I'm tired of brewing my homebrew. I've talked my players, who are smart, experienced gamers, into beginning a new campaign not wholly penned by me. I want to start them out with a rip-roaring, brilliant adventure. I'm going to set it in Eberron (but have read none of the Eberron materials other than the Campaign Setting).
So, what's the best 1st-level adventure there is?
savage tide adventure arc, There is no honor . check it out.
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With a little work, you could try A Destiny of Kings. It's a classic low level adventure that starts by sending the players into a neighboring kingdom to find the crown prince of their current one. Somewhat hard to tie to the adventure paths, but generic enough that you could loot a number of Dungeon adventures for follow-up.
Well, I enjoyed Funeral Procession. I think Masque of Dreams has a ton of potential and could be converted pretty painlessly to Eberron. Within the Circle is Forgotten Realms, but seems like a decent starting adventure if you're planning to use a certain malevolent snake people in your campaign. Siege of the Spider Eaters also seems like the kind of adventure that experienced players could really wrap their heads around.
I really thought Wispering Cairn to start the Age of Worms Adventure Path was astounding. Reading it, it does not seem like much but there is a great mix of combat and roleplaying.
I loved There Is No Honor and thought Whispering Cairn was a brilliant dungeon site, but I'm looking for something with fewer ties to future adventures than the AP's present. (I may cave and go for STAT just because it's so damn fine, but I'm holding out for the moment.)
What's the best 1st-level adventure beyond the AP's?
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The Whispering Cairn was designed with exactly this purpose in mind. Dungeon #124. It's pretty easy to go from TWC to just about any follow-up adventure, making it useful even outside the Age of Worms Adventure Path that it kicks off.
I second the suggestion for "There is No Honor," as well.
--Erik
My challenge with TWC is that I've already looted the adventure for ideas and pured them into my homebrew adventures. There were oodles of doozies. It'll take a lot of thinking to replace them with equally cool ideas. And creativity is, for once, something I'm trying to avoid.
I'm a fan of Mad God's Key myself. I want to say it was issue #114 - you'd need to modify it a bit for Eberron though.
- Ashavan
I'm a fan of Mad God's Key myself. I want to say it was issue #114 - you'd need to modify it a bit for Eberron though.
- Ashavan
OH, I can't believe I forgot Mad God's Key. There are a lot ways you could do a good conversion of this one. I would make the Green Dagger Gang an offshoot or small affiliated guild of the Boromar Clan or Daask syndicates in Sharn. That way, you could introduce either of these organizations in the campaign as potential foils, especially if the PCs wiped them out personally. It may even seem that Veltargo and the PCs were in cahoots from the syndicate's standpoint. Veltargo could very easily be a Blood of Vol cultist with possible Emerald Claw ties.
The key itself may refer to the Traveller rather than Zagyg, or perhaps it was just a handy tool from a magewright grandparent. Also, Veltargo's stolen book can be a great ticket to future adventures.
Hi Ashenvale,
Here's a shameless plug. My wife and I have an adventure coming out in #146 that we designed as a campaign starter. Lots o' NPCs for you to twist, spin, and recur. If your lucky, your PCs may even rescue their future nemesis.
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Hi Ashenvale,
Here's a shameless plug. My wife and I have an adventure coming out in #146 that we designed as a campaign starter. Lots o' NPCs for you to twist, spin, and recur. If your lucky, your PCs may even rescue their future nemesis.
You guys wrote the Seige of the Spider Eaters, right? That was an awesome adventure and I look forward to your next one.
FH
You guys wrote the Seige of the Spider Eaters, right? That was an awesome adventure and I look forward to your next one.
That's us. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this one just as much!
I loved Seige of the Spider Eaters, it made me look at Areana in a whole new light...
For starting a new campaign Keep on the Borderlands is classic. With a little dressing up your "experienced" players will be tripping down nostalgia lane having a great time. The other adventure that I really liked was Crucible of Freya, by Necromancer Games. That has been a blast to run. I also really like Mad Gods Key though. (issue # 114 by Jason Bulmahn)
My wife and I have an adventure coming out in #146 that we designed as a campaign starter. Lots o' NPCs for you to twist, spin, and recur. If your lucky, your PCs may even rescue their future nemesis.
Copycats! ;)
GGG
Well, I've had an opportunity to read Nick Logue's manuscript for Crown of the Kobold King due out in June and I think it will be one of the year's favorite low-level adventures. Possibly a classic in the making. If you have a bit of time before you actually start your new campaign, this one is worth some serious consideration for one of the best adventures to kick off a great, memorable campaign with.
I have to go with some other people here, I started my campaign with Mad God's Key, followed by Whispering Cairn, both excellent adventures, which can be linked without too many trouble.
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Well, I've had an opportunity to read Nick Logue's manuscript for Crown of the Kobold King due out in June and I think it will be one of the year's favorite low-level adventures. Possibly a classic in the making. If you have a bit of time before you actually start your new campaign, this one is worth some serious consideration for one of the best adventures to kick off a great, memorable campaign with.
When is that coming out. Nevermind I clicked the link and read! WOW! The power I hold.
I assume that the OP is experienced and probably has already been through this one but I figured I would toos it out there...Sunless Citadel. It is a classic. Meepo forever!!!
Also TConner's Seige of the Spider Eaters is a great starting adventure which could segue into a piratey adventure path or any coastal area type of adventures you may plan on using.
FH
Whispering Cairn! Never seen a better 1st level adventure in my 21 years gamers career!
I have to second this. Simply the best (although my gamers career is 12 years shorter).
Mad God's Key is also very good IMHO. After running it several times I already despise Sunless Citadel, but Meepo is still one the most memorable NPC in our gaming group.
I thought The Menagerie was a great rollicking-fun adventure for players who might be a little jaded with standard dungeon crawls.
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How about the original adventure in D&D Basic RED BOXED SET: I converted it for my cousins to a Carrion crawler hunt for young elf maidens as a right of passage into adulthood. They had to hunt the Carrion crawler and return it for a Feast. Only to find Raiders from the local human lord had burned their forest village to the ground so he could log the forest and provide timber to the King.
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Dungeon #82 and 83 have a bunch of really good low-level adventures. Start off with "Evil Unearthed" and follow with the excellent "Eye For An Eye", both in #82, then "Depths Of Rage" (with the best NPC ever) from #83 and finally Tito Leati's great "Iriandel" in the same issue. That'll take you to level 4 or so, with a great mix of underground and wilderness adventures that combines combat and social encounters. "Playing With Fire" in #82 is pretty decent as well, but stay away from "Deep Freeze" in #83. All these are 3.0 and may thus need a few minor tweaks.
Within The Circle or Thirds of Purloined Vellum (back in...88?) would be my favorite adventure to start less experienced groups, depending if I want concentrate more on urban affairs or wilderness, for the more experienced beginners Mad God's Key is a good one.
I recommend "Wreck Ashore," the free adventure by Robert Wiese, available on WoTC's site. Good stuff, and much like the Age of Worms campaign starter, it gives industrious players a chance at a base of operations.
I recommend "Wreck Ashore," the free adventure by Robert Wiese, available on WoTC's site. Good stuff, and much like the Age of Worms campaign starter, it gives industrious players a chance at a base of operations.
I ran that the other day, and used it to segue into the Savage Tide AP.
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I recommend "Wreck Ashore," the free adventure by Robert Wiese, available on WoTC's site. Good stuff, and much like the Age of Worms campaign starter, it gives industrious players a chance at a base of operations.I ran that the other day, and used it to segue into the Savage Tide AP.
What did you guys use for an overland map? Something from the Map-a-week archives or something self made? I have been wanting to use this for a while now and was planning on creating a map but if something is available that works then I want it.
FH
I think my favorite was U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh from back in the day. I musta run that thing 5 times, and played in it once.
Right there with you.... I even converted it to 3.5 to run my current group through it. It works well, but gives players way too much treasure by 3.5 standards.
- Ashavan
What did you guys use for an overland map? Something from the Map-a-week archives or something self made? I have been wanting to use this for a while now and was planning on creating a map but if something is available that works then I want it.
FH
I winged it and said it was "downshore from Sasserine." I didn't really use an overland map.
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I think my favorite was U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh from back in the day. I musta run that thing 5 times, and played in it once.Right there with you.... I even converted it to 3.5 to run my current group through it. It works well, but gives players way too much treasure by 3.5 standards.
- Ashavan
I picked up U2 and U3 off the downloads a couple years back; didn't like them as much for some reason. Sequels and all...
All of the above.
i also vote for M ad Gods Key it was great!
To cut a long story short, Mad God's Key worked really well as a starting adventure for me, I'd highly recommend it for a number of reasons based on my running it for a group of old pros a year or two ago. We all had a lot of fun (and we still are, as I eventually led them into the Age of Worms adventures). And it does *not* start at a bar...
[I tried to post a fairly long response, but it dropped out somehow]
I modified a Dungeon adventure to start off my last campaign. I cant remember its title, but it involved the players waking up in a grave with no memories. It was sort of ravenlofty. It worked really well.
In the end of the adventure, I never gave them back their memories, all the other adventures I used were with the hook of them to find out who they were, whether they had families, ect.
At least I THINK it was a dungeon adventure....
To cut a long story short, Mad God's Key worked really well as a starting adventure for me, I'd highly recommend it for a number of reasons based on my running it for a group of old pros a year or two ago. We all had a lot of fun (and we still are, as I eventually led them into the Age of Worms adventures). And it does *not* start at a bar...
[I tried to post a fairly long response, but it dropped out somehow]
I was just thinking about the "you all meet at a tavern" scenario and how ridiculous it is. Of all the people I've met at bars I don't think I would ever A) enter into some sort of business partnership or B)trust my life to any one of them. Yet in the world of D&D, meeting a drunken dwarf, human and gnome in a tavern is the beginning of a saga of heroism rather than a strange evening followed by a long hangover.
I've had adventures with people I've met at bars.
Er .... wait, I think I'm talking about something else.
Some other kind of adventure? Like, white water rafting? Bungee jumping? Camping? Shark baitin- oh, oh. I get it now.
I was just thinking about the "you all meet at a tavern" scenario and how ridiculous it is. Of all the people I've met at bars I don't think I would ever A) enter into some sort of business partnership or B)trust my life to any one of them. Yet in the world of D&D, meeting a drunken dwarf, human and gnome in a tavern is the beginning of a saga of heroism rather than a strange evening followed by a long hangover.
It's been a long time since I've used that "meet at tavern" beginning. I have however used a beginning where only one character knows all the rest of the characters of the future group, they are celebrating her birthday doing barhopping when they stumble to the adventure (which started as "stop crime on the street" a la Mad God's Key or Purloined Vellum...).
Thanks for the shout-out Steve! I really tried to go for that first-level yet to be tested feel with "Crown." Another of mine for low level that I am partial to is "Cry Wolf" (my Dungeon cherry!) in issue #102. Short, sweet, some RP, some combat, a little misdirection (but not near as much as "Swords of Dragonslake" or other modules for more experienced mystery maniacs for example). I've run it in various incarnations several times and it has always been a solid experience both for beginners and for more experienced players around the table.
Still...if you want to wow the expert gamers...it's gotta be "Whispering Cairn" all the way...its the adventure that turned me into a dungeon crawl convert...and that is NOT easy to do.
Well, if you're running it in Eberron, I'd look into the published adventures: The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw. I PC'd in this adventure path and loved every minute of it.
Well, if you're running it in Eberron, I'd look into the published adventures: The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw. I PC'd in this adventure path and loved every minute of it.
I dunno about running the whole campaign arc.
The Forgotten Forge (in the back of the Campaign Setting) was good, and Shadows of the Last War was pretty good as well, assuming that you make some modifications to the Mournland and healing, as that hadn't been set in stone yet apparently when they wrote the adventure. If you go by the Mournland=No Healing as set forth in the Campaign Setting, it makes Shadows much, much harder. There were some good ideas on the WoTC Eberron boards about possible fixes.
I also liked Grasp of the Emerald Claw... however, the Dire Shark encounter is extremely tough as written, and there is a good alternative encounter (more of chase scene) that is floating around the website of the adventure's author, whose name escapes me at the moment.
Whispers had such great potential, but IMHO, it was just that, potential. It fell flat, and was the worst of the 4 adventures. Plus, it wasn't really tied to the other three adventures, other than you start out in Sharn. Its almost like they wanted to make a trilogy of Eberron adventures to go with the new setting, and Whispers got tossed in because it was Eberron and the reccomended level fit nicely betweeen Shadows and Grasp...
Overall, I'd reccomend the Campaign Arc to introduce Eberron to a new campaign, but I'd advocate some serious re-writes to Whispers, or replacing it altogether with a different Eberron adventure, and retconning the new adventure to tie into the other three.
For example, I used Chimes at Midnight in between Shadows and Grasp of the Emerald Claw, and modified it so that the Cannith Patron (Eladryn?) had reccomended the PCs to House Medani, as they had done a good job (and kept their mouths shut afterwards) for her in the previous two adventures.
My vote is for the Whispering Cairn. It can fit in pretty much anywhere. It doesn't necessarily have to fit into the adventure path because you can modify the story so the tomb is actually an old Dhaakani site. There are all kinds of reasons for PCs to visit it, least of all beating Lords of Dust agents, the Emerald Claw, or numerous other bad guys to the treasure. If you are starting your campaign in a rural setting I recommend Valley of the Snails (#87) for a unique adventure that forces the PCs to think or they will end up accidentally killing the person they are supposed to save.
You can search here to find a list of 1st level adventures:
http://www.paladinpgm.com/wyrm
Searching that, I like both of the adventures from the Connor's: Menlock Prison and Siege of the Spidereaters. Both have a nice, different, spooky feel to them. Legend of Garthulga gives plenty for experienced players to think about. Box of Flumph has got an awesome battle on a ship about to run aground.
I loved Seige of the Spider Eaters, it made me look at Areana in a whole new light...
For starting a new campaign Keep on the Borderlands is classic. With a little dressing up your "experienced" players will be tripping down nostalgia lane having a great time. The other adventure that I really liked was Crucible of Freya, by Necromancer Games. That has been a blast to run. I also really like Mad Gods Key though. (issue # 114 by Jason Bulmahn)
Seige of the Spider Eaters in the pirate town of Haven Fara is a great lead-in to The Savage Tide's There is no honor. In fact, I used this adventure this way to give my players an edge going into the STAP (my wife, 14-year old daughter, 16-year old son playing 2 characters, so I thought they needed it == turns out as a good idea, since 1 has Savage Fever and they've a housefull of Bullywugs to fight still in The Bullywug Gambit).
Also, my son is DMing Crucible of Freya in his High School group (during lunch and "tutorials"), and he seems to be enjoying it!