Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  In 1975, a scenario called "Temple of the Frog" appeared tucked inside a supplement called Blackmoor, and a publishing tradition was born. That single scenario, bundled quietly inside a rules book, would eventually grow into one of the most distinctive product categories in gaming history: the Dungeons and Dragons adventure module.

  What exactly is an adventure module? Who made the first one, and who decided what went inside it? And why do collectors today chase the earliest printings of these slim booklets as though they were rare coins?

• 2. What a Module Contains

  ›

  A published adventure is used exclusively by the Dungeon Master, never handed to the players themselves. It arrives as a pre-packaged book or box set, built around a backstory, maps, and one or more objectives for the players to fulfill.

  Beyond that basic kit, the contents varied considerably over time. Early modules were single booklets inserted, but not fixed, into a cardboard cover. Later formats grew more elaborate. Dark Sun modules, for example, came in top-spiralbound notebooks.

  The standard package could include background information for the plot, vignettes of interesting locations, site inventories, creature descriptions and statistics, player visual aids, and suggested rules for evaluating events and likely player actions. A Dungeon Master could purchase one of these ready-made adventures and use all of it, or only parts of it, for a single gaming session.

• 3. The First Modules

  ›

  "Temple of the Frog" had been the first Dungeons and Dragons scenario ever published, but it was embedded inside a supplement rather than standing alone. The first truly stand-alone adventure module came out in 1976 from a small company called Wee Warriors. That module was Palace of the Vampire Queen, and it was described on its own materials not as a "module" or an "adventure" but as a "Dungeon Masters Kit".

  TSR did not produce Palace of the Vampire Queen, but the company did distribute the first three printings on behalf of Wee Warriors. That relationship is a useful reminder of how informal the early industry was. Another 1976 adventure, Lost Caverns of Tsojconth, was distributed by Metro Detroit Gamers as a tournament module for Wintercon V, with no general release at the time.

  In 1978, TSR took direct control of its own module publishing. The catalyst was Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, which had previously been used only at the gaming convention Origins '78. TSR produced and published it as a stand-alone module and assigned it the code "G1," the very first entry in what would become a systematic coding scheme for the entire product line.

• 4. Codes, Series, and Connections

  ›

  TSR's practice of assigning an alphanumeric code to each module began with G1 in 1978 and continued into the 1990s. Every code consisted of a letter and a number. The letter related to the product in some way; the number indicated the order of release within its series.

  Modules within a shared letter set were usually related, either thematically or as a chain of linked adventures. A Z1 might serve as a prologue to Z2, or Z1, Z2, and Z3 might send adventurers against a similar enemy such as beholders. Most modules were still stand-alone, though, and could be played without touching the others in the series.

  TSR also extended this same coding system to modules for other roleplaying games it published, including modules for Advanced Marvel Super-Heroes and the Conan Role-Playing Game. The code began losing prominence in the late 1980s, when campaign setting logos took over as the main visual feature on covers. By the end of 1993, the code had disappeared entirely. Then in 2008, with the release of H1 Keep on the Shadowfell for the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, the adventure code returned.

• 5. Terminology and Its Complications

  ›

  The word "module" traces back to "dungeon module," the term used for the earliest adventures TSR published. Over time, Wizards of the Coast, the current publisher of Dungeons and Dragons, moved to the word "adventure" as the standard label.

  But the older term never disappeared. Players of the original Dungeons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons kept using "module" even after newer publications dropped the word. Adventures that appeared as part of a larger accessory were often called scenarios instead. The exact differences among adventure, module, scenario, and accessory have never been precisely defined in official Dungeons and Dragons terminology.

  Suggested character levels appeared prominently on module covers, giving Dungeon Masters a quick guide to which group could handle which challenge. From the late 1980s onward, campaign setting logos joined the character level on the cover as a primary feature, signaling not just difficulty but the fictional world the adventure inhabited.

• 6. Collecting and Legacy

  ›

  All early Dungeons and Dragons modules are now out of print. Some have been reprinted in revised form, but the original printings have become sought-out collector items. The very earliest printings command particular attention among collectors.

  Lost Caverns of Tsojconth offers a useful example of how these early adventures traveled through time. First distributed at Wintercon V in 1976, the adventure was later rewritten for the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules and published as module S4, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, by TSR in 1982. The revised title even changed the spelling of the name slightly. Temple of the Frog followed a similar path, going from its 1975 appearance inside the Blackmoor supplement to its own stand-alone release as DA2, published by TSR in 1986 for the D&D Expert set rules.