New GM with new players. Best adventure?

I was an old school player back in the early 90s, but I was never a GM (one of the first things I did when I got internet in the 90s was find gaming message boards). I loved playing too much to want to be the GM, and I had a great one who created his own stories around our characters using the Forgotten Realms world. Anyway, I have four kids now and they want to learn to play. I didn't want to use the new edition because I loved the 2e rules (I played 2e well into the 4e era), and I already have the books and even the Forgotten Realms setting (& I feel learning new rules while learning how to GM might be too much for me. I work FT & with the kids, I don't have a ton of free time like I did years ago). I also haven't played since 1999. However, I don't know what to do about a campaign. I want a premade campaign for lower level characters. Can I use a modern campaign with old rules? Are there good campaigns written by gamers your recommend? Am I making a mistake with going with 2e instead of the new edition?

thank you!

There's absolutely nothing wrong with playing some good old 2E, don't let these youngsters tell you any different.

However the vast majority of adventures published for 2E were, to put it mildly, bad. There was a great deal of really good setting material - but the adventures themselves tended to be dull, unimaginative railroads.

But, 2E is compatible with 1E, and as luck would have it, the greatest adventure modules ever written for any version of D&D were published for 1E. Now bear in mind these are not 'campaigns', but shorter adventures, and they typically take about 10-15 hours to complete.

I recommend for low level:

U1 - The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1st part in a trilogy, followed by U2 and U3)
N1 - Against the Cult of the Reptile God (a fairly lengthy and difficult adventure but a lot of fun)
T1 - The Village of Hommlet - a shorter adventure, but a really good town setting to use as a campaign base

Any 2 of those should get a party to level 3-4.

I'm not a youngster, and imma tell you, 2e is nostalgic but compared to 5e is it a monster.

5e is easily the most streamlined and easiest to pick up of all the D&D iterations. There is always a learning curve, but it's not that steep. For example, practically all of your die rolls to 'do a thing' are with one die - the d20! Also, all bonuses go UP! Including Armor Class!

The basic rules (including four classes and four races) are available for free online from WotC, legal and everything.

Aside: you stopped playing one year before 3e dropped. ^_^

I have too much info swirling around in my head atm, but I'd be happy to answer any specific questions or concerns.

Sylko said:

Can I use a modern campaign with old rules? Are there good campaigns written by gamers your recommend? Am I making a mistake with going with 2e instead of the new edition?

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Sure you can. You can even use campaigns made for different games altogether. The trick is to estimate opponents, as in how would they look in your rule set, instead of rewriting it.

Which campaign to use partly depends on what your players would prefer. You already got a lot of good suggestions (Saltmarsh trilogy set in Oerth (World of Greyhawk) my fav among those. You can also easily place Saltmarch near to one of the many mashes in Faerun.

Nothing wrong with 2e, however starting with kids I do suggest 5e with maybe a few houserules to make things more real (some of the magic rules are, in my opinion, weird). The only reason I don't play 5e is that I already have all the old stuff from before, especially 3.5 and Pathfinder (which is still going strong anyway) and so don't want to bother much. 5e is easy to learn, and your kids would have a better chance to play with others later as more and more people are picking it up. You do not need to change the setting to the modern (messed up in my view ) Faerun either, the rules are, after all, just framework.

Nothing wrong with 2E, especially if you are already extremely intimate with the rules. After running some campaigns though I might consider buying the PHB for 5e. Just so maybe if your kids were interested later on getting into the new DnD crowd or games they would have the possibility. I mean, lol still 2E games going over the net I think rather frequently. I don't think it's that big of a deal for the edition to be honest with you. Systems are just systems.

Thank you all for such quick responses! l'll look into those adventures. I must have remembered 4e from the many times I wanted to pick up & play again over the years (husband played as a kid but has no interest in playing any more. Maybe he will of the kids are playing). I can't say how many times I'd pick up the new books when I took the kids to the comic book stores but realized I didn't have time (I'm not a "girls night out" type so life is pretty much work and kids. We rarely even go on "dates" without them).

I know how you feel with 2 ever-present kids of my own. Sadly my wife won't play D&D with me. The kids have watched D&D games but as yet they've not been enticed to join in, the lure of their Xboxes seems too strong....

I've just dragged a newish group of 5E players back to 1E, specifically to play some of the classic old modules, and it's worked well so far - so persevere with 2E - there is nothing wrong with sticking with a system you know and love.

2e is fine and has the advantage of being mostly compatible with 1e, which gives you access to the old school modules from 1e with no more work than you would have needed to get a 1e module ready to play.

I think I'd jump to 5e if it were me, unless I was really familiar with 2e, had a ton of material around for 1e/2e, and wasn't sure how successful things were going to be. It's better to get play going than to make it perfect. So, in your case.... I might well make your choice and stick to 2e, at least until the kids got some mud under their boots.

There is not going to be a premade campaign worth your time for low level and for 1e/2e. That's because 1e/2e doesn't get into its sweet spot until 3rd-5th level. If I was starting new players, and I wanted a premade campaign, I'd start with I3,I4,I5 - the Desert of Desolation - and expand the material appropriately, specifically filling out the wilderness areas to make exploration more of a thing and make the setting more alive. You'll get some recommendations for U1, U2, U3 - the Saltmarsh campaign - but... while U1 has a beautiful idea for an adventure with some awesome concepts and a great twist, the implementation is lacking (look at all those poisonous monsters to start the game on). More to the point, U2 and U3 are very poorly conceived and involve too many assumptions about how players will behave and give you too little to work with as a DM. The barely in my opinion count as modules, and while you could go with them, it's a huge amount of work to turn the sketches in U2 and U3 into real campaigns.

A decent starter campaign for low levels is L1: Secret of Bone Hill and L2: The Assassin's Knot. That starts at 2nd level rather than the 5th or 6th you'd be starting 'Desert of Desolation'. You could throw in T1: Homlet into the setting and have tons of adventures.

I'm also a huge fan of UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave, which is also a great choice if you have a mixed gender group of players with different (and more stereotypical) aesthetics of play (teaching boys that would be inclined to hack and slash to use their role playing skills, while whetting the swords of the girls before throwing them into some more grindy adeventure). You could also go from there directly into 'Desert of Desolation' without too much trouble, by having the party hook be the wedding feast...

(I suppose you could turn T1, L1, L2, UK1, I3, I4, I5 into a single epic campaign without too much trouble.)

There is basically nothing for 2e low level characters worth playing, but the silver anniversary mega modules are some of the best high level play for the AD&D era.

If you are looking for a serious challenge, in the hands of a good GM willing to invent things whenever players get off the path (or invent story for characters of the players own invention), the Dragonlance Campaign still has the makings of one the most exciting adventures ever. However as written, it's very railroady, which is probably the only way a new GM can run it with the information provided.

Celebrim, you're slipping....

U1 does indeed have poisonous monsters, but they are not overly punishing, as their poison is not 'save or die'. Plus there is a Potion with 2 doses of Neutralise Poison very early on in the adventure. The Assassin is dangerous, there is some Yellow Mold to catch anyone not being careful, and Rot Grubs which will challenge them if they are impulsive - but beyond that the adventure starts off very simply, and very steadily. If the party are cautious they should be fine.

And I disagree with U2 - yes it can be over very quickly, but in my experience most groups make some early inroads before realising their mistake, leading to some interesting roleplaying (wriggling!).

L1 and L2 are not good starting points for beginning DMs - L1 is very sandboxy and requires a far bit of work from the DM - yes the material is good, but its organisation is horrible, and the OP has stated she is short on prep time. L2 is complex to run, requires multiple readings and re-readings of the adventure, and should only be attempted by a DM who is confident and who again has plenty of time to prepare. Both are worthy adventures, but really not ideal in this instance.

The main reasons for suggesting U1 - it's easy to digest, is logically presented, has a great plot, is initially very forgiving, and breaks itself very nicely into chapters. I've run it twice in the last 12 months, and on both occasions the parties did it in 3 sessions of 3-4 hours - session 1 explore the upper floors, session 2 go into the cellar and below, and session 3 the fantastic finale on the ship. This finale is tough (1 party succeeded, the other failed dismally) but the House/Cellar/Caves provide just about the right amount of xp and treasure to get them to 2nd level and therefore give them a chance of success.

I agree with UK1, I3, I4 and I5 though - very good and very diverse, but let them play and enjoy lower levels first in order to get accustomed to the game. The group I'm running at the moment have played UK5, T1, UK2, UK3, UK4, UK1, I1 and C1, and have just started I3. It has made for a very enjoyable campaign. Sadly I couldn't start them on U1 or N1 because one of the group had played them before, and UK5 is somewhat mediocre, but other than that all the adventures have been top drawer. UK2 and UK3 are under-appreciated gems.

The Dragonlance series should be burned on sight.

JonnyP71 said:

Celebrim, you're slipping....

U1 does indeed have poisonous monsters, but they are not overly punishing, as their poison is not 'save or die'. Plus there is a Potion with 2 doses of Neutralise Poison very early on in the adventure. The Assassin is dangerous, there is some Yellow Mold to catch anyone not being careful, and Rot Grubs which will challenge them if they are impulsive...

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You seem to be trying to make my point for me. While the poison isn't 'save or die', IIRC, most of it is 'save or suck' to the extent of it being 'retire your character from the game' type stuff. Yellow Mold and Rot Grubs are save or die (or just die) traps at a level where the party has no resources to deal with them and a new player is going to feel like they are in a slasher film, which has its charms, but may not be the way to sell the game to everyone. You and I might know, "Don't touch anything in a dungeon that is yellow without a 10' pole", but that's not something you can expect of new players. And you should not set new players into a challenge on the assumption that they will find and use resources correctly.

I agree U1 is a very clever module over all, but it leads into U2 and U3 - and those just aren't. I'd trust a new GM to run DL1 better than U3. They certainly in my opinion don't require less preparation than L1 and L2, although most 1e modules require and improve with preparation.

The Dragonlance series should be burned on sight.

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Depends on how you run it. It you treat it as word of God, and that the players have to have the exact experience with the game the designers are trying to convey you could be in for trouble. If you treat it as a massive toolbox and campaign setting with tons of resources for the DM and some of the coolest dungeons ever drawn, then it can be a great game.