HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

A Bit of Blood by Devin Cutler was the first published adventure I chose to introduce D&D to my son and his two friends (ages 10, 10 and 12). A Bit of Blood was recommended to me by a friend as a great starter adventure to teach young kids about D&D and roleplaying. I have to say my first time players LOVED IT!

I'd like to add this was a good one for me to get back into D&D after over 30 years off. I used to be an avid D&D player back in the days of THAC0 but took several decades off. Now some 30 years later I was looking to ease my way back into the D&D universe. Thank the gods for the new 5e starter set which made it easy to learn. I purchased it and read over the 5e rules and studied up on the included module, The Lost Mines of Phandelver (LMoP). I quickly learned LMoP's level of difficulty for the players is rather high and the first encounter (Goblin Ambush) alone is a probable TPK event, even for a full party of 5 first level players. I only had 3 players at the time so I decided they needed to be at least level 2 before attempting LMoP. So we started with this short but wonderful adventure. However, with only 3 young newbie players, "A Bit of Blood" was also going to be a hard adventure. So I actually put them through a quick one page home brew micro adventure of my own to teach them the basic mechanics. We used the starter characters from the LMoP (wizard, rogue and cleric). The reward for the home brew adventure was a pet mastiff. Now with their dog Max (which they love) they were ready to begin the adventure "A Bit of Blood."

A Bit of Blood states it is a 4 hour adventure for four to five 1st level characters. It took my three 1st level characters (and their mastiff - the fourth player :) about 7 hours to finish ABoB. Keep in mind they were young brand new D&D players and I was a DM that just learned 5e after being away from the game for over 30 years. Despite the 7 hours, it proved to be full of enough action and puzzles to keep them thinking and on the edge of their seats.

I was pleased with how ABoB could be placed in any campaign. I placed ABoB just north of Neverwinter so upon completion they would be near Neverwinter and ready to start LMoP.

SPOILERS - READ NO FURTHER IF YOU PLAN ON PLAYING ABoB: I first thought the less than lethal bar brawl was going to be boring. However, I was glad it was in there because it made my young players think and make the conscious decision not to escalate it to deadly force by using lethal weapons. They chose to cast a sleep spell on the brawlers (and a few other bystanders). I was pleased with the Dryad encounter in the sacred grove. It allowed my young players to roleplay, use their minds to come up with a non violent solution. My young group of adventures completely surprised me by immediately dropping their weapons and kneeling before her while saying they come in peace in the Elven language.

There was more to the adventure and end which we all enjoyed. I changed the reward at the end slightly. I let them choose to forego the promised rewards in exchange for four unknown but promising amulets. Thankfully they chose the amulets which helps reduce the odds that one of my young players would die in their next adventure (LMoP). They all received the an amulet called the Beacon of Deathly Hope which grants the wearing advantage on all death saving throws.

Well, a lot of writing just to say thanks to the author and to recommend it to all.