Essential elements of an introductory adventure?

[jjordan]

I don't want to derail the discussion (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?611095-Lost-Mines-of-Phandelver-is-a-terrible-module-for-newbies) centered around the Lost Mine of Phandelver specifically but I'm wondering what everyone considers essential elements of a successful introductory adventure (1st level, new to system and/or gaming in general)?

[Greywander]

I was actually considering starting a thread along these lines. I couldn't help but think of Egoraptor's video on Megaman X and how the intro stage teaches you everything you need to know to play the game. I feel like an introductory adventure should do the same thing, but D&D is a much more complex game.

Here's some thoughts I had:

A wide open sandbox probably isn't the best type of campaign. You don't want to railroad the players, but you do want to give them a clear direction. Starting with a heavily linear portion (e.g. they are captured and have to escape the dungeon) and then have it open up later.

There should be a combat encounter soon after the start, maybe even starting in combat. The first fight should be easy so the players can get the hang of how combat works.

There should be another encounter a bit later using the same enemies, but much more of them. This is to teach the players a hard lesson about how easy it is to lose a fight and not to underestimate weak enemies in large numbers. The adventure should be designed around them TPKing (i.e. a TPK isn't lethal, just another path forward) while also being able to handle them winning the fight. Speaking of, the fight should definitely be winnable, just hard.

The players should be introduced to some D&D staples, such as picking locks and avoiding traps.

There should be a really tough monster that the players can talk to. If things go badly, they might have a tough fight on their hands, but they can also persuade the monster to help them. Either route should offer a reward to the players, but the players should be aware that these rewards are mutually exclusive. This is meant to show that not all your problems need to be solved with violence, as well as that some problems have more than one solution.

On that note, the players should be given an opportunity to deal with a group of enemies without fighting them (e.g. poisoning their food).

There should be at least one puzzle that has to be solved to progress. There can also be optional hints and clues that the party can find that will help them later on. The puzzle should be simple enough and potentially trivialized with a 1st level spell (Detect Magic, for example).

There should be at least one enemy spellcaster and one friendly spellcaster. Magic is a huge part of D&D, so the players should be introduced to it early.

Another thought I had was to include some NPC adventurers. Perhaps the classic of a human fighter, dwarf cleric, elf wizard, and halfling rogue. Their purpose is to demonstrate the kinds of things you can do in D&D with those character archetypes, as well as possibly help fill in vacant roles in the party. These characters shouldn't be in play for long; perhaps they get killed off or run away. They could be a rival party, so they're only helping out a small portion of the time.

That's all I've got for now. It would be interesting to see someone design a well-made adventure that actually did a good job of teaching new players about the game.

[Man_Over_Game]

One thing I want to add is that there should be an emphasis on preparation over reaction.

A good way of showcasing the open-world element of DND is allowing unique solutions, and that's better done with universal problems.

That is, building a trap to deal with an expected enemy is a unique solution, but one of many.

Compare this to players assaulting a location with a trap, which really only has one solution.

Tell players that they have a universal problem that can be solved in many ways, that they have time to be creative, and let them DnD. And make any potential surprises have so many clues that the most likely scenario is that the players foil your plot.

[Greywander]

That does sound good. Although I would still start with a more linear section so they can learn the rules and get used to the way the game works. Then open the game up and let them get creative.

[JellyPooga]

A wide open sandbox probably isn't the best type of campaign. You don't want to railroad the players, but you do want to give them a clear direction. Starting with a heavily linear portion (e.g. they are captured and have to escape the dungeon) and then have it open up later.

Agree


There should be a combat encounter soon after the start, maybe even starting in combat. The first fight should be easy so the players can get the hang of how combat works.

Tentatively disagree. Combat should clearly be in an introductory adventure somewhere, but I don't think it necessarily has to be in the first (non-zero) session or near the start. I don't agree that it necessarily be easy; introducing the concept that the PCs can lose (as per your next point) can easily be done before giving them their first true victory.


There should be another encounter a bit later using the same enemies, but much more of them. This is to teach the players a hard lesson about how easy it is to lose a fight and not to underestimate weak enemies in large numbers. The adventure should be designed around them TPKing (i.e. a TPK isn't lethal, just another path forward) while also being able to handle them winning the fight. Speaking of, the fight should definitely be winnable, just hard.

I don't think this is necessarily the correct or needed approach to introducing failure. "Forcing" a TPK or near-TPK can just as easily dishearten or put off new players. Introducing the concept of losing a battle without having to fight to the death is important, but it neither needs to be against the same enemies you've previously defeated or a TPK.


The players should be introduced to some D&D staples, such as picking locks and avoiding traps.

Concur, with the caveat that it should be presented as an option available (even if the other choice is "just take the trap damage" or "don't go through that door"). You shouldn't block the forward momentum of the story/campaign with it.


There should be a really tough monster that the players can talk to. If things go badly, they might have a tough fight on their hands, but they can also persuade the monster to help them. Either route should offer a reward to the players, but the players should be aware that these rewards are mutually exclusive. This is meant to show that not all your problems need to be solved with violence, as well as that some problems have more than one solution.

On that note, the players should be given an opportunity to deal with a group of enemies without fighting them (e.g. poisoning their food).

It doesn't have to be a tough monster. It can be a weak one, just as easily, or even a whole group of monsters or any NPC (bandits, etc.). Offering the option of a diplomatic approach to a scenario you might otherwise expect to end in violence is what's important and further, that monsters/"bad guys" are intelligent and have motives that can be manipulated or even exploited by clever play. I disagree about the mutually exclusive rewards part; that isn't a necessary lesson you need to rub in their face. The option of avoiding or otherwise handling a situation (like your example of poisoning) I don't think is necessary, but can be a nice addition.


There should be at least one puzzle that has to be solved to progress. There can also be optional hints and clues that the party can find that will help them later on. The puzzle should be simple enough and potentially trivialized with a 1st level spell (Detect Magic, for example).

Nope. Nope Nopity nope nope. You should never gate progress in a campaign with a puzzle. Even if you think it's an easy one. Offering additional rewards for solving a puzzle, yes. Having a puzzle you must solve to preogress? Don't do it. No matter how trivial you think it is, it can really bog down a session and frustrate players, often resulting in the GM having to just give the answer or fudge the result for the game to continue. Seriously. Never never never do this.

The only exception is if the entire campaign or a whole sub-section of it is a puzzle (such as might be the case in an intrigue campaign, where the entire point of the whole campaign is to work out whodunnit, or whatever), but that is a particular style of campaign that must be constructed carefully with multiple avenues of resolving said puzzle.


There should be at least one enemy spellcaster and one friendly spellcaster. Magic is a huge part of D&D, so the players should be introduced to it early.

Agree about there being spellcasters and introducing magic as an integral part of the game. Whether they're friendly, hostile or anything in between isn't as relevant.


Another thought I had was to include some NPC adventurers. Perhaps the classic of a human fighter, dwarf cleric, elf wizard, and halfling rogue. Their purpose is to demonstrate the kinds of things you can do in D&D with those character archetypes, as well as possibly help fill in vacant roles in the party. These characters shouldn't be in play for long; perhaps they get killed off or run away. They could be a rival party, so they're only helping out a small portion of the time.

Disagree. Strongly. I've tried it and it doesn't work that way. It just ends up in DMPC territory where the NPCs end up doing everything for the new players who don't know better than to let them. They then becomes reliant on the GM holding their hand through events and struggle when you take away that crutch. Give them self-reliance and independence from the start and they never have to un-learn the bad lesson of relying on NPCs to do the work for them.


That's all I've got for now. It would be interesting to see someone design a well-made adventure that actually did a good job of teaching new players about the game.

Take a look at Sunless Citadel. As pointed out in the other thread by Segev, it really does demonstrate all the key elements of D&D and while it might be a little bare-bones, it's really the GMs job to make a game interesting, not the adventures.

[Crucius]

What I'd like to add is to include some skill challenges or social challenges.

This way characters can show their skill niche and their roleplay niche.

If there is a Drunken Master Monk in the party for example, have the key to a door be kept by a very drunk halfling, that has to be persuaded somehow to hand over the key. Combine this with alternative solutions where other party members can participate (barbarian lifting a keg to give the halfling more booze, rogue that is picking the lock in the first place, etc) and you have a nice open-ended challenge where players can really showcase the roleplay/flavor/skill niche their characters inhabit.

It is not only an introduction of your world, but also of your player's characters (for in essence they ARE the world).

[NaughtyTiger]

trite, but i didn't see it above.

fun?


if i am not enticed to play again, then i certainly don't care about all the elements of the game.

[Democratus]

For entirely new players, you might have to guide them through some basic concepts.

It's easy for a player to get overwhelmed when simply asked "what do you do?".

Drop them as close to the action as possible, bypassing much of the preamble.

Can be very heavy handed:

You've finally reached the Cave of Many Spooks, which contains the very treasure you have sought. The dark mouth of the cave stands before you and there is aught else to do now but enter!



Or a lighter touch, with a situation that has an obvious action but still gives the player the opportunity to 'pull the trigger'.

After weeks of searching you have reached Castle Faraway. The emblem painted above the gate matches that of the bandits who kidnapped the mayor's daughter.



The point being that you establish what the characters want, and put the first step toward achieving that goal right in front of them.

[Sorinth]

One of the things to keep in mind is that the players don't know what they miss. So they don't know that had they tried to talk to that goblin hermit that they could have convinced him to lead them to the secret entrance to the lair.

So to a certain extent the best thing for beginners is to have a sort of debrief after the adventure where the DM tells them about things they missed or done differently.

[Chad.e.clark]

I love Egoraptor's Sequelitis series. The difference between trying to get the spirit of the Megaman X Intro stage in a DnD equivalent is that MMX has many more restrictions in place than a typical DnD scenario due to the medium its presented in.

More restrictions in solving problems works in MMX, at least for teaching the ins and outs of the system because it means you can organically produce a scenario where the player figures out the available solutions just by playing the game, so in a sense, there is no DM-intervention needed.

DnD is much more open-ended than a side-scrolling action game. That is the beauty of DnD: it is completely open-ended as to how you try to complete your objectives. The best way to encourage different ways of solving problems is presenting realistic outcomes for ways different attempted solutions.

If you allow players to get away with being murder-hoboes, they will learn it is ok to be murder-hoboes.

If you let them attempt skill-checks over and over without any repercussions, they learn to only stick with the first solution they can think of.

If you only present fights that the players can win by depleting enemies HP to 0, they will only see antogonists as a pool of imaginary numbers that they must turn to 0.


Players can only see the world that the DM provides. If you want them to play the game differently, you may have to be heavy-handed about it.

[Joe the Rat]

I have an adventure that I've been working on as a Con one-shot, which (other than level) hits on some of this. You start at a beer festival. There are games, stalls, bad jokes, contests, and opportunities to get poisonedly drunk.

Darts, axes, and archery give you straightforward hit-the-thing exposure. Wizard version shows you cantrips.
Shopping and exploring gets some straight skill checks involved. Wisdom (Brewer's tool proficiency) makes for a good beer snob roll.
Pig chasing, Wrestling and Tug of War show opposed skill checks, and group checks. It also can introduce the idea of using different skills (Athletics vs. Animal Handling)
Eating and Drinking Competitions introduces saving throws, conditions (poisoned), and short rests (take an hour to un-poison).

You can engage in as little or as much as you like before the plot starts.

[patchyman]

A lot of good suggestions here. To add my suggestion to the chorus, there should be at least one element that isn’t just magical, but *wondrous*. Something that just grabs the players with either “I want to know more about this place” or “This is an awesome danger”.

There are too many introductory adventures that seem to think that just because you are 1st level you should be happy hunting rats or kobolds. “Beyond the Crystal Cave” did this well, with the party ending up in the Feywild early on.

[Zetakya]

Introduce the players to the concept of stealth, but rather than via ambush (see the other thread), include a section where they are being spied upon by an urchin who has useful information.

Make spotting him easier if the players take sensible measures (carrying a lantern, using a Light spell etc). Reward them for consciously taking those steps.

[Shocksrivers]

I was considering posting a one-shot module for new players, to be PEACHed by the playground, though it goes one step further than the question here, as it was a pre-level 1 adventure: I made a set of commoner jobs (farmer, miller, brewer etc.) and statted these with relevant attributes (the smith had high constitution and strength, for example). The players had to make only a simple (and kind of arbitrary choice): what job do you want. This meant I didn't have to explain the game before they had played a little, as I noticed this is sort of hard.

I noticed that new players can't really make choices as: do you want to be a rogue (what does that mean) well, you can sneak around and get sneak attacks (okay, but what does that mean).

So after the introductory adventure, which I can post if people are interested, I gave people a level in the class they closed resembled during play. So the person who kept saying "I hide" "I try to pickpocket the troll" "I try to shoot him in his throat to kill him", got a level rogue.

But this does depend on how familiar the new players are with both generic fantasy and TTRPG's in general, this was a solution for a specific problem!

More in line with the OP question: I added, an encounter that could be solved by combat or talking, an encounter that could be solved by combat or sneaking, I added skill challenges, a totally social encounter, traps and one super easy combat encounter at the start so people could figure out how to hit without being in real danger.
They had a general path, but several ways to get there, to give them the notion that you can do what you want, without overwhelming the players with a sandbox.

[stoutstien]

A lot of good ideas but I think what's missing is tools for a new DM to also approach the game just as easily.
- add side bar hints and advice like a middle school history book. If something calls for a condition then put the description of that condition on the same page.
- add suggestion for how NPC would act in response to common situations and in combat. if NPCs have unique ablities highlight them.
-same vein, put the NPC block on the same page that the encounter is.
- pre made map.
- a cheat sheet for each class. A shorter version of the table at the start of chapter 3 in the PHB would work
- design the campaign to be fail forward. Losing some avenues for advancement is fine but they should never be completely cut off from the critical path.
-break up flavor text so they don't think they have to read it all out at once. Also keep it short. The entrance to a cave doesn't need a ode to describe it to the players.
- have a random table for what NPCs are doing when the players meet them. Highlight that the world exists and lives regardless of the players.

[BurgerBeast]

The D&D Black Box, circa somewhere around 1985, which I believe came near the end of BECMI, had a cool (for the time) introductory adventure.

Escape from Zanzer’s Dungeon. (Unfortunately someone has adapted it to Minecraft which can be annoying if you google it.)

The basic plot was that you start as a prisoner in an evil wizard’s salt mine, and must escape. The design was such that you would build your character as you played the module, creating the elements needed for each scene and learning how they worked as you went along.

It was quite cleverly done. You would need to do a lot of work to bring it up to today’s standards, but it has a good framework.

I have a lot of fond memories of that box set, and of the mini-setting of Thunder Rift into which it led. I have looked back at it, so I don’t think nostalgia has fully clouded my judgment, but I must admit it does have a strong effect.

[Avonar]

For something like this, I think you need the following:

1) A fairly typical setting, with perhaps one or two standout items to set the scene. Perhaps a somewhat average town/village with a special building/NPC or two to get the player's interest, you need to introduce the setting and the theme of the world to the players without overwhelming them. Start small and you can build towards big and impressive

2) Encounters that increase in complexity. The first encounter should be the simplest you can make. The players might be new to the mechanics so they will thinking about what they can do, not what the enemy can do. Wild animals are often good for this, they don't have tricks and don't really use tactics. After that, you can start to introduce new elements, introduce foes with ranged abilities, introduce foes using terrain to their advantage and, eventually, introduce enemy mages. Again, start basic and build up.

3) A simple starting quest that the players can instantly understand. No need for any political intruigue or moral quandaries, give them a task and a bad guy. Twists can come later but set them on a firm, obvious path, a sandbox where you don't know the world is just far too overwhelming.

4) Bits of interesting lore. Don't bombard them with the entire history of everything but throw in some genuinely interesting snippets of information on the world now and then. That way each revelation can evoke a reaction as long as you don't do it too often.

5) Interesting loot/rewards. Drop a low level magic item or two, and more than just +1 equipment. Show them examples of the kinds of the things that they might come across.