I wanna DM finally and was curious about running Lost Mines, COS, or another module? I bought dang near every book... including the awesome dragon lance one.
I haven't run Curse of Strahd, but I would suggest starting with Lost Mine. It's a more "safe" setting, as Strahd has a more grimdark, gothic horror vibe. Also, CoS is super deadly.
Not much advice for running Lost Mine. Just make sure to read through it so you have at least an idea of what lies in each location. LMoP is pretty easy for new DMs so there isn't much prep work needed.
Side note: you don't need every book. In fact, I would recommend just buying whichever modules you plan to run. If you know what you're doing, you can even just make an adventure yourself.
I would definitely run the Lost Mines first, because the Curse of Strahd (while being considered one of the best campaigns) does have some significant hurdles, the big one being that the party are trapped in an oppressive, dark, constantly dangerous realm for the entire campaign, and that's not going to fit a lot of players' expectations, because it doesn't let the characters decompress.
My advice for prep would be to at least read through the module once before starting the campaign, and mark pages that contain charts or information that you think you might need to reference in the game. And then re-read each session's material before that session to keep it fresh in your mind and take notes. That gives you the context for the whole story arc, while keeping what's most immediately relevant at the forefront.
I would definitely run the Lost Mines first, because the Curse of Strahd (while being considered one of the best campaigns) does have some significant hurdles, the big one being that the party are trapped in an oppressive, dark, constantly dangerous realm for the entire campaign, and that's not going to fit a lot of players' expectations, because it doesn't let the characters decompress.
My advice for prep would be to at least read through the module once before starting the campaign, and mark pages that contain charts or information that you think you might need to reference in the game. And then re-read each session's material before that session to keep it fresh in your mind and take notes. That gives you the context for the whole story arc, while keeping what's most immediately relevant at the forefront.
+1
Would also like to mention that Chapter 2 of Lost Mine has a random encounter table, which is good for a few sessions but gets repetitive quickly. Try expanding it a little, and remember that not every encounter needs to end in combat.
If you really like the Dragonlance book, I'd go with that. I think it would work just fine as a first campaign. Lost Mines is actually designed to be a first campaign. CoS I feel would be a rough first go for players and DMs, I think it requires some experience to do well on both sides of the screen.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'd suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver or Dragon of Ice Spire Peak. Stormwreck Isle might also be a good first one to run but I haven't read it. I've run DoIP and CoS and played LMoP - I do not recommend CoS for a first time DM, there is too much going on and it is too much of a sandbox. CoS also has a number of grimdark/triggering type elements that might not work for all players.
In terms of running the beginner modules, read over the whole thing and have an idea of what is intended to happen. Then give a bit of thought to what the players might decide to do at various events in the module and how you would handle those.
For example, the very first encounter is the dead horse on the road with a small ambush. This can go in several unexpected directions for a new DM. The setup is that the party has been hired to take or escort a wagon of supplies to a merchant in Phadalin. How the DM sets this up can have a strong impact on how the first encounter goes but the module doesn't mention this.
What the module seems to expect: The party defeats the goblin ambush, recognizes that the horse belongs to Gundren, realize that the goblins have captured him, characters decide to follow the trail and rescue him.
Other ways it can go:
1) The goblins are weak but with critical hits or high rolls by the NPCs and low rolls from the party it can go badly with characters knocked unconscious or dead. A good backup is to include an NPC wagon driver that stays out of the fight unless it looks like it is going badly for the players. Then the driver can be an alternate target or they can pull out a bow and help.
2) Depending on how the DM introduces the relationship to Gundren - the players may make different decisions when faced with the dead horse.
- if Gundren is a friend/sponsor/important employer then the party might decide to follow the trail and rescue Gundren
- if the emphasis was placed on the characters being hired to guard the wagon and deliver the supplies then the characters might decide to go to Phandalin first, deliver the supplies, then go back to see if they can find Gundren. This is even more likely if Gundren was captured the previous day or longer since the longer the time since he was captured then perhaps the urgency for the rescue is also less since he may already be dead and if he isn't then they are likely keeping him alive for some reason.
When I played it, the party went to deliver the goods to Phandalin first and the DM hadn't really looked at the stuff on Phandalin since he didn't expect that outcome just based on reading the first chapter. This made it a bit tougher on the DM to do a good job describing the town (he missed the presence of the "guards" in the town on our first visit for example).
So, it is a good idea to read/skim the entire adventure to have an idea of how it is expected to go and how it could go ...
I'd suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver or Dragon of Ice Spire Peak. Stormwreck Isle might also be a good first one to run but I haven't read it. I've run DoIP and CoS and played LMoP - I do not recommend CoS for a first time DM, there is too much going on and it is too much of a sandbox. CoS also has a number of grimdark/triggering type elements that might not work for all players.
In terms of running the beginner modules, read over the whole thing and have an idea of what is intended to happen. Then give a bit of thought to what the players might decide to do at various events in the module and how you would handle those.
For example, the very first encounter is the dead horse on the road with a small ambush. This can go in several unexpected directions for a new DM. The setup is that the party has been hired to take or escort a wagon of supplies to a merchant in Phadalin. How the DM sets this up can have a strong impact on how the first encounter goes but the module doesn't mention this.
What the module seems to expect: The party defeats the goblin ambush, recognizes that the horse belongs to Gundren, realize that the goblins have captured him, characters decide to follow the trail and rescue him.
Other ways it can go:
1) The goblins are weak but with critical hits or high rolls by the NPCs and low rolls from the party it can go badly with characters knocked unconscious or dead. A good backup is to include an NPC wagon driver that stays out of the fight unless it looks like it is going badly for the players. Then the driver can be an alternate target or they can pull out a bow and help.
2) Depending on how the DM introduces the relationship to Gundren - the players may make different decisions when faced with the dead horse.
- if Gundren is a friend/sponsor/important employer then the party might decide to follow the trail and rescue Gundren
- if the emphasis was placed on the characters being hired to guard the wagon and deliver the supplies then the characters might decide to go to Phandalin first, deliver the supplies, then go back to see if they can find Gundren. This is even more likely if Gundren was captured the previous day or longer since the longer the time since he was captured then perhaps the urgency for the rescue is also less since he may already be dead and if he isn't then they are likely keeping him alive for some reason.
When I played it, the party went to deliver the goods to Phandalin first and the DM hadn't really looked at the stuff on Phandalin since he didn't expect that outcome just based on reading the first chapter. This made it a bit tougher on the DM to do a good job describing the town (he missed the presence of the "guards" in the town on our first visit for example).
So, it is a good idea to read/skim the entire adventure to have an idea of how it is expected to go and how it could go ...
P.S. LMoP is free on D&D Beyond
Good advice. Minor spoilers ahead.
The last time I ran LMoP, the party decided that the only reason why they're even rescuing Gundren is because he failed to pay them for delivering the supplies. Their entire objective and reason for dealing with the Black Spider, was so they could properly bill Gundren.
Players will always surprise you. They WILL do something you could never have prepped for. And more often than not, you end up with a unique story.
The first time I DM'ed I ran LMoP and we had a great time. It is, in my opinion (and maybe fact?), it is designed for both new players and DM's to run. It's low stakes, uncomplicated, straight forward fun.
I actually combined a bit of CoS in it as well. When I ran it, it was the end of September just getting into October and my players were telling me that they would like some kind of "Halloween" injected into the game lol. So we did a 2 part side mission where Phandelver was celebrating the "Harvest Festival". Part of the event involved the players hanging out in the pumpkin patch waiting for Phandelvers patron saint of harvest "Charlie Pumpkin" to show up and pass out candy to all the good little boys and girls of the town. Turns out that year "Charlie Pumpkin" had been corrupted and grew into a 15 foot tall Jack Skellington look alike with a pumpkin for its head. And all the carved Jack-O-Lanterns grew tiny vine arms and legs and ran around breathing fire on people.
The second part, which took place Halloween week (IRL), I had the players get an invitation to attend a Harvest Festival ball. A coach with a skeletal driver showed up and whisked the players off to Barovia. The coach let them off in front of a large house where other people were lining up to go inside. Once they got inside the scenery changed to the Death House component of the CoS module. They ran that as a one shot, escaped the house and were then transported back to Phandelver not quite sure if the whole thing actually happened or not.
LMoP is the most new DM friendly campaign in the edition, its got some great classic archetypes your players can interact with, some neat factions, and great NPC's. CoS is great but very dark and can get kind of complicated with a lot for players to be doing at once (Which is a strength if you can handle it) As for how do you prepare, I'd say check out the encounters, do some basic math, if a creature in the encounter can one shot a PC then maybe switch it out with a couple smaller guys. If you already have your player characters character sheets finished, take a look through their backstory and see if you can replace one of the NPC's in the module with NPC's from the Player Characters Backgrounds. Do some research on gods or patrons if your players include a cleric or warlock. Find art for locations (I just find it helps players get more involved).
Lost mines would be the best bet for a first time in my opinion. As for preparation, read up on your rules, and prepare for your players to go in the exact opposite direction they should. My party did that once, we weren't supposed to go into this city, but we were just like "Let's go check it out" but they wouldn't allow non-humans in and we only had one human. It was... interesting.
Curse of Strahd is not a starter campaign for anyone, players or DM's.
I've been running Ravenloft (and all of it's variations) since 1988 and I still struggle to keep all of the lore in CoS straight, keep all the NPC's on track, and keep the players alive.
Lost Mines of Phandelver is not only written as a beginner player's adventure, but a beginner Dungeon Master's too, telling you what to say/roll and when, and tips on how to manage the encounters and loot. Curse of Strahd is a well penned book, but as an adventure it requires commitment and its world demands attention from the players. LMoP can be run through fairly quickly, and it gets into the three pillars of the game quickly enough for the players to decide if they want to carry on or give up.
They're both great modules and do wonders for providing inspiration to new and experienced DMs, but LMoP is the one I'd recommend.
In terms of prep, LMoP works great out of the box with plenty of room to add your own things or tie in character backstories. I'm awful at improv but I found it incredibly easy to make stuff up on the fly, and the locations mapped out in that area of the Sword Coast give enough details to work with for a spontaneous walk away from the pre-written content. There is a sense of things being static, like a video game where enemies are just waiting for the players to come to them rather than doing their own thing, but you can change that up by having hobgoblin/orc patrols and raids (thus leaving their bases less well defended), Venomfang the Green Dragon might make an appearance, and every victory might hamper the main antagonist or bring Gundren Rockseeker to his end. If things are getting stagnant, the adventure does give ideas on how to spice things up. If you buy the Dragon of Icespire Peak, the Essentials Kit, that has some additional stuff you can tie in as that too takes place in and around Phandalin.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I spoke to an older DM I know, and he said that Phandelver is a bit more complicated than he'd prefer for new players. He suggested trying something more like a one-shot to start, something where they start combat really early and have one simple objective. E.G. they are hired by a wealthy noble to infiltrate a tower and rescue their son/daughter. But Phandelver would be the best pre-written that I know of for new players.
I spoke to an older DM I know, and he said that Phandelver is a bit more complicated than he'd prefer for new players. He suggested trying something more like a one-shot to start, something where they start combat really early and have one simple objective. E.G. they are hired by a wealthy noble to infiltrate a tower and rescue their son/daughter. But Phandelver would be the best pre-written that I know of for new players.
Phandelver isn't so much complicated as it is... supportive of the message that the DM must pre-read a pre-made adventure. there's no being surprised at the twists (in the text plot) along with the players. in fact, you can skim it now and decide for yourself since it's free on this site.
I spoke to an older DM I know, and he said that Phandelver is a bit more complicated than he'd prefer for new players. He suggested trying something more like a one-shot to start, something where they start combat really early and have one simple objective. E.G. they are hired by a wealthy noble to infiltrate a tower and rescue their son/daughter. But Phandelver would be the best pre-written that I know of for new players.
Phandelver isn't so much complicated as it is... supportive of the message that the DM must pre-read a pre-made adventure. there's no being surprised at the twists (in the text plot) along with the players. in fact, you can skim it now and decide for yourself since it's free on this site.
Fair enough, just thought I would share his opinion :)
I would HIGHLY suggest Lost Mines over Curse of Strahd.
Lost Mines is a great way to get your feet wet DMing for the first time. (It's not perfect and you will learn that all modules are more of a framework to build off of).
Curse of Strahd is a laid out in a way that is a nightmare to understand for a new DM. There it's organization is all over the place and there are something like 60 named NPCs that all have varying levels of importance and back stories to know.
As the DM I'm not an AI bot that just runs the encounters and hopes the players sus out "the fix" before they either wipe or win. There's an art to knowing the sweet spot where your players fear death but are not in over their heads all the time. Some encounters, as written, can be a few poor choices into a total party wipe. No judgements if it's your jam but it's not mine to restart modules 2-3 times because everyone had to start new characters. :D
Anyone have any thoughts as to whether the Dragonlance book's campaign makes sense for a starter group? OP mentioned really liking it, and my read through of it seems to think it's written in a very much introductory mode, or do some folks think some of the Dragonlance character options and feats are more "advanced" than some beginner groups would be up for?
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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I wanna DM finally and was curious about running Lost Mines, COS, or another module? I bought dang near every book... including the awesome dragon lance one.
Any tips on prepping besides reading the book?
I haven't run Curse of Strahd, but I would suggest starting with Lost Mine. It's a more "safe" setting, as Strahd has a more grimdark, gothic horror vibe. Also, CoS is super deadly.
Not much advice for running Lost Mine. Just make sure to read through it so you have at least an idea of what lies in each location. LMoP is pretty easy for new DMs so there isn't much prep work needed.
Side note: you don't need every book. In fact, I would recommend just buying whichever modules you plan to run. If you know what you're doing, you can even just make an adventure yourself.
[REDACTED]
I would definitely run the Lost Mines first, because the Curse of Strahd (while being considered one of the best campaigns) does have some significant hurdles, the big one being that the party are trapped in an oppressive, dark, constantly dangerous realm for the entire campaign, and that's not going to fit a lot of players' expectations, because it doesn't let the characters decompress.
My advice for prep would be to at least read through the module once before starting the campaign, and mark pages that contain charts or information that you think you might need to reference in the game. And then re-read each session's material before that session to keep it fresh in your mind and take notes. That gives you the context for the whole story arc, while keeping what's most immediately relevant at the forefront.
+1
Would also like to mention that Chapter 2 of Lost Mine has a random encounter table, which is good for a few sessions but gets repetitive quickly. Try expanding it a little, and remember that not every encounter needs to end in combat.
[REDACTED]
If you really like the Dragonlance book, I'd go with that. I think it would work just fine as a first campaign. Lost Mines is actually designed to be a first campaign. CoS I feel would be a rough first go for players and DMs, I think it requires some experience to do well on both sides of the screen.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'd suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver or Dragon of Ice Spire Peak. Stormwreck Isle might also be a good first one to run but I haven't read it. I've run DoIP and CoS and played LMoP - I do not recommend CoS for a first time DM, there is too much going on and it is too much of a sandbox. CoS also has a number of grimdark/triggering type elements that might not work for all players.
In terms of running the beginner modules, read over the whole thing and have an idea of what is intended to happen. Then give a bit of thought to what the players might decide to do at various events in the module and how you would handle those.
For example, the very first encounter is the dead horse on the road with a small ambush. This can go in several unexpected directions for a new DM. The setup is that the party has been hired to take or escort a wagon of supplies to a merchant in Phadalin. How the DM sets this up can have a strong impact on how the first encounter goes but the module doesn't mention this.
What the module seems to expect: The party defeats the goblin ambush, recognizes that the horse belongs to Gundren, realize that the goblins have captured him, characters decide to follow the trail and rescue him.
Other ways it can go:
1) The goblins are weak but with critical hits or high rolls by the NPCs and low rolls from the party it can go badly with characters knocked unconscious or dead. A good backup is to include an NPC wagon driver that stays out of the fight unless it looks like it is going badly for the players. Then the driver can be an alternate target or they can pull out a bow and help.
2) Depending on how the DM introduces the relationship to Gundren - the players may make different decisions when faced with the dead horse.
- if Gundren is a friend/sponsor/important employer then the party might decide to follow the trail and rescue Gundren
- if the emphasis was placed on the characters being hired to guard the wagon and deliver the supplies then the characters might decide to go to Phandalin first, deliver the supplies, then go back to see if they can find Gundren. This is even more likely if Gundren was captured the previous day or longer since the longer the time since he was captured then perhaps the urgency for the rescue is also less since he may already be dead and if he isn't then they are likely keeping him alive for some reason.
When I played it, the party went to deliver the goods to Phandalin first and the DM hadn't really looked at the stuff on Phandalin since he didn't expect that outcome just based on reading the first chapter. This made it a bit tougher on the DM to do a good job describing the town (he missed the presence of the "guards" in the town on our first visit for example).
So, it is a good idea to read/skim the entire adventure to have an idea of how it is expected to go and how it could go ...
P.S. LMoP is free on D&D Beyond
Good advice. Minor spoilers ahead.
The last time I ran LMoP, the party decided that the only reason why they're even rescuing Gundren is because he failed to pay them for delivering the supplies. Their entire objective and reason for dealing with the Black Spider, was so they could properly bill Gundren.
Players will always surprise you. They WILL do something you could never have prepped for. And more often than not, you end up with a unique story.
[REDACTED]
The first time I DM'ed I ran LMoP and we had a great time. It is, in my opinion (and maybe fact?), it is designed for both new players and DM's to run. It's low stakes, uncomplicated, straight forward fun.
I actually combined a bit of CoS in it as well. When I ran it, it was the end of September just getting into October and my players were telling me that they would like some kind of "Halloween" injected into the game lol. So we did a 2 part side mission where Phandelver was celebrating the "Harvest Festival". Part of the event involved the players hanging out in the pumpkin patch waiting for Phandelvers patron saint of harvest "Charlie Pumpkin" to show up and pass out candy to all the good little boys and girls of the town. Turns out that year "Charlie Pumpkin" had been corrupted and grew into a 15 foot tall Jack Skellington look alike with a pumpkin for its head. And all the carved Jack-O-Lanterns grew tiny vine arms and legs and ran around breathing fire on people.
The second part, which took place Halloween week (IRL), I had the players get an invitation to attend a Harvest Festival ball. A coach with a skeletal driver showed up and whisked the players off to Barovia. The coach let them off in front of a large house where other people were lining up to go inside. Once they got inside the scenery changed to the Death House component of the CoS module. They ran that as a one shot, escaped the house and were then transported back to Phandelver not quite sure if the whole thing actually happened or not.
LMoP is the most new DM friendly campaign in the edition, its got some great classic archetypes your players can interact with, some neat factions, and great NPC's. CoS is great but very dark and can get kind of complicated with a lot for players to be doing at once (Which is a strength if you can handle it) As for how do you prepare, I'd say check out the encounters, do some basic math, if a creature in the encounter can one shot a PC then maybe switch it out with a couple smaller guys. If you already have your player characters character sheets finished, take a look through their backstory and see if you can replace one of the NPC's in the module with NPC's from the Player Characters Backgrounds. Do some research on gods or patrons if your players include a cleric or warlock. Find art for locations (I just find it helps players get more involved).
Lost mines would be the best bet for a first time in my opinion. As for preparation, read up on your rules, and prepare for your players to go in the exact opposite direction they should. My party did that once, we weren't supposed to go into this city, but we were just like "Let's go check it out" but they wouldn't allow non-humans in and we only had one human. It was... interesting.
Curse of Strahd is not a starter campaign for anyone, players or DM's.
I've been running Ravenloft (and all of it's variations) since 1988 and I still struggle to keep all of the lore in CoS straight, keep all the NPC's on track, and keep the players alive.
"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
Tips, Tricks, Maps: Lantern Noir Presents
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
Lost Mines of Phandelver is not only written as a beginner player's adventure, but a beginner Dungeon Master's too, telling you what to say/roll and when, and tips on how to manage the encounters and loot. Curse of Strahd is a well penned book, but as an adventure it requires commitment and its world demands attention from the players. LMoP can be run through fairly quickly, and it gets into the three pillars of the game quickly enough for the players to decide if they want to carry on or give up.
They're both great modules and do wonders for providing inspiration to new and experienced DMs, but LMoP is the one I'd recommend.
In terms of prep, LMoP works great out of the box with plenty of room to add your own things or tie in character backstories. I'm awful at improv but I found it incredibly easy to make stuff up on the fly, and the locations mapped out in that area of the Sword Coast give enough details to work with for a spontaneous walk away from the pre-written content. There is a sense of things being static, like a video game where enemies are just waiting for the players to come to them rather than doing their own thing, but you can change that up by having hobgoblin/orc patrols and raids (thus leaving their bases less well defended), Venomfang the Green Dragon might make an appearance, and every victory might hamper the main antagonist or bring Gundren Rockseeker to his end. If things are getting stagnant, the adventure does give ideas on how to spice things up. If you buy the Dragon of Icespire Peak, the Essentials Kit, that has some additional stuff you can tie in as that too takes place in and around Phandalin.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
I spoke to an older DM I know, and he said that Phandelver is a bit more complicated than he'd prefer for new players. He suggested trying something more like a one-shot to start, something where they start combat really early and have one simple objective. E.G. they are hired by a wealthy noble to infiltrate a tower and rescue their son/daughter. But Phandelver would be the best pre-written that I know of for new players.
Phandelver isn't so much complicated as it is... supportive of the message that the DM must pre-read a pre-made adventure. there's no being surprised at the twists (in the text plot) along with the players. in fact, you can skim it now and decide for yourself since it's free on this site.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
Fair enough, just thought I would share his opinion :)
That’s not your job. That’s their job.
I would HIGHLY suggest Lost Mines over Curse of Strahd.
Lost Mines is a great way to get your feet wet DMing for the first time. (It's not perfect and you will learn that all modules are more of a framework to build off of).
Curse of Strahd is a laid out in a way that is a nightmare to understand for a new DM. There it's organization is all over the place and there are something like 60 named NPCs that all have varying levels of importance and back stories to know.
Eh.. it's a team effort.
As the DM I'm not an AI bot that just runs the encounters and hopes the players sus out "the fix" before they either wipe or win. There's an art to knowing the sweet spot where your players fear death but are not in over their heads all the time. Some encounters, as written, can be a few poor choices into a total party wipe. No judgements if it's your jam but it's not mine to restart modules 2-3 times because everyone had to start new characters. :D
"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
Tips, Tricks, Maps: Lantern Noir Presents
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
Anyone have any thoughts as to whether the Dragonlance book's campaign makes sense for a starter group? OP mentioned really liking it, and my read through of it seems to think it's written in a very much introductory mode, or do some folks think some of the Dragonlance character options and feats are more "advanced" than some beginner groups would be up for?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.