[AD&D] Good modules for beginners

[Randalor]

Recently I've been wanting to run an AD&D group with my usual group. I'm familiar with the system, and I was wanting to ease the players into AD&D. I do have several modules/campaignes already, the main one being Night Below, but I wanted to ease them into the system first before jumping into long-term games. What are some good low level modules that you've played? I don't mind running them through series of modules either.

I want them to start at level 1, and I'm hopeing/expecting 4-6 players.

[LibraryOgre]

If you're looking at starting at level 1, I suggest T1 Village of Hommlet or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Good, solid adventures, with a lot of options.

[Matthew]

I have heard good thing about Stuart Marshall's Melford Murder series, which is designed for first level characters and consists of four modules:

SM1 The Spider Farm
SM2 The Melford Murder
SM3 Shrine of the Oracle
SM4 Beneath the Darkshroud Peaks

[Hendel]

T1 The Village of Homlett (as mentioned earlier)
U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
UK5 Eye of the Serpent

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands was also mentioned but it is actually a Basic module but does not require much to make it an AD&D adventure.

[Lapak]

If you can track it down, I really enjoyed Under Illefarn (N5) when we first got into AD&D, and it's a bit less well-known.

[gbprime]

L1 - Secret of Bone Hill - this is a great dungeon crawl for low level parties
L2 - The Assassin's Knot - somewhat of a sequel, and an excellent module overall, more like a "whodunnit" mystery where you have to discover and foil the assassin before he strikes again!

[LibraryOgre]

If you can track it down, I really enjoyed Under Illefarn (N5) when we first got into AD&D, and it's a bit less well-known.

Forgot about Under Illefarn. Another good one.

[hamlet]

The modules Matthew lists are generally good starters, and definately easier on a novice DM.

Frankly, I'd stay away from T1 for a first time module if anything because Hommlet relies on a good bit of creativity to push the players through.

Another good contender is Against the Cult of the Reptile God. There's also the Saltmarsh trilogy that are truly excellent low level adventures, including a bit of underwater adventuring.

[Grifthin]

The sunless citadel is pretty fun.

[Randalor]

Thanks for the suggestions. I do have a few of thoses, and a local game shop has copies of most of the old modules, and the owner keeps telling me every time I'm looking at them that if there is one I'm looking for that isn't there, he can get it for me, so I'll look into all of thoses.

[LibraryOgre]

The sunless citadel is pretty fun.

AD&D, not WD&D.

[Balain]

One I liked for first level was N1... Um...I forget the name now...

[hamlet]

One I liked for first level was N1... Um...I forget the name now...

I believe that was "Under Illefarn."

[Hendel]

One I liked for first level was N1... Um...I forget the name now...

Actually N1 is the aforementioned Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It is a good adventure, but a large portion of the first half is spent investigating what has happened in town. I have found that most new folk to D&D like to get into the action quickly. That was why I suggest the Village of Hommlet. It is rather quick entry adventure as the party might be there for the specific purpose of going to the moathouse ruins.

[Petrankov]

Daggerdale is a good low level module.

My favorite module was Night of the Walking Dead. It is Ravenloft but does not have to be Ravenloft if you do not want it to be. In my opinion the best module, I ran it 3 times for different groups and it was always a HUGE hit.

[Macrovore]

For AD&D, I'm a big fan of using Tomb of Horrors. It really brings out the best in both players and DMs, and Gygax wrote it to make great use of all the players in the party. It has just the right amount of danger to make it exciting, but not enough for your players to kill you. It's boatloads of fun for everyone involved.

[Axolotl]

For AD&D, I'm a big fan of using Tomb of Horrors. It really brings out the best in both players and DMs, and Gygax wrote it to make great use of all the players in the party. It has just the right amount of danger to make it exciting, but not enough for your players to kill you. It's boatloads of fun for everyone involved.

Personally I find Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom to be better for beginners. It's designed for any ruleset so there isn't any complex rules to figure out beyond basic AD&D! Perfect for introducing people to RPGs.

Or Keep on the Borderlands if you want the cliche starter adventure.

[Hendel]

For AD&D, I'm a big fan of using Tomb of Horrors. It really brings out the best in both players and DMs, and Gygax wrote it to make great use of all the players in the party. It has just the right amount of danger to make it exciting, but not enough for your players to kill you. It's boatloads of fun for everyone involved.

I agree that it is a great adventure, but for beginners??

[JonestheSpy]

Keep on the Borderlands is probably the best for throwing them in the action - go to the Keep, equip yourself, go explore the landscape and fight things. Ditto for Bone Hill - I like that one a lot for its many small encounters low-level types can run into in the wild, then run back to safety of the town.

Hommlet is excellent, but to do it right involves a lot of hanging around the town and discovering the agents o' evil and making connections with the important npc's.

Saltmarsh is OK and has the advantage of being fairly short, but it's wayyy too Scooby Doo/Hardy Boys for me. I mean, really - go check out the old haunted house, but wait, it's not actually haunted, it's a gang of smugglers! We're in a fantasy world here, it's OK to have actual ghosts and such (and no, a few animated skeletons locked in the closet don't really count). Players also can get pretty bored searching around the upper floors that are almost completely devoid of anything interesting.

Speaking of Hardy Boys mentality, what was up with suddenly introducing non-magical hypnotism to explain two gnolls working for the boss? Pretty ridiculous when you can just have them working for the guy straight up without jumping through hoops to figure out how some human could get two gnolls to stand still and stare at the pretty watch...

And let's face it, new players might be quite likely to go and slaughter/get slaughtered by the lizard men they're supposed to ally with in the second module.

I actually adapted Saltmarsh for my 3.5 campaign awhile ago. Basically leveled the ground and upper floors, and stuck in a grumpy redcap hanging around the ruins for that fey feel. Changed the smugglers (boring) to slavers (far more interesting). Didn't fit with the later modules, of course, but fit into to a slavery plot in my campaign, and could lead into the Slavelords series of modules for when the characters are higher level.

I agree that it is a great adventure, but for beginners??

Well, 1st level characters can last just as long as 12th level ones in the Tomb, if you know what I mean...

[Lapak]

It occurs to me that rather than just saying 'Under Illefarn,' I should explain why. The module is structured somewhat unusually for an introductory module, in a way that gives new players a lot more structure.

The PCs are all assumed to be part of the town militia, which gives them a reason to be working together, a reason to perform the missions offered while still having some freelancing freedom, and a defined relationship to the power players of the home-base town.

It's broken down into three ramping-up missions before you hit the big dungeon-crawl portion. The three ramp-ups give them a chance to engage in some negotiation, some combat, some wilderness, deal with some buildings, and some random encounters; once they've had some experience they're ready to do some dungeoneering.

The module also does a good job of setting out the relationships within the town, both major and minor - on the one hand, how the three competing blacksmiths interact; on the other, how the local nobility came to power and what the court is like. It also adds some nice touches like making sure that the spell books of various casters contain only spells from their respective mentors' spell books. All of this makes the town a fleshed-out jumping off point for continuing adventures.

[Mando Knight]

For AD&D, I'm a big fan of using Tomb of Horrors. It really brings out the best in both players and DMs, and Gygax wrote it to make great use of all the players in the party. It has just the right amount of danger to make it exciting, but not enough for your players to kill you. It's boatloads of fun for everyone involved.

I was going to suggest this one sarcastically, with a caveat at the end to the effect that I meant it as a joke...

[hamlet]

Saltmarsh is OK and has the advantage of being fairly short, but it's wayyy too Scooby Doo/Hardy Boys for me. I mean, really - go check out the old haunted house, but wait, it's not actually haunted, it's a gang of smugglers! We're in a fantasy world here, it's OK to have actual ghosts and such (and no, a few animated skeletons locked in the closet don't really count). Players also can get pretty bored searching around the upper floors that are almost completely devoid of anything interesting.

Speaking of Hardy Boys mentality, what was up with suddenly introducing non-magical hypnotism to explain two gnolls working for the boss? Pretty ridiculous when you can just have them working for the guy straight up without jumping through hoops to figure out how some human could get two gnolls to stand still and stare at the pretty watch...

And let's face it, new players might be quite likely to go and slaughter/get slaughtered by the lizard men they're supposed to ally with in the second module.

That's actually kinda the point I suspect. They were just a little silly and scooby-dooish. You're supposed to get a bit of a chuckle out of them. I remember playing in them and the entire table laughing endlessly with bad Scooby and Shaggy impersonations when it was realized just what the heck was going on.

Not everything has to be deadly serious dramatic, you know. Back in the old days, some of the greatest parts of the game were the great jokes that popped up every now and then when you weren't expecting them. Like the grave stones in the basement of Castle Ravenloft. They were so bad that they were funny in the midst of all the horror. Not to mention a sentient and living tower.

[ken-do-nim]

I'll list 3 of the best that never get mentioned:

Citadel By The Sea, from Dragon #78
The lhedrin Book Book, by Judges Guild
Prey of Darkness, by Judges Guild