OSR What's the best introductory BX/OSR scenario for new players and DMs?

[overgeeked]

The tree full of kobold archers, which is almost certainly the very first encounter at the caves, when the players are just looking around, is hilariously deadly.

Veteran old school players would know to stay way the hell back at the tree line, looking at the valley from a distance, but new players are pretty much guaranteed to walk into the valley and immediately get action-economied into pincushions.

To be fair, that encounter alone has turned more newbs into veteran players than any other in D&D's history. Fantasy Vietnam, baby.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be fair, that encounter alone has turned more newbs into veteran players than any other in D&D's history. Fantasy Vietnam, baby.

"Yes, we could watch Critical Role while we wait for the other players to arrive, but I think it'd be more appropriate for us to watch the opening of Saving Private Ryan. It'll all become clear later on."

 

[overgeeked]

"Yes, we could watch Critical Role while we wait for the other players to arrive, but I think it'd be more appropriate for us to watch the opening of Saving Private Ryan. It'll all become clear later on."

Too many enemy soldiers out in the open, not enough hiding, and nowhere near enough traps.

Maybe We Were Soldiers, Hamburger Hill, or Platoon.

 

[Celebrim]

A fun keep on the borderlands drinking game is to take a drink every time a room description indicates that the creatures immediately attack on sight.

Alternatively, take a drink every time an encounter by design spirals out of control because reinforcements are summoned.

There are no tutorial encounters in B2. It's an absolute bloodbath at 1st level and remains that way until everyone gets plate armor and a level or two.

Aside from that, turning it into a meaningful game and not just an exercise in tactical skirmishing requires expert GM levels of improvisation.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

Aside from that, turning it into a meaningful game and not just an exercise in tactical skirmishing requires expert GM levels of improvisation.

I think a very experienced GM with a lot of free time could turn B2 into an incredible experience. A beginner is likely to either get frustrated and quit, or completely ignore the rules of the game they're learning in favor of just fudging everything to keep the party alive after the third or so TPK.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Speaking of what an expert DM can do with B2, it's probably worth checking out Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands or Barkeep on the Borderlands.

Neither are exactly B2, but riffs on the idea.

 

[Simon Miles]

Reading all kinds of adventures can inspire the DM to start writing their own. When I first started my adventures were purely a map with numbered rooms and a list of monsters that inhabited them. After reading more adventures I started to include more and more detail on the tricks and traps. Now this has extended to publishing our own adventures at www.dunrominuniversitypress.co.uk . Of these The Trials of a Young Wizard was specifically written for the novice DM with novice players. It's three short adventures (dungeon, castle and puzzle/detective framed) and written to maintain clarity and simplicity without sacrificing sophistication. Looking at other people's efforts is just a great way to decide what you want your adventures to be like. Experiment a bit!

 

[cbwjm]

I'd suggest assault of raven's ruin or quest for the silver sword from the old thunder rift mini setting. They're easy to run and I've had a lot of fun playing through them or running them for friends in the past (last time I ran them I converted them to 5e).

Both are basically small dungeons with a bit of setting material at the start and a quest giver to get the ball rolling. You can easily weave a number of the thunder rift modules together into a small campaign.

 

[timbannock]

This would be my suggestion.

The TSR dungeons are mostly nostalgia choices, but as the designers will still blazing the trail at that point, a lot of the adventures make some weird choices, like In Search of the Unknown saying "well, we did the fun/easy part -- now you fill in the rooms!" for instance. (To be fair, some of those rooms, like the room of pools and the fungus garden, are iconic.)

In contrast, Tomb of the Serpent Kings is designed by Skerples, one of those designers who thinks deeply about RPG design and utility at the table. It's intentionally designed to teach players and DMs how to run an old school game.

I ran the dungeon using Shadowdark back in January and it went great. We'll be finishing up later this year, when one player who's been crowned queen of the fungus goblins returns for a very important ceremony.

Did you run it as a gauntlet, or were the characters level 1+? And roughly how many sessions did it take?

I'm looking for something that I can mold into a one-shot, even if that means having a couple ideas for definitive "end-points" that don't necessarily require completing all/most of the dungeon. I've got all new players, so I want to make sure I can hit that "feels like a complete story" thing, but maybe with the added effect of "...but wait! There's more!" Tomb is on my short list of possibilities for this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Did you run it as a gauntlet, or were the characters level 1+? And roughly how many sessions did it take?

I'm looking for something that I can mold into a one-shot, even if that means having a couple ideas for definitive "end-points" that don't necessarily require completing all/most of the dungeon. I've got all new players, so I want to make sure I can hit that "feels like a complete story" thing, but maybe with the added effect of "...but wait! There's more!" Tomb is on my short list of possibilities for this.

I am not really a gauntlet guy (although I may run one for GenCon Online, since feeding characters into a meatgrinder feels like a good fit for a limited time one-shot), so they were all level one.

I included the fungus goblin NPC to interact with that Skerples mentioned as a possible inclusion to the adventure, and once the party had teamed up with him, and found a key secret door on the second level, they found their way to the end of the adventure pretty quickly. They still want to explore the remaining parts of the dungeon and have their date with destiny, so it's going to be a two-shot, but if I'd left that NPC out (he's missing by default in the adventure) or maybe fudged a reaction roll when they arrived in the fungus goblin lair, it would easily be a one shot.

I'd say it's a four-to-five hour dungeon, total, even if your group slowly explores each room, as mine did. Some of the rooms are repetitive, by design (not in a bad way -- it's a complex full of tombs), so that helps.