My son is about to begin his first DM experience and I think this could go sideways real quick. While he was home on Christmas break he told me he would DM his first game for a club at school beginning sometime in March. He didn't own any of the hardcover books until … Merry Christmas … we got him the 5e DM guide and PH. He had played 3.5e with his friends but had never DMed before.
He has continued to work on the whole thing but has decided to "turn them loose" right at the beginning. The party will have 8 players all 1st level. They will be "meeting after graduation" from the local Adventurer's academy where they met and formed friendships. Well, there is some crazy stuff going on because there are two teiflings(sp?) and a dragonborn in the party and some other stuff that may be problematic. The party is mostly made up of players with no D&D experience at all, two with a little experience and one with some experience.
My vision was that this is a "tutorial campaign" and the players would be somewhat railroaded for the first little bit and then they would get more freedom to take it where they wanted to go. This involved a long story in session 0 about how the met and traveled with a merchant caravan to a city three days ride away. The adventure begins at the city gates.
He decided to have them decide whether to take the merchant up on his offer to go with the caravan immediately, which could leave them anywhere instead of in the province where we have scripted the action to take place. I worry that he could have to run the whole thing on the fly and it is his first time as DM with five players with no experience. I wonder if he had a bad experience being railroaded in one of his campaigns as a player?
Well, I'm interested to hear where this thing goes.
I don't know if this is a question or what, but for what it's worth...
Nothing wrong with open ended. Throwing new players straight into the idea that you are in complete control and can do whatever the hell you want is fine, although can be overwhelming for some. So it's worth having a few things up your sleeve to give them direction.
So they've graduated. And decide to hang out in the town before picking up the caravan job. Fine. You can't live on campus anymore, so you have to find a house/lodging. And you don't have money. So how are you going to earn some? Have a jobs board ready with some minor adventures. Retrieving stolen goods, finding a missing whoever, assisting the city guard, going out to pick turnips (it's not glamorous, but you get paid AND all the turnips you can eat). The town is your sandbox, so get to know it well. A map is a must. There's a zillion towns on google that you can repurpose for this. Note down important buildings and some key NPC's. Get a good random encounter table. There's some nice encounters books in DMs Guild that are easy to repurpose as well. Waterdeep: City Encounters and Encounters in Port Nyanzaru. They can be handy for lots of little bits and pieces and will only cost you a $10 or so. And you can use them over and over again.
Thanks. You're correct that I didn't include a question but you recognized I was interested in getting some ideas on how to get this kicked off in a way my son could manage it.
In the original plan the party would not begin to decide things until they got to the "City" at the other end of the merchant's journey, but along the way they could learn about their surroundings. This provided the opportunity for the DM to set the scene for the adventure.
In this approach the DM won't have as much control over the surroundings beyond the map of the original city. With eight players I see this could become a real problem. They mostly don't have developed back stories so I worry they will come up with some off-the-wall skills they later want to add to their back stories to allow them to sidestep encounter ideas my son develops in the new sandbox.
I guess he may need to have an alternate dungeon that begins at the "Academy City" but they may want to avoid that as well and opt for something else in the sandbox.
On the other hand he could "stealth railroad" the party into his campaign by finding a way for all roads to lead to the map and the Province he designed for the adventure. How is that better than just having them join the caravan?
Skyrim is a great example of this. Assuming you have played it (or you probably have played something else quite like it) you recall the numerous dialogue sequences you have as you check off milestones in the quests. First you don't get many choices in the dialogue, two or three choices typically, but sometimes no choice, you just say your next line of the dialogue. The NPC replies with his line(s) and you get another "choice". Most often you end up at the same conclusion when you finish the dialogue encounter. Sometimes there are two possibilities such as when you meet a thief on the road. You can kill him -or- you can let yourself be robbed. Usually there is one outcome; you are directed when the next step on the quest will come and where that will be. Of course in Skyrim you can opt out of a quest and just stop pursuing the goal. And in a deeply developed DM world you can do the same thing.
"Hey, let's forget about the old coot and look for an adventure to the south." The party gathers their things and begins to head south. DM-<WTF>? Rolls a D20.
So anyway, I'm curious if folks think it is better to "stealth railroad" the party into pursuing the adventure the DM made -or- if the DM should just try and fake it for one session and then hopefully hook them into something he can develop next week enough to dig himself out of a hole? There seems to be a lot of animosity for DMs that expect a party to try and pursue the adventure he worked on if they decide they want something else the DM didn't include in the adventure but they never told him they wanted that. It seems very self centered for the players to demand the DM write a new adventure.
I avoid railroads as much as possible. If the characters don't want to do the railroad the DM needs to either sweeten the pot or abandon it.
Sweeteners: Cash. It's base, but it works. Convenience. Give the PC's another reason to want to get to the other town, and then the escort job becomes a "why the hell not" as part of a bigger thing. Favours. The merchant helps them out, and now they owe him. This could be him picking up their tab after they get drunk on a celebratory night out (graduation party!!!!) and they run up a tab they can't afford. Greed. They discover that the caravan is actually transporting something of immense value/interest. Now they may want to rob the whole damn thing, and why not!
All of my plots are tied into my PC's backstories. That's usually all the motivation my guys need.
You might suggest something more scripted for 1st time adventurers that will help him with a lot of the work. I would suggest "Keep on the Borderlands". Remember that from Basic? Anyway, DMSGuild has it for download and someone went to the trouble of providing a 5e guide (updated monster stats, treasure, etc.). They can all graduate and head of to the "Border" for adventure. And it's a good spot to start mapping out from.
Keep on the Borderlands was my first adventure as a player. I left the "Keep" and blundered into the hermit that hadn't been seen in years by anyone. I can't even remember how that one ended. My DM added a few homebrew dungeons in a few caves.
My [AD&D] character was a half-elf Cleric / Fighter / Magic User [lvl 1] with Str 15, Int 16, Wis 18, Dex 12, Con 10, Chr 12. He had a horse and a trained guard dog. Because of his low Charisma he had to hire a few hirelings to go on an adventure. I think I had a +1 sword and wore chainmail and carried a shield. DM had a problem because I was a cleric and didn't like clerics using edged weapons. Long, long time ago.
My son is about to begin his first DM experience and I think this could go sideways real quick. While he was home on Christmas break he told me he would DM his first game for a club at school beginning sometime in March. He didn't own any of the hardcover books until … Merry Christmas … we got him the 5e DM guide and PH. He had played 3.5e with his friends but had never DMed before.
I had not played in the past 30 years which was back when AD&D was the thing. I thought I'd help him construct the environment setting for the campaign and I gave him some advice that would have been pretty typical for AD&D. I outlined much of it at the end of December in this thread … https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/30405-coming-back-to-d-d-after-30-years
He has continued to work on the whole thing but has decided to "turn them loose" right at the beginning. The party will have 8 players all 1st level. They will be "meeting after graduation" from the local Adventurer's academy where they met and formed friendships. Well, there is some crazy stuff going on because there are two teiflings(sp?) and a dragonborn in the party and some other stuff that may be problematic. The party is mostly made up of players with no D&D experience at all, two with a little experience and one with some experience.
My vision was that this is a "tutorial campaign" and the players would be somewhat railroaded for the first little bit and then they would get more freedom to take it where they wanted to go. This involved a long story in session 0 about how the met and traveled with a merchant caravan to a city three days ride away. The adventure begins at the city gates.
He decided to have them decide whether to take the merchant up on his offer to go with the caravan immediately, which could leave them anywhere instead of in the province where we have scripted the action to take place. I worry that he could have to run the whole thing on the fly and it is his first time as DM with five players with no experience. I wonder if he had a bad experience being railroaded in one of his campaigns as a player?
Well, I'm interested to hear where this thing goes.
I don't know if this is a question or what, but for what it's worth...
Nothing wrong with open ended. Throwing new players straight into the idea that you are in complete control and can do whatever the hell you want is fine, although can be overwhelming for some. So it's worth having a few things up your sleeve to give them direction.
So they've graduated. And decide to hang out in the town before picking up the caravan job. Fine. You can't live on campus anymore, so you have to find a house/lodging. And you don't have money. So how are you going to earn some? Have a jobs board ready with some minor adventures. Retrieving stolen goods, finding a missing whoever, assisting the city guard, going out to pick turnips (it's not glamorous, but you get paid AND all the turnips you can eat). The town is your sandbox, so get to know it well. A map is a must. There's a zillion towns on google that you can repurpose for this. Note down important buildings and some key NPC's. Get a good random encounter table. There's some nice encounters books in DMs Guild that are easy to repurpose as well. Waterdeep: City Encounters and Encounters in Port Nyanzaru. They can be handy for lots of little bits and pieces and will only cost you a $10 or so. And you can use them over and over again.
MajorP,
Thanks. You're correct that I didn't include a question but you recognized I was interested in getting some ideas on how to get this kicked off in a way my son could manage it.
In the original plan the party would not begin to decide things until they got to the "City" at the other end of the merchant's journey, but along the way they could learn about their surroundings. This provided the opportunity for the DM to set the scene for the adventure.
In this approach the DM won't have as much control over the surroundings beyond the map of the original city. With eight players I see this could become a real problem. They mostly don't have developed back stories so I worry they will come up with some off-the-wall skills they later want to add to their back stories to allow them to sidestep encounter ideas my son develops in the new sandbox.
I guess he may need to have an alternate dungeon that begins at the "Academy City" but they may want to avoid that as well and opt for something else in the sandbox.
On the other hand he could "stealth railroad" the party into his campaign by finding a way for all roads to lead to the map and the Province he designed for the adventure. How is that better than just having them join the caravan?
Skyrim is a great example of this. Assuming you have played it (or you probably have played something else quite like it) you recall the numerous dialogue sequences you have as you check off milestones in the quests. First you don't get many choices in the dialogue, two or three choices typically, but sometimes no choice, you just say your next line of the dialogue. The NPC replies with his line(s) and you get another "choice". Most often you end up at the same conclusion when you finish the dialogue encounter. Sometimes there are two possibilities such as when you meet a thief on the road. You can kill him -or- you can let yourself be robbed. Usually there is one outcome; you are directed when the next step on the quest will come and where that will be. Of course in Skyrim you can opt out of a quest and just stop pursuing the goal. And in a deeply developed DM world you can do the same thing.
"Hey, let's forget about the old coot and look for an adventure to the south." The party gathers their things and begins to head south. DM-<WTF>? Rolls a D20.
So anyway, I'm curious if folks think it is better to "stealth railroad" the party into pursuing the adventure the DM made -or- if the DM should just try and fake it for one session and then hopefully hook them into something he can develop next week enough to dig himself out of a hole? There seems to be a lot of animosity for DMs that expect a party to try and pursue the adventure he worked on if they decide they want something else the DM didn't include in the adventure but they never told him they wanted that. It seems very self centered for the players to demand the DM write a new adventure.
I avoid railroads as much as possible. If the characters don't want to do the railroad the DM needs to either sweeten the pot or abandon it.
Sweeteners: Cash. It's base, but it works. Convenience. Give the PC's another reason to want to get to the other town, and then the escort job becomes a "why the hell not" as part of a bigger thing. Favours. The merchant helps them out, and now they owe him. This could be him picking up their tab after they get drunk on a celebratory night out (graduation party!!!!) and they run up a tab they can't afford. Greed. They discover that the caravan is actually transporting something of immense value/interest. Now they may want to rob the whole damn thing, and why not!
All of my plots are tied into my PC's backstories. That's usually all the motivation my guys need.
OldElf,
You might suggest something more scripted for 1st time adventurers that will help him with a lot of the work. I would suggest "Keep on the Borderlands". Remember that from Basic? Anyway, DMSGuild has it for download and someone went to the trouble of providing a 5e guide (updated monster stats, treasure, etc.). They can all graduate and head of to the "Border" for adventure. And it's a good spot to start mapping out from.
"ALWAYS GIVE A MONSTER AN EVEN BREAK!"
1st Edition DMG
Keep on the Borderlands was my first adventure as a player. I left the "Keep" and blundered into the hermit that hadn't been seen in years by anyone. I can't even remember how that one ended. My DM added a few homebrew dungeons in a few caves.
My [AD&D] character was a half-elf Cleric / Fighter / Magic User [lvl 1] with Str 15, Int 16, Wis 18, Dex 12, Con 10, Chr 12. He had a horse and a trained guard dog. Because of his low Charisma he had to hire a few hirelings to go on an adventure. I think I had a +1 sword and wore chainmail and carried a shield. DM had a problem because I was a cleric and didn't like clerics using edged weapons. Long, long time ago.
Basic was were I started too. Sometome arount 80... Give or take
"ALWAYS GIVE A MONSTER AN EVEN BREAK!"
1st Edition DMG