basic adventure help

[killianh]

I'm use to running a group that's been playing for 5 years now, but I have a side campaign I need to start up for people that haven't played at all, nor do they play many video games or anything else that I could make some easy comparisons to.

The group is:
Human Cleric
Human Fighter
Elf Ninja
Elf Ranger

ideas for easy level 1 adventures and ways to help explain the concept of the game?

[Waker]

You just want basic ideas to introduce them to the mechanics of the game?
You could run them through a non-Tucker Kobold warren. That would show them combat, including rules like flanking and possible special attacks, varying tactics when dealing with magic-using and non-magic using enemies, traps and secret doors, dealing with issues of lighting in an underground setting and so forth.
Were the characters listed already created or are these just potential ideas? Cause Ninja is really bad.

[killianh]

The classes were picked for flavour by the players who don't really care about the mechanics (mainly because they don't know them yet) I like the idea of an old school kobold run though.

[White_Drake]

Are you sure that you don't want to encourage an arcane caster? They're pretty integral to the game. A cool thing my first DM was to put in a lesser version of the Deck of Many things. It gave us a good idea of the idea of the game's aspect of great risk, but great gains, and it was a rewarding thing to find at the end of the dungeon (it was slightly tilted in the favor of us, although not greatly so). It may be cliche, but you may want to use a lot of the iconic monsters; Not only will they not say, "Oh Orcs? okay, that's AC 13, 5 hp, right? I kill one" unlike most players, but there is a reason the monsters are classics. Personally I like to start almost every campaign with a fifty (okay, probably closer to twenty) level crawl culminating in a dragon. Of course if you prefer a game different than mine (you pathetic fool, mine is the only right way to play) then most of the above advice will be useless. I suppose just stick to your playstyle and don't be too hard on them. ...Of course that's obvious, so maybe I should just find a thread more suited to mediocre thinkers such as myself... :smallfrown:

[killianh]

the kobold run will only be the start off to introduce the mechanics of the game to them, plus the importance of out of combat stuff. I'll probably end up having the arcane guy be a DMPC. I think a dungeon crawl will be in order soon after though. That or simply start off with the sunless citadel :smallamused:

[Canarr]

There's not a lot to add here, I guess. My one hard rule when GMing for newbies: Keep It Simple.

Pick any small map from the WotC website or from anywhere else on the internet. Populate with kobolds and a bit of treasure. Put a village nearby that needs heroes to evict those worrisome pests from their neighborhood. Maybe throw in a kidnapped farmers' daughter that the kobolds intend to sacrifice to some demonic overlord, if you want to give the players some extra difficulty to worry about. Bam, adventure. Take your time with the introduction of some overarching meta-plot.

The beauty here is that you get to experience all the innocence of dungeon-crawling once more, albeit vicariously. The building of the very first character, getting attached to it, having shared experiences with the other players, the feeling of dread when faced with a hissing, spitting reptilian monstrosity coming at them from out of the dark (instead of "What, kobolds? Seriously?")... There's a lot of fun to be had here.

[Waker]

The beauty here is that you get to experience all the innocence of dungeon-crawling once more, albeit vicariously. The building of the very first character, getting attached to it, having shared experiences with the other players, the feeling of dread when faced with a hissing, spitting reptilian monstrosity coming at them from out of the dark (instead of "What, kobolds? Seriously?")... There's a lot of fun to be had here.

That's something I forgot. Though we all get lazy from time to time, make sure to really play up the descriptions of any creatures the party encounters. Since these are new people you can't just say "It's kobolds." you've got to drop little hints before they see them. Hearing their barks and hisses echo through the cave, coming across their tracks, even little things like the grain of wood and twang of string as the party accidentally triggers a trap. If this is the first time for the party, you need to make sure they can see and hear everything you describe.

[Dumbledore lives]

Honestly the adventure that Wizards put out for 1st level characters, the Sunless Citadel, is really good for introducing new players to a number of elements of D&D. It has traps, monsters, and even some roleplaying in that they don't have to fight the kobolds or goblins and can play them off against each other or something. When I ran it we didn't get that far into it, but it was still entertaining and had some fun stuff, including a Kobold named Meepo who was used as shoes.