I've never played Dungeons & Dragons before

[AshremBayle@Home]

A really great module for newcomers (it was designed for this purpose) is the Sunless Citadel. You can find it wherever you got your other books for about $10.

 

[Ed Cha]

Free adventures are great.... because they are free!

Honestly, I have yet to see a free adventure besides perhaps "The Wizard's Amulet" by Necromancer Games that comes even close to the quality of published one. If you are looking for a decent free adventure, I'd recommend that one.

BUT if you are looking to step up to something better, then I'd recommend actually paying for one. There are a lot of great published adventures out there and EN World has most of them listed in the Product Guide/Reviews section. I highly encourage people to help support published adventures, if you want to see them continue to be produced.

If I may, I'd like to propose my own book, an adventure setting called "World of Whitethorn 1A: The Hamlet of Thumble". It includes a short adventure, a highly detailed setting (58 NPCs with full stats), and lots of extras like 3 new core classes, 60 new spells, 12 new magic items, 2 new monsters, etc.

 

[Mercule]

A really great module for newcomers (it was designed for this purpose) is the Sunless Citadel. You can find it wherever you got your other books for about $10.

I'll agree with this one. "Sunless Citadel" was my group's "return" to D&D when 3rd Edition came out. There are a couple of logical flaws in it, but they are at the level of "where do the goblins get water?" and easily ignored.

As far as age goes, I'm 30 and have been gaming for a little over 20 years (not entirely D&D, but that's what I started with). My group consists of three guys (including me) and three gals. Our ages are 27 to 33. The range of experience is from my two decades to one gal's two months.

My advice to newbies: There are lots of folk (I'm one of them) who try to turn roleplaying into a craft and can be a bit... um... passionate. Yeah, that's a good word. Pretentious could work, too. Don't take what people say too seriously. There is no "best way" to play. If everyone at the table is having fun, you're doing just peachy.

Pretty much everyone goes through phases in gaming. Most (but not all) start out by just wanting to beat the snot out of things. My first 3-4 years of gaming was composed mostly of plots and characters that make He-Man look like Shakespear. Some people move into trying to develop deep, compelling characters like you find in really good novels or movies. Others try to build a world that is detailed and "realistic".

There are lots of different tastes in the game. If you run across an idea that appeals to you, run with it. If someone sounds like a nut-job, feel free to ignore him (or argue, if so inclined).

Either way, poke around these boards and ask some questions. So far as I'm aware, ENWorld has the friendliest game-oriented boards of anywhere on-line. In fact, I'd say they're probably friendlier than some professional-oriented boards I've been on.

 

[zenld]

Welcome. You have just begun a journey with more twists and turns then a drunken street layout (whatever that means). But along the way, the fun never stops.
Enjoy the ride.

I am in my early thirties (can't remember exactly and too tired to do the math) and have been playing off and on since the early to mid eighties (on for a couple of years, off for 5, on ever since). And you will find your own DM and/or player "voice". Don't stress over it. Just play, and all the rest will follow.

As to adventures, there are a lot of good ones out there, some free, some not. If you have some online time, check out http://direkobold.com for several. Even if you dont want to buy, there is a demo subscription that includes two low to mid level adventures for free. And they are customizable. Just put in the number of players and the level of the group (if you are just starting, that would be 1) and download the pdf the site generates for you. So quick and easy, even I can do it!

I hope you enjoy the game. Come visit us often. And let us know how your game turns out. We were all beginners once and its kind of fun to relive it, even vicariously.

Game On!

zen

 

[Mista Collins]

it is always good to see my favorite hobby reaching the homes of others. You came to the right place to discuss your RPG questions and concerns. I have been play since the age of 10 (11 years now) and have enjoyed it my entire life. You have stepped in through the right doors of EnWorld and into the open arms of much help.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Though, if you want something easy to start with, go for the typical save the town adventure. Have all your player characters meet in the tavern of the "small town". Give the tavern a cool name. Put in a cool innkeeper and serving girl. Add a few grumpy farmers. Then, open your monster manual to either Goblin or Kobold. Add 2 of these for every player character in the group and have them attack the tavern.

It is straightforward combat to save the grumpy farmers, the innkeeper and the serving girl. When it is all over, the town is a bit of a mess and the player characters are heroes.

Sounds like a great adventure-idea. Makes me want to play it right away. Perhaps, one of the kobolds/goblins survives and can tell the players where their secret lair is?

 

[Buttercup]

Hello, I bought the player's hand book, dungeon master's guide, and monster manual and would like to start a game with a couple of friends. None of us have played before.

Welcome to EN World! And welcome to D&D. I started out just like you did. I bought the books and taught myself to play, then I went looking for players. That was almost 4 years ago, and since then, I've run two campaigns and taught a number of people to play. So perhaps my advice will help you a bit.

First, some jargon. As the DM, you're telling the story, yes? We call the whole story a campaign. The story is broken down into chapters, which are refered to as adventures or modules. Each adventure is further broken down into individual encounters.

Now, if you must have a free module to start with, I think the best one out there is Wizard's Amulet. You can download it from here. I recommend this one because it comes with pregenerated characters. If you use them, you can start playing right away. After you have played through this adventure, which is rather short, you can decide if you want to buy the follow up module, Crucible of Freya, which is also very good, and includes a free web enhancement. If you put all this together, you can keep your players busy for some time. In fact, by the end, you will all have a thorough grounding in the rules, and you will have a much better idea of how to write up your own adventures.

If you don't have enough time to write your own, or you just don't want to, there are a number of good adventures available out there. Generally speaking, Necromancer Games publishes many, and their overall quality is high.

If you don't want to download The Wizard's Amulet, then I would recommend Hamlet of Thumble, by Ed Cha, who posted earlier in this thread. I would not recommend Sunless Citadel, because I ran it myself when I was a new DM, for a group of new players, and I think it's a bit too lethal for the inexperienced. Having your characters die all the time can be frustrating for new players. I'm not saying that there should be no chance of danger and death, but a first level PC is quite fragile, so it's best to give a party of them encounters that aren't quite as dangerous.

Finally, if you want to start writing your own, just post that in this thread, and I'll email you a short adventure that I wrote to start off my current campaign, which had three new players and 4 experienced ones. It must have been useful, because one of my players asked to use it for a game she runs for teenagers at the library.

 

[Ed Cha]

Thanks for the recommendation, Buttercup!

I think if you are looking for a good setting to start with that has a lot of role-playing potential and can be used over and over again, then I would strongly encourage you to take a look at "World of Whitethorn 1A: The Hamlet of Thumble". It also has a GM Tips section that you'll find very useful. In addition, there is a sequel coming up soon which has even more adventure and fantastic art/cartography!

There are a couple of things that I'd recommend in addition to an adventure for your game. I don't know if you've already got all of this stuff, but you may want to think about getting a battlemap, water soluble pens, some dice, and either miniatures or counters. I prefer counters because they are economical and convenient, but miniatures are great visually. D&D 3.5 is often better played with all of these things together.

Good luck and please do let us know how it goes!

 

[the Jester]

Welcome to the hobbey!

I'm 32 and started gaming when I was 11. It's been the biggest consistent thing in my life.

I too would recommend starting off with a few simple fights to get the feel for things, then build from there. Man, there was a sample dungeon back in the red box that had it all going on- a simple story, a few monsters placed logically, even a trap or two! Wish I still had that one...

Anyway, it's pretty easy to run a decent adventure, so I'd start with just disconnected adventures and build an actual campaign later.

 

[Storminator]

Welcome to the hobbey!

<SNIP>

Anyway, it's pretty easy to run a decent adventure, so I'd start with just disconnected adventures and build an actual campaign later.

I would start even easier. Make some characters and fight some monsters. Cast spells on them. Earn XP. Get treasure. Level up, find new monsters, repeat.

Get a feel for how the rules work before you start doing adventures. Then, start with brand new characters. Those first guys were just practice.

And rotate DMs! DMing is much harder than playing, and it gives a very different kind of satisfaction. Trade off, just to see how it goes.