Good Pre-made Games

[Menelanna]

Hi all! New to the forums, but been a reader for a while.

I decided to pop in to ask a bit of advice. I recently got asked by some friends if I would run a D&D game. I am an experienced player using 3.5ed but this will be my first time DMing a game. And this is their first time playing.

As this is my first time DMing I am thinking I should follow a pre-made game and just add a bit of my own flavor to it. I want to start my friends off at level 1 and want a simple enough game that it won't overwhelm someone brand new to the game. So any suggestions of campaigns I can look at?

Also just any generic DMing advice you may want to throw at me would also be very nice. Thank you!!!

[SciChronic]

I'm not sure about starting from level 1 as a new DM, its rather easy to overwhelm your party with a simple pack of wolves or kobolds.

as for pre-made campaigns, if you have FR, the trilogy of Cormyr, Shadowdale, and Anauroch is a great place to start. It starts at level 4 though. Any of them can be used as standalone campaigns though.

[Menelanna]

Mmm I will consider starting them at lvl 4. Most the pre-made games I am liking the look of all start there anyways. That trilogy does look interesting. Thanks.

I was also planning on giving them a henchman or two to help out (since there are only 2 players)

I know quite well how to handle henchmen and how they work since I have had one in almost every single game I have played. Largest group I have ever been in was 4 players (including the DM)

[Palanan]

The Sunless Citadel (http://www.amazon.com/Sunless-Citadel-Dungeons-Dragons-Adventure/dp/0786916400) is what my first 3.5 group used, when half of us were new to the game and we had a fairly inexperienced DM. It was great fun, although not without its hiccups (poor, poor Meepo) and it launched a great campaign that ran for several years.

[kreenlover]

The shackled city (from dungeon magazine) is a really good one. Its fun, filled with plot twists and cool monsters, and has an amazing climactic battle, along with lots of other really cool boss fights, and cool moments throughout

It takes you from 1-20, but you could wrap it up sooner, or run some of them as standalones if you wish. The plot doesn't really start to develop until around 10th level or so. Until then, its more of unobviously interrelated adventures that all build up to a stunning finale

[ksbsnowowl]

If you like Eberron, The Whispers of the Vampire Blade is a great adventure that captures the best aspects of Eberron, and is an overall great adventure. It starts at 4th level.

Flipping through that adventure in a used book store is what sold me on Eberron. Chasing after a rogue agent, jumping from a loading dock onto a departing skyship, sky raiders on pterodactyls attacking your elemental-bound train while you hunt down your target before others find him first. Great, great adventure.

The other thing you could do with your small party, though it might overwhelm new players, is play Gestalt (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm).

[SciChronic]

Mmm I will consider starting them at lvl 4. Most the pre-made games I am liking the look of all start there anyways. That trilogy does look interesting. Thanks.

I was also planning on giving them a henchman or two to help out (since there are only 2 players)

I know quite well how to handle henchmen and how they work since I have had one in almost every single game I have played. Largest group I have ever been in was 4 players (including the DM)

Shadowdale is generally hailed as the best of the trilogy, as it has very little railroading, has an interesting plot, and gives a decent amount of player freedom. As a first time DM though, cormyr would be a good spot to start as, while the plot is a bit more linear and railroady, it will help you keep the PCs from doing too many things you didnt expect.

The pre-written books don't have every contingency written, so be prepared to think on your feet.

[Menelanna]

All suggestions look good and have given me plenty to look at and consider. I still have plenty of time before I would start my game, so I have time to decide what to do.

And I know well enough how to think on my feet and will be planning for railroading. One of my players is a profession fantasy writer after all...I will have to prepare for the worst...

[Diarmuid]

I'm going to second the suggestion of the Sunless Citedal and the other initial modules that came out. Our group also cut our teeth on those modules and they were great for learning the system.

I will heartily disagree that running Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave as a new DM for inexperienced players is in any way a good idea.

I ran that module for a group of experienced players and it was a painful process at best. When we blessedly finished it, we all agreed that whoever wrote the module really hates players. The traps and setups, and the focus on darkness and miss chance were just brutal. Without giving too much away, the entire last 2/3 of the module was a constant, unfun punch-in-the-face for the players.

I will say that it had a very intersting story, but mechanically I found it heavily lacking as a DM.

[GeekGirl]

I really liked The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde. It was a very in depth and pretty easy for a new DM to run. Its set for level 1 to start so you may have to raise some stuff. You can easily go from 1-6 (maybe 7).

The Sunless Citadel was the first game I ran as a DM, but it is very much a dungeon crawl. So if your group doesn't like them I would advice against it.

[ksbsnowowl]

Another thought...

You could run Whispers of the Vampire's Blade as a prelude to running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.


[Expedition to Castle Ravenloft] was designed to be able to run a mini campaign for about 20 sessions taking characters from level 6 to 10...

Run Whispers, then have a game session or so of plot hooks tying the events therein to Barovia (EtCR has some info/ideas on how to incorporate it into an Eberron game, where to place it, etc).

What I did when I ran Whispers was to put in some conversations at the masquerade about ... IIRC... an old Noble holding being offered up by the lords of Karnath (though I forget what method was proposed for winning this land and title). This is, of course, Castle Ravenloft we are talking about.
You could perhaps imply that the sword from Whispers was in fact the former property of Strahd.

Perhaps after the events of Whispers, Strahd gets wind of where his blade has ended up, and he starts to send agents against the PC's, looking for information. The PC's will continue to get harassed until they deal with the issue.