Ducky4u2's page

Hmmm... What about a Paladin? Replace fighter with Paladin, so at first they need to be careful and protect the cleric, but as the Paladin levels up, they gain the ability to heal as well. That would also help with the boring fighter issue (Though truthfully I always loved the fighter, but I was always someone who liked to wail on my enemies ha ha). Just my thoughts.

Not that I am against Bard. Quite the opposite, it comes from a place of deep pain, Bard used to be my absolute favorite class before the transition to 3.0 and all the following renditions of the rules. Since then though, the Bard always fell to the background as a support only class and never really stood out unless the player had a strong enough personality to pull off the character. With them being so new, I am just afraid the student would end up in the background and bored. I guess what I am saying is I have never found a Bard build I would use in place of literally any other class.

Hey everyone!

First, I want to say holy cow thanks for all the advice! It truly is appreciated, and I can't tell you how much it means to have your support in this.

Second, I want to say my goal is to teach them to be good gamers, part of my goal in starting the BGC in the first place was to instill a sense of welcoming, laughter, and community within a school which needs it. This is why I want to expose them to several different play styles, from puzzle adventures, to hack and slash, to some talky talky though I agree that would probably bore them the most. What can I say, I am a teacher, I have to teach ha ha.

Third, for those mentioning the pregens, I had thought about that, but I wasn't sure I wanted to use them as I would want to remove all the background bits so they could make the characters personality their own, and if I am going to do that I might as well build the characters myself. However, the mention of flaws definitely gave me ideas, and I have started incorporating them into the builds as well.

Finally, my immense thanks for all the build suggestions, and I was looking them all over. They are definitely interesting, but I am afraid they might be a little too advanced for them. I won't know until I see them, so I would welcome the build and even if I don't use them to start I will save them to offer as options should their characters die. I want to start out basic with them, and while I am not a GM who TPKs I also don't shy away from the possibility of character deaths. I feel like for them to truly understand the critical thinking involved (teacher...) they need to also see the necessity of making good decisions for the party. That is partly why I only created one healer, do you go for the kill on the bad guy? or do you go and support your cleric who is currently being ganged up on? Same for the Sorcerer.

It is possible I am missing something in that logic, I admit. I was also playing with the idea of a druid or paladin character in place of the monk, however, one of my students really wanted to play the monk, so I am going to start him out with it and go from there. I want to keep it core classes and races only to begin and then start spiraling them out. However, the unchained rogue and monk is a definite inclusion, as I saw the build and they make more sense.

So, to sum up, I would love to see the character builds, and I have saved all the suggestions for adventures, putting them into a progression.

OH! I almost forgot, I did look at the level progression. Club meets on Mondays, and I was thinking about running every two weeks, so twice a month we have our session. With the way the school year goes, they will reach 12 by the end of the second year, which I think is actually pretty good for them. However, I may adjust as I go to make sure they are in a good pace.

Please keep the suggestions coming. I actually have a database of information I put it all into so I can review it and look over the adventures, and all the suggestions made here have been put into the database and I am going to also include the students in the suggestions so they have can have a say in how they want the group to go.

You are all wonderful human beings, thank you for helping make this a reality. All my love to you and yours, may your parties never die and your dice roll true.

Hello to everyone on the wonderful forums!

So the questions are at the end, but if you read through it might help give some context.

So I am a teacher, and one of the clubs I started was a board game club. It is still getting started and I am hoping to find myself more established over the coming years, but I have to relate an awesome event which happened not too long ago. The conversation goes like this:

*Students approach my desk after BGC meets*

Students: Mr. Teacher-guy?

Mr. Teacher-guy: Yes students?

Students: We have a question, but we are not sure we can ask you. Its about BGC.

Mr. Teacher-guy: Well, you never know until you ask, so I would say ask.

Students: There is a game we want to play, but we are not sure we would be allowed, or even if we could.

Now, at this point I am thinking Cards Against humanity or some equally risque game, to which I would most certainly get in trouble with administration.

Mr. Teacher-guy: Keep it holy now. *Our way for saying, "I'm listening, but this might be a no situation.*

Students: ... Do you know anyone who could teach us Dungeons & Dragons?

Mr. Teacher-guy: Oh children... yes... yes I think I can help you.

So, I have decided to go with Pathfinder as I do not have the most recent version of D&D and I am more familiar with Pathfinder anyway.

Now I have already decided on how I am going to run the game. I have bough a couple seasons of the PFS adventures in the past, so I am going to use them as my base adventures since they are pretty straight forward. I am also going to eschew the normal experience progression in favor of milestone leveling to (somewhat) mirror the PFS progression, only mine will be tiered. It is going to look like this:

Level # of Adventures needed to advance
1 3
2 3
3 5
4 5
5 7
6 7
7 9

And so on and so on. My thinking is it will allow them to invest in the history of their characters as well as giving them a journey to overcome.

I want to make the characters for them, at least the mechanics of it all with the idea they can just sit down and play, while they come up with the history and story bits. I was going to make the mechanics for levels 1 - 3 so they can see how a character grows and progresses, then once they hit their 4th level advancement the character would be theirs to develop.

My questions are as follows:

1. I have six students interested in playing currently. I was thinking of making the following group. Cleric, Fighter, Monk, Ranger, Rogue, and Sorcerer. I have never constructed an entire party before, and I am worried about balance. I want them to be effective, but not broken. The threat of death should still be very real. Also, building a group which would need to work together. Do you, wonderful people of the forums, have suggestions on a good party build in that case?

2. Generally speaking, I have a projector I can use to put up a playmat on my whiteboard to draw maps, but are there any other suggestions you can make for helping the game be more visually enticing?

3. Does my progression seem sound? I know for PFS it is 3 per level, but part of this is going to be them creating their story, which was always the part I loved. Once they hit 12 it is going to be the retirement series, but I want that to seem like a truly earned campaign.

4. In that vein, when they jump tiers (lvl 2 - 3, lvl 4 - 5, etc.) I was going to make that last adventure be an extended proper adventure, not a PFS scenario. Are there any of the adventures out there you really like you can suggest? My notion is it should be an adventure which would cover multiple levels, and culminate with them hitting the next tier. So fro example. When they are about to jump from 2 - 3, I would run an adventure meant to take characters from lvl 1 - 3, so at the end they reach lvl 3.

5. Are there any limitations you can think of I should impose? I know PFS removes item creation from the table for play, do you think I should do the same to keep it in the proper light?

Any advice, questions for clarity, or suggestions would be awesome. You rock community!

Sorry, I have been a little swamped. Kalindlara I probably should have figured that out when I saw the CR rating ha ha, misunderstandings on both ends, so no worries.

Also, I think for now I have decided to go with a more physical system. I can't seem to find any program I like in terms of organizing all the random thoughts happening in my head, so I am just going to go pick up 3x5 cards like some of you suggested and start writing on them.

Also, I am starting to work on the encounters, and it has lead me to two new questions.

I have the three major sort of encounters. The Kobolds, the Doppelgangers, and the Ghouls. If I were to rank them in terms of what I would feel they should get to first, I would go with:

1. Kobolds
2. Ghouls
3. Doppelgangers

I know that parties can do whatever they want, but I figured in terms of progression that is what I might start with. My two questions are:

How many smaller encounters leading up to these major events would you suggest?

How do you handle wandering monsters? Do you use wandering monsters?

Ok so I have started working on NPCs, and I think I am going to avoid Intellect devourers for now only because I think that might be a bit much to throw at these guys at the moment. However, the doppelganger angle might be good because doing some reading I found this.

"Although not usually evil, they are interested only in themselves and regard all others as playthings to be manipulated and deceived. They are particularly fond of invading human societies in order to indulge in their desires—some enjoy the complex dance of politics while others seek constant change in the race and gender of both themselves and their romantic companions. While not standard, it is those doppelgangers use their gifts for cruel and sadistic purposes that are most notorious, and these shapeshifters are the primary cause of the race's sinister reputation."

I think that might work for what I have planned, and it becomes the basis for the different NPCs I think I need to create.

The Town Governor - Human Female Aristocrat 2 - Karin Whitestone
The town's current governor, assigned by the lord of the land, she is a little bit of an outsider. Used to more formal society with some of its finery, the town is not what she exactly desired. Though maybe a little vain, she does have the town's best interests at heart, though she is not the best at expressing it.

The Captain of the Guard - Dwarf Male Warrior ? - Dolgrin Stonebreaker
The Captain of the Guard for as long as anyone has known, he is maybe a little more lax in his older age, though he is still as respected as ever. The local kids still fear his wrath should they step out of line. (I was debating doing the "Two days from retirement" gag) He may not always see eye to eye with the new Governor, but he is a man of the town.

The Second in Command - Human Male Warrior ? - Connor Cairn
A young male, Dolgrin is sometimes a little more impatient, but he is set to take over the guard from Dogrin when the time comes. He is also dead, super dead, has been for a long time, and replaced by a particularly ambitious Doppelganger who has found that among other plants, Flayleaf grows particularly well here, and fetches a tidy profit. Has been secretly using the town's trade road to smuggle the drug out of the town.

I still need to get to some of the others like the town merchant, the town crazy and other positions like the innkeeper and blacksmith, but I think that is what I am starting with. The "?" means I am not sure exactly where to put these two because I don't want them to out trump the PCs when and if they figure it out, but at the same time I want them to be powerful enough I am not adjusting stats like crazy.

I wanted to post this so I could get a little feedback from those who have said to keep it simple. Is that too much description? Too little? Should I even worry about stats at this point?

You're making a bit of a mistake by trying to rigidly stick to CR in general, and in this case specifically CR = APL.

4 rats is CR 1...but that doesn't limit you. You can feel perfectly free to throw in 6 or 8 rats and make it a CR 2 or 3 encounter. It makes it more challenging (and provides more EXP, if you use EXP...which I recommend you don't), but CR is not a hard limit.

Plus, CR is a rough estimate of power anyway. 8 rats vs 4 people still likely results in an easy fight.

Ok, well then that kind of shoots my logic in the foot ha ha. I was kind of using the CR system as a guideline, but from the way everyone describes it the CR system is kind of like a false security net.

No worries though! This is why I ask, so I can learn!

Now that I have that information, lets say I want to use the Pugwampi's in the mines to explain why the accidents keep happening. Given their nature for forcing players to reroll pretty much any attack, then I am going to wager that against my party which would be starting out at level 1. That is a pretty nasty effect to throw at them early on, so I might keep those numbers low, and mix it up with some Gremlin made traps, making it more of a puzzle/trap quest.

Then with the Kobolds:

My thought for the kobolds is perhaps a small dragon (wyrmling even), has moved into the kobold warrens and is forcing them out to gather treasure for its hoard. On the classic side and you can play up the dragon as big and mean and the kobolds treating it like a demi-god only for the party to run into something smaller than them or even their size. Or switch it up to something else. Something like a dragon that kobolds might not know better, but using them to the same purpose (like a pseudodragon or pixie that was basically teasing them with illusions).

I like this idea, and I may see what I can do with it. However, I just realized that a doppelganger is not that far above where I would want them to be, so it might be that a Doppelganger or two have infiltrated the town. I could even use that as my last sort of confrontation.

I think I decided on the graverobbing angle from you as well Rynjin. I might develop that as a third sort of close adventure for them.

However, tonight my goal is to work on NPCS. At least the main one. Of which I have the town official, the head of the small local guard, the innkeeper, the blacksmith, the town merchant, etc.

OH! Organization? What methods do you prefer to keep things in order? I know about Evernote, and I have heard good things about Scrivner, just thought I would ask, and if you can point me towards any examples. I will admit that organization is one of my biggest weaknesses, but once I do get something set up I am pretty good at keeping up with it.

Have you decided why the kobolds are no longer keeping to their own? An element of investigation and discovery might serve that story well. ^_^

I was thinking on that. I have a couple routes I could go. One reason would be the invasion of their home by a third party, which is kind of classic, but also it might be a little too basic.

A second reason could be the introduction of a new kind of threat. For example, maybe a Wizard with a taste for transmutation is starting to rework different animals making them more dangerous or different. In this case, the wizard has altered a common small spider to have a mind affecting bite, basically putting the Kobolds under the control of the wizard and creating a hive mind personality. This would bode for possible larger things on the horizon.

The last possibility could reside within the town itself. Maybe something is moving within the town and the Kobolds have noticed. Whatever it is, it is using the trade route to export something, and the Kobolds are actually trying to keep the town safe.

I figured I was going to start with the basic problems and then develop them out as I go. I want to flesh out the town too.

Speaking of:

As for NPCs check out d20pfsrd.com NPC section. Don't over prepare and sometimes fudge or simply wing it. Reuse and reskin unused NPCs later. There are lots of good NPC books out there: Raging Swan Press has a Villains series as well as the pure crunch series. Legendary Games also does good Villain products.

Like the NPC section and I am checking the other resources, thanks!

Also, I want to make sure I am responding to what has been said so far.

I have read the articles on making most encounters lower than the CR rating of the party but at level 1 there are not that many creatures that could be used. I mean, even your garden variety rat would only allow me to use 4 before I have already hit CL limit. Has anyone come up with a decent way to manage this? As in, I feel like rats would be a lower CR than what it is (they are the same as a Kobold, which I would maybe set as more dangerous at 1st level than a rat). I guess maybe a context would be great.

Let's say I am going with the classic "Rats are in the tavern cellar" encounter. by the way the CL's are build, I would at most use 2 rats to keep it low level... but two rats to me do not a problem make, but I can't add too many more otherwise I blow out the CL limit. Would nerfing the rats be an option? Such as making them sickly and the main concern is that they would pass their disease off to the grain being stored in the basement?

Also, I need to start proofreading. I have some typos up there in the post before and I apologize. I am just excited to have so many people willing to give me advice and want to make sure I am keeping up with everything.

Ok so I have been reading up on these comments. Thank you to everyone who has shared so far! I greatly appreciate all the help. What I have done is I have decided to start with the town, and give essentially a basic description. This is going to start being my seed for developing the adventures in and around the town. I have two potential seeds, but I figure I might come up with one or two more. Here is what I have so far:

"Location: Town of Northolt, located in the north eastern border of Difflin.

Description: A sleepy little town, Northholt is set back among the forests of the Brukveil. Surrounded on most sides by the Blue Mountains, which make up the natural boarder between Difflin and the northern country known as the Moores, the town survives on the main trading road leading to the nearest trade port of Callain. Hunting and trapping are the main jobs, exporting furs to be sold. There are some farms, but the longer winter makes only seasonal plants and winter wheat possible.

As for the general populace, the people are kind if a little curt, and they live by and for their neighbors. Though the town is predominantly Human, a collection of Dwarves, Halflings, and even a handful of Half-Orcs have come to call the town home, their hearty stock adding a well appreciated work ethic to the town. Recently, veins of both copper and iron have been found in the mountains, and surveying has begun to taken place. This would normally spell good news for the town, but a rash of accidents have all but halted progress forward.

Further, it would seem something has come to threaten the trade road of the town, a situation that could spell dire consequences for the people of Northolt. A small band of Kobolds have started harassing the people on the road. Though never truly friends, the town and the tribe have at least kept to their own.

The party is summoned back to the town upon hearing of the death of an old friend. When they return, they find all is not well with their once home, and the once close town is starting to split and divide."

So I have "Investigate the Accidents" and "Investigate the Trade Road" as possible adventure seeds. I was thinking about coming with maybe one more. Basically the idea is the party would do what they could to restore hope to the town and find that they could do this for a living. Any feedback would be great. Also, questions I should be thinking about and still need to be answered. From here I am oing to try and come up with the NPCs for the town, so more to come I suppose.

Oh wow! Quick responses! Thanks everyone! I will try to do this in as much of a logical way as I can:

Make lots (and I mean LOTS) of NPC's.

Do you know of a way to keep them organized? And how many would be lots? I will probably overshoot it anyway but I was just curious how many you usually make up?

Having a flexibility about what is where in your world will make it easier to adjust to the PC's interests. If the story takes an unexpected turn into Undead territory, and the Players are just drinking it up, then would be a great time to fill in that cloudy section of the map with good old, gratifying Zombie Provence.

I have purchased a couple books that say the same thing (The Lazy Dungeon Master, The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, etc.) and I get those points. I guess that is why I want to focus on the hometown of the PCs at first, and then spiral out. I think I am having trouble with the initial set up and the logical process I should be using (How much is too much information? What absolutely HAS to be there? Questions like that) because I have never made a campaign or adventure from scratch. I mean I have tried back when I was a young teen who thought making and adventure meant me actively trying to kill my players and railroad them into my story. Then I took many years off, and then returned and found out I was the one with the experience so I was the GM now ha ha.

Agreed, a little bit of cliché is ok. Especially for inexperienced players.

Encounters.
Usually I start with the story and figure out what I want the base plot to be about. Then I try to figure out what encounters fit with that. then I try to make sure the encounter is within their capabilities. Then I tweak crap until it seems at least a bit interesting/different

Ok, I get this too, and I found the sheet where it says to calculate the over EXP and then use that as a bank of points to build the encounter. Should I be shooting for a specific CR when designing the encounters (+1 Party level, equal to party level, etc.) because at least in the published encounters I run, the CR ratings of the encounters are at level, but the party seems to crush them pretty easily. How do you balance the idea the PCs should succeed with the desire to keep them on the edge of their seat?

For adversaries try people. I mean, a bunch of commoners with someone with a class level or two lesding them; you can get in plenty of roleplaying and there are many relevant plots to pick from so clichés don't have to be an issue.

I have thought of that, and it might work because commoners have such a low EXP reward. I will have to play around with that.

There are millions of maps out there on the internet, no exaggeration. Take a look and copy from, print out or just be inspired by some map you like.

Is there a place you like in particular to find maps? I ask because I have looked for maps (I even funded a kickstarter for maps, because I know where I am weakest ha ha) but most of the maps I have found are not usable because they are copyrighted (not that I wouldn't purchase them, but as a new teacher, school loans and what not must come first.)

I'm still getting a handle on the rest of your post, but for the bolded portion, I'd take a look at the Carrion Crown Player's Guide, as that Path uses a similar conceit to bring the party together.

As for the rest of your post, the others have had good advice so far. If you have more specific ideas of what you want, I can help you refine them. ^_^

I am really in the brainstorming portion of the campaign building. I would like them to spiral out into an almost business like attitude (like the Acquisitions Incorporated Franchise) when they realize they can make money doing this. I think this would give me the most flexibility because I could present "job opportunities" to them and that way I could have an idea of what I need to develop. The problem is I am a very visual person, which is why I think in some way I need to find a decent starting point. even if I don't make the entire map straight out I can have a general idea of how it might look? Does that make sense? Example, the hometown of Northholt (I think that works) is a town boarding on upper ranges of the country, where it is colder most of the year. I think I need to find a good way to develop the town, but I also think I need to at least focus on the immediate area around it in case my players are like "Welp! This town has really gone downhill! Lets go somewhere else!"

Same for the 'same old monsters'. If it's not something they have seen before, it can work. The biggest piece of advice here I can give is 'refluff' monsters if you think they are overdone.

Example: When I was introducing a group of new players to the game, while they were waiting for a meeting with a local adventuring guild a house went up into flames. Being heroic they rushed out where they were at to help and ran inside. The fire had been set up by a Councilmember to try kill off a rival by bartering with some devils. Hence they had summoned in a bunch of fire-y creatures. This encounter was made up of:

- a 'fire elemental' snake (fire resistance, dealt 1 point of fire damage on a hit instead of poison)
- three ash rats (fire resistance, dealt 1 fire damage on a hit instead of disease)
- an imp (the one that was handling it all, CR 2. The imps orders were not to get caught so it tried to flee invisibly and got smacked down hard)

Besides that they had to deal with falling debris (reflex saves mostly) and exploding doors. Basic trap things refluffed into a more fun and exciting encounter than they might have got otherwise. Plus escort the councilmember and his son out once everything else was done...and it got them started on a much higher level plotline involving stronger devils and the corrupt city council.

Ok, so my question for you would be this:

Are those templates, did you change the actual stats? Or just the descriptors? I ask because I am curious how you manage the CR Rating for the encounter if you have to change stats? I love the idea, I never thought about it like that, but I want to make sure I am not going to take that and then BAM! and I have accidentally created a total party kill situation.

Truly, I appreciate everything, and I hope I made my questions clear. Ha ha at the very least I am going to learn how to be clear with my questions! My students will appreciate that.

Hello everyone of the wonderful Paizo community!

I have a question about campaign/adventure planning. I am the one in my group who usually ends up playing the role of GM. I don't mind, most of the people I play with are new to RPGs and I have been a player for many years. I like being able to share this experience with them.

I have been GMing for new group for about 4-5 years, and the problem is I always run published campaigns (which I have to say, Pathfinder and Paizo have some of my favorite modern Adventure Paths), again this is not a bad thing, and it has been great for me to get my management style down, but it is not the experience I want to give them. I want to share with them the joy of a homebrew game like I remember, where their characters are not only part of the world, but they as players help to define the world as well. I remember when parts of my character history would be harvested by the GM to create an area of the world. I have been very blessed to have had amazing GMs in my youth when I first started.

Anyway, for that reason I am trying to immerse myself in the world of adventure/world building. Like the guy who goes from drinking beer to making wine, I have aged to the point of wanting to do more for my players. I have a vague idea of what I want to do. The problem I have is understanding the logic of creating encounters and what would be appropriate compared to what is cliche and tropey.

Example, I want the party to start off by returning to their hometown after the passing of a mutual friend (helping to create connections early) to find the town they group up in has changed. It is more somber, the people are downtrodden, and there is less hope. To top it off, they come to find their friend was lost trying to defend the town from creatures that have started to attack, sensing weakness.

I want start the game off at level 1, and I am having trouble creating appropriate encounters that are not the same old thing (rats in the basement, kobolds, etc.) as it were. I would like to create something compelling but at the same time give the party a chance to truly connect with their character right from the beginning, and if helping the town regain it's hope sticks with them, then spiral them outward to other areas and keep going on their journey together.

What this boils down to in my rambling madman style is this. How do you balance what is appropriate with what is interesting in an encounter or adventure? And how do you scale it to increase in difficulty with the party. Also, am I putting the cart before the horse here? Where do I need to start if not here?

Oh, and maps? My stick figures are lopsided, any suggestions there would be awesome as well.

Thank you one and all, I appreciate any help and insight you can provide. I want to do right by my players, and that means educating myself.

Well, that is more or less an exaggeration on the idea I want to put forward. The main idea is the opposing dynamic of adventuring vs keeping a profitable business running. The main crux of it is the recession idea. Honest work is hard to come by. Towns already have blacksmith's, and bakers, and other artisans of trade, so right now work is scarce. Maybe these adventurers are NOT the bravest, or the absolute best, but they are there, and the work pays. It is meant to not be heavy in drama and carry with it some real lighthearted moments where they deal with day to day concerns. So again, using the rent idea as an example:

Work has been scarce and the last two jobs failed, the group is already behind on their rent and a particularly dangerous job comes up. Can they really afford to say no to it? Or maybe they convince the bard to "speak" with the landlady... again.

It is just meant to break up the normal type of game with something a little different. A good example of what I am hoping to pull off is something akin to the Penny Arcade/PvP podcast series Acquisitions, Inc.

Hey everyone!

I am a GM planning a game for my friends. I want to put a different spin on the whole adventuring party. Instead of them being destiny touched heroes, they adventure to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. The world is in a recession so to speak so work is hard to come by. Thankfully, everyone has needs, and that can be profitable. The party has decided to make a business of helping rid the world of vile evilness. They take the pay and the treasure, and use it to keep going. The whole point is going to be balancing the adventuring aspects (Mystery! Danger! Excitement!) with the day to day bookkeeping of being a viable operation (The rent is due! When is the last time we have eaten? The mage wants to buy WHAT?!)

Also, they will face problems of party loyalty and cost effectiveness. OH NO! The party tank has been killed... he was a dear friend and a useful fighter... bbbuuutttt, you know, resurrections are pretty pricey, maybe we could just give him a honored (within cost) burial and put out a help wanted add?

We are going to need an extra hand for this mission, but the payroll is pretty tight... maybe we forgo hiring a legitimate mercenary and instead hire an intern?

Anyway, because of the nature of the game, the missions are not connected. That means running a whole bunch of one shot modules. Now I have a host of them, but I was wondering if maybe by crowd sourcing this question I might get some help with putting together a string of modules that could fit this world.

What are some of your favorite one shot modules, and how would you link them all together to build up characters in a logical way?

I should also mention I am always looking for more possible modules and would like to have a wide variety if I could (puzzle, dungeon diving, hack n slash, intrigue, etc.)

I am thinking about starting them off at level 1 BTW. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

OH! Sorry about that! Thanks for the advice I will port this over to the right thread. Sorry again!

Hey everyone!

I am a GM planning a game for my friends. I want to put a different spin on the whole adventuring party. Instead of them being destiny touched heroes, they adventure to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. The world is in a recession so to speak so work is hard to come by. Thankfully, everyone has needs, and that can be profitable. The party has decided to make a business of helping rid the world of vile evilness. They take the pay and the treasure, and use it to keep going. The whole point is going to be balancing the adventuring aspects (Mystery! Danger! Excitement!) with the day to day bookkeeping of being a viable operation (The rent is due! When is the last time we have eaten? The mage wants to buy WHAT?!)

Also, they will face problems of party loyalty and cost effectiveness. OH NO! The party tank has been killed... he was a dear friend and a useful fighter... bbbuuutttt, you know, resurrections are pretty pricey, maybe we could just give him a honored (within cost) burial and put out a help wanted add?

We are going to need an extra hand for this mission, but the payroll is pretty tight... maybe we forgo hiring a legitimate mercenary and instead hire an intern?

Anyway, because of the nature of the game, the missions are not connected. That means running a whole bunch of one shot modules. Now I have a host of them, but I was wondering if maybe by crowd sourcing this question I might get some help with putting together a string of modules that could fit this world.

What are some of your favorite one shot modules, and how would you link them all together to build up characters in a logical way?

I should also mention I am always looking for more possible modules and would like to have a wide variety if I could (puzzle, dungeon diving, hack n slash, intrigue, etc.)

I am thinking about starting them off at level 1 BTW. Any help would be greatly appreciated.