General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
The old 1E adventure Treasure Hunt is great style of adventure to start a campaign. You can modify the premise of the original and have the characters start off at 1st level.
Starting a campaign with the PC's as survivors of a shipwreck that must survive in a hostile environment is great departure from the typical small town or village start.
Let's see. Paizo's done a couple of fantastic ones: "The Whispering Cairn" from The Age of Worms and "Howl of the Carrion King" are both excellent, and can be stripped from their Adventure Path context with minimal effort. Both were written by Erik Mona, incidentally--he should do that more often.
You know, I just realized I never read NeMorden's Vault because I was playing as Vadania in Piratecat's Iconics game, then when the game stopped we never got to finish the story.
Keep on the Borderlands. It's originally designed for Basic D&D, but as it uses all common, stock, normal monsters, it's very easy to use as is (except maybe for D&D4).
It's the ultimate campaign starter. It has no set plot to "finish," and it's big enough to give many, many game sessions of play. It has a base town (the Keep), wilderness adventures, and the Caves of Chaos with nearly every base D&D monster.
For a DM, though, the encounter/room text is not organized, and written sort of stream of consciousness style, so it's difficult to run without reading it carefully before actually playing it. It has some other shortcomings, too.
But the basic adventure is great for starting a campaign with beginning PCs.
Mad God's Key (from Dungeon) is usually toted as one of the best 1st level adventures. I'm not sure how good of a "campaign starter" it is, but worth checking out (and they're having a magazine sale over at Paizo, so it might be available cheep!)
But as was brought up in the last modules thread, Harley Stroh hit the ball out of the park with both his level 0 module and his level 1 module for the DCC line.
For level 0 it's DCC 35A - Halls of the Minotaur (which feels in several ways like B1) and for levels 1-3 it's DCC 28 - Into the Wilds (which feels like B2)
I've had fantastic luck with Legends Are Made, Not Born (DCC for 0th level characters). I'm itching to do Hangman's Noose, a splatter horror mystery, if you can believe it! Also, there's tons of NPCs that the DM needs to RP for that one...
__________________ All role playing advice is given without knowledge of you and your group. Only you and your group knows what is fun for you. What you are doing is not badwrongfun. My advice is offered based on what I think might be fun for you to try.
"Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary." - Amedee Ozenfant, Foundations of Modern Art
"I already have a place where I can get little recognition for my accomplishments, advance at a very slow pace, and have to work hard to eke out minimum rewards for my efforts. It's called work." - toberane.
I have always liked "A Dark and Stormy Knight" for a kickoff adventure. It gives a reason the group is all together, and can be run in a few hours, with lots of time for interaction between the party members.
Mad God's Key - Jason Buhlman (Dungeon #114) Whipering Cairn - Erik Mona (Dungeon #124) Halls of the Minotaur - Harley Stroh (DCC 35a, also a zero level module) Into the Wilds - Harley Stroh (DCC 28) Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar - Mike Ferguson (DCC 44, an Underdark module to boot) There is No Honor - James Jacobs (Dungeon #139, from the STAP but easily plug and play, very Urban) Crucible of Freya - Clark Peterson, Bill Webb (with great free Prelude and Expansion PDFs available)
Keep on the Borderlands. It's originally designed for Basic D&D, but as it uses all common, stock, normal monsters, it's very easy to use as is (except maybe for D&D4).
While easy to use, I find it really tough for a level 1 party - the encounters rapidly spiral out of control if the party isn't exceptionally stealthy when engaging the outer guards of a lair. Far too often you end up with a party failing to disable the initial guards and then finding themselves being dogpiled by the majority of the inhabitants of the particular cave.
On the upside, it REALLY encourages parlaying with the various creatures you meet, hoping to turn at least one of the tribes of cave denizens into allies - particularly if it is one of the two orc tribes.
Gorgoldand's Gauntlet, by Johnathan M. Richards, originally published in Dungeon #87. What an amazing adventure that was. I dearly wish we would see more from Johnathan Richards, for 4e, such as another Challenge of Champions.
Let's see. Paizo's done a couple of fantastic ones: "The Whispering Cairn" from The Age of Worms and "Howl of the Carrion King" are both excellent, and can be stripped from their Adventure Path context with minimal effort. Both were written by Erik Mona, incidentally--he should do that more often.
This. I'll add Burnt Offerings and Necromancer's Crucible of Freya. All of them have the advantage of being also mini-campaign settings, which you can use to start an Adventure Path (three of them have theirs already built, and I find Tomb of Abysthor as a perfect follow-up for CoF ), or as the players' base for your own sandbox.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
