D&D General How early is too early for planar adventures?

[Li Shenron]

Our family D&D game with the kids is only at 4th level. They have just finished an adventure which ended with defeating the "goblin king", except it was duly noted that there are many goblins who self-appoint themselves such title, leaving it largely vague how important their accomplishment was.

I'm looking forward to preparing the next adventure for them, and I would like something different from the previous, which have all been pretty much about investigating a remote area to find a dungeon, and then clear such dungeon of its monsters. The adventure we just finished was my 5e conversion/adaptation of the old "Horror on the Hill", and even though I originally planned to get down to the last dungeon level and final monster, I cut it short half-way through the levels with a custom BBEG (the "goblin king" which is not in the original adventure) because it was getting too long (although, we could still continue down if I change my mind).

Ransacking my small chest of old adventures, many of them feeling a bit too similar, I was looking for something with more story/intrigue or with more environmental dangers and less straightforward combat. I am now reading through "Tales of the Outer Planes" and wondering if it's any good. The first adventure seems a bit railroaded and has almost zero combat, which is too little but can be spiced up with pseudorandom encounters. The problem is also that there is an NPC leading the PC which seems to negate all chances of intrigue and investigation, but without her/him it seems difficult to figure out anything.

Besides the challenge of finding a good adventure, my main question is whether dropping the bomb of planar travel this early makes it less special. The multiverse has always been one of my favourite concept in d&d, and I don't want to blow it too soon. Ideally I envision the progression of adventuring scope being local -> regional -> kingdom -> continental -> global -> universal (alternate material worlds) -> multiversal (worlds with different "laws of nature", afterlife, time travel...). Now we're talking about jumping from regional to multiversal.

I don't know, maybe it's just fine, but considering the first adventure of TotOP already brings the PC to meet someone at divine level, how can I then still inspire awe in my young players with anything more earthly?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Have you thought about demiplanes? Reality bubles created by a mixture of the faewild and the elemental limbo. Maybe counterattack mission against planar raiders, for example githyankis or khaasta (a reptilian humanoid race) pirates.

A travel with the faes to the demiplane of the dreamlands, or to study an akashic realm, this would be like a theme park, a "copy" of the space-timeline to show the past how this is remembered by the collective mind (but maybe not as really it happened).

A demiplane what is "fulling" with pieces from elemental planes, by fault of a secondary effect when an alien civilitation uses a special technology for interestelar travel.

Or crystal spheres within the elemental limbo where life and even civilitations are possible and the local enviroment isn't too hard.

Maybe a story about the faewild being attacked by genies and their elemental minions, or hordes of refugees to the faewild from other plane sent by genies who try to help the evacuation of a world suffering a Ragnarock or other apocalyptic crisis (for example a epidemic of zombie-like parasite plants).

 

[Samloyal23]

Planescape had adventure opportunities for Level 1 characters, so it can be done at any level. Have your players fall through a portal to Sigil and find out their idea of reality is an illusion...

 

[jasper]

Any time before 0700 hours and I not going.

 

[Fenris-77]

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a cool module and has some "welcome to planar travel" stuff in it that you could use to gauge interest. There's even a couple of good 5E conversions of it.

 

[Li Shenron]

Planescape had adventure opportunities for Level 1 characters, so it can be done at any level. Have your players fall through a portal to Sigil and find out their idea of reality is an illusion...

Oh but maybe my question was misleading...

I didn't mean to ask "how early in level", but instead "how early in the story" and specifically for children who are playing their first d&d campaign.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Planescape had adventure opportunities for Level 1 characters, so it can be done at any level. Have your players fall through a portal to Sigil and find out their idea of reality is an illusion...

Yeah, if you're using Planescape-style portal-key-based travel, and as Sigil is canon, I think it's fair to assume that in any setting that isn't explicitly in some sort of "planar lockdown" such portals and keys exist. Even if you don't go to Sigil there are tons of other places you could go. Sigil makes a good starting point though, as as mindblowing as it is, it still makes basic sense ("nexus of the planes", "city of doors" etc.).

The main thing is just to avoid the players actually needing to know/understand the planes in detail - but if they have an idea of stuff like the Underworld, Arcadia/Elysium, Valhalla, and so on, it shouldn't be too hard to convey a specific plane.

Some of our best low-level adventures have taken place on other planes or demiplanes.

 

[Fenris-77]

Oh but maybe my question was misleading...

I didn't mean to ask "how early in level", but instead "how early in the story" and specifically for children who are playing their first d&d campaign.

I'd wait until they have a solid handle on their characters and the rules. With my kids I found that to be the initial hurdle. Once they could keep all the balls in the air without struggling (abilities, spells, rules etc) I found they had more time to pay attention to the subtleties of setting. Planar stuff get wacky fast, and they'll need to be paying attention.

My goal is usually to not drown them in detail. Kids don't come naturally equipped with the same enormous well of D&D lore that us long time gamers do and I have to consciously move more slowly than I normally would when it comes to exposition.

 

[wingsandsword]

Never too early.

After all, Planar adventures at 1st level are how a typical Planescape campaign begins.

Low-level planar adventures would probably stick to Sigil, the safer gate towns, maybe some of the less-hostile demiplanes, and maybe some upper planes or other planar cities like the City of Brass and City of Brass. They're going to be travelling by portals, and maybe the River Oceanus, Yggdrasil, or the Infinite Staircase. . .not by Plane Shift or Gate spells, and the River Styx is probably not advised.

A character with good knowledge of the planes (in whatever skill system the edition you're using has) is probably highly advised so characters have a good chance to figure out if they've stumbled into a place they might not be ready for.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I think it depends on what you want and what the kids are ready to handle. It’d probably be a good idea to maje sure the kids know what the “norm” is for D&D before you introduce a bunch of material that’s a departure from the norm. It helps if the planes have that context.

Beyond that, I wouldn’t worry about level or scope or any of that. You can shape the planes to suit your needs, and you can always adjust as needed. As others have pointed out, the whole point of Planescape was to introduce all these interesting concepts to a campaign immediately rather than saving it for high level. You can use Sigil or one of the Gatetowns in the Outlands as a home base and branch out from there, or whatever else might make sense.

Finally, if the planes are what interest you about D&D, then I’d say that’s a strong argument for not waiting to go planar. If it’s compelling for you, then chances are your enthusiasm will rub off on your players and they’ll be equally enthused. You should present material that you’re excited to run rather than what you think you should run.