So, I am brand new to DnD and, unfortunately, I have to be thrown into a DM position. How do I do this? Like, I have this idea for a homebrew campaign, but I'm struggling to figure out how to do sessions and encounters and such. I'm just looking for some advice in how to do this.
People are about to give you lots of advice. Most of it will be pretty good too. But honestly, the best accumulation of the best possible advice I can give you is this:
1) Start slow. You'll make mistakes. It's a good thing.
2) Start small. Plan one session at a time, not an entire campaign.
3) Use what you have. If you have certain miniatures, create a combat with those. If you have some kind of terrain, create a combat in that environment.
I offer up TONS of advice on the channel in my sig. Look to my 5 bullet system and you'll be the greatest DM in no time!
People are about to give you lots of advice. Most of it will be pretty good too. But honestly, the best accumulation of the best possible advice I can give you is this:
Welcome to the other side of the DM’s Screen.
Don't you ever sleep?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I think IamSposta is an internet bot who just auto-posts Matt Colville references to every thread about how to DM.... >:)
I think that was a bit rude.
I think that IamSposta IS Matt Colville!
Note that he has another account on here too. If a Matt Colville video isn't posted by IamSposta then it is posted by the other guy (whose name I forgot, unfortunately).
1st... I would completely forget about the idea of a homebrew campaign. I'm not saying to outright use a Forgotten realms setting... I'm just saying forget about a Homebrew setting.
Your characters don't need to know anything about the world they are in in the initial sessions. Just plan your games 1 at a time and build your world from there.
I have played WAYYY too many homebrew campaigns that fizzled after a couple of sessions. It's easy to fall into the bad habit of story telling in a homebrew campaign. You have an idea of how the world should be, and how the characters should act and you end up rail roading them with strange world building ideas. If you're new to the game, keep things vague, and just build your world around the players after a couple of play sessions.
2nd... grab a couple of adventure books and pull some encounters from there. Any of the starter packs are fine, or Tales from the Yawning Portal has some low level adventures. I usually work portions of the adventure books into my homebrew to fit what is currently going on. This helps me avoid having to build dungeons etc.. or even long encounters. It gives you and idea of rewards and all of that....
3rd... sit down with your players and talk about motivation. I have some frustrating players that always want me to come up with some compelling way to motivate them. We should just assume your characters want to adventure etc... Make your players come up with their characters motivation. If everyone is new to the game, I would suggest sticking with a simple concept like greed. Your players are after wealth and power, that's it. Forget about complicated story arcs like vengence or redemption, these things put too much pressure on the DM to pull off a satisfying conclusion. Chances are, if everyone is new to this, the players will end up switching characters or changing campaigns before long.
I think IamSposta is an internet bot who just auto-posts Matt Colville references to every thread about how to DM.... >:)
I think that was a bit rude.
I think that IamSposta IS Matt Colville!
Note that he has another account on here too. If a Matt Colville video isn't posted by IamSposta then it is posted by the other guy (whose name I forgot, unfortunately).
I would say homebrew is fine to do... I am doing it right now and enjoying it. However, it is a lot of work. And if I had to do it over again, I probably would have done more what Colville generally does: use published adventures and set them in my own world. Instead a made a world in which none of the published adventures make sense to locate, and so I have to make up everything, world, adventures, NPCs, all of it. It would have been easier to say, run Village of Hommlet in my own homebrew world, rather than make up my own town, NPCs, dungeon, plot for each adventure etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Doing sessions is merely tying encounters together.
Encounters are main topic sentences connected with downtime conjunctions.
Do a mish-mash of what you think is cool and what is already published. There is a mountain of material out there use it for reference. Then mush it into your campaign if you like it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I've sort of have a similar issue to the original post. I'm new to D&D and I've purchased the Essentials Kit. Managed to talk a few friends into trying it out too but, I have to DM. My issue is due to not being allowed to meet up at this present time, I'm having to set this up online. I have used the redeem key that came with the Essentails Kit and I now have DoIP on d&d beyond. Can I use d&d beyond to play through DoIP and if so, can someone point in the right direction as how or is d&d beyond purly used for a 2nd reference and i now have 2 copies of the essentials kit.
My apologies if this is a little off topic but ive spent the past few hours trying to find/figure out if I can play using this.
D&D beyond is not a virtual table top. You can use it to play on line if you use other 3rd party applications like Zoom for communication, Powerpoint or something for maps, and so forth. There is a combat tracker and encounter builder here that can help but you won't be able to see the rolls of each other's dice or move things around on the map within D&D beyond.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thanks for the info and the quick response. You pretty much confirmed what I was thinking and I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something on here.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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So, I am brand new to DnD and, unfortunately, I have to be thrown into a DM position. How do I do this? Like, I have this idea for a homebrew campaign, but I'm struggling to figure out how to do sessions and encounters and such. I'm just looking for some advice in how to do this.
People are about to give you lots of advice. Most of it will be pretty good too. But honestly, the best accumulation of the best possible advice I can give you is this:
Welcome to the other side of the DM’s Screen.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
1) Start slow. You'll make mistakes. It's a good thing.
2) Start small. Plan one session at a time, not an entire campaign.
3) Use what you have. If you have certain miniatures, create a combat with those. If you have some kind of terrain, create a combat in that environment.
I offer up TONS of advice on the channel in my sig. Look to my 5 bullet system and you'll be the greatest DM in no time!
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
Don't you ever sleep?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Honestly, I prefer not to.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I think IamSposta is an internet bot who just auto-posts Matt Colville references to every thread about how to DM.... >:)
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think that was a bit rude.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I am just teasing... I did not mean it to be rude.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
You called me a beep-boop. 🤖
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Hey now R2-D2 is my favorite character in all of Star Wars. Let's not be insulting bots....
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Why don’t you give the OP some of your famously wise advice?
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I think that IamSposta IS Matt Colville!
Note that he has another account on here too. If a Matt Colville video isn't posted by IamSposta then it is posted by the other guy (whose name I forgot, unfortunately).
1st... I would completely forget about the idea of a homebrew campaign. I'm not saying to outright use a Forgotten realms setting... I'm just saying forget about a Homebrew setting.
Your characters don't need to know anything about the world they are in in the initial sessions. Just plan your games 1 at a time and build your world from there.
I have played WAYYY too many homebrew campaigns that fizzled after a couple of sessions. It's easy to fall into the bad habit of story telling in a homebrew campaign. You have an idea of how the world should be, and how the characters should act and you end up rail roading them with strange world building ideas. If you're new to the game, keep things vague, and just build your world around the players after a couple of play sessions.
2nd... grab a couple of adventure books and pull some encounters from there. Any of the starter packs are fine, or Tales from the Yawning Portal has some low level adventures. I usually work portions of the adventure books into my homebrew to fit what is currently going on. This helps me avoid having to build dungeons etc.. or even long encounters. It gives you and idea of rewards and all of that....
3rd... sit down with your players and talk about motivation. I have some frustrating players that always want me to come up with some compelling way to motivate them. We should just assume your characters want to adventure etc... Make your players come up with their characters motivation. If everyone is new to the game, I would suggest sticking with a simple concept like greed. Your players are after wealth and power, that's it. Forget about complicated story arcs like vengence or redemption, these things put too much pressure on the DM to pull off a satisfying conclusion. Chances are, if everyone is new to this, the players will end up switching characters or changing campaigns before long.
BioWizard
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I would say homebrew is fine to do... I am doing it right now and enjoying it. However, it is a lot of work. And if I had to do it over again, I probably would have done more what Colville generally does: use published adventures and set them in my own world. Instead a made a world in which none of the published adventures make sense to locate, and so I have to make up everything, world, adventures, NPCs, all of it. It would have been easier to say, run Village of Hommlet in my own homebrew world, rather than make up my own town, NPCs, dungeon, plot for each adventure etc.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Doing sessions is merely tying encounters together.
Encounters are main topic sentences connected with downtime conjunctions.
Do a mish-mash of what you think is cool and what is already published. There is a mountain of material out there use it for reference. Then mush it into your campaign if you like it.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Hi all,
I've sort of have a similar issue to the original post. I'm new to D&D and I've purchased the Essentials Kit. Managed to talk a few friends into trying it out too but, I have to DM. My issue is due to not being allowed to meet up at this present time, I'm having to set this up online. I have used the redeem key that came with the Essentails Kit and I now have DoIP on d&d beyond. Can I use d&d beyond to play through DoIP and if so, can someone point in the right direction as how or is d&d beyond purly used for a 2nd reference and i now have 2 copies of the essentials kit.
My apologies if this is a little off topic but ive spent the past few hours trying to find/figure out if I can play using this.
D&D beyond is not a virtual table top. You can use it to play on line if you use other 3rd party applications like Zoom for communication, Powerpoint or something for maps, and so forth. There is a combat tracker and encounter builder here that can help but you won't be able to see the rolls of each other's dice or move things around on the map within D&D beyond.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thanks for the info and the quick response. You pretty much confirmed what I was thinking and I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something on here.