I loved reading and really want to run one day…

The Gates of Firestorm Peak by Bruce Cordell

X2: Castle Amber by Tom Moldvay

S2: White Plume Mountain by Lawrence Schick

S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax

WG4: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun by Gary Gygax

UK2: Beyond The Crystal Cave by David J Browne and Graeme Morris

I2: Dwellers In The Forbidden City by David Cook

Red Hand of Doom by Richard Baker and James Jacobs

D1-D2-D3: Against the Drow by Gary Gygax.

Too many games, not enough time.

Top 10 D&D Modules That I Have Run

A big part of my list is the actual enjoyment in play, not just quality of adventure writing. Some amazing modules aren’t included simply because we didn’t finish them. I also didn’t inlcude I6: Ravenloft because we played it as part of our Curse of Strahd 5th Edition campaign rather than alone, otherwise that’d be straight onto this list.

10

C1: Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson and Jeff R Leason. Cover Art by Erol Otus

It was the Aztec/Mesopotamian flavour of this module that really hooked my players. We had a group of three, played by my regulars - Isaac, Jake and Sean - and they thoroughly enjoyed fighting against god toads, bat creatures, trees of death and cat lycanthropes.

The design of the dungeon is brilliant, starting from the end-point, the players having to work their way to the entrance of the pyramid.

The traps are interesting, with a strange fireball football, a variety of pit traps, and in the first room an odd puzzle trap with idols that turn into creatures, which the PCs had a lot of fun with.

I used music from Apocalypto by James Horner, as well as music by Philip Glass such as Symphony No 7, Orion and Kepler to bring alive the atmosphere of the setting.

9

B2: Keep On The Borderlands by Gary Gygax. Cover art by Jim Roslof

I’ve run this module more times than any other. I used to work at a games store where they forced Dungeon Masters to run Adventure League Games, which I hated, so I used this classic instead! The players unanimously preferred it.

I ran 3 groups in one evening every week, one at 18:00, one at 19:30, one at 21:00. They would all gather at the Keep on the Borderlands and glimpse the previous adventuring parties return there - it was especially effective as they would be turning up just before the end of the other players game, so I wouldn’t have to give them a description of everyone who was there and what they did.

I turned it into my version of a West Marches game by Ben Robbins (insert link to West Marches Youtube video by Matt Colville).

The next group would race off to the Caves of Chaos and discover the wreckage of the previous adventuring party, understanding which entrance they took due to the burning trees, burning corpses, burning hills, you know… typical D&D party wreckage.

This module is a who’s who in terms of low level D&D baddies. It has kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, ogres, owlbears, zombies, gnolls, bugbears and cultists all fighting over the same territory, scheming against each other.

The cave is excellently designed with a multiple choice entrance sandbox, the image of the rising cave system is very clear. The options for bartering and roleplaying are vast as the other tribes are not only against the PCs but against one another.

After each excursion, the PCs would return to the Keep, next week they’d pick up where they left off.

I modified the adventure, with a mysterious artefact sending mad dreams to all the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos, and the denizens of the Keep too…

I also ran this for my three regulars - Isaac, Jake and Sean - and they had a lot of fun. It was the beginning of a new campaign, but Isaac’s grave-digging Necromancer ending up dying at the end of the adventure because Jake’s Cleric was too fixated on treasure rather than healing his buddy. Something he has never been forgiven for! So unfortunately that campaign opening was a dead start.

But the module is top-notch, Gygax knocked it out of the part with nasties, dungeon design, setting and concept.

8

X1: The Isle of Dread by Tom Moldvay and David Cook. Cover art by Jeff Dee

I ran this for Sean (my brother) and Kieran (the cousin of Isaac and Jake). Sean took his two legendary characters on a side adventure, as the Crusaders of Calin-Dor were split up across the continent.

Melvor the Half-Orc Death Cleric and Dilax the Gnomish Illusionist met at the port of the Blue City with S’vatz the Tiefling Bard, played by Kieran. They set sail seeking the Isle of Dread with a crew of treasure hunters.

The Isle of Dread is a great throwback to the old jungle pulp stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard, throw in ideas from King Kong and Godzilla and you have a classic adventure.

The design is a sandbox exploration, with many varied and dangerous encounters, such as a green dragon, a roc, a lair of lizardmen, and a t-rex. In the middle of the island is a volcano… and a dark temple buried in the peak.

The dungeon itself is a fantastic little deathtrap, with a band of ghouls in a water trap that will surely kill so many NPCs. At the centre are the Kopru, an ancient telepathic Lovecraftian race of mud dwellers living in bubbling pools. It was such a fantastic finale.

Many close calls were had, much treasure was found, much glory garnered.

Melvor the Death Cleric reigned as King of the Isle for a while, with a zombie group helping him enforce his rule over the natives (not part of the module). Dilax left to rejoin the Crusaders for a while…

Tom Moldvay and David Cook loved pulp fantasy literature quite obviously, and it bleeds forth from their modules with such clarity and passion that it’s hard not to fall in love with their attempts.

7

T1: The Village of Hommlet by Gary Gygax. Cover by David A Trampier

This is so high on the list mostly because of the fun times we had with it. This is a great starting adventure in its own right, but the in-game happenings were too memorable not to place it higher than the previous 3.

We played it as the start of our new 1st Edition Campaign called the Edli Brothers. Isaac and Sean made 2 characters each who were all brothers. Isaac had a kooky Druid and a quiet Paladin, Sean had a wacky Fighter and solemn Magic-User. Kieran made 2 characters who were not related, a ranger and a thief. But one of his characters died very early (see below).

The village of Hommlet itself is the best opening location I’ve ever seen in a D&D module, it has so much character. Rufus and Burne the two high level adventurers building their tower, a druid grove with a wandering bear (that mauled and killed one of our PCs, sorry Kieran), a tavern with a very detailed list of things to buy, so many farmers with so much treasure, a couple of intriguing temples that I changed to fit my setting, and just a classic pastoral feeling that lends itself to epic beginnings.

The ruined fort is also an interesting location, especially when a DM links the cult that lairs there to a grander story, such as one of the temples in the village. It has an upper lair of all the giant animals, snakes, toads, spiders, a plethora of jump scares.

Some bandits also lair above. Below lair a bunch of undead and humanoid nasties like bugbears and gnolls, plus Lareth the Beautiful the Evil Cleric with his +3 Magic Staff, which became the signature item of Sean’s Magic User.

The design has its own internal logic, the seeds for a sweeping story are planted, and the starting location is the best.

The Edli Brothers and co were victorious and moved on to rescue Princess Rahasia from Tracy and Laura Hickman’s underrated module of the same name.

6

B4: The Lost City by Tom Moldvay. Cover art by Jim Holloway

The Lost City is Red Nails (Conan the Barbarian Novella) in D&D form. It’s my favourite Conan story and one of my favourite D&D modules, with layers and layers of a ruined pyramid complex and the lost city buried beneath it, leading to the alien god Zargon!

I ran this as a two-shot for a mixture of regular and non-regulars. They had such a blast pitting all the different cults living in the pyramid against each other, the wizards, the clerics and the warrior maidens - then going against the Evil cult itself.

There are lots of undead nasties, tonnes of mood and atmosphere seeping from the degenerate tribes, a deadly moving dungeon trap and even a whole city of encounters below the massive pyramid. I skipped the whole city and cut to the juice, fighting the alien god Zargon in his gunk with his one eye, one horn and dozens of tentacle limbs.

The Lost City has it all, intrigue, Lovecraftian horror, a deadly dungeon with many factions and a great boss battle.

5

I3: Pharaoh by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Cover art by Jim Holloway (my favourite D&D Cover art ever!)

The Egyptian Mythology is one I’ve been obsessed since my holiday there when I was 11 years old. Seeing all the ruined temples, hieroglyphics and tombs of ancient kings and queens was a huge inspiration on my writing (see The Three Lovers setting).

The Hickmans mine the Egyptian Mythology and repurpose it for D&D! It’s a fascinating effort with one of the greatest dungeons I’ve ever run through - riddling sphinxes, labyrinthine twists through orange smoke, undead servants of the pharaoh in sarcophagi and so many intricate puzzles and traps.

Our Crusaders of Calin-Dor were stuck in the mad dreaming mind of a demi-lich, having their consciousnesses sucked into its gem eyes. Running around its mad brain they found a ghost of the Pharaoh in the desert, and they rushed to take his gem eye to escape into reality.

The mood and tone that the Hickmans evoke is their greatest strength, in all of their modules - Dragonlance, Rahasia, Ravenloft and their Desert of Desolation Trilogy - they were masters of atmosphere, borrowing from myth to create an unforgettable setting and location.

The Crusaders of Calin-Dor escaped, they found the Pharaoh’s gem of seeing and put the mad dream to rest, killing the Mummified Pharaoh in his tomb!

4

The Forge of Fury by Richard Baker. Cover art by Todd Lockwood

I was so surprised at how good this module is, not because of the writer (who is excellent) but because of the set-up. An old dwarf kingdom overtaken by orcs. A Dragon. Hoards of Treasure. You know the story.

But it’s the way the idea is converted and executed into a D&D adventure which made it so memorable.

I ran this as part of the Tales of the Yawning Portal 5e book. The set-up of the game was pretty neat, jumping between PCs in the Yawning Portal and PCs on the legendary adventures. The ones in the tavern were hoping to hear about where the lost treasures of those legends ended up.

We had to find out in play, then the PCs of the tavern could try to dig up the treasures from the tombs of the heroes of the past!

It was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself, one that fell apart due to the group having schedule problems (too many people, a mixture of regulars and non-regulars). I would definitely re-use that idea again, you’re free to steal it!

The second of those tales was the Forge of Fury.

The castle and dungeons of the dead dwarves are brilliantly designed. The first level requires an extremely tactical combat against a group of orcs, one of the best I’ve ever seen in D&D, with arrow slits, a rope bridge, rushing from postern gates, and ambushes. Then as they go deeper they fight a PC killing Roper (sorry Jake, for the critical hit and maximum damage, a tragedy! I felt so bad afterwards) and lots of other nasties.

The next level was something even more interesting, with ghosts of dead dwarves haunting the mines, and the duergar who have taken over the level trying to reignite the forges to make magic weapons. There were so many tense combats with the undead and the dark duergar.

Then the black dragon at the end… who I buffed up to make it a bit tougher. What a battle! It swam in the underground rivers and surprised the party and fought a cunning fight, spitting acid and rending its claws… but alas the heroes were victorious.

3

N1: Against The Cult of the Reptile God by Douglas Niles. Cover art by Tim Truman

The Village of Hommlet and Keep on the Borderlands were the pre-cursors and templates for this module, but this module executed the concept better, in my humble opinion.

Against the Cult of the Reptile God has a fantastic starting location called Orlane, which is similar to Hommlet as it has a pastoral setting and a couple of taverns and a temple.

But in Orlane there is a conspiracy, cultists are drugging people and sneaking them away to the marshes. The temple there is directly connected to the cult (just like my modified Hommlet).

All the praise I gave for Hommlet as a location, you can copy and paste here! It is the perfect starting location for a new D&D campaign.

The dungeon is epic! With a marshy flavour, crocodiles, mud pits and nasty undead, strange temples and then finally the boss battle is perhaps the most epic! A naga called Explicitus Defilus who charms the cultists into doing her bidding.

It is the mixture of a real mystery, a great starting location, an epic dungeon and the best boss battle that makes this my favourite starting module and number 3.

I ran this module for Sean, who took a fairly medium level Yuan-Ti Artificer (immune to the Naga’s poison bite) and Chris, who took a Roman warrior displaced out of time and space. There were many epic battles, even in the village itself, the temple and then with the naga, where the Roman Warrior was killed!

The Yuan-Ti took his corpse back to the Blue City and bargained with a djinni… (not part of the module).

2

G1-G2-G3: Against the Giants by Gary Gygax. Cover art by David C Sutherland and David A. Trampier

Gygax modules are brutal, loaded with so many bad guys that it seems impossible. I never scale them down, I just tell the players beforehand that hey, this game is going to be brutal, make sure you think how a high level character would think, not storming the lodging of a hill giant chief with 4 dudes, bring an whole battalion if you must, make all the alliances you can.

Although it could be considered a campaign, the little 8-12 pages of each module allows me (I argue) to include Against the Giants as one module in 3 parts, the best being the first part.

I ran Steading of the Hill Giant Chief twice.

Once for Sean and my Dad in 1st Edition, who had a blast infiltrating the loaded lodging and sneaking into the dungeons, working their way up to the steading until the hill giants were riotously drunk and then fighting them in one enormous battle.

The other time was for the Crusaders of Calin-Dor (years later so Sean had forgotten most of the intricacies). They assaulted the Steading with a large group of heroes compiled from all of their alliances and did battle with the partying giants, destroying all the leaders first, then working their way into the dungeons and rooting out the army of orcs there.

The next one was only played with the Crusaders of Calin-Dor, giants were threatening their kingdom of Vehlovale, of which Gim the Mad Cleric of Chaotic Planar Travel is both the high priest and the king (Isaac), and Dilax the Gnomish Trickster is both High Councillor and Treasurer (Sean).

The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is so flavourful, the ice setting and descriptions are brilliant. There are epic battles with white dragons, remhoraz and of course legions of ogres, orcs and frost giants.

The Hall of the Fire Giant King is not yet played through, but I have read it and think it is an amazing location with a great twist, and that my two experiences with the previous modules were so good that I had to include the whole lot…

The Crusaders are on pause at the moment as we agreed to never play it online, due to the wide scope and need for counting of armies, items, treasure and amount of papers that I have all being in England. The next time I travel to England we will pick up the game… and the Crusaders may have to race to the Hall of the Fire Giant King and find out who is behind the invasion!

Gygax really gave the template for every type of D&D adventure. This is the best high level hack & slash out there, the locations are memorable, the villains are memorable, the battles are well designed, the treasure is epic and an industrious Dungeon Master can weave a great story from the content.

Now for number 1…

1

S1: Tomb of Horrors by Gary Gygax. Cover art by Jeff Dee

Yes, yes I hear the people moaning from the cheap seats, deadliest dungeon ever etc.

As with any game a Dungeon Master is about to run, tell your players what kind of game it will be. Is it deadly? Is it more story based? Is it sprawling and kingdom spanning?

Tomb of Horrors is deadly, anyone who ran it in 5th Edition doesn’t understand probably just how deadly it is in 1st edition.

I’ve run it twice and NEVER for a long term campaign, only ever as a one-shot.

The first attempt was with Sean, Jake and Kieran with magnificently powerful characters. One flew into the green mask of doom, one fell into a pit trap, others died in the main temple. The group failed miserably and had a reasonably fun time doing it.

Isaac was pissed that he didn’t get to attempt the ‘most difficult dungeon of all time’ and it was his play-through that cemented the dungeon as my favourite. He attempted it and relished the challenge.

He took a group of his most powerful 1st edition characters. We lit a few candles, turned the lights out, used music from The Mummy by Jerry Goldsmith and Philip Glass’ Akhenaten and played all night, twice. And it was one of the most memorable playing experiences of all time. The way Isaac solved all the puzzles and navigated the tomb, juggling multiple characters at once, was epic.

Gygax shows DMs how to build an intricate and logical death trap, it has so many fantastic puzzles, lethal pits and wacky ideas, all with the taunting from the mad Lich, Acererak. If you ever want to be inspired to write a tomb module, this is the place you go to - with its Egyptian feel, haunting atmosphere, genius design with false entrances, false endings, smokey portals, holes of doom, gender-swapping traps, crush traps, gargoyles with gemstones, zombies, efreeti, throne rooms, eldritch chapels, key puzzles, hieroglyphics and finally the demi-lich in his crypt.

The handouts are a must use, and really inspired me to use images and handouts for many of my dungeons, it just breathes a little more life into the game you are running.

The art throughout the module is second to none, and really all modules (budget permitting) should use a couple of handouts to help cement in mind what the players are imagining.

I will definitely run Tomb of Horrors again, always with the warning to players that this game will be cruel… attempt it as a challenge.

I hope you enjoyed my list!

Top 10 D&D Modules