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Ducklord
2010-10-16, 10:08 PM
I'll be starting a game soon, where all the players are new to d&d, so I want them to have a few introductory adventures in the small isolated village they're all from, before they get their hands on the main quest. The problem is, I seem to be running short on adventure ideas.

The PCs are all relatively young and inexperienced(lvl3), live in an isolated village surrounded by swamps filled with lizardmen, and if it makes any difference, we play 3.5. Any suggestions?

jmbrown
2010-10-16, 10:21 PM
They're in an isolated village surrounded by lizard men. The adventures should be writing themselves.

Maybe a kid steals one of the lizard men's eggs and they start attacking the village. Turn over the kid, who happens to be the village's elder? Or maybe they fight back against the lizard men who are definitely in the right?

Half-orc Bard
2010-10-16, 10:23 PM
Make them go into the sewers and kill dire rats. It's easy, but it'll be fun for noobs.

Crow
2010-10-16, 10:24 PM
Travel into the wilderness where a hedge wizard lives in a small, isolated broch. Retrieve his laundry, wash it, and return it to him before the next full moon.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-10-16, 10:25 PM
Maybe an escort mission through the swamp, that way you can have an NPC that might gives hint, direcction, etc to the players without having a DMPC stealing the party's thumder

Randel
2010-10-17, 12:45 AM
1). The younger daughter of one of the town shepherds (a Ms. Boena Peep) was watching over a flock of sheep when she suddenly say a huge wolf looming out of the forest. She managed to escape and made her way back to the village yelling "Wolf! Wolf!"

Those sheep are valuable for the family and the village in general. While its possible that some of them might escape the wolf and make their way home, it would doubtlessly be more successful if someone went out to find them. Dealing with the wolf would be good as well but from Ms. Peeps description its a giant beast that wouldn't be easy to defeat (although she is a little girl, her parents insist that she's never been caught exaggerating the truth).


2). An old hag lives in the forest, she normally keeps to herself but its said that every once in a while she tries to snatch up bad little children and cook them up to fuel her powers. Its very clear that she only targets bad children and on several occasions she's even approached people and offered to make deals in exchange for children (rumors are that one of the families had offered her one of their children in exchange for her ending a plague or bringing someone back from the dead... the details are vague).

Regardless, the old hag is getting restless again and she absolutely must get another child before the next blue moon (several days or weeks). The players can either try to protect the village from her to motivate her to look elsewhere, or they can locate a suitable small child for her and offer to bargain... or they could sit around and be totally surprised when the old hag steals Whiny McBrattypants away and makes a soup out of him.

Oh, maybe introduce a few spoiled kids in the village and make them relatives to the players or to the elder or whatnot.

3). Somewhere in the swamp there are four large rocks that resemble giant trolls. Rumor has it that those were once a band of really nasty trolls who terrorised the land and ate both livestock and people before a band of little men came by and petrified them.

The local kids occasionally go to that place and play on the statues and draw on them or whatever. Then just the other day a child tells everyone that one of the troll statues is missing and the others are in different positions.

Investigation reveals that troll statues are in different positions and there a big footprints in the ground. Even closer inspection (probably involving string and bits of wood for markers) reveals that the stone trolls are in fact moving now but very slowly... some faster than others.

The PCs now have to destroy the trolls and figure out where the other one went and what got these guys moving after all this time. Normal attacks (or pickaxes) either aren't putting a scratch on them or seem to aggravate the problem (chipping off a stone piece causes a fleshy piece to grow in its place) and its worried that if these guys get any more mobile then there's nothing anyone could do to stop them.

4). Old Granny Seamick died recently and after three days got back up a spring in her step and a thirst for blood. Grandpa Seamick is concerned but has no idea how to deal with this (particularly since he's been hanging onto that 'till death do we part' thing and now wants to get a younger wife before he dies). Scandal abounds as Granny wants to live it up, Grandpa wants her to stay down, and nobody else wants to get involved.

5). Some monsters other than lizardmen are moving into the area and fighting with the lizardmen for control of the swamps.

6). Some hunters from out of town show up and start hunting the local swamp creatures and lizardmen for their pelts. This ticks off the lizardmen even more so than they are already. The PCs can either tell the hunters to conduct their business elsewhere or they can try to get in on the action. Hunting the lizardmen too much might result in them attacking the village but then again its always fun to show the lizardmen whos the boss.

7). Someone needs a well dug and the PCs can help out... then the well runs into a dungeon full of kobolds.

FelixG
2010-10-17, 05:28 AM
Hmmm so a new adventuring party...in an isolated village surrounded by swamps...with lizardmen inhabiting it...

The solution is simple! Githyanki attack!

(hope people get the joke :smallbiggrin: )

PopcornMage
2010-10-17, 06:00 AM
Hmm, appropriate encounters.

First I'll give some suggestions on places where things could happen.

Ruins. Temples are especially good, but old military fortifications can work. So might some special purpose building like a school. Bandits and/or evil cultists may inhabit them, or slavers, or rebels.

A farm, with a kindly old farmer who is...really quite dangerous. Perhaps he has charmed some monsters to work for him, or animated some dead.

Stately Manor. Somebody has to be in charge. Or maybe they're arguing about who is in charge.

And don't forget the value of natural events. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, forest fires, even plagues. Can be incentive to move the Pcs along when appropriate too.

Kris Strife
2010-10-17, 06:18 AM
The town is out of milk and the cow has gone dry. The PCs must travel to the market to find a new one, and do its laundry.

Kaww
2010-10-17, 06:24 AM
Hmmm so a new adventuring party...in an isolated village surrounded by swamps...with lizardmen inhabiting it...

The solution is simple! Githyanki attack!

(hope people get the joke :smallbiggrin: )

And one of them has lost his/her mother, some strange circumstances, 20 years ago & was raised by her elven adventuring buddy...

Dr.Epic
2010-10-17, 06:28 AM
Clear (dire) rats out of someone's basement.

FoE
2010-10-17, 06:34 AM
Hmm ...

An explorer comes to the village hiring labourers for an expedition into the wilderness. The pay is extravagant, and though the ruined temple he seeks is in the middle of the lizard men lands, he assures the PCs that he has already met with their leaders. He's lying, of course, and has only a few coins to his name; once reaching the temple, he's planning to feed the labourers to traps or slay them and then keep everything he finds for himself.

The PCs are captured shortly afterwards by the lizard men and must negotiate for their release. This means the procurement of a rare item or they are pressed into service in an upcoming battle against another group of lizard men.

When the PCs make it back to their village, strange deaths begin occuring and the PCs learn that one of the artifacts they brought back from the jungle is cursed. A magical creature of some kind has followed them hom and is now causing the deaths. The PCs must set a trap for it.

The tribe that captured them births its own lizard king, who immediately begins campaigning aggressively to push the invading villagers from their land. Once again, the PCs must make a daring raid into the heart of lizard man territory to slay the new leader.

Premier
2010-10-17, 06:36 AM
Go to Dragonsfoot.org and look around in the Resources/Adventure Modules sections for the Goblins Tooth and Melford series (latter is Melford Murder, Spider farm, Shrine of the Oracle and Beneath the Darkshroud Peaks. They adventures for low-level characters taking place in and around villages - even though the assumption is that the PCs arrive there from afar.* They're for AD&D but you should be able to convert them easily.


* Come to think of it, I personally wouldn't try to put the new players through their paces in the very village they're from, because it might create problems. See, if you tell them they've grown up there, they're going to expect that they would know everyone around and know them in quite some detail - it's a completey reasonable expectation. However, this kind of knowledge is not something you can, as the DM, possibly deliver them. For one, you'd need to work out dozens if not over a hundred NPCs in some detail AND make them memorable AND resign yourself to the fact most of them won't be getting and screentime. Two, even if you did that, there's no humanly possible way to actually deliver this much information to them in a few minutes. So what you'll inevitably end up with is disappointment on their part due to expectations you unwittingly gave them then failed to deliver on: "I was told we can do anything we want in this game, but we don't even know anything about the people we grew up with! This game sucks!"

No matter what you do, your players - the human beings around your table - are ALWAYS going to be ignorant newcomers to any given situation, in terms of how knowledge about the game universe is distributed. It's best to reflect the same arrangement in-game as well by having the characters be people from afar.

Ducklord
2010-10-17, 07:08 AM
1). The younger daughter of one of the town shepherds (a Ms. Boena Peep) was watching over a flock of sheep when she suddenly say a huge wolf looming out of the forest. She managed to escape and made her way back to the village yelling "Wolf! Wolf!"

Those sheep are valuable for the family and the village in general. While its possible that some of them might escape the wolf and make their way home, it would doubtlessly be more successful if someone went out to find them. Dealing with the wolf would be good as well but from Ms. Peeps description its a giant beast that wouldn't be easy to defeat (although she is a little girl, her parents insist that she's never been caught exaggerating the truth).


2). An old hag lives in the forest, she normally keeps to herself but its said that every once in a while she tries to snatch up bad little children and cook them up to fuel her powers. Its very clear that she only targets bad children and on several occasions she's even approached people and offered to make deals in exchange for children (rumors are that one of the families had offered her one of their children in exchange for her ending a plague or bringing someone back from the dead... the details are vague).

Regardless, the old hag is getting restless again and she absolutely must get another child before the next blue moon (several days or weeks). The players can either try to protect the village from her to motivate her to look elsewhere, or they can locate a suitable small child for her and offer to bargain... or they could sit around and be totally surprised when the old hag steals Whiny McBrattypants away and makes a soup out of him.

Oh, maybe introduce a few spoiled kids in the village and make them relatives to the players or to the elder or whatnot.

3). Somewhere in the swamp there are four large rocks that resemble giant trolls. Rumor has it that those were once a band of really nasty trolls who terrorised the land and ate both livestock and people before a band of little men came by and petrified them.

The local kids occasionally go to that place and play on the statues and draw on them or whatever. Then just the other day a child tells everyone that one of the troll statues is missing and the others are in different positions.

Investigation reveals that troll statues are in different positions and there a big footprints in the ground. Even closer inspection (probably involving string and bits of wood for markers) reveals that the stone trolls are in fact moving now but very slowly... some faster than others.

The PCs now have to destroy the trolls and figure out where the other one went and what got these guys moving after all this time. Normal attacks (or pickaxes) either aren't putting a scratch on them or seem to aggravate the problem (chipping off a stone piece causes a fleshy piece to grow in its place) and its worried that if these guys get any more mobile then there's nothing anyone could do to stop them.

4). Old Granny Seamick died recently and after three days got back up a spring in her step and a thirst for blood. Grandpa Seamick is concerned but has no idea how to deal with this (particularly since he's been hanging onto that 'till death do we part' thing and now wants to get a younger wife before he dies). Scandal abounds as Granny wants to live it up, Grandpa wants her to stay down, and nobody else wants to get involved.

5). Some monsters other than lizardmen are moving into the area and fighting with the lizardmen for control of the swamps.

6). Some hunters from out of town show up and start hunting the local swamp creatures and lizardmen for their pelts. This ticks off the lizardmen even more so than they are already. The PCs can either tell the hunters to conduct their business elsewhere or they can try to get in on the action. Hunting the lizardmen too much might result in them attacking the village but then again its always fun to show the lizardmen whos the boss.

7). Someone needs a well dug and the PCs can help out... then the well runs into a dungeon full of kobolds.

Wow, some of the other suggestions were good too, but these take the gold. Thanks!

Hyudra
2010-10-17, 01:21 PM
1) In the middle of a skirmish with the PCs, a lizardman who has managed to teach itself halting common makes it clear that the landmass the village is situated on is actually a massive, ancient black wyrm. The creature is so large and has been sleeping for so long that vegetation and small hills of of earth have grown atop it. The periodic lizardman attacks on the village have actually been frantic attempts to rescue the villagers and the rest of the cultures living in and around the swamp. The lizardmen believed that if they could drive the villagers away, the dragon could be left to slumber and everyone could live.

The earthquakes that have plagued the village with increasing frequency are the stirrings of the dragon. There's little habitable area outside of the swamp for the various small lizardman tribes to flee to, and there's increasing amounts of fighting and panic among the creatures as a result.

If the PCs want proof, the lizardman leader gives the PCs directions to a landmark, where, if they explore the cave interior, they will find proof. An eyeball the size of a large house, red and hidden under a translucent lid.

It is left to the PCs to find a solution - not an easy task when they discover that some of the more prosperous members of their town are mining in the soil for the smallest of the scales (which they call 'coalsteel'), and are very protective of their enterprise. Things get complicated further when no less than a half hour of rumbling under the earth drives the lizardman tribes to band together and exterminate/drive away the villagers before it's too late.

2) The past weeks have seen a plague of dire rats in the village. Apparently the creatures aren't comfortable in the swamp (explanations range from predators to the amount of water relative to dry land, etc.), so they're accumulating in the village, hiding underneath houses and stairs and recently the infestation has reached the point that rats were seen climbing into a baby's crib in search of food. The local hunter/exterminator promises he's making steady progress, but the village elders beseech the fittest and smartest of the village (the PCs) to help.

What seems like a standard 'hunt X rats' plot becomes complicated when it becomes apparent that the exterminator is actually the source of the rats. He's become quite rich by breeding the rats in his hunting shed and releasing cages of the creatures in the village, ensuring there's enough panic that people will practically throw money at him to dispose of the things. If the PCs attempt to bring him to justice, they'll find he's not only knowledgeable in the ways to handle his 'pets', but he knows the swamp like the back of his hand.

3) The PC catch wind of ugly comments about the trio of Priests and Priestesses of Hextor that have arrived to stay in the village. As the priests and priestesses have done for the past couple of years, hey're stopping for supplies and to find a guide to take them & their cargo through the swamp so they can reach their temple. The issue? They're bringing slaves, shackled in a line, with them.

This is less an 'adventure' than a test of the PC's character and a way to get players riled up. As a consequence, there's no defined plot line, so I'll just go over some possible details. The villagers loathe the idea of slavery, but for the past 4 years, they've lived with the knowledge that if the Hextorites do not make it across the swamp, the villagers will be blamed (So the PCs face issue if they take matters into their own hands).

Depending on the initial reactions of the PCs, throw in complications regarding the slaves to make for a more difficult scenario, consider having the slaves include criminals or (in the other direction), children. They might include members of another race (Anything from elves to mongrelfolk), or there could be something mysterious (Maybe a slave is dead on identical to one of the PCs).

If the PCs find the situation too delicate to intervene, then there could be incentives; The priests & priestesses are arrogant, all too confident in their 'arrangement' with the village, and see no problem with taunting the villagers (including, or perhaps emphasizing, the PCs). Or perhaps a slave escapes and the Hextorites demand a replacement from the village* (with the alternative being a contingent of blackguards and priests showing up within a week).

* Note: It's a bad idea to use the PC's relatives & immediate contacts as pawns/victims/targets. Breaks a DM's cardinal rule and will teach your players early on not to include such in their backgrounds.

4): It's midsummer, the perfect time for a festival, and the deity the festival focuses on is Kord, which means athletics, exercise and friendly competition. In the interest of building relations with the neighboring lizardman tribes, the village has invited each tribe to send their best and brightest.

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned. For one thing, the village is now packed to the brim with strange folk and stranger customs, eager to watch and participate in the games. The second issue is that some of the tribes have trouble making the distinction between a friendly competition and a fight to the death. Third? Well, not all the tribes are exactly friends with one another (or with the village).

Fourth? Well, a little oversight by the village elders is that Kord is known in some circles as the Dragonslayer God, and some of the lizardman tribes worship dragons.

As a bonus, serves as a good medium for introducing combat to your low level PCs without getting them killed.

Randel
2010-10-17, 04:20 PM
1). A rich out-of-towner is comes by and offers to buy up some of the villiage property so that he can build a lightning powered railway through the area. The lightning rail would boost the economy of the area and provide rapid transit/cargo moving across the country. He insists that the lightning rail will be going through the area and he's actually helping the town out by buying up their land to put it through.

"Sure, we could just clear a way through some of the less expensive swampland around here... but just between you and me have you ever been around a lightning rail? Yeah... you know how when you see lightning in the sky then a few seconds later there is a huge crashing thunder and occasionally you see trees that had burst into flame in the night? Lets just say that living within several miles of a lightning rail isn't fun. Hows that supposed to make you feel better? Why, luckily you won't have to be anywhere near the dang thing! I'm authorised to buy up your little property for say... 1,000 gp or heck I'm feeling generous and stupid, lets say 2,500 gp. You sell me your land, get a big fat pile of gold, and move off to a much nicer piece of real estate. Then this villiage has the lightning rail run through (which lets face it will scare the living crap out of any animal withing twenty miles of it every two hours forever) and the entire coutry prospers! You get a nice bit of cash, the economy booms, and your kids get a taste of the cool future ahead."

"Do we have a deal?"

Then, the PCs can try stopping the lightning rail man, or work with him to scout out some parts of the land, or convince people to sell their land (he offers them a cut if they get villiagers to agree).

If you feel like it, have it turn out that lightning powered railways are stupid and don't belong in this setting and this guys just pulling off a huge scam to screw everybody over somehow. Maybe he doesn't have any gold on him (or not as much as he claims) or he's got pieces of lead with gold leaf on them. He's trying to move people out of the village either because the village is sitting on something or because having the villagers move out makes them vulnerable to attack while they travel (the village has walls around it but if he convinces people to move out then slavers or lizard men can grab them as they leave.)

He's doing this because he's one of the more 'classy' con artists in a setting where packs of gnolls or lizardmen tribes can just run at people with spears. As a bard, he wants to play a more intellectual game when enslaving or stealing peoples stuff.


2). Some of the local kids have come across magic books and are forming their own little Cult Club where they get to dress up in black hoods and pretend to do magic and stuff. One or two of them even learn how to cast basic cantrips which they use to play tricks on people (like ghost sound, mage hand, or dancing lights).

The PCs get reports about strange sounds and ghostly lights and little people in dark hoods at night (although some of the parents kids think its just harmless fun and bring the kids cookies and milk while they play).

Eventually, something happens which could either be the result of one of the kids playing a joke, a magical mishap, or an actual malevolent being at work (or they accidentally raise a kids dead cat scabbers back as a zombie and the cat gets loose). Expect hilarity as the PCs deal with ghosts that are actually renegade Unseen Servants in white sheets who are 'cleaning up' the houses of everyone in town or ghostly dancing lights or undead animals all over the place.

Also, don't use your swords on the kids.

3). Its halloween and thats when the bog monsters come out to play pranks on people. They could be lizardmen teenagers preparing for their 'coming of age' ritual by stealing sheep or they could be the weirdly animated bodies of people who died in the swamp without a proper burial... or could be kids up to pranks again.

The parents want you outside at night when the bog monsters show up (whatever they may be). If its lizard teens then kindly get them to not cause trouble (maybe just deal nonlethal damage or scare them off since you don't want to start a fight with the lizardmen because they are just teens pulling pranks) if its human kids then pretty much do the same thing. If its the actual honest-to-gods undead coming out of the swamp then verify that they are undead first and cut them down.

The zombies that show up generally are actually looking to get a proper burial (although they might still strangle you a bit) and they might even be wandering in the direction of the nearest cemetary. Make sure there are freshly dug graves for them, keep them from tromping through peoples houses, and shove the into the ground and put a holy grave marker on top to keep them still. Maybe just putting them in an empty grave with a marker over it will make the zombies inanimate again (though cutting them up with a sword makes it easier to put them in the grave). Then in the morning the priest can identify them and give them a proper burial.

As a side note: When killing sapient beings in this area, its generally a good idea to bury them in solid ground and put a marker over them to keep them from showing up on Halloween. Slaughtering a bunch of bandits, taking their stuff, and just dumping in the swamp might well bite you in the backside later on.

Also, the tradition of pulling pranks and such during the Halloween zombie night is apparently due to the risks of the zombies about and the fact that the law enforcement guys tend to be busy with the zombies. The zombies themselves are mostly harmless (they want to go to the graveyard, but might attack a living creature if they run into it) and so pranksters can generally use it as cover for their activities (only a dumb prankster actually gets hurt by the zombies). There might actually be some bad guys at work during this time.


4). A lizardfolk and one of the human villagers have fallen in love despite their parents disapproval (and everyone else who hears about it vomiting in disgust and telling them they need to get some serious psychological counseling). Family members on both sides disagree with the situation and accuse the others of using magic to enchant their own darling child into such a scandalous relationship.

The local priest says "Its just like Romeo and Juliet... we'd better do something quick before those two kids wind up dead." and asks for the PCs help.

His solution involves the creation of an Disinterest Potion which ought to end their sordid love affair. Getting the ingredients might involve a fetch quest but ultimately administering it the two love birds/lizards would involve getting the two families to trust each other ("How do we know this stuff isn't poison or will somehow make them more in love with each other?") and to administer it two the two in a discrete way. After all, if their love is genuine (ugh, get the alchemist to craft up some Brain Bleach if that's the case) then giving the potion to just one would result in unacquainted love and break their heart.

Though there is the possibility that their love is the result of a love potion in which case it would simply need an antidote to the love potion... and figure out who the heck is responsible for doing such a thing.

Eloel
2010-10-17, 04:29 PM
Do laundry. Really, it's a great adventure.

I'm sorry.

AslanCross
2010-10-17, 05:18 PM
Hmmm so a new adventuring party...in an isolated village surrounded by swamps...with lizardmen inhabiting it...

The solution is simple! Githyanki attack!

(hope people get the joke :smallbiggrin: )

It should also involve a silver shard of some sort.

PopcornMage
2010-10-17, 05:33 PM
Do laundry. Really, it's a great adventure.

Especially if you make sure the PC's run into a monster with a stink attack first...one that strangely lingers in their clothes.

Whatever will they do? How will they persuade Grandmother Sudsin to clean off the stench? Where will they get the special ingredient she'll need to make the right soap to remove the odor? What happens when the fire elemental summoned to dry the clothes runs amok?

Ravens_cry
2010-10-17, 06:09 PM
Is there a coastline nearby? Maybe some ne'er-do-wells have landed on the beach for repairs and the Elders don't like the looks of 'em. Investigate and find what their up to, quiet like see. Maybe they are pirates, maybe a monster caged in the hold has broken loose. Maybe someone, or something, was chasing them and that's why they have beached their ship in the middle of nowhere rather then a proper port.

Kris Strife
2010-10-17, 10:12 PM
It should also involve a silver shard of some sort.

:smalltongue: Like 30 minutes after your post, I got to that point.

Randel
2010-10-17, 11:31 PM
Especially if you make sure the PC's run into a monster with a stink attack first...one that strangely lingers in their clothes.

Whatever will they do? How will they persuade Grandmother Sudsin to clean off the stench? Where will they get the special ingredient she'll need to make the right soap to remove the odor? What happens when the fire elemental summoned to dry the clothes runs amok?

An evil druid is in the woods and he can wildshape into a skunk. Then a tribe of wereskunks start attacking while herding dire skunks through the swamp.

The mastermind behind this whole attack? A wizard with a skunk animal companion who plans to open up a magical laundromat in the village and needs to increase demand for laundry to pay for the magical equipment.

Zen Master
2010-10-18, 06:37 AM
For low level stuff I usually try to avoid making it too epic. For instance - lizard men are poised to attack the village, and it's unclear how long the Watch can hold them off. The adventurers are asked to move through the lizard man lines in order to fetch help from a keep a few days travel away.

In a similar vein, there could be a threat that was outside the realistic range of the party - a troll for a 1st level party, for instance. The adventure would be to persuade someone else to kill the troll - lets just say a juvenile red dragon or something in that vein (something with a fire attack - but something that would still be challenged by the troll).

Another thing is to play with the alignments of the PC's. Say the mayor of the village is a bastard - not evil or anything, just needlessly harsh within the confines of the law. He is in conflict with a local bandit chief - who is much nicer, Robin Hoodsy, but clearly an illegitimate leader and outlaw. Now, provided the group is largely lawful, clearly they should side with the mayor.

Myth
2010-10-18, 08:43 AM
How are the village kids third level adventurers? Sorry to be a spoilsport but third level already allows for powerful options (although your players are inexperienced). Have them start at level one, and work your way up from rats and wolves to the tribe of Lziards. Especially if you play with DMG WBL 3rd level adventurers will own more loot then the worth of the entire village (houses and all) combined. It just doesn't make sense.

FelixG
2010-10-18, 09:49 AM
How are the village kids third level adventurers? Sorry to be a spoilsport but third level already allows for powerful options (although your players are inexperienced). Have them start at level one, and work your way up from rats and wolves to the tribe of Lziards. Especially if you play with DMG WBL 3rd level adventurers will own more loot then the worth of the entire village (houses and all) combined. It just doesn't make sense.

faerun?

and money fail? a level 3 character has 2,700 gold

a simple house alone is worth 1,000 gold

a character could at best have 2 simple homes at 3rd level with some unexceptional gear on the side.

lets say a 5 person party could own 10 simple homes...not exactly a whole village...

Myth
2010-10-20, 03:47 AM
10 houses is what a small village is supposed to have, especially if it's isolated as OP stated. 10 houses, 6 people per house (this is not modern day Western races with their one child per family, here you have kids, brothers, cousins, grandparents all in the same home) that's 60 people in the village, seems adequate for what OP described.

Souhiro
2010-10-20, 04:37 AM
a) A patrol of elfs with a "Holier than you" attitude come to the village to kill the lizzardmen, but instead of fighting the monsters, they begins to harass the townspeople. "Don't cut that tree!" "Don't dare to kill that rabbit!" "Don't step on ants!" So the PC need to find a way to drive they out of there:

- Get a Bard / Pose as one, and tell them that there is a evil necromancer WAAAAY to the north
- Make them fight the lizardmen FOR REAL.
- Convince them that the village don't need to save.
- Make a fale illness for the forest, and send the elfs in a never-ending-quest searching for inexistent/extint ingredients for an non-existent illnes (Bring me the fourth horn of a triceratops, a feather of a deer and a bottle full of hip from an hippopotamus)


be) Oh my gosh! A Red Sheep has been lost! this is going to be a bad omen! the PCs need to find the Red Sheep before the lizzardmen finds their red lunch.


ce) The plantations suffer from a plage of worm/lobster/whatever parasite is. Fortunately, it isn't so rare, and the sage from the town can make a pesticide-like thing. The bad things are that some ingredients are in the lizzardmen infested forest.


de) A good friend of the PCs wants to woo a girl from the town, but he is too shy and silly. So the PCs had to be Cyrano-likes for him. You can complicate the quest having that girl falling discovering the PCs, and falling to the Higest CHA (Sorcerer or Paladin) PC.


eh) The PCs are fooled into stealing something from the chielftain of the Lizardmen -they manage to do, it's the easy part of the mission, so reduce the dificult- BUUUUT a group of lizardmen was fooled to steal something from the village (The Towns cleric's one and only holy simbol, or something important) The two parties clash -Think in the Linear Guild to the Order of the Stick- so they can just have an agreement or just fight.

Frosty
2010-10-20, 05:28 AM
I actually think that Neverwinter Nights 2 had the right idea for the extreme low levels. Have the PCs explore the town's Harvest Festival. Plenty of stuff to do...and plent yof roleplay opportunities!

Ducklord
2010-10-20, 06:27 AM
I'll admit that the village was inspired by the one in NWN2, but I don't want to copy everything from it. I just want to create a classical campaign, so my player can get what d&d is usually about, and so I don't have to overdo my preparations.

I think I have my starting adventures worked out for now, but since this thread seems to produce good material, maybe you can suggest a few things for the future too. :smallsmile:

After some time, there is going to be a big increase in supernatural events in the village and it's surrounding area. Vegetation coming to life, animals going mad and mutating, corpses making their way from the graves etc. Any good ideas for specific scenarios?

Reynard
2010-10-20, 06:30 AM
The local medicine-woman's stock tries to eat all who come near?

Dire Sheep/Pigs/Cows/Chickens.?

Ducklord
2010-10-20, 06:46 AM
Oooh, the sheep could lose all their wool, grow sharp teeth and start attacking people! That would actually be pretty creepy. Perfect. :smallbiggrin:

KiltedGrappler
2010-10-20, 08:48 AM
Abandoned temple on the outskirts of town filled with skeletons and other low level undead.

An old mill on one of the farms infested with dire rats.

A lizardman scout camp off into the swamp.

Add in a few NPC interations in the village like one merchant stealing form another and hiding the goods to smuggle out of town, a watchman and the mayor's daughter are in love, but she's promised to the local noble's son, the town apothacary being acused of witchcraft, things like that and you've got yourself a great little starter village.