Let’s keep this short and sweet: what do you think is the best introductory scenario ever written for a roleplaying game and why?
At the end of last month, I posed a similar question focused on Call of Cthulhu. This time, I’m widening the scope to include any RPG published from 1974 to the present. I already have a few favorites of my own, which I’ll be sharing in some upcoming posts, so I won’t give away my picks just yet.
What I am eager to hear are your choices, especially the reasons behind them. As I’ll explain later, it’s the why that really interests me. What makes a scenario a great introduction to a game or even the hobby as a whole? What stuck with you? What worked for your group?
Crisis at Crusader Citadel for Villains and Vigilantes is a great intro to the game that also gives the new heroes a chance to *become* the new Crusaders superhero group by the end of the adventure.
ReplyDeleteI thumbs up this one as well!
DeleteI was just going to say the same thing. But also the NPCs are tailored to display virtually every power in the game so that the GM has a chance to see them in play, which was quite clever in the design. The mystery is smart but straightforward and the villains plans make sense.
DeleteThe Tower of Zenopus in the Holmes Basic book is really excellent. It is incredibly well-scaled for 1st level adventurers, and introduces many of D&D basic concepts to players right off the bat, and it is easily useable with OD&D, Basic, B/X, or even AD&D...a perfect mesh of a teaching tool for both DMs and players alike, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnd I write this as someone who found the Holmes version later in life (I learned D&D through Moldvay). Much as I like B2 as an introductory adventure, the Tower of Zenopus is much, much better.
Probably Tower of Zenopus in the Holmes basic set, because it fires the imagination (just read the few paragraphs of intro), it is short, has a great map you can just stare at and imagine, and has great encounters: pirates, a captured pretty girl, underwater violent octopus, giant spider, ghouls, a dancing dagger that will attack you, and a bronze face that answers riddles, among other things, oh, and the phrase Things Better Left Alone.
ReplyDeleteT4 - Treasure Hunt, for AD&D, hands down. The first 0th level adventure ever written, it starts the game off with the players taking the parts of just regular townsfolks who are captured by orc slavers. By playing through the adventure, the players struggle to survive and how they play their characters and the decisions they make point them to one of the character classes. If they survive the adventure, they end the game as a 1st level character in the class that they chose by their actions in the adventure, ready to start a new campaign.
ReplyDeleteThe adventure is not only a great campaign starter but a great way to introduce players to the concept of role playing in general. Players can get into the action without having to think about what class they want to play or without needing to know any of the rules. I can't tell you how many campaigns I began with just this one module nor how many life long gamers I've created.
My favorite follow-up to Treasure Hunt is to eventually lead the campaign to A1 - Slave Pits of the Undercity and the other adventures in the Slave Lords series as the characters seek revenge on the slavers who originally forced them from their homes at the beginning of Treasure Hunt. Great stuff.
Rebel Breakout, WEG Star Wars
ReplyDeleteThe Rainbow Mounds from Apple Lane for RuneQuest. It's a neat small "dungeon" that shows several aspects of how to run a dungeon and shows off the mythical aspect of the game (I've made a recent argument that it includes the first hero quest published for the game with the quest to slay the lizard mother).
ReplyDeleteI've always remembered "Terror in Warwick House," from the original CHILL box set back in the eighties. It could be tough for an inexperienced GM, trying to build up the tension through the creepy atmosphere and spooky haunted house tropes, but it was a pretty straightforward adventure for the players. It was just difficult enough to give the PC's a run for their money and "show them the ropes" of the CHILL universe without running them off. CHILL was a great system that never really got its due.
ReplyDeleteFor me it is B-3 Palace of the Silver Princess for D&D. A classic dungeon crawl that just checks off everything that an intro adventure should be. A simple premise to nab a fabulous ruby from some castle ruins and delve into a dungeon. The best bit being the boxes of text describing every room as the players see it and then the details for the DM under out which includes stats for every monster, trap, and treasure. A great map of the area with lots of room for expansion (same as the dungeon) and plenty of adventure seeds sprinkled throughout the adventure. Now some may say it is a bit of a Monty Hawl (yes misspelling is intentional) and that some of the monsters seem illogical (why are there monkeys in the jail cell?) but I think it is the best representation of what a starter dungeon should be. I must also give a shout out to DCC#67 Sailors on the Starless Sea. Zero level gongfarmer goodness! It introduces new players to the funnel concept and the gonzo style of DCC as well as the concept that all monsters are unique. A great premise: to save your town and a great ending with the ship sailing out into the underground sea. Perfect if you want to continue the adventure into the underground (DCC’s version of The Underdark) or have it sail out into your campaign world. Again with this adventure everything is presented and nothing needs to be “looked up” or invented, unless you want to.
ReplyDeleteI've had the most success with "Escape From Zanzer's Dungeon," originally featured in the 1991 black box. It's straightforward enough that new players don't get overwhelmed while they learn the basic concepts, but also "funhouse-y" enough that it shows off a broad range of classic D&D tropes, so it gives them a good idea what they'll be getting in to. It also includes a few "choose your own adventure"-style sections leading up the the adventure proper, designed to ease people in to the concept if they don't have an experienced referree to teach them (the utility of which I can't speak to, as I never used them).
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised some people are mentioning that fragment of an adventure ‘The Tower of Zenopus’. It is definitely evocative…but I didn’t qualify it as an adventure…was there a fully-fledged version? My boxed set had B1, *In Search of the Unknown*…which I still love despite its eccentricities. It was so inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI do think intro scenarios have become more “user-friendly”, even if sometimes they are hand-hold-y.
A different question would, what is the best example of play in a rulebook?
"Hand-holdy" is a good way to put it. Hand-holdy to me is incredibly tedious. It feels like shackles. I like Zenopus because it's short, makes my imagination wake up, has lots of great ideas that I can access quickly and do with them what I will.
DeleteI guess another question for division would be best intro adventure for new players, and best intro for new GMs. I can imagine many great novice scenarios that would sing in the hands of an experienced GM, but with which a novice GM might struggle. I never tried to *run* Zenopus, but I spent a lot of time trying to flesh it out. It is very evocative. Whether what I came up with at 13 was any good, well…
DeleteI've run it several times as an adult and it worked well. When I was 13 I loved it, and I just read it and imagined the heck out of it, but there was no one to play with then. Come to think of it, I probably would have needed a little hand holding back then. I came back to the hobby in my early 40s, to have something fun to do with my teenagers, and man we had fun with it, and with a lot of other adventures. They're now a lot older and talk about the alt-world childhood they had with dad.
DeleteI am biased, because the first D&D game I ever played was the one I DM'd: Moldvay's B4 - The Lost City. The fact that it provided (to my knowledge) the only published megadungeon, and one that was incredibly focused and easy to generate (this was back in the day when the Mapper was critical to "winning") made it brilliant and thrilling, even for about 6 novices - 2 who had never seen a rule set, one who was working from Holmes, one from the Players Handbook, one from Moldvay, and one from Mentzer!
ReplyDeleteI was going to say Treasure Hunt to Aerie, but goeticgeek nailed it. It really is a perfect intro for people who might not otherwise gravitate toward games, while being hugely challenging and different for experienced players.
Jim Hodges---
ReplyDeleteThe Lost City, D&D.