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First time DM looking for comments on first adventure

Wonka

First Post
Hey all. I wrote this adventure for my normal group to try and introduce them to 4e ruleset, and I was just wanting to get some feedback from more experienced DMs on what I could do to make my product better. Im pretty new to D&D in general, only been playing for 6 months now, and this marks my first attempt at DMing in any capacity. So if anyone has the time and wishes to read this over and comment I would very much appreciate it! Thanks in advance! File is zipped up as the pdf is just over a meg in size, to large to upload here :)
 

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Rechan

Adventurer
First, I'd like to commend your layout. The encounter designs, from the rooms of the maps, to the PDF layout, is really nice. I can tell you did put work into this.

For your first adventure as a DM, this is fine. There's no problems, I'll tell you that. The only thing it "lacks" is "Background Information". It answers Who, How, Why, and When.

However, I will say that it's very plain. Adventurers come, kill goblins and their master. But the PCs don't engage with anything besides the worried townsfolk. Furthermore, you have a villain, but the PCs only meet him in the end room. Also, you have goblins working for a necromancer. Why? (I didn't see that in the notes; if I missed it, sorry). A very plain adventure is okay. Especially for a new DM, new players. It's simple, lets you get your feet wet. That's great.

But, what I would suggest is thinking about how to make it more interesting beyond "Goblins to slay, villains to punish". First, let's talk about your pacing.

Instead of the PCs just walking into town and BAM, they're attacked by goblins and they're asked to save the town... instead assume that the PCs are traveling and stop in town just before sundown. They go to the local inn or tavern. Before they order food, have the bar wench say "Sorry, we're all out of ale and cheese; goblins have been raiding merchants that bring us that stuff. All we got is some bread, water and meat." Let them hear some townsfolk complain about how goblins stole their dog, chased their sheep into the woods, threw feces on their laundry hanging out to dry, and other very mean things.

Next, the PCs meet the villain. He and his friends may be hanging out at the tavern before their walk. Play him up. Is he nervous and twitchy about hatching his plan? Is he brooding and withdrawn? Is he eager and arrogant? And don't forget to play up his friends, because the PCs are going to meet their walking corpses later.

Then have the PCs wake up in the middle of the night from the goblin attack. The goblins are setting fire to things, menacing the people running about, and other goblin hijinx. Then the PCs bust out and dash them to pieces. Now is when you have the kids' mothers run out of their houses, yelling about their kids. "Have you seen our children?" "Did they come home last night?" "No!" And have the Players beat the bushes, find the shoe, etc.

You can even have a nice little town hall meeting, and do it like 'Jaws', where the whole community is upset and they ask 'Who will SAVE US?'.

Next, let's talk about the Goblins.

Why are they working for the mage? And, where are the Other goblins? Women/children/non-fighters/spiritual leaders/etc? If the answer is "The mage is their leader", then the question becomes "How'd he do that and why doesn't he have goblin zombie/skeleton minions". In fact, I bet he could have used the corpses of goblins killed in any raids, since the community would've chucked them. Did his Mentor give him the goblins? If so, why?

Where I'm going with this is not to criticize you, but simply to ask questions in order to find interesting answers. For instance, perhaps this is a scouting party of goblins, who came across the wizard's crypt when he was away. They go in to use it for shelter, he comes back, and scares the willies out of them with the skeletons he has, and cripples their leader. The leader is still in the crypt, alive; the mage doesn't speak goblin, for instance.

This gives an NPC in the crypt the PCs can talk to: the injured goblin leader. Do they kill him, or let him go, even though he's a goblin? They'll have to use skills to talk to him, because he's going to be hostile, or try to sneak away (but he's crippled, so it isn't going to be as effective). Perhaps this hints at a goblinoid force moving this way from beyond the Barony.

Finally, this is a suggestion for your future adventures: think about variety. This adventure has the PCs just fighting only One Thing until the last room: goblins. So what you might want to do is mix up your monster list a little. Does the boss monster have an imp adviser who is skulking around, who can ambush the PCs? Do the monsters they're fighting have any pets, like drakes/beetles/rats/kuthriks, etc? Are there any indigenous monsters in the area that could just wander in, looking to pick the bodies and get disturbed by the PCs? Do the monsters have any Traps set? Are there any extra-planar creatures that are guarding the boss's Inner Sanctum, released when the PCs touch the door without saying the command word? Have the monsters' activities disturbed a creature, which they have barely been able to contain in some room (for the PCs to stumble across, no doubt)?

One other thing to consider is the matter of complications in the plot. A third party might be giving the PCs competition. The monsters they blame (and initially fight) might not be responsible, but now are very angry at the players for attacking them. Defeating the Bad Guy might result in Even Badder Things Happening.

And last, don't be afraid to drop hints. For instance, the PCs might go "What the hell?" when they stumble across a necromancer behind the goblin attacks, because there had been no indication of the Necro before then. Graves being dug up in the area, unhappy (but harmless) spirits in the crypt disturbed by the defiling of their rest, etc, are great little things to drop in to let the PCs know "Something is up".
 
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yu gnomi

Explorer
My opinion is that this looks to be a fairly quick adventure, and I wouldn't spend an excessive amount of time developing plot just for this one. It already has an obvious and familiar plot (town in need of saving) that is ok for short, first run adventure.

Although I also think that goblins working for a human(?) deathmaster doesn't quite jibe, the adventure explains it in a way that could set up further adventures.

Are you stuck on using all minions in first battle at the market?
I think that goblins bringing their pet fire beetle to cause havoc is a bit more interesting. Name him 'sparky' or something

If the fight is tough, they can always rest in town, before invading crypt.
If they do rest, then new goblins (ones not already listed in the adventure) could sneak into the inn they are staying at and "get them that killed sparky."
And if the PC's push on and are still in good shape at end of adventure, these new goblins could be an optional extra encounter.
 

Wonka

First Post
Ok, Ive tried 3 times now to type in a nice long response, and each time its been foiled by something stupid, so lets try this again shall we?

First off, thank you for your reply, being a new DM i can use all the help and advice I can get for fleshing this out into something useable for others.

This adventure was initially written to be pretty plain, and it was supposed to be run in 1 or 2 sessions to get introduced to the new ruleset of 4e. I actually ended up running this for a different group of friends who had never played D&D before. They enjoyed playing it and asked me to keep going, so here I am asking for help to shore up my adventure writing skills :) I think for the next part im going to modify the new adventure out of Dungeon (The Rescue at Rivenroar) but eventually I want to add some more homemade adventures to the mix to flesh out my story.

I really like your ideas for fleshing out the begining of the story. They seem to be more immersive than just flinging goblins at the players in the begining. Ill probably add in your ideas when I do a second version of this.

About the goblins. They work for Tellondris, but are ordered by him to serve Valdred for his plans. This is mentioned briefly in the Valdred background section, but its easy to overlook now that I look back. See, a lot of this stems from I know in my head things that I didnt realize I was leaving out of the background information. Ill go back and add a lot more to flesh that out. Also, I totally need to add zombie and skeleton goblins, I cannot believe I didnt think about that before. Ill either reflavor the existing MM entries or make my own :)

Valdred, honestly, was supposed to be a surprise. I really wanted them to go "umm wtf, theres a necromancer?" in order to leave them with a sort of cliff hanger and hook to keep playing once the adventure was over. Hes also suposed to be a small fry. He was supposed to die and his note would reveal Tellondris to the players, who is to be the real BBEG and their eventual goal. Although in the play test, my players decided to take him alive, totally didnt expect that from them lol. It led to a nice improvised session where Tellondris sent some goblin agents to "reaquire" valdred. But I digress.

I had some more points in my original response, but my anger has made me forget what they were at this time :) Ill add them in when/if I remember them :) Thanks for your critque and suggestions :)
 

Rechan

Adventurer
This adventure was initially written to be pretty plain, and it was supposed to be run in 1 or 2 sessions to get introduced to the new ruleset of 4e. I actually ended up running this for a different group of friends who had never played D&D before. They enjoyed playing it and asked me to keep going, so here I am asking for help to shore up my adventure writing skills :) I think for the next part im going to modify the new adventure out of Dungeon (The Rescue at Rivenroar) but eventually I want to add some more homemade adventures to the mix to flesh out my story.
I'm curious who you'll be running Rescue at Rivenroar for; the group of friends you wrote the adventure for, the group you played the above adventure with, or if you are going to write a new one to post here?

If your second adventure is for the group you ran the above adventure for, then I would like to make a suggestion: change the goblins out for kobolds. They fought goblins all ready, so just chopping through dozens of goblins might get really tiresome. Keep the hobgoblins if you want, or change them to Dragonborn (same stats, except no phalanx and no resilience, but they have a minor breath weapon).

To get more bang for your adventure buck, Wizard's website has even more kobolds. Although, if you still want goblins, maybe spicing it up with these guys.
 

Wonka

First Post
Id be running it for the same group I ran it for before. It seems my normal group has zero desire to try 4e, our DM loathes it for reasons that quite frankly dont make any sense to me but hey, thats his prerogative :) So yeah, changing the goblins to kobolds was something that crossed my mind for that adventure. Maybe throw in some zombie/skeleton goblins :)
 

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