Quote from: Reckall;611419Well, if we bring out the 16" guns, then "Par delà des montagnes hallucinee", the French edition.

A reason among the multitude? One of the grimmest ending ever written.

See, I dig Masks more because its faster-paced and because its got this pulpy and heroic feel while still being totally Call of Cthulhu.  Not saying Mountains of Madness is bad, it isn't, its certainly one of the best Modules of all time; its just not the single best CoC module of all time.

Which says a lot about CoC's modules, when you think about it.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;611511See, I dig Masks more because its faster-paced and because its got this pulpy and heroic feel while still being totally Call of Cthulhu.  Not saying Mountains of Madness is bad, it isn't, its certainly one of the best Modules of all time; its just not the single best CoC module of all time.

Which says a lot about CoC's modules, when you think about it.

Yeah, the average quality of all CoC modules outstrips everything else.  The other top contenders that come to mind are by Chaosium as well. Sure, they've had some duds, just like everyone, but overall, they've been slowly put out solid material for decades.

Quote from: TheHistorian;611732Yeah, the average quality of all CoC modules outstrips everything else.  The other top contenders that come to mind are by Chaosium as well. Sure, they've had some duds, just like everyone, but overall, they've been slowly put out solid material for decades.

Yes, though sadly with less frequency or consistency as time marches on.

RPGPundit

My favorite fantasy "module" published in recent years has been Xoth Publishing's The Spider God's Bride. The pdf version is priced reasonably, and is comprised of "ten blood-red sword and sorcery adventures, inspired by the pulp era tales of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith". So, it might not specifically qualify as a "module" by definition, but you'll definitely get your money's worth out of it.

It was originally released for 3.5; has a conversion guide for Mongoose's defunct d20 Conan system; and is supposed to be released for the Legend system (though it's been long delayed).

I ran a campaign with SGB using Mongoose's RuneQuest II system back in 2010. I used 4 of the 10 adventures, and my gaming group enjoyed the hell out of it. Two years later, we still reminisce about it.

One that blew me away when it came out was Judge's Guild The Dark Tower.

That top 30 list though doesn't seem that balanced - it splits up the A series (which I think were combined into one volume later), but treats the GDQ series as a single module.

Quote from: Lynn;612257That top 30 list though doesn't seem that balanced - it splits up the A series (which I think were combined into one volume later), but treats the GDQ series as a single module.

It was published by a TSR/WotC magazine and counted only TSR/WotC products, so, no, balanced wasn't part of the equation.

Quote from: TheHistorian;612683It was published by a TSR/WotC magazine and counted only TSR/WotC products, so, no, balanced wasn't part of the equation.

There is that. My point though is that it was comparing compilations of many modules together (GDQ) with individual modules. Just within GDQ, some were more memorable than others.

I think the unbalancedness is consistent with the modules here being of no particular length...some of there are a session or two long and others (e.g. Return to ToEE) are whole campaigns.

It's not one of the famous, classic adventure but I was impressed with the ICONS adventure "Sins of the Past". It's got a strong central idea, it is very flexible in terms of how you approach it, tons of supervillians to fight and most of all the rarest of all qualities, heart.

No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?

I also liked Dreamchipper & Queen Euphoria.

Quote from: SJBenoist;613161No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?

Easy availability (no hunting down collector's items) was a requirement.

Oops, that would eliminated X11, but TEW is pretty easy to find (and reasonably priced).

Quote from: SJBenoist;613271Oops, that would eliminated X11, but TEW is pretty easy to find (and reasonably priced).

X11 is darn cool but its better in concept than execution. I reckon it would need a fair bit of work to run.

An absolutely bitching cover illustration, though.

If we are talking X Series gems I'd recommend X8 Drums on Firetop Mountain. Castle Amber is right up there too.

Quote from: SJBenoist;613161No love for The Enemy Within & Shadows Over Bogenhafen or X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord?

Shadows over Bögenhafen runs well, but it wouldn't occur to me as a "best" module. Death on the Reik from the same series, though, would be a serious contender if I was focused on WFRP instead of D&D. It is an excellent non-linear module that lets you roam all over the Empire, trading to get rich and bumping into chaos conspiracies along the way.

Quote from: RPGPundit;611412Are you talking only fantasy here?

Because if not, I really wouldn't have much doubt: Masks of Nyarlathotep.

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I've never played in a CoC RPG - I read a review of that, and damn, now I want to.

I seriously doubt I could convince my currently group of players to do it though.  They might go for a one-shot, but not an entire campaign.

I also think I might have met Larry Ditillio (as in shook his hand and said "Hey"), completely outside of a gaming context.