3.5 Adventure for a Newbie Party & Newbie DM

[Steelgut]

Hello! This is my first (and likely not my last) post here. I've come to plea for help, as I'm feeling way in over my head with a new group.

It started as a mention to my roommates and girlfriend that I'd like to run a D&D game sometime. Fast-forward a few days later, and suddenly I've got a wad of players I don't know dropped into my lap. I'm both excited and terrified! I've ran a few games of D&D before (it's been a while, though, and I don't think I was very good), but this party will be much larger than my usual (7 players), not to mention the fact that I don't know any but two of them well.

Most of the players are completely new to D&D and tabletop RPGs in general, and about three of them have actually played before. I want to run something that is newbie friendly, and will introduce them on many different aspects of tabletop RPGs (conversing with NPCs, problem solving, dungeon delving, whackin' stuff in the head, etc.).

I've never used a pre-made adventure in my life, but this seems like as good a time as ever to try one. So far I've glanced through The Burning Plague and The Sunless Citadel, but I'm not entirely sold on either. Are there any simple, but fun adventures for a starting party that anyone knows of?

[ngilop]

Hello! This is my first (and likely not my last) post here. I've come to plea for help, as I'm feeling way in over my head with a new group.

It started as a mention to my roommates and girlfriend that I'd like to run a D&D game sometime. Fast-forward a few days later, and suddenly I've got a wad of players I don't know dropped into my lap. I'm both excited and terrified! I've ran a few games of D&D before (it's been a while, though, and I don't think I was very good), but this party will be much larger than my usual (7 players), not to mention the fact that I don't know any but two of them well.

Most of the players are completely new to D&D and tabletop RPGs in general, and about three of them have actually played before. I want to run something that is newbie friendly, and will introduce them on many different aspects of tabletop RPGs (conversing with NPCs, problem solving, dungeon delving, whackin' stuff in the head, etc.).

I've never used a pre-made adventure in my life, but this seems like as good a time as ever to try one. So far I've glanced through The Burning Plague and The Sunless Citadel, but I'm not entirely sold on either. Are there any simple, but fun adventures for a starting party that anyone knows of?



There is a GREAT intro adventure that I cannot remember the name of right now.. but it involves killing some goblins, some hobgoblins some skeletons/zombies and at the end of the dungeon guess what!! a dragon!!!!!

give me a day or so and i'll find it pretty sure its a free download one.

it has a checklist of things you need/might want/need and everything has a nice little epsoiler box of advice, tips and hints on how to do this and that. I think it was solely made for 100% new DMs and Players alike :)

plus its good for veterans to play as well.

[Captnq]

Start off third level.

Download the return to undermountain pdfs (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/ru) from the wizards of the coast Website.

Murder them as hard as you can.

[HighWater]

Be careful. If they are as new as advertised, you'll be buried in questions the entire time. Are you making characters for them, or do they make them with you the first session? Either way, Level 1 characters are probably complex enough already. If you have the time, I would suggest splitting the group into two, and running them both separately for a session or two. I ran two groups of newbies, one consisting of 3 players, one of 5. Running the group of five and answering all their questions was much more intensive and time consuming, in spite of the fact I had gained experience DMing between the two. Splitting allows your players a much better sense of DnD as you'll see a much higher playratio. After that is done and the worst newbishness has worn off, you can merge the groups and start a proper campaign.

Good luck!

[zingbobco000]

I'd split the party (Don't split the party lol! :elan:)

But seriously, have two different groups of people, the larger group should have 2 experienced and the smaller 1. This allows you to be lessed stressed by all the questions by having the experienced people help you out. I wouldn't recommend doing a pre-made map. Once you start doing them, it's hard to stop, just make a simple dungeon on your computer (I recommend Dungeonographer (http://www.dungeonographer.com/), Google Drive, roll20 (https://app.roll20.net/home) [just for the map purpose], or RPtools (http://www.rptools.net/)) use it to make a dungeon, move players around, and move monsters. Ask the newbs what they want in their character (race and class) and then use the starting package. The A La Carte is for the experienced people.

If you are set on a pre-made adventure use the sunless citadel all the way.

[Turelim]

You can start with "Scourge of the Howling Horde", this is a 1st-Level adventure and created specifically to help new players and new DM in D&D, if you have chance give it a try :smallsmile:

[Chester]

Easy run-of-the-mill noob adventure:

Travelers to/from a town have been harassed by a group of bandits / orcs / gnolls / whatever 1 HD creature.

Your group will be paid to find them and put a stop to them.

Bonus if you don't all meet up in a tavern.

[ngilop]

There is a GREAT intro adventure that I cannot remember the name of right now.. but it involves killing some goblins, some hobgoblins some skeletons/zombies and at the end of the dungeon guess what!! a dragon!!!!!

give me a day or so and i'll find it pretty sure its a free download one.

it has a checklist of things you need/might want/need and everything has a nice little epsoiler box of advice, tips and hints on how to do this and that. I think it was solely made for 100% new DMs and Players alike :)

plus its good for veterans to play as well.

AH HA!! after a couple days of looking for it I found it; the name of the adventure is Scourge of The Howling Horde

[Vogonjeltz]

Steelgut,

I don't know of any 1st level adventures off the top of my head, but here's a few frameworks that you can expand off of.

First: Determine who your adventurers are in relation to each other. Are they friends? Acquaintances? Utter strangers? This is important for determining how the band gets together.

There are a couple standard ways:
1) Adventuring Charter. Your party forms a group as Adventurers for Hire. This can be good if you have alot of characters whose back stories aren't exactly compatible for knowing each other.

2) Longtime Friendship. Your party members know each other from growing up, or attending the same schools/academies, etc...

3) Shared destiny. It's fate! This also has a great means for keeping the group together, all roads lead to togetherness so they should make the best of it.

4) Happenstance. Your party meets in a bar. This is the shakiest, as it requires actually developing in character reasons for staying together down the line that other methods essentially auto-supply.

5) Work Associates. Everyone is employed by the military, or a guild, or other organization. This means they work together because it's their job.

You can always mix or match, but I find the charter or work associates is best because the characters are typically required to have a shared goal, Longtime friendships are best because the characters want to stay with their friends and help them, and fate/circumstances are best because they provide easy flexibility and more fluid intra-party dynamics. As you can see, all ways are best in some way.

First-time assignments/quests are going to be flavored differently depending on how the party knows each other.


Examples:

1) Kidnapped by slavers.

Party starts off having been picked up by a slaver crew, either individually (Charter/Fate/Happenstance) or as a group (Charter/Longtime friendship/Work Associates). Their first quest is to free themselves and recover their lost equipment (or gather new equipment). Follow-ups can include: Undoing the slavery ring/trade, Striking out as a group for better protection in the future (assuming they were captured individually), Getting a quest from a fellow slave (perhaps this NPC's dying wish is to return the mcguffin to their family, or to be returned to their homeland for buriel rites, etc...)

Or instead of escaping, they could be taken and sold to a gladiatorial arena where they are forced to compete as a group (ala the movie Gladiator) forging their first bonds there and ultimately escaping/getting their equipment.

2) Investigation of Disappearances.

Group is hired to investigate region where people have gone missing (charter/associates), or has a missing friend (friends), or even individually each seeks to discover what strange occurance is happening (fate!/happenstance!)

3) Group is explicitly hired to curb Goblin/Orc/Kobold/Bandit attacks in the region.

4) Group decides to investigate the ruins of ThatOneSuperLegendaryRuinedCity/Fortress for fame/fortune.

Act I: The meetup/preparation

Our heroes meet (see above), after settling themselves, they have the time to interact with various NPCs who provide exposition (backstory) that keys off the clever ability of our players to deduce/ask good questions and in some cases off actual game skills (knowledges/gather information/sense motive/diplomacy/bluff/intimidate).

The meetup stage is almost universally non-combat related, though combat skills can certainly come into play (a player asks the wrong questions to the wrong person, offending them; the players need to challenge someone to a contest (resolved via skill/combat/wits) to earn their respect; Or they players make a decision that would clearly result in a scuffle (breaking the law openly, starting a bar fight, whatever)).

Act II: The journey

Our heroes proceed to the primary location, this typically involves random encounters/wilderness threats (see the DMG for forest fires/getting lost and the like) and should probably include some further kind of hint as to what they're going to find at their destination. (rumors from travelers going the opposite way, information found on an enemy, etc...).

Act III: The destination.

Our heroes reach the bandit camp/tomb/lair of the spider monsters* that have been capturing the missing persons to later drain them of their fluids. This is where they must decide on their final course of action: Storm the camp, free the prisoners, combat the monsters or entrap them?, explore the tomb, etc...

*substitute any monster and their appropriate methods of eating here.

Act IV: Just rewards.

Assuming our heroes succeed, reward them appropriately. Treasure from fallen foes (or victims of fallen foes) and possibly a reward from the initial quest-giver, if there was one. Unless you're deliberately playing a depressing campaign, this first victory should come with some sense of achievement.

If appropriate, provide a hook for further adventuring (a note found among the bandit camp with orders to pillage the area; a victim of the monster was a messanger who still had correspondance that the PCs can deliver; decipherable writings that point to another (generally unknown) site with possibly even more treasure!).

When picking monsters, I'd err on the side of numerous enemies that are of lower threat, rather than 1 enemy that equates to the appropriate CR (as CR scales up based on level/number of PCs you'll find things can get rapidly out of hand, whereas vs lower threat enemies there's a better chance of actually winning).


One last thing: Make sure your players are on the same page as you regarding their characters mortality. Let them know you won't (or might be willing to) pull punches in advance. Ask them to provide a backup character in the event their current character dies. This way you can, at almost any point, slip that backup character in as someone who meets them on the journey, decides they have similar goals, and tags along with them. All this will smooth things over dramatically, and knowing their character might die, but that they have a plan for that eventuality, will go a long ways to avoiding the player feeling badly (also they'll take more risks which can be fun!).

[Steelgut]

Sorry for the very late reply! Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I used the suggestion of investigation of disappearances to build my adventure from (we ran it today, but only got a fourth of the way through). I decided to let them start a level 1, just because I assumed going higher than that would confuse them even more. So far things are going well, and there's about two experienced players also helping the others out, which takes a lot of the stress off of me.

[Harlot]

I'm sort of a newbie myself and am very fond of the newsletters, tips & tricks from roleplayingtips.com
Apart from GItP which has helped me zillions of times, that's where I go for help and useful links.

Enjoy your game!