Cheap 1st level adventure?

[CiH]

I was trying to find a cheap entry point into D&D using some Essentials, but I finally realized WotC's idea of cheap isn't the same as mine.

So I gave up and bought HotFL, Monster Vault, and just tonight, the DM's Kit. I have all the rules plus adventures for level 2 - 5.

This gives us enough to drink a deep draught of D&D, except for one thing: a level 1 adventure.

Is there any decent adventure out there for level 1 that I can get for less than US$13, which is what the Slaying Stone module costs?

 

[Daern]

well, on the d&d site they have Kyber's Harvest (2nd level) and Keep on the Shadowfell. You could use the first few wildnerness encounters from KOTS before getting into the DMkit module. If you dig around the you can find the first couple PDF issues of Dungeon as well...

 

[OnlineDM]

There are FREE adventures out there!

Keep on the Shadowfell is one, of course. It's okay, and you can find lots of folks online who have improved upon it.

If you subscribe to EN World for $3 per month (and you can do just one month if you want to just try it out), you can download the War of the Burning Sky adventure path, which starts at level 1.

If you subscribe to D&D Insider (I'm not sure how much a one-month subscription costs), you can have access to all of the adventures from Dungeon Magazine. I know that there are first-level adventures in the Chaos Scar that you can get, and probably others as well.

If you have any friends who have run Living Forgotten Realms adventures, they might be able to lend one to you.

And I know that there are people out there with blogs and web sites who have probably put their own work online for free.

Welcome to EN World!

 

[DEFCON 1]

Dungeonmastering.com has a list of 83 free adventures. Some are 4E... many of them are 3.5 or earlier. You'll find several level 1s and 2s there... and since you have Monster Vault, you probably could adapt some of the non-4E adventures to 4E if you so chose to go that route (if the actual 4E modules did not float your boat.)

 

[Kralin Thornberry]

Goodman games put out Mists of Madness Dungeon Crawl Classics, and I picked it up for $2.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

I was trying to find a cheap entry point into D&D using some Essentials, but I finally realized WotC's idea of cheap isn't the same as mine.

So I gave up and bought HotFL, Monster Vault, and just tonight, the DM's Kit. I have all the rules plus adventures for level 2 - 5.

This gives us enough to drink a deep draught of D&D, except for one thing: a level 1 adventure.

Is there any decent adventure out there for level 1 that I can get for less than US$13, which is what the Slaying Stone module costs?

CiH,
The good news is that the adventure from the DM Kit requires no significant backstory, so for your "level one" adventure you could cobble together a few encounters that do two simple things: Bring the party together and place them in the Nentir Vale heading toward Harkenwold.

When I say "a few", I mean just that. Rather than plan on 8 - 10 encounters to take them from level 1 (0XP) to 2, why not start them with 500 XP and throw three or four encounters at them set in the Nentir Vale. And if they start Reavers a little shy of level two, merely remove 1 or 2 monsters from the first encounter.

So here is a quick idea:

Check out: Sarah Darkmagic

You can filter on "4E" and "Download". Select the "Lumber Mill Delve" and place it in a location along the White River as the new band of adventurers make their way from Hammerfast where they met one another, to Harkenwold - where rumours have cropped up that unrest is brewing.

Thoughts?

 

[MatthewJHanson]

One way you can save on adventures is by buying them as .pdfs. For example check out 4e adventures at RPG Now.

(My company, has one such adventure called Blessed by Poison)

 

[cavalier973]

One of the ways 4e is supposed to make it easier for the DM is how battle encounters are created; mulitply the number of characters in the party by their experience level (at level 1, that's 100 XP for each party member). Then find a monster or group of monsters that match that level of XP. 8 to 10 encounters are supposed to give the characters enough XP to level up. Of course, as someone else has mentioned, you may want to halve the number of encounters to speed things up.

 

[CiH]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, but I had a forehead slapping moment as I was investigating these ideas. I need to have those gorgeous table top battle maps as part of the adventure, so I broke down and hit the game store yesterday to pick up HS1.

Thing is, I'll be GMing for 3 newbies, one of them a 14-year old and the other plays Dragon Age on the Xbox, so the eye-candy factor is crucial.

Later on, maybe I'll grab a few more Fantastic Location maps or similar products so I can run adventures published online by subbing in these other maps. Or I'll beef up my cache of Dungeon Tiles or something.

Thank you so much for replying, but don't let my response stop other suggestions. Other folks may see this thread and need it, use it.

 

[Cyronax]

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (used on ebay or Amazon?) has a serviceable track for adventures as well. It looks fun. It needs some DM customization and complexity added to it, but its all part of a complete world book.