Okay - technically it's not my first but it is my first very serious attempt. I started DMing a few months ago when our regular DM wasn't available. I crutched along pretty sloppily on the adventure that came in the Essential's Kit and took place in the Forgotten Realms. I wanna stay in this land and keep going - I am homebrew playing but like.... where do I start on making a good, enjoyable and exciting campaign? I kinda need to stay with adventures that can be done in about 4-5 hours since I'm the back up DM for our group and we could have some extended periods of time between when we play my campaign. I'm currently using whatever books might help that I already own and I'm on the Wiki page for Forgotten realms as well. Any guidance or ideas would be awesome.
It sounds like you are looking to do a series of one-shots, not a full fledged regular campaign, and that you want adventures that can be done in small segments which tie together into a greater narrative, rather than a single, overarching story.
You might want to look at Arthurian legend, adapted to Forgotten Realms, for inspiration. The Matter of Britain is often told through small vignettes using the characters drawn from the same basic group. The tale overall tells the story of Arthur and his knights, but it does so through smaller character pieces focused on miniature adventures. Have some overarching quest (say, the unification of the country or searching for a mythical artefact) which ties the stories together, with each mini-story playing a small part in the greater whole.
For a more modern analogy, the early Harry Potter movies, in an effort to tell the books’ whole story, focus on small adventures, hitting the highlights (first day of classes, Christmas, big events, end of school), while skipping over months of in-world time. You could even take the analogy a step further and just use the Strixhaven campaign and call it a school on Forgotten Realms.
By focusing on the highlights of a campaign, and skipping over things like shopping, travel, etc. you can streamline the storytelling some, making it feel more significant when there might be weeks between sessions.
Actually - shortly after this I got deep in the history of Forgotten Realms from creation to "modern times" and I wrote a skeleton for a story line that can be years or a few months or however long we want to make this campaign. I used the lore to create the narrative of a story I thought of involving the Era of Upheaval and then reuniting of Albeir and Toril as the historical background that spawns a future event my characters will initiate and this involves the portal that is "myth' between Earth and Faerun/Forgotten Realm. I think it'll work..... its been so long since I did any writing and I think I choked this morning for a minute. lol
You could always do some of the anthologies that WotC has out there. I especially like Candlekeep Mysteries but there are several others out there like Ghosts of Saltmarsh or the Radiant Citadel. These can be used to plug into your home brew campaign or just run as a standalone.
Okay - technically it's not my first but it is my first very serious attempt. I started DMing a few months ago when our regular DM wasn't available. I crutched along pretty sloppily on the adventure that came in the Essential's Kit and took place in the Forgotten Realms. I wanna stay in this land and keep going - I am homebrew playing but like.... where do I start on making a good, enjoyable and exciting campaign? I kinda need to stay with adventures that can be done in about 4-5 hours since I'm the back up DM for our group and we could have some extended periods of time between when we play my campaign. I'm currently using whatever books might help that I already own and I'm on the Wiki page for Forgotten realms as well. Any guidance or ideas would be awesome.
It sounds like you are looking to do a series of one-shots, not a full fledged regular campaign, and that you want adventures that can be done in small segments which tie together into a greater narrative, rather than a single, overarching story.
You might want to look at Arthurian legend, adapted to Forgotten Realms, for inspiration. The Matter of Britain is often told through small vignettes using the characters drawn from the same basic group. The tale overall tells the story of Arthur and his knights, but it does so through smaller character pieces focused on miniature adventures. Have some overarching quest (say, the unification of the country or searching for a mythical artefact) which ties the stories together, with each mini-story playing a small part in the greater whole.
For a more modern analogy, the early Harry Potter movies, in an effort to tell the books’ whole story, focus on small adventures, hitting the highlights (first day of classes, Christmas, big events, end of school), while skipping over months of in-world time. You could even take the analogy a step further and just use the Strixhaven campaign and call it a school on Forgotten Realms.
By focusing on the highlights of a campaign, and skipping over things like shopping, travel, etc. you can streamline the storytelling some, making it feel more significant when there might be weeks between sessions.
Actually - shortly after this I got deep in the history of Forgotten Realms from creation to "modern times" and I wrote a skeleton for a story line that can be years or a few months or however long we want to make this campaign. I used the lore to create the narrative of a story I thought of involving the Era of Upheaval and then reuniting of Albeir and Toril as the historical background that spawns a future event my characters will initiate and this involves the portal that is "myth' between Earth and Faerun/Forgotten Realm. I think it'll work..... its been so long since I did any writing and I think I choked this morning for a minute. lol
Also - Thank you!! Those are also spectacular ideas too.
You could always do some of the anthologies that WotC has out there. I especially like Candlekeep Mysteries but there are several others out there like Ghosts of Saltmarsh or the Radiant Citadel.
These can be used to plug into your home brew campaign or just run as a standalone.
I second Candlekeep Mysteries. I've used almost every part of it in various games and it is very easy to plug and play into most world settings.