[D&D 3.5] - Pre-made adventure recommendations

[FenrisWolf]

I know that it's probably heresy on these boards, but I was thinking of running a pre-made D&D 3.5 adventure and I need some recommendations. I'm a long time player and a newb GM. I know that home brewed adventures tend to be substantially better than the stuff off the shelf but I have limited time due to a busy work schedule. WOTC seems to be pushing the Eberron line pretty hard but I was leaning towards a more traditional fantasy setting (i.e. Greyhawk).

The adventure would be for new players to introduce them to 3.5. With that said, can any of you recommend a few options from the published works? There are so many of them out there, it's hard to tell the good from the bad. I've spent hours reading various reviews too but to no avail. Thanks in advance for any help.

[UglyJimStudly]

I think you'd probably be best served by freebies; many of WOTC's free adventures are pretty good, The Wizard's Amulet from Necromancer is a classic for introducing 3.5, etc. That way if the group turns out not to like 3.5 all that much, you haven't made as huge an investment.

If they do like it and you carry on, The Red Hand of Doom is a pretty good mini-campaign, IMHO. It starts around 6th level IIRC, so not so great as an intro, but still a fine published adventure with a nice variety of situations.

[BabbageCliologic]

I know that it's probably heresy on these boards, but I was thinking of running a pre-made D&D 3.5 adventure and I need some recommendations. I'm a long time player and a newb GM. I know that home brewed adventures tend to be substantially better than the stuff off the shelf but I have limited time due to a busy work schedule. WOTC seems to be pushing the Eberron line pretty hard but I was leaning towards a more traditional fantasy setting (i.e. Greyhawk).

The adventure would be for new players to introduce them to 3.5. With that said, can any of you recommend a few options from the published works? There are so many of them out there, it's hard to tell the good from the bad. I've spent hours reading various reviews too but to no avail. Thanks in advance for any help.

Three Days to Kill by John Tynes. You can probably find a cheap copy at your local GS or online. It's that good.

/BC

[FenrisWolf]

I just read two reviews for the Red Hand of Doom on enworld.org and both reviewers spoke highly of it. I'll definitely take a closer look at that adventure.

[Birmy]

I just started a new campaign with seasoned gamers who had minimal or no experience with 3.5/d20 and I just used the OOP Sunless Citadel module, which, at least so far, has served as a good "softball" for all of us (including me, the haky DM). It was released by WotC as the first module post-3e, so it's designed for newbies, broad enough in its fights and puzzles to get the general feel of the game and generic enough in setting so that you won't get bogged down in setting details. Other than that, you're best off following the recommendations of these gentlemen smarter than me an ddownloading the freebies (consider this another vote for Right Hand of Doom).

[Birmy]

I of course meant RED Hand of Doom. Sorry, I guess I've got Hellboy on the brain.

[FenrisWolf]

I just purchased a copy of Three Days to Kill from Ebay and I will keep my eyes open for a copy of Red Hand of Doom. Thanks again for the advice.

[RedFox]

Of the freebie downloads at WotC, I really like "A Dark and Stormy Knight." It's good for getting characters of disparate backgrounds together and it's simple to run and play for utter newbies. The only thing really missing is a bit of NPC roleplay or a traditional puzzle, but those are trivial to add.

[UglyJimStudly]

Of the freebie downloads at WotC, I really like "A Dark and Stormy Knight." It's good for getting characters of disparate backgrounds together and it's simple to run and play for utter newbies. The only thing really missing is a bit of NPC roleplay or a traditional puzzle, but those are trivial to add.

Yeah, that and Necromancer's Wizard's Amulet are my two favourite starter modules. Part of the reason I like 'em is that both embrace the 3E design concept of only having 3-5 encounters before resting, something that a surprising number of adventures (even by WOTC) miss. That built-in pacing doesn't necessarily mesh well with the traditional dungeon crawl, oddly enough, but once the DM gets a handle on it it's a pretty decent pacing device.

Another good source of adventures that I forgot about yesterday is Dungeon magazine - not free, but not expensive, either. Anybody with a decent assortment of back issues at their FLGS has a good resource to pick and choose a whole campaign's worth of adventures, either from one of the adventure paths or by chaining together a bunch of one-shots.