I'm introducing a new group to DnD for the first time. I'm planning to run a fun, one shot 5E adventure for 6-8, level 1 characters.
I'm counting on the community for some guidance.
I am aware of Lost Mines of Phandelver but I do not have it yet and I'm thinking it may be too long for a one shot.
I found the Mines of Madness online but I think it was designed for level 3 characters and it might be too tough.
Should I just create an adventure from scratch?
Any tips or suggestions? Thanks.
You can run an adventure I wrote - Barrow of the Evensong. It's made for four 3rd-level characters, but six to eight 1st-level characters should be able to do it. Have some backup characters on hand just in case somebody buys the farm though. I've run this adventure in less than 3 hours for a group of 3 players.
iserith wrote:
Hexgoblin wrote:
iserith wrote:
Honestly I would not recommend running new players through any 3rd-level adventure with 1st-level characters as 5e can be quite unforgiving. With up to 8 PCs they should be able to overcome any encounter but a lot of monsters woud be able to one-shot kill a PC outright. Heck, that still happens sometimes in the 1st-level adventures (I've had it happen a few times). This could be pretty disheartening to some new players (or it could have the opposite effect and make them really like the thrill and the danger - you would know what appeals to these guys/gals better than I).
Anyway the long and the short of it is that if you don't want to kill any of your individual PCs I think you should stay away from 3rd-level content. Its the spiky/burst damage that will kill them so you would be better off finding something for 1st-level, and if you're concerned about it being too easy add a few extra of the weaker baddies into the encounters. That way you can spread the damage across the party and avoid unnecessary PC deaths (unless like I indicated above, you actually wanna kill the PCs)
Regarding Lost Mines of Phandelver, it's a pretty good module but it isn't designed to be beaten in a one-shot session, seeing how things often slow down with larger groups (especially ones with new players) I would place it more around the 3-5 session mark (possibly as many as 8 depending on how your newbies fair and how long they hang around in town).
My actual advice would be to get the Lost Mines of Phandelver, which more or less starts with a group of goblins ambushing the players on the road, having aready kidnapped another traveller and taken him back to their cave. Have the PCs pursue the goblins there and save the kidnapped traveller as part of a cool, short dungeon crawl (that's pulled straight from the book) then have the traveller tell them that his friend has been taken to the goblins main base (which is also in the book) in the ruins of an old fortress. Once they defeat the goblin boss, save the travellers, and return them to the town call that the end of the session/campaign. It's a relativey self-contained story then with the goblins ambush of the PCs as a nice adventure hook (or use the ones from the book) and has a nice escalation of battling the goblins through their cave and main base, should be plenty interesting enough for a new group - and you could decide to include a little section in town depending if you feel like it - plus if they like it you could use it as a foundation to seed the main plot/story of the rest of the adventure (LMoP).
5e combat is fast enough that this could absolutely be done in a 3-5 hour session, even with complete newbies, it also reads/plays pretty well and is fairly interesting. You can buy the HQ versions of these maps from the artists website for something like $1.5 each and have a printer do them on A3 silk paper for about the same - having a sic tactical map will really help capture new players attention too.
Goodman Games put out a slim and quick level 1 module, The Fey Sisters Fate. I don’t own it, but Goodman Games is generally on-point when it comes to modules.
I’ll agree that running a module for 3rd level characters with 1st level characters could be rough. First level characters are back to being a bit more squishy.
Yeah, I only skimmed through The Fey Sisters Fate and the other module they released so far (they have two more on kickstarter at the moment I think) but they seemed alright, pretty decent even, though nothing jumped out at me as particularly good or bad - they probably wouldn't be a bad shout, Though personally I would still adapt LMoP over running them but I can't put forward a great reason why I feel that way so to each their own.
Anyway, the main thing I returned to say which I forgot to mention in my first post is that it sounds like you were leaning towards Mines of Madness (perhaps because you know it well or really like it) - in which case a lot of groups start at 3rd level so that the PCs begin with their specialisations - which you could also do. In which case the issue of it being too hard goes away.
Now personally I've never liked this because... A) those first few level ups are fun and you end up robbing the players of that and... 2) if you have newbies giving them all their additional options up to 3rd level will make the game more overwhelming for them and much slower as a result - so how about this as a compromise... start the PCs at 1st level with either 2nd or 3rd lvl HP/Hit-die and then do not give them new HP/Hit-Die for the first level or two until they progress past what they have already. It's actually a pretty eloquent fix. With as many as 8 I would only suggest 2nd level but then I haven't read Mines of Madness to know quite how hard it goes.
The only real danger I can see with Mines of Madness is what another poster said at the outset - that it was written during the playtest and so may be inherently unbalanced. It's probably fine though! 
I ran Mines of Madness for a group but it did take a bit of modifying and I'm pretty sure my pcs were 3rd or 4th level at the time. We really enjoyed it, but it is not really a 1st level adventure and it was designed as a mini-death trap too.
With a little modification you could probably run it for a bunch of 1st level pcs that level up after the first few encounters. But make sure the players have back up pcs for when they die, get turned to stone, get turned into a pile of coins, get smashed on a ceiling and then again on the ground (reverse gravity trap), etc.
For an intro module, I would just handcraft a small tomb with the outer chamber full of minions (1 HP, low-damage attacks) about as many as the party. And the deeper chamber has one Big Monster with about 3/4 the total party HP, attack that knocks one char to 0 HP. Find a Treasure Chest at the end (under Big Monster's grave?). They can practice the mechanics of combat, plus group tactics plus Healing. This module exists in a vacuum, isn't part of anything else at all.
I made a simple, small adventure for level 1 & 2. It begins with the group being surprised by a nearly dead archeologist who wants them to go back to an excavation site to try to save his associates. The site was overrun by goblinoids, but there is still a secret buried within - it's the resting place of an ancient lord, Sayer Valdam, who died mysteriously hundreds of years ago.
My maps are crude, hand drawn rough maps and the adventure notes are slightly more than an outline, but it may give you some ideas. I updated it for 5e so it should work. If there are 6 PCs, you may want to add 50% more creatures, but who knows.
https://sites.google.com/site/sandsendcampaign/resources-d-dnext
Some 3rd level adventures will work just fine for a large 1st level party, some will not. Iserith says his should work, I haven't looked at hit, but he tends to know his stuff.
If there is any chance of them wanting to continue playing..... I would use LMoP, its a really good adventure and it will let you start at 1st level just fine.
If you can track down an AL DM....they may be wiling to let you 'borrow' one of the expedition modules. 1-1 and 2-1 are designed as 5 45min-1hr mini adventures designed for 1st level. And there are plenty of Tier 1 modules that will work just fine with a large party of lvl 1s. And they are meant to be played in about 4 hours.
Yeah, Lost Mine of Phandelver is really amazing, you shouldn't miss out on it.
Thanks everyone. There's some really good advice here. It's one of the reasons I posted here and one of the reasons I like this community so much.
Not sure what I'm going to do yet (lots of options) but I appreciate the advice. I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks.
I'm also open to more advice and tips while I make my arrangements.
The expedition program do have good beginner level adventure for player between level 1-4.
DDEX1-1 and DDEX2-1 are compose of 5 mini 1 hour very easy adventure.
DDEX1-2 to DDEX1-9 and DDEX2-2 are 4 hours adventure geared toward player level 2, but contain the adjustement for different size/level of the party.
You might be able to go ask to your local store if he can give you one of those module (store recceive those for free if they are part of the Expedition program)
if you want to be on the illegal side of the fence, some illegal people probably already made those adventure available online
I know they are available online being a password that only event organizer/store owner receive. I heard people saying they are available for free on other website, but that might be illegal download/upload