Ideal Quests for Level One Adventurers

[Drakeburn]

Aside from "Kill all the rats in the cellar", what other quests would there be for a bunch of Level One Adventurers?

Thinking about it, we're talking about adventurers who are, in a way, as inexperienced as they can get. What reason would an employer have to pay for the services of these level 1 adventurers?

[Nifft]

- Catch all these escaped Familiar animals.

- After an accident, survive a trek through the wilderness & overcome some natural obstacles to get back to civilization.

- Babysit some very young Sorcerers who are trying to prank you; all children must survive and be put to bed.

- Travel to the 679th layer of the Abyss and deliver this envelope to the gate-guard at the Abyssal Palace of Thurgiluurahkxa the Blood-Duke.

[Nerd-o-rama]

There is an orc. He has a pie. You desire this pie. Obtain it by whatever means you deem appropriate.

The local hedge wizard can't be bothered to do his own herb-gathering so he's paying some schmucks to do it for him. The catch is you have to do it under the light of the full moon with a silver sickle, when there are nasty nocturnal creatures about.

You're on ditch-digging duty for the town palisade when suddenly: earth elementals. Thousands half a dozen of them.

Friendly barfight with the other social circle of would-be adventurers in town. The next quest of clearing rats out of the cellar is to pay for the ensuing damages and your tabs.

For a mkdern game, go to your mailbox, retrieve a couple packages from it, and install the software from one of them on your PC. Impossible to screw that up, right?

[Sebastian]

An higher level character (5-6th level) must go somewhere to do something (details are irrelevant. Collect reagents, study a certain phenomenon, visit a friend, etc) The PCs are his/her "escort", they must do all those things he can't be bothered to do himself, like carry the heavy stuff, make camp, pick wood for the fire, prepare the food, and of course deal with the low level critters (goblins, kobolds, you know the classic 1st level stuff) that are in the zone and that would not give any XPs to him. Of course he could handle them himself, and if necessary he would (but if he must the PCs can expect a lower pay) but he don't want to deal with what is essentially just an annoyance.

If you want you could tell that is a test of some kind, if they prove themselves competent this NPC could give them some other quest in the future.

[FabulousFizban]

The village of Hommlet is a good go to

[LordEntrails]

Run away;
- Kobolds/goblins/etc are raiding the little village you grew up in and you have to run away to the stone inn.
- You are in the big market watching the King's retinue come through when ...
- You are part of a wagon train/caravan when a group of bandits drop a tree on the road ahead of you, don't get captured

What's that?;
- Sleeping in a tavern, what's that noise coming from down stairs?
- Travelling on the road, why is that mud in the road lumpy? (mud mephit)

[AshfireMage]

For a mkdern game, go to your mailbox, retrieve a couple packages from it, and install the software from one of them on your PC. Impossible to screw that up, right?

+1 for the Homestuck reference

Some stuff that occurs to me, depending on the setup of your group

- some kind of coming of age/graduation ritual for whatever group or society they might be a part of. Think like "to become an adult in this tribe, you must kill a bear and bring back its pelt" type of thing.

- An escort mission ("take this non-combatant person to this other place. it's not expected to be dangerous, but we want them to arrive safely nonetheless"). You can throw whatever appropriate dangers at them (wild animals, low-level bandits, whatever) and/or have it lead into another quest.

- Local contest- whatever place they live in or are passing through is hosting some kind of a contest, whether it be a fighting tournament or a scavenger hunt or whatever. Perfect way to hand out some gear as prizes, too.

[Frozen_Feet]

Death Love Doom and God that Crawls. :smallamused:

What, you weren't asking for module suggestions. Okay then...

First, don't think of the player characters as "adventurers". "Adventuring" is not a real profession, it's just an euphenism for many loosely connected endeavors where people move from place to place.

When working within the law, "adventurers" are mercenaries, privateers, explorers, archeologists, merchants, bodyguards, private investigators, pioneers, missionaries, hunters, street performers etc.

When working outside the law, "adventurer" is an euphenism for assassins, pirates, raiders, grave-robbers, charlatans, beggars, spies, thieves, poachers, invaders etc.

Notice how many of these are essentially "self-employed". That is, they don't wait for someone to offer them "quests", they proactively search for hapless victims... errr, targets, to make profit of. And that's what the players should do. If they don't, they're gormless lackwits, and you should tell them so. Seriously, spare no words in telling how much theysuck if they show up with characters that have no goals or motivations of their own.

Related to the above, of if you're a a GM and you start by asking "what should the player characters do?", you're setting off on the wrong foot. Let players worry about what their characters will do.

Instead, ask yourself "what could happen to the player characters?" Or, in other words, "what can the world do to them?"

There are two pieces of sage advice you should remember: "Do unto others before they do to you" and "never give a sucker an even break". The player characters are weak, you say? They're unskilled, you say? Yet they're carrying all that nifty "adventuring" gear and starting money, typically way more wealth overall than your average passers by?

Why, what a great chance for fellow "adventurers" to check them out and maybe "show them the ropes"... by beating them up and stealing their stuff. Or by conning them into losing their money.

If the player characters prevail, that's one session worth of play. If they lose, it's potentially several sessions worth of play as they predictably pursue bloody vengeance on those who wronged them. It's a win-win... for you. :smalltongue:

[Eldan]

If you don't want to do low level combat a lot (it's quite lethal), consider letting them do some detective work. The standard outline can be simple, really. Person X has vanished. Person Y wants them back. The local authorities don't think there's really any foul play, so they can't be bothered (town guards aren't necessarily a thing in pre-modern society, and even if they exist, they probably aren't investigating much). Ask a couple witnesses, convince a witness who doesn't want to talk, search the missing person's room for clues, maybe decipher a diary or talk to some animals, if you have characters who can do that. Find whatever monster (ghoul, maybe) or sinister organisation (human sacrifice cult in the graveyard) that abducted them and kill it. Or maybe follow the trace overland, build in some obstacles like a flooding river or a ravine. Maybe the target is possessed and has to be nonlethally restrained so they can be dragged back to a temple.

I've done that a few times for first levellers and new players. Leaves them some room for creative approaches beyond just "hit it with a stick".

Edit: there's also a nice basic questhook at the start of Age of Worms, where young people are sent to the local haunted mines basically as a dare.

[denthor]

Infiltration mission an enemy is auctioning off a magic item. Their job is to go to the auction and find out what the magic item is and report back.

They have the authority to bid on the item but ultimately the item will be so it will be stolen by third-party if they want to give Chase they can and take out the guards

If they don't want to give Jace it's okay since they're on a mission was only to find out what the item was

[FreddyNoNose]

I don't know about ideal but I like to so this. Start with one on one adventures. Give the player a little solo time by himself for something that will help start his character off. Then in the adventure, the character might need some additional help. This is where you get two of the solo PCs working together.

So if you start out with four players, you have four solo adventurers which leads to two groups of two players playing together. Finally, you bring them all together. It doesn't have to be a work towards the same goal story, it simply can be you help me I will help you type of thing. IF you have more than 4 players, you get the drill...

[Aliquid]

Tell the players to come up with the initial "adventure". Make it part of their character generation process.

"Ok guys, make your characters and also do the following"

Give me a reason why your character has a pre-existing relationship with at least one other character
Explain why your character at least vaguely trusts all the other characters
Give me a reason why each of you are motivated into adventure (greed, vengeance, duty, running away from something, wanderlust... etc)
Convince me that each of your individual reasons are complementary with the other characters' reasons
Give me a high level back story for your characters
As a group come up with a backstory that explains why you are all currently in the same place at the same time
As a group, come up with a reason that you are all currently in a state of conflict (e.g. any of the reasons listed in the posts above)


Then do a bit of prep work as the DM based on that information, and start the game with the players rolling for initiative.

[Darokar]

Run away;
- Kobolds/goblins/etc are raiding the little village you grew up in and you have to run away to the stone inn.
- You are in the big market watching the King's retinue come through when ...
- You are part of a wagon train/caravan when a group of bandits drop a tree on the road ahead of you, don't get captured

What's that?;
- Sleeping in a tavern, what's that noise coming from down stairs?
- Travelling on the road, why is that mud in the road lumpy? (mud mephit)

I really like the mud mephit idea, that's not something I think many players would expect while traveling down the road at low levels. Sounds really good!

[Jay R]

Aside from "Kill all the rats in the cellar", what other quests would there be for a bunch of Level One Adventurers?

Thinking about it, we're talking about adventurers who are, in a way, as inexperienced as they can get. What reason would an employer have to pay for the services of these level 1 adventurers?

First of all, they are not "as inexperienced as they can get". That would be level-zero commoners. The 1st level PCs have basic training in combat, sneaking, magic, etc.

But the answer is that you hire minor, 1st level characters because you have a misiion in which you expect minor, 1st level difficulties.

In the last game I started (AD&D 2e), they were sent by their small isolated village to guard the wagons carrying goods through the forest to market in a larger village. Normally, no escort is provided, but since they had had no visitors from the village for the last few weeks, they sent a small, inconsequential force - the PCs. They faced a couple of nuisance beasts, followed by an attempted hijacking from very few goblins who were expecting only non-fighting farmers. When they got to the village, they found that it had been wiped out and burned down- by goblins (plus a few larger tracks they couldn't identify). So they went onward to the town on the edge of the forest to sell their wares.

The next encounter was a slightly larger group of fleeing goblins, whose armor showed recent damage, and some of whom were only armed with sticks. They then found some refugees fleeing from the town, who told them it was under siege.

They got to the small town outside the forest, and it had just been defeated. The remaining goblins were pillaging, and not expecting an attack. The PCs rallied the people with them and killed or chased away the remaining goblins. So the PCs became the heroes of the (remaining) townsfolk). The few humans left in town told than that most of the goblins attacking the town had left as soon as it fell, because the ogres leading them had forced them to march toward the larger town 30 miles away.

By this time the party were 2nd level. They eventually got to the larger town, where a siege was in progress. Since the besieging army (50 or so goblins, led by 3 ogres) were being attacked from the town, nobody was looking outwards. The PCs noticed that the goblins were looking over their shoulders at the ogres, and the ogres seemed to be primarily making sure that the goblins kept fighting. They took out the ogres from ambush, and the goblins fled. The PCs became the heroes of the town.

The goal is for the PCs to be hired for what is expected to be a simple, 1st level missions, in which the level of the encounters slowly grows, for reasons that the PCs and whoever hired them don't know yet. Nobody knew that the goblin war was starting when they set out.

[Kitten Champion]

I find the ideal introductory adventures for a medieval-ish fantasy sort of game are exploratory in nature. Go from the village to the city or from one area of a large-ish city to another for reasons, scout the adjacent wild-lands for potential hazards/suspicious activities and return to report to the local authorities, find a hermit living up the mountain -- that kind of thing. Some of which have been suggested already.

Like, the first mission of any Pokemon game, for instance.

It immediately broaden the scope the character's experiences, it allows for manageable risk as you're not really asking your adventurers to do anything greater than - say - a merchant or local militia member does as a matter of course, and it puts the new party into a more isolated position to allow them to interact and settle upon some key things like what the characters feel about one another and how decisions are made within their group before complicating their lives with NPCS and serious conflicts. Getting a baseline is important to work with and around later.

[Brookshw]

Aside from "Kill all the rats in the cellar", what other quests would there be for a bunch of Level One Adventurers?



Incidentally I really want to do the reverse of this where awakened rats hire PCs to remove people who have encroached on their ancestral lands (by building a tavern on it).

[PhantasyPen]

Any errand you can reliably entrust to a 10 year old human (or the equivalent of). Because that's what a level 1 player is. They are literal 10 year olds.

[LibraryOgre]

One of my usual favorites is bandits. They're generally a bit weaker than 1st level PCs, and clever players can isolate bandits and gang up on them, until they're better set to take them on.

[Nerd-o-rama]

+1 for the Homestuck reference

After typing that out I realized how deeply gaming software has changed in the last 8 and a half years. There's no way even a moron like John wouldn't have just gotten the Steam version if the comic was set in the present day.


Any errand you can reliably entrust to a 10 year old human (or the equivalent of). Because that's what a level 1 player is. They are literal 10 year olds.

To be fair, higher-level characters are usually literal 10 year olds, but with power.

[Eldan]

One of my usual favorites is bandits. They're generally a bit weaker than 1st level PCs, and clever players can isolate bandits and gang up on them, until they're better set to take them on.

Plus players can get creative with bandits. I You don't have to do just one fight, they can be chased to their lair, they might have guard dogs to trick or befriend, they can be smoked out or negotiated with...

If you think your players are usually too bloodthirsty, introduce a bounty for bandits brought back alive for trial or questioning. That should encourage them to think more creatively.

[Bulhakov]

I'm all in favor of "survival" or helping out friends/family. Nobody just hires lvl 1 heroes.
I love various flavors of "getting back to civilization" (e.g. after air-ship crash, jail break, natural disaster, teleportation accident) - the players trek through wilderness and can level up before getting to actual quest givers.

As for more low-level drama - the player's village getting raided by bandits, their next of kin is getting threatened by extortionists, something (or someone) is mutilating cattle, a friend has been murdered.

[noob]

A gigantic armies of simulacrum of wizards attacks the level one adventurers.
Sorry but if there was not this prophecy that a group of four people would stand up and kill the evil tyrant you would not have died.
Wait you did not die?
Why???(elven generalist domain wizards breaks everything)

[Darokar]

I was thinking maybe deliver a payment of gold to a nearby farm from a shop keep who recently purchased some goods, or something similar like a blacksmith's payment to a mine. They would encounter a toll road set up by goblins and maybe a mud mephit (which I saw earlier in this thread, again, props to them because I really like that idea).

[noob]

I was thinking maybe deliver a payment of gold to a nearby farm from a shop keep who recently purchased some goods, or something similar like a blacksmith's payment to a mine. They would encounter a toll road set up by goblins and maybe a mud mephit (which I saw earlier in this thread, again, props to them because I really like that idea).

Nobody trust adventurers enough for giving them the task of delivering gold.
I mean why would they not just flee with the gold?

[Sinewmire]

I started my Pathfinder group with a few horrible monsters crawling out of the secret room under the tavern they were drinking in. They were CR1 Akata, dangerous to peasants, but only a hazard to the party.

Exploring the collapsed area under the tavern, they found some sort of orrerry and a purpose-build secret cellar.

After investigating, they found that a crazy diviner once owned that tavern, as well as four other building accross the city.... and the date on the orrery, clearly meant to release the Akata on a certain date was only a few days hence!

Cue a race against time to find the buildings, get permission to dig up the cellars and take out the Akata before they could spread accross the city, Aliens style. I spaced out the Akata enough that they could stop for a breath between encounters, and work out how many they could realistically handle.

Nobody believed them, so they would have to go in, and get proof. They didn't have time to summon guards and explain themselves as the Akata Dawn would be any day!

After the 4 buildings they had to explore the wizard's tower, which was even more dangerous.

Finally they were offered a bounty by one of the wizards' original victims (they found her body in the tower) to hunt him down and end his madness forever.

That took them to level 5 or so, ready to start their Kingdom Building.

[LibraryOgre]

Nobody just hires lvl 1 heroes.


That's where Henchmen come from. 1st level PC classes aren't that different from the standard 0th level fighters that watch caravans or guard warehouses, either, so starting your beginning adventurers with a mundane job like that (especially limited contract stuff, so they can leave without abandoning responsibilities) is a good option.


I was thinking maybe deliver a payment of gold to a nearby farm from a shop keep who recently purchased some goods, or something similar like a blacksmith's payment to a mine. They would encounter a toll road set up by goblins and maybe a mud mephit (which I saw earlier in this thread, again, props to them because I really like that idea).

I don't think delivering a payment is that bad of an option, really. They're likely doing it because someone thinks them trustworthy (which kind of presumes the characters ARE generally trustworthy, or have really good bluff scores), and "courier" is a good job for a beginning adventurer. "I need this to get from point A to point B, and need someone who won't get eaten by the first griffon that happens by" is a not bad reason to pick a 1st level fighter.

[LordEntrails]

I don't think delivering a payment is that bad of an option, really. They're likely doing it because someone thinks them trustworthy (which kind of presumes the characters ARE generally trustworthy, or have really good bluff scores), and "courier" is a good job for a beginning adventurer. "I need this to get from point A to point B, and need someone who won't get eaten by the first griffon that happens by" is a not bad reason to pick a 1st level fighter.
Delivering gold is a poor idea, "I'll pay you each 10 gold to deliver this bag of 500 gold..." Or did you mean "I'll pay you 500 gold to deliver this bag of 10 gold"?

But, courier is not. "Deliver this..." letter, tool, painting, or sentimentally valuable object. Something of value to the sender and receiver, but not to the courier.

As for the mud mephit idea, you can do the same with any of them, just change the element they are hanging out in. Maybe they have inhabited the local stream where the washing is done. Or a windy pass through the hills, etc.

I like mephits, maybe I use them too much...

[LibraryOgre]

Delivering gold is a poor idea, "I'll pay you each 10 gold to deliver this bag of 500 gold..." Or did you mean "I'll pay you 500 gold to deliver this bag of 10 gold"?

But, courier is not. "Deliver this..." letter, tool, painting, or sentimentally valuable object. Something of value to the sender and receiver, but not to the courier.

As for the mud mephit idea, you can do the same with any of them, just change the element they are hanging out in. Maybe they have inhabited the local stream where the washing is done. Or a windy pass through the hills, etc.

I like mephits, maybe I use them too much...

"A string will bind an honest man more surely than a shackle a dishonest one." I mean, folks deliver far more money than they make pretty frequently... restaurant receipts, etc. "I'll pay you 10 gold to deliver this bag of 500 gold" is pretty reasonable if you trust the person... like someone might trust a level 1 character they've known most of their lives.

[Aneurin]

Waking up with a severe hangover and no memory of the previous night in a part of the city they've never seen before. They need to find their way home before people start to worry about them.


Introduces the players to extended skill tests; rolling Navigate, or Survival or whatever, alone isn't enough. They need a complex series of related rolls, supported by roleplaying. Lets you throw some low-threat encounters at them (muggers) to let the players get a taste of combat and how it works.

More importantly, especially if the players are already used to the above stuff, it gives a chance to introduce them to the setting, give them little snippets of rumours about the world around them, and introduce them to the NPCs in their life who'll (hopefully) be important to them. It's just a nice, slow build up to... whatever they do next.

[Darokar]

Delivering gold is a poor idea, "I'll pay you each 10 gold to deliver this bag of 500 gold..." Or did you mean "I'll pay you 500 gold to deliver this bag of 10 gold"?

But, courier is not. "Deliver this..." letter, tool, painting, or sentimentally valuable object. Something of value to the sender and receiver, but not to the courier.

As for the mud mephit idea, you can do the same with any of them, just change the element they are hanging out in. Maybe they have inhabited the local stream where the washing is done. Or a windy pass through the hills, etc.

I like mephits, maybe I use them too much...

My friends tend to lean towards the evil side, so I'll probably change the gold to a letter asking why the food shipments have ceased (the goblin toll road and mephit would be at fault). Then when they get there, the farmer might give them a shipment to take back or something. Thoughts?

[Telok]

I once had a plan, back during 4e d&d with the extreme description/mechanic disassociation, where level 1 characters led armies through portals to attack the gods. They'd kill angels, demons, gods, etc. to about 4th/5th and then battle through the collapsing metaphysical planes to get home. Around level 10 they get home and have to deal with rebellions and rival adventurers. By level 15 society is collapsing because of the fallout from killing gods like justice and family, so they fight rioters and cultists. Around level 20 they're battling roving gangs of bandits and monsters just to save a single town. Since the gods of harvest, fertility, and nature are dead then end the game fighting rats for food.
All made possibly by just swapping the descriptions on assorted monsters.

[LibraryOgre]

My friends tend to lean towards the evil side, so I'll probably change the gold to a letter asking why the food shipments have ceased (the goblin toll road and mephit would be at fault). Then when they get there, the farmer might give them a shipment to take back or something. Thoughts?

That works well... especially at the person if the other end has the muscle to make sure evil character's don't then sell the food as their own.

[VoxRationis]

Save the world; stop a cult from summoning a demon lord.

Think about it. If the spell they use is some sort of plot-based ritual rather than a by-the-book mechanical thing, there's no particular reason why the cultists have to be 15th level to do it. Maybe it's the case that the higher-level sorts that would normally stop it are busy, or far away, or dead, or otherwise occupied, or maybe this low-level cult has done an exceptional job at evading their attention. Maybe this cult lucked into finding a plausible way for them to summon their demon lord, and they weren't considered a significant threat before now.

Of course, people notice when you save the world, and this instantly catapults the now-2nd level characters into stardom and fame, immersing them in a world of politics before they have the ability to personally and violently remove power structures they don't like, so that they actually have to pay attention to these matters.

[Darokar]

That works well... especially at the person if the other end has the muscle to make sure evil character's don't then sell the food as their own.

All right, thank you! I might change the item being delivered, but I'm not sure.

[LordEntrails]

My friends tend to lean towards the evil side, so I'll probably change the gold to a letter asking why the food shipments have ceased (the goblin toll road and mephit would be at fault). Then when they get there, the farmer might give them a shipment to take back or something. Thoughts?
Sounds reasonable.

Raw food/grain products are harder to sell unless you sell such regularly. Plus, adventurers typically don't think of trade goods in the same way they think of gold, gems, magic.

I'd put a bridge or other choke point (pass through a range of hills, etc) as where the goblin toll is taking place. And maybe rather than a toll (which implies passage for a fee), more like a checkpoint or blockade where the goblins are not letting anything through and are seizing it all. Probably ambush style since goblins are not notoriously brave.

[Darokar]

Sounds reasonable.

Raw food/grain products are harder to sell unless you sell such regularly. Plus, adventurers typically don't think of trade goods in the same way they think of gold, gems, magic.

I'd put a bridge or other choke point (pass through a range of hills, etc) as where the goblin toll is taking place. And maybe rather than a toll (which implies passage for a fee), more like a checkpoint or blockade where the goblins are not letting anything through and are seizing it all. Probably ambush style since goblins are not notoriously brave.

I drew a map of their little set up earlier today. It was between a steep hill and a bank that lead to a creek, which I added to spice things up. It was basically two small towers that were once used by guards of a nearby town as a checkpoint. The goblins went through them after they were abandoned, made some shoddy construction work to make it safer, and then used it as a toll road point. I also gave them a boulder trap that would cause boulders to roll down the hill onto exceptionally resistant people, people who would refuse to pay the toll no matter what.
I do like the idea of them just attacking carts though, so I might Remove the towers and have them camp outside on top of the hill. Should I keep the boulder trap and small creek or what? Also, how many goblins should there be? I was thinking 4 or 5, but I’m not sure.

[Jay R]

Nobody just hires lvl 1 heroes.

Don't be absurd. Every single person's first job happened because the boss hired someone with no experience.

Every army is made up of people who, at some point in the past, were not trained fighters. Every police hero, firefighter hero, doctor hero, soldier hero, teacher hero, activist hero, or whatever kind of hero you believe in started out as untrained.

First levels aren't heroes – yet. Your favorite sports star wasn't a star when he or she started.

The Super Bowl MVP was once a complete untrained person trying to play football - and doing so on a very basic level.

Which points to one possible direction for first level characters - hire them and put them into a training program.

[Bulhakov]

Don't be absurd. Every single person's first job happened because the boss hired someone with no experience.

Every army is made up of people who, at some point in the past, were not trained fighters. Every police hero, firefighter hero, doctor hero, soldier hero, teacher hero, activist hero, or whatever kind of hero you believe in started out as untrained.

First levels aren't heroes – yet. Your favorite sports star wasn't a star when he or she started.

The Super Bowl MVP was once a complete untrained person trying to play football - and doing so on a very basic level.

Which points to one possible direction for first level characters - hire them and put them into a training program.

That's just it - they hire a guard, a soldier, a doctor, a teacher etc. not "an adventuring party of heroes". If someone has 10 rats to kill (or equivalent level of quest) they either hire a rat-catcher or get a neighbor/friend/family member to help out, they don't post a 10 copper pieces bounty on the rats for any stranger to come to their basement.

Unless the PCs start all in one profession (caravan guard, henchmen, scouting party or city watch are good ideas) it's difficult (though not impossible) to just give them a "job" straight from the start, especially if the party is well balanced with mixed classes.

[Samzat]

That's just it - they hire a guard, a soldier, a doctor, a teacher etc. not "an adventuring party of heroes". If someone has 10 rats to kill (or equivalent level of quest) they either hire a rat-catcher or get a neighbor/friend/family member to help out, they don't post a 10 copper pieces bounty on the rats for any stranger to come to their basement.

Unless the PCs start all in one profession (caravan guard, henchmen, scouting party or city watch are good ideas) it's difficult (though not impossible) to just give them a "job" straight from the start, especially if the party is well balanced with mixed classes.
Maybe a group of bandits need killing, but they are highly mobile so a larger force will cause them to escape, and there are no squads of higher level characters in the immediate area, or maybe the employer knows level 1 adventurers work cheap.

[Jay R]

That's just it - they hire a guard, a soldier, a doctor, a teacher etc. not "an adventuring party of heroes". If someone has 10 rats to kill (or equivalent level of quest) they either hire a rat-catcher or get a neighbor/friend/family member to help out, they don't post a 10 copper pieces bounty on the rats for any stranger to come to their basement.

I think the phrase "an adventuring party of heroes" is getting in your way. That doesn't describe first levels. Bilbo's first reaction was, "We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"

The Pevensies didn't go through a wardrobe as adventuring heroes. It was an accident.

Luke Skywalker was a farmboy who "wanted to join the resistance". He wasn't planning to confront Darth Vader.

By contrast, D'Artagnan did start out seeking adventures, and it got him clubbed, beaten, and robbed.

And since I've never seen a game start with rat-catching in a basement, I don't see the relevance. I agree that that would be a silly beginning to a game.


Unless the PCs start all in one profession (caravan guard, henchmen, scouting party or city watch are good ideas) it's difficult (though not impossible) to just give them a "job" straight from the start, especially if the party is well balanced with mixed classes.

I don't get how something people have done easily for over forty years can suddenly become difficult.

In the last game I ran, they were all from the same village, and began by taking a load of crops to market, through a forest that turned out to have outlaw goblins stating to appear, because of a nearby siege.

The game I started before this, the PCs were all servants of higher level masters who were killed by the artifacts that they were trying to dispose of.

Before that, a building was burning down. Victims were screaming, and the PCs happened to be nearby.

In the games I've played recently, the PCs were:
Hired to join a ship colonizing a recently discovered new world,
Princelings taken on a lion hunt.
Gathering at a trade meet representing their families' interests.
Hired to find out what happened to a missing wagonload of mead.

Hiring a few people with varied skills to accomplish a certain goal is how small businesses get started. It really is pretty straightforward.

I suspect that you are stuck on the idea that these are "adventurers", rather than just people who live in a unsettled time in a dangerous world.

[LordEntrails]

I drew a map of their little set up earlier today. It was between a steep hill and a bank that lead to a creek, which I added to spice things up. It was basically two small towers that were once used by guards of a nearby town as a checkpoint. The goblins went through them after they were abandoned, made some shoddy construction work to make it safer, and then used it as a toll road point. I also gave them a boulder trap that would cause boulders to roll down the hill onto exceptionally resistant people, people who would refuse to pay the toll no matter what.
I do like the idea of them just attacking carts though, so I might Remove the towers and have them camp outside on top of the hill. Should I keep the boulder trap and small creek or what? Also, how many goblins should there be? I was thinking 4 or 5, but I’m not sure.

I like the boulder trap idea. Just don't make it too effective. Maybe the goblins have dug a crude rut for the boulder to run down and the party might see it and figure out what it's for and then not stand in the way. Or maybe the boulder doesn't roll very straight and is inaccurate. Maybe the boulder only hits the cart. Use it to allow some smart playing and induce some terror, but it shouldn't be deadly.

4-5 goblins sounds fine if you keep the boulder. Don't forget you can always run a test play of it by yourself.Just use standard damage rather than rolling for damage so you keep things "more average"

[Kaptin Keen]

"I'm sorry - but there is no one else: You three will have to wipe out this goblin tribe. Go! Good luck."

Substitute anything for 'goblin tribe'. Any level 1 quest should be a potential TPK that can be overcome with planning.

[LibraryOgre]

That's just it - they hire a guard, a soldier, a doctor, a teacher etc. not "an adventuring party of heroes". If someone has 10 rats to kill (or equivalent level of quest) they either hire a rat-catcher or get a neighbor/friend/family member to help out, they don't post a 10 copper pieces bounty on the rats for any stranger to come to their basement.


And who says the PCs aren't the neighbor/friend/family member? "Johnny, Grandma says the rats have gotten into her basement and started waving spears. You've been training with a sword, and you're friends with that wizard apprentice and Father Tom's acolyte. Can you go clean out the basement before they summon Kurtulmak? And take that useless bum of a friend with you, Roguer. Maybe you can use him as a shield."

[NRSASD]

"Johnny, Grandma says the rats have gotten into her basement and started waving spears. You've been training with a sword, and you're friends with that wizard apprentice and Father Tom's acolyte. Can you go clean out the basement before they summon Kurtulmak? And take that useless bum of a friend with you, Roguer. Maybe you can use him as a shield."

Mother is getting a little too cynical in her old age apparently

[Darokar]

I like the boulder trap idea. Just don't make it too effective."

Yeah, a tpk in the first session because of some exceedingly crafty goblins doesn't sound too appealing. I thought of using the boulders to limit the parties movement options, like cutting of the cart's progression by having them land in front of the path or knocking over the cart. Thoughts?

[LibraryOgre]

Mother is getting a little too cynical in her old age apparently

Roguer is a gorram punk and going to mess up Johnny's chance of getting in the guard.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Delivering gold is a poor idea, "I'll pay you each 10 gold to deliver this bag of 500 gold..." Or did you mean "I'll pay you 500 gold to deliver this bag of 10 gold"?

But, courier is not. "Deliver this..." letter, tool, painting, or sentimentally valuable object. Something of value to the sender and receiver, but not to the courier.

As for the mud mephit idea, you can do the same with any of them, just change the element they are hanging out in. Maybe they have inhabited the local stream where the washing is done. Or a windy pass through the hills, etc.

I like mephits, maybe I use them too much...

Referencing more beginnings of good RPGs:

"Here's an arbitrary amount of money to take this novelty doodad to the big city across the desert. Surely, no unexpected complications will come up. It's definitely not a doom artifact of any sort and you are absolutely not going to be mugged and left for dead by a scheming gangster."

[NRSASD]

Sounds like a good strategy to me. Especially if these guys are new players, it's waaay too easy to accidentally TPK a group of 1st levels with sound tactics. If the PCs do get in the path of the boulder, give them a good chance to dodge it. A rolling boulder should be fairly easy to dodge since they'll see it coming. Much harder for a cart to dodge.

@Mark Thank you for that reply! My cat is very confused about my spontaneous outburst of laughter now

@Nerd-O-Rama I did exactly that. It went... spectacularly. It was a cursed idol that wildsurged every minute. 5th Street, the Bakers' Guildhall, and that poor unfortunate donkey were never the same again.

[Darokar]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

[Bulhakov]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

You can always put some twist on it, either to make it darker or throw in a new plot hook. Some ideas:
- there are human kids/teens in the goblin party (adopted? kidnapped?)
- the goblin provisions have fresh human meat
- the goblins are starved and malnourished, willing to surrender in exchange for food
- the goblins are all escaped slaves from a nearby orc-run mine, they want to persuade the party to help them free other slaves (or provoke the PCs to chase them, so the orc guards will fight the party)

[LibraryOgre]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

It's tried and true... but consider where it's leading. WHY are these goblins ambushing people? I like to use such things as a "hook" to the main adventure.

For example, a number of years ago I used "The Johnson family didn't come into town at the last market. Someone should go check up on them." Party becomes someone, being trained and at loose ends. They find the farm has been taken over by Orcs, some of the family killed, others kept prisoner. Party takes out the orcs, frees the hostages, etc. But, when they look into why the orcs did this, the answer ties in to the expanding hobgoblin kingdom pushing orcs and other chaotic humanoids out and into human lands.

Now, if the party DOESN'T investigate, that's fine. It's an adventurer thing, and they didn't go looking at causes. But if they DO, you have a reason why this is happening now, and a way to lead them to a greater adventure.

[Bulhakov]

And who says the PCs aren't the neighbor/friend/family member? "Johnny, Grandma says the rats have gotten into her basement and started waving spears. You've been training with a sword, and you're friends with that wizard apprentice and Father Tom's acolyte. Can you go clean out the basement before they summon Kurtulmak? And take that useless bum of a friend with you, Roguer. Maybe you can use him as a shield."

That's exactly what I suggested a few posts earlier. Personal drama - friends/family/neighbors in trouble, is much better than getting a typical NPC-assigned "job".

[Darokar]

It's tried and true... but consider where it's leading. WHY are these goblins ambushing people? I like to use such things as a "hook" to the main adventure.

For example, a number of years ago I used "The Johnson family didn't come into town at the last market. Someone should go check up on them." Party becomes someone, being trained and at loose ends. They find the farm has been taken over by Orcs, some of the family killed, others kept prisoner. Party takes out the orcs, frees the hostages, etc. But, when they look into why the orcs did this, the answer ties in to the expanding hobgoblin kingdom pushing orcs and other chaotic humanoids out and into human lands.

Now, if the party DOESN'T investigate, that's fine. It's an adventurer thing, and they didn't go looking at causes. But if they DO, you have a reason why this is happening now, and a way to lead them to a greater adventure.

I was thinking the goblins were ambushing people to gather weapons and supplies for a war against another goblin tribe. I also thought that they could be arming themselves for a revolt against hobgoblin slavers that had enslaved most of their tribe. The goblins would be escaped slaves and they would be gathering supplies and allies to overthrow the hobgoblins or something. What do you think?

[Nifft]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

I started a game like that! Kinda.

The party went to a small town which had put out the call for adventurers to clear an abandoned mine of goblins.

There was a caravan of magical weapons, set to arrive in town on Day 3 or so, also responding to the town's call for goblin-hunters. (The caravan was intended to sell weapons to adventurer-types.)

The caravan never made it to town -- now the goblins have magical weapons, and are a much bigger threat.

The PCs assault the mine, kill the goblin leadership, and respond to the changes in tactics due to the new leadership.

The PCs also get free magic weapons (once they capture them from the goblins).

[Darokar]

You can always put some twist on it, either to make it darker or throw in a new plot hook. Some ideas:
- there are human kids/teens in the goblin party (adopted? kidnapped?)
- the goblin provisions have fresh human meat
- the goblins are starved and malnourished, willing to surrender in exchange for food
- the goblins are all escaped slaves from a nearby orc-run mine, they want to persuade the party to help them free other slaves (or provoke the PCs to chase them, so the orc guards will fight the party)

I do like the idea of the goblins being escaped slaves, but if they take the time to ask the party for help, it wouldn't be much of an ambush. I also think that goblins wouldn't ask for help, they are exceedingly loathing of humans after all. I think instead they would steal supplies and get help from other goblinoids.

[Darokar]

I started a game like that! Kinda.

The party went to a small town which had put out the call for adventurers to clear an abandoned mine of goblins.

There was a caravan of magical weapons, set to arrive in town on Day 3 or so, also responding to the town's call for goblin-hunters. (The caravan was intended to sell weapons to adventurer-types.)

The caravan never made it to town -- now the goblins have magical weapons, and are a much bigger threat.

The PCs assault the mine, kill the goblin leadership, and respond to the changes in tactics due to the new leadership.

The PCs also get free magic weapons (once they capture them from the goblins).

Goblins with magical weapons. I can only imagine the horror!

[Frozen_Feet]

It's tried and true... but consider where it's leading. WHY are these goblins ambushing people?

A better questio is why are the player characters not ambushing people and taking their stuff, because the goblins 1) just proved it's feasible and 2) serve as usefull scapegoats. :smalltongue:

[Kaptin Keen]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

Do writers of action movies feel bad about tattoo'd bikers, black suited government officials, or any other staples of the movie industry? Hell no. They don't even try to do anything original with those staples. You can.

It doesn't matter that they're goblins, they could be any other low level race. But make them interesting. Maybe they're escaped slave soldiers of some warlord? Maybe they're a tribe that snuck into the city and live in the sewers?

Or you know - don't try to make them interesting. It's also totally fine to just have a goblin ambush. Slaugthering goblins, while unfair, is fun.

[Drakeburn]

Nobody trust adventurers enough for giving them the task of delivering gold.
I mean why would they not just flee with the gold?

My thoughts exactly. I figure the best solution to that problem is to give them the task of delivering copper coins instead! :smalltongue:

[NRSASD]

Here's a plot/quest for rookie adventurers, one I'll probably use next start. Start them out in a big city and make sure they each have a reason to know at least one another character. Play a very brief, private session 0 with each of their characters going about their daily pre-adventuring lives. End each of these mini sessions with the character getting knocked out, either by mugging, poison, magic, etc. Allow them some fast thinking so that especially clever or lucky characters make it out very alarmed but conscious.

Session 1 begins with all the unlucky, unconscious characters (sans gear) waking up in a desecrated mass grave in the city's graveyard, slowly being filled in by zombified gravediggers. A major necromancer has decided the time is right to kick off a zombie apocalypse in the city, and was hoping to turn the PCs into stronger undead by burying them alive in a desecrated grave. The bulk of the undead horde moved out about an hour ago and is rampaging through the city. The PC's gear is piled up outside the grave, and any unkidnapped PCs have followed their abducted friends into the graveyard. The party's first quest? Get out of the 4m deep grave and get their stuff back.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Honestly if you're going to rob the players of all their equipment in the first session I advise skipping the "buying equipment" part of character creation and just letting them find what's on hand. Maybe it's just me, but having them pick out gear just to say "oh you have to go fight zombies for all that stuff you just spent five to thirty minutes haggling over" feels like a waste of time.

[Illven]

Honestly if you're going to rob the players of all their equipment in the first session I advise skipping the "buying equipment" part of character creation and just letting them find what's on hand. Maybe it's just me, but having them pick out gear just to say "oh you have to go fight zombies for all that stuff you just spent five to thirty minutes haggling over" feels like a waste of time.

I got the impression their equipment is just outside of their own grave so they'd only have to dig out of their grave to get it.

[Jay R]

My new question is if I should feel bad for something cliche as a goblin ambush?

No. Feel good if it works well, and feel bad if it doesn't. "Cliché" means done so much that it doesn't work any more. If it works, it's not a cliché.

It's also worth pointing out that if the players are new to fantasy gaming, nothing is a cliché. It's all new and unexpected.

[RPG Factory]

Aside from "Kill all the rats in the cellar", what other quests would there be for a bunch of Level One Adventurers?

Thinking about it, we're talking about adventurers who are, in a way, as inexperienced as they can get. What reason would an employer have to pay for the services of these level 1 adventurers?

You could start off with a small ish dungeon that a wealthy citizen would pay handsomely for those that would investigate a rumour about a enchanted cup... then again you may want to roll a dice to see how valuable that said cup reaaally is ;)