D&D 5E Newbie Adventure Recommendation

[ddaley]

What shortish adventures do people recommend running for a group of new players? I would love to run Lost Mines for them, but one player has played before and has played about half of that adventure. I would like to find something along those lines that throws the group into the action and isn't a lengthy campaign. I like how Lost Mines is broken into smaller, but still meaty (for new players) sub-quests.

Worst case, I may run Lost Mines for them, and have the one player not provide much strategic input until we progress far enough into the adventure. I am also considering Legacy of the Crystal Shard (though that same player has played some of that, but much less than half).

 

[Stormonu]

Tales of the Yawning Portal has several smaller adventures in it; Sunless Citadel would be a good adventure to start a group out (and it's follow-up, Forge of Fury is also in the book).

Beyond that, I'd check the DM's guild/DriveThruRPG. There is a myriad of adventures to be found on there, and conversions of older D&D modules to 5E. Personally, I'm partial to U1 - Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, B2 - Keep on the Borderlands and B4 - The Lost City.

 

[Matthew Perkins]

This is my favourite short adventure: A Wild Sheep Chase

Here's how I run it:

 

[ccs]

The Dragon of Ice Spire peak from the Essentials kit is full of 2 page adventures aimed at low lv characters.

 

[aco175]

You can also check DMsGuild. There are some good starter adventures and even some around Phandalin if the one player has played some of that and you think that can make a connection.

 

[MerricB]

I'm very fond of Sly Flourish's Fantastic Adventures - a new collection of short adventures all around the same home base has just been released.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

A lot of people here are not fond of Dragon Heist, but I ran it for newbies and they still find it their best D&D experience.

I did however give Mind Flayers a french accent, so maybe it's just how I ran it...

 

[JeffB]

The essentials kit is a good follow up to Lost Mine- but it doesn't really throw the adventurers into the action right away. The first few quest are pretty mundane and not terribly action packed-As I said in my review- The whole adventure arc is low energy and takes too long to get going. But that's JMO.

I'd highly recommend the A Series conversion adventures from Troll Lord Games- In particular A0- I ran it as a extended session by having the PC's attacked on the road to town- then come into the town as the townsfolk discovered the internal threat and were putting traitorous locals to the gallows- This got them right into the action, instead of spending a while figuring out who is behind the town's issues, and where they need to go.

Also if you don't mind a bit of easy conversion from C&C - U1-Shadows of the Halfling Hall is another fun starter- who doesn't like exploring a Hobbit Hole and figuring out why all the Hobbits got wiped out ?

M.T. Black has some great short adventures on the DM's Guild- We had fun with Shadows on the Long Road.

Sasquatch (Thule) and Frog God (Book of Quests series) are worth a look, Goodman 5E modules.

And of course there is the older edition adventures, and you can find decent 5E conversion stat books of many of them on DMs Guild- They are called Classic Modules today.

 

[ddaley]

The essentials kit is a good follow up to Lost Mine- but it doesn't really throw the adventurers into the action right away. The first few quest are pretty mundane and not terribly action packed-As I said in my review- The whole adventure arc is low energy and takes too long to get going. But that's JMO.

Yeah, I browsed through the adventure, and that was my impression as well. Don't want a new group getting bored and spending too much time trying to figure out what to do.

I'd highly recommend the A Series conversion adventures from Troll Lord Games- In particular A0-

I have this for C&C... but, haven't read through it yet. I'll check this out.

A lot of people here are not fond of Dragon Heist, but I ran it for newbies and they still find it their best D&D experience.

This is one of the few WotC publications that I do not have yet. Maybe I'll pick this up on D&D Beyond so I can read through it. Thanks!

 

[Weiley31]

A lot of people here are not fond of Dragon Heist, but I ran it for newbies and they still find it their best D&D experience.

I did however give Mind Flayers a french accent, so maybe it's just how I ran it...

Mind Flayer Mimes are terrifying.

Especially if the boss of them is Mr. Mime: Mind Flayer Edition.