New to D&D, here, having only played AD&D twice in the mid-80's. I've gotten interested in it through Critical Role (I've listened to c1 twice through, and week-to-week with c2,) as well as listening to a handful of other play podcasts; DCA, NADPOD, Friday Night Quests, TAZ's first arc.

I've gotten my kids (well, mainly my older son, who's 9) interested in D&D as well, and so far, I've played them (both sons and my wife) through Monster Hunters - The Heroes of Hesiod, very ham-fistedly. There was no narration of their actions, I just went around the table, getting their rolls. Whatever, they seemed to enjoy it.

Then, I did a "You're having a meal at an inn, when goblins attack, you chase them to their cave and finish them" type of thing, which seemed to go a bit better.

Now, I recently stumbled across an adventure called The Forge of Rogbrok*, which seems like an appropriate adventure, and simple enough. I'm thinking of trying to run this one sometime this weekend. Now, I'm terrible at improvising, and I'm unsure how I'd go about scripting, for example, the initial encounter with the old miner, or what I'd need to put down on paper, to feel like I'm ready to put them through their paces.

So, how, in broad strokes, would you prepare this before play, if you were a new DM? And, how would you handle the miner encounter?

Of course, I don't have a working printer, so I'll have to draw the maps by hand, and we'll be using dice apps, for lack of proper dice beyond d6's.

*This adventure is also available as a Pay What you Want PDF.

The quote text is what you say to the players, italics is an NPC speaking.

For whichever character has the highest passive perception, do the following:

You have just settled into your table at the local tavern when you notice an old dwarf attempting, but drunkenly failing, to whisper something to the person next to him. You overhear the following:

"I found it! I found it I tell you! They said I was crazy for looking for it but I found it! Gwandatholir! All the riches will be mine"

You remember from stories growing up that Gwandatholir is a fabled lost dwarven kingdom forgotten by time.

The characters can make a Intelligence (History) check, DC 15, to realize that it probably isn't Gwandatholir, but the old Jarnhammar mind. I would also have a signpost or rock marked once they get into the mine that tells them as such, that any character that knows Dwarvish can read.

Your players at this point should probably want to talk to the dwarf. They can buy him drinks at 5 cp each to make Charisma (Persuasion) checks to get the location from him. A result of 15 or higher and they can convince him to join them if they want, but he will demand part of the treasure.

See? This is the kind of stuff that comes easily to someone who's played plenty, but might not occur to a new player/DM. Thank you, [B]Houligan[/B], for the help! Even if I might not use exactly what you posted, it definitely planted some seeds of ideas that will make the scene easier to play.

I think that social encounter is the only one that had me apprehensive; the rest seems pretty straightforward, although I might add a little extra cheddar in the final room, possibly based on investigation checks. Maybe some sort of hook into the next adventure, once I can decide what that would be.

I usually start with some brief box text to set the scene, then whatever the import bit is. And then have some skill rolls they can make to figure it out, and some conditions on them so they can't just infinitely retry (like limited attempts, or a cost / time investment)