Adventuring Guidebook 101

[ClothedInVelvet]

I want to put together an adventure for some of my new players that will teach them the basics of adventuring. What do you think are some important things that all players should learn within their first few adventures?

Ideas include:
Lighting/Seeing in the dark
Opening closed or locked doors/Checking for traps
What to do when facing an enemy with better tactical position
When to use diplomacy and when not to

[Turk Mannion]

How to plan some basic tactics or combat expectations in advance.

[ClothedInVelvet]

How to plan some basic tactics or combat expectations in advance.

What would that look like? Letting them get an idea of what the next room will be like and giving them some time to come up with a plan?

[kharmakazy]

Things they can do instead of adventuring, such as farming, running a brothel, basket weaving.

[Rukia]

When to know when it's best to cut your losses and run instead of sticking it out expecting the DM to not kill you.

When to sneak up on a situation and gauge whether or not you should even bother engaging or perhaps try another safer route.

How to setup a camp at night, choosing whether or not to sleep in armor if you get ambushed or start a fire and call attention to yourself.

[Coidzor]

Have you ever heard of Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory?

I'm thinking you'll want to hunt down the text they wrote up for the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School as part of the manuals of the series, that might give you some ideas of both how to pitch things and some ideas of directions to take things in.

[Cieyrin]

This seems like a job for Tucker's Kobolds! Show your PCs what proper tactics and choosing your battlefield can do for you! Take advantage of your racial strengths and cover your weaknesses by making small tunnels and never directly confronting your prey till they're thoroughly weakened! Flush your prey with devilish traps till you can ambush them where they are at their weakest! Let them know that, with careful planning, a bunch of Kobold Warrior 1s can make their adventuring lives a living hell!

[ClothedInVelvet]

This seems like a job for Tucker's Kobolds! Show your PCs what proper tactics and choosing your battlefield can do for you! Take advantage of your racial strengths and cover your weaknesses by making small tunnels and never directly confronting your prey till they're thoroughly weakened! Flush your prey with devilish traps till you can ambush them where they are at their weakest! Let them know that, with careful planning, a bunch of Kobold Warrior 1s can make their adventuring lives a living hell!

The thing is, these are mainly new players. They would get slaughtered by Tucker's Kobolds. They don't even know how best to arrange the party so as to protect softies by putting as many inches of metal between them and the bad guys as possible.

I'm thinking of situations like attacking an entrenched, ranged enemy on a cliff. They don't understand things like taking cover, advancing on an entrenched position, etc.

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Are they new to roleplaying in general, or just to D&D? If they're new to the whole style of game, making the first session overly-complicated would be an easy way to put them off the game. I'd say keep it relatively-simple to let them get a feel for how their characters and the game mechanics actually play. It's vastly different from just reading the names and numbers of everything out of the book, and it can take a new player awhile to figure out just what he or she is capable of with a given character.

[Cieyrin]

The thing is, these are mainly new players. They would get slaughtered by Tucker's Kobolds. They don't even know how best to arrange the party so as to protect softies by putting as many inches of metal between them and the bad guys as possible.

I'm thinking of situations like attacking an entrenched, ranged enemy on a cliff. They don't understand things like taking cover, advancing on an entrenched position, etc.

Stick in Timmy's Kobolds, then. Kobolds with lighter defenses that embarass rather than maim. When they do something silly, they'll hear kobold laughter as they fall down into the padded pit once again. :smallbiggrin:

[ClothedInVelvet]

Stick in Timmy's Kobolds, then. Kobolds with lighter defenses that embarass rather than maim. When they do something silly, they'll hear kobold laughter as they fall down into the padded pit once again. :smallbiggrin:

I *LOVE* this idea. Except the pits are definitely going to be filled with multicolored hollow plastic balls.

Poison gas that makes the PCs wet themselves.

Fire that tickles to the point of incapacitation.

Now you've got my sadistic juices flowing in a way that won't scare them off.

[Fouredged Sword]

Or just let them get into a dire situation, like captured by man eating orcs, and then let them be saved by so rule savy level one commoners with crossbows, short spears, and long spears in a 2x1x1 mix. Prone, behind cover, and from a rather longish range, over difficult teraine, crossbows are very deadly.

[Arbane]

Assuming the characters known a hawk from a handsaw, how about preparing some "pop-up tips" on index cards, and handing them out to the players when appropriate as "things your character knows"". That way, they get to say it, instead of you lecturing everyone on Survival 101.

[Karoht]

Basic Puzzle Solving 101
-Review the clues
-Check your inventory
-Replace certain words with synonyms. IE-If a clue references a candle in the darkness, maybe it just means light, maybe a light spell can solve this.
-Think in metaphors and allegories
-Consider the culture and history of the people who wrote the puzzle/designed the dungeon, etc.
-Check your inventory again. No seriously, check it.
-"Never use a fireball when a simple light spell will do"--Lina Inverse.