Starter Campaigns?

[SangoProduction]

Are there written campaigns that have a short and sweet story (hopefully 3 to 5 sessions long), that would be good for getting a group of new players in to a system?

[Mehangel]

Stoneheart Valley (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=142837&products_id=176362) by Frog God Games has received great reviews, and is good for introducing players to the game. While the link I provided is for the review for the adaption for pathfinder, it is also available for D&D 3.5

[Zsaber0]

Can't go wrong with Red Hand of Doom.

[Amphetryon]

Can't go wrong with Red Hand of Doom.
Bet you half a dollar?

On topic: the factors that make a good starter campaign will vary based on the PCs, and the Players. What are their strengths, their weaknesses? What do they enjoy, or look forward to, in an RPG that 3.X is likely to satisfy?

[Zsaber0]

Bet you half a dollar?

I'll not be taking you up on that bet. No further questions.

[Blackhawk748]

Shattered Gates of Slaughtergard is good.

[Falcon X]

Sunless Citadel (Levels 1-2) and Forge of Fury (Levels 3-4) are both highly praised and made to be intros to the system.

I just read through Sunless Citadel and here is what I got:
- Classic Dungeon Crawl with intriguing plot.
- Traps left and right to teach the players to be paranoid, but also how to make skill checks.
- Lots of opportunities for skill checks.
- A nice disparity of monsters, though focused on Kobolds, Goblins, and twig blights. Very flavorful bosses.
- Teaching to make choices. You can ally with the Kobolds or the Goblins or neither. You also see directly your actions in one room affecting another.
- The dungeon is physically broken leaving cracks and things to crawl through. Great for newbies to get used to paying attention to their environment.
- Lots of magical items to start playing with.

I would say it's the best intro game I've found and will use it from now on.

[Pugwampy]

Are there written campaigns that have a short and sweet story

There are hundreds . Start digging . I never made use of long term mods in my life . Dont forget about those few basic game boxsets that both sell the game with cute decorum and have a half good story .

[the_david]

I'm not a fan of Sunless Citadel or Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde. There's a lot to be improved in both modules, but at least Sunless Citadel would be a good intro to D&D. Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde seems unfinished. (And in my opinion, the history of the region is a lot more interesting than the adventure itself.)

Red hand of Doom seems to be a bit too much for new players.

[thorr-kan]

Here are the notes I gathered from a previous thread(s); attributions are lost to the mists of time, but I thank the original authors for it:
The original AP:
The Sunless Citadel (levels 1-3)
The Forge of Fury (levels 3-5)
The Speaker in Dreams (levels 5-7)
The Standing Stone (levels 7-9)
The Heart of Nightfang Spire (levels 10-12)
Deep Horizon (levels 13-15)
Lord of the Iron Fortress (levels 15-17)
Bastion of Iron Souls (levels 18-20)

Of these, the first two and last two link up the best. The others seem almost side treks to the main theme of those four except for Nightfang Spire.

The Vanguard Series:
Barrow of the Forgotten King (levels 2-4)
The Sinister Spire (levels 5-6)
Fortress of the Yuan-Ti (levels 7-8)

Though not part of that series:
Scourge of the Howling Horde (level 1)
is an excellent lead-in to it.

Individual Adventures:
Shattered Gate of Slaughtergarde (levels 1-6)

Which conveniently ends in time to begin:
Red Hand of Doom (levels 6-10); OR
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (levels 6-9)
You would need some rework on the background of SGS to get a smooth transition, but either can be linked in thematically.

Another start is:
Expedition to Undermountain (levels 1-10)

Higher level continuation options are:
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (levels 8-13)
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (levels 9-12)

The transition would be smoother from the Vanguard series or Ravenloft because of the level, but you could squeeze the start in around the last segment of RHOD with some extra work.

As a note, the Expedition line, which are not connected to each other in any way, are heavily episodic, almost to the point of being vaguely connected short encounters (especially Ruins of Greyhawk). That makes it possible to set up "jumps" between them and other adventures with some additional work.

Then there is the Fantastic Locations line:
Fane of the Drow (level 4)
City of Peril (levels 4-14)
Frostfell Rift (levels 6 and 14)
Fields of Ruin (level 8)
Hellspike Prison (level 9 or 12)
Dragondown Grotto (level 10)

Fane features drow, so makes a useful intro to Demonweb Pits. It is underground, so it can also be turned into a side trek for Sinister Spire with little effort.
City of Peril is 8 random encounters. They could be seeded through Greyhawk Ruins with some effort, though the highest EL ones are not very background compatible. They might work as side treks to a nearby competing city (Dyvers in Grehawk).
Frostfell Rift is two short sets of 4 random encounters each. This has the least potential to interact with any other adventures.
Fields of Ruin, Hellspike, and Dragondown easily fit as continuations of any of the above, Dragondown from RHOD in particular. Or you can just run them as a short combined quest of their own. (Which I'm currently doing.)


FR Adventures:
The Twilight Tomb (level 3)
The Sons of Gruumsh (level 4)

Two adventures with no direct links.

City of the Spider Queen (level 10-18)

A longer epic underground.

Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave (levels 4-8)
Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land (levels 9-13)
Anauroch: The Empire of Shade (levels 13-17)

A long series that would not link easily to any of the others.


Eberron adventures:
The Forgotten Forge (level 1) (in the Eberron Campaign Sourcebook)
Shadows of the Last War (levels 2-3)
Whispers of the Vampires Blade (levels 4-5)
Grasp of the Emerald Claw (levels 6-7)

An extended series.

Eyes of the Lich Queen (levels 5-9)
Voyage of the Golden Dragon (levels 7-8)

Two independent adventures that would not link easily to the others or each other.


Beyond all of those are an array of adventure shorts in various books and web enhancements, ranging from extended encounters to a full city location, with no direct connections but some potential for seeding into any of the above.
One notable exception is the appearance of the Vanguard in Elder Evils, but that is a collection of adventure backgrounds rather than actual adventures.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Falcon X
Sunless Citadel (Levels 1-2) and Forge of Fury (Levels 3-4) are both highly praised and made to be intros to the system.

I’ll strongly second these two. My first 3.5 group ran through these, which served as a great introduction for newcomers and a reintroduction for those who needed catching up.

We had a blast with these—they’re simple enough to run as a basic introduction, but with room for creative DMs to start filling out their own version of the game world. They gave us some classic moments (alas, poor Meepo) and taught us some important lessons about gaming as a group.

We also discovered, like many other groups, that a simple omission in the text can radically alter an encounter.

In one of the deeper levels in Forge of Fury, there's a roper which the party is supposed to bargain with for passage through its caverns. Unfortunately, when the module was printed, Common was left out of the creature's statblock, so unless a PC knows Undercommon there's no actual way to communicate with the creature.

Our group didn't even try; we went straight for the thing, and to our DM's amazement we clobbered it. But we were lucky; it's a strong opponent, at least for non-optimized groups, and the module didn't actually intend for that to be a combat encounter.

[Blackhawk748]

We also discovered, like many other groups, that a simple omission in the text can radically alter an encounter.

In one of the deeper levels in Forge of Fury, there's a roper which the party is supposed to bargain with for passage through its caverns. Unfortunately, when the module was printed, Common was left out of the creature's statblock, so unless a PC knows Undercommon there's no actual way to communicate with the creature.

Our group didn't even try; we went straight for the thing, and to our DM's amazement we clobbered it. But we were lucky; it's a strong opponent, at least for non-optimized groups, and the module didn't actually intend for that to be a combat encounter.


When i ran Forge i flat out left it out, cuz my party was murder happy and it would have murdilated them.