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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5300323" data-attributes="member: 463">I did this very successfully a couple years back.  The main thing was, I focused on creating and running an absolutely kick-ass single session adventure that got 3/4 of the players hungry for more.  'Background' was a paragraph of text:The Oracle of Ashkelos had long ago foretold it: Evil had returned to the wicked ruins of cursed Castle Kaladrac! And so the aged King Thongar summoned champions from among his Knights and Pathfinders. Messengers went out to the mysterious Magi of Ashkelos, to the Seminary of Holy Church, to the stout halflings of Oakbrook Shire, to the redoubtable dwarves of the Iron Hills and to the renowned Elves of the Silver Forest. The task: to penetrate the Ruins of Castle Kaladrac and destroy whatever Foulness now lurks therein! The additional setting handout was as follows:This campaign takes place in a homebrew setting, the Willow Vale, in the Southern Uplands between the Trosk Mountains and the Dismal Moors. To the south the mountains are the home of fierce barbarians, the Trosk, and beyond them the burning deserts of Kalara, ruled by the evil priests of Baphomet. To the north are wild lands, roamed by giants and trolls.Once, long ago, the evil sorcerer Kaladrac built his fortress high atop Winterfell Mount, near the Brale Wood at the southern end of Willow Vale. In alliance with the terrible dragon Valshegar, for years Kaladrac and his minions terrorised the lands around. Until a hero came - Thongar. Uniting the disheartened peoples of the Vale, he cast down and slew both dragon and tyrant. But the dragon's death throws ignited a terrible inferno that engulfed the castle - Thongar alone emerged from the raging flames. And now King Thongar is aged, his fighting years long past. It is time for a new generation of heroes...So, I created the Wicked Ruins of Cursed Castle Kaladrac as a cool single-session adventure for 1st level PCs, with Kaladrac's daughter attempting to reanimate her father as a Death Knight.  It was fun in itself, but also had the potential to lead into a campaign.Re PCs, my suggestion would be that you let them create their own characters but focus on getting started quickly and running a full adventure in the session.  With Classic PC creation should be fast, but to hurry it up you might want to create standard hand outs of equipment, like the ones in B4 The Lost City.  For new players I'd recommend max hit points and using AD&D's death at -10 rule, unless you want a strong "Fantasy 'Effin Vietnam" feel.Edit:  With Classic D&D you don't need pregens, since PC creation takes moments.  And players don't need to know the rules, only "I do X" and some idea what their Class is about.</blockquote>

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