Please suggest an adventure for 1 shot D&D introductory game.

[Chrone]

I've dm'ed a couple adventures http://www.flickr.com/photos/chr0n3/ , but still not experienced enough to design from scratch.

Need help in choosing a nice adventure to run 1 shot game, through which I want to introduce D&D to my friends.

Ideally it should consist of 3-4 not very long encounters, can be finished in 3-5 hours, target 1st level characters. Battles should not be too complicated, they'll just start to play D&D. I guess it should feature more iconic and known monsters, and less fancy creatures. We're all adults around 30s and familiar with video games.

My best choice for now is a free SlyFlourish's advenure he made for the Dungeon Master championship at this year's PAX East. Gravemyst.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/slyflourish_content/gravemyst.pdf
But it's level 8, so I wonder will it suit noobie players even if scaled down? Will it be easy enough for them. I mean battles.

I also like Chris Perkins' short adventures he made for Robot Chicken and some British guys very much. But clearly they're not published and I couldn't pick them up directly from videos...

So if you could just point to your personal favorite adventure for that kind of game or give any other suggestions, I will be very thankful. Or even just places to look for this kind of SHORT adventures.

I'm trying to share great D&D experience with more cool people. Oh, and they're russian game developers, by the way...

update: other problem I have is that in many adventures of this kind there's almost only 1 type of monsters. They're all kobolds, or frogs or goblins or vampires. But I want more diversity. Also one puzzle encounter is highly appreciated!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Personally I have found the Chaos Scar adventures to be very good for short low prep games.
I have not played any of the level one ones, though so I cannot reccomend any specific one.

 

[Chrone]

Personally I have found the Chaos Scar adventures to be very good for short low prep games.
I have not played any of the level one ones, though so I cannot reccomend any specific one.

Thanks, I'll give them a try. Whole campaign of short adventures! Looks nice so far.

 

[S'mon]

My favourites are the Level 1 & Level 2 Delves in "Dungeon Delve". Both are 3 encounters with fun tactical elements and some classic monsters. As written they will take about 3 hours and are well balanced for a 5-PC group of new players, with opportunities for further expansion and development.

Delve #1 Coppernight Hold concerns a Dwarf Mine overrun by Kobolds and their Wyrmling White Dragon boss - the reasonably-statted dragon at the end makes it a fun intro for newbie players. As a pre-errata Brute, the dragon's attack bonuses are 2 pts lower than standard, but for brand new players you might want to keep it as-is rather than add 2. When I ran it the Wyrm Priest kobold shaman escaped his initial battle with the PCs and alerted the dragon & co, making the final battle somewhat harder.

Delve #2 is an assault on a partially ruined, Goblin-held Tower, fighting up through the tower, which makes a nice change and creates a more threatening feel, with goblin sharpshooters firing down on the PCs. A large, tough, well-optimised 1st level PC group could take it on, but I probably wouldn't use it as the first adventure for brand new players. The Goblin Underboss BBEG is not particularly well designed IMO, too many hp and too little damage output; you might want to make him a standard monster instead of an elite, but up his attacks to Lvl+5 and use the new standard Brute damage which is his (Level+8)x1.25. AIR he's level 4 so that'd be 12x1.25 or 15, say 1d10+9 or 2d6+8.

Otherwise they are both great, fun little single-session adventures. You can introduce roleplay through eg captured surrendered enemies who can give valuable info on what lies further ahead, plus in Coppernight there are dwarf & human prisoners to rescue.

 

[Chrone]

My favourites are the Level 1 & Level 2 Delves in "Dungeon Delve".

I'll give it a look. And thank you for additional suggestions! Very helpful.

 

[OnlineDM]

The Living Forgotten Realms adventures are free to download, and there are a bunch of them out there. You can find them here.

I haven't run or played all of them, but I introduced two new players to D&D using LURU 2-3 Forgotten Crypts, Hidden Dangers, and they've become hooked. I also second the suggestion of the first Dungeon Delve adventure, as that was the first D&D 4e game I played, and now I'm hooked!

 

[Chrone]

The Living Forgotten Realms adventures are free to download, and there are a bunch of them out there. You can find them here.

I haven't run or played all of them, but I introduced two new players to D&D using LURU 2-3 Forgotten Crypts, Hidden Dangers, and they've become hooked. I also second the suggestion of the first Dungeon Delve adventure, as that was the first D&D 4e game I played, and now I'm hooked!

Thanks. But can I use Quick Start Rules pregens for Forgotten Realms adventures? Have never went beyond Nentir Vale.

The only problem I have with Dungeon Delve adventure is that there are mostly kobolds. Dragon is good though

 

[S'mon]

Thanks. But can I use Quick Start Rules pregens for Forgotten Realms adventures? Have never went beyond Nentir Vale.

The only problem I have with Dungeon Delve adventure is that there are mostly kobolds. Dragon is good though

I do recall my players were a wee bit sceptical that kobolds could really take out a Dwarf Hold, even though I'd come up with a fairly lengthy backstory on how it happened. You could replace the kobolds with goblins easily, or even Orcs if you were willing to use 1st or 2nd level Orc minions. I'd just reskin the wyrm priest and other leader/champion types to whatever race you wanted, just switch out the kobold racial power for eg Orcs' Savage Demise.

 

[Chrone]

No, I'm OK with kobolds. But there are ONLY kobolds. Look at Robot Chicken game:
- talking door
- magic trap with statues and magic ballista
- stirges
- skeletons

Thats diversity!

But still that adventure is considered to be good by everybody.

 

[OnlineDM]

Yes, you can use normal pre-gen characters in Living Forgotten Realms games. They don't have to have a Forgotten Realms back-story or anything in order to enjoy the game.