Forgotten Realms Module Tips

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I may be taking over as DM in the game that i play in at my local comic shop. I'd really like to run Forgotten Realms, but i've been having a hard time finding 1st level adventures for the setting. I've read the one in the campiagn book, but i'm rersonably certain all the players have too. Beside that adventure doesn't really do much for me.

Basically I'm looking for any good 1st level module, forgotten realms if possible, that has plenty of action(some of the players are novices and get board if there isn't enough fighting)and isn't a 100 page mega-module(the game is bi-weekly and i was hoping to keep a fairly fast pace).

Any advice on choice of modules or dming forgotten realms in general(I've never DM the setting before) will be much appreciated.

 

[EricNoah]

Dungeon Magazine had one called "The Raiders of Galath's Roost."

 

[mikebr99]

Hey...
I've used "Return to The keep on the Borderlands" successfully in FR to start a campaign in the past. As well as "Temple of Elemental Evil".

The one on the Moonshea Islands (something for the King... the proper name escapes me...) where you start out in Waterdeep and are contracted to guard a shippment of weapons (by boat) on its way to the islands, and then across the land was always good. But it's a 2e version...

Or you could always start off small by getting the party hired on as caravan guards from somewhere and see where that takes them. the Zhents are always looking for rouge caravans to take over.

the 3e rules have made it much more difficult for anyone of low level to live more then one encounter... 12 orcs will now have a couple barbarians, and a warrior or fighter in their midst. But if they can live through an encounter, they'll be going up much faster then before also...

Depending on which FR timeline you are going to follow (if any), 'the s**t is going to hit the fan' somewhere, and it is always good for the party to get stuck in the middle.

 

[grodog]

One of my favorite 1e adventures was N5 Under Illefarn, which set up an entire town and surrounding adventure environment. It's fun, and shouldn't be too hard to convert to 3e. B2 Keep on the Borderlands would also serve nicely.

If you can't find them, look up Necromancer Games' Wizard's Amulet (a freebie on their web site) and Crucible of Freya, which is a sequel to WA. Good stuff, and similar to N5 and B2 in general scope: a dungeon setting surrounded by wilderness.

 

[Nightfall]

I know I'm a little biased but I think the Freeport Saga would make for a GREAT little FR campaign. It fits in easily either along the Sea of Swords or the Dragon Reach. So you have your choice of some REALLY interesting ports of call. Death in Freeport I think is STILL a great little adventure, and it's not all that difficult to make it FR in any way.

 

[Davelozzi]

The one on the Moonshea Islands (something for the King... the proper name escapes me...) where you start out in Waterdeep and are contracted to guard a shippment of weapons (by boat) on its way to the islands, and then across the land was always good. But it's a 2e version...

Yeah, I ran that. I'm pretty sure that it's called Halls of the High King or something similar.

I agree with Allan, Under Illefarn is the way to go. Great campaign starter with all the details on the town of Daggerford, a few mini adventures and then a nice romp through a well designed dwarven ruin inhabited by rival factions.

Also, the adventure that came with the 2e campaign set, Beneath the Twisted Tower, is designed as a campaign starter, although it has some really dumb (IMO) parts (like when Elminster randomly appears, trying to teach a dog to heel, but heals the party as a side effect because he happens to have a wand of curing or something. Still, I've made it a decent adventure with a little work, the dungeon is okay.

Likewise, Doom in Daggerdale is an okay starter with a little reworking, but nothing to write home about.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Even though it's 1e, N5 Under Illefarn, as several other posters have said is a great little quest. The low-level adventure in the FRCS is horrible in my opinion--my players hated it, and I hated running it. I probalby could've made it better by adding some stuff of my own, but I was in a pinch and that was what was availiable to me. A great dungeon crawl for 2e is The Shattered Circle--it could really fit into any campaign, not to mention you can get some decent campaign hooks in the adventure--The chitines on the middle level for example, not to mention then easy enterance to the Underdark--which is quite a FR-ish place to do adventuring. All of the Dungeon quests lately for FR have been pretty good as well, though I haven't really given a serious look at too many of them.

My favorite published adventure for the Realms has got to "Under the Twisted Tower," however. It was the first adventure i ever DMed, my players loved it, and I even made a sequel out of it for a special game our group had. It's the quest that's in the revised Forgotten Realms boxed set--though it really only works if you're in the Dales.

Do NOT get The Accursed Tower--unless you just want to run half of an adventure. The first half is lots of fun, and you get to meet several famous NPCs, but the second half of the module is one of the most boring dungeon crawls i've ever run!

Low level Realms adventures can be harder to come by though--once you get up to higher leves, definately check out The Ruins of Zhentil Keep--fun stuff there. While I'm mentioning boxed sets too...The City of Splendors box, detailing Waterdeep is pretty good too. If city adventures are your cup of tea, there's no better place to do it in the Realms than Waterdeep.

I'm done rambling--have fun in the Realms; here's your complimentary +1 sword!

 

[Castellan]

I've been running a Forgotten Realms campaign since last May or so, and I managed to get going in a pretty simple way. I nabbed the Cliffhanger adventure "Unearthing the Past" from the WotC website and made a few modifications. Mostly I changed the evil cleric's god to an FR equivalent.

I'm running a lot of differences to the campaign from what's in most of the sourcebooks. Namely, I began the campaign in Hill's Edge -- though it's a modified Hill's Edge that's only a village of 200-some people instead of a city of 10,000+. The players followed the basics of the Cliffhanger adventure for a few sessions, killing the orcs and one of the brothers. The other escaped and joined up with some Zhent supporters. Meanwhile the players explored the dwarven ruins set in the Sunset Peaks. I expanded the dungeons, and gave them a bit of simple non-combat-oriented magic to get them started.

I free-form play, mostly, so I went off of what my players were doing and discussing with each other. They tend to role-play a reasonable amount, and a lot of moral situations and minor party squabbles come out of it, lending me with more ideas.

Anyway, after solving (for the most part) the Cliffhanger adventure, and seeing that they still needed some time to generate a few ideas for me, I decided to use one of my favorite adventures from an old D&D supplement, AC10, Bestiary of Dragons and Giants, in which a red dragon, polymorphed into human form, takes control of a town -- in this case, Hill's Edge. Given the original level of the adventure, I was able to use this to get the players out of town for awhile so they could gain more knowledge about their enemy while gaining some levels.

They recently returned and slew the dragon and have begun reconstruction of the town.

Is some of this corny? Sure. Has it kept them occupied for 9 months? Yes.

My point is, check what you already have. You might be able to convert something to use in your game, and it could turn out to be really fun. I've gotta say that one of the most interesting things in my game is that I've had a player with a priest of Tyr who just happens to be racist (in this case, against elves -- "They have no respect for the Law!"). It's made for some hilarious role-playing, and some really tough situations. Most notably, the recent meeting between the player's character and an elf who also happens to be a priest of Tyr.

I've been very happy with the simple conversions of some "one-session" type games into something that's lasted for the better part of a year. Now, I'm looking for something new along these same lines to throw at them, and I'm pretty sure something will come up soon!

Good luck! I hope this helps!

 

[Eclipsic]

I have no advice for the starter module part of your question, but I'll give you the best adviuce I ever heard, which is that the players make the game. I always have 3 or 4 plots on the back burner, little threads that haven't been resolved, but have been introduced, so that if my players decide to do something, then get bored, or realize they might be a little underpowered, or just want to do some role-playing instead of crawling, or intrigue instead of mayhem, I still always have something for them to do. As far as preparation goes, have NPC's and plotlines mapped out, but you can really drop them in anywhere or when you please...even tacking a few extra levels onto an NPC you created a year ago is easier than searching around for an appropriately-leveled module...

 

[Davelozzi]

My favorite published adventure for the Realms has got to "Under the Twisted Tower," however. It was the first adventure i ever DMed, my players loved it, and I even made a sequel out of it for a special game our group had. It's the quest that's in the revised Forgotten Realms boxed set--though it really only works if you're in the Dales.

Actually, it's quite easy to move it from the Dales to another location, since it's pretty much just the dungeon anyway. I ran it in my Tethyr campaign as "Under Ithal Pass" and set it beneath the abandoned manor house of a baron that fled (or was killed) during the ten black days.