I've recently arrived in Malaysia from the US, and there's a small but dedicated DnD community here. There're also, near where I live and work, a lot of university students and young people – the best demographic for starting with DnD. So, I've put together a plan with a nearby bookstore to do a short (5-6 session) pilot run and test the waters for potential programming and DnD events.
Given the limited nature of the run (4 hour sessions, 5 or 6 sessions), I'm planning to run Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. I figure, this one is easy to run, easy to learn from, and as compared to Heroes of the Borderlands completable within the timeframe.
I've DM'd a bunch but I haven't run Dragons before. Or Heroes, for that matter (I came up with the old LMOP). So, I'm wondering if folks who have DM'd it have some perspective to share or insights?
Things I can safely assume is that all the participants will be English speakers, maybe as a second language but still. What I can't assume is they will have access to, like, all the spell descriptions, or magic item cards.
We'll use pre-gens for this run, and the level 1-3 pre-gens for Dragons (+1 extra, if we get 6 players) seem balanced and easy enough. Looking at the wizard pre-gen for Dragons, none of the spells are described in terms of what they do. I know what they do, but I wonder if the box contains these details or if WotC assumed a player or DM would figure it out somehow?
It's "all materials provided" for my part, so I'm gonna bring my dice, a battle grid map, my white-erase tokens and cards, and whatever is in the box. I just want to make sure I have all my new players will need to play, and then that I run the campaign in a way that'll be fun and engaging for them (and any on-lookers).
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is a pretty solid tutorial campaign for D&D. It was the first thing I ever DM'd and it was the first ever campaign for some of my players. The isolated environment keeps it contained, so that the party doesn't have that many opportunities to sidetrack elsewhere in the world.
There's a few things I struggled with as a first-time DM as they weren't explained in the book, but nothing that couldn't be handled somehow. The hardest part was actually fit all the characters into the story. We didn't use the ready-made characters and all players created their own, providing the backstory for their character. And we continued straight to Tyranny of Dragons from this one, so I had to compile these two stories together as well.
As for the spell descriptions, I didn't buy "the box", just the digital book, so I don't know everything that is included in the physical set. But I printed the wizard spells as actual cards that I gave to the wizard player.
I've recently arrived in Malaysia from the US, and there's a small but dedicated DnD community here. There're also, near where I live and work, a lot of university students and young people – the best demographic for starting with DnD. So, I've put together a plan with a nearby bookstore to do a short (5-6 session) pilot run and test the waters for potential programming and DnD events.
Given the limited nature of the run (4 hour sessions, 5 or 6 sessions), I'm planning to run Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. I figure, this one is easy to run, easy to learn from, and as compared to Heroes of the Borderlands completable within the timeframe.
I've DM'd a bunch but I haven't run Dragons before. Or Heroes, for that matter (I came up with the old LMOP). So, I'm wondering if folks who have DM'd it have some perspective to share or insights?
Things I can safely assume is that all the participants will be English speakers, maybe as a second language but still. What I can't assume is they will have access to, like, all the spell descriptions, or magic item cards.
We'll use pre-gens for this run, and the level 1-3 pre-gens for Dragons (+1 extra, if we get 6 players) seem balanced and easy enough. Looking at the wizard pre-gen for Dragons, none of the spells are described in terms of what they do. I know what they do, but I wonder if the box contains these details or if WotC assumed a player or DM would figure it out somehow?
It's "all materials provided" for my part, so I'm gonna bring my dice, a battle grid map, my white-erase tokens and cards, and whatever is in the box. I just want to make sure I have all my new players will need to play, and then that I run the campaign in a way that'll be fun and engaging for them (and any on-lookers).
Thanks for any tips and tricks.
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is a pretty solid tutorial campaign for D&D. It was the first thing I ever DM'd and it was the first ever campaign for some of my players. The isolated environment keeps it contained, so that the party doesn't have that many opportunities to sidetrack elsewhere in the world.
There's a few things I struggled with as a first-time DM as they weren't explained in the book, but nothing that couldn't be handled somehow. The hardest part was actually fit all the characters into the story. We didn't use the ready-made characters and all players created their own, providing the backstory for their character. And we continued straight to Tyranny of Dragons from this one, so I had to compile these two stories together as well.
As for the spell descriptions, I didn't buy "the box", just the digital book, so I don't know everything that is included in the physical set. But I printed the wizard spells as actual cards that I gave to the wizard player.
Just follow the guide and it works