Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Illeveun Bloodblaze 04-05-06, 12:49 AM	I am a new DM, DMing for new or semi-new players. Is there any good introductory adventures into the forgotten realms campaign setting? Plus I also need some ideas for DMPC's, as there are only two players. I am thinking that one is a neutral elf wizard of the shadow weave, who is from the silver marches, and the other one a chaotic evil drow cleric of shar. But I need more ideas for backround or thinks like that.
j_gunder 04-05-06, 03:12 AM	I really enjoy the series of adventure hooks that were presented in the resource "The Silver Marches," which revolve around a situation in the town of Deadsnows. That book came out ages ago, I think it is set at the end of 1372 in the Realms timeline so you will need to update it (it is also made with 3.0 rules, so some of the stat blocks may need updated), but if you don't care about all that (I don't), it is a great setting to run a low-level adventure with new players. Since it is set in the Marches anyway, it is an easy lead into the "Sons of Gruumsh" adventure that just came out recently. At any rate, I have found that the small town of Deadsnows is full of PCs with huge amounts of room for development...I have begun 3 separate campaigns based on the material, each one better than the last. The clergy of Shar are the BBEG of the set, but I have also introduced Tanarukks in the past, made the kir-lanan bigger players, exagerrated the threat of the orcs to the town...there is plenty of room to make it your own. Just my two cents. I am sure others will hit you with several other ideas.
Tergiver 04-06-06, 09:22 PM	I think it depends on the characters - when you're dealing with just two player characters, who they are really affects what the story could be. It is tricky for new players (and new DMs!) but you might try just letting the characters run by themselves, maybe with cohorts and/or familiars, without DMPCs. I would say that if you reduced the Encounter Level you threw against them by one, and let them stay near healing for a while, they should be OK. You might throw in an optional rule to make survival a little easier - for instance, let them go to negative hit points equal to their constitution before they actually die. There are a lot of buddy schticks and examples you can use to think up adventure hooks and ways to frame the game - Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Hope and Crosby, Batman and Robin, Mulder and Scully, Holmes and Watson, Bo and Luke Duke, Andy Griffith and Barney Fife...
Illeveun Bloodblaze 04-07-06, 12:49 AM	Thank you for the advice, I will certainly use both of yous ideas