Help with 1st level adventure. Please.

[Arjuna]

I am trying to come up with a 1st level adventure. My players are starting off at 1st level and I am not sure what to have them do. What I am going to have them do is travel to a castle and pick up a package. The package contains a statue that holds the mist form of a vampiress. The statue will somehow break and release the vampiress and they of course will have to fix what they caused. They will run into things trying to stop them from retrieving the package and they will have things trying to steal the package from them. What I am having trouble with is how to make what they fight at first level exciting for them. They are all experienced players and I cant think of how to make the lower level stuff fresh and exciting for them.

Any and all help will be greatly apreciated.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

How about an encounter with what appear to be human bandits during a thunderstorm, only for the 'bandits' to reveal themselves as Goblins riding on each other's shoulders so they can disguise themselves as humans? The first successful attack against a 'bandit' deals no damage, but instead forces the Goblins to disengage -- and grants them a free attack of opportunity.

Later on, you could reveal these Goblins are members of a blood cult, started by the very vampiress they will find themselves transporting. Their leader is a Blue, a telepathic subtype of Goblin (see the Expanded Psionics Handbook), who maintains a telepathic link with the vampiress, and has been looking for an opportunity to release her for most of his life..

[Illrigger]

You could have your 1st level party on their way to deliver the package...

...but they encounter a group of adventurers (much like themselves) that have been sent to intercept the package and take it back to the person(s) that have hired them to retrieve it.

The " intercepting" party is made up of LG or similar alignments that have been charged with retrieving the package and safely returning it.

Your new group does not even have to be evil, but the LG group may consdier them "evil" as they are associating with evil. Helping bad people can get you into trouble, even if you have good intentions (or dont know they are evil to start with).

Hopefully your group will try and get the package back and finish their mission...

[Arjuna]

I have already made up a party of 3rd level npcs that includes a Human Paladin, a Human Cleric, a Halfling Thief and an elf Wizard with the Al Qadim source book Sorcerrors kit. The Wizard has a monkey familiar. They are going to be trying to get the package to prevent the release of the Vampiress. The PCs dont know what the contents of the package is. By the time the PCs get to the package I want them to be either 2nd or 3rd level. The PCs are so far a Paladin using the Ghost Hunter kit, a Cleric, a Wizard and a Thief.

I am going to have them have a meeting with a guy in a cloak in the back room of a bar. The person in the cloak is employed by a Von Richtor/Van Helsing type guy. He isnt just employed by him but he is his servant and owes him his life. He also happens to be a Wererat. In the fight against evil sometimes you must use evil. Well he is going to slip and say, "my master" instead of, "my employer," hoping that they will pick up on that and think that he is a Renfield type guy.

[Matney X]

Do the players know they're in Ravenloft? Do the characters?

I've been reading over all the old TSR adventures (I'm running my first Ravenloft game, so it helps to get a feel for it all), and something I've noticed is one of the first thing TSR writers did was make sure the players know that wherever they are is dangerous, usually by attacking them with something they can't defend against (In Neither Man nor Beast, it was the Soul-Kraken, and in Adam's Wrath, it's the hags). Also, it's a common theme to have them die, or think they're dead, during the first session.

Something else that I've noticed in the TSR adventures, vs the Wizards ones, is that combat is sparse and instead they rely on roleplaying to deal with most encounters.

Finally, the biggest difference I've found from TSR to Wizards is that TSR adventures seem to happen TO the characters and directly because of the characters actions, where Wizards adventures seem like the characters are part of some metaplot that would happen whether the characters are there are not.

Those last two points, I feel, are what make Ravenloft different from any of the other settings. The domains are so separate that politics generally don't come into play and information doesn't travel very far, except by Vistani -- and then, can you trust it?

So, what I would do with a first level campaign -- if they know they're in the realms -- is to have something happen to the characters that gets them involved more than a quest-giver at a tavern does. If they have heirloom items, which my parties generally do, mug them and have at least one of the items stolen and have them follow the thieves into that castle. Maybe they can't keep up with the thieves, and have to stop and gather information, and THAT'S where they meet the were-rat. "Sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear you're going to Castle SuperScary... If you're interested, I have a job for you that you could take care of while you're there..."

[Kadarin]

I'm not sure about that whole package business...
In one of my first adventures, playing in Middle Earth, the DM started with just that; we got a package and had to transport it from Rohan via the Redhorn Pass to Bree (to all who do not know LotR, this is a long and dangerous voyage).
Almost from day one, we quabbled about that package. Should we open it? (since the person giving it to us was rather shady) or deliver it?
On Redhorn Pass, the discussion got out of bounds (again for non-Tolkien-readers: this place is dangerous). We decided to have a duell to settle it. On an evil mountain that had a mind of its own. Genius!
(well, there were more strikes of genius during that voyage, including me saying that to get from here to Bree, we must simply wander west, that is, in the direction where the sun is rising. Really. Not even the DM noticed that for an hour or so. None of the players - myself included - noticed it until we saw the Redhorn again...
And then our ranger murdered a healer because he looked "suspicious"... but this is another story, and shall be told another day.)

[Arjuna]

Aside from the duel I want that sort of stuff to happen.

[Ryan Naylor]

Do you have access to any of the Pathfinder adventure paths? They all start at 1st level, and generally speaking, the really low level adventures are outstanding. The Haunting of Harrowstone is obviously particularly appropriate for Ravenloft.

Basically, you need to keep in mind that 1st level characters are pretty fragile, but interesting roleplaying, puzzles, digging up information and a bit of low grade (perhaps non-lethal) combat works well.


In your case, if the PCs are sent to recover the statue, they could get XP for trying to research its background, or the background of the ruins it's in (and find a few clues about the vampire inside it); they could try negotiating with the LG other adventurers who are sworn to prevent the statue's re-emergence (and also sworn to secrecy about why); the local village could run them out of town with torches and pitchforks when they find out why they're there (non-lethal damage). There might be a trap or two in the ruins (which does something terrifying but non damaging, like magic mouth or cause fear, or is off by itself so they've got time to heal).

If you've got experienced roleplayers, hopefully they're more likely to derive satisfaction from engaging with the story than killing things and taking their stuff. Go to town with Gothic tropes. A good story is a good story regardless of level.

[Arjuna]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am going to steal bits from all of your suggestions.

Anymore?

[herkles]

What sort of domain are you planning on setting the adventure in, as that can help determine a number of factors.

also I second the carrion crown stuff, particularly the book rule by fear which gives you info on Ustalav that you can take and steal for other domains.

[Arjuna]

I havent really picked a domain. It may wind up being a more homebrewed domain. The one it is going to most resemble would be Barovia. The starting city is going to be a large trading center that is like a crossroads for many cultures. Like Constantinople but smaller.

[herkles]

hmm, I would suggest either Port-a-Lucine in Dementlieu. It is the cultural center of the core. It isn't a land of many monsters persay but human horrors, the darklord is a puppeteer type guy. This is where I would run jack the ripper, sherlock holmes, doctor jeckle and mister hyde and similar sort of adventures.

The other sugesttion I recommend is Levkarest in Borca. Levkarest is the center of Borcan government but also the holy seat of the Church of Ezra. Levkarest is kind of like Rome IMO with the church of ezra having similarites with the catholic church also add to it. It borders barovia and is not as backwater and superstious but some places are. It is a bit like renaissance Italy IMO. Poisons are plentiful throughout the area.

I hope this helps you out

[Matney X]

Because I was running Neither Man Nor Beast, we started in Markovia (well.. Luskan in the Forgotten Realms, but I had to get them on a boat, somehow. ). For my group, this was perfect -- they've become too accustomed to having everything they want withing a few days walk, and putting them on a mostly uninhabited island gave them the shock I needed for the transition to work. They don't have a healer in the group, so the few potions they were able to come up with became a huge deal, and more than one scene started with a character or two on the brink of death.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Hey, Arjuna. It's Rafe, from the Rahotep game.

If you're new to the setting, and want to feel it out first, my suggestion is this:

Let the mists rise, then open your monster manual. Have the party fight three random creatures. Ravenloft style.

Gritty, grim, bleak.



For example, a troll, under a bridge. At night, in the rain.

Then, let the players do the game.

[Zilfer]

does he want a toll?^