May 25, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 15 segments
Dan and Paul dive into the D&D adventures they would happily run again and again. From classic tournament modules to sprawling campaign epics, what adventures stand the test of time? Which modules…
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Dan CollinsHost
Paul SiegelHost
I will say, so, you know, I did get in the hobby, frankly, right at the same time that, uh, adventure modules started getting published.
I got the, the Holmes Basic Set initially, like many of us, and that was right pretty much in the same year that the publisher of D&D started publishing adventure modules for the first time.
And they went several years where they philosophically resisted that as a bad idea, frankly.
... uh, four or five years, they, they didn't wanna do that, and they were publishing supplements and rules, and they started...
You know, they published dungeon geomorphs and monster treasure assortments of, like, tools for the DM to make their own thing, and it wasn't until 1978 they started, uh, publishing, uh, the first adventures for D&D.
They were things that were being used at the Origins convention or the Gen Con convention for the big, uh, AD&D tournaments, the big D&D tournaments at the time.
Um, and the weird thing is that the first batch of things they published were all super mega high level.
... last week, the last week or so, when you and I, Paul, have been talking about, like, what levels do we expect to make our dungeon design dashes or what levels do we have characters for, um, they're all...
The, the first batch of adv- half dozen adventures in 1978 were all at a higher level than you, Paul, would ever want to run.
You know, there was a point where the, the, the creators had been running D&D or things like D&D for alm- you know, the better part of a decade.
Their, their current play style was, was very high level, and this was the kind of product and the kind of adventures that they were producing, and they weren't m- market savvy enough to think about we need to provide an on-ramp for new players to start adventuring.
I will say, so, you know, I did get in the hobby, frankly, right at the same time that, uh, adventure modules started getting published.
I got the, the Holmes Basic Set initially, like many of us, and that was right pretty much in the same year that the publisher of D&D started publishing adventure modules for the first time.
And they went several years where they philosophically resisted that as a bad idea, frankly.
... uh, four or five years, they, they didn't wanna do that, and they were publishing supplements and rules, and they started...
You know, they published dungeon geomorphs and monster treasure assortments of, like, tools for the DM to make their own thing, and it wasn't until 1978 they started, uh, publishing, uh, the first adventures for D&D.
They were things that were being used at the Origins convention or the Gen Con convention for the big, uh, AD&D tournaments, the big D&D tournaments at the time.
Um, and the weird thing is that the first batch of things they published were all super mega high level.
... last week, the last week or so, when you and I, Paul, have been talking about, like, what levels do we expect to make our dungeon design dashes or what levels do we have characters for, um, they're all...
The, the first batch of adv- half dozen adventures in 1978 were all at a higher level than you, Paul, would ever want to run.
You know, there was a point where the, the, the creators had been running D&D or things like D&D for alm- you know, the better part of a decade.
Their, their current play style was, was very high level, and this was the kind of product and the kind of adventures that they were producing, and they weren't m- market savvy enough to think about we need to provide an on-ramp for new players to start adventuring.
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