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Greatest D&D Adventure Modules of All Time: Composite Ranking
Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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This list identifies the most highly-regarded Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) adventure modules of all time based on the rankings from four different sources: RPGGeek, RPG.net, Dungeon Magazine, and the Hahn Library. Other geeklists cover Dungeon's ranking and RPGGeek user favorites, but neither aggregates the ratings and rankings across several sources.
To facilitate the play of these modules, I've made an effort to place all of them into various campaigns that focus on a specific setting, theme, or storyline. The campaign with which I associate each module is noted in its description.
Method: Adventures all must be in the top 10 of GeekDo, RPG.net, Dungeon, or Hahn Library, in the top 20 of two of those lists, or the top 30 of three. They must also have at least 12 votes or ratings (counting RPG.net reviews as 4 ratings) from at least one source. I put all adventures that make that cut together into a single list of modules, ranked them based on ratings from each source, and averaged the four rankings together to get the final order below.
Update notes have been moved to the Comments.
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Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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Average Rank = 22
#4-ranked on RPG.net
#30-ranked on GeekDo
#31-ranked in Dungeon (unranked)
Hahn Library ranks only TSR, WotC, and Judge's Guild modules.
Included in the D&D Campaign of Eerie Horror
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Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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Average Rank = 25
Included in the Adventurers-for-Hire campaign.
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Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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Average Rank = 25
Hahn Library ranks only TSR, WotC, and Judge's Guild modules.
Included in the Adventurers-for-Hire campaign.
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Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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Average Rank = 25
Included in the Adventurers-for-Hire campaign.
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Chris Flood
United States
Oakland
California
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Average Rank = 25
At $30, this rare adventure is the second most expensive module on this list, so I've not included it on any of my campaign lists.
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Posted Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:27 am
Oh and that the covers give away the identity of the main adversary right from the start.
Duisburg
NRW
Oakland
California
Update 1/26/10: I added several modules and that recently reached at least 12 ratings on GeekDo. Recent ratings also shifted the rankings of many modules that had already been on the list.
Update 1/29/10: I incorporated Dungeon's ranking, which tend to correspond with the GeekDo ranking but still promoted a couple overlooked modules that RPG.net likes.
Update 2/1/10: I added the rankings from the Hahn Library, which actually include more votes than any other ranking so far.
Oakland
California
After updating for recent RPGGeek ratings, this ranking seems to have settled into a set of clearly demarcated tiers:
#1 Ravenloft is no one site's favorite, but is so consistently ranked across all four that it is easily the top-ranked overall.
#2-6 The Greyhawk TAGDQ series consolidates its hold on the remaining top spots, clustered within average rankings of 8 to 11 across all four sites.
#7-17 The S-series and an assortment of classic favorites make up the next tier. X2, B2, U1, B10, and I3-5 are frequent favorites in user comments both here and elsewhere, so its no surprise to see such favorable rankings for them all.
#18-42 This enormous tier of modules with average ranks in the 20s makes up over half the entire list. It's a wide assortment of modules less renowned than the legends in previous tiers (X1, N1, WG4, B4)--but excellent nonetheless--and oddball modules that get tremendous love on one site but not others (Dead Gods, Dragonlance).
Oakland
California
Overall, not much has changed since a year ago. Ravenloft remains #1 overall, only this year it's the RPGGeek favorite too. There's a shuffling in the preferences for which among the TAGDQ series is best, but they all congregate in the next tier.
Perhaps the biggest change is the skyrocketing of Dead Gods from the lower tiers into the top ten due to its higher ranking on RPG.net. It doesn't seem to have caught on here on the Geek. A couple of former RPG.net darlings (Deathright, To Stand on Hallowed Ground) fall off; they'd only been on here before because they were in RPG.net's top ten. Another few modules drop off the list due to lowered ratings across the board.