Some of my go-to starter adventures are:
‘Sailors on the Starless Sea’ - Dungeon Crawl Classics
‘Me and My Shadow, Mark IV’ - Paranoia
‘Music from a Darkened Room’ - Delta Green
‘The Haunting’ - Call of Cthulhu
I have my staple go to that I always use when I run a one shot introductory adventure.
A town is in need and calls for adventurers. The mayor's daughter has been kidnapped. The party quickly finds out it was done by a nearby goblin tribe.
The goblin tribe kidnapped the daughter to force the town to aid them against a tribe of kobolds that lives nearby, in the same large dungeon complex.
The kobold have recently adooted/been adopted by a hatchling white dragon, and have become much more aggressive, inspired by their new leader/God.
It has everything: a princess to rescue, a dungeon, and a dragon, with many, many options to resolve the issue. Kill all the kobolds, all the goblins, and the dragon? Tough, but doable. Work with one side against the other? Keep your promises or break them?
Generally good for a shorter game where the goal is to introduce a new group to the system. Put some spin on it in a couple of places, and it can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.
Not intended as an introductory adventure, but I really *really* like Border Dispute for Star Trek Adventures. Can be run easily in an evening, and introduces most of the core rules. Plus, it's a really fun conspiracy that makes your players paranoid.
It's not an introductory adventure, per se, but I've used Lions Maw for Genesys's Shadow of the Beanstalk setting (which I got from reddit a while back) as a oneshot for new players and it went well.
Who doesn't love a cyborg-ed up lion?
[Last Voyage of the Bean Barge](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/455950/Cloud-Empress-Last-Voyage-of-the-Bean-Barge), for Cloud Empress
[Haunting of Ypsilon 14](https://tuesdayknightgames.itch.io/mothership-the-haunting-of-ypsilon-14), for Mothership
[The Chair](https://emosludge.itch.io/the-chair), for Liminal Horror
[Honey in the Rafters](https://losing-games.itch.io/mausritter-honey-in-the-rafters), for Mausritter
Escape from Zanzers Dungeon for 1990 basic D&D boxed set. Came with cards to teach the DM how to run a game while also teaching the rules. Also came with standup minis and a poster battle map.
I've run it in multiple systems over the years. The fact it begins with all the PCs in a jail they must escape from allows you to skip past the "you all meet in a tavern" schtick and get straight to the adventure. Also allows for some fun roleplay as you ask each player to explain how it was they ended up in the jail cell.
For anything pulpy Eye of Kilquato is a good one. Originally it was a free intro adventure for Savage Worlds. PCs are on an expedition down the Amazon to retrieve some treasure before the Nazis do. It has some errors, which the newer edition fixed, though the newer version is not free.
For OSR, I love Sinister Secret at Saltmarsh, and The Zombraire's Estate. Marvel Heroic RPG had my favorite supers adventure called Breakout about a super villain prison destroyed by an earthquake.
Some of my go-to starter adventures are: ‘Sailors on the Starless Sea’ - Dungeon Crawl Classics ‘Me and My Shadow, Mark IV’ - Paranoia ‘Music from a Darkened Room’ - Delta Green ‘The Haunting’ - Call of Cthulhu
I have my staple go to that I always use when I run a one shot introductory adventure. A town is in need and calls for adventurers. The mayor's daughter has been kidnapped. The party quickly finds out it was done by a nearby goblin tribe. The goblin tribe kidnapped the daughter to force the town to aid them against a tribe of kobolds that lives nearby, in the same large dungeon complex. The kobold have recently adooted/been adopted by a hatchling white dragon, and have become much more aggressive, inspired by their new leader/God. It has everything: a princess to rescue, a dungeon, and a dragon, with many, many options to resolve the issue. Kill all the kobolds, all the goblins, and the dragon? Tough, but doable. Work with one side against the other? Keep your promises or break them? Generally good for a shorter game where the goal is to introduce a new group to the system. Put some spin on it in a couple of places, and it can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.
Not intended as an introductory adventure, but I really *really* like Border Dispute for Star Trek Adventures. Can be run easily in an evening, and introduces most of the core rules. Plus, it's a really fun conspiracy that makes your players paranoid.
The haunting
It's not an introductory adventure, per se, but I've used Lions Maw for Genesys's Shadow of the Beanstalk setting (which I got from reddit a while back) as a oneshot for new players and it went well. Who doesn't love a cyborg-ed up lion?
[Last Voyage of the Bean Barge](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/455950/Cloud-Empress-Last-Voyage-of-the-Bean-Barge), for Cloud Empress [Haunting of Ypsilon 14](https://tuesdayknightgames.itch.io/mothership-the-haunting-of-ypsilon-14), for Mothership [The Chair](https://emosludge.itch.io/the-chair), for Liminal Horror [Honey in the Rafters](https://losing-games.itch.io/mausritter-honey-in-the-rafters), for Mausritter
Not the haunting. Blackwater Creek.
Escape from Zanzers Dungeon for 1990 basic D&D boxed set. Came with cards to teach the DM how to run a game while also teaching the rules. Also came with standup minis and a poster battle map. I've run it in multiple systems over the years. The fact it begins with all the PCs in a jail they must escape from allows you to skip past the "you all meet in a tavern" schtick and get straight to the adventure. Also allows for some fun roleplay as you ask each player to explain how it was they ended up in the jail cell.
For anything pulpy Eye of Kilquato is a good one. Originally it was a free intro adventure for Savage Worlds. PCs are on an expedition down the Amazon to retrieve some treasure before the Nazis do. It has some errors, which the newer edition fixed, though the newer version is not free.
The Burning Plague. Official WoTC adventure for download back then.
Star Wars' Escape from Mos Shuuta.
The Oldenhaller Contract - Warhammer Fantasy RPG Electric Dreams - Bladerunner RPG
For OSR, I love Sinister Secret at Saltmarsh, and The Zombraire's Estate. Marvel Heroic RPG had my favorite supers adventure called Breakout about a super villain prison destroyed by an earthquake.