Adventures

[sigfile]

My question is, is there a good place to go for adventures made by other people?

The Living Forgotten Realms site has piles of downloadable adventures. Enjoy!

 

[ShinkenViolet]

[MENTION=64646]sigfile[/MENTION]: Awesome. Thank you for that. =D

[MENTION=77624]SparqMan[/MENTION]: Next time I'm at my friend's who has the DMG for 4e, I'll ask him if I can borrow it for this. I'm sure he won't mind, because he's been wanting to play in a 4e game lately.

[MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION] and moxcamel: I'd do the member thing, but unfortunately, I'm completely broke right now, which is why I'd have to borrow the DMG from a friend. >.< I will do the soliciting ideas from the players thing though. Thank you for the suggestion. =)

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

If you just started, you might only be using the Essentials stuff.

I recommend you take a look at the 4E Dungeon Master's Guide I & II.

There are lots of great tips in there. In fact, many consider those two books to be the best "How to run a table-top RPG" books ever.

Also, read David Mamet's memo to the writers of the TV show "The Unit".
David Mamet's Master Class Memo to the Writers of The Unit | Movieline

QUESTION:WHAT IS DRAMA? DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME THOSE THINGS WHICH PREVENT HIM FROM ACHIEVING A SPECIFIC, ACUTE GOAL.

SO: WE, THE WRITERS, MUST ASK OURSELVES OF EVERY SCENE THESE THREE QUESTIONS.

1) WHO WANTS WHAT?
2) WHAT HAPPENS IF HER DON’T GET IT?
3) WHY NOW?

Read the whole thing.

Then find resources--some great ones have already been suggested in this thread--of goals (a.k.a. hooks, Macguffins) and obstructions keeping the heroes from their goals (a.k.a. encounters).

Remember that encounters do not have to be all, or even mostly, combat.

There's 30 years of wisdom and tools accumulated, and many, many free or cheap ones, to help you out.

 

[ShinkenViolet]

I'm just starting myself, but as a group, we've had 4e stuff since launch. We have a couple of PHBs, at least one DMG, Monster Manual 1 and 2, Adventurer's Vault 1 and 2, I think we have Martial Power 1, I know we have 2. We also have the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. We don't have any of the Essentials stuff because we've all been broke since a little while before those started coming out.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Another way to get less expensive adventures is to purchase them as pdfs via stores such as RPG Now.

(My company Sneak Attack Press has a few adventures there).

 

[surfarcher]

Where can I find these "KotS reloaded" things at? And what are some of the problems it has?

I meant to include some links in my first post but ran out of time

Here are some of my favourites...

Greg Tannahill's excellent Eleven Foot Pole did some great analysis on KotS and ways to "fix" things he didn't like.

The Alexandrian did a really nice job of Remixing Keep On The Shadowfell.

On the Wizards boards Myrhdraak did a nice little conversion of the H1-H3 modules to be thematically entwined called the H1-H3: Demon Prince of Undeath Conversion.

Which is best for you? it depends on what you have planned! Browsing all of them will be rewarding and the 11 foot pole blog will be educational regardless of what you decide. On reflection I would have gone with The Alexandrian's remix if I'd known about it the one time I tried to run KotS.

Hope that helps!

 

[aco175]

I got a lot of milage out of the Dungeon Delve book. You may find a used one cheap online. Another option if you have time if the older edition bin at your FLGS. They go for a few bucks and give you the plot and maps and such. You need to edit the monsters and npc's though. another idea is the Dungeon modules they gave for free whrn 4E first came out on the Wizards site. There is maybe 20 modules of all levels.

 

[OnlineDM]

I second the suggestion of Living Forgotten Realms adventures. They're free and they're self-contained one-shots. I think they're a good idea for a DM who's just getting started. No massive background to worry about, no pressure of linking sessions together. Just pick one and run it as its own session.

After that, you can think about where you want to go with a CAMPAIGN. But if you just want an adventure to run, the free LFR modules are worth a look.

 

[JoeGKushner]

and don't forget fiery dragon's free counters for the keep

http://www.fierydragon.com/downloads/castle_shadow.pdf

 

[ffy]

Some of the info above is good for random adventures. If you're looking for a wider setting, you should carefully read through the material at the back of the DMG about Fallcrest and the surrounding areas. It gives a lot of good hooks for adventures and there is also the mini/opening adventure at Kobold Hall.

Even if you rely on lots of random adventures, you can probably find ways to work them into the Nentir Vale setting established in the DMG and expanded through a few other sourcebooks.

i recently started playing d&d (4ed), and straight off as a DM no less, with a group of people who are also completely new.
since i dont have the funds to buy lots and lots of adventures, i took a look at the nentir vale setting, then looked at the map and started imagining what kind of adventure could take place at each landmark. and then i googled like hell to find additional information on those places, and what other people had done with them.

since what made me want to get started was the awesome penny arcade d&d play podcasts (which in turn led me to the robot chicken d&d videos) i used those for inspiration a lot. as it turns out, you can gain a lot of ideas for adventures by reading other groups play-blogs or listening to podcasts. in the dm commentary for the robot chicken d&d chris perkins said that DMs are supposed to borrow ideas from every source they can, and i took it to heart.

same as the OP, in the beginning i had no idea where to get started with building adventures, but once i 'stole' some ideas from other, better DMs, it got easier and easier. now i have an adventure path/campaign laid out that will take us to around level 5, at which point im probably looking into buying some published adventure.

tl;dr - if you have no ideas for writing adventures, try to find some play log of a campaign and steal a couple of good ideas from them. the rest of the adventure will probably come pretty naturally. as long as you have some kind of setting to tie these ideas into.