Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ardentscholar 10-01-07, 10:27 AM	Greetings! A little background. I have been playing D&D for about 22 years. (Gosh I feel old) and have been DMing for about 18 of those years. Many groups have come and gone, friends lost, found and lost again. My latest group, a fine group of four with a casual player, a power gamer, a roleplayer and a tactician, have just come back from a summer hiatus of jobs and girlfriends/wives, and are getting together once again for a bi weekly game. We decided to start fresh. Really fresh. We are big believers in home grown campaign settings and have been playing in our last for five or more years. But this time out I went for broke and created a new campaign setting. A little higher on the magic level, a little more gritty and we are good to go… or so I thought. Here are three 1st level characters… what to do? A 1st level adventure for three players. A fighter, a ranged combat rogue and a wizard. I am drawing a blank. I want it to be more then just a simple dungeon crawl on their way to 1001 exp. I want it to be a fun time past single digit hit points. So I ask? What makes for a good 1st level adventure? What elements of adventure have been most successful for you? What themes have played out well at 1st level? Your characters know each other. They are in a small town outside a larger city. They are experienced D&D players and know how to roleplay and are very comfortable with all elements of the rules. What would you do?
ppirilla 10-01-07, 10:35 AM	Introduce the BBEG early. Give them a mystery to solve. Basically, IMO low-level play serves to set up the campaign. Let them witness a crime, and the police can hint that they're stumped as to the cause of this string of what-have-you. (Which we later find out are orchestrated by BBEG #1) It gets the players interested in your story early, makes a decent adventure session, and gives the PC's the background information all in one go.
Morka 10-01-07, 10:53 AM	Alternatively, the early adventures can only be remotely linked to the long-term plot. For example, if your BBEG is a necromancer, the first adventure can be a group of goblinoid slavers attacking remote farms, to sell people to the necromancer. (They don't know it is to turn all of them into ghouls and ghasts.) The second adventure can be a theft at the Grand Arcane Library; the local Thieves Guild could be hiring adventurers to investigate on an unsanctionned coup. Then the adventurers can be sent to an old haunted castle, where they will have their first true meeting with the Necromancer, searching something else in the ruins.
DrMorganes 10-01-07, 10:55 AM	Another greybeard! I'm always surprised by how many of us there are these days. (And don't feel badly about feeling old. I've been playing for a full quarter-century! ) As you're well-aware, Level 1 PCs are fragile things. One solid hit and most of 'em are down and dying, and flat-out dead on a confirmed critical hit. Dying at Level 1 is no fun, but neither is spending the early days of your career running errands for the town. I find a mix of story-based awards and low-level combat to work best until (most of) the PCs build up enough HP to take a few licks without keeling over, say around Character Level 3. Use encounters that make use of PC skills and player ingenuity rather than PC combat skill. Players of all skill levels enjoy coming up with creative solutions to all sorts of problems and puzzles, so it's hard to go wrong there. Throw in just enough combat to keep things fresh and dangerous; that keeps the powergamer/tactician happy. As far as adventure ideas, a "dungeon crawl" may not be the best option at all. By definition (and I say this more for the new players who may read this) a dungeon crawl involves delving into unknown and dangerous spaces, with little in the way of true opportunities to safely rest. At Level 1, and without magical healing support, this spells death for the party. Instead, go for an overland adventure of some sort. Your party does not include any specifically nature-based classes (like ranger or druid), so keeping it in town makes sense to take advantage of all the classes' strengths. The PCs have a (mostly) safe place to rest and access to healing at the local temple of Pelor (perhaps because the Temple has hired them?). A mystery is good. This would give the rogue a chance out of the gate to use some of his social skills, gives all players an opportunity to build some contacts (c.f., Complete Adventurer for more on those), and may set the stage for a recurring villain down the road. Alternately, you can download one of the Level 1 adventure from the download section of the main site and adjust it to fit a 3/4 strength party.
Orchomenos 10-01-07, 11:31 AM	As far as adventure ideas, a "dungeon crawl" may not be the best option at all. By definition (and I say this more for the new players who may read this) a dungeon crawl involves delving into unknown and dangerous spaces, with little in the way of true opportunities to safely rest. At Level 1, and without magical healing support, this spells death for the party. A 1st level dungeon is not necessary the Old McGrath Mannor, reputed to be haunted for centuries. It could be the local blacksmith basement that haven't been clean for years, and young Plock's dog happenned to enter there, and now young Plock won't stop crying until someone bring back his puppy... On their way, the players can meet a Tiny monstrous centipede, a basic rat trap, and some other basic stuff. You could even have them meet a swarm, if the old blacksmith give them some acid flask to defend themselves...
BW0222 10-01-07, 01:02 PM	ardentscholar, There are generally three goals to a 1st-level adventure. 1. Get the group together. Typically, introducing some type of common plot which they are interested in following. 2. Introduce them to the campaign setting. 3. Ensure they survive to second level. I personally, like going through their backgrounds prior to play and ensuring that they have some type of common reason. Either they already know each other, they are hired by the same person/group, or they need to be together to perform some common task. I like introducing a few friendly NPCs from their past which provide them with something to do. I also like to limit the initial starting area such that you don't overwhelm them with choices or half hours of "box text" descriptions. For example, I'd look at your PCs and include some recent history for them, say... The wizard is currently in the employ of a respectable guild in some nearby town. The fighter works his uncle as a in the same town as a mercenary guard for caravans. The rogue works for a nearby smuggers group as a look out working out of a nearby village. The wizard's guild master has been contacted by the smugglers guild who say they have found a rare travelling spellbook appearently once owned by a former guildmaster who mysteriously disappeared sixty years ago. They send the wizard PC to examine the book to see if it is genuine and collect a favor from the fighter PCs uncle to sent the fighter PC as a body guard. They are to meet some of the smuggers a few miles north of the village. Meanwhile, the rogue PC travels with twelve of the smugglers to a clearing where they set-up a tent. The smuggler's leader, sends the rogue PC to go meet up with the wizard guild's representative on the road and escort them back to the camp. The PCs meet up along the road way. Of course, when they head back to the camp... they find smoke, several dead smugglers, two dead wolves, and a dying large dog-like creature (a gnoll). The spellbook and several of the senior smugglers are missing. Further investigation finds that many of the men were killed with throat cuts and have blue lips (drugged). This gets folks together. Gives them a common purpose... find the spell book, the missing smugglers, and/or the gnolls who killed them. Perhaps one of the smugglers betrayed the group and is stealing the book for himself, perhaps the gnolls were hired by a member of the wizard's guild wanting the book for himself, maybe the gnolls didn't know the value of the book but the smugglers were set-up for some other reason, etc., etc.?
nightwing 10-01-07, 04:17 PM	I'd make a mystery. Take into account the wizard's spell list and put some elements in there that his spells might help resolve. Put some info that is best gained by secrecy or is locked-up good so that the rogue can contribute. Put in some doors that are barred that the rogue can't pick for the fighter to bash down. You of course need a couple guards or sentries or cronies to silence before they can raise an alarm. Then, the final showdown where the party has to cooperate to defeat a small group of foes. Perhaps another party of 3 or 4 "adventurers". Maybe an "expert," a "adept," and a "warrior" that sort of mirror the party and are in cahoots doing something illegal, but slightly weaker than the party so that it doesn't end up being a coin toss for who wins the final showdown. ...I've been playing 25 years and DMing 21. Woohoo! Foggies rule!
Mock26 10-01-07, 04:37 PM	Greetings! A little background. I have been playing D&D for about 22 years. (Gosh I feel old) and have been DMing for about 18 of those years. Many groups have come and gone, friends lost, found and lost again. My latest group, a fine group of four with a casual player, a power gamer, a roleplayer and a tactician, have just come back from a summer hiatus of jobs and girlfriends/wives, and are getting together once again for a bi weekly game. We decided to start fresh. Really fresh. We are big believers in home grown campaign settings and have been playing in our last for five or more years. But this time out I went for broke and created a new campaign setting. A little higher on the magic level, a little more gritty and we are good to go… or so I thought. Here are three 1st level characters… what to do? A 1st level adventure for three players. A fighter, a ranged combat rogue and a wizard. I am drawing a blank. I want it to be more then just a simple dungeon crawl on their way to 1001 exp. I want it to be a fun time past single digit hit points. So I ask? What makes for a good 1st level adventure? What elements of adventure have been most successful for you? What themes have played out well at 1st level? Your characters know each other. They are in a small town outside a larger city. They are experienced D&D players and know how to roleplay and are very comfortable with all elements of the rules. What would you do? My favorite 1st level theme was to require all adventurers in the campaign area to have an Adventuring License. These licenses cost the whopping total of 5,000 gp per person on the license! To faciliatate this it is common for begging adventurers to apprentice with an existing adventuring group. This apprenticeship lasts for about 3 years and when it is over the group is given their own license and are all 1st level characters with 0 XP (the 3-year apprentice ship is NOT roleplayed out). There is a catch, though, and that is that the sponsor groups charge a much higher fee to take on apprentices. These fees can range from 10,000 gp per person up to 50,000 gp per person. The first time I did it I set the cost at 15,000 per person, but I ruled that through their apprenticeship, which did sometimes involved travelling with the sponsor group on adventures and this allowed them to earn a little extra money, that the only owed 14,500 gp per person (served no purpose other than a bit of flavor). Once they start out they are responsible for making payments to their sponsor whenever they can or want to. So, it was fun watching the group divide up treasure (of which I gave out more than they should have gotten) and then discuss how much they wanted to spare for their sponsors. Their first adventure was to explore the ruins of a local tower that was destroyed by a battle between the wizard who owned the tower and a demon. This happened centuries before and it was the standard fist mission. The group was told to research the tower, find out it's history, the name of the wizard and demon (as well as type of demon) and any thing else they could learn. They were to then explore the tower, map it out, and afterwards give a written report to their sponsor group. There were various people in the city that they had to find and talk to (such as a local mage who was an expert on demons). But, this wasn't an ordinary adventure, because some crazed clerics were also exploring the ruins and they used gun powder to blow a hole through a wall that led to a dungeon that no one in the city knew about. So, the group shows up at the tower, starts exploring, and is attacked by the kobold servants of the clerics. They then proceed to explore the new dungeon area and fight the kobolds who are looting the place (though by the time the group got there most of the good loot had already been taken out) and they eventually meet the three crazed priests and defeat them. My group actually wrote up a report and handed it in to me!
Goon_for_Hire 10-02-07, 09:24 AM	Let's hear it for the mouldy GMs. I started with D&D 20 years ago, and have been DMing fir all of them... in fact I've only actually played a PC for more than a single session in the past six months!! I would say that the best thing to do is to have the PCs deal with bandits or monsters that have some tertiary connection to the plot, as folks have already suggested, and hire the PCs to stave off the next raiding party. Give them a ton of opportunities to gain information through roleplaying that will give them all the tactical data they need... vector of approach, good terrain choke points, etc. Include multiple ambush points, fallback positions, and a way to cut of the baddies' escape when they now they are hooped... that way a single job can be broken up into multiple encounters. Make sure to reward the roleplayer for his info-gathering skills. Once they have the tactical advance data they need let them set up an ambush that puts the power gamer into a position to get a vulgarly high kill count thanks half for his *****in' build and half to the tactician's careful planning. Personally ,I love it when the lone fighter gets to stand somewhere like a narrow trail and bellow "You shall not pass," causing cocky villains to advance, then die messily in a hail of spells and arrows. Make sure they get story goal and Rp rewards along the way. I'm still of the chool that 12.5 fights/story goals or 25 rp/humour/sheer brilliance bonues should make up a level (40x character level is a perfect rewad for RP). Once they've crushed the enemy using the power of their collective brains, have the locals reward them, sing their praises, and throw a few wenches at them, then hire them to clear out the rest of the baddie's nest for yout level 2 adventure... that's where they can find prisoners, overhear conversations, or come accross bizarre clues tying the little baddies to the main plot, thus sucking them in.
Phrennzy 10-02-07, 01:14 PM	http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=930972 I just ran the free (2nd level) adventure "What's cooking." as the first 'adventure'. The party had met in the large city that they had all visited to train in, or in fact lived there. The party of four accompanied the artificer to his trainer for a last minute scroll grab before setting out to explore a keep on a map given to the cleric by his mentor. Arriving at the trainer's house, all heck broke loose. It was a great adventure and very silly and fun.
Mock26 10-02-07, 01:20 PM	Yeah, bandits can be fun. I once had an encounter where the group, which was 2nd level at the time thouh it can work easily at first, was ambushed by 30 bandits! As the group was marching down they passed between two wooded hills when a bandit jumped out onto a rock and told the group they were surrounded by bandits and that they were ordered to toss down their weapons and surrender or they'd be killed. To give power to his words 20 arrows come flying out of the woods, strike the ground, and form a circle around the group. The group surrendered, was stripped of all their money and clothes and sent back to town naked. The group then had to deal with the town guards and borrow money to resupply themselves and then go after the bandits again. They eventually found the bandits and learned that the entire bandit group was made up of one leader (who was 20 years old) and 6 children ranging in age from 12-18. At the ambush site they had concealed 30 crossbows in the trees and loaded them with arrows. The crossbows were grouped in groups of 5 and each group was fired simulatenously with a tug of a rope. The chance of actually hitting someone with these crossbows was only 1 in 1,000, but the purpose was not to actually hit anyone. It was to try and bluff them into not attacking. The group found the bandits, captured them, and one of the characters (a dwarf) actually spanked them all before turning them over to the town guard!