Best 1st level adventure out there

[johnsemlak]

FYI, we are preparing Death in Freeport Revised for release over the next couple of weeks. It's been out of print for over two years now, so we've 3.5 updated it and will be releasing it as a PDF soon. Terror and Madness will follow and we'll likely do a combined and expanded print version next year.

Another 1st level adventure for Freeport recently appeared in Dungeon Magazine (issue #107). It's called Dead Man's Quest and it was written by Graeme Davis. You can play it as a prequel to the Freeport Trilogy or as a stand alone intro to the setting.

Wow, that sounds cool. I'll definitely look into those. Anything more precise on the release dates?

I haven't heard of this. Has this been announced on your site?

 

[Belegbeth]

I agree with many of recommendations made so far, but would like to add "The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho" by Michael Mearls, from Goodman Games. While advertised as a "dungeon crawl," it has some really nice twists in it, and can be inserted into pretty much any DnD campaign. Also, it is probably the only first level adventure I know of that succeeds in including an edgy "Cthulhu mythos" feel.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

I'm having great experiences right now, DMing the Witchfire trilogy. That is a truly great set of modules. But if you are going to consider them, rmember they won't be as good unless you play through the entire trilogy (staring at level 1 ending at 7 or 8) and that the setting is a bit diferent from standard DnD. Check out Iron Kingdoms Website and Privateer Press Homepage for lots of info!

 

[Pramas]

Wow, that sounds cool. I'll definitely look into those. Anything more precise on the release dates?

I haven't heard of this. Has this been announced on your site?

Getting the print books done takes precedence, so the PDFs happen when we have the time. Thus, no firm release date. Death in Freeport Revised is nearly done, so hopefully that'll be available within a couple of weeks. Dead Man's Quest was in Dungeon 107 and that came out two months ago.

 

[Kershek]

FYI, we are preparing Death in Freeport Revised for release over the next couple of weeks. It's been out of print for over two years now, so we've 3.5 updated it and will be releasing it as a PDF soon. Terror and Madness will follow and we'll likely do a combined and expanded print version next year.

Another 1st level adventure for Freeport recently appeared in Dungeon Magazine (issue #107). It's called Dead Man's Quest and it was written by Graeme Davis. You can play it as a prequel to the Freeport Trilogy or as a stand alone intro to the setting.

I have to say that is excellent news. Thank you!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Maiden Voyage, Penumbra (Atlas Games).

 

[SSquirrel]

Dungeon Magazine #4 Trouble at Grog's

B1 In Search of the Unknown
B2 Keep on the Borderlands
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess
B4 Lost City
B5.....

Yeah Keep on the Borderlands was what I was gonna say. That was the first adventure someone gave me. Never ran it but I know I was run through it at least once and dug reading it.

I don't know crap about what is out there for adventures besides Necromancer stuff. Course, an old housemate does maps for em sometimes so I got freebies heh.

Hagen

 

[Klaus]

NeMoren's Vault does give the chance to the PCs to come out with some hefty monetary reward, but Quest for Amelia, the free-PDF-sequel to NMV offers a way to keep the PCs from getting too much money.

Also, NMV and QfA are unique in that the greatest reward they offer is renown. A group that successfully completes both adventures will have some political status in the area (which can be the perfect hook for The Silver Summoning, which ends with a very Helm's Deep-ish sequence). And of course, from there you can throw in Himrak War Party, which showcases the uruk-hai-ish Himrak very nicely.

 

[PaulGreystoke]

One of my favorite low-level adventures is a 1st edition module called Cult of the Reptile God. It had everything! Conspiracy, intrigue, mystery, fighting, treasure, good maps, multiple locations, a variety of NPCs and a variety of things for the PCs to do.

B

N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God by Douglas Niles is indeed a classic first adventure. In fact the first 3E campaign I ran was a conversion of it. I am still using plot threads from N1 3 years later in my present Greyhawk campaign. (If the mad cleric of the Dark Reptile Cult was able to cast spells, then clearly there must have been a divine force behind the scenes granting those spells...)

Of course if you don't own the original or feel capable of converting from 1E to 3.5E, this won't be useful for you. But I have certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of this module over the 20 years that I have owned it.

 

[James Heard]

Ok, I'll cast my votes:

Under Illefarn might well be the best realized intro to the game, but it's probably a little bit difficult to translate into the new ruleset compared to

Keep on the Borderlands, which is at heart a simple prop to dungeon crawl a bit and completely harmless to toss in just about anything including the kitchen sink at the basic core idea. Plus it's classic and if you manage to do it well you get much kudos.

Personally though, I kind of like Treasure Hunt (N4) for being open ended and having cool ideas for a really unique beginning of a campaign. Plus the bad guys are humanoids, so you can scale it without much difficulty.