Wilderness Hooks?

[Grunk]

Hey All,
I'm starting a new campaign that is going to have 3 brand new (never played D&D) players. It is going to be set in the woods and one of them is a druid. Thus, I've incorporated as much wilderness as possible yet I also want to have some other stuff to spice it up.

I'm using:
Cry Wolf
The Devil Box
The most recent issues goblin adventure (maybe)
Shut In (Maybe)
Final Resting Place
Mellorn Hospitat
Racing the snake
The stink

Any suggestions incluiding non-dungeon material...Do you have a good idea? Something that worked that you did?

[Kirwyn]

My newest game is using The Forsaken Arch(dungeon 120) with oodles of goblin and orc and half orc goodness. The town of Cauldron (shackeled city adventure path although Istven could be good too...)is a great town to get big suff (magic items and henchmen, pub crawls...) There is lots of wilderness around such places, and if you "detune " the NPC's yeget a cool base town to work with. And Paizo has a PC map available for download. I have reworked some of it (of course) to make adventure hooks come available as the heros get tougher. If you make the merchantTherav (from Melloryn Hospitality)from Shoalbury he is a lot more interesting patron. He likly sold them thier first masterwork weapon. If you have a couple Elves visit for shadow the Melloryn Hospitality with a dark tale told over a few ales then all the better. In my game there is a large Dolmen circle (stonehenge) on a hill overlooking Shoalbury. You could have a pirate raid, or bandit raid(A la "Pirates of the Caribean") and just what is Morash the pearl diver up to at the Inn of the Reluctant Oyester?

[Robert Head]

When I was a new player, it was good enough for me just to wander around in the woods and have random wilderness encounters.

[farewell2kings]

Yeah, for newbies, keeping the plot simple and the encounters coming will keep them happy for a long time. They should eat it all up! I wish I was a newbie again......the rush of power of skewering goblins and giant rats was awesome.

[Kirwyn]

hey now that I think about it there is a great introductery adventure by Sword and Sorcery studios called "Crucible of Freya". I think they have a miniadventure start online (PDF)for free. This is one of the three best adventures EVER written in my book. Good luck!

[Grunk]

I'm definetly keeping it simple, but one of the players is a veteran of my other SCAP campaign (currently on holiday hiatus) so most of that stuff is out. I definetly don't want to overwhelm the new players with too much information but the veteran will enjoy it. Also, I find knowing what's coming up (as in the SCAP) allows me to introduce NPCs before hand and thus foreshadow a little. For example, I plan on introducing the diviner from Final Resting place and her uncle Kai Rifter in the next adventure that I'm running (Devil Box)

I was planning on setting the campaign near the Dreadwood (which I will be using for Mellorn Hospitality). It should be near forest or in forest with a river and hilly plains nearby.

Other adventures I may use

Life's Bazaar (one the Players for my SCAP campaign joined after this adventure and I loved Jzadirune so I may have some adventure in the town ~70 years after or before the SCAP)

Drakthar's Way (see above, probably strip it of most of the SCAP content and place it somewhere else)

Beast of Burden: I love this one!

Practical Magic: Seems like a good mix of RP and site based
Forest of Blood: Adapted for greyhawk...should be good for the druid

As for the arc, I don't forsee this campaign lasting too too long...maybe till 10th level. I plan on having the mind flayers as the background evil dudes, introducing the threat in Final Resting Place and then dropping a few hints here and there. Also, find another adventure around 9 or 10th level to reveal the threat.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but prep is the kind of thing that I live for.

[ultrazen]

May I suggest some classic issues?

Dungeon #82 is worth tracking down for early low-level wilderness adventuring. It was the first 3rd edition issue, so you will need to do a bit of conversion if you use 3.5. Still, good stuff in three standard adventures and one non-standard. Includes a poster map of Sherwood Forest and Nottingham Castle (yes, as in Robin Hood, Prince John, etc. for the nonstandard adventure) that may or may not be useful to you.

Natural Selection in #85 presents some interesting ethical quandries for your Druid once you get up to around 5th level or so and stabbing goblins has become a bit stale.

I would like to run Tears for Twilight Hollow from issue #90 but have never gotten around to it. Quite a bit of dungeon delving and messed-up clerics, but also activities in the wilderness. Conceivably this could make a good base of operations for low level adventurers who finally manage to root out the real evil in town at around 7th level.

Buzz on the Bridge (#110), Swamp Stomp (#93), Fiend's Embrace (#121), and Throne of Iuz (#118) may also be worth checking out for low, mid, and high level adventurers.

Wizards of the Coast has some decent free stuff available as downloads. Check out Adventures like The Ettin's Riddle, The Eye of the Sun, and The Road to Oblivion; Random Encounters such as Denizens of Stone Bog, The Twisted Wood, and Fharlanghn's Garden; and the Vicious Venues articles for adventure seeds and ideas.

Also remember that for new players, trade caravans being ambushed by a gang of goblins controlled by a low level drow wizard is darn good stuff.

[Cold Steel]

I Recommend "The Last Hunt" for those who want to hunt down a dire bear.

[Kirwyn]

Well it turns out, I'm having to starting a new campaign (one new player). I will likely use the Crucible, but thanks for reminding me about Ehlonnas Scar. That was a cool adventure. I am trying to see how I can wrap if Crucible and get the players into N1 (1982 release)Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I still really like Mellorn hospitality... the vargoilles or to good to give up.