Best 1st level adventure out there

[morbiczer]

Dead of Winter

My favourite module of all times is called Dead of Winter. It was on the CD that came with my 3.0 PHB, together with a demo for the CharGen program.

I liked this module so much, I built my whole campaign world around it.

Dead of Winter was designed for 2nd level characters but could easily be adapted to 1st level ones.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well I liked both the Burning Plague and Sunless Citadel at least as a DM. I tied them together and my players had a good time.

I am getting ready to start a new campaign and I am thinking of either using Crucible of Freya to start or possibly Lost City of Barakus. Not sure yet as I have not read these two.

 

[Gray Mouser]

The Keep on the Borderlands, bar none!

Gray Mouser

 

[Treebore]

Nemorans vault does not give out 100's of 1,000's of gold pieces, unless maybe you count the rune sword. Otherwise, the main treasure is completely sealed off and inaccessible to such a low level party. Besides, they wouldn't even find it unless the DM holds their hand and leads them to it.

The runesword won't be found without some help either. Plus you can just say no one meets the requirements for getting it (ie not of the proper blood/alignment/class/whatever).

It is a fun module, needs a bit of cleaning up by a DM, and is frequently available on eBay.

My players actually preferred Nemorans Vault over Crucible because they liked the mind challenges in Nemoren more than the combat of Crucible.

I preferred Crucible because I don't like all the mapping you need to do to make NeMoren's Vault work best and there were many more role-playing opportunities.


Crucible or Barakus? Both, like I did. Start with Crucible (the area) being to the North on the Barakus map, have Trader's way head to Reme, which would pass Fairhill, or put it to the South, whichever directions work best for you. Start with Crucible, actually Wizards Amulet, the free download, and have the party work their way from Reme to Fairhill to Endhome.

 

[~Johnny~]

Best 3.5 Adventure?

Are any of these adventures 3.5?

I'm a new DM (having PCed for years), and I'm looking for a well-regarded 1st-level adventure that's compatible with 3.5 rules. It doesn't need to be awesome in terms of plot, because I'll likely revamp it like crazy, but I would like something that would be a balanced challenge for 1st-level adventurers made using the point-buy method.

 

[Mark]

Are any of these adventures 3.5?

I'm a new DM (having PCed for years), and I'm looking for a well-regarded 1st-level adventure that's compatible with 3.5 rules. It doesn't need to be awesome in terms of plot, because I'll likely revamp it like crazy, but I would like something that would be a balanced challenge for 1st-level adventurers made using the point-buy method.

Questus - The Whispering Woodwind has been updated to the most recent rules. You'll find it to be more than enough material than you will need for a single adventure. I've heard of it run successfully at half a dozen different EN World Gamedays as a tournament one-shot adventure, and also know that it has been built into campaigns where all of the material was used over several sessions (as the beginning adventure for five or six first level PCs through advancement to 3rd-level).

The middle six pages of the adventure can be separated and used as a random encounter for almost any level of play. It depicts the encampment of a nomadic tribal people called the Trundlefolk. There is an additional, smaller PDF called a "Culture Class" included in the zip file with the adventure that outlines how to construct your own additional Trundlefolk tribes if you so desire.

I have no doubt that you'll find Questus - The Whispering Woodwind to be more than enough material for a single adventure, highly modular if that is the goal, and very in-depth if run as is. I've included copious notes in the sidebars of the PDF to assist in integrating the materials into any medieval/fantasy environment.

Would you be working it into a homebrew world? If so, please feel free to drop me a line or tell us about it here. I'm happy to make suggestions on how that will best be achieved (and I'm sure others will be as well).

And, btw, welcome to the boards!

 

[Morpheus]

I've never before felt the need to put someone on the ignore list who wasn't specifically being an ass.

But the humor value has long since worn off, and you never seem to have anything else to say. Nightfall's kinda in the same boat. It's certainly not a personal thing, I'd just rather save myself the trouble of reading essentially the same post content over and over and over.

FWIW, Keep on the Borderlands STILL remains the best intro module.

Wulf

Oh man! Well said...

 

[morrolan]

I'll add a vote for Death in Freeport. Less of a dungeon crawl, and a bit more role-play-ey if that matters.

 

[~Johnny~]

Questus - The Whispering Woodwind has been updated to the most recent rules. You'll find it to be more than enough material than you will need for a single adventure. I've heard of it run successfully at half a dozen different EN World Gamedays as a tournament one-shot adventure, and also know that it has been built into campaigns where all of the material was used over several sessions (as the beginning adventure for five or six first level PCs through advancement to 3rd-level).

All right, you've sold me. I'll download it sometime this weekend!

 

[d4]

That's interesting. My experience was the opposite.

I ran Sunless Citadel the first time I ever DMed, and I thought it was lethal. Half my players were newbies, the other half experienced, but I avoided several TPKs only by fudging.

Crucible of Freya I ran maybe two months later, with most of the same players. It was much more fun for everyone, and not quite as deadly.

interesting.

Sunless Citadel was my first time DMing 3e and we had great fun. i even overpowered some of the combats (gave a few more class levels to some NPCs, switched out all the bugbears for ogres, and i made the "Dragon Priest" a real one: a half-dragon elf cleric/fighter) and never had any problems with my group (also half-newbie, half-experienced). didn't need to fudge and we didn't get anywhere near a TPK.

the time i played through Citadel was with 3 PCs, and we didn't have any problems either.

when i played through Crucible, we had at least one fatality that i can remember, and there were at least three or four times that we came within the DM's fudging of a TPK. that group was 3/4 very experienced players (been roleplaying at least 15 years) and 1/4 newbies.