Frozen Sick isn’t a full Campaign. A Campaign is a long story arc that covers a good amount of level progression. It used to be that campaigns were made of multiple shorter individual adventures, sometimes those adventures were interrelated and sometimes not so much. Those shorter adventures were often sold as “modules” since they were actually modular and the DMs could pick and choose which ones they want and rearrange them in any order to fit their story. Now, most things sold as “modules” for for 5e are actually whole campaigns.
Frozen Sick is more like a traditional module, it’s shorter and the DM can choose when and how to fit it into their story as they see best. In my opinion that makes it more convenient because it’s less for a DM to prepare, and can fit just about anywhere. Since your group will be relatively new and this will be through school, that’s probably a good thing. Campaigns can take years to run, but something like Frozen Sick you could do in a semester. Plus, it’s free!
Someone else might have a different opinion though, so find out what everyone thinks and then make the decision you think is best. Welcome the D&D!
Never played it but, I would suggest something exceptionally simple and basic. Probable a session of 1 offs to get started. Teach them tactics and get them used to using the full runway. My group had 2 first timers when I started it. Creating their characters with DND Beyond is a good place to start, but I actually feel it would be best to do it the old fashioned way with the players handbook. That way they will be familiar with each piece of the character sheet. Then have them maintain their character here.
Going back to the question. An often time over looked part of the game is the actual roll playing. Come up with some scenarios where they have to interact with cutpurses, vendors, bar keeps. Get them into dialog. Then introduce them to the job board or have a badly beaten person come limping into town frantic about the band of goblins that attacked their wagon train, the ranger can track them through the woods to a hidden cave entrance. Along the way they can encounter some Awakened Shrubs, in the cave they will learn about traps, dark vision, etc. They find the goblins who worship a flying sword that does not attack them.
One thing though that could be key going forward is do not lavish them with treasure. At the most for their efforts they find some goblin weapons' and a handful of copper
From my experience running it, Frozen Sick is very short. As IamSposta stated, it's a small adventure. So if you want to run it alone, it won't last too long. It can potentially be used as a good jumping off point into a homebrew campaign, or with some alterations (primarily in setting, but also in some story hooks), can be used to lead into other published campaigns if you wanted. I played it with all experienced players, but think it could work well enough for new players. There's some roleplay solutions to go along with combat encounters, and there's room for players to be creative.
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The ever growing document of character concepts can never be too long, can it?
So, I ran it for my group of experienced players. They don't always play optimally but they know the game very well.
It took us about 10 sessions to finish it. We ususally play for 4 -5 hours a session.
But I added a lot of extra content for the travel sequences, so I would say between 4 to 6 sessions if you just run the "module".
It really depends how much your players do beside the main quest line. Do they often talk to NPCs and how long, do they go shopping for longer periods, how long does it take them to take their combat turns? How strong is the group? do they rest a lot? how long are your sessions? etc., etc.
So it really depends.
I liked the "module" a lot and kicked of a longer campaign which we are still playing (session 46 at the moment) and the players are level 7.
One of my party's did it in 12 hours, but three of those hours were strictly role playing stuff that stitched the adventure into the broader campaign, I set the outbreak in Luskan, and Eisselcross was an expeditionary station sponsored by the Arcane Brotherhood. They also figured out the "uniforms" at Salsvault so didn't have to deal with a lot of the zombies.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My school started a D&D club and i'm DM'ing and was wondering if the free frozen sick campaign was a good first campaign.
Frozen Sick isn’t a full Campaign. A Campaign is a long story arc that covers a good amount of level progression. It used to be that campaigns were made of multiple shorter individual adventures, sometimes those adventures were interrelated and sometimes not so much. Those shorter adventures were often sold as “modules” since they were actually modular and the DMs could pick and choose which ones they want and rearrange them in any order to fit their story. Now, most things sold as “modules” for for 5e are actually whole campaigns.
Frozen Sick is more like a traditional module, it’s shorter and the DM can choose when and how to fit it into their story as they see best. In my opinion that makes it more convenient because it’s less for a DM to prepare, and can fit just about anywhere. Since your group will be relatively new and this will be through school, that’s probably a good thing. Campaigns can take years to run, but something like Frozen Sick you could do in a semester. Plus, it’s free!
Someone else might have a different opinion though, so find out what everyone thinks and then make the decision you think is best. Welcome the D&D!
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Never played it but, I would suggest something exceptionally simple and basic. Probable a session of 1 offs to get started. Teach them tactics and get them used to using the full runway. My group had 2 first timers when I started it. Creating their characters with DND Beyond is a good place to start, but I actually feel it would be best to do it the old fashioned way with the players handbook. That way they will be familiar with each piece of the character sheet. Then have them maintain their character here.
Going back to the question. An often time over looked part of the game is the actual roll playing. Come up with some scenarios where they have to interact with cutpurses, vendors, bar keeps. Get them into dialog. Then introduce them to the job board or have a badly beaten person come limping into town frantic about the band of goblins that attacked their wagon train, the ranger can track them through the woods to a hidden cave entrance. Along the way they can encounter some Awakened Shrubs, in the cave they will learn about traps, dark vision, etc. They find the goblins who worship a flying sword that does not attack them.
One thing though that could be key going forward is do not lavish them with treasure. At the most for their efforts they find some goblin weapons' and a handful of copper
How long does it take to run this adventure?
From my experience running it, Frozen Sick is very short. As IamSposta stated, it's a small adventure. So if you want to run it alone, it won't last too long. It can potentially be used as a good jumping off point into a homebrew campaign, or with some alterations (primarily in setting, but also in some story hooks), can be used to lead into other published campaigns if you wanted. I played it with all experienced players, but think it could work well enough for new players. There's some roleplay solutions to go along with combat encounters, and there's room for players to be creative.
The ever growing document of character concepts can never be too long, can it?
So, I ran it for my group of experienced players. They don't always play optimally but they know the game very well.
It took us about 10 sessions to finish it. We ususally play for 4 -5 hours a session.
But I added a lot of extra content for the travel sequences, so I would say between 4 to 6 sessions if you just run the "module".
It really depends how much your players do beside the main quest line. Do they often talk to NPCs and how long, do they go shopping for longer periods, how long does it take them to take their combat turns? How strong is the group? do they rest a lot? how long are your sessions? etc., etc.
So it really depends.
I liked the "module" a lot and kicked of a longer campaign which we are still playing (session 46 at the moment) and the players are level 7.
Awesome, Thanks!
One of my party's did it in 12 hours, but three of those hours were strictly role playing stuff that stitched the adventure into the broader campaign, I set the outbreak in Luskan, and Eisselcross was an expeditionary station sponsored by the Arcane Brotherhood. They also figured out the "uniforms" at Salsvault so didn't have to deal with a lot of the zombies.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Awesome, thanks for the info.