1st Edition adventures with small parties

[Halivar]

I'm still very much a newbie at DM'ing 1st Edition AD&D, and need some advice. I'm keen on running the Slaver series (A1-A4), which recommends 6-8 players of level 4-7. However, I don't have that many players (more like 3, or 4 at the most), and managing multiple characters seems to be a pain for them.

Are there any time-tested tricks to running a smaller-sized party through published adventures?

 

[was]

hire additional muscle...npc guards etc.

 

[kitcik]

That just shifts the burden during play.

Having higher level PCs doesn't work either.

I suggest scaling back the amount of bad guys - particularly if you are running slave modules to giant modules, a lot of the bad guys' mojo is due to strength in numbers. Scale em back a bit and it should work.

One higher level, pacifist cleric NPC could work also without being too much trouble.

 

[Crothian]

I've always run 1e with just 3-5 players and never had any issues with the modules.

 

[trancejeremy]

Tournament modules, like the A series, can be a little tough if you have less characters. Or for new players, since they were meant to be something of a challenge. A2 in particular is pretty hard.

So yeah, I would cut down on the opponents somewhat as well as play them dumber. Again, in A2 where you were assaulting a stronghold, the enemy would be reactive to what the PCs do, especially if they alert the place - guards on alert, patrols, ambushes, etc. You should probably tone that aspect down.

 

[the Jester]

There's a reason old-school gaming has all those rules for henchmen.

 

[frankthedm]

There's a reason old-school gaming has all those rules for henchmen.

Exactly. Small party? Hire more people.

 

[Halivar]

There's a reason old-school gaming has all those rules for henchmen.

I found a henchman crib sheet on Dragonsfoot that may do the job nicely. It leaves off weapon damage and to-hit bonuses. Will those be necessary? I have never run henchmen before, and I don't think my players expected to ever use those rules. In 3rd edition, I remember only taking the Leadership feat for the cohort, so I habitually glossed over henchmen.

Thank you for the advice, I will be looking into this.

 

[the Jester]

Most henchmen will be 0-level fighters and the pcs may have to equip them, at least by RAW (IIRC).

They aren't going to have much in the way of attack bonuses- you're using attack matrices, right? Damage should be by weapon. So the pcs could hire a bunch of dudes and equip them with sling, leather armor, shortsword and bullets for a dozen gp or less.

 

[Endur]

NPCs, hirelings, and henchmen.

I think there is a role for these, especially in an 1e game.

The problem is you want to avoid getting in a situation where the fight is NPC good guys vs. NPC bad guys with the PCs being bystanders.

So for example, if none of the PCs can pick locks or detect traps, I would avoid sending the PCs into a dungeon full of locks and traps and have an NPC do all of the work.

I once had a party that consisted of a druid and two rogues. Lots of skills, but the heaviest armor was leather. It meant I had to be careful of combats. And first level druid spells are feast or famine, great for ourdoors, but not very useful in a dungeon.

My recommendation is to keep the number of good NPCs small, maybe one (or at most two NPCs) accompany the party into a dungeon at a time.

My personal favorite solution to the problem of having fewer PCs is to let the PCs be slightly higher (+1 or +2 levels) than the dungeon recommends. Is this a perfect solution? No. But it is relatively straight forward. And it keeps the focus off NPCs and on the PCs. If the PCs are existing characters, than the extra exp for each fight might also level them faster so they'll gain additional levels even if they aren't higher in the beginning.

The more complicated issue is the issue of party balance. The party should have rogue/arcane/divine capabilitiies. Having melee capabilities is also helpful. If you only have 3 or 4 characters, you may be missing one or more of the important capabilities (such as my druid + 2 rogues example above).

The other good part of hirelings and henchmen is you can demonstrate cool monster abilities through the classic "He's dead, Jim" approach.