Hi guys.

Recently I have been thinking of doing a noob oneshot/mini campaign for a small group of completely new players. Including myself only 1 person of the 4 I managed to convince so far has some experience with dnd but this was years ago. 

I have not yet been able to find a dm willing to take on this group (distance time etc) so I was thinking of being the dm myself for the time being.

What are your views on a good start for a game? Go with a ready made module? would this be short enough? (2 or 3 sessions of a few hours) . Or would a homebrew mini campaign work better? 

Any help is appreciated I don't know where to start. 

First, welcome to D&D Beyond and also props for taking up the mantle of DM.

Consensus from previous posts like this is to use a pre-made module, and the Lost Mine of Phandelver is a popular option for a basic on-boarding adventure.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a bit more free-form, but also a very good starting point as it has a good intro scenario (investigate a haunted house).

Phandelver is a mini campaign across multiple levels, Saltmarsh is individual adventures in a single level range.

Edit: Tomb of Annihilation and Sunless Citadel are also mentioned as good starts

Let's start by asking what made you want to do this?  What was your entry into D&D that made you want to convince 3 other people with little or no experience to try it out of the blue?  I'm not asking this to discourage you, but knowing what kind of experience inspired you will help inform what kind of game you're going to run.

If I had 3 players and two or three sessions of about two hours, I'd probably write something myself, but I don't know what your comfort level would be with that.  There are a few published adventures that you could do in that time frame, but that has it's own headaches if you don't know the rules already.

This forum search will find a bunch of other first time DM posts.

This thread in particular has some good information about the different pre-mades, though it was pre Saltmarsh.

Welcome to the Dark Side (we have cookies)!

The conventional wisdom is to run a pre-build module - and it's not bad advice. Many people find it easier to learn to run the game, before they learn to build the game.

However, if you decide to jump into the deep end, I'd point you toward Matt Colville's Running the Game YouTube series, where he puts together a very simple one session home brew adventure, and sketches out roughly what you need to put in an adventure for a single session, in videos #1 - #3. 

I would recommend the series in general as a good primer for the novice DM.

Best of luck!

Agree with the previous statements but if you think you've only got a commitment for one or maybe two sessions there are some good oneshots that you can find for free online. My first time DMing I ran A Wild Sheep Chase,  https://winghornpress.com/adventures/a-wild-sheep-chase/ , and it was great. Granted two of my players had at least two years of experience but one was new. 

So starting with this one at lvl 4-5 might be a bit much but I believe he's done other lower level ones. Granted your players might like a higher level one shot to see if they enjoy it before they start a longer campaign. I don't think it ever hurts to have a conversation with your players first to see what things they'd like to do, what kind of commitment they can give, etc.. and then selecting or building your adventure around that. 

Hi all,

So I'm an extreme noob! I've never had any D&D experiences except the videos I have watched recently on youtube to get a feel for the game. I've decided to get into it to play with my sons who haven't played either and maybe the wife. Naturally the role of DM falls on my shoulders, I should be able too make things flow ok as I love the fantasy genre and I'm not afraid to put on a bit of a show but anyway enough of my life story. What I'm asking advice for is what is the best way to approach the situation of the players splitting the party up to explore different areas of the realm the game is in? ie. the sword coast from the essentials kit. I have read the rule book and haven't seen anything yet, if its in there I have badly over looked it. your suggestions will be greatly appreciated 

thanks in advance

Generally the party should be sticking together (and that expectation should be set during the Session 0 / Planning Session), at least while people are all still learning how to play.

Very rarely (never) would you have part of the party in one city and the rest in another. If one person wants to go to Waterdeep and another to Baldur's Gate, then pick one for the whole group to go to first.

The worst that happens in the vast majority of games is the party might temporarily split up while exploring a dungeon, where one group goes down one path and the others either stay back to guard or explore a different area.

In those cases, just pick one group, run what happens to them for 5 minutes or so, and then switch back to the other group, then repeat. If combat breaks out for one group, at the top of initiative each round, go to the other group (not in combat) for a few minutes to run what they are doing. Though that situation usually ends very badly for the party unless they immediately retreat and regroup.

Short Answer: Never Split The Party. 

Actual answer is I guess it depends on the situation, and how dangerous do you want the world to be? Do you mean one of the players going off to further explore another part of the dungeon while the rest of the party investigates a room or something similar? Then that is a direct reflection on how many encounters you have planned for that dungeon. If they're off exploring a whole different city that's trickier I think, because there's the danger aspect, but then also a timing and communication aspect too. The games I've been in have only done that when, one or two players couldn't make it for the next one or two sessions and the narrative was they were off doing a separate task or doing reconnaissance etc... Then the DM and players filled in narratively how that fit into the campaign. 

My gut instinct is as a new DM it might just be easier to keep the party together for narrative / continuity reasons if nothing else. 

Quote from Houligan >>

Very rarely (never) would you have part of the party in one city and the rest in another.

I actually did this once. All 5 Characters started alone, in different parts of the same city ( homebrew setting ), with their own story hooks and adventure. Of course, the GM had built those story threads so that it drew the entire Party together to the same location, at the same time, and caught up in the same events, by the end of the first session.

It was a ton of work, and lots of spotlight juggling - and I would absolutely not recommend it for a new DM. But it was fun to pull off :)

It sounds like OP is talking about the party being in Phandalin and one character decides they want to make a shopping run to Waterdeep on their own, which is a big old NOPE.

Also, I keep mentioning it, but the Acq Inc adventure in that book is really quite nice for beginning players also. The module basically throws the PCs together, sends them off on a slightly railroady section for first level, and them starts to give them some more freedom once they hit 2nd level. But by then, they've basically been hired as a team for a job and will need to stick together.

NOTE: So far I have run into a few things that are either left out or need to be "fixed" in the adventure. Mainly the big question that keeps coming up is "wait, so if we're down here in this cavern to rescue a couple of City Watch guards, and we're following their trail, how the F did these guards get past the multiple sets of giant magically locked doors and the room full of zombies? Did they stop and lock the doors behind themselves as they went? What gives?" I have a fix for this particular playthrough, but it is a pretty big plothole that's never addressed.

Thanks for the advise guys. I think a small homebrew thing would work. I have watched a few videos of that guy that explains everything as was mentioned in the earlier reactions. I think I can make do somehow. 

Good for you ;)

Best of luck, and have fun :)

thanks for the replies on my question the other day.

I have been busy planning to do a D&D night and that was just a question of curiosity. I didn't want to get caught of guard and to try and the scour the rulebook too find an answer and risk killing the flow of the game. It has made me consider a few 

I second the Matt Colville's youtube videos. Really good stuff for new and long time DMs. Also look up How to be a great GM on youtube as well. Great stuff as well.