After being gone for two years I return, on my knees, for aid for tonights adventure.

[RagingGoblin]

A few of you may remember me from days gone by when I used to frequent these boards. I stopped when I moved and everything radically changed for me. One was I stopped playing D&D becuase I somehow managed to fall in with the jocks and skater punks. I'm openly a nerd (I drag my friends to Pandemounum in Harvard whenever cool new books come out and I rarely go a day without qouting a comic of some sort). But that hardly what this post is about.
A week ago I was told by my loving Doctor that I have mono, the kissing diases. So, I haven't been in school since then. My freinds have been visiting everyday, so I haven't been too bored, but today I get to leave my house for the first time with my freinds. I can only leave for two hours (Doctors orders) and then I can bring them over to my house. When thinking of what we could do at my house I jokingly suggested that we all play D&D... little did I know they all jumped at the idea.
So now I'm met with a dilema. The crowd that I plan on DMing for (at least four kids, but maybe as many as nine if the girls plan on coming) and they're all really diffrent. None of them are intellectuals nor have any really read any fantasy literature. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance... and it's good to be home.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

do you have access to Dungeons and Dragons Adventures, RagingGoblin? (it's 3e D&D light)

if not, you could still 'borrow' the premise. pregenerate simplified versions of the characters. just the basics in an easy-to-read format. and do things like; don't write down the PCs alignment, just give some basic ideas about their outlooks and attitudes.

keep 'adventuring' simple. if it's a small group, a simple dungeon crawl will do. a larger group may be better suited to wilderness-type adventures (just so they're not falling over each other in a cramped dungeon corridor).

be as descriptive as possible, and reference movies and tv at will. your players may not be fantasy readers, but they've probably seen Lord of the Rings.

just a couple of thoughts

and good luck!

 

[Airwolf]

A while back Eric Noah posted a link to a great low level adventure he wrote. It was called Bane of Bain.

You should be able to download it from here:
Bane of Bain by Eric Noah

The adventure is basic but well done. If you have more than 4 characters you can make a few small mods to still challenge a large group.

Good luck and welcome back!

 

[MerakSpielman]

the Bane of Bain (better link: http://webpages.charter.net/ericnoah/noahrpg/baneofbain.htm ) seems to be written in 2nd ed stats...

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Keep it simple, the D&D adventures box is a good start if you have it, you could also look into the Sunless citadel, as an into adventure it's pretty.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Welcome back Raging Goblin mate!

Good luck with the game!

 

[der_kluge]

Easy -

Explain to them that you are going to run a completely cliche game, and that it by no means represents the normal D&D game, or the kind of game people might play from week to week. Talk to them about what kind of character they want to play, and then make a character utilizing the class that they suggested (don't multi-class anything) and stick to the core classes (no Druids, or Monks, for example) for simplicity.
Make the characters for them - at about 18th level.

Send the PCs on a quest to rescue the king's daughter from a fierce dragon. Start the adventure off with the King speaking to the party and explaining that his daughter was kidnapped by a dragon who plans to eat her unless the king gives the dragon a million gold coins (the dragon wants a new bed to sleep on). So, the king has enlisted the aid of the lands' finest to slay the dragon.

Along the way, have them meet some traveling merchant who relays a stort of witnessing the dragon, and how the dragon raided their town, and took some prized possession from their village. "My village would be forever grateful if you could return our relic to us."

The party makes their way into the mountains to find the dragon, and eventually they do.

You could even throw in some plot twists if you want to.
Perhaps the dragon is dating the princess, and the king doesn't want that, so wants the dragon slain. Maybe it's a good dragon? Maybe the king himself is a dragon, and seeks to eliminate an old rival - a good dragon? Probably a bit far-fetched, but it could happen.
Maybe it is just as it appears - the dragon is evil, and wants to eat the princess. So, an epic battle begins and the Pcs slay the dragon!

You could include a few wandering monsters like Giants in the mountains - up the CR a bit so that they pose a challenge to a group of 18th level PCs.

In any case - the PCs should be powerful - everyone likes being powerful. You want to avoid having to say to your players "I'm sorry - you can't annihilate him, you're only 1st level". People like power, and the more they have, the more fun they will have. The players should definitely win, but it should be a struggle. You want them saying things like "Can you believe I sliced that dragon's neck open with only 5 hit points left! Man, that was awesome!"

In any case, good luck with it, and by all means, let us know how it turns out.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I agree with die_kluge about simplicity - but I don't see 18th level characters being simple to play - too many special abilities!

So I would use his plot with the following modifications:

Start the players at 1st level (or no higher than 3rd)

Have the princess be kidnapped by an Ogre.

have the wandering monsters be zombies.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

No offense to die-kluge, but I agree with Merak in that I think 18th level might be a bit much. But, on the other hand 1st is probably too little. You want these guys to feel powerful, without overburdening new players with all the complications of really high level characters. 3rd-5th maybe?

I believe you said this is a skater/jock crowd, right? I think you'll capture their imagination best with flash, speed, and power. Go with a cinematic action movie, Westernized-kung-fu movie approach. Give them large groups of easily slain baddies, and make them describe their actions. If they get into describing things, go easy on the rules in the realm of letting them pull off really neat moves. A "boss" character at the end should also have some really flash moves that will make the players respond in kind without getting over-powered.

I think you're going to find among skaters that they want lots of wizards or high dexterity ginzu guys, but that may be a stereotype...

 

[Aaron L]

A lot of the skater punks I know play D&D. I'd agree that the way to go would be dazzle them with cool visuals and explosions. The deep stuff comes later, when you've already realized how cool the rest is.