Short Adventure Recommendations?

[SgtHulka]

First some background:

I introduced my kids to B/X D&D over the past few years, and chronicled the experience a little bit in this post:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43430

As mentioned in that above post, my favorite version of D&D is 3.x (I know, a collective groan) and tried to convert my kids over to that. But, I'm sure much to the satisfaction of everyone on this board, that conversion did not take. Now, we hadn't played any D&D since March, but my Godson came up to visit again last weekend and specifically asked if we could play D&D. So I eased everyone into it by Dungeon mastering a short ad lib B/X adventure, and the weekend pretty much became a runaway train from then on. My kids, my Godson and his little brother all started playing every waking moment like I did back when I was their age. And best of all, they all started dungeon mastering for each other. (as an aside, this is the biggest strength of B/X in my opinion: ten year old kids can handle the duties of dungeon master. That's definitely not the case with 3.X/Pathfinder)

Anyway, now my kids are asking me to run some adventures for them again. And here's what I've finally learned. Big, epic adventures, the kind of thing that we all love, they do not. B10 is waaaaay too long. Even B3 was too long. The biggest success I've had was with one-page dungeons. Those are pretty much the perfect length for them.

So that leaves out all the old TSR adventures. Their characters are fifth and sixth level, and I let them run two characters each for four characters total. I've downloaded Stonehell, which I'm part way through reading and it looks awesome. I might just run that as a series of unconnected levels. I'm also considering running the short adventures in the Giant/Dragon Bestiary. But I thought I'd ask the question to the people most in the know -- i.e. you guys -- what would you recommend? What should I be downloading that maybe I'm not aware of?

Oh, and my son loves hack/slash while my daughter loves puzzle traps or encounters that can be resolved through ways other than just fighting. So a mix of the two would be perfect.

And the thing they both love the most is leveling up.

Thanks in advance.

[paleologos]

You should check out the adventures for classic D&D published in Dungeon - there are many.

Also, one-shot adventures published in Dragon, such as:
The Creature of Rhyl
The Chapel of Silence
The Sword of Justice

B9 is a series of short adventures, and B8 is likely right up their alley.

Finally, there are a ton of good adventures in AC10 The Bestiary of Dragons and Giants

[Geoffrey]

Here's a good, short module that I publish:
http://psychedelicfantasies.blogspot.co ... odule.html

Here it is reviewed on dragonsfoot:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 38&t=57674

[Alex]

One Answer to Rule them All!
One Page Dungeon Contest

Download the complete submissions PDF for each year: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009. The winners PDF clearly have the best entries...for cultured adult gamers...but with kids you may score better by looking at those that didn't get into the winner's circle and judging their likes and dislikes against the contents. How long could it take? I mean, their just one page, right?!?

[SgtHulka]

You should check out the adventures for classic D&D published in Dungeon - there are many.

Are classic adventures scattered throughout the full run of the magazine, or is there a particular series (from Dungon 101 to 185, for example)?

And do you happen to know if there's a big DVD of all the Dungeon magazines like there is for Dragon?

I'll check out B9...I didn't know that was a series of short ones. And my kids already love the one-page dungeons; great idea to look at the non-winners I'm sure there are plenty of gems in there.

Thanks for the link, Geoffrey.

[Buttmonkey]

And do you happen to know if there's a big DVD of all the Dungeon magazines like there is for Dragon?

Not legally. Sad.

[Raymond]

Yesterday, I got the free HackMaster Basic .pdf file. It has two short adventures in it.

[paleologos]

Are classic adventures scattered throughout the full run of the magazine, or is there a particular series (from Dungon 101 to 185, for example)?

And do you happen to know if there's a big DVD of all the Dungeon magazines like there is for Dragon?

Check out this old thread:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=33266

I'll check out B9...I didn't know that was a series of short ones.

Yes - it's actually a pretty good series of D&D adventures for young ones.

[Grumium]

That old thread link is dead.

[Thorkhammer]

Part One of (U1)Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh has both elements that your children like.

[Black Wyvern]

Part One of (U1)Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh has both elements that your children like.

And it easily divides into two short adventures. I really love the first part... must be the kid inside me. Ship is good but the haunted mansion is close to my favorite adventure sequence of all time.

[SgtHulka]

Part One of (U1)Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh has both elements that your children like.

And it easily divides into two short adventures. I really love the first part... must be the kid inside me. Ship is good but the haunted mansion is close to my favorite adventure sequence of all time.

You guys are dead on with that. I've seriously considered running Sinister Secret in the past but I completely forgot about it. Right now their characters are too high level (third to sixth) but they've been talking about wanting to introduce their friends to D&D. If they do that, I think you're right, Sinister Secret would be the ideal adventure with which to initiate new players. I'll start re-reading it immediately. It's like a scooby doo episode! (in a good way)

[Shadow Shack]

This was mentioned in another thread, but you could always break down the Caves of Chaos from B2 into separate mini-dungeons.

[DiscoJer]

There's a number of short adventures on the basic fantasy site

http://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html

And I have to say that personally I think Basic Fantasy is a great implementation of a basic sort of D&D with some of 3.xs "innovations", like ascending AC and attack bonus. (only complaint is they put the attack bonus chart in a hard to find spot, instead of on the character level tables)

[Nailen]

I'll check out B9...I didn't know that was a series of short ones.

Yes - it's actually a pretty good series of D&D adventures for young ones.

Some parts are more appealing than others.
I've run the final adventure 'Elwyn's Sanctuary' and it's railroady, but has some tough monsters. (I swapped the trogs for Orc guards, which links them to the other Orcs present.). As long as they find all the magic items then they'll be able to cope...

[Agricola]

You could break X2 into parts. Have the amber healing glow surround them and level up on the spot and be fully healed. Do one section of the castle at a time, skip the outdoor part/island and go straight to the tomb when they are high enough. Wishes, tailored magic items and matching 15,000 gp necklaces for the wrap.

[Ouroboros]

Book of Treasure Maps 1 by Paul Jaquays has some of my favorite short adventures.

BoTM 2 and 3 have some good ones too, but not like 1.