So... I've never played Dungeons & Dragons before. But I am honestly trying to make a campaign for me and my friends. I tried playing two years ago, but the DM and her assistant just didn't continue the game. If anyone can give me any pointers, I'm all ears. What I have planned is that any small action could lead to a different ending to the story. I'm trying to make it as fun as possible, but I have no idea of how to start it.
Most people here will tell you to start off with a module (Lost Mines of Phandelver is a good one and comes in the starter set) as it will help you learn the game as you go. Once you are done with the module you can opt for another one to either continue or to start over, or you can work on a homebrew if you feel confident enough to run. I personally would suggest running at least 2 modules before running a homebrew so you have the time to learn the rules and learn your style of DMing. I'd also say check out some Youtube channels on DMing (How to be a Great GM, Nerdarchy, WebDM, just to name a few) to help give you some ideas and help with learning the rules as well.
Once you are confident enough in DMing and the rules, an idea that I have for when I get to DM again is an Adventurer Guild style game. It would have different types of adventures and if you keep track of all their actions you can change how NPCs view them and how they act towards them. You can then work on adding in a story arc to have them work towards.
Hope this helps.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
I can't watch people play because it makes me want to play and then I loose interest. For learning the rules I'd definitely suggest the 3 mentioned above as well as Dungeon Dudes, Digital Dungeon Master (has some good videos), Taking20 and WASD20 have good videos about rules and how things play.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
Im quite new too and i highly recommend Lost mines of Phandelver. Its a good little game to get you and the players used to how the game works and comes with premade characters if they dont know what to create and its not too strict on what the players have to do. (It has a bit of railroading but can be switched up pretty easily) just dont be scared to improvise if you need to, its better that you improvise some way for the party to get back on track after wandering off then have them just stuck somewhere because it wasnt in the book. (My players like to do this)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If your players think you're reading from a module while you're making everything up, you're doing better than you think!
Honestly, you should start with simple dungeons and no campaign. The stories shouldnt tread any further than the who/what/when/where/whys of the dungeon itself. Why are the occupants here? What was this place built for? What would the rooms be, believably? These are the 101s you need to get the hang of before you swing into a campaign.
I think modules are a mistake. Its one thing overseeing a game, its another thing building one. If you start with that crutch, youll only learn to rely on it. Theres a lot of experienced DMs and GMs that simply dont know how to build a game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So... I've never played Dungeons & Dragons before. But I am honestly trying to make a campaign for me and my friends. I tried playing two years ago, but the DM and her assistant just didn't continue the game. If anyone can give me any pointers, I'm all ears. What I have planned is that any small action could lead to a different ending to the story. I'm trying to make it as fun as possible, but I have no idea of how to start it.
Most people here will tell you to start off with a module (Lost Mines of Phandelver is a good one and comes in the starter set) as it will help you learn the game as you go. Once you are done with the module you can opt for another one to either continue or to start over, or you can work on a homebrew if you feel confident enough to run. I personally would suggest running at least 2 modules before running a homebrew so you have the time to learn the rules and learn your style of DMing. I'd also say check out some Youtube channels on DMing (How to be a Great GM, Nerdarchy, WebDM, just to name a few) to help give you some ideas and help with learning the rules as well.
Once you are confident enough in DMing and the rules, an idea that I have for when I get to DM again is an Adventurer Guild style game. It would have different types of adventures and if you keep track of all their actions you can change how NPCs view them and how they act towards them. You can then work on adding in a story arc to have them work towards.
Hope this helps.
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
Thanks, I'm currently watching a lot of videos of people playing D&D and im just so interested.
I can't watch people play because it makes me want to play and then I loose interest. For learning the rules I'd definitely suggest the 3 mentioned above as well as Dungeon Dudes, Digital Dungeon Master (has some good videos), Taking20 and WASD20 have good videos about rules and how things play.
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
thanks
Matt Colville's "Running the Game" series on youtube is also a good resource for DM's.
You should probably play D&D at least once before DM'ing. My advice for new DM's:
Im quite new too and i highly recommend Lost mines of Phandelver. Its a good little game to get you and the players used to how the game works and comes with premade characters if they dont know what to create and its not too strict on what the players have to do. (It has a bit of railroading but can be switched up pretty easily) just dont be scared to improvise if you need to, its better that you improvise some way for the party to get back on track after wandering off then have them just stuck somewhere because it wasnt in the book. (My players like to do this)
If your players think you're reading from a module while you're making everything up, you're doing better than you think!
Honestly, you should start with simple dungeons and no campaign. The stories shouldnt tread any further than the who/what/when/where/whys of the dungeon itself. Why are the occupants here? What was this place built for? What would the rooms be, believably? These are the 101s you need to get the hang of before you swing into a campaign.
I think modules are a mistake. Its one thing overseeing a game, its another thing building one. If you start with that crutch, youll only learn to rely on it. Theres a lot of experienced DMs and GMs that simply dont know how to build a game.