Good adventures to introduce new players

[thekernelinyellow]

Continuing the discussion from Fudging rolls and player agency:

@Grognard

I like Tomb of Serpent Kings a lot! Only issue I have with it, it is a long dungeon with many chambers. It could easily take a group of new players 2 or 3 sessions of 4 hours each to tackle that. To me, in the first few sessions I want to introduce players to most aspects of RPG. Not just dungeon delving. I want them to go into town, to talk to friendly NPCs, to forge a bond with one or two perhaps, to trade and buy things in shops, to traverse a few different areas and terrains, both wildernis, dungeon, city and perhaps more. I can’t do that if I am spending all my first 3 sessions running a dungeon.

That’s an issue by itself, this is why I suggested to do “something like”. While I love the Tomb, I’m starting to think that a good adventure for new players should involve 2-3 dungeons, somehow linked (like small lairs for monsters/bandits attacking a community):

• The first one should be much like the False Tomb: small and forgiving. You show the basic patterns (there is treasure, there are traps, there are monsters - maybe even go as far as you can use the environment against monsters).
• The second one should be a bit more challenging, maybe introducing some variations in the patterns (traps disguised as treasure) and a small modicum of dungeon diplomacy (prisoners or rebels?).
• Then you graduate to a full blown dungeon. Again, stick to the patterns most of the time, but start adding variations. Maybe even new patterns (there are secret passages behind statues), so the players start to seek them.

Use a small community, like a village, both to link all the dungeons together and for the downtime. This way you have all the pieces in a smaller adventure and with more chances for downtime.

I think this is going to go on my todo list: I would really much like to write this kind of adventure.

[Grognard]

Cool! I hope you write an adventure like that, would be super helpful for new GMs and players. The first adventure/session can be so key to getting people excited and teaching them the basics that it seems pretty important.

[Max]

I ran a heavily edited version of Mines of Phandelver 5e. I made it much more open ended and focused on exploration, as if it was OSR. But my notes are a pile of unorganized index cards…

[IdleDoodler]

If you were ever to scan or photograph them, I’d love to have a look!

[maderschramm]

I ran Tomb of the Serpent Kings and my players got burned out because it was exactly that - 4-5 sessions of exploring the tomb, characters dying, and no npc interaction.

I’m having a lot more success with B2. Having a home base of operations and small sections of cave to explore one at a time, plus a wilderness map with other stuff to see. It’s really a great module.

[LF_OSR]

Pretty random but I actually introduced my SO to Knave by throwing her into In The Dungeons of the Slave Lords. I more or less just wanted her to get familiar with the system in a high risk environment but it quickly developed into her thinking outside of the box to escape. I adjusted a few things in the dungeon to make solo play a bit easier but overall I was genuinely surprised how well it worked for an intro adventure. Didn’t use any of the earlier adventures in the series and entire thing ended when she was off the island to start her own campaign.

[Kingroy23]

How’d playing an OSR game with just 1 pc go? I reckon it’d make any sort of combat extremely lethal, right?

[LF_OSR]

@Kingroy23

How’d playing an OSR game with just 1 pc go?

Great! I actually prefer solo or duet PC’s - different for sure but it feels much more personal.

@Kingroy23

I reckon it’d make any sort of combat extremely lethal, right?

Definitely. Adjustments are definitely needed for some pre-existing modules. But, basically, it goes from one zombie being annoying to a full party of PC’s, to one zombie being a huge deal to a solo PC. I tend to add a bit of favor to the PC by incorporating environmental elements that could prove beneficial if used correctly, in some cases I also adjust moral of monsters to make them flea a bit early. I tend to use multiple fail states as well, especially for stunts. I don’t hide any rolls as a ref so the danger is still blatantly apparent.

Matt Colville recently put up a video giving advice for solo PC games (although he uses 5e), I also followed some of Jim Murphy’s amazing advice for small party runs, whom loves OSR. Both videos have great advice!

[Max]

Finally found them! These are just A4 sheets cut into 8 parts. Every location has a card, random encounters are 2 sided for night and day, bestiary is from knave as I ran the game using it. This is basically my whole prep for a 12 hour adventure. Our group didn’t have much free time so it took a while. Also my players love side tracking, so couple of things are not here (like when they went to another country once to retrieve a long lost grimoire.) I keep a lot of information in my head and i use these cards as prompts for my brain to remember it. Wave echo cave was the hardest for me to run because I kept so much in my head, but I feel very comfortable with improv and it was a lot of fun in the end. Feel free to ask anything!

[IdleDoodler]

I love seeing folks’ economy of info! This is fascinating to look at - very different to my own prep. I take it you didn’t use any of the pre-made maps at all? How did you go about rolling up / deciding opponent numbers?

[Max]

Good question.

1. My games are mostly theatre of mind, so we only used the overland map to calculate travel time and explored hexes. I used the premade maps to draw flowcharts of the locations.

2. For opponent numbers, I have a set amount of enemies in my mind (like 1, 2, 4, 8, 16). I know how many opponents there would be approximately, and I don’t want to waste time rolling. I don’t write it down because it depends on what the party does and when.

If the fight is way too easy, the enemies get reinforcements. Example: 1 goblin runs away to call his goblin buddies from the other room to help, now 6 more goblins join the fight. The party can of course try to catch the goblin before he runs away. If they flee, the goblins are going to be searching for them, and maybe call even more goblins.

Also depends on time of day: during lunch everyone is in the dining room, at night most are asleep and some are guarding. So I don’t have strict “this room has d6 goblins, next room is 3 orcs”, I have “the castle has approximately 20 goblins, some of them are archers, 1 king”.

If I want to test the party’s luck (usually It’s when I’m too lazy to think about the numbers), I roll: d6+1 for small group of enemies, 2d6+1 for medium group, 3d6+1 for large group.

[Zack_Wolf]

This! I think this a great idea and would love to see it happen.