Caverns of Thracia and White Plume Mountain advice needed

[KenNYC]

Hi

I need help introducing ppl to old style D&D and loved these two back in the 70s/80s.

Thracia says it is a beginning level dungeon, but could 5 or 6 1st level characters actually survive this? It seems absurdly tough.

White Plume Mountain would be a fun one off adventure but the hardcover S1-4 compilation doesn't include the assumed pre-rolled characters. Would anyone know where to find them or have any suggestions about levels and magic items to equip?

This will be my first attempt at DMing since the early 80s and I am only familiar with first edition AD&D and want to make sure these people enjoy it.

 

[Eminence_Grise]

Who are your players? Former players or new to the hobby? I'm thinking that Keep on the Borderlands could be a better introduction module for beginners than White Plume mountain. I'm sadly not familiar with Caverns of Thracia.

Back on your questions, I suggest reading this for adapting White Plume to 5E:
http://greyhawkery.blogspot.ca/2014/10/5e-white-plume-mountain-conversion-notes.html

 

[trancejeremy]

Thracia is for beginning level characters, but not for beginning players. That is, you can handle it if you really know what you are doing. Obviously, some encounters are impossible, but good players know when not to fight.

As to White Plume Mountain, I don't think the original module had pre-rolled characters. It's meant for 5th to 10th level characters, though.

(And as an aside, you might find better answers at Dragonsfoot.org, which is dedicated to 1e, while this place is more 5e/Pathfinder)

 

[Celebrim]

Both modules are serious character eaters. WPM will chew through hordes of PC's.

I don't like B2. I'd stick with Caverns of Thracia, possibly after leveling them up to 2nd level or nearly so in some short introduction of your own design that serves to steer them toward the caves.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Caverns of Thracia definitely needs characters with some levels under their belts, and players who know what they are doing. I do not believe it is a level 1 adventure even though a lot of it can be survived with careful and clever play. But there is simply not enough XP on offer to prepare characters that start at level 1 for the challenges in the deeper levels. (And I know an old schooler will probably contradict that and argue that whole Gygaxian naturalism thing. Um, yeah, but it's not a lot of fun.)

I think levels 4-6 is a better place to start.

There are some good forum posts over at Dragonsfoot.org about Caverns of Thracia as there should be: it's one of the greatest D&D adventures of all time.

I'm more than happy to send you a précis of the WPM pre-generated PCs if you PM me.

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

I think our group was 2nd level when we started Caverns of Thracia. That seemed to work, although I don't know if the DM adjusted some of the encounters. Like some modules of the time, a way to approach the tough fights is to make an alliance with one of the groups, and then have some allies against the other group. I still remember how impressed we were on the layout - so many interconnections.

 

[Endur]

Thracia says it is a beginning level dungeon, but could 5 or 6 1st level characters actually survive this? It seems absurdly tough.

I don't remember Thracia. I'd start with B2.

If a dungeon feels too tough, don't hesitate to tone down the number of monsters. There generally is no reason why an encounter couldn't be changed from 8 orcs to 4 orcs, etc.

 

[Prince Atom]

I found a playthrough of Caverns of Thracia using the Little Brown Books, and it seemed really vicious. Like, choose the wrong entrance, bam, first encounter's gnolls.

Here you go.

The Necromancer Games conversion for 3.5 says it's for 4th level characters.