So my friends and some of their friends are going to be starting a D&D campaign. There are going to be 6 of us with the possibility of a 7th (although, I really hope not.) Everyone is pretty much new to D&D have only played one or two tiny campaigns, if at all. I thought being a DM sounded like a fun thing to organize so I volunteered (because no one else wanted to do it.) I have never played D&D before and honestly I think it might have been a bit silly of me to agree but I'm willing to put in the the work for it to be good.
I have already started to read the dungeon masters guide, and after I'm finished with that I'll read the players handbook and the monster manual. I have also been watching some of Critical Role on YouTube and have been watching Geek and Sundry's GM Tips. Please let me know if there are any other helpful Youtube Videos or Articles that will help me.
I am going to start us out doing one of the D&D adventure books. None of us want to do the starter set and we want a longer campaign. The Curse of Strahd looks really interesting and cool. Most of us would like to do this campaign but from what I understand this is not a very good for a beginner groupand a beginner DM. If anyone has any tips for us to be able to play this as our first campaign that would be great but I will probably do this as our second.
Princes of the Apocalypse looks really cool, as well as, Out of the Abyss. I am not sure if I understand exactly what Tales of the Yawning Portal is but is seems like something you would add onto a campaign you have already started. Is this correct? Storm King's Thunder also looks really neat but I have heard that this one is difficult to start off with as well. But not as much as Curse of Strahd. The others do not hold any interest to me or anyone else in the group.
So which one of these do you think would be best for a beginner group like our's, and that is also not too difficult for a brand new DM? Any tips you could give us?
Please note that I said that we do not what to do the starter set so don't suggest it.
If you are really new, I would advice Lost Mine of Phandelver (the Starter set) and Prince of the Apocalypse. They are pretty fair for newers and veterans alike.
Tale of the Yawning Portal is a set of 5 advetures, which you can easily insert into your homebrew campaign. But to start, you can use that as well.
I'd suggest going through the adventures in Tales of the Yawning Portal. Basically it is an anthology of D&D's "Greatest hits" from various editions converted into 5th Ed adventures. You can start your characters off at the first dungeon and by the time they finish, they will be roughly the correct level for the next one. The first three or four dungeons are really good and give a wide range of experiences.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I think that taking up to the challenge of being DM will most likely be a decision you will not regret. I have been 'DMing' for over 15 years with different groups and still cannot get enough of it. Something I would recommend is to watch Critical Role with a grain of salt, due to the large experience Matthew Mercer has creating characters and bringing them to life.
That being said, I would recommend to create an adventure which you can run in one night more than running something which can run for a few weeks. A standard adventure is composed of 5 encounters, and that should be enough to play for one night. The smaller the adventure, the easier will be for you to control your role as DM, give your players enough agency for them to feel engaged, and have fun (the most important part of DND). I would recommend, to any new DM, to watch the video Intro: Running the Game by Matthew Colville. You will find really interesting tools and advice from someone who has been playing the game since its early beginnings.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about which campaign you play. I'm in a relatively new group playing through Curse of Strahd. Yeah, we've had some pretty hairy moments, but we've made it through (albeit with a few fingers missing and some permanent changes to our personalities). If you're willing to adapt the adventure, or even change things on the fly, anything is possible. Just don't worry too much about following absolutely everything in the book.
As a player I think the hardest thing about Strahd is the massive open world style - as a new player it's probably better to go for something with a clearer, more quest based approach.
I've just finished running Out of the Abyss. I wouldn't advise a brand-new DM to tackle it. The book is poorly organised and this can be the cause of quite a bit of frustration. The setting, tone and theme is great, but I wouldn't take it on as a My First DMing project!
Curse of Strahd is much better organised, as is Storm King's Thunder. The middle section of SKT might be the hardest part to run, as it sees the PCs running wild and free all over the Sword Coast - but then, that kind of thing is what D&D is great at. Just bear in mind that it might take a lot of quick thinking and planning on your part. The geography of CoS is a lot more constrained, so it might be a little easier to handle.
Basically, though, if you like the look of CoS the most, then go for it. A healthy dose of enthusiasm is enough to help you through any difficulties while running a game, and if that's the adventure you feel most excited about, then that should be the one you play.
Tales from the Yawning Portal is a collection of one-off adventures that could, theoretically, be strung together to be a full campaign if you have the party run through all of them, or you could just drop in whichever one you like the most and make it level-appropriate. I, personally, like to threaten with Tomb of Horrors to make sure that the players stick to the table rules, but that's just me. ;)
Other than that, run the starter set's adventure or something else that is small and easy to learn from as the first one before delving into one of the longer adventures, like Strahd or Storm King's Thunder.
Can I recommend you watch some of what Matt Mercer does in the Critical Role series on YouTube? It is a really good series and what I strive to be as a DM (though, let's be real, that ain't happening).
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I once shoved 9 different tree seeds down the final boss's throat, magically grew them and killed him.
ValiantViolet, Storm King's Thunder was the first book length adventure I ran and I thought it was easy and enjoyable to DM. I enjoyed it so much that when we ended I had the part build new characters to do a second run of the content we skipped due to branching story paths.
Storm King's Logistics
From a logistics standpoint, the book has flow charts and is extremely organized compared to other adventures. The open ended portion is in the middle and just requires that you ask the party their intentions for the next week so you can prep 2-4 encounters based on the map and content outlined in chapter 3.
My 2 cents for a new DM
PREPARE. Understand the story's high level path. Have 4-6 encounters planned for an evening, both social and combat. A 6-7 person party will probably get through 3-4 encounters per 3-4 hours.
COMBAT. 6-7 people will have a tendency to slow combat to a drag. Ask them to have their actions selected in advance, so there is less delay between PC actions. Make sure that each combat has a purpose, so you have a reason to cut it off if it goes too long. NPCs don't want to die, and should have a purpose or goal in combat. If PCs have minions/pets, have them act on the same initiative.
DELEGATE. Take a few volunteers each session. Scribe to track loot, exp, combat initiative. Lawyer to record any rule questions. For rules questions during play, ask what the player is trying to accomplish, spend <2 minutes on opinions, make a quick ruling, have the lawyer record the question, revisit the questions for final disposition at the end of the session.
HANDWAVE. You are the DM. You serve the story. Take input from the players and embed it with the story. Months after ending, my players don't talk about some combat or magic item they found. They don't talk about the scripted finish handed out by Wizards. They talk about accidentally summoning a cursed ziggurat into the middle of Triboar, how they were exiled and suffered prejudice until they could find a way to cleanse the town. They talk about their origins from Mines of Phandelver, where they set up a Goblin Regiment that patrolled the region and helped them protect and then cleanse the ziggurat. They talk about the second play through where they saw gardens spelling out profanity in dwarvish (courtesy of our Druid from the first run).
HAVE FUN! In the end that's what it's all about. Good luck!
If you're still looking for input, I would avoid CoS. If you're playing it fairly, Strahd kills new player all the time... It is his realm. If you REALLY want to do CoS, start with LMoP and get your group up to level 5 before they die at the hands of Strahd. Other alternative is PotA, it's nice and very open. Lots of role play and investigation. You could move the players from 1st to 3rd with the intro events, and then get into the meat of the adventure. I have a group in that now, and they love it. I have a second group doing the LMoP - CoS, jury's out on that combo :)
As a relatively new DM I've found Matthew Colville's advice on youtube quite useful (in addition to other sources which are alreayd mentioned above). One of his first "Running the game" videos runs you through making a simple single session dungeon crawl adventure you can run with any (new) group quite easily. If you make an adventure in the vein he provides you could probably get used to trying to GM a bit while giving your players a fun night. This might be particularly useful if you want an additional week to study any campaign materials you're using.
I saw an excellent video a while back from Colville. Can't remember the title, but it covered adjusting Damage, Disruption, and Duration for combat encounters to make them exciting and interesting. I would consider Colville and Mercer required research for a new DM.
I suggest Lost Mine of Phandelver it is pretty basic.
One thing to watch out for on D&D Beyond forums is the date of the original post on threads you find by searching. This thread for example is almost 6 years old so the question about what they might consider playing would have been answered long ago. I've necro'ed a few threads by accident but have learned to check the dates and decide if the thread is still relevant and worth posting to it (some of them are useful - one of the interesting things about DDB is that the forums have no rules about old threads).
If you are really new, I would advice Lost Mine of Phandelver (the Starter set) and Prince of the Apocalypse. They are pretty fair for newers and veterans alike.
Tale of the Yawning Portal is a set of 5 advetures, which you can easily insert into your homebrew campaign. But to start, you can use that as well.
I'd suggest going through the adventures in Tales of the Yawning Portal. Basically it is an anthology of D&D's "Greatest hits" from various editions converted into 5th Ed adventures. You can start your characters off at the first dungeon and by the time they finish, they will be roughly the correct level for the next one. The first three or four dungeons are really good and give a wide range of experiences.
Anything but Storm King's Thunder. It's deadly.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Hi Valiantviolet,
I think that taking up to the challenge of being DM will most likely be a decision you will not regret. I have been 'DMing' for over 15 years with different groups and still cannot get enough of it. Something I would recommend is to watch Critical Role with a grain of salt, due to the large experience Matthew Mercer has creating characters and bringing them to life.
That being said, I would recommend to create an adventure which you can run in one night more than running something which can run for a few weeks. A standard adventure is composed of 5 encounters, and that should be enough to play for one night. The smaller the adventure, the easier will be for you to control your role as DM, give your players enough agency for them to feel engaged, and have fun (the most important part of DND). I would recommend, to any new DM, to watch the video Intro: Running the Game by Matthew Colville. You will find really interesting tools and advice from someone who has been playing the game since its early beginnings.
Good luck with your adventures!
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about which campaign you play. I'm in a relatively new group playing through Curse of Strahd. Yeah, we've had some pretty hairy moments, but we've made it through (albeit with a few fingers missing and some permanent changes to our personalities). If you're willing to adapt the adventure, or even change things on the fly, anything is possible. Just don't worry too much about following absolutely everything in the book.
As a player I think the hardest thing about Strahd is the massive open world style - as a new player it's probably better to go for something with a clearer, more quest based approach.
Enjoy it!
I've just finished running Out of the Abyss. I wouldn't advise a brand-new DM to tackle it. The book is poorly organised and this can be the cause of quite a bit of frustration. The setting, tone and theme is great, but I wouldn't take it on as a My First DMing project!
Curse of Strahd is much better organised, as is Storm King's Thunder. The middle section of SKT might be the hardest part to run, as it sees the PCs running wild and free all over the Sword Coast - but then, that kind of thing is what D&D is great at. Just bear in mind that it might take a lot of quick thinking and planning on your part. The geography of CoS is a lot more constrained, so it might be a little easier to handle.
Basically, though, if you like the look of CoS the most, then go for it. A healthy dose of enthusiasm is enough to help you through any difficulties while running a game, and if that's the adventure you feel most excited about, then that should be the one you play.
Tales from the Yawning Portal is a collection of one-off adventures that could, theoretically, be strung together to be a full campaign if you have the party run through all of them, or you could just drop in whichever one you like the most and make it level-appropriate. I, personally, like to threaten with Tomb of Horrors to make sure that the players stick to the table rules, but that's just me. ;)
Other than that, run the starter set's adventure or something else that is small and easy to learn from as the first one before delving into one of the longer adventures, like Strahd or Storm King's Thunder.
Can I recommend you watch some of what Matt Mercer does in the Critical Role series on YouTube? It is a really good series and what I strive to be as a DM (though, let's be real, that ain't happening).
I once shoved 9 different tree seeds down the final boss's throat, magically grew them and killed him.
ValiantViolet, Storm King's Thunder was the first book length adventure I ran and I thought it was easy and enjoyable to DM. I enjoyed it so much that when we ended I had the part build new characters to do a second run of the content we skipped due to branching story paths.
Storm King's Logistics
From a logistics standpoint, the book has flow charts and is extremely organized compared to other adventures. The open ended portion is in the middle and just requires that you ask the party their intentions for the next week so you can prep 2-4 encounters based on the map and content outlined in chapter 3.
My 2 cents for a new DM
PREPARE. Understand the story's high level path. Have 4-6 encounters planned for an evening, both social and combat. A 6-7 person party will probably get through 3-4 encounters per 3-4 hours.
COMBAT. 6-7 people will have a tendency to slow combat to a drag. Ask them to have their actions selected in advance, so there is less delay between PC actions. Make sure that each combat has a purpose, so you have a reason to cut it off if it goes too long. NPCs don't want to die, and should have a purpose or goal in combat. If PCs have minions/pets, have them act on the same initiative.
DELEGATE. Take a few volunteers each session. Scribe to track loot, exp, combat initiative. Lawyer to record any rule questions. For rules questions during play, ask what the player is trying to accomplish, spend <2 minutes on opinions, make a quick ruling, have the lawyer record the question, revisit the questions for final disposition at the end of the session.
HANDWAVE. You are the DM. You serve the story. Take input from the players and embed it with the story. Months after ending, my players don't talk about some combat or magic item they found. They don't talk about the scripted finish handed out by Wizards. They talk about accidentally summoning a cursed ziggurat into the middle of Triboar, how they were exiled and suffered prejudice until they could find a way to cleanse the town. They talk about their origins from Mines of Phandelver, where they set up a Goblin Regiment that patrolled the region and helped them protect and then cleanse the ziggurat. They talk about the second play through where they saw gardens spelling out profanity in dwarvish (courtesy of our Druid from the first run).
HAVE FUN! In the end that's what it's all about. Good luck!
If you're still looking for input, I would avoid CoS. If you're playing it fairly, Strahd kills new player all the time... It is his realm. If you REALLY want to do CoS, start with LMoP and get your group up to level 5 before they die at the hands of Strahd. Other alternative is PotA, it's nice and very open. Lots of role play and investigation. You could move the players from 1st to 3rd with the intro events, and then get into the meat of the adventure. I have a group in that now, and they love it. I have a second group doing the LMoP - CoS, jury's out on that combo :)
I'll second Moxley's recommendation of PotA. You can have a lot of fun with the squabbling cultist factions.
As a relatively new DM I've found Matthew Colville's advice on youtube quite useful (in addition to other sources which are alreayd mentioned above). One of his first "Running the game" videos runs you through making a simple single session dungeon crawl adventure you can run with any (new) group quite easily. If you make an adventure in the vein he provides you could probably get used to trying to GM a bit while giving your players a fun night. This might be particularly useful if you want an additional week to study any campaign materials you're using.
I saw an excellent video a while back from Colville. Can't remember the title, but it covered adjusting Damage, Disruption, and Duration for combat encounters to make them exciting and interesting. I would consider Colville and Mercer required research for a new DM.
If I've learned one thing from the time I've spent DMing, it's to never roll for the number of monsters.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I suggest Lost Mine of Phandelver it is pretty basic.
One thing to watch out for on D&D Beyond forums is the date of the original post on threads you find by searching. This thread for example is almost 6 years old so the question about what they might consider playing would have been answered long ago. I've necro'ed a few threads by accident but have learned to check the dates and decide if the thread is still relevant and worth posting to it (some of them are useful - one of the interesting things about DDB is that the forums have no rules about old threads).
thanks