Suggestions for a published adventure to run as PbP (3.5e)

[Delia2531]

Folks,

My regular game involves a once-a-month session when I happen to be in the area with work (200+ miles from home) and so I have offered to DM a PbP game for us all in addition to our current Gamma World campaign. Whilst we are all enjoying Gamma World (and 4e) we have decided that the 3.5 campaign better suites our character ideas.

What I don't have is any ideas of an adventure to get us started, whilst we get used to the PbP mechanics; and get used to 3.5 again.

I'd happily start anywhere up to lvl3; does anybody have any suggestions of something sensible to run? A little combat, a little exploration, a little interaction would be good.

We will (hopefully) be a party of 5, but may be as few as 3, so something that scales easily would be great.

I'm probably going to produce my own maps, but something with some maps in would at least give me somewhere to start from.

Thanks in advance,

[Delia2531]

A solitary bump to try to get some responses from the commnity, come on folks don't leave a guy hanging? 40 views and no responses.

@Mods - In the event that I don't get any responses, I won't bump this again; I couldn't find anything in the rules against it, but it doesn't feel right to keep doing it.

Thanks all,

[Andorax]

Delia, what source materials do you have access to? Setting preferences/hatreds? Is this in it for the long term, or just a good "warm up/practice" run?

One risk for PBPs of published materials is that you might have a player who's familiar with the adventure already.

With those questions answered, I could recommend a number of good possibilities.

[Delia2531]

Thanks for jumping in. I have DMG 1 and 2 and PHB 1 and 2 as well as the Faerun players' guide.

I'm looking for something to get us started and back in to 3.5e.

I can probably source another book as long as it is still in print, but nothing to archaic/unusual.

Probably want to steer away from Dark Sun etc and keep it fairly "standard".

Thanks in advance for your help.

Delia

[ThiagoMartell]

I'd suggest Red Hand of Doom, or the Eberron line of adventures (they start from level 1).

I heard Scourge of the Howling Horde is pretty okay for an introductory adventure.

[Delia2531]

Also, does anybody start at level 1 anymore? Should I stick to it as we have all played some D&D before but not all 3.5e and not necessarily recently.

[TuggyNE]

Also, does anybody start at level 1 anymore? Should I stick to it as we have all played some D&D before but not all 3.5e and not necessarily recently.

Many people do, but many also prefer starting at 3, 5, or even higher (depending on the nature of the campaign). For a level 1 campaign, you can probably start at level 2, perhaps adjusting encounter difficulty up a bit; the sheer randomness of level 1 survival can be quite annoying.

[Andorax]

Check out Dungeon #109 if you can find it. 2nd level adventure (adjustable down to 1, or start 'em at 2) called the Devil Box. Social interaction, combat, investigation, problem solving, hilarity...what more could you ask for?

[Delia2531]

@Andorax - got my hands on #109, going to have a read tonight, thanks.

@ThiagoMartell - trying to track down the eberron stuff, read the guide to red hand of doom on this forum, looks quite good but until I find the source I don't know if it will work for low levels.

@Tuggyne - I think level 2 might make a lot of sense, gives me scope for a flashback encounter/mini adventure later too!

Thanks guys, I'll try to remember to post what I ran and how it went!

[Grail]

Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde isn't too bad. It gives you a nice setting that you can enhance and make into a good PbP environment (the Valley of Obelisks). It has a couple factions vying for information and can try to get some or all of the characters on side, one with good intentions, one not so. And a couple of prestige classes for the two factions that characters can take.

Three dungeons for a bit of crawling, that are well balanced. And some nice maps.

From memory, it's for levels 1-8.

But saying that, it modifies pretty easily.

Some nice handouts as well that can be scanned and uploaded for an extra bit of finesse.

I also think Red Hand of Doom is a great module, and you can run the two back to back, even though Red Hand is for lower levels to start with, and they aren't actually a set, SGoSg has Red Hand hobgoblins in it, which can make for an interesting lead on if you want. The Valley of Obelisks can be near Elsir Vale, and there is a nice flow on, the characters begin asking "where are these hobgoblins coming from...."

Then you just need to scale RHoD and bam, nice double feature.

[Delia2531]

Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde

...

Then you just need to scale RHoD and bam, nice double feature.

sounds great, I've laid my hands on RHoD now, I'll try to track down SGoS too.

Thanks.