okay well title says it all i have some first time players (3-5 players) who want to try it put. first session is going to be 3-4 hours long and they have 0 experience. so my intention is to a few characters for them to choose from with simplified characters. however i'm stuck on a campaign. idealy it needs to be a 1 shot with 2 combat encounters a quick one early in the game and the proper battle at the end but i want to give them things to do, decisions that lets each person do things that puts them in character a quick encounter to give the basic role initiative roll some hit die and thats it. then they go do whatever then defeat bad guy/henchmen, the end
Basically a session plan for introducing new people to the game, ideally oriented to young teenage girls, youngest is a fairly mature 12 and the oldest is 15 and is treated as an adult because she is nearly 6ft. anyway i usually write my own campaigns but am limited on prep time atm, so was hoping people had ideas on what to run. i dont know the dynamic with the party yet so want to keep it somewhat PG.
It gives them the basics, uses well known monsters from pop culture, will have the right squee factor, and, if they want, comes with premade charactres...
... and ultimately allows it all to tie into a whole series of adventures.
Short, quick, gives a lot of the basic stuff up front.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Wild beyond the Witchlight is just plain fun for any party but it’s especially newbie friendly. For something less whimsical Phandalin/Shattered Obelisk is great too.
I don’t know if it’s still available, but the intro series of spelljammer adventures can work. They’d been free back when it came out. And they’re set in a school/academy so might be more relatable.
..ideally oriented to young teenage girls ... i dont know the dynamic with the party yet so want to keep it somewhat PG.
regarding keeping things PG, i wholly support that sentiment even when i kinda question what that means. the recent Lairs of Etharis book's level one adventure is a four-room cave with goblinoids outside, kidnapped villagers inside, and a bone vampire fey boss who can 'skelesuck' a bone out of your hand/foot. is it too far from General Audiences to have food-people in cages or is that as 'ho-hum' fairy tale normal as villains you can negotiate with? what if it was sheep instead? plenty chance to fight, sneak, or talk and can wrap up quickly if you need. very, very open ended for the group to tackle as they like.
speaking of paid options, candlekeep has a 1st level exploration of a Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion that begins with an urgent need to get back out and save the guy who said he'd hold the magic door open for you. oh, no! i haven't run this one, but it looks like many monsters are benign (cat, mischievous invisible orange faerie dragons, etc), optional to fight (animated broom, jar of crawling claws), weakened (mimic), or dm-skippable (animated books, flying swords, potentially non-PG summoned demon). no obvious place for sneaking or negotiation, but maybe ideal for a dm-storyteller + low-interaction group experience. escape room aesthetic on a walking-tour budget.
and again with the paid option, if you wanted to give players a "plan your heist on this vague map" experience, keys from the golden vault's 1st level adventure is a theft for good cause from the museum of 'natural' history. i like the idea of getting each player involved and feeling their character by the dm quickly describing (in oceans 11 smash-cuts style) the characters attending the fancy gala at the museum to surveil security and asking them to describe their moment of activity (leaving a window unlocked, chatting up guards, looking for alarms, noticing the animated statues, etc). next, the break-in itself. it might take an experienced dm to keep things on a 3-4hr schedule but the whole thing is really, really fleshed out (check out that list of quirky guards!). lots of chance for sneaking and combat and puzzles, but not exactly classic D&D as the druids and barbarians of the group might have expected.
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unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
I highly recommend Dungeon of the Mad Mage, this is a quintessentially important adventure for brand new players, because they learning all the skills needed to be a successful Dungeons and Dragons player right off the bat.
Carefully explain to them what the overall point of a game of Dungeons and Dragons is for starters. You are an adventurer: an adventurer is a sort of explorer and combatant who equips themselves to explore dangerous environments known collectively as dungeons, for the purpose of acquiring wealth (treasure) and completing various objectives.
The key is to be patient and throughly explain things to them. Help them along and make recommendations. Explain why a longsword would be a good choice over a battle axe, for instance. Explain they will probably need about 5 torches based on how long they should be down there. Explain why someone needs a 10 foot pole. When there is a secret door in the room, nudge them towards finding it. Make recommendations about what monsters to attack or what spells to cast in combat. You see, you are just helping them along to learn the game of Dungeons and Dragons.
I highly recommend Dungeon of the Mad Mage, this is a quintessentially important adventure for brand new players, because they learning all the skills needed to be a successful Dungeons and Dragons player right off the bat.
Carefully explain to them what the overall point of a game of Dungeons and Dragons is for starters. You are an adventurer: an adventurer is a sort of explorer and combatant who equips themselves to explore dangerous environments known collectively as dungeons, for the purpose of acquiring wealth (treasure) and completing various objectives.
The key is to be patient and throughly explain things to them. Help them along and make recommendations. Explain why a longsword would be a good choice over a battle axe, for instance. Explain they will probably need about 5 torches based on how long they should be down there. Explain why someone needs a 10 foot pole. When there is a secret door in the room, nudge them towards finding it. Make recommendations about what monsters to attack or what spells to cast in combat. You see, you are just helping them along to learn the game of Dungeons and Dragons.
I love Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but I absolutely would not recommend it for fully new players. It's a very heavy adventure, it starts at level 5 when play is getting more complex (whereas with new new players you really wanna start at level 1 for the "tutorial" levels 1 and 2), and the dungeon itself is like a multi-year time investment.
Candlekeep Mysteries on the other hand has a bunch of lovely bite-sized adventures ready to use and adapt as you see fit, and the level 1 adventure for it is basically exactly what you want to introduce players to the pillars of play.
some really great ideas here thanks. reading through them all now. i have most of the paid books already even managed to claim the spelljammer one. so thanks all.
on the whats PG i'm more thinking no bards seducing everything they come across, graffic gore less of an issue but bone sucking might be too far.
Regarding ages, run the campaign exactly as you would for adults. They are mostly younger teens but they have access to the internet, and I know exactly what kind of books (Sword of Truth anyone??) I was reading and the movies (everything Arnie) I was watching by the time I was 13. The most popular books with girls that age are by Sarah J Maas... I'm not saying go crazy on violence, torture and rampant lewdness and whatnot but then I wouldn't advise that for adults either.
I would not recommend Dungeon of the Mad Mage. There are so many other things to do than just jump into a rift hole and dungeon crawl. Maybe save it for later, but being that the party is a group of girls there is a reduced chance of it being a hit.
While I really enjoyed Wild Beyond the Witchlight, I wouldn't consider it for beginning players. It's fanciful and fun but there is no threat. You could spend your 3-4 hours in the fair and get essentially nothing done.
okay well title says it all i have some first time players (3-5 players) who want to try it put. first session is going to be 3-4 hours long and they have 0 experience. so my intention is to a few characters for them to choose from with simplified characters. however i'm stuck on a campaign. idealy it needs to be a 1 shot with 2 combat encounters a quick one early in the game and the proper battle at the end but i want to give them things to do, decisions that lets each person do things that puts them in character a quick encounter to give the basic role initiative roll some hit die and thats it. then they go do whatever then defeat bad guy/henchmen, the end
Basically a session plan for introducing new people to the game, ideally oriented to young teenage girls, youngest is a fairly mature 12 and the oldest is 15 and is treated as an adult because she is nearly 6ft. anyway i usually write my own campaigns but am limited on prep time atm, so was hoping people had ideas on what to run. i dont know the dynamic with the party yet so want to keep it somewhat PG.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/itsi/intro-to-stormwreck-isle
It gives them the basics, uses well known monsters from pop culture, will have the right squee factor, and, if they want, comes with premade charactres...
... and ultimately allows it all to tie into a whole series of adventures.
Short, quick, gives a lot of the basic stuff up front.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Wild beyond the Witchlight is just plain fun for any party but it’s especially newbie friendly. For something less whimsical Phandalin/Shattered Obelisk is great too.
I don’t know if it’s still available, but the intro series of spelljammer adventures can work. They’d been free back when it came out. And they’re set in a school/academy so might be more relatable.
Sadly, Spelljammer Academy Exploring the Academy is no longer available to claim.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
regarding keeping things PG, i wholly support that sentiment even when i kinda question what that means. the recent Lairs of Etharis book's level one adventure is a four-room cave with goblinoids outside, kidnapped villagers inside, and a bone vampire fey boss who can 'skelesuck' a bone out of your hand/foot. is it too far from General Audiences to have food-people in cages or is that as 'ho-hum' fairy tale normal as villains you can negotiate with? what if it was sheep instead? plenty chance to fight, sneak, or talk and can wrap up quickly if you need. very, very open ended for the group to tackle as they like.
speaking of paid options, candlekeep has a 1st level exploration of a Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion that begins with an urgent need to get back out and save the guy who said he'd hold the magic door open for you. oh, no! i haven't run this one, but it looks like many monsters are benign (cat, mischievous invisible orange faerie dragons, etc), optional to fight (animated broom, jar of crawling claws), weakened (mimic), or dm-skippable (animated books, flying swords, potentially non-PG summoned demon). no obvious place for sneaking or negotiation, but maybe ideal for a dm-storyteller + low-interaction group experience. escape room aesthetic on a walking-tour budget.
and again with the paid option, if you wanted to give players a "plan your heist on this vague map" experience, keys from the golden vault's 1st level adventure is a theft for good cause from the museum of 'natural' history. i like the idea of getting each player involved and feeling their character by the dm quickly describing (in oceans 11 smash-cuts style) the characters attending the fancy gala at the museum to surveil security and asking them to describe their moment of activity (leaving a window unlocked, chatting up guards, looking for alarms, noticing the animated statues, etc). next, the break-in itself. it might take an experienced dm to keep things on a 3-4hr schedule but the whole thing is really, really fleshed out (check out that list of quirky guards!). lots of chance for sneaking and combat and puzzles, but not exactly classic D&D as the druids and barbarians of the group might have expected.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
Peril in Pinebrook is an introductory adventure designed for new and young Dungeons & Dragons players.
Free Content: [Basic Rules],
[Phandelver],[Frozen Sick],[Acquisitions Inc.],[Vecna Dossier],[Radiant Citadel], [Spelljammer],[Dragonlance], [Prisoner 13],[Minecraft],[Star Forge], [Baldur’s Gate], [Lightning Keep], [Stormwreck Isle], [Pinebrook], [Caverns of Tsojcanth], [The Lost Horn], [Elemental Evil].Free Dice: [Frostmaiden],
[Flourishing], [Sanguine],[Themberchaud], [Baldur's Gate 3], [Lego].I highly recommend Dungeon of the Mad Mage, this is a quintessentially important adventure for brand new players, because they learning all the skills needed to be a successful Dungeons and Dragons player right off the bat.
Carefully explain to them what the overall point of a game of Dungeons and Dragons is for starters. You are an adventurer: an adventurer is a sort of explorer and combatant who equips themselves to explore dangerous environments known collectively as dungeons, for the purpose of acquiring wealth (treasure) and completing various objectives.
The key is to be patient and throughly explain things to them. Help them along and make recommendations. Explain why a longsword would be a good choice over a battle axe, for instance. Explain they will probably need about 5 torches based on how long they should be down there. Explain why someone needs a 10 foot pole. When there is a secret door in the room, nudge them towards finding it. Make recommendations about what monsters to attack or what spells to cast in combat. You see, you are just helping them along to learn the game of Dungeons and Dragons.
I love Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but I absolutely would not recommend it for fully new players. It's a very heavy adventure, it starts at level 5 when play is getting more complex (whereas with new new players you really wanna start at level 1 for the "tutorial" levels 1 and 2), and the dungeon itself is like a multi-year time investment.
Candlekeep Mysteries on the other hand has a bunch of lovely bite-sized adventures ready to use and adapt as you see fit, and the level 1 adventure for it is basically exactly what you want to introduce players to the pillars of play.
some really great ideas here thanks. reading through them all now. i have most of the paid books already even managed to claim the spelljammer one. so thanks all.
on the whats PG i'm more thinking no bards seducing everything they come across, graffic gore less of an issue but bone sucking might be too far.
Regarding ages, run the campaign exactly as you would for adults. They are mostly younger teens but they have access to the internet, and I know exactly what kind of books (Sword of Truth anyone??) I was reading and the movies (everything Arnie) I was watching by the time I was 13. The most popular books with girls that age are by Sarah J Maas... I'm not saying go crazy on violence, torture and rampant lewdness and whatnot but then I wouldn't advise that for adults either.
Another resource that might be helpful, Matt Colville's quick start cards : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wV-KWE3e9jDXFUWCSDfVmc708QTU1fPl/view
I would not recommend Dungeon of the Mad Mage. There are so many other things to do than just jump into a rift hole and dungeon crawl. Maybe save it for later, but being that the party is a group of girls there is a reduced chance of it being a hit.
While I really enjoyed Wild Beyond the Witchlight, I wouldn't consider it for beginning players. It's fanciful and fun but there is no threat. You could spend your 3-4 hours in the fair and get essentially nothing done.
I would recommend Lost Mine https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/lmop
or Ghosts of Salt Marsh https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos
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