Worst Published Adventure Starts

[Reynard]

This thread is not about bad adventures. this thread is about bad adventure starts. It may be that the whole adventure is bad, but it is also possible that the adventure is good -- once you get past the hamfisted, weird, railroady or otherwise no-good hook built into the adventure. Note also that we are talking about published adventures, not things you as GM managed to do horribly.

For exaple: the "hook" for Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus is absolute trash. Just ridiculous and poor. That adventure, though, actually is pretty good (if a bit railroady). I dumped it completely and got the PCs involved in a different way that did not require them to get pressed into service. I have been running D&D for a very long time and if I have learned anything, it is that PCs forced to go on an adventure DON'T.

So, what about you? What is the worst adventure start/hook you have seen in a published TTRPG adventure?

 

[aco175]

The last one was the new box set- Stormwreck Isle. I can give it a bit of a pass since it is designed for new players and DMs. The setup is that you just arrived from ship to the island and zombies come out of the water to attack. While I like starting off a new campaign with a combat, this one allows an escape up the cliff/stairs to the monastery to escape. Fine. Later in the book though there is a harpy blocking the entrance of the bay from ships getting in and causing them to crash. Perhaps these are more problems with the rest of the adventure and not just the start.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't even look at hooks, so I have no idea if any of them are good or bad. Adventure hooks to me are the same as the "Here's what a roleplaying game is" chapter that is in the beginning of a lot of roleplaying games. They are there for someone who is picking up this kind of book for the very first time and needs to be told how to begin. The rest of us, however, know how useless they are to someone who already knows how the game works and we can just skip right past that part and not even bother looking at it, let along be bothered by it.

 

[billd91]

Paizo has had issues with initial chapters for some of their APs. If you think of them as a James Bond cold open, in which we see part of another mission that has little to do with the rest of the story, then I think they would work... if they weren't a whole chapter long and were the focus of character hooks and development.

Examples: Curse of the Crimson Throne - characters all start as enemies of a particular petty crime lord. It's the hook that brings them together. The first chapter resolves that enmity and it no longer has any real impact on the campaign. Hopefully, the bonds forged between PCs and the PCs and the city will carry them through.
Second Darkness - characters start out helping out in a seedy tavern in a criminal town and the campaign ultimately turns into a campaign against drow in the underdark and learning unsavory secrets about elves

None of this is to say that the adventures/APs were bad. In fact, they're actually pretty interesting. But they really do take an unexpected turn for the players after the opening chapter.

 

[CleverNickName]

The worst I remember is the intro to Pathfinder's Serpent's Skull adventure path. The heroes start the game unconscious and under attack, with their gear scattered all over the beach that they were just shipwrecked on.

My players just about walked.

 

[TheSword]

The worst I remember is the intro to Pathfinder's Serpent's Skull adventure path. The heroes start the game unconscious and under attack, with their gear scattered all over the beach that they were just shipwrecked on.

My players just about walked.

Really? I though having just been shipwrecked on a dangerous island was a pretty cool start?

you’re only without stuff for a very short period of time IIrC?

 

[Retreater]

If you do the "start as prisoners" or "start on a shipwreck" kind of in media res open, I think you should let the players know that going in. If they agree to it, then they shouldn't complain.

 

[CleverNickName]

Really? I though having just been shipwrecked on a dangerous island was a pretty cool start?

you’re only without stuff for a very short period of time IIrC?

I'll admit it was an original and exciting way to start a new campaign, but I guess it looked different from the other side of the DM screen. My players hated it so much they almost walked away from the whole campaign, and they still give me flack for it almost a decade later. That was the real problem, IMO.

 

[John R Davis]

Yeah. Needing to be 6 parts some AP have a horrid start. ( They have some very good ones , needs another thread!).

Avernus is the only 5th HB adventure I haven't finished running.

SKT wasn't great iirc but overall quite good.

Need a bit of a think????

 

[CleverNickName]

If you do the "start as prisoners" or "start on a shipwreck" kind of in media res open, I think you should let the players know that going in. If they agree to it, then they shouldn't complain.

Agreed. A little sidebar with a heads-up would have been appreciated. "Hey, so, we originally wrote this introductory encounter to be a "surprise" for your players, but it is a very challenging start to the game and not everyone will enjoy being hobbled so severely before they even roll initiative. If you think your players might not enjoy this sort of thing, here's an alternate way to run the shipwreck..."