The Human Target
Adventurer
They really shoulda released Reavers online eventually.
D&D 4E Trying to Decide on Module Order for a 4e Campaign
cimbrog
Explorer
Technically it is available in PDF form, you just have to shell out $20 to get it along with the rest of the Dungeon Master's Kit on Dungeon Master's Guild. Same for Cairn of the Winter King included with the Monster Vault.
I always imagined WotC was attempting a stealth Essentials adventure path with the following:
Level 1: The Slaying Stone (HS1)
Level 2-3: Reavers of Harkenwold (Dm Kit)
Level 4: Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault)
Level 5: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (HS2)
Level 6-8: Madness at Gardmore Abbey
There was paragon level stuff in the form of Revenge of the Giants, Tomb of Horrors and Halls of Undermountain, but those started with level 12 so there goes that theory.
The Human Target
Adventurer
I didn't even think about that!
Jessica
First Post
I got my copy of The Slaying Stone in the mail today and I'm really liking it. I think it's almost certainly the adventure I want to run first. Although(maybe this is my less familiarity with post-MM3 monsters talking) that first encounter seems pretty deadly when I was glancing over the adventure. Is it going to be too hard for a party of 5 non-optimized PCs most of whom are brand new to 4e?
cimbrog
Explorer
I don't think it's too bad. Also consider that the goal is the PCs escaping into the tower with some aid from Treona, not to fight to the death. Additionally, depending on how you want to give the quest out, the encounter is completely irrelevant to the plot. Treona and Alkirk could recruit them from anywhere, including a nice safe tavern in town. I think the reason that encounter exists is as a warm-up battle for new players that also immediately exposes the DM to the concept of alternate combat encounter goals.
jacktannery
Explorer
These are the best adventures for 4E. I've played through them as a GM. Madness at Gardmore Abbey is absolutely the one single best adventure ever produced by Wizards for 4E. It's brilliant. Reavers of Harkenwold is also pretty good, almost perfect. The rest are fine.
Note that they are also the latest adventures produced, so by then the developers were beginning to understand the system they had created.
If I was doing it all again, I would run Reavers of Harkenwold (start at level 1 and just provide loads of XP in the first 2 encounters to bump everyone to level 2, and carry on as normal) then skip directly to Madness at Gardmore, just bumping everyone's XP up to level 4 or 5. 4E can work ok if the party prepares for an uneven challenge ahead, and XP is earned fast.
Avoid all of these at all cost. They are absolutely terrible. Thunderspire is the least terrible, but you still have to basicly rewrite the entire adventure and change all of the combat encounters to make them fun, so just don't go there.
Mark Thompson-Wood
Villager
I know it is a long time since the last post.... but.. How is your campaign going?
I am looking to introduce some friends to the D&D4e system and was thinking about the obvious H1-H3, P1-P3, E1-E3... but now after reading this long string, I am not so sure. I was even looking at using Myrdraak's conversion.
I love Cimbrog;s suggestion and have all of those modules! So if you could please enlighten me on this it would be great.
Also, I have the DDI subscription and was wondering if anyone would know of any good "hook's", sub-quests or side trek's that would go along with any of the Level 1: The Slaying Stone (HS1)
Level 2-3: Reavers of Harkenwold (Dm Kit)
Level 4: Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault)
Level 5: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (HS2)
Level 6-8: Madness at Gardmore Abbey
Thanks to you all! Looking forward to responses...
Mark
I am looking to introduce some friends to the D&D4e system and was thinking about the obvious H1-H3, P1-P3, E1-E3... but now after reading this long string, I am not so sure. I was even looking at using Myrdraak's conversion.
I love Cimbrog;s suggestion and have all of those modules! So if you could please enlighten me on this it would be great.
Also, I have the DDI subscription and was wondering if anyone would know of any good "hook's", sub-quests or side trek's that would go along with any of the Level 1: The Slaying Stone (HS1)
Level 2-3: Reavers of Harkenwold (Dm Kit)
Level 4: Cairn of the Winter King (Monster Vault)
Level 5: Orcs of Stonefang Pass (HS2)
Level 6-8: Madness at Gardmore Abbey
Thanks to you all! Looking forward to responses...
Mark
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Dungeon obviously has a LOT of adventures, many of them in the heroic tier. The various 'Chaos Scar' adventures in particular are short and designed to hang together in some degree (they are all self-consistent and take place in a specific region), but are also short and intended to be mixed and matched as desired. So you could run a couple of those as fillers where needed. You can always look at LFR modules too, plenty of those are low level.
Tony Vargas
Legend
Frustration and Confusion is what'd be missing. ;P
Frustration with the botched combat designs in KotS, and confusion at the weirdness of PoS (though I admit I personally had fun with PoS, I don't expect a lot of other players to have felt that way).
Thunderspire, though, I remember as a being a really fun module to play through.
Don't discount the possibility of just coming up with your own stuff, either for a campaign or to bridge between modules that don't mesh perfectly in terms of story or expected levels. It's very easy to whip up a series of level-appropriate encounters in 4e, and only a bit more work to hack together a decent skill challenge.
