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A Most Potent Brew - A Basic Rules AdventureClick to magnify
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A Most Potent Brew - A Basic Rules Adventure

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Suggested Price $1.00

"Fantastic starter game for young and old players alike"

"This was a wonderful first adventure"

"All I can say is thank you for the fun our group had last night with this!"

Enter the world of Dungeons & Dragons without spending a penny!

This first-level adventure is designed to work with the free basic rules offered by Wizards of the Coast. You and your friends can explore, battle and roleplay without having to buy anything other than snacks, drinks and maybe some pizza for the DM!

Delve your very first dungeon beneath the Wizard's Tower Brewery

The party is sent to deal with a problem that should be instantly familiar to all rookie adventurers - exterminating giant rats that have taken up residence in a beer cellar.
However, if they are to achieve their goal our heroes are going to have to get their first taste of a real dungeon as they explore the ruins of an ancient Wizard’s Tower.

Comes with free resource pack

Want to step your game up to the next level? This download comes with a free resource pack, including:

  • Printer-friendly copy of the adventure
  • Player handout to help with puzzles
  • Large copy of the dungeon map

Continue the path to adventure!

Follow up on the fun with two more Basic Rules Adventures - Horror at Havel's Cross and The Hound of Cabell's Tomb.

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Reviews (104)
Discussions (40)
Customer avatar
James W February 23, 2024 4:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Fantastic starter adventure, all the players thoroughly enjoyed it and helped introduce them to 5e.
Customer avatar
Natalie G February 22, 2024 9:11 am UTC
PURCHASER
A great little adventure. I ran it with a couple of first-time players, and we all had a lot of fun. Even better, they want to keep playing!
Since they were the only 2 PCs (and level 1), I did tone down the rats by omitting the Pack-Tactics ability, but the fights worked out very well.
Customer avatar
Logan R January 24, 2024 1:29 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Will this be alright to run with 5-6 people? I don't want it to be too easy, so, if not, how can I balance it out for them?
Customer avatar
Tyson C January 24, 2024 3:29 am UTC
This holds a special place in my heart. One of my players who is also a GM ran this adventure as a play by post. He was a long time player/GM from the very early days of DnD. We had a ton of fun with this. I have played and ran many games but this adventure was one of the most fun.

Sadly he passed away very recently, and our group misses him a lot. However I look back on this adventure quite fondly.
Customer avatar
Tim V December 13, 2023 2:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I've ran this one-shot two times now, both for first-time D&D players. One run took around 3-4 hours and the other was more role-play heavy at the start and end, so it took 2 sessions of 3 hours. Both parties had a lot of fun and wanted too keep playing D&D after this first experience with TTRPG's, so that's a great compliment to this adventure. Would love to keep running it for more first time parties!
Customer avatar
Nick D September 26, 2023 4:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This was a great adventure. *SPOILERS AHEAD* I was worried about the first encounter with my party of 4-level 1 PCs. Pack Tactics dealt a massive blow and downed one of the players. Having them flee after five go down was a good call and made the setup for the trap encounter even better. Players collected themselves and it sank in that this wasn't going to be a pushover one-shot. The boss encounter was a bit too easy with the action economy favoring the players and some terrible rolls. If I run this adventure again, I may add difficult terrain for them to deal with. Maybe webs in certain areas that they can get caught in. All in all, we had a good time.
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Brian S September 26, 2023 6:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Agree, I made the entire room with the boss have smoldering fire and webbing.
Customer avatar
Cesar M September 25, 2023 2:47 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Comments seem to list this as fine for 4-5 beginner 1st level characters (and I see some folks who made this more difficult for larger groups), but going through an encounter calculator, 8 Giant Rats seems Deadly for 5 players (and harder than the other two encounters). Am I misunderstanding something? Is the calculator not taking some nuance into account? Or is this intended as a harder initial challenge?
Just trying to check if I should modify anything to avoid a TPK in the first room (I've played for a while but still a beginner DM, with 5 first-time players - some of which I don't feel will want to continue playing if they immediately die in the first encounter of the first session).

Considering making the attack damage fixed (e.g. 4 instead of 1d4 + 2) and no enemy criticals as a mitigation, but happy to hear other suggestions (or that I'm being paranoid and can run as written)
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Customer avatar
Brian S September 25, 2023 8:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
When I ran this, I allowed the stairs to be a choke point and the rats couldn't get by the two at the base of the stairs. This allowed the casters and ranged to stay elevated and out of melee. I have ran it that way over ten times and never a TPK. Party makeup could effect that if they don't choose any fighters or melee characters.
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Customer avatar
Tyson C January 24, 2024 3:30 am UTC
I find players to be far more powerful than what calculators estimate.
Customer avatar
Casey P June 07, 2023 11:38 pm UTC
PURCHASER
What level is this? I can't find it.
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Customer avatar
Brian S July 30, 2023 4:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
1st Level - in the introduction it says "This first-level adventure is designed for D&D veterans and

complete beginners alike."
Customer avatar
Erick K May 06, 2023 8:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just an overall really solid oneshot
Customer avatar
Abst R February 10, 2023 2:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I wrote a review of this (spoiler...) great first adventure here: https://abstr.substack.com/i/79797152/a-most-potent-brew-a-basic-rules-adventure
Notably the story flow, and trap/encounter design.
Customer avatar
Corus A December 29, 2022 9:53 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm having trouble having the grids align in Roll20. I've tried resizing the map to be the exact same dimensions, but they're always a little off. I could play without the grid aligning, but I'd prefer to have it align properly if I can. Is there a version of the map that doesn't have the grids already?
Customer avatar
Robert P November 18, 2022 12:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
I've run this once as part of an Eberron campaign with a character who wanted to use their brewer's tools. I'm going to run it again as part of a Dragon Heist campaign as part of a meeting the neighbors of Trollskull Alley side quest. This is an excellent adventure and I highly recommend it. Would love a FG conversion if one ever goes up for sale.
Customer avatar
Peter T November 13, 2022 2:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
Ran it as part of a homebrew campaign. The puzzle in the hallway was super clever. It was a hit!
Customer avatar
Brian S August 23, 2022 3:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Would like to talk to you about doing the conversion for Fantasy Grounds Unity.
Customer avatar
Matthew V July 30, 2022 12:05 am UTC
PURCHASER
I need a short adventure to play with a 9, 10, 11, and 69-year old (grandma), two of whom had never played before (10-year old and grandma), and this was exactly what I was looking for.
Customer avatar
teatime C February 10, 2022 8:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
An excellent campaign for any beginner dungeon master! Easy to follow, and plenty of room to add your own storytelling.
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File Last Updated:
June 26, 2016
This title was added to our catalog on June 26, 2016.