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Hzurr
2010-07-14, 02:37 PM
So this Saturday, my group will be taking a break from our Shadowrun game, and running a one-off 4th edition game. We have a potential new player for our regular 4E game this fall, but she has never played a tabletop rpg before, so this is going to serve as an intro to her, so she can get a quick feeling for what it's like before she commits to a larger campaign.

My thought was that I would come up with a handful of quick mini-adventures (maybe a few combats and a skill challenge or two) with various themes, and let the players choose which one they wanted to play.

However, when I sat down last night to write the adventures I kept drawing a blank, so I figured I should ask the wise, intelligent, and exceptionally good-looking people on the forums to help me out.

The party is level 2, and (at the moment) will consist of:
Halfling Seeker
Eladrin Rogue
??? Assassin
??? Paladin
??? Cleric

So we'll have all 4 roles covered, and the party will be a bit heavy on the sneaky side (the seeker is trained in stealth as well), and a bit light on the magic side.

I'm hoping to have some very traditional types of adventures (An evil sorcerer killed the princess, goblins have taken over a mine, A young dragon just moved into the area, etc.), and have them with a slightly different focus. One may focus more on exploration, while another has a distinct "nature" theme, while another is more investigation, and another is more traps & problem solving.

So....That's where I'm at now. Suggestions?

Meta
2010-07-14, 02:42 PM
Well it's a bit uncreative but fallcrest is nice this time of year

dromer
2010-07-14, 02:44 PM
I've been playing around with the idea of my group finding a kobold base of operations and completely destroying it/rescuing a VIP/Killing the wizard mid controlling them all/stopping an invasion of a nearby town. Since kobolds are fairly heavy on traps, a sneaky group would be a good fit.

LibraryOgre
2010-07-14, 03:20 PM
I, unfortunately, will not be taking part in this game; scheduling conflict. Hzurr's Shadowrun character (known as "Truck Dude") can expect a manhole cover upside the head for this outrage.

However, I'm a big fan of simple beginnings. Start with, say, everyone in a tavern in a small town. Get some light role-playing out of the way, get her used to thinking in character a little... maybe her seeker gets into a bar bet with the rogue and an NPC, throwing daggers at a target. Then, as things are settling into the game a little bit... have shouts come from outside, and someone announce that goblins are attacking the town.

Goblins attack, get driven off... and the heroes are the ones who are best equipped to track them to their lair and finish them off. You can include some combined-arms type with wolves/wargs being ridden by the goblins, plus shamans and the like.

Plus, no one has to feel bad about killing goblins.

Meta
2010-07-14, 03:21 PM
I've been playing around with the idea of my group finding a kobold base of operations and completely destroying it/rescuing a VIP/Killing the wizard mid controlling them all/stopping an invasion of a nearby town. Since kobolds are fairly heavy on traps, a sneaky group would be a good fit.

If you like that idea, Fallcrest and Kobold Hall would be a good starting place. Check the back of the DMG and bend all that info to your own desires

cdrcjsn
2010-07-14, 04:02 PM
Quick idea: Goblin Raids
For the intro, I'd go with the party traveling into town with a caravan. They've been traveling for days heading to a frontier town and I'd let the party introduce their characters to one another.

After introductions, I'd call for initiative and start an easy fight...A Goblin Ambush!

The best feature of 4e I say is the combat, and I'd like to highlight that feature.

Later in town, they can meet NPCs, find out that there's been a rash of humanoid attacks and get hired to find out where they're coming from.

Then proceed with a classic dungeon crawl (perhaps a ruined tower with a hidden treasure chamber that the goblin shaman has a map to).

I'd keep total combats to under 3 or less for one gaming session.

Lord Vampyre
2010-07-14, 04:54 PM
For variety, you could go with the Zombie attack theme. After the party defends the town from the Zombies, they have to solve the mystery of where the Zombies came from in the first place.

Same basic structure as the Goblin scenario, except it becomes more mystery based than exploration based.

The final battle could be with a young necromancer. Except for the fact that you have a new player, I would probably make it a losing battle since it is a one-shot game with a slim chance of success. I would never do that to a new player however.

Snake-Aes
2010-07-14, 05:22 PM
The guild of dwarven brewmasters hired the heroes to locate and retrieve the supply of black ale their caravan lost during an attack.
The kick: The thief is an alcoholic white dragon.

potatocubed
2010-07-14, 05:38 PM
I would say a good one-off 4e adventure has three 'things' in it, be they encounters or skill challenges. Nice and quick like.

Plots!

A isolated bakery has been overrun by goblins. The baker hires the characters to free his bakery and rescue his wife, who is held hostage.

The twist: the baker has sold the bakery to the goblins, who aren't bad as goblins go, and is using some of the money to hire adventurers in an attempt to keep the bakery and the cash both. He has no wife, and will use her lack of return as an attempt to withhold even more of the money.

OR

A thieves' guild is stepping up recruitment efforts. One of the tasks is to steal something valuable from a famous local. As obvious bigwigs, the characters find themselves the targets of many, many substandard attempts to relieve themselves of their stuff - which can be handled as skill challenges or combat as you like.

Clearly, the only way to stop the harassment is to hunt down (skill challenge) and batter (combat) the recruiter!

OR

A local [something] is hiring adventurers, and is staging a competition to find the best ones. Challenges include 'opportunities for individual PCs to show off', group combat (against similar-sized parties of NPCs in some sort of tournament structure, assume nonlethal attacks) and a scavenger hunt (skill challenge/s). Of course, the competition are there to be bantered with, allied with and/or betrayed, and may also act to sabotage the PCs.