# 3.5e 1st level adventure for a newbie DM?



## Garthnak

*Background:*

I have not played table-top RPGs much since AD&D2.  I've played a couple of (brief) 3rd edition campaigns, but that's about all.  I've DMed before, but it has been probably ten years, and I've never DMed 3e.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be DMing a 3.5e campaign for some friends.  We'll have a mix of experienced D&D players and complete newbies; after some discussion with the experienced players, we've decided that (for now) we'll stick with 3.5e rather than 4e.

Since I'm relatively fresh-faced, I've decided I should use a pre-made campaign, starting at 1st level, at least to start out.

*Objective:*

I'd like to find a 1st level 3.5e campaign.  It doesn't have to be long, just enough to get us off the ground (say, 1-3 level).  I am currently looking for a pre-made adventure to suit that goal; preferably one that requires minimal prep on my part, since I don't have the time between now and then to dedicate to more than a couple of read-throughs.  I will have more time for future adventures, just not for this gathering.

Most of the players are more role-players than roll-players, and are going to lean away from pure dungeon crawl.  That said, if the best pre-mades for my main objective are dungeon crawls, I won't reflexively reject them.  In particular, I've been looking at the Dungeon Crawl Classics series since it gets such good reviews, and has a number of starter adventures.

I've heard good things about Wizard's "Sunless Citadel" for this very purpose, though it is 3.0 and not 3.5.  How much conversion is necessary?  Just updating monster stats?  Are there 3.5e campaigns that are similar in design and goal?

I looked at Pathfinder's "Rise of the Runelords", and I love the design, but it seems to be laid out for a more experienced DM than me, with more prep time (the very first encounter, for example, leaves some things pretty vague - intentionally, I assume, since most DMs will want to add their own color, but it means a higher buy-in cost for me as a newbie).

Thanks!


----------



## Merlin's Shadow

Garthnak said:


> I've heard good things about Wizard's "Sunless Citadel" for this very purpose, though it is 3.0 and not 3.5.  How much conversion is necessary?  Just updating monster stats?  Are there 3.5e campaigns that are similar in design and goal?




I think Sunless Citadel is a great module. It's been awhile since I've looked at/ran it, but I don't think you'd have trouble running most of it as written even if it is 3.0.

Of Sound Mind is a great adventure and it has conversion notes if you are not using psionics. 

The Freeport Trilogy is also a great series of adventures. These were originally released under 3.0, but the collection updates everything to 3.5.


----------



## Wulf Ratbane

Of Sound Mind. (Fiery Dragon, written by EN World's very own Piratecat.)

If you hadn't specified "non-dungeon crawl" and "quick read through" I would recommend The Lost City of Barakus.

In fact I'd recommend Of Sound Mind to buy you the time you need to read through Barakus.


----------



## Treebore

If you like PDF's you almost have to find usable stuff in this:

RPGNow.com - Goodman Games - Dungeon Crawl Classics #29: The Adventure Begins


----------



## DM_Jeff

Dungeon Crawl Classics #28: Into the Wilds is perfect for you for many reasons. 

Like the mention above, Goodman games PDFs are $2 and $5 now, it's a steal and would provide you and your group just what you need.

-DM Jeff


----------



## delericho

I'll second "Of Sound Mind" and "Sunless Citadel". I've also heard good things about "The Adventure Begins".

I'll also recommend "Mad God's Key" from Dungeon magazine (issue 118, I think). And "Death in Freeport" is an old but extremely good adventure.

Also from Dungeon, there's "The Whispering Cairn", the first part of Age of Worms, which could be repurposed to start some other campaign. It's a bit dungeon-crawly, and might be better suited to a more experienced DM though. And from Pathfinder I thoroughly enjoyed "Burnt Offerings" (the first part of Rise of the Runelords). Oh, and Paizo's "Crown of the Kobold King".

There are quite a few excellent 1st level adventures out there. But avoid "Scourge of the Howling Horde". That is not a good one.


----------



## DEFCON 1

This first module I DM'd here on ENWorld's Play-By-Post games was the Free WotC Adventure "Wreck Ashore".  It's a first level adventure that starts in a small town (Seawell), and then travels to examine a lighthouse that isn't working, and then the party discovers the cause is a band of pirates that have run ships aground to steal and loot their stuff.  There is also a lizardfolk tribe in the area to encounter and deal with. 

It was a simple and fun adventure, and best of all it was a free PDF.  I was also able to download several maps from the WotC Map-A-Day section of their archives to get some extra maps to use.

Here is the link to the adventure:

FREE Original Adventures: Wreck Ashore

It includes within the adventure the map of the lighthouse, but here's that map again:

http://wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/Jan_9x4L3c.jpg

Here's a map of the coastline I downloaded to use:

http://wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/1HiddenCoast.jpg

Here's the Village Poisson that I repurposed into the town of Seawell:

http://wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/4VillagePoisson.jpg

And here is the map of a raider encampment that I got to use for the pirates:

http://wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/July2006/01_MAWJuly2006_72_ppi.jpg

After this you could go in whatever direction you wanted, even using some other free WotC adventures and maps if you felt like it.  I myself had there be a cavern system under the pirate camp that the pirates were trying to break into (with the help of mining supplies off of one of the ships they ran aground), which allowed for a dungeon crawl following the pirate encounter.  But you could go whichever way you wanted.


----------



## TerraDave

I always recomend:

_NeMoren's Vault _from Fiery Dragon, which has been updated to 3.5. It has the dungeon part, but also great backstory (that is integrated into the adventure), and either through the web expansion or integrated into the revised 3.5 version, a nice out of the dungeon bit with strong role play potential.


----------



## Pravus

Garthnak said:


> *Background:*
> 
> I looked at Pathfinder's "Rise of the Runelords"...




I would suggest since you are aware of Pathfinder then check out the free adventure:

D0: Hollow's Last Hope 

It can be played alone or as a start of a series:

D1: Crown of the Kobold King 

and

D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King


----------



## Festivus

Wulf Ratbane said:


> Of Sound Mind. (Fiery Dragon, written by EN World's very own Piratecat.)
> 
> If you hadn't specified "non-dungeon crawl" and "quick read through" I would recommend The Lost City of Barakus.
> 
> In fact I'd recommend Of Sound Mind to buy you the time you need to read through Barakus.




I played through Lost City of Barakus and don't recall it being all that dungeon crawly... we spent more time in the city than anywhere else... but then the DM might have significantly changed it.

I was going to suggest a few dungeon magazine adventures, but not sure how accessible those are these days.  If you can get them, I suggest "Dungeon 124: Whispering Cairn/Dungeon 125: Three Faces of Evil" (you can run these back to back), "Dungeon 137: Siege of the Spider Eaters" are all great adventures that have an outdoor/overland component as well as a dungeon part... and are all fairly fun adventures.


----------



## Garthnak

Wow, lots of great responses!  Let me review some of these...


Three recommendations for "Of Sound Mind".  It looks interesting, but it's for 3.0 and I won't be using Psionics.  I'm worried that it'll require more conversion than I'll be able to do for this adventure...
Two recommendations for "Sunless Citadel"; I'm still concerned about the conversion from 3.0 to 3.5, but if it's not too bad then I may end up running it.  I'll probably buy a copy anyway, just since it's now a classic.
"The Freeport Trilogy" looks really good, actually, and there's a 3.5 version!  A couple of my players will even appreciate the Lovecraftian nature.  Definitely one to consider.
"The Lost City of Barakus" looks interesting, but definitely dungeon-crawly and probably a lot more complex than I need for this adventure.  I will consider it in the future, though.
I actually obtained a copy of DCC: "The Adventure Begins", and there's a lot of great stuff in there, and they're not all dungeon crawly despite the series title.  I'm going to be going through them and seeing if any of them are suitable, though they do appear to be particularly short.  If anyone has any recommendations for a specific adventure out of there, I'd be interested.
DCC: "Into the Wilds" looks pretty dungeon crawly, but does get some good press.  I'll probably get a copy of it to look at.
"Mad God's Key" (in Dungeon #114) actually gets some kind words from Monte Cook, which is a good sign to me.  If I can get a copy of it, this will be in the running - or at least ready for a future game.
I've looked at "Whispering Cairn" (from "Age of Worms") and Paizo's "Burnt Offerings", and they both seem to be a little above my abilities.  Maybe for the next campaign.
"Hollow's Last Hope" I was already looking at because it's free.  And for a free adventure, it sure seems to have some high production values!  If the sequels are even better, this looks like a good path.
I'll consider "Wreck Ashore" again.  The introductory text seemed very bland, so I glossed over it.  But DEFCON 1's praise tells me it deserves another look.

Thanks again for the responses.  Any more input is greatly appreciated; right now I'm doing more research on your suggestions, and I'll let you know what I choose and how it works out for us.


----------



## Freakohollik

I'll throw another recommendation towards "The Whispering Cairn" by Erik Mona from Dungeon #124. To give you an idea of what it is like, the dungeon is pretty combat lite. The main focus is on traps and obstacles for the players to think their way past. Part way though the dungeon, the players must return to town for some great urban adventuring. It all comes together as a wonderful mix of role playing, puzzle solving, and combat. It's the best 3.5 level 1 adventure I've ran and it sounds like it fits the playstyle your group is looking for.

Furthermore, issue contains a large section detailing the town so there are many opportunities for role playing set up for you. And it leads into "Three Faces of Evil" which is probably the best 3.5 level 3 adventure I've read.

Sunless Citadel is a good one too. While much more dungeon crawly, there is still some good stuff in there to spice it up. I don't believe you'll have to do any conversion to get it to 3.5e. Everything in there didn't change that much or at all when 3.5 came out. You can run it with no conversion, and no one will notice that it's 3.0 rather than 3.5. If there is anything that you need to change (which I don't think there is), you'll be able to do it on the fly.

I haven't read the DCCs, so no comment on those.

I would recommend against "Burnt Offerings". The dungeon is very generic with goblins and a rope bridge. I don't really remember anything else about the module, so it didn't make a very good impression.


----------



## roguerouge

Treebore said:


> If you like PDF's you almost have to find usable stuff in this:
> 
> RPGNow.com - Goodman Games - Dungeon Crawl Classics #29: The Adventure Begins





Seconded. But if your players are REALLY into role playing, then you want to go with: Hangman's Noose from Paizo paizo.com - GameMastery Module U2: Hangman's Noose (OGL)

You'll have a cross between survival horror and mystery with about 8-10 interesting NPCs to role play. 

And if you're looking for a mini-path to get you started, well, the Falcon's Hollow triad really works:

Hollow's Last Hope
paizo.com - GameMastery Module D0: Hollow's Last Hope (OGL) PDF

High quality and free. A good little quest adventure with a kickin' starter town. 

Crown of the Kobold King:
paizo.com - GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King (OGL)

Simply excellent dungeon crawl with a twist on the "save the ___" structure. It also allows you to build up the party's interactions with the town's Powers that Be.

And, much later, they return for... The Carnival of Tears!
http://paizo.com/pathfinder/pathfinderModules/v5748btpy80op

Gross-out horror! Mass Slaughter! Save a town that kind of deserves its fate! Horrifyingly funny. Their best standalone adventure.


----------



## amethal

Garthnak said:


> Wow, lots of great responses!  Let me review some of these...
> 
> 
> Two recommendations for "Sunless Citadel"; I'm still concerned about the conversion from 3.0 to 3.5, but if it's not too bad then I may end up running it.  I'll probably buy a copy anyway, just since it's now a classic.



I'd recommend Sunless Citadel as well.

I've been looking at running it for my 3.5 group, and the amount of conversion work required is close to zero. 

It is followed by Forge of Fury, which also looks pretty good (although I've never run it). After that, I'd steer clear of the WotC 3.0 adventure path as it gets pretty bad.


----------



## delericho

amethal said:


> It is followed by Forge of Fury, which also looks pretty good (although I've never run it). After that, I'd steer clear of the WotC 3.0 adventure path as it gets pretty bad.




Yep, "Forge of Fury" is pretty good (although, unfortunately, my group decided to abandon it just short of the climactic encounter). I also quite like "Sons of Gruumsh", which is for FR but can be easily re-skinned.

Both of these are for 3rd level characters, so would make good 'second adventures'. Plus, it struck me that you could quite easily shift from either of these to "Red Hand of Doom" (for 5th level characters).

"Sunless Citadel" - "Forge of Fury" - "Red Hand of Doom" seemed like a fun mini-campaign to go from 1st to 10th level (or so).

And amethal is also right: the rest of that 3.0e adventure path isn't really worth bothering with. There are a few good ideas in there, but the quality of the adventures is generally quite poor.


----------



## ravin_raven

I'll drop in to say that the Wizard's Amulet from Necromancer Games is a fun little free adventure (don't have link, sorry).  It prepares you for the Crucible of Freya, and with all the web support that is a solid home base to run PCs through 3rd level at least.  They toss in links to other adventures, but you can adjust them if you so choose.

I also want to second Mad God's Key from Dungeon, and I enjoy Sunless Citadel, even though it has its detractors.

Another free download: Gorgoldand's Gauntlet.  It is more puzzle-based and a blast to run.  Rycanada had a thread waaaaaaaaay back when talking about ways to tweak it.  (again, sorry about the lack of links)


----------



## Filcher

You can't go wrong with Into the Wilds. It's not all dungeon crawly. In our game the PCs spent ample time in town, mixing it up with the locals (and villains).


----------



## Treebore

One thing I like about the DCC I recommend is that you can tie several of them together if you wish. With some slight scaling you can even adjust them to level 2 easily.


----------



## hewligan

I DMed Burnt Offerings, and I think my players found it quite a fun adventure. I sure found it fun to DM. It has a great town that my players grew attached to. The goblins were absolutely freaking awesome. The dungeon/fort section could be dull, I guess, except that I played the goblins for their manic side and we had some fun encounters, including a "shall we let the young girl goblin go with the infant she came back to rescue".

The underground sections were a bit dungeon-crawly, and that is not so much my cup of tea, but in all I would give it a reasonably high review.

I downloaded and read Hollows Last Hope, and to me it reads like an excellent first level adventure. I hope to run it one day.

Dungeon magazine had some great 1st level adventures in its day, and I own the Whispering Cairns and have heard so much positive stuff about it, but have not yet had a chance to really read it to the depth of being ready to run it.

Regardless of all of this - for your first adventure be honest with the players and ask them to help you a little - for example by tracking their own stuff (hp, spells, equipment, effects with rounds to run, etc.) and also pointing out any errors or omissions with the rules that you make. Most players are very forgiving of a first time DM. And have fun!


----------



## meomwt

Necromancer Games Free Download Page - scroll down for The Revised Version of _The Wizard's Amulet_. 

_Wizard's Amulet_, leading in to _The Crucible of Freya_ is a good start for an adventuring party. While Crucible has a dungeon bit, there's more there than that. And it can lead into _The Tomb of Abysthor_ which is a pure dungeon crawl, but has some great Role-Playing bits in it as well.

Until _The Whispering Cairn_ came along, I'd have said _NeMoren's Vault_ was the best starting module I've seen. But for a new DM, I'd go for _NeMoren's Vault_, it might have a crawl in there but there's a proper story and some great puzzles in there as well.


----------



## Betote

*Crucible of Freya* is a very good, very easy to DM, 1st-level module. It also has an oldschoolish shade some people find quite enjoyable.

*The Whispering Cairn* is a bit more complex, but it's IMO the best 1st-level adventure I've ever read.

And if neither of those suit your tastes, you can always do a conversion of Keep on the Borderlands


----------

