DreadPirateMurphy
Explorer
I have an 8-year-old who wants to get into RPG's, specifically D&D. I had a bunch of PDF's of the old Basic D&D red box and some modules and such that I got off of DriveThruRPG years ago. I wanted something a little less detailed than Pathfinder, which is my personal favorite. Now...it has been a LONG time since I fiddled around with any Basic D&D stuff. I decided that a solo module would be the easiest to use -- I would just treat it as a 1:1 module with a single PC and DM. Luckily, I had a whole bunch of old D&D modules, and found the Ghost of Lion Castle.
Our first session, my son used one of the pre-rolled characters at my insistence. He entered the castle, triggered a wandering monster, and, thanks to clueless dad misreading the random encounter table, ended up dying to a 3 HD giant black widow spider before even getting inside the castle. So far, his table-top RPG experience was a character with the life expectancy of Flappy Bird.
That was yesterday. Today, I let him roll his own Elf and started again. I think I should have noticed a warning sign by the fact that the module explicitly tells you to write down where your corpse is located on the map so you can loot the body with your new character. Having died quickly yesterday, he decided to go in the front door. He was promptly hit by a falling portcullis. Then he dodged falling stones. Then he was killed by a magic arrow trap. I read ahead with him to see what would have happened if he had made it through the arrow -- and it would have immediately been followed by at least 3 more death traps, including being doused in molten lead. I don't think I remembered quite how...Gygaxian...these early modules were compared to today. I'm not sure having him cut his teeth on Tomb of Horrors would have had a different result.
After dying rather quickly for a second time, we decided to read ahead to the end to see the prize. Spoiler alert...if such a thing applies to a module released 34 freaking years ago (OMG, I'm old)...the ghost of the wizard who owned the castle basically pulls a, "the real treasure was inside you all along," Aesop, like a cheesy cartoon. Trigger an 8-year-old eye roll. I then read him some of the better bits from Tomb of Horrors just to give him some perspective.
Is there a better introductory module for Basic D&D that can be done with a small number of characters (1-4) and that isn't as lethal as the Normandy landing in Saving Private Ryan?
Our first session, my son used one of the pre-rolled characters at my insistence. He entered the castle, triggered a wandering monster, and, thanks to clueless dad misreading the random encounter table, ended up dying to a 3 HD giant black widow spider before even getting inside the castle. So far, his table-top RPG experience was a character with the life expectancy of Flappy Bird.
That was yesterday. Today, I let him roll his own Elf and started again. I think I should have noticed a warning sign by the fact that the module explicitly tells you to write down where your corpse is located on the map so you can loot the body with your new character. Having died quickly yesterday, he decided to go in the front door. He was promptly hit by a falling portcullis. Then he dodged falling stones. Then he was killed by a magic arrow trap. I read ahead with him to see what would have happened if he had made it through the arrow -- and it would have immediately been followed by at least 3 more death traps, including being doused in molten lead. I don't think I remembered quite how...Gygaxian...these early modules were compared to today. I'm not sure having him cut his teeth on Tomb of Horrors would have had a different result.
After dying rather quickly for a second time, we decided to read ahead to the end to see the prize. Spoiler alert...if such a thing applies to a module released 34 freaking years ago (OMG, I'm old)...the ghost of the wizard who owned the castle basically pulls a, "the real treasure was inside you all along," Aesop, like a cheesy cartoon. Trigger an 8-year-old eye roll. I then read him some of the better bits from Tomb of Horrors just to give him some perspective.
Is there a better introductory module for Basic D&D that can be done with a small number of characters (1-4) and that isn't as lethal as the Normandy landing in Saving Private Ryan?