We Start at The Beginning

What’s your favorite module for your favorite system? There’s no trick here, no sudden surprise or doubling back. What is your favorite module? Now I am not going to let you cheat and name a setting book, but an adventure at the back of a book is okay. So while Dragons of Autumn Twilight counts, Dragonlance sure doesn’t. Alright, you got it firmly in your mind? Now is it a good way to learn the system?

This is a pretty big problem that other larger scope creators have covered, it seems pretty often, that you ask the question “Hey, I don’t understand Pathfinder 2e enough to write my own adventures, what module should I run to help my players and I?” and people immediately recommend a 6 book, thousand pages of content and over a years worth of sessions in adventure path! That’s just too damn much for a game you don’t know if you even like yet!

Now, there are lots of big campaign modules out there that let you experience absolutely everything a particular game or setting can do. Still, the problem is that you need to learn if the basic mechanics are enjoyable before you commit to that three-year-long book. So here are going to be some rapid-fire “play these to learn this game” from your friend Brad at Split/Party1

By Jeffery Moeller, collected in The Things We Leave Behind by Stygian Fox

This adventure is perfect for introducing people to a system its only technically for. This module is my favorite introduction to the game Delta Green, Cthulhu Mythos by way of X-Files. The adventure revolves around the kidnapping of a child in broad daylight at a Walmart, with very well-written content warnings and a focus on how the investigation should go, the adventure lends itself well to improvisation as your players do different things and is designed to allow you to onboard characters into the supernatural elements of the setting.

It is technically for the modern Cthulhu system instead of for Delta Green, but the translation is ludicrously easy and is backed up by some of the smoothest writing in the biz. I think it is ideal because your players only have to focus on being federal agents on a procedural case that slowly gets weird, rather than having to be aware and ready for the weird and be feds.

Number of Sessions to Complete- Minimum one, Maximum three.

Prep Work- Convert some stat lines, and reward yourself with a snack.

Continuing Campaign Potential- Incredibly High.

Revised by Frank Mentzer

The granddaddy of starter modules, this little tutorial in a red box is emblazoned on thousands of t-shirts and hundreds of memories all across this round world of ours. Learn how the game works, have a blast the whole time and the reason we highlight it here? Draw the last floor of the dungeon together! Dungeon Mastering isn’t work, this is part of the play!

This has been mimicked, spun on and modified by many followers, but for sheer audacity to do this in the eighties, it takes home a recommendation.

Number of Sessions to Complete- One

Prep Work- Order A Pizza.

Continuing Campaign Potential- Low.

by Jason Durall, Play it Here!

Runequest is a game with a lot of rules and mechanics, a bit intimidating with some of the most compelling setting info in the world. You could love it and never learn how to play it… Unless you play Soloquest! This mini-adventure takes you all the way through a spectacular journey at the iconic Duel at Dangerford all by yourself!

This fun adventure is included with the beginner’s box, or playable digital at the link above, and makes sure to teach you almost all of the day-to-day mechanics. You can show up to your first Runequest session with practice in combat and having rolled a dozen skill checks, what a rare and wonderful thing in this age of gaming.

Number of Sessions to Complete- One

Prep Work- Grab a pencil. (or click a link)

Continuing Campaign Potential- Zero

by The Warhammer Fantasy 2e Writing Team, Find it Here

Through The Drakwald focuses on a group of your randomly rolled ill equipped adventurers trying to leave their ruined village behind and escort some gentlefolk to Middenheim! This adventure is fantastic, wonderful for teaching you the kind of grim and perilous adventures you will run into in this wonderfully dark world! Plus it connects to a major campaign path

Number of Sessions to Complete- 1-3

Prep Work- Assemble the lads and lassies

Continuing Campaign Potential- Medium

By Max Brooke, Tim Huckelbery, and Katrina Ostrander, Find It Here

This is specifically for the fifth edition of Legend of The Five Rings, and the reason I think it works so beautifully compared to a lot of other versions is pretty on the nose; it doesn’t require a ton of canon knowledge. You can start off with a ten-minute lecture about the big events in the setting, and then figure out the complex social rules of Rokugan as you go and are shielded from the worst consequences of that due to playing teenagers.

This version was included as the Beginner Box for 5e, which means you can pick it up, run the introduction into the rules and even continue with the characters you have come to love and see where they go, there are even several ideas on how to continue said adventures of your tournament goers! Definitely a great introduction and lead into the wider world.

Number of Sessions to Complete- 1-3

Continuing Campaign Potential- Medium