D&D 4E What is today the best way to start D&D 4E (paid and free)?

I saw this week a post about how to start 4E on substack: Which D&D 4e Books Are Right for You?
And there the (reworked) first 4E adventure was recomended, because it was free. (Which in general is not considered to be good)


And I was thinking to myself if there is not some other better way? There are some free adventurers (ashas of athas and some organized play adventurers) and there is also Orcus which one could in theory use for the rules, or one could use the quickstart rule from the shadowfell? (And maybe characters from somewhere else?)


How would you recommend a group to start? Both free and if they buy (some) books.

Definitely the Keep on the Shadowfell starter adventure. Even if you just use the pregens and maps and monster stats and make your own adventure. 4e is very a different different game, you and your group might as well try it out before spending a bunch of money on it.

I was nostalgic myself last night as I was comparing the new monster manual to the 4e one. I went on drivethrurpg and was considering picking up a dragon magazine issue or two.

jaycrockett said:

Definitely the Keep on the Shadowfell starter adventure. Even if you just use the pregens and maps and monster stats and make your own adventure. 4e is very a different different game, you and your group might as well try it out before spending a bunch of money on it.

I was nostalgic myself last night as I was comparing the new monster manual to the 4e one. I went on drivethrurpg and was considering picking up a dragon magazine issue or two.

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Its not for me, its more in general.

My problem is that the Keep on the Shadowfell starter adventure just is not that good. If you want that people get the best of 4E, then I just hoped there is something better than the Keep.


A lot of later adventurers (Slaying stone, guardmore abby, or dungeon masters kit) are in general better liked, but yeah they are not free.


Also not a too big fan on the pregens, although they work I guess (and still better than the 5E pregens).

Tigris said:

How would you recommend a group to start? Both free and if they buy (some) books.

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Most 4E stuff goes for a steal these days. Get the PHB and DMG. You can probably find the 3 core book slipcase for cheap. The math in the MM is broken so instead go to the Blog of Holding and print out those stats. If you get the MM use it for inspiration, not the numbers.

The DMG is one of the best DMGs of any edition of D&D and is filled with lots of great advice, so it’s worth picking up even if you hate 4E. The DMG has a nice quick overview of a setting called Nentir Vale. A good starter town and a few quest hooks and adventure ideas sprinkled in. Start with those. Most of the adventures for 4E were designed for use in the Nentir Vale. They’ll work must fine in most other settings.

Some good adventures are Slaying Stone (1st level), Orcs of Stonefang Pass (5th level), and Madness at Gardmore Abbey (6th level). Dungeon Delve is a great anthology. It has 30 mini adventures, each with 3 encounters. You can use these as side quests quite easily. Just drop the MacGuffin in one and go.

Most people agree that one of the core elements of 4E, skill challenges, were poorly implemented and poorly explained. I’d suggest lifting the idea of progress clocks from later games, like Blades in the Dark, and use those instead.

There’s a dedicated 4E discord with a lot of helpful people and a lot of great resources.

Good luck.

Absolutely not Keep on the Shadowfell. It’s wretched.

From ‘free’ you get what you pay for.

If you want to start 4e the right way,

• Heroes of (words with F) or PH + PH2 for players. I’m not a big fan of the Essentials classes but they’re fine if you don’t want to shell out for the PH’s. (PH3 is esoteric and not needed.)
• DM’s Kit for DM. Comes with a solid adventure.
• Monster Vault, the 2nd best monster book ever made for any edition of D&D, +
• MV: Threats to the Nentir Vale, the best monster book ever made

For adventures:

• DM’s Kit adventure.
• Reavers of Harkenwold.
• Madness at Gardmore Abbey.

If you're just starting out, and you've never played or had much experience with 4e before, then Essentials is actually an easy way to get started. You can get a complete game experience from just a handful of pocket-sized books and enough content to play for years.

What you'll miss from pre-Essentials 4e is nothing. If you don't know what is there in the first place, how can you be missing it. That being said, you can always go back to older material and find out. But not having it right away won't tarnish the experience to be had with just Essentials if that is all you know about 4e.

For players, you'll want to get the Heroes of the Fallen Lands/Forgotten Kingdoms. Someone (DM) should grab the DM's Kit and the Monster Vault. The Rules Compendium is useful for everyone.

And that's all the tools you really need to run a classic D&D campaign using 4th edition rules. Encounters are easy to make, so you can borrow ideas from your favorite adventure modules or stories from any edition or any game.

This is what Essentials was intended to do. There's people who played D&D for the first time using just Essentials, and they didn't miss a thing! Don't think you're missing out because you didn't drag in the entirety of the 4e system behind you. Find what you need, use what you like. Don't let it hold you back or weigh you down.

Jacob Lewis said:

For players, you'll want to get the Heroes of the Fallen Lands/Forgotten Kingdoms. Someone (DM) should grab the DM's Kit and the Monster Vault. The Rules Compendium is useful for everyone.

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Also, the DM's Kit includes the pretty great adventure The Reavers of Harkenwold.

Retreater said:

Also, the DM's Kit includes the pretty great adventure The Reavers of Harkenwold.

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Yes! Some people may not realize that. Good reminder! Thanks for pointing that out.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the Neverwinter Campaign Setting was designed specifically for a Heroic tier campaign, with a lot of focus on (then) new Essentials design philosophies and standards. It was designed more like a toolbox for anyone to run a sandbox style mini-campaign without telling anyone exactly how they should be doing it. Very open-ended approach. Fantastic ideas and inspirational material. It took the least liked change to the Forgotten Realms, the Spellplague, and made it a fascinating and integral part of the setting.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium is another highly-recommended add-on for Essentials. It brings some of the old materials and ideas up to date, and introduces a ton of magic items that are more in line with the new approach, including some classic D&D favorites that hadn't made it into the edition yet. Plus, regular equipment, alchemy, etc. Definitely an expansion worth having if you're going all-in with Essentials.

Does anyone recommend the 4e encounters PDFs? I have never used them but they are cheap and provide a decent number of short sessions most with one focus combat starting at 1st level that look like they could be good intros to the system.

They look like they were mid-4e, post the initial HPE series of modules and before the later acclaimed things like Gardmore and Slaying Stone.

Also if you are thinking about getting 4e PDFs take advantage of the current GM's Day Sale to get them at 40% off.

Voadam said:

Does anyone recommend the 4e encounters PDFs? I have never used them but they are cheap and provide a decent number of short sessions most with one focus combat starting at 1st level that look like they could be good intros to the system.

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I ran several seasons of D&D Encounters at my FLGS - and attempted last year to start a campaign around the "Lost Crown of Neverwinter" season.

My group couldn't get a handle on the "artificial" structure - like you can only recharge Daily powers at the end of a chapter. They're also extremely scripted and limited in scope.

I feel like it's "trying out" a system by playing a one-shot at a convention - you're not really getting the true "home campaign" feel.

My experience in life is that if you try to do the simplest/cheapest way, you're going to be disappointed.