Recommend a First Adventure

[Tiew]

I'm considering running a prepared adventure for the first time. In the past I always viewed writing the story and creating the world as the biggest part of the fun. When all my D&D friends moved away I tried to run a game for them using openRPG but it didn't quite work. I'm thinking of trying again and using a prepared adventure. I'm hoping if I work from prepared material that will free the part of my mind that is usually making up the story as I DM to focus on communicating the story clearly over a more difficult medium. Does that make sense?

Anyway, since I've never run a prepared adventure before I really don't know what's out there. Does anybody have recommendations? They would be much appreciated.

 

[timbannock]

I've just recently started a new campaign with a group and it's going over especially well. I tied together the following adventures:

A Dark and Stormy Knight (level 1; http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20050329a)
Escape from Meenlock Prison (level 1; Dungeon Magazine #146)
The Wizard's Amulet (level 1; http://www.necromancergames.com/freestuff.html)
The Whispering Woodwind (level 2; http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=457&products_id=16596&it=1 ...it was a freebie during some promotion, which is how I got it)
Lost City of Barakus (level 1-5+; http://www.amazon.com/Barakus-Dunge...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208436059&sr=8-1)
Red Hand of Doom (level 5-12; http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Drag...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208436070&sr=8-1)


We just started in on Whispering Woodwind. I'm doing REALLY slow XP progression up through the Lost City of Barakus, and then standard during Red Hand of Doom. It's working quite well, and the players haven't complained about the low XP awards...they love the story.

Took an hour or two of work to change up some locations to make everything fit into Elsir Vale (from REd Hand of Doom; i.e. Endhome from Lost City became Dennovar), but other than that, I've mostly stuck to the adventures as written. Might have changed one or two stats here or there, and I turned Vortigern from the Wizard's Amulet into a recurring villain (he became a Wight).

I recommend all of them. Well written, not too much errata to worry about (none in most cases), and oozing with feel. Should be easy to work them into an online format.

 

[DragonLancer]

I find NG's Wizard's Amulet & Crucible of Freya to be one the best starting modules, even after all this time.

 

[roguerouge]

Burnt Offerings, at Paizo.com, offers a good starter town, wickedly fun villains, and a great backstory for the BBEG. Don't worry about it being the start of an adventure path: it stands alone nicely.

Hollow's Last Hope, by that same publisher, is a nice simple adventure that many people have really liked. There's related adventures from the same setting that are not pathed at all for later yoinkage.

Hangman's Noose, from that same publisher, has an odd combo of survival horror and mystery genres that really work. A challenge to DM!

"Dungeon Crawl Classics 0: Heroes are Made, Not Born" is an old-school adventure with a twist: all of the characters start off as NPC classes. It encourages players to be very creative in their game play, it has a solid hook, and you can always have the PCs retrain that first level into the class that they want to play.

 

[Sunderstone]

Necromancer Games -
Crucible of Freya with the Wizards Amulet prelude (a free download) is excellent. This may be hard to get as a print copy though.

Paizo -
1) Hollows Last Hope is cool short introductory adventure on their site for FREE as a PDF.
2) Crown of the Kobold King can follow Hollows last Hope and both make for an awesome campaign starter.
3) Into the Haunted Forest, another short introductory module like Hollows Last Hope. Its available in print for only $5.

Goodman Games -
1) Idylls of the Rat King, heard this was excellent too.
2) The Sinister Secret of Whiterock, a beginning adventure written as a prequel/side trek to the huge Castle Whiterock boxed set. Stands alone easy enough.

Dungeon magazine -
1) Mad God's Key (Dungeon #114) - Jason Bulmahn. Ran this awhile back. Excellent and one of my favorite campaign starters.
2) The Whispering Cairn (Dungeon #124) - Erik Mona. One of the best starting dungeons ever made, imho. Also ran this as intended (start of the Age of Worms), stands alone easily.


Late Edit™ these are one shot suggestions. If you are looking into getting into a huge pre-made campaign, any Paizo created Adventure Path is excellent as well as Goodman Games' Castle Whiterock.

 

[haakon1]

Sunless Citadel is also still great.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Sunless Citadel is also still great.

The first part is great. The second part is kind of lame. And you should probably rework the rooms / corridors that contain exactly 1 dire rat or pointless traps. Working from Goblins vs Kobolds in a perpetually dark dungeon is a pretty good way to go though.

I suggest the Orc and the Pie.

http://www.ptolus.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_orcandpie

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Deuce Traveler]

If it's for first-time players or young players I would recommend BECMI and one of the original adventures, such as Palace of the Silver Princess. After they have the concepts down, you can go with 3.5 and one of the Goodman Games modules such as DCC #0.