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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanifae" data-source="post: 5304751" data-attributes="member: 58765">I would handle this adventure this way to avoid the on rails issue.  One is that I would just tell them any relevant information they should know with the opening monologue.  If there is a water shortage tell them and make sure they know how desperate things are from the start.  Emphasize the harshness of the environment and the brutality of these slavers with other slaves.  Maybe even note that they have felt the harsh lash on occasion if for nothing else to maintain the show of dominance over the slaves.Then hit them with the elf bandit attack, but make it a desperate struggle that soon turns against the slavers and the players are set free and can grab weapons to defend themselves.  Make it a fight they can win, even if it is a short term victory; give them a sense of taking their lives in their own hands.  Now I am not sure if the old adventure relied on them getting captured a second time but at this point I would deviate and have the elves leave with what slaves they can carry, goods, and plunder.  The only standing survivors being the PCs who can take some time to outfit themselves as is normal for 1st level characters except for survival days.Have them find a map, maybe on a dying slaver who curses his luck to give them a role playing opportunity.  Do they kill this slaver or do they spare his life, do they leave him for carrion beasts and just move on?  From this point I would run a skill challenge punctuated by combat encounters for failures and the threat of sun sickness, not too much but definitely push them within an inch of their lives before they find the village.  Once at the village they have to prove themselves trustworthy or at least useful again a skill challenge can cover this as well.  If they succeed they can resupply and maybe even use the village as a safe point and then decide on their next course of action.  They could be given a task one made easier if they succeed the skill challenge to gain the village trust, but a combat encounter nonetheless of some type.  This should be a climactic battle, maybe it seems easy at first and then slavers burst on the scene intent on recapturing the heroes.  If they let that slaver go from earlier he/she could be leading them in the assault.  Athas is a harsh place and people are just as harsh as the landscape.If victory is had they can return to the village assured of their place amidst their new peers and can begin their true destiny in earnest.  Again you can splice in some skill challenges of survival if you so choose.  This is how I would do my introduction adventure based on your earlier design.</blockquote>

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