Tips : First Adventure for Newbies Campaign?

[Pale Master]

So I'm working on my 3.5 "Classic Dungeons in Xen'drik" remix game. And I'm statting up the Keep on the Borderlands.

Now, KotB is the iconic 1st level adventure, as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't want to run anything else. Except...

-It's too big. There are about 64 encounter areas in the Caves of Chaos. To get characters from 1st to 3rd level requires about 27 encounters (Sunless Citadel has 42 - I checked). So unless you trim over half of the dungeon away, there's going to be a lot of unused space. Quasqueton has calculated that a D&D 3E party going through the Caves of Chaos will end up at 5th level - that's a quarter of their adventuring career.

-It's mostly humanoid monsters and almost entirely square, featureless rooms. I would ideally like to use a great variety of monsters and challenges, in order to introduce characters to the various rules - balancing, swimming, climbing, undead, swarms, etc. etc. etc.

-The first thing you encounter - assuming you start where you are "supposed" to - is a pit trap.

So if you were running a campaign for novice and beginning players, and the point of it was to be "iconic" D&D, what would the first adventure be like? How big should a party's first adventure be - both in scope and in amount of experience gained?

EDITED to reflect math - characters go from 1st level to 3rd in 26-7 encounters, not 40.

 

[Piratecat]

I'd add lots of NPCs - both good and evil - to roleplay with.

 

[kallisti23]

I am also working on an adventure designed to introduce new players to 3.5E... and I am using The Keep on the Borderlands as a template around which to design this adventure.

I shared some of your sentiments regarding the map, so I have made a new map. The KotB's original site was a canyon with several caves throughout at various levels; my new site is similar... it's an underground chasm with several side-dungeons at various levels, with the chasm functioning as a central common area for the entire complex. It has several ledges at various levels, and a few bridges span its width... a small underground river runs along the chasm's bottom. The new map of the site has been improved for both realism and ultra-coolness. The "side-dungeons" include a crypt, a silver mine, a few lairs, a couple of defensive entry/exit points, several small caves, a dragon's lair, and more.

I have also altered the plot. The original KotB was a classic "attack the lair of the humanoid raiders" and "rescue the prisoners" plot. My new plot is pretty simple... the great big Red Dragon that once used the site as its underground fortress-lair is now dead, and there's a run on it's hoard... better get in while the getting is good. Presumably, the PCs will take the hook, hoping to claim a dragon's hoard.

The monsters... again, a little different. Some are former servants and allies of the now-dead dragon... some orcs, gnolls, kobolds, and mongrelfolk that survived whatever killed the dragon and have regrouped. Also, a tribe of goblins entered the dungeon soon after the dragon's death (part of a subplot) and would be in serious contention for control of the site and the dragon's hoard but have instead divided into two warring factions (another part of the subplot). A group of brigands and bandits has also entered, seeking to claim unguarded dragon treasure. One of the side-dungeons is a crypt with some undead, and the bottom of the central chasm is home to several monstrous plants and oozes. Oh yeah, and the usual rats and bats and stirges and vermin and beasts and such. The rats in the dungeon have a king (a wererat druid) who uses the rats as spies and servants!

What the PCs are walking into here is essentially a subterranean guerrilla war between several factions, each with slightly different objectives. This provides opportunities for diplomacy, as the PCs will almost certainly be forced to form an alliance (probably with someone they do not completely trust) in order to claim the prize. It provides opportunities for combat with several different types of opponents in several different types of environments, from bridges to cliff ledges to narrow corridors to wide open spaces, underground rivers and deep holes in the ground. There are also many puzzles and mysteries to be uncovered about the site, and many of the dungeon's warring factions and other denizens have clues and secrets about the plot.

It's immense, though... even bigger than KotB. How can such a dungeon work under 3.5E rules, where PCs level up every 13.33 encounters? I simply houseruled a fix... the PCs level up every 40 encounters (3x more slowly), with treasure awards adjusted accordingly. This way, a variety of low-level encounters can be packed into one area without the PCs advancing beyond the challenge too soon. Trouble is, now the 1st level PCs, accustomed to fighting the 1st level kobolds and 1st level bandits, would probably get waxed if they encountered the 2nd level orcs or the 3rd level gnolls or the carrion crawler or the truly horrid insectile dire badger or the advanced shadow darkmantle. And that's OK-fine with me, because that's how the original Keep on the Borderlands was... tough and gritty. One of the best feelings I ever had as a young player was when I finally got my magic-user to 2nd level without getting killed... and he survived because we learned quickly that running away was often a very good idea!

It's turning out to be a pretty cool dungeon... even with the very significant deviance from experience point rules that are usually taken for granted as fixed in stone. It was well worth changing them...

 

[S'mon]

Give 1/2 XP, damnit!

 

[Pale Master]

Piratecat - Yes, that' s something I would have overlooked. I am terrible at roleplaying encounters - but it's important for PCs to learn that you can earn XP by talking as well as fighting! I like the way Sunless Citadel handles this - the PCs can avoid a huge chunk of the combat encounters if they use a diplomatic approach.

S'Mon - I will have to seriously consider this. I would have to drop in a conveniently placed treasure chest every now and again to keep them at wealth / level, because they will be using consumables at the same rate but gaining xp and gold at half rate - making them poorer overall without some kind of intervention.

Kallisti - Wow - Consider that whole set-up yoinked! I love that you've managed to at least include an allusion to dragons. I never considered slaying wyrmlings too heroic, but having the PCs after a dragon horde is a great way to foreshadow bigger things to come. I don't see any necessity in having it monstrously huge though - KoTB has, by my count, 10 mini-dungeons (not counting the ogre cave, which is just one room, after all). So if you managed to pare down each one to four encounters (which is a good number for a single session of play), you would have the magic number 40, with the PCs ending up at 4th level.

I'm leaning towards about 5 mini-dungeons, with about 4-6 encounter areas each, to put them at 3. I think maybe EGG considered it likely that PCs would flee from at least some encounters. Mine are more likely to stay and fight to the death.

I find it interesting that, in Sunless Citadel, about a third of the encounters are EL < 1. One could bloat one's number of encounters without handing out a lot of experience this way - I only worry that this might get tedious. "Oh look, another small monstrous centipede. Step on it."

All of you - Many thanks for your responses. Your ideas are more valuable to me than an abandoned silver mine.

I'm going to make the first encounter with dire rats. "You can't call yourself a seasoned adventurer until you've spent some time killing rats!"

 

[kallisti23]

Kallisti - Wow - Consider that whole set-up yoinked! I love that you've managed to at least include an allusion to dragons. I never considered slaying wyrmlings too heroic, but having the PCs after a dragon horde is a great way to foreshadow bigger things to come. I don't see any necessity in having it monstrously huge though - KoTB has, by my count, 10 mini-dungeons (not counting the ogre cave, which is just one room, after all). So if you managed to pare down each one to four encounters (which is a good number for a single session of play), you would have the magic number 40, with the PCs ending up at 4th level.

Thank you for your kind words. A dragon-quest is often really just a dragon horde-quest with a dragon in the way. I simply pondered what might occur if a dragon was already killed somehow, but its treasure yet unclaimed... brain-poop, really. One of it's most beautiful features is that it can be "hooked" in just about anywhere... I simply had a lone horseman ride into town crying out the news that the "dragon is dead" and the PCs took the hook directly by the horns and tromped off in search of unclaimed dragon-gold. Oh, yes, and that indeed does foreshadow bigger things to come... even bigger than rival would-be dragon-horde looters.

The monstrous hugeness of the adventure site was not, as you imply, done out of any looming sense of necessity beyond a very genuine desire for epitomal ultra-coolness... it didn't (and still doesn't) matter to me that the place was looking to be almost half the size of Undermountain. It could be smaller and still be as cool... it just probably won't be.

And yes, no PC ever gets to 2nd level without passing the "Trial by Dire Rat."

 

[Tewligan]

I'd kill the bastards ASAP just so they know right off the bat who's boss.

 

[S'mon]

S'Mon - I will have to seriously consider this. I would have to drop in a conveniently placed treasure chest every now and again to keep them at wealth / level, because they will be using consumables at the same rate but gaining xp and gold at half rate - making them poorer overall without some kind of intervention.

Yes, I find XP at 1/2 rate and gold at about 2/3 standard rate works out ok. In fact you could give gold at full rate and it ought to be fine within the scope of a KoTB campaign.

Standard gold rate means 2nd level PCs should have gained some 900 gp each, you can make that 1800 gp (if they're diligent in finding stuff) and your game will not explode.

 

[Lanefan]

I've every intention of starting off my next campaign...well, at least one part of it...in KotB. Going in, I'll be strongly suggesting they play 2 PCs each and have at least one or two more on standby because they're gonna need 'em. Then, it's clobberin' time!

Is this heroic? Absolutely! The survivors are the heroes...and rich, too.

Pull no punches. Let them learn the hard way. Later, they'll thank you for it......

Lanefan

 

[kallisti23]

I've every intention of starting off my next campaign...well, at least one part of it...in KotB. Going in, I'll be strongly suggesting they play 2 PCs each and have at least one or two more on standby because they're gonna need 'em. Then, it's clobberin' time!

At my table, it's Standard Operating Procedure for the players to create 2-3 PCs each... it's an aforegone conclusion that the first one probably isn't going to make it...