Adventures in Greyhawk

ADVENTURES IN GREYHAWK

The World of Greyhawk is best known through its adventure modules. For your DM's convenience I have grouped a select list of published adventures set in Greyhawk, grouped by my own judgment on their quality.


(1st TIER: THE CLASSICS)
This tier is adventures from the early days of AD&D that were formative in the development of Greyhawk's identity. These modules are now famous in their own right, and have sequels, novels and homages made to them in pop culture.


(2ND TIER: ESSENTIALS)
This tier is composed of adventures that are uniquely set in Greyhawk and either advance prior story arcs, influence new ones or develop the setting's history in positive ways.

WGA4: Vecna Lives!

(3RD TIER: EXOTIC BUT FUN)
This tier includes adventures that are all very memorable and fun to play through, but do not add or detract from Greyhawk's meta-plot if they are ignored.


ADVENTURES (4th TIER: OBSCURE YET USEFUL)
This tier is for adventures that are firmly Greyhawk canon, but are either not as well known or not as highly regarded as other published works. These modules can serve as bridges to larger storylines or can be mined by dungeonmasters for useful parts.

Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
Lost Tombs 1: The Star Cairns
WGA2: Falconmaster
WGM1: Border Watch

ADVENTURES (5th TIER: AVOID ENTIRELY)
Truly the worst of Greyhawk. Read for entertainment purposes only.

Lost Tombs 3: The Doomgrinder
WG9: Gargoyle
WG10: Child's Play
WG11: Puppets


Want to know more?
Echohawk's Greyhawk Collectors Guide at ENWorld.
Get classic modules in PDF at DMsGuild.
My 10 favorite modules ranked on Greyhawkery.

11 comments:

Antony McEwan said...

I don't see When A Star Falls mentioned. Whereabouts would you place this in the tiers?

SirXaris said...

Also missing are the Dungeon Magazine APs:
The Cagewrights;
The Age of Worms; and
The Savage Tide.

Additionally, it would be cool to add fan-made adventures to the list (like those from the Oerth Journal and Canonfire! Chronicles).

SirXaris

Anonymous said...

wow, I dont agree with puppets, it does need alot of work, but adds a great adversary for the party, could be a permanent one, LE leprechan (party should not be able to kill him) and the run in with the assassins guild could give them a long term enemy to contend with. so like i said i totaly disagree, it gives a good small area map of Dyvers as well. with LG barely scratching the surface of this huge city, every little bit helps. I run a group on FB. Oerth: advendures in Garys gygaxs greyhawk.

Caligula said...

A lot of modules are missing here. Also Vecna Reborn, Die Vecna Die,and Rory the traitor, to add a few.

Mike Bridges said...

Cal: Thats a personal preference I believe. Rary to me reads more like a sourcebook or sandbox affair than a module per se. Then Vecna Reborn is technically Ravenloft, and DvD is generic. Though I will relent that if you play Vecna Lives, the other 2 follow in a natural story path in this case.

Calstaff said...

I'm curious as to what Tier you'd place WG12 in. For me, it's in your Tier 4, not to be avoided entirely, but doesn't advance the metaplot of Greyhawk and can be skipped.

Mike Bridges said...

Cal: I agree, it's tier 4. I didn't even own Vale of the Mage until recently, so that's how essential it is, haha. I didn't even consider it a module rather than a sourcebook when I made this page, but I'm wrong I guess. Thanks for pointing that one out.

Anonymous said...

N1 is an absolute classic - it shouldn't be in tier 4. It's equivalent to something like U1.

Anonymous said...

N1 Is an absolute classic Greyhawk module. It shouldn't be dumped in Tier 4. It's equivalent to something like U1, Tier 2.

Mike Bridges said...

DM_BenC: I love to see someone defend a title on here. N1 might be Tier 2 as you say, it's on my to-run list for sure, and the fact the N series didn't follow this affected my judgment. I see its 19th on all-time list of D&D modules however. That's gotta count for something. Fixed!

Jonathan said...

What about Keep on the Borderlands? That's pretty essential for a lot of players.