The Godsmouth Heresy or Crypt of the Everflame are awesome 1st level modules, though they are unlikely to take your party to 3rd level. However, you can fix that by adding a couple of encounters.
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Gallows of Madness is actually designed for new(ish) players and GMs.
Oh, and for the record. I currently do my prep work with the PDF and I have the book at the table when we play (along with my notes). I have been setting up a remote desktop to my computer for other things, but not the module PDF itself.
Ire of the Storm may also fill your needs.
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Ire of the Storm is a fun module, but it's a bit longer than what you're looking for; it takes PCs to 6th level, as written.
The level range you're looking for lends itself well to the first part of many adventure paths. Souls for Smuggler's Shiv is an excellent adventure that takes PCs to 4th level and can easily be made a stand-alone by removing the pointers in the last dungeon that impel the party toward the next book; just make the goal rescue from the island for the castaways.
Hollow's Last Hope was a pretty good time and pretty simple. I also have ran it with 3 PCs. The only thing to watch out for is the fight with the Tatzlwyrm.
I love Hollow's Last Hope, but you should be aware that it was written for 3.5 rules, not Pathfinder. The differences are small, but they exist and might confuse a new GM if you never played D&D 3.5.
Ire of the Storm is a fun module, but it's a bit longer than what you're looking for; it takes PCs to 6th level, as written.
The level range you're looking for lends itself well to the first part of many adventure paths. Souls for Smuggler's Shiv is an excellent adventure that takes PCs to 4th level and can easily be made a stand-alone by removing the pointers in the last dungeon that impel the party toward the next book; just make the goal rescue from the island for the castaways.
Souls for Smuggler's Shiv is an amazing adventure! It's got NPC interactions (and some NPC related sub-quests), skill challenges (be kind on the survival checks), and some interesting fights.
If you are creating the characters for them, it would also justify "skimping" on gear (as the characters start shipwrecked.)
1. Murder Mark is for 1st level characters. It will not get you to 3rd, but is great fun.
2. Burnt Offerings can be use as a stand alone, but has two down sides a) you can only get it as a PDF or as part of the Anv edition of RotRL and b) if you run it it kind of stops you using RotRL at a later date.
Also, while reading through the different modules reviews and details, it seems like most of them are designed for a party of at least 4 characters.
Four PCs is the standard assumption for a party. Some adventures, of which Souls for Smuggler's Shiv is one, have a core group of NPCs that accompany the party and can be helpful for smapller groups of players by supplementing roles that aren't filled by the PCs (i.e., healing, disabling traps, spells, etc.).
Creating your own adventure is absolutely an option, particularly when you can tailor it to the abilities of your group, but I'll point out that while designing encounters isn't too difficult, putting together an interesting storyline is dependent on the skills of the GM. If you have the talent and ambition to make up your own plot, go for it! However, I've played in homebrew adventures where it became clear that the GM was just stringing encounters together with no overarching story in line, and they can get tedious. If you want to make your own adventure, I'd advise you to start with a dungeon: you already have a clear goal in mind of "get to the end" and don't need a complex backstory.
Yeah, I forgot about Beginner's Box. I don't have it, however. Isn't it short?
Isn't it short?
No, it's not simply a module. It's an entire simplified Rule Book (Hero's Handbook) and Game Master Guide, with supplied pregens. It contains a good introductory module (Black Fang's Dungeon) that has 10 rooms that introduce various aspects of tabletop RPGs, game mastering, and ends with an iconic fight against a dragon.
Takes players up to level 5, and has some extra info for merging into regular PF rules and characters.
The PDF is only $10 and is well worth it as a way for a group of newbies to thoroughly test out Pathfinder. Good instructions for new GMs, character building, etc.
Ah, sort of short from the perspective of a 64 page module (or an AP book), but probably a couple of sessions worth of material, particularly for noobs.
I agree, Lynos, which is why I went straight to APs. That was a hard way to learn. If Gallows of Madness had been out when we started (2 years ago), that would have been a huge benefit. I knew the game fairly well since I've been playing (in general) since the late 70s. However, I never got to play as a GM and we always played "fight of the week" type scenarios with very little back-story.
What's nice about Gallows of Madness is that it's written with a lot of text explaining what's going on and how things should play out (like tactics). Also, it only references the CRB and beastiary, IIRC, plus some rules pulled in from one of the Book of the Damned volumes, for which they re-print the actual rules. That makes it less of a rules burden, too.
Yeah, it really is an introduction to table top RPGs, and a subset of the Pathfinder rules.
If you aren't intimidated by the Core Rule Book, then there's not much to be gained by acquiring the Beginner Box.