Goodman Games

I hope to run a one-shot for a gathering of old friends from our first D&D group back in the 70's. I really like the idea of giving them "rules sort of like we played back then, but wait until you see THIS." The rules aren't in my hands yet but they're on the way. Although I'd like to run it for the family several times before the get-together, I'll still be a novice to the system and the players will be totally uninitiated. Any advice, including a good module to run and if we should start at 0-level, is appreciated.

A couple of things come to mind:

1. Select a low-level adventure from "the day" if possible. Maybe an old TSR or Judges Guild module. Some of the B-series TSR modules were written for D&D Basic and probably would be good choices.

2. Start 'em out as zero-level dudes and run 'em though the funnel. It gives them a feel for the game without your having to master some of the trickier rules.

3. Go to the resources thread and print out the refernce tables packet. It's a great resource to have handy so you don't need to check the book so often.

4. Instead of giving monsters names, describe them. Maybe even change things up, so that orcs (in your module) don't sound like orcs (in the game). If players don't know what they are facing, it makes the game more mysterious.

I think Finarvyn raises some good points, but I would be wary of running a funnel as a one shot. In my funnel attempt, it was surprising how quickly folks became attached to their "team" members, even though they knew going in they were going to die. I think the funnel is cool as the starting point of a campaign...I am less sure about doing it as a one-off. I will say, though, it was the newer players (those who weren't used to daily TPKs in the 70s), who took the death of Henry the Woodcutter the hardest. Maybe your group would get a kick out of the nostalgic aspect it.