I drew up a map of a part of my game world that focuses on a small town by a marsh and lake. Then I drew a map of the town. I added some quick shop names and printed it out. I had a hand out at the games showing the area around the town and the town map. I also drew up a couple dungeons.In the first game, coming into Kingleaf in the first game was uneventful and the party nearly died exploring ruins under the town, because they had no magic weapons and the secret room off the first room of the dungeon was not found. This was almost a TPK.
In the second game that I ran with Kingleaf as the backdrop the party found a silver dagger and a mauled wizards body just outside of town near the woods. Actually the body was a half a days walk from town. during this introductory encounter everyone was ready for a fight but none came. It was my intention to let them have a chance at success later by giving them a magic weapon while also introducing a side plot. In this game the players were on edge fearing werewolves and it unexpected result of making the group suspicious of the townsfolk, who started thinking the town was a den of werewolves. I added to the paranoia by letting the over cautious party notice that the shops in town did not seem to have a silver items for sale. I also calmed them down by passing a note from the town priest stating that the people of Kingleaf are good folk and that their are only a couple outliers and that the priest was being watched. by the end of the game they had made friends with the local fence "Steve" lost track of the town Sheriff and saved the lives of a couple locals. They also just missed a Giant attack.
The adjustment of the magic silver dagger was not necessary in this game because this party found the secret room off the first room of the dungeon. Though they have a tough time they did survive the shadows that lurked deep below the town. It did end up adding a cool subplot though.
The third game in Kingleaf left off from this one with the party looking for the priest who had gone missing and finding out the sheriff and the guy who owned the tavern named the Boiled Toe and who was also a cobbler were both werewolves. They also tracked and killed the giant Rathkip out into the marsh near town.
The fourth game in Kingleaf dealt with the troubles the local farmers were having with something killing their sheep. The 4th level party found the culprit to be a bullette. The combat was tough for this group of 6 players and since it was just a quick intro game I did the old "highest role hit" GM smudge, if the player looked desperate I let their role hit even though the AC of the bullette was 22 I let a couple 18s slide through. The beast nearly killed the party, but enough were still standing at the end to get everyone back on their feet again.
Basically, it took some time to draw a couple maps, and a couple dungeons, and I have been able to reuse the maps several times. The best part is, that my players don't get to read the dungeon in advance like they do in other games I run that use pre-made modules.
