1st Level and 2nd Edition Ravenloft

[DoctorMoreau]

Starting a new Ravenloft campaign, using 2nd edition (essentially though technically Myths & Magic) to run it as an excuse to run some of the modules that have collected years of dust with very little conversion. I have... everything... but I'm finding one difficulty, 1st to 2nd level type adventures. 3rd seems covered though that's debatable since the adventures seem to be minimum 3rd and that's with like six people. I may only have four.

I know Night of the Living Dead of course, but one of the players has played an adaptation in Gothic Earth of it before... sooo... yeah. Plus I've probably ran that module more times than I can count, and as good as it is, I'm certainly tired of it. Not that I won't run it but I'm sort of wondering, from any of the books (knowing that the full book modules don't have this) are there any adventures appropriate for the very low levels, or ones you think could be easily adapted.

I'm also willing to use the Kargatane netbooks from back when they did 2nd edition. Halp!

[steveflam]

I am sorry, I am not good with names of modules, but what about the Jack the Ripper module, in Paridon. Slightly toned down?
I think it is 4-6 level, right?

What about just choosing a Darklord/Domain and starting one there? There is quite enough info in 2E to easily run a game like that.

Chose a Domain or Darklord you like and make a homebrew game. Many people do

Anyhow, I am sure other members of our esteemed Fraternity will offer you ideas

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I don't have it in front of me, but if I'm not mistaken, The Created also worked for 1st level.

The Dunkel Kralle adventure from The Forgotten Children netbook is another excellent one, but it takes place post-Requiem, and it would be difficult to change the backstory to pre-requiem. If you're planning on playing the GC or Requiem modules, that could be a problem.

[DoctorMoreau]

Yeah I did plan on doing the GC, though maybe a bit different. I'd forgotten about the Created though, packed it in my bag to read at work today. Still, it's not going to get them to 3rd level by itself lol.

And yeah, I could make original adventures, done so many times (have an entire 1 through 20 3.5 campaign, that started as 3.0) but I wanted to see how others have done it.

[brass]

It has been a long time since I played AD&D, but would it be too much of a hassle to convert some adventures from other systems. Goodman Games do a fair number of convertable and pretty good adventures,

http://www.goodman-games.com/3e.html

Or (though this might be for later on in a campaign or reduced in level) Paizo's Carrion Hill adventure

http://paizo.com/store/downloads/pathfi ... rce=search

My knowledge of 2 ed adventures is sadly lacking.

[Garudos Celestar]

My #1 recommendation is Stu Turner's "Rebirth" adventure from The Forgotten Children netbook at the Kargatane website.

"Vanity," in the same book, is also designed for low-level characters.

[The Giamarga]

"Horror's harvest" from dungeon magazine is for levels 2-4.

There are probably many adaptable non RL adventures in dungeon too. "The ghost at widder smither's" or " THE MURDER OF MAURY MILLER" spring too mind.

Here's a good index of all 1e and 2e dungeon issues.

[DoctorMoreau]

Those are some really great ideas. I went and obtained the adventures last night. I also found one called "Fright Night" that seemed adaptable.

[DoctorMoreau]

From that same book, the adventure about Hungry Lucy seemed low level too. She's only 3 hit dice, am I reading that wrong?

[Jack of Tears]

Well, if you can get your hands on the 2nd Edition: Islands of Terror, Book of Crypts, or Darklords, there is plenty of material in there. You might have to tone down the occasional encounter, but since - like all good Ravenloft baddies - the key to overcoming the bosses in those adventures tend to involve clever thinking and exploiting a weakness rather than beating them to pulp they should work for most levels of experience.

Not to mention most of the "Children of the Night" books have something - and that Ravenloft take on "Pinocchio", The Created, I think it was called.

[DoctorMoreau]

So far I didn't see any 1st level adventures in the Children of the Night Books. That was my biggest issue But they do have several good lower level ones.

[alhoon]

To be sincere, you're much better just giving the players 3rd level chars and be done with it.

[The Giamarga]

Aside from Dungeon magazine - which imho is the best source for 1E/2E adventures bar none - there are some adventures available online:

The FoS fan-made adventures and netbooks in the Library which are all quite excellent.

The RPG Archive has many fanmade adventures but afaik know none of them are Ravenloft specfic.

Dragonsfoot has one RL adventure but many more 1E and 2E adventures and other handy stuff. Several of the DF adventures are murder whodunnits for 1st level PCs.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Lots of good suggestions here.

The one thing I can add is a reminder that, just because an adventure is set in the Land of Mists, doesn't mean it has to involve spooky stuff. There's nothing to stop you from running low-level published adventures that are 100% generic fantasy in Ravenloft; just call the orcs "human bandits" and that say the owlbear's got stitches around its neck from where the mad scientist sewed it together, and it'll work fine.

[The Giamarga]

I've often mentioned 1E and 2E adventures and I feel that I must explain to the OP: 1E AD&D adventures are very compatible to a 2E AD&D group. There's so few differences that you can probably adapt on the fly while running it. The 2 rulesets are so compatible that i used to run a mix and match 1E/2E crossover allowing the assasssin and monk classes and using much of the 1E material in the 1E DMG.

(OT: As an aside if you havn't yet read the 1E DMG do yourself a favour and buy one. In hardcopy to browse, they're cheap. This is the D&D book to read imho and while it is certainly convoluted it contains so much inspiration.)

That said there's a plethora of published TSR 1E and 2E modules many of which you can get for very cheap on ebay or else where. The TSR Archive (which sadly is now only available through the internet archive) lists almost all the 1E and 2E adventures with pics and blurbs. There are several 2E products which have more than one - and shorter adventures in them. There's also a series of solo modules (called Thief's Challenge, Wizard's Challenge etc.) and of course there are the 1E classics. I would probably search among the 1E and generic 2E modules, as adventures in specific campaign worlds will probably be harder to adapt.

Check out Temple Tower and Tomb for example or the Book of Lairs or the Forgotten Realms product Lords of Darkness. The U series of 1E modules could also easily take place in RL, just as N1, L1 & L2. All of which are very low level.