Summary
Plenty ofDungeons & Dragonsplayers would argue there’s no such thing as a low-stakes campaign, considering that the circumstances might be crucial depending on the character, their level, or the specific role-playing circumstances. Some campaigns focus on solving crimes, unraveling puzzles, and even running a business as opposed to the dangerous business of adventuring out in the wild.
It sounds boring at first. Characters might not feel enthusiastic about a campaign that has little to offer whenit comes to high adventureor fancy gear, but these can be some of the most fun and memorable games. Running a tavern, attending a fair, or chasing wayward sheep are just a few examples of the low-stakes modules that can entertain an ambitious but inexperienced or beginning adventuring party.
With the rise of more relaxing games like farming or cooking sims, some of the same media is spilling into TTRPGs. It’s already a common subject in homebrews to buy a farm, inherit an estate, or run a tavern or restaurant. Several bigger adventures often include the party coming into possession of some kind of property after the end of a quest, such as becoming Lord of the De’Arnise KeepinBaldur’s Gate 2.
1Pudding Faire
Dungeon Master’s Guild
It’s a short adventure, designed for low-level characters to finish in only three to four hours, and all the players have to do is break a pesky curse. It’s not life-threatening, but it’s the type of curse that keeps the main characters in a time loop, and until they can break the spell they have to wake up every day in Pudding Faire.
The curse has its roots in Gnomish and Dwarven folklore, so players have to include some research and exposition intheir role-playing and D&D lore. The cause of the curse is a disagreement between a couple of minor gods over a pudding-eating contest.
2The Haunting At Trollskull Manor
This is a campaign about a haunted house, just like the title says, but part of the fun is that the party owns the house and can do what they want with it. The catch is that they have to deal with the resident poltergeist and other supernatural issues along with choosing the new drapes.
The whole adventure consists of three acts, and the party faces and defeats the pesky ghost in the first one, only to have it return two more times, each more powerful than the last. It’s up to the Dungeon Master how much time the players should get for renovations and remodeling ideas, but there’s a lot to do here for creative gamers.
3A Most Potent Brew
Winghorn Press
A Most Potent Brew is set in a brewery, which sounds fairly benign, and the only thing the party has to do is kill the oversized rodents in the basement. However, while doing some routine pest control, it’s revealed that the brewery is built on the ruinsof an ancient wizard’s towerthat includes a dungeon.
The range of activities makes this an ideal module for both experts and beginning players and is a nice way to level a character to level 2 along with getting them some decent gear. It’s more dangerous than most other low-stakes adventures but as a level-one module, it’s a safe mix of investigation and combat.
4The Wild Sheep Chase
A quiet afternoon in a sunny field is interrupted by a frantic sheep carrying a Scroll of Speak With Animals. Conversing with this distressed sheep reveals that they’re a wizard having a magical disagreement with one of their more ambitious but estranged apprentices who also happens to be armed with a Wand of Polymorph.
What follows is an adventure that’s mostly comical and absurd as opposed to threatening, even though being caught between two arguing wizards can be dangerous. Dungeon Masters can run this as its own adventure or integrate it into a longer campaign that includes traveling to a city big enough for a wizard’s tower.
5Durnan’s Guide To Tavernkeeping
DMs Guild Adepts
This guide can be acquired separately, but for those who already have a copy ofWaterdeep: Dragon Heist, this is included as Chapter 2. It’s an adventure supplement as opposed to being a standalone adventure, so the DM can use it to create a fun module about running a tavern or give a hardened party of adventurers something else to do by running a tavern.
Durnan’s Guide to Tavern Keepingincludes information about tavern cuisine, beverages, drinking, recipes, and even some new subclasses to enhance business. Bards can study the College of Revelry and Clerics can experience the Brewing Domain.
6The Joy Of Extradimensional Spaces
Candlekeep Mysteries
When the mage Fistandia mysteriously disappeared, she willed her entire book collection to the library of Candlekeep and the inheritance included a book calledThe Joy of Extradimensional Spaces. The lore of the book claims that it contains a portal to a magical mansion that Fistandia used her magic to build and design before she went missing.
The DM can be creativewhen it comes to how and when they lead the adventuring party to the library and how they find the book, and it can be something that happens by random chance or as part of another quest. Not only is discovering the portal one challenge, but players have to rescue another missing mage and figure out how to escape the portal once they get inside.
