Module Recommendations

[Techwarrior]

I'm looking to run a game in about a month, but my job prevents me from having the time to really plan a game of my own. This game will have a couple of players that are green to the game.

I'm therefore looking for a module for PC's starting in the 1-3 level range that is very user friendly for me and is good for newer players. Does anyone have any good recommendations?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ViperMagnum357]

I'm looking to run a game in about a month, but my job prevents me from having the time to really plan a game of my own. This game will have a couple of players that are green to the game.

I'm therefore looking for a module for PC's starting in the 1-3 level range that is very user friendly for me and is good for newer players. Does anyone have any good recommendations?

Thanks in advance for any help.

The Sunless Citadel is fairly user friendly, and teaches the basics rather well-combat with varied terrain, single dangerous opponents as well as swarms, options for stealth, recon and diplomacy, and one encounter (a Shadow) that will teach them that some encounters should have direct combat avoided without a good plan. Features a good mix of enemies and traps, long enough to last multiple sessions but short enough to not push you past level 3 and overstay its welcome.

[Palanan]

I'll second Sunless Citadel. It's a classic, perfect for new players and a ton of fun. My first 3.5 group started with this one and we had a blast.

(Alas, poor Meepo....)

[Fizban]

The problem with Sunless Citadel is that is also teaches a bunch of bogus fiat moves- like attacking the players with rats on a ledge and forcing reflex saves to not fall off, as well as the conclusion which is basically "oh, you wanted to save people? they're unsavable wah wah."

Not that I really have much better suggestions. Like I just said in another thread, most 1st level adventures are actually 2nd or 3rd level adventures ignoring the fact that the PCs are supposed to be 1st level. Are the old starter sets available? I remember the 3.0 one was very gentle, at least until you ran into a Displacer Beast- which was mostly because the starter set wizards only had magic missile and sleep, while a PHB party have more options. Dunno about the 3.5 one.

The Forgotten Forge mini adventure in Eberron Campaign Setting checked out better than most for 1st level, and Shadows of the Last War is supposed to continue from there. You could also skip straight to 3rd level and start with The Forge of Fury from the 3.0 modules- it does have a particular gotcha with a Roper to watch out for, and I haven't checked it in detail so I don't know if it has more crap like the Sunless Citadel.

I've heard Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave is just as bad as the later adventures in the path, so no-go there, at least not with newbies. But once you've got them up to 5th, The Red Hand of Doom and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil are the big classics you'll usually hear about: vanilla RHoD is fine as long as the players know what the adventure's about and don't have an arcanist focused on single target close range effects.

adventurelookup.com can let you search for things and should have links to stuff that's available, pretty sure they've got all the free web adventures in there as well as the short scenarios sprinkled through various books, in addition to the big modules.

I'm wondering if the first chapter of War of the Burning Sky counts. It impressed me with the variety and much of it is effectively scripted events, but the horseback chase at the end could be a little intimidating and the players might not like the earlier part where a guy runs away and they pretty much can't catch him. The whole first adventure is available for free on their page here if you want to give it a look. The adventure path itself is pretty solid for quite a while, except for the part where you get to the city and it tells you to basically send the PCs on sidequests for a whole level without properly outlining some quests for you to fill in (that chapter's mostly dedicated to NPCs and worldbuilding about the home city for the rest of the adventure).