D&D: Five Great ‘Starter Adventures’
Looking to start a game of D&D but not sure where to start? Try out one of these starter adventures and see where it takes you!
Beginnings are a delicate time, according to Princess Irulan.
But they’re also one of the most popular things in D&D, as the vast majority of players are level 1 adventurers who are starting off on their first adventure. With that in mind, here are five trusty go-to adventures the next time you need to find a great dungeon or plot to use to springboard into your campaign.
The Sunless Citadel
This is one of our perennial favorites here at BoLS. The Sunless Citadel is a masterclass in adventure and dungeon design–it’s a grand example of what you can expect a D&D game to play like. There’s exploration, roleplay, incentives to draw the players deeper into a dungeon, plenty of things to do inside, and it teaches both players and DMs as it goes. It’s fertile ground for riffing. You can adapt the dungeon, run it whole cloth in whatever setting you need, as it’s fairly universal: a ruined keep that sank beneath the earth long ago.
If you want a great taste of D&D, the Sunless Citadel is a fantastic appetizer that can serve as a whole entire meal.
Keep on the Shadowfell
This was the first module for 4th Edition, so it’ll take a little bit of work to try and fix it up for 5th Edition–though you can find a few different fan attempts out there. It’s still got some great bones, though. You’ll have to rip out the monster encounters, because 4th Edition worked on wildly different math and expectations, but the story: cultists of Orcus are up to no good, and it’s up to the players to stop them, is about as classic D&D as it gets.
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
This is the first adventure you’ll find in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and it’s a remix/update of the old Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh module from 1st Edition. The 5th Edition module adds a fair more meat to the bones of an excellent adventure. It’s part mystery, part investigation, part pirate raid–and all of it builds mood and tone like little else. If you want to feel like you’re in a different world, you’ll want to check this one out.
The Lost Mine of Phandelver
The Lost Mine of Phandelver is the adventure in the Starter Set for D&D, so there’s a good chance you’ve already run it. But if you haven’t, it’s definitely worth a try. It’s a great template to learn from–this module encapsulates what a “modern” D&D adventure should feel like, with opportunities for players to get tangled up in town, find intrigue in caves, and have a few points to start exploring on their own.
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden’s Ten Towns
If you really want something that captures the “open world RPG” feeling though, one of the best official examples is the first adventure you’ll find in the recently released Rime of the Frostmaiden. The Ten Towns section is not one but many small quests interwoven together that can take players from town to town in Icewind Dale. You’ll have to be careful looking at these–some of the adventures are deadly to an ill-prepared party, but these miniquests are a great way to capture the feeling of a worldmap full of things to play with. Find rumors, follow up on them, and do quests.
Happy Adventuring!
