GMing for a party of first-level characters is fun. All the numbers and stats are manageable, the PCs themselves fit within snug parameters, and no matter how much hit points grace you allow, one of them is not likely to survive the session.
But how do you frame an adventure that isn’t all vermin, goblins and kobolds? The players have been all through that. They probably want something different.
I think taking a cue from the Robin Hood legend is a good way to go. (Yes, I’ve been inspired by my bookshelf, again. This time is was “Hood,” by Stephen R. Lawhead, which is his take on the legend by placing it in Wales in the aftermath of the Norman conquest.) Human adversaries and a worthwhile goal all in one package.
Elements of the legend
You’ve got a usurping lord and his low-level lackeys in one corner and good folk-turned-outlaw in the other. Sometimes the PCs are in the dark forest, where real-life beasts pose real challenges, and sometimes they are causing mischief in the market, where the sheriff’s men are just commoners with truncheons wearing scale mail. And if a raid upon the castle is in order, well, the adventurers have long bows and the knights do not.
If you want to add some spice, throw in a Maid Marion-type (she can be a damsel, or more interestingly, conspiring with the usurpers, your choice). Maybe your fantasy world doesn’t have room for a friar Tuck, but the local fantasy religion could either stand with the people and become an ally or see “sense” and side with the invaders, again, your choice.
And there is certainly gold to be had. If the PCs don’t want to rob from the rich just to give to the poor, that’s OK, too. The early Robin Hood legends didn’t concern themselves with that either. Those early Robins just pocketed their ill-gotten gains, and no audience complained to the storytelling troubadours about such endings.
Take back the kingdom!
It’s a fine goal for first- and second-level characters. And at the end of a few sessions, order is restored, the true king has returned and the PCs now have a forest or shire to call their own. Now their “real” adventuring careers can begin.
And nary a goblin nor giant centipede was harmed along the way. Huzzah!
That also kicks you off on an adventure where you have to think about your foes and accept that they’ll respond coherently. So plan your attacks, negotiate and scheme–yes, it’s a different start to the story and lays good groundwork for a following campaign.
This brings up one of the things that I struggle most with as a DM. It certainly is a cool adventure to restore the “one true king” at such a low level, but how do you top something like that throughout the later levels? And also, how do you make it so that it’s not expected of low levels in general to be able to make kings rise and fall?
In my own campaigns, often for the sake of making things interesting I’ll get the low level PC’s involved in some kind of cosmic struggle, invariably resulting in someone breaking their suspension of disbelief and asking me why all the other level 3’s out there aren’t equally able to change the world, and where do I go from there at later levels. If there is a good way to segue from the rise and fall of kings to something else that doesn’t feel like a letdown, I would love to know it.
I tend not to think of this as a restore the kingdom type scenario. In fact, if you think about Robin Hood, it is a very LOCAL story. The PCs’ adversaries are minor officials of a usurper and their minions, and the geography is very tightly defined, mostly the environs about Sherwood. And things like the archery contest or the confrontation in the Great Hall are best if done at low levels. AT high levels, an archery contest is a yawner. Once the PCs have accomplished this minor task, then it makes sense they would springboard into much broader, grander episodes.
FutureOreo has a point, but this plan does have an alternate value. The question, “Why are WE doing this, aren’t there any higher-level heroes around here?” is answered with, “No, you (or the usurpers) knocked them off already.”
I also like that at low levels, other humans– even guard minions with 1 HD and a polearm– are threats to be considered.