Dungeons and Dragons‘ 5th Edition has many published adventures, but many are released as physical or digital books that aren’t particularly cheap. This can be a big obstacle for some groups, but thankfully, the creativity of the D&D community has produced plenty of creative stories outside official works. Many third-party adventures are accessible ones you can download for zero cost, forming just as interesting frameworks for your next game.

Free adventures that aren’t just published modules can be great for any forever DM in D&D, as they are typically non-traditional in their approach. Oftentimes, free adventures are shorter, but therefore easier to use as an entry point for players who may not have played D&D before. At the same time, these kinds of adventures can be excellent for parties who prefer short journies over multi-month long-form adventures.

The Wolves Of Welton

Perfect Introduction For New Adventurers

The Wolves of Welton is an introductory D&D adventure published by Winghorn Press, designed for 2nd and 3rd level parties looking for a single session of play. This adventure is short, but incredibly sweet, putting together a simple premise that anyone can pick up and play. In the past, I’ve used this free adventure as a starting point for new players, as it provides an excellent environment to help them learn the game’s mechanics.

As for the adventure itself, the Wolves of Welton has your party investigate the strange behavior of, well, wolves in the land of Welton. While normally a nuisance to farmers by picking off their livestock, the wolves in Welton have started taking out entire herds, boldly driving out the farmers in the Welton area. It’s up to you to find out what is causing this change in the wolves, which will lead your party through plenty of twists and turns.

Temple Of The Dragonknights

Designed For Smaller Parties Looking For A Straightforward Quest

Sometimes, parties can’t always be 4 or more players for what is considered a “standard” group size for D&D. This is what makes Temple of the Dragonknights such an interesting free adventure, as it recommends one to two 1st or 2nd Level characters, with a third being optional. Created by Dawson Wood and published on DM’s Guild, this adventure is rated very highly on the site, speaking to its appeal.

Organized into a single PDF, Temple of the Dragonknights is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The combat is manageable, the puzzles within it aren’t too difficult, and the locations within it inspire intrigue for players to go exploring. This adventure is classic fantasy that’s perfect for an inexperienced audience, acting as a segue to try other D&D content.

Frozen Sick

Critical-Role Inspired Adventure Written By Matthew Mercer

Frozen Sick is one of the few free adventures on D&D Beyond, the online website where you can purchase many of the official 5e modules. This adventure is special for being set in Exandria, the fantasy world of Critical Role, arguably the most popular D&D live play show featuring acting talents of popular figures like Matthew Mercer, Laura Baily, Liam O’Brien, and more.

Designed for 1st to 3rd Level characters, this adventure places players in the frigid north, in arctic regions full of dangers. Here, a deadly disease has begun spreading that resists traditional and magical healing. To stop its destructive spread, players will need to procure a rare antidote from a magical laboratory to save the infected.

This adventure has plenty of depth steeped within every location, character, and mystery players investigate. This adventure might take multiple sessions to complete as players unravel the secrets behind the Frigid Woe disease that threatens to wipe out entire populations of Exandria’s northern reaches. With a chance of contracting this disease themselves, players will have to be cautious, racing against time to deliver a cure.

Six Faces Of Death

High-Level Combat Set Within An Ever-Shifting Setting

Jason Thompson and Scott Fitzgerald Gray are the architects behind Six Faces of Death, a high-level free D&D adventure designed for characters of 11th to 13th Level. The horror-like atmosphere of this story is felt almost immediately, as vanishing ships and dark omens foretell of a mysterious new land called the Changing Island in the middle of the Sea of Swords.

The Changing Island is a mega-dungeon of epic proportions, featuring almost alien-like rifts and fusions of extraplanar entities into a singular space. This adventure features tons of unique monsters you don’t get to see often, challenging the knowledge of even the most veteran players. Monsters, madness, curses, and more are prevalent throughout the Changing Island, creating a high-stakes and combat-heavy adventure suitable for dice rolling action.

X Marks The Spot

Treasure Hunting Fun Throughout An Exotic Location

Anyone who doesn’t want to sink money into Tomb of Annihilation should try X Marks the Spot, a straightforward one-shot meant for 4th Level characters. However, unlike other games, this adventure comes with pre-built characters as optional fill-ins for your players, cutting through decision paralysis that can stall many sessions.

This adventure’s story asks an unlikely group of heroes to find an ancient relic, braving the wild realm of Ixalan to find it before anyone else. This treasure-hunting expedition is crafted with plenty of whimsy, with mechanics actually tying into how long the party has been traveling. Made by Kat Kruger and Chris Tulach, this adventure is set on the Ixalan plane from Magic: The Gathering, creating tons of Easter Eggs for fans of the card game to discover.

Fun fights and exciting D&D plot hooks here add some challenge too, making this adventure very appealing to pick up and play. With a difficult final boss, there are plenty of stakes in this adventure to up the excitement even further.

How Not To Host A Murder

Find The Killer Before They Strike Again

Originally run as a live game at PAX East 2016, How Not to Host a Murder is an adventure by Mike Krahulik, meant for a party of four suboptimal 7th level characters. This adventure is far lighter on combat, instead leaning fully into great roleplay between characters for a wonderful mystery-themed one-shot. As its name suggests, the content of this adventure is a murder mystery for players to solve.

A famous wizard summons the party to their rich abode to kickstart this adventure, but things go horribly awry when a fake murder turns into a real killing. Party members must interrogate the NPCs at the party to find out which of them is guilty, and stop them before they kill again or try to flee. This can be fun for both players and the DM, creating fun interactions with multiple interesting characters.

The clues and hints throughout this adventure are gripping and, at times, hilarious to build a light-hearted atmosphere despite the circumstances. While the final encounter isn’t a number-crunching brawl of a boss fight, the investigations your party gets to do will be memorable long after the adventure is done.

Lost In The High Forest

Emphasis On Exploration Through D&D Folklore

Lost in the High Forest is an adventure inspired partly by an excerpt from Storm King’s Thunder, an official 5e adventure. This game seeks to double down on the titular High Forest, an area of D&D‘s Forgotten Realms setting that often gets overlooked for more exotic locales. Created by Fred Love and designed for 6th Level characters, this adventure is all about exploration rather than RP or combat.

The Savage Frontier is an almost mystical place where players must go in this adventure, in search of a reclusive treant who lives in the forest’s deepest reaches. Ancient mysteries, old folklore, and plenty of dangerous creatures dot this adventure’s landscape as your party dive into its hidden depths. Unique magic items and a tight story mold an interesting, brief story that can be great for a one-shot.

A Night Of Masks And Monsters

Secret Societies Spark Sinister Secrets

Factions and in-world organizations occupy some D&D adventures, including the free A Night of Masks and Monsters game you can find on DMs Guild. Uploaded by Ashley Warren, this adventure is designed for three 6th Level adventurers who seek to attend a Victorian gala, a site of lavish parties that only those in the highest positions in society attend.

Positions in the ranks of this tight-knit society are coveted, but their logo was recently found on a strange hybrid creature killed in a nearby town. Player characters must infiltrate the next party of this sinister group to see what secrets they’ve been hiding, including what agendas they’ve been advancing. Featuring tons of intrigue and mystery, this adventure has tense roleplaying opportunities between players and the regular gala attendees.

The Venician atmosphere crafts an immersive location in this adventure, especially for the Castel di Maschera, the site of the festivities. Detailed maps, scalable combat difficulty, new mechanics, and custom magic items in D&D truly help set this adventure apart, giving you a multi-session adventure without spending any money.

The Wild Sheep Chase

Hilarious One-Shot With Memorable Potential

The Wild Sheep Chase is one of the most well-known free D&D adventures, created by Winghorn Press similar to the Wolves of Welton. This comedic module is imagined for 4th or 5th Level characters, and can be finished in a respectable 3–6 hours. The story of this adventure is a wacky ride, featuring a talking sheep, transmuted assassins, and irresponsible magic item usage that will have your players laughing at each absurd twist.

The gut-busting comedy of this adventure is defined by weird event after weird event happening to your players. From the start of this story, players are confronted by a sheep with a scroll of Speak with Animals, who hurriedly asks for help. The frantic and chaotic pace of this adventure adds to its memorable quality, sure to put a smile on the face of even the most stoic D&D veteran.

The Secrets Of Skyhorn Lighthouse

Refined Journey With An Abundance Of Custom Materials

There are few conversations about free D&D adventures that don’t include The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse, a story made by creator Kelsey Dionne. This adventure has perhaps the same depth of content as an officially published module, containing everything from custom racial options, magic items, monster stat blocks, battle maps, and even a supplemental Roll20 art pack to use online.

Harbor traffic near the signature Skyorn Lighthouse has run aground due to rumors of a rampaging sea monster, taking players on a journey across the high seas. When the Jade Lion goes missing near the Lighthouse, it’s up to the players to investigate the mysteries plaguing the open waters. Everything in this adventure is meticulously detailed, making it one of the easiest stories for any DM to run.

Everything in this adventure is easy to access, organized into digestible formats that’s structured better than even some licensed adventure books. Areas and plot hooks flow into one another seamlessly, with key information highlighted well for DMs to interpret without making any mistakes. The content of the story is interesting as well, crafting a tail of unique creatures and elementals tied to the raging waves.

With nearly 160,000 downloads on DMs Guild, it’s no wonder why people adore this adventure on top of its no-cost availability. When picking a free Dungeons and Dragons adventure to run, it’s easy to find ones that are hard to interpret, but The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse is perfect for any group looking for their next game.

Original Release Date

1974

Publisher

TSR Inc., Wizards of the Coast

Designer

E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Player Count

2-7 Players