Dungeons

[Soulbp]

I've been away for sometime now, and I have some interest in starting a game. However, I need some advice, all my players will be new, I do not have a lot of free time. So, I was wanting to run a dungeon, for either 3rd ed or 4th if neccisary (though I currently own no 4th ed material). I'm looking for the best prebuilt dungeon. I do not want to use the World's Largest, I do own it but it has a lot of issues I don't want to deal with, i.e like the first level is extremely boring and needed tons of reworking.

I'd appreciate any and all suggestions.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Lost City of Barakus is a good, solid, and meaty 1-3 adventure, with a big dungeon, a city, wilderness encounters, side treks, & small lairs. It is 3e. A lot of play is packed into it, so that you could run a campaign for months without doing any work at all, depending upon how fast your players are at getting things done!


RC

 

[Mark]

The Cooperative Dungeon Collection (01 - 04) is a free download available through the EN World interface of the RPGNow.com eStore. The adventures in the collection were created here on EN World by gamers just like yourself. Cooperative Dungeon 04 - Tomb of Chaos is a 3rd-level adventure that explores a quasi-Egyptian tomb. Cooperative Dungeon 03 - Crypt of Damnation is a 5th-level adventure, a classic dungeon crawl through an extensive crypt. Both are meant to be played in two or three four hour sessions and have enough encounters and experience available to raise PCs up one or two levels, depending on their thoroughness. they were written for 3.5E but could but adjusted for most RPGs or editions.

 

[GlassJaw]

Barakus and Vault of Larrin Karr are both good.

Rappan Athuk is also pretty sweet.

 

[OchreJelly]

I'll offer the 4E suggestion. There's the free DND test drive for download. It has premade characters and quick-start rules.

 

[Wicht]

Try Paizo's Crypt of the Everflame for a nice adventure for new players featuring a standard dungeon. Or take a gander at the 3e Goodman game modules - they almost all feature dungeons for a variety of levels.

 

[Mark]

There are other free download options available here -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/154448-free-adventure-path.html

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Barakus and Vault of Larrin Karr are both good.

Rappan Athuk is also pretty sweet.

Any of the above. Also Tomb of Abysthor.

 

[Soulbp]

Thank you everyone. The lost city, and Rappan Athuk look pretty good. Finding Rappan Athuk Reloaded seems impossible, but the individuals seem to be about. If anybody has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them, but I think I'll start looking into the proes and cons of these two. Thanks again!

 

[Celebrim]

Since you are looking for pro's and con's, let me say that I'm not a big fan of 'Rappan Athuk'.

Con's
1) It's designed to be a pure 'campaign in a dungeon', which is not in my opinion a good introduction for new players because it's not diverse enough. Not every player really loves dungeon crawls. You may luck into a group that that is all they want to do and it might serve you well, but if you don't, then its setting your campaign up to fail.
2) It's a meat grinder. Expect a very high body count from new players.
3) It's more 'old school' than the 'old school' modules really were. It's got plenty of 1st edition feel, but very little else going for it IMO. It's pure combat, usually with highly advanced and customized NPC's, often in lethal environments. As an example of NPC design using the 3rd edition rules, it's pretty sweet, but as an example of dungeon design I found it pretty terrible.

I think you are better off with 'Lost City of Barakis'. It's a more varied introduction to the game, is less brutal, and it will give you time to get to know your players before forcing them into a major quest. You can run some sidetreks, or even sidetrek the entire campaign, and then come back to the major plot line when you want it (advancing the big baddies as needed).