D&D 5E Interesting 1st level adventure ideas

[mestewart3]

Hey folks, I often find myself starting new 1st level campaigns for new players and groups. I'm not a big fan of running the same thing over and over again so I try to create as much variety as possible. I thought I would make a thread where we could share ideas for interesting 1st level adventures that don't follow the "go to place X, kill humanoid enemy Y, and loot treasure Z".

I'm gonna start with some of the stuff I have used:

1. A witch has moved into the local swamp and is stealing children. The party has to navigate the swamp, best the witch's trickery, and save the children.
2. A minor cult has killed the local wizard (who all the PCs have relationships with, alternative to you met in a bar), the party has to investigate the murder and stop the cult from using dark magic stolen from the wizard's library.
3. A young red dragon swoops in over the starting town and sets a good portion of it ablaze. The party needs to put a stop the initial chaos, defend the town as it gets back on its feet, and help it recover. This was a good one because it gave the party a goal.
4. A local wizard hasn't been seen in a few months and the party decides to check out his tower and see if he left anything interesting behind. Good excuse for traps and puzzles that don't kill the players, the wizard doesn't necessarily want to kill every idiot kid who tries to sneak into his tower on a dare.

 

[Gilladian]

Hmmm... one of my favorite starts is to have the PCs be caravan guards, going to/through a small town or village near a known "dungeon" or ruins site. PCs can get their feet wet fighting critters on the road, then routing bandits, then reach the village and decide if they want to be delvers, or perhaps to explore wilderness beyond, or whatever.

One (fairly short-lived) campaign I ran started with the PCs (members of a newly-formed adventurer's guild) hired to break into a merchant's house and find evidence to prove he was kidnapping young women and selling them into slavery. My ultimate goal was for them to discover a link to the deeper realms and a plot to invade the kingdom from below, but we never got there.

 

[iserith]

Here's the opener for a 1st-level adventure I created and ran:

This here little enclave of shot-kickin' inbreds and desperate refugees in the Stinkatoe Swamp seemed like a good 'nuff place to lay low for a spell while the zombie apocalypse raged on in the rest of the world. Till the gol' dern walker herd showed up one night. Then it all went teets-up.

Soon as the alarm was raised, Ratty Bobby and his crew broke in two. The wererat and some of his people ran to Ol' Zeke's still to snatch some moonshine. The rest of his gang swam out to The Ruby Mamma Jamma - an elemental airboat, and the only sure escape from this mess. And just like Ol' Zeke, the boat needs moonshine to get runnin'.

Meanwhile, Ol' Zeke's taking out some rotters and feeders that are converging on his crapshack. Behind him, he protects Angelica, the Living Dead Girl, who book larnin' types say is the only chance the world's got to stem the undead tide. After taking a vicious bite to the neck, Zeke and Angelica hole up in his boarded-up hovel. They might could hold out fer a while, but if Ol' Zeke meets his maker, he'll be up feedin' in no time flat...

What are y'all gonna do?

 

[ccs]

You know that cliché about everyone meeting in a tavern?
Well THIS time that's the actual 1st lv adventure! The party finds themselves attending an all night party hosted by a bunch of Satyrs(male) & Fauns(female).
Drinking, drugs, music, debauchery, collateral damage, fights, random Wand of Wonder (or worse) effects, things being lit on fire, eating contests, drinking contests, etc etc etc. (Name me 100 different things that you imagine might go on throughout the night....)
The goal is to see how much of the party the PCs can endure before passing out.
Survivors wake up amongst the debris hungover/stoned/robbed/naked/etc (one of the barbarians in our current game woke up wearing a beheaded Barney costume. Another realized he had been polymorphed into a dwarf!) & have attained 2nd lv.
Then they're given a mission....

 

[Paul Johnson]

I would say anything that introduces a cool villain who will stick around for a good portion of the campaign. Maybe he starts off as a patron, offering missions before he's revealed to be evil. Or maybe he's obviously a bad guy, but is in a position of power and authority such that the PCs can't touch him. Either way, it's fun to leave the players wanting to get the villain for as long as possible before giving them that chance.

 

[Caliban]

1. Demon Raid has begun. A planetary conjunction occurred, creating a weak point in our reality and at the stroke of midnight a portal opened above the town and the hordes of the abyss poured forth. All the higher level NPC's fought an epic battle, slaying many of the invaders, but in turn they were all slaughtered. As dawn broke, the horde retreated back through the portal. The rays of the morning sun caused the portal to dissipate. Mysteriously, the PC's and all the lowest level townsfolk (lvls 1 and 2) slept through the commotion and woke up in the morning to find the town devastated. All the higher level NPC's are missing, dead, or gravely injured. Worse, the town is now infested with low levels fiends (imps, quasits, fiendish rats, etc.) that were left behind by the raiding party.

Can the PC's fight off the fiendish vermin while helping the surviving townsfolk? Were the missing townsfolk taken back to the Abyss?

 

[ExploderWizard]

1) The local tavern keeper needs help with the giant rats infesting his cellar.

2) The local friendly hedge witch needs herbs to brew potions. While out collecting the herbs the party stumbles upon a bandit camp out in the woods. The bandits are planning a raid against the village. For added development the bandits could be in the employ of a rival baron who wants to destabilize his neighbor's fiefdom.

3) The PC's arrive at a village and find it abandoned. In a nearby field, the whole village is enthralled to a highly charismatic cult leader. This cult leader has several armed disciples and is moving through the area recruiting as many followers as possible. The cult leader is a lunatic who takes orders from an imp that remains invisible and will only appear when they are alone.

4) Everyone knows not to go up to old man Connor's cabin. It has been haunted since the old coot passed away over twenty years ago. Sometimes a child will go missing. Local legend says that the Connors cabin probably ate the child. The cabin has been searched by armed men from the village but no ghost or other creature has been found. The cabin is the favored spot of a phase spider. It kills its victims then takes them to the ethereal plane to devour them.

5) The village is in trouble! There is an impeding crisis and someone needs to go to the local noble to request aid. The noble is being influenced by an advisor trying to convince him/her that enemies are everywhere and anyone seeking a personal audience is probably an assassin. Can the party circumvent the evil advisor and get through to the noble before its too late?

 

[the Jester]

1. Persistent rumors have it that there is some sort of creature that lives in the sewers of the town, snatching orphans and homeless people to feed on. (It turns out that there is more to it than it first appears; perhaps there is a cult that is actually helping the homeless and orphans, or perhaps the kidnapped people are being transformed by a group of particularly intelligent meenlocks.)

2. A small fire in town burned out the local eatery's herb garden. The pcs are hired to collect samples of the herbs that the restaurant needs to maintain its reputation and quality. The expedition is likely to take about a week in the back country, which is full of wolves and other dangerous creatures, as well as wilderness hazards.

3. When they volunteer to serve as judges in a pie contest, the pcs are caught in a web of local intrigue and politics as they are courted by several proud local businesspeople and a relatively famous visiting chef. They must avoid offending anyone important or getting disqualified as judges. Meanwhile an assassin attempts to poison one of the pies in order to kill one of the judges (pc or npc).

4. A parasite infects the drakes (or other dangerous animals) that are sold in the big city, causing them to become increasingly aggressive. In addition to fending off drake attacks, the pcs must help track down the source of the infection (a tainted water source).

 

[Imaculata]

A friend of mine had an excellent idea for a 1st level adventure. The players first start off as level 0 children attending a carnival. A Fortune Teller predicts their future, and this is how the actual classes are created, and hints towards their future plot are dropped.

They then bond as they solve a mystery in their village, where they end up fighting a necromancer underneath the cemetery. Then from level 1 on wards, the players solve problems surrounding the village. There's multiple rumors of things going on. A local mine that has been taken over by kobolts, a mage tower that has vanishes without a trace, a creeping ooze that is slowly devouring one of the forests, a blocked supply road, an abandoned royal castle, a mysterious wizards tower somewhere in the forest... All short adventures, but with lasting effects.

The players pick which problem they want to tackle next, and it directly affects their village. New people move into the village, trade starts increasing, new stores open up, more items become available in stores, and the players form new allies. As more people are brought in, they can raise the defenses of the village, and organize an actual militia to defend it, and earn funds to build defensive walls or new buildings in the village.

This is a great way to have multiple short adventures, that are part of a long running campaign. Plus it has a sandbox feel to it. It allows the players to really develop their village, and grow attached to it and its inhabitants.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

If I recall correctly, we had:

- the players selecting a crew from the ragtag bunch of locals, with the intent of establishing a crew for the player character's airship.

- the session then moved onto focusing on a shake down airship flight, where the characters had to engage with managing both crew and ship.

- the adventure moved onto a sky-shipyard, where the characters had to fend of a rival captain seeking to steal away their crew (with higher pay - and who succeeded!), while dealing with a murder mystery at said shipyard.

- ..and Ultimately, evacuating the tiny sky-shipyard's populace while under attack from ascending minions of a magical, near-sentient, maelstrom of mystical energies.

All in all, it went well. The best part, as the DM, was the commando-infiltration of the science-vessel and the resulting bluffing that lead to the rescue of a key NPC that the party is now (a few IRL months later) happy to dump on the nearest flying island.

So aye. Keep it simple - but layered. Allow the players enough space to make meaningful decisions and support their play with interesting elements that help to build a memorable experience.