How necessary is an iconic adventure to a setting's success?

[Sean_RDP]

How important is having an iconic adventure to your enjoyment of a setting? We know there are some great adventures for the settings in the line of Magic World, but would the settings be less successful without the adventures? Do you need some kind of example of play to grok a setting or would you rather not have that? Just curious what people think.

I personally feel an iconic adventure sets the tone, but my experience might be different than others. 

[soltakss]

Having an iconic adventure can be good.

I was hooked onto RPGs and Glorantha with Apple Lane.

Now, Apple Lane is a good introductory adventure, but is it iconic? Snakepipe Hollow is more iconic for RQ, as is the Cradle.

Fortunately over the years, we have had iconic campaign packs rather than single adventures - Borderlands, Pavis, Big Rubble, Trollpack and Griffin Mountain for RQ2, River of Cradles, Sun County, Strangers in Prax and Adventurers on the Borderlands for RQ3, all had interconnected scenarios and encounters that brought Glorantha to life.

The individual scenarios had less impact, for me, Apple Lane/Rainbow Mounds, Snakepipe Hollow, the SoloQuest books, all were good in their ways, but are nowhere near as good as the campaign packs. Even the Judges Guild books, Duck Pond, Duck Tower, City of Lei Tabor, Hellpits of Nightfang and Broken Tree Inn, were good as individual scenarios and, on the whole better than all of the above single scenarios, except for SnakePipe Hollow.

 

[Nick J.]

I think it's incredibly helpful to have a couple of excellent adventures that show-off a game's strengths, or that do a good job of capturing the tone or quintessence of a setting, but I'm not sure if that means it's "iconic."

Off-hand, I'm thinking of the Book of Quests or Monster Island for Mythras as exemplars of good design that are useful for more than just playing in a given setting (or even with Mythras for that matter).

But yes, having some good adventures or an interesting setting to go along with a set of rules is helpful for selling a game and getting buy-in.

[Atgxtg]

An iconic adventure doesn't hurt, but I don't think it's required. At lot of this boils down to player's likes, dislikes and moods. I've had great sessions with poor adventures and vice versa. For it to work, it has to hook the players and they have to want to get into it. 

 

When an Iconic adventure works it can really boost stuff, get the player involved and help get things going at a good start. When it doesn't, well, it can kill a campaign, disillusion players, and break up a gaming group. 

[Coronoides]

For me not at all. Adventures are a very distant second to the potential dramas and opportunities written into the setting itself. AS I’m reading the setting book am I getting excited about ideas for adventures I could write for the setting or PCs I could make.