Hey all -- I'm running a short adventure for my friends, probably two sessions, and then we're done (at least for now). I want to make it count! Any recommendations for the best short adventure? I have most of the sourcebooks for the game, but I'm a bit paralyzed by the choices.

Typically my players like both investigation and combat, so something with a mix of both (which seems to be most DH adventures) would be good.

Thanks!

Edge of Darkness hands down.

Solvable in two sessions, good mixture between investigation and combat, good introduction for inexperienced players (at least in regard to DH), restricted environment and still no rail-roading.

Luthor Harkon said:

Agreed.

I padded this one out with a bit more RP and investigation largely because my players were having lots of fun and had to get creative in information gathering since at the time they were a bit lacking in the master detective department but very dogged and persistent. Very fun and memorable mission! One bit of prepwork that you definately want to do is to render a working map of the "special important place" ahead of time so you don't have to stop and puzzle one out on the fly that matches the descriptions in some vaguely believable way.

This is also the mission when the "big baddie" was using maglev to escape down an empty elevator shaft and the team's assassin decided "screw THAT!" and jumped down the shaft after her, made a single monosword cut as his uncontrolled fall passed by the baddie's controlled descent, then had to survive the landing! The player manages to both hit AND Fury with the single cut, kills the escaping baddie, then sticks and holds a landing pose for just long enough to show that it happened, then collapses (alive!). Note that this was a Scintillan gunslinger style assassin, NOT a Moritat that pulled this. Lots more fun GM stories from this one. I give it a Solomon-homeworld THREE thumbs up!

Thanks for the recommendation guys. I've got so many published books that I didn't even think of the pdf!

One small thing, my players haven't played DH, but they are fairly familiar with the setting already, and have played WFRP 2nd ed so are familiar with the system too. There also will only be two of them, so even though we're only playing two sessions, we'll probably get as much done as a bigger group would in three. So I guess something slightly longer would work too.

That said -- still go with the pdf you think?

It's great to hear when a free adventure is solid. That's definitely not always the case!

The PDF is basically built to be a demo module for Dark heresy. In fact, you might want to print out a good chunk of it so the players can have it for reference.

enoto said:

Still go with the pdf. My group of five (then inexperienced (only WFRP 1st/2nd ed. as well)) PCs needed like 4-5 (four hours each) sessions, so it is reasonable to assume you could get through it in two sessions. As you only have two acolytes, I would reduce the amount of Logician agents/"enforcers" or at least their ability to oppose the PCs (maybe by having them occupied by rioting citizens or narco-gangers most of the time) and instead concentrate on the Body Snatchers (+ Sybas Moran and the Churgeon later on) as the main opposition.

If you want to take a look at a "not so solid" free adventure, check out Shattered Hopes...

Edge of Darkness was the first adventure I ran my Acolytes through. I have to agree with everyone else here: it's awesome as an intro and is one of the best FFG adventures.

Anyways, don't worry about length. The great thing about an adventure like this is that it's more of a "sandbox." The speed at which your players advance is a function of their cleverness and how hard the enemy opposes them, not how fast they advance down the railroad tracks. If you want to make it longer, don't be afraid of throwing new obstacles in the player's way as the enemy tries to snuff them out.

Just one small note. It's possible for a halftrack to appear in part of the adventure. When I ran it, I didn't have any vehicle rules so I quickly had to cobble together something with the cover rules behind the safe cover of my GM screen. You might want to either cut out that part or pick up the vehicle rules. There's the old Apocrypha rules that you can find versions of online and there are the (IMO far superior) vehicle rules in the RT book Into the Storm . Since it's just one small scene, I wouldn't suggest you pick up a new book just for that (even if said book is great).

All right, Edge of Darkness it is! Thanks for the advice guys, I'll post a report and let y'all know how it goes.