If you're brand new to DMing, I'd recommend you consider asking your group to roll new level one characters, rather than have you deal with a group of level tens. Its easy to get overwhelmed with everything going on in the game, yet alone contending with players who are going to be much more powerful than you might anticipate. If you're a pretty experienced player and have a good idea on these things then you might be okey, but you'll have an easier time when there is less to keep track of.
'Simple' and 'Level 10' aren't really compatible, unless everyone is playing martial classes with few magic items -- there's just too much weird stuff higher level characters are capable of. However, my basic 'one-shot monster of the week' adventure design is:
Pick a monster that interests me.
Design an 'introducing the problem' encounter. This lets the PCs find out that there's a problem that needs dealing with, but the actual signature monster either doesn't show up at all, or makes only a brief appearance.
Design a 'getting to the monster' challenge. This might be investigation, might be difficult terrain, might be sneaking past guards, possibly fighting past guards (though fighting past guards would likely take too long for your planned adventure length).
Design a final boss fight. This might just be the monster, or it might be a monster and some adds, depending on what you picked and how challenging you want it to be.
For example, at level 10, the Introducing The Problem part might be a couple of Vampire Spawns, either two together or a couple of separate encounters. Having dealt with the spawns, there's now an investigation phase where you want to find out how these people got turned, and when, and then you want to track down their master, possibly with a time limit because the vampire might move on, cause more problems, or whatever. Finally, having determined where the Vampire is hiding out, you go, confront it, and destroy it.
You can also reverse that: introducing the problem is the vampire, and after defeating it and causing it to turn to mist, you have to chase it back to its lair and fight through its guards before it can reform. This obviously doesn't work if the PCs have a method of generating sunlight.
If you're brand new to DMing, I'd recommend you consider asking your group to roll new level one characters, rather than have you deal with a group of level tens. Its easy to get overwhelmed with everything going on in the game, yet alone contending with players who are going to be much more powerful than you might anticipate. If you're a pretty experienced player and have a good idea on these things then you might be okey, but you'll have an easier time when there is less to keep track of.
Level one isn't totally necessary. Level four is also pretty easy to manage and offers the players more class options than 'attack'.
That being said, level ten as a new DM is a death sentence... especially if the group is relatively new as will.
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Hey all!
Took up D&D with a couple of my friends during lockdown, so I'm very new to it.
Our DM is keen to be a PC for once, and so I've offered to DM, but I'm super anxious!
Anyone aware of any one-shot campaigns that I can try and use/adapt?
Nothing too complex... It needs to be easy to follow for my novice brain!
Looking forward to seeing what ya got.
In this situation I generally go with DnDBeyond's encounter of the week. They're generally pretty short and gives ideas for scaling up/down. For instance this one here can be inserted almost anywhere. https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/760-encounter-of-the-week-sylvan-genesis
There's a bunch so have a look and see if there's something you're comfortable with. Encounter of the week
If you're brand new to DMing, I'd recommend you consider asking your group to roll new level one characters, rather than have you deal with a group of level tens. Its easy to get overwhelmed with everything going on in the game, yet alone contending with players who are going to be much more powerful than you might anticipate. If you're a pretty experienced player and have a good idea on these things then you might be okey, but you'll have an easier time when there is less to keep track of.
'Simple' and 'Level 10' aren't really compatible, unless everyone is playing martial classes with few magic items -- there's just too much weird stuff higher level characters are capable of. However, my basic 'one-shot monster of the week' adventure design is:
For example, at level 10, the Introducing The Problem part might be a couple of Vampire Spawns, either two together or a couple of separate encounters. Having dealt with the spawns, there's now an investigation phase where you want to find out how these people got turned, and when, and then you want to track down their master, possibly with a time limit because the vampire might move on, cause more problems, or whatever. Finally, having determined where the Vampire is hiding out, you go, confront it, and destroy it.
You can also reverse that: introducing the problem is the vampire, and after defeating it and causing it to turn to mist, you have to chase it back to its lair and fight through its guards before it can reform. This obviously doesn't work if the PCs have a method of generating sunlight.
Level one isn't totally necessary. Level four is also pretty easy to manage and offers the players more class options than 'attack'.
That being said, level ten as a new DM is a death sentence... especially if the group is relatively new as will.