People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, Ravenloft, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction. It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano. I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic OSR dungeon for beginners that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process. If you like this dungeon, please share it, tell people about it, print copies and leave them lying around local game stores, or email this post to friends who have "always wanted to try D&D but don't know where to start". The entire thing is and always will be free.
"A temple destroyed by divine wrath... An ancient, imprisoned evil and a powerful idol. Mysteries abound in the tombs below the temple of the Iron God, protector of the dead. Discover the dreadful fate of the Iron God's priesthood and the reasons behind their downfall in this intriguing adventure designed for low-level characters. Tomb of the Iron God covers a large catacomb area on two levels, with 58 keyed locations and six new monsters. This is a Swords & Wizardry (0e) dungeon crawl for four to five characters of 1st or 2nd level, by ENNIE-award winning author Matt Finch. The vengeance of an angry god, and treasures untold. The corruption and greed of the monks of the Iron God has brought divine vengeance upon their heads - the ancient monastery was recently destroyed in a cataclysm of fire and lightning, and only the tombs beneath remain intact. Somewhere in the catacombs lies the treasure the monks accumulated before they met their doom. An intrepid band of adventurers, willing to brave the perils of the unknown tombs, could gain riches beyond their wildest dreams. Do you dare to enter the burial catacombs and discover the chilling secrets of ... The Tomb of the Iron God?" Also available for 5E
During a brief stop-over at a wilderness stronghold, a simple trip to a local provisioner reveals foul play! The shop has been broken in, and the shopkeeper is missing. But the place has not been burglarized. The heroes are thrust into an investigation. Clues discovered by the heroes’ hint at larger corruption that festers among the border lands surounding the stronghold. What sinister forces lurk beneath the keep?
A desperate ghost, a plea for help, and a forgotten crypt filled with peril and plunder. This is a tale of past conflicts, where blood magic has left a foul and dire aftermath, and time is of the essence. Maps and illustrations help guide you through rugged wilderness to re-discover a tomb lost to all but its denizens - creatures enslaved by an unholy item or awakened by its looming threat. Published by Roan Studio
For years, the pirate Captain Renlock sailed the coast of the Arcadian Ocean from the Shackles to the south to the waters of Varisia to the north searching for plunder and adventure—until one day his luck ran out. The ship was captured by a navy and the captain and his crew were apprehended and imprisoned. Years later, after the captain's death in prison, the four released crewmembers receive a message from the deceased captain pointing them to treasure he hid for them. This short Pathfinder 2nd edition adventure written by Jason Bulmahn is intended to be completed in a single session and includes four 5th-level pregenerated characters whose backstories and motivations tie closely into the plot of the adventure. This adventure can be easily incorporated into various virtual tabletops, run off of digital devices, or printed out and played at a table.
Dracula, the Lord of Shadow and Darkness, has covered the land in shadow and dispatched armies of monsters and undead from his magical castle. His armies threaten to overrun major cities and plunge the world into a literal Dark Age. The last of the vampire-hunting clan that traditionally opposed him has disappeared, and still the armies advance. He must be stopped. If that's not enough motivation, it is well-known that his castle is full of magical items and great riches... but also great danger. If you've ever wanted D&D and Castlevania to meet, look no further. This adventure is exactly what you wanted. Every area of the castle poses different and unique challenges to keep the party engaged and on their toes. Written for the DM as a ready-to-run adventure, it is designed for four to six characters. The adventure starts at level 3 at the outer defenses of the castle, and ends with the party advancing to level 13 after defeating Dracula in an epic battle. The adventure includes documentation to help even a new DM succed, including suggestions for how to run each of the area "boss" monsters in combat. There are approximately 50 new enemies and over 3 dozen new magical items. It also comes with a list of suggested music for many areas of the castle, and a 25-page campaign log recounting an actual tabletop play-through of this adventure from the DM's perspective.
The Vault of Pallon the Pious is an adventure for four 2nd level PCs. A famous pirate captain came to worship a lawful god in his final years. After a lifetime of plundering, pillaging, scuttling, and murdering along the coastline, the fear-inspiring Pallon the Merciless rebranded himself as Pallon the Pious. But, a history of violence is a hard thing to reconcile, and the salty old dog slowly succumbed to madness. His most precious possession was a set of scales that reflected perfectly his own inner conflict. The Scales of Misjudgement are buried deep in the treasure room of his crazed rock-island vault.
The heroes arrive at the eponymous Keep on the Borderlands, a fortress on the edge of civilization built to stave off the chaos and evil of the wilderness. Using it as a home base, a party can make forays into the surrounding wilderness, encountering monster and marauder alike. The centerpiece of the adventure is certainly the CAVES OF CHAOS, a network of tunnels and caverns found in the walls of a nearby but isolated ravine. It is here that hordes of evil humanoids have made their home. Through combat and negotiation, the players can try to explore and map out these caves, perhaps with the aim of accumulating valuable treasure or even cleansing the land of evil creatures. However, even the Caves are not all they seem. Beyond the goblins and kobolds lurk dark horrors: cults dedicated to fiendish chaos and a Minotaur's enchanted labyrinth await the unprepared adventurer. But for the hero who is brave, clever, and fortunate in equal and sufficient measure, great treasures and glory await in the Caves of Chaos that lie beyond the Keep on the Borderlands! TSR 9034
People from all over the world travel to the oracle of the dead, the Necromanteion, to commune with the spirits of the dead. Following a ritualistic preparaton of the body and the mind, a "Seeker", as they are called, enters the Adyton, and with the help of the Prophet comes in contact with spirits. Who would your characters talk to if they found themselves in the Necromanteion? Before you can answer that, you must first save it from a demonic invasion! With the temple in chaos, and foul fiends everywhere, will our adventurers be able to save the Necromanteion?
While exploring for hints of the Kobolds lair, an unexpected plea changes everything. This is the fourth and final adventure in a miniseries with the following adventures being: A Chance Encounter The Mystic Circle An Urgent Rescue In addition to the adventure, there are a few of maps of the adventure area as separate jpeg files. There is also a printer friendly version of the adventure.
The Last Point is a prison and outpost of the Corrive Empire, a realm ruled by a cruel green dragon named Lady Corrive. The Corrivians are well known for their hatred of magic users, and their extensive slave trade industry. A forest realm with coasts on three sides and mountains running through the center, Corrive is rich with a variety of resources. However, the rocky northern coast is out of the way of their navy and relies heavily on hired ships to help transport various goods including prisoners and slaves to isolated outposts, training centers, and slave colonies. The northwest coast of Corrive is rocky and many parts of it are elevated, making it isolated from much of the mainland. The Last Point is a recycling center where captives meant for death row who are either deemed “not important enough” to execute publicly or “too disgraceful” to execute publicly are sent to be tortured and then killed. The place seems to operate on sort of a “well, we have too many so some have to go now” policy. The Last Point has no official deadlines for killing.
Lowharbor’s residents vanish when they die. A cloud of sour black smoke chokes their corpses and, when it clears, all that remains is a dusting of salt. Something or someone is stealing bodies through magic ritual, and the townsfolk won't stand for it! Send your party into the dank sewers below their feet to root out the necromancer's den of swirling filth! Why should you get this module? Skulking horrors and excitable clerics! Seven brand new monsters, including a low level mythic statblock! New disease rules! A mysterious threat! Six hours of play! Lavish presentation! A fantastic adventure for 5th-level players! Dead Ends is best for 5th-level players. It might be a little tough, but still winnable, for 4th-level, and should be fine for anything up to 8th-level.
Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign is the first published campaign setting for the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. This module includes a brief description of the Western Lands: A campaign adventure area consisting of the remnants of a once-great empire, a pair of important free cities, and a vast wilderness territory, plus Morgansfort, a detailed "home base" for adventurers set in the western lands. Also included are three adventures designed for a part of new player characters, comprising a total of six dungeon levels: The Olde Island Fortress: a two-level dungeon environment suitable for beginning adventurers, located near Morgansfort. The Nameless Dungeon: a three-level dungeon designed to be a bit more challenging. The Cave of the Unknown: a one-level dungeon filled with strange monsters led by a fearsome master. This campaign module combines: The Western Lands, a briefly sketched campaign area; Morgansfort, a detailed "home base" for an adventuring party; The Old Island Fortress, a two level dungeon suitable for beginning adventurers; The Nameless Dungeon, a tough three level dungeon; and The Cave of the Unknown, a dungeon controlled by an evil magic-user. This campaign module is highly suitable for starting a new group, even a group of new players. Published by basicfantasy.org
The fate of a city lies within a dungeon whose doors are sealed with - cards It's up to you to bring it tumbling down. “House of Cards” combined dungeon exploration with the Deck of Many Things to create an adventure experience unlike anything seen before. The deck is both a treasure and a trap, guarding a tomb complex that’s being used by the Night Masks thieves’ guild as a lair. If the PCs want the deck for themselves, they must first gather all the cards, which is easier said than done. - Christopher Perkins Pgs. 38-64
A missing mage... A ruthless band of kidnappers... A sinister conspiracy... Night Below, the first epic campaign adventure for the AD&D game, is designed to take the player characters from 1st level to 10th level and beyond. The PCs start as beginning adventures on a routine courier mission who soon become drawn into combating a sinister plot that menaces the pleasant land of Haranshire.
The Premature Burial is the first in a series of four interconnected stories that recall the themes and atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror. Baldur's Gate, year 1492 DR, a dark and terrifying sect works secretly in the slums with the aim of punishing all those who have long oppressed, marginalized and killed the city's poorest and weakest citizens. The patriars, unaware of anything, are the cult's main targets, and a magical plague is about to fall on them that can cause a veritable slaughter. The characters will find themselves caught up in these dangerous events and will be drawn into a spiral of horror, blood and madness that will strain their bodies and souls. The Prior who leads the mysterious cult has "a special plan" in mind for them and will do anything to achieve his goal. Players will be forced more than once to question their morals and make difficult choices in a scenario of complex social conflicts, personal revenge stories and tremendous machinations. What repercussions would the cult's plan have if it were carried out? And what would happen instead if it were averted and the patriars continued to run the city as they always have? Shadows as black as night once again loom over Baldur's Gate, and this time they may change its face forever. - Adventure: story lasting 4 to 8 hours for characters ranging in level from 4 to 6 - Setting: adventure set in the famous city of Baldur's Gate but easily adaptable to any setting - Narrative: detailed descriptions and an emphasis on story immersiveness - Roleplay: in-depth characterization of NPCs with biographies, descriptions of their personalities and their physical appearance - Bestiary: 3 new customizable opponents with the mechanics "Affixes," which can add an extra degree of complexity to confrontations, and " Weak spots," which grant a strategic advantage to characters who manage to discover them - Magic: obscure and unknown spells used by cultists to carry out their plans - Layout: designed to make it easier for DMs to browse information, featuring special attention to color coding and visual immediacy of text boxes - Maps: 3 maps available in high resolution, VTT and printer-friendly versions - PDF: available in high-quality, interactive, printer-friendly print versions - Playlist: a collection of songs selected by the authors to create the right atmosphere during game sessions
Adventure in a desolate magic-stained wasteland where fabulous crystal spires and fortresses plummet from the skies to tempt the desperate and the bold with magical gems and golden treasures. Find your fortune or find your death as you plunder the fallen sky tomb of an Empyrean despot. SCHEME with the unnatural denizens of the Crystal Tomb! UNRAVEL the secrets of the Dead King and his realm of misrule! LOOT strange magics and Opulent Treasures from beyond the sky's vault! A complete adventure for Level 1 characters and an introduction to both the dungeon crawl style play and the Crystal Frontier setting. Written with the new referee and players unfamiliar with older style games in mind, Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier is built to start a campaign, use as a one-shot, or to drop in as an adventure locale in almost any fantasy world. The adventure has been designed for and tested with OSE, but is easy to use with any of the wayward offspring of the early editions of the first fantasy roleplaying game. Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier emphasizes problem solving, faction intrigue, and exploration in the tradition of classic dungeon crawl adventures, but with a phantasmagoric fantasy Western aesthetic. NOW AVAILABLE FOR ERRANT AND OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS!
The Red Bastion - the prison of a dwarf ghost princess... A 15-room dungeon for levels 2-3.
Vault of the Blood Mage is a deadly one-shot dungeon adventure for 4-6 8th level characters. Player Characters find themselves locked in a dungeon room with no memory of how they got there. Inflicted with a magical disease that is slowly turning them into mindless zombies, the dungeoneers have to work quickly to find the antidote and escape the vault before succumbing to the deadly affliction. To do so, the characters must avoid deadly traps, fight unique monsters, and solve fiendish puzzles.
While at times cliché there are few adventures better than an old fashioned trek into the ruins of a deserted castle. This adventure pits a new adventurer against the decades old remains of a hilltop castle that is “haunted”. The old keep was the site of a mighty battle years before that swayed the power in the area but now it is the crumbling remains of the once powerful Baron Sancrist. While the old fortress is supposed to be deserted the area farmers and villagers swear they have seen the dead walk the parapets in the moonlight. Well you wanted adventure….here it comes!