Orcfest is the perfect start-up adventure for the new 3rd Edtion of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. It's a rollicking quest that culminates in a climactic battle against an orc war chief and his army, paired with a step-by-step guide to character development, die rolls, combat, and more. As you play, both the game master and the players receive advice and hints to explain the game for first-timers. Even experienced players will find tips for faster, more streamlined play - tricks that took the rest of us many years to discover!

Orcfest starts with a Player's Guide which the game master can photocopy for players. It's more than a dozen pages about choosing a class, buying equipment, interacting with NPCs, exploring the first dungeon, mapping techniques, the basics of combat, game etiquette, and much more. It includes several extended examples and many diagrams to easily illustrate any aspect of the game. Additional pages are targeted specifically at the game master with ideas to consider before ever running that first game.

The adventure portion of the booklet uses a unique layout to teach novice players and game masters all the essentials. Instructive notes are presented right along with the adventure material, providing valuable pointers for novice game masters. Each new wrinkle of the game is accompanied by plenty of support information - for example, the cryptic monster statistics block is supplemented by an explanation of how to read the statistics shorthand. The book introduces the game master to the game a little at a time, starting with the basics and adding new layers.

Even with all this instruction, the goal is to have fun! The adventure brings a novice group of characters into a crisis in Solitude, a frontier town on the human-orc border. The orc tribes are planning to attack Solitude using a secret weapon, and the players must discover their plan and find a way to stop it - by masquerading as vile orcs! The novice characters have a chance to save the day and be named heroes, and the players and game master gain a thorough understanding of the game system.