1st level Adventures...I hate 'em, and I need 'em!

[VirgilCaine]

I could use some help here.

I don't like running first level adventures. The PCs have too little equipment, too little hitpoints, etc. to make sense to run out and dungeon crawl. Half naked goblins withs stone daggers can challenge them.

Besides killing osquips (No, they aren't homebrew or from any WotC or 3rd party book, check the Creature Catalog right here on Enworld) and jermlaines (got my IC briefing all ready for these little guys), and fighting a drunk black bear, seeing through the gnome con man...

...what do you have first level characters do?

[I'd prefer ideas that can be done in a temperate, forested, coastal, rural area with a small village nearby and a few small streams perforating the area.
But I'll take anything really, for other scenarios.]

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Well, basically, anything that doesn't revolve around combat, ie:
- puzzle solving
- investigative work
- role-playing adventures (ie they are confronted by a creature much stronger than them, but they can resolve their differences by communicating)

Also, there are some really low-CR creatures out there, namely vermin.

1st-level adventures are fun, because there is little chance that your whole adventure is spoiled / accomplished with a few spells and high rolls.

AR

 

[SuperFlyTNT]

Have you checked out the free adventures at wizards.com? They have a pretty decent adventure for first lvl charecters, one with a mine full of kobolds and some orc who is poisoning a well in the town. My pc's had a lot of fun running it and so did I.

 

[Abstraction]

I suggest doing the murder mystery thing. Big warning, though, make each clue lead very clearly to the next clue. Do not count on the players being clever and figuring things out. This is one of the few kinds of games that it is okay to lead the players by the nose. One, because they are low level and this ensures that you keep them alive to second. Two, they will not notice they are being led around because they are spending so much time wondering what all the clues add up to. Just like in a mystery novel, really.

 

[shilsen]

If you dislike 1st lvl adventuring that much, why not just start the PCs at a higher level? Or have you already started them at lvl1?

 

[IronWolf]

Have you checked out the free adventures at wizards.com? They have a pretty decent adventure for first lvl charecters, one with a mine full of kobolds and some orc who is poisoning a well in the town. My pc's had a lot of fun running it and so did I.

Burning Plague. Good adventure. If you play the kobolds up though the party may still need (i.e. probably will need) to head back to town for rest and healing.

 

[diaglo]

Dungeon #4 Trouble at Grog's

edit: or Dungeon #3 Falcon's Peak

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

First level adventures are tricky, for all the reasons you mention. However, you have a big advantage over anyone designing a professional adventure -- you know what PCs you're dealing with. Especially at 1st level, exactly what abilities a group has can be very strongly influenced by what mix of races and classes you have, and what skills those characters have taken.

For example, if your group has a character with the track feat, you can easily run a lost-child-in-the-woods scenario. The dangers faced don't need to be much more than weather and tough terrain, though throwing in some very low CR foes can spice things up (Tiny or Small monstrous vermin, Tiny snakes, rats, wild dogs, and so on).

A group with some characters that have maximized a few physical skills (Climb, Tumble) might enjoy being involved in a county fair. This can be a good way to introduce a potential town to act as their base of operations, and can include anything from archery contests to poetry reads, foot races, caber tosses and cook-offs (if anyone has a Craft or Profession, let them use it). One of the nice things here is that you can have high DC, low-risk tasks (the Climb check might be 20, but anyone who fails just falls into hay bales for 1d4 nonlethal damage).

A group with a barbarian or druid (or similarly themed character) might be sent on a spirit-quest. The point is not to defeat something, but to go find a totem (Spot and Survival checks abound). Like the boy lost in the woods, this can be short and quick, allowing PCs to get used to survival in the wilds with little serious risk.

A fighting-heavy group could get involved in a tavern fight. Make it clear it's a nonlethgal event, with chair breaking and fists rather than blades. Thus even if the PCs lose, they just wake up with a headache rather than dead. (Barefisted boxing and wrestling can be addd to the earlier country fair, too).

Anyone who works for someone (such as a cleric working for a church) could be sent to deliver something, only to be jumped on the road by 1st level npcs. A commoner with a club isn't much threat for 1st level heroic characters. This can be a great way to introduce multiple-foe tactics (of course so are kobolds).

A character with a high Str (or one who can get a hgh Str) might be called upon to move a rock pinning someone under a rockslide. A group wityh a cleric might be called on to deal with extremely minor undead (easy with turn, but rough on commoners). A group with a paladin can be trusted to use detect evil when faced with a possible traitor in any group -- let them find the bad guy. If running a murder mystery and a PC is a rogue, have the murder weapon be a DC 21 trap. The rogue can take 20 when Searching and find it, but no one else can (including higher level non-rogue NPCs -- and if the trap is already discharged its safe to find it by takling 20).

Figure out what the PCs -can- do, and make that the crux of their first few adventures.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[cybertalus]

Goblins. Their CR is a measly 1/4, so a 1st level party should be able to take out a patrol of 2 or 3 of them okay. Tack on a level in a PC class and you've got your boss NPC.

Why are the goblins a problem? They're hungry and people, while not tasting great, taste better than starvation. Why are they hungry? Because something very much bigger and meaner than them stole all their food.

Possible solutions:

1. Kill all the goblins.
2. Give the goblins some fish.
3. Teach the goblins to fish.
4. Convince the big meanie to quit stealing the goblins' food. For possible methods of doing this, see items 1, 2, and 3 above and 6 and 7 below, substituting "big meanie" for "goblins".
5. Convince the townsfolk to move somewhere else where their neighbors don't include hungry goblins.
6. Convince the local 20th level wizard to make rings of sustenance for all the goblins.
7. Convince the local 20th level cleric to cast create food and water a bunch of times every day from now on forever for the goblins.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Just a few 1st-level adventures from Dungeon that sprung into my head that can be played nicely and won't kill your group if they're not trying to be killed:

- The Murder of Maury Miller
- Dovedale
- Clarshh's Sepulchre
- Evil Unearthed
- Thirds of Purloined Vellum

I'm sorry that I can't supply the issue numbers, but I'm running from memory right now. But they all are pretty nice on their own, or even one after the other. The first 3 were created for AD&D 2E, but that shouldn't be much of a problem to convert.