Building appropriate level 1 games

[Tanuki Tales]

Question for the DMs/GMs out there on the playground:

When you're building an adventure where the party starts off at level 1 (either as a one-shot or as the beginning of a campaign), what kind of design do you usually follow? What are your do's and don'ts, tips and tricks? Do you measure out the XP as best you can to be handed out to get them to level 2 or do you just wing it and ad hoc decide when you think they're warranted a level boost? Do you try to safe guard the PCs or leave them to the meat grinder of bad rolls and their own stupidity, advising they keep a stack of character sheets handy?

[Harlot]

I just ran a campaign from level 0 /-1, as they started out as young adults with heavy penalties to wisdom and strenght (plusses to dex and cons though). And they had no weapons. And no armor. And no money. They were basically poor commoners destined for glory.

Anyway, I tried to avoid obviously hostile encounters in the beginning. They cleaned out a cellar in an Inn, riddled with rats. They were attacked by a stray dog, so had to kill it. Sneaking through sewers being attacked by a Dire Rat and a spider.
They did their best to avoid enemies obviously stronger than themselves, so I did have an encounter with a Treant, which they cleverly fled/avoided.

Their first encounter/fight with a humannoid/non-monster was a thief trying to sneak in on them in their camp in the wood. The second was a smuggler (Fighter lvl 1?)

I gave them XP per slain monster/enemy.

The start of the campaign was focusing on the narrative, of them solving the mystery of their parentage and a lot of diplomacy/asking around.

Eventually I hooked them up with a thieves guild, and then it got more combat oriented. I think this was around lv. 3.

One mistake I did make was making it a low-magic world, which sadly is a mistake, as I learned the hard way. Even a low-level caster in a non-magic world is a demigod. :-P