I am new to Dungeons and Dragons. I have been playing for almost a year as a player- But I have never had the chance to be a Dungeon Master once, except for some One-shots I have been hosting recently. Hosting those one-shots was truly majestic. I fell in love with being a Dungeon Master. Therefore I decided to create my own campaign with an original story, world etc. But I do not know where to begin with and how to get started with this project.
By the way, I know there are premade adventures and modules but I truly want to make an entirely original campaign. However, classes, races, weapons and items will stay the same. I am very excited and extremely happy to listen to your ideas and advice. I will be waiting behind my screen.
Have a wonderful day and a nice weekend you all. Happy to be here.
Matt Colville has an excellent YouTube series called Running the Game, he talks about everything from making a good starting adventure, a town, how to introduce bad guys, and more!
best advice i can give you is just wait. be a DM for awhile, read a bunch of modules and send players through them - study how they're put together and how they're played through. reading a module from the eyes of someone who has been a DM for awhile is completely different than from the eyes of a player. THEN start creating your own...maybe sprinkle one or two of your homebrews in the mix at first. what you're wanting to do is like saying you want to build a house on the way to the store to pick up your very first hammer. you may very well build a house, but it'll be fully of flaws that no one in their right mind would want to live in.
The advice of the previous posters is 100 percent valid and good advice. As the DM you really should be experienced with the basic rules and gameplay, that being said... Creating your own campaign is a lot like writing your own novel... and just like writing a novel there are no proper rules or guidelines by which you must follow... You are telling a story and you can create your story however you wish...
What I do... I plan a campaign that will run for years... Think of it like a Legend of Zelda game... I first establish my ultimate BBEG... But what I select is something on the level of God, Asmodeus, Tiamat, etc... Think Ganon... I then establish sub BBEGs... these can still be extremely powerful monsters, Dragons or Liches and I tie their motives ultimately to the Ultimate BBEG. Think again of them as temple guardians in Zelda... I then start creating my world... I like to pick or create a map and then break it up into regions or realms and then in those areas I add a capital city and a few towns, cities, villages, depending on the populous... I don't suggest over creating your world... you just need a skeleton that you can add meat and muscle as time goes on...
You will need an inciting action or problem that will drive your story and bond your players together... In my current campaign, the players entered an tournament to decide the city's champions for a quest... they started out by fighting each other which helped them learn how to fight in D&D as many of my players were new... after that round of combat I bound them together as a group to fight other groups... this pretense allowed me to get the players to meet each other and then learn to work together to take on increasingly harder challenges... at the end when they were victorious, the city gifted them useful group items such as a bag of holding. I now have a group that is keyed up for a quest... you just need to figure out what the quest will be...
Some simple strategies for building a quest are:
Elimination quests- There is a bad thing... kill it
Hide and Seek quests- A person who holds answers or has the key to something... find them
Scavenger hunt- You need these thingies to make this thingy happen
Errand Quests- Can you help me out taking this here or doing this thing
Maker quests- Forging, crafting, brewing, etc...
Curse quests- breaking a curse or hex
Like I said... You are the storyteller... but always talking at your PCs as an NPCs becomes stale and boring... be creative... I like to write journals of dead or lost NPCs that the players can read and physically hold. You can use Tarot cards or fortune tellers to predict their futures and dump lore on the players. Libraries and book shops are also ways that you can push your narrative... Puzzle boxes, invisible ink, wax seals, Guilds, charters... The more experienced you are as a storyteller will make your campaign all the more believable and fun...
I suggest watching Critical Role... You can see how a master DM builds a world but is also a rule master. Matt is in a league of his own... Start off on Campaign 1 episode 1...
You can also add props, terrain, miniatures, etc to you game as well. If you are looking for ideas I have an Instagram devoted only to making DnD stuff. theleprechaun_fantasy_workshop
oof this is hard... I usually recommend starting off with a book and then changing the campaign to fit you and your group. It is a lot of work and effort to create something from scratch. I recommend taking it slow. do a one shot or two start to get a feel for things.
Look at books like Dungeon masters guide, the monsters know what they are doing and xanthars guild to everything. Look up youtubers like How to be a Great DM, Nerdarchy and Dudgeon Dudes. Spend Days prepping.
The Key to being a good DM is knowing your group, Having fun, and being able to do things off the cuff. These things takes lots of practice, patience and learning. Know that you are not going to be good. props and other things are nice but not needed for a new DM. Theater of the mind works great! Prompt your players to be creative. Be descriptive. BS your way through things and make it epic and fun.
Good Luck let us know how it goes. Having D&D beyond will already give you access to A LOT of stuff to help you. You will not be a great DM on your first session or even first campaign but hopefully you will grow and grow. Even experience DM make mistakes and have bad days. the important thing is having fun
So after being a player for two sessions, one was a couple years before the second I got the starters set and ran my first ever campaign. So all I can tell you is that you want to take it dungeon by dungeon and let the characters guide the story. After awhile of that then you want to establish an overarching problem that needs to be solved. For me it was my characters being the first worshipers of a new god that my cleric wanted wanted. Don’t establish a world until after a couple sessions, when you gat a feel for the terrain you want.
Some ideas for the first dungeon is,
If there is a ranger have them guiding them through a shortcut from point A to point B and they stumble into the couches of a goblin tribe. then they have to find a way out of the camp, and if you want you could have them make there own weapons from scraps.
Wars are always fun. It may be the town they are in, or there country but it provides a lot of opportunities.
A farmer is telling everyone that there is a kobold infested cave, and most of the town tries there luck, it must be liked to the recent shortage of trade. The characters find it and group up because safety in numbers.
What you are doing right now shows you are on the right path. All these posts have good advice and take what you can. Continue to ask questions. Run the game. You only get better by doing. Find your rhythm and style using the advice here, and from others to structure the flow of the game, what you want to run, and be willing to change or incorporate what your days do or say into your own ideas. I have been running games for a decade so take what I say and use it or don't we are just people telling from your own experience and perspective that hopefully helps you develop what you want.
In terms of ideas here are some of my personal favorites that I have used so feel free to take them and add your own spin, just let me know if you do so I can reuse it =D
- Having a quest giver gather exceptional people to go into a nearby ruin tomb to retrieve some treasure from ancient time or just long ago that is now overrun with monster or monsters of the week.
-MURDER! There has been a high profile murder and everyone is suspect. Until the culprit is caught or at least someone is turned in the village/town/city is on lockdown.
-You meet in a tavern, and the barkeep has found giant rats in the cellar and is willing to offer a few coins to those who can take them out.
-The land is cursed and the people think they know why. An evil has setup its lair and they need some capable adventurers to kill the evil. It just turns out that the evil that they thought was the cause was only a servant of something much fouler.
Hope this is useful to you and may the dice roll high in your players' favor.
Excellent advice by all! So, I'm the kind of DM who creates basically from scratch, and I too began with one-shots. I am now happily running a full campaign, and so, here's a few tips about taking the step from one-shots to long-shots.
1: Pick a plot. It can be simple or intricate; sometimes I'll take a piece of paper, write down "caravan gets raided and there's tracks to follow; find rare plant for disease cure; city wants to hire adventurers to hunt down criminal, but criminal is actually persecuted fugitive-plot twist" and then I'll pick which ever one feels right. Now, I have my plot.
2: Build a world. This starts with mapping a village; and then the roads going to a hub of surrounding villages. If your campaign is set in a large city, exchange village for neighborhoods/districts. You can set it in any biome you like; my favorite is deserts. Name the villages, and write some basic info on a piece of paper: the mayor/warlord who runs each one, the main temple's primary deity, the local industries that support the inhabitants. Finally, write a list of taverns or lodgings, and keep these varied to add flavor to the player's experience; for instance, if they enter the village of "Waterdale" give them the option of staying at a nice place, "King's Barrow", or they can save money and go to a seedy place like "The Dragon's Eye". These little details add A LOT of fun to a campaign, regardless of the plot!
3: Carefully insert the plot into the created world. Decide which village governments are central to the plot, or which locations are important vs. just another stop on the road. Finally, make sure to add a few red herrings (British term for a false lead; i.e. the suspicious guy with the eyepatch who looks scary and is following the adventurers, but who is actually a protector hired by a friendly NPC to keep an eye on the party in a time of danger).
4. Be flexible! So often during game play, a party member will ask during free action, "I really want to buy a saddle for my camel! can I buy a pink one?" or, "I don't want to go to this market; I want to see what else may be in town." Feel free to invent something on the spot, even memorable NPC's can be created instantaneously. Also, be careful not to build a world so rigid that it constricts the creativity of the players.
Hope these tips help in your pursuit of running a really fun campaign!
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💙🤍~*Ravenclaw*~ 🔮
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Dear Community of D&D Beyond,
I am new to Dungeons and Dragons. I have been playing for almost a year as a player- But I have never had the chance to be a Dungeon Master once, except for some One-shots I have been hosting recently.
Hosting those one-shots was truly majestic. I fell in love with being a Dungeon Master. Therefore I decided to create my own campaign with an original story, world etc. But I do not know where to begin with and how to get started with this project.
By the way, I know there are premade adventures and modules but I truly want to make an entirely original campaign. However, classes, races, weapons and items will stay the same.
I am very excited and extremely happy to listen to your ideas and advice. I will be waiting behind my screen.
Have a wonderful day and a nice weekend you all. Happy to be here.
Best regards.
RedBeansBarbarian
Matt Colville has an excellent YouTube series called Running the Game, he talks about everything from making a good starting adventure, a town, how to introduce bad guys, and more!
best advice i can give you is just wait. be a DM for awhile, read a bunch of modules and send players through them - study how they're put together and how they're played through. reading a module from the eyes of someone who has been a DM for awhile is completely different than from the eyes of a player. THEN start creating your own...maybe sprinkle one or two of your homebrews in the mix at first. what you're wanting to do is like saying you want to build a house on the way to the store to pick up your very first hammer. you may very well build a house, but it'll be fully of flaws that no one in their right mind would want to live in.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Here's an idea: Run a fight sim with minimal structure and then add more as you go along.
Enjoy my magic items, spells, monsters, my race, and a few feats. And GIVE ME FEEDBACK... or else.
Like what I say?
⬐ Just press this little guy right here.
The advice of the previous posters is 100 percent valid and good advice. As the DM you really should be experienced with the basic rules and gameplay, that being said... Creating your own campaign is a lot like writing your own novel... and just like writing a novel there are no proper rules or guidelines by which you must follow... You are telling a story and you can create your story however you wish...
What I do... I plan a campaign that will run for years... Think of it like a Legend of Zelda game... I first establish my ultimate BBEG... But what I select is something on the level of God, Asmodeus, Tiamat, etc... Think Ganon... I then establish sub BBEGs... these can still be extremely powerful monsters, Dragons or Liches and I tie their motives ultimately to the Ultimate BBEG. Think again of them as temple guardians in Zelda... I then start creating my world... I like to pick or create a map and then break it up into regions or realms and then in those areas I add a capital city and a few towns, cities, villages, depending on the populous... I don't suggest over creating your world... you just need a skeleton that you can add meat and muscle as time goes on...
You will need an inciting action or problem that will drive your story and bond your players together... In my current campaign, the players entered an tournament to decide the city's champions for a quest... they started out by fighting each other which helped them learn how to fight in D&D as many of my players were new... after that round of combat I bound them together as a group to fight other groups... this pretense allowed me to get the players to meet each other and then learn to work together to take on increasingly harder challenges... at the end when they were victorious, the city gifted them useful group items such as a bag of holding. I now have a group that is keyed up for a quest... you just need to figure out what the quest will be...
Some simple strategies for building a quest are:
Like I said... You are the storyteller... but always talking at your PCs as an NPCs becomes stale and boring... be creative... I like to write journals of dead or lost NPCs that the players can read and physically hold. You can use Tarot cards or fortune tellers to predict their futures and dump lore on the players. Libraries and book shops are also ways that you can push your narrative... Puzzle boxes, invisible ink, wax seals, Guilds, charters... The more experienced you are as a storyteller will make your campaign all the more believable and fun...
I suggest watching Critical Role... You can see how a master DM builds a world but is also a rule master. Matt is in a league of his own... Start off on Campaign 1 episode 1...
You can also add props, terrain, miniatures, etc to you game as well. If you are looking for ideas I have an Instagram devoted only to making DnD stuff. theleprechaun_fantasy_workshop
Let your paintbrush tell a story!
The Leprechaun Fantasy Workshop (@leprechaun-fantasy-workshop) | AllMyLinks
J.p. McNeill
oof this is hard... I usually recommend starting off with a book and then changing the campaign to fit you and your group. It is a lot of work and effort to create something from scratch. I recommend taking it slow. do a one shot or two start to get a feel for things.
Look at books like Dungeon masters guide, the monsters know what they are doing and xanthars guild to everything. Look up youtubers like How to be a Great DM, Nerdarchy and Dudgeon Dudes. Spend Days prepping.
The Key to being a good DM is knowing your group, Having fun, and being able to do things off the cuff. These things takes lots of practice, patience and learning. Know that you are not going to be good. props and other things are nice but not needed for a new DM. Theater of the mind works great! Prompt your players to be creative. Be descriptive. BS your way through things and make it epic and fun.
Good Luck let us know how it goes. Having D&D beyond will already give you access to A LOT of stuff to help you. You will not be a great DM on your first session or even first campaign but hopefully you will grow and grow. Even experience DM make mistakes and have bad days. the important thing is having fun
So after being a player for two sessions, one was a couple years before the second I got the starters set and ran my first ever campaign. So all I can tell you is that you want to take it dungeon by dungeon and let the characters guide the story. After awhile of that then you want to establish an overarching problem that needs to be solved. For me it was my characters being the first worshipers of a new god that my cleric wanted wanted. Don’t establish a world until after a couple sessions, when you gat a feel for the terrain you want.
Some ideas for the first dungeon is,
What you are doing right now shows you are on the right path. All these posts have good advice and take what you can. Continue to ask questions. Run the game. You only get better by doing. Find your rhythm and style using the advice here, and from others to structure the flow of the game, what you want to run, and be willing to change or incorporate what your days do or say into your own ideas. I have been running games for a decade so take what I say and use it or don't we are just people telling from your own experience and perspective that hopefully helps you develop what you want.
In terms of ideas here are some of my personal favorites that I have used so feel free to take them and add your own spin, just let me know if you do so I can reuse it =D
- Having a quest giver gather exceptional people to go into a nearby ruin tomb to retrieve some treasure from ancient time or just long ago that is now overrun with monster or monsters of the week.
-MURDER! There has been a high profile murder and everyone is suspect. Until the culprit is caught or at least someone is turned in the village/town/city is on lockdown.
-You meet in a tavern, and the barkeep has found giant rats in the cellar and is willing to offer a few coins to those who can take them out.
-The land is cursed and the people think they know why. An evil has setup its lair and they need some capable adventurers to kill the evil. It just turns out that the evil that they thought was the cause was only a servant of something much fouler.
Hope this is useful to you and may the dice roll high in your players' favor.
Excellent advice by all! So, I'm the kind of DM who creates basically from scratch, and I too began with one-shots. I am now happily running a full campaign, and so, here's a few tips about taking the step from one-shots to long-shots.
1: Pick a plot. It can be simple or intricate; sometimes I'll take a piece of paper, write down "caravan gets raided and there's tracks to follow; find rare plant for disease cure; city wants to hire adventurers to hunt down criminal, but criminal is actually persecuted fugitive-plot twist" and then I'll pick which ever one feels right. Now, I have my plot.
2: Build a world. This starts with mapping a village; and then the roads going to a hub of surrounding villages. If your campaign is set in a large city, exchange village for neighborhoods/districts. You can set it in any biome you like; my favorite is deserts. Name the villages, and write some basic info on a piece of paper: the mayor/warlord who runs each one, the main temple's primary deity, the local industries that support the inhabitants. Finally, write a list of taverns or lodgings, and keep these varied to add flavor to the player's experience; for instance, if they enter the village of "Waterdale" give them the option of staying at a nice place, "King's Barrow", or they can save money and go to a seedy place like "The Dragon's Eye". These little details add A LOT of fun to a campaign, regardless of the plot!
3: Carefully insert the plot into the created world. Decide which village governments are central to the plot, or which locations are important vs. just another stop on the road. Finally, make sure to add a few red herrings (British term for a false lead; i.e. the suspicious guy with the eyepatch who looks scary and is following the adventurers, but who is actually a protector hired by a friendly NPC to keep an eye on the party in a time of danger).
4. Be flexible! So often during game play, a party member will ask during free action, "I really want to buy a saddle for my camel! can I buy a pink one?" or, "I don't want to go to this market; I want to see what else may be in town." Feel free to invent something on the spot, even memorable NPC's can be created instantaneously. Also, be careful not to build a world so rigid that it constricts the creativity of the players.
Hope these tips help in your pursuit of running a really fun campaign!
💙🤍~*Ravenclaw*~ 🔮