I've been playing DnD for years, but want to DM for the first time. I've also got three players I'd like to introduce to the game. I was looking at running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist for them, but wondered if that was the best way to introduce them to RPGs.
Anyone that has feedback or thoughts is much appreciated.
If you're thinking you want to dip your toes in a bit first, you could do a one-shot to start. My go-to for a quick game to introduce new players is A Most Potent Brew by R.M. Jansen-Parkes. It's pay-what-you-want, a quick and simple "clean out the nasty things in the cellars" for a gnome who went and built a microbrewery on top of the ruins of a wizard tower.
It boils down to a few relatively simple fights and a trap/puzzle, so it runs well in limited time or if you're helping new players work out how things go. That said, it'd be easy to add more bits of the old tower basement on if you felt like fleshing it out more (or adding more NPC interactions - the gnomish microbrew owner can be fun, but the rest is all giant rats, centipedes, and a big fire-spitting spider).
WDH does have a lot of moving parts, but there's nothing wrong with just jumping into it if you want to. Maybe have a quick sit down with your players and see what they'd prefer? Doing a session zero to make sure everyone's on the same page is generally a good idea anyway.
No, Dragon Heist is one of the hardest modules to run and the least representative of the way D&D is usually played. Combat and exploration (excluding your own content within the campaign) are both very rare, which leaves it predominately RP heavy. While most D&D campaigns are modules to explore, Dragon Heist is a story to be told. Players get very rail roaded, and any decisions they make tend to create very large, difficult to manage lasting consequences unless they're all very well behaved and passive. Of course, that was just my experience.
If you are new as a DM, and especially if your players are new, I strongly suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd. Lost Mines may be billed as the "starter" kit, but it's regularly considered in the top 3 of; if not the best 5e module. Strahd is more lengthy, a lot more atmospheric, and is well edited and fairly simple to grasp as both a player and a DM despite it's excellence.
Thanks for the feedback, friends. The party expressed interest in solving a mystery, but I think we’ll save Waterdeep for a later game. I really want them to get a good taste of the game, and I worry that my ability to run the module won’t be up to par.
I’ll look into some of what you suggested and see which one might suit them the best.
I am currently running Dragon Heist and I find that it is a good combination of role playing and combat, but not for a new DM. There are a boatload of characters that overwhelmed me, at first. I read and reread the sections to finally get it down. Even then, my players often went away from the way they were "supposed" to go. I had to do a lot of improvision to deal with that, but it helped me grow as a DM as well. Also, you get to choose who the main villan is in Dragon Heist which completely changes the adventure, but is another layer you need to constantly keep in mind.
This adventure has already given me some of the best sessions I have ever played, but, I cannot recommend it if your just starting to DM. I should also mention that since I used Milestone leveling, my players were first level for the first five or six sessions. That could be very annoying for players who are new and anxious to gain new powers and abilities.
I started with the Lost Mines and it helped tremendously. Phandalin has but a tenth of the NPC's (vs. Waterdeep) for a DM to deal with and it is a great first step. Yet, it provides for multiple player paths and leaves room for DM creativity. If I am not mistaken, The Sunless Citadel (In Tales from the Yawning Portal) was inteded to be a good starter adventure in 4e and may be a good place to begin as well. (Someone correct me if I am wrong)
Just food for thought.
*Edited post shortly after for rephrasing and because I got trigger happy with my ctrl V.
You should do Dragon Heist, because it has many factions, and lots of different NPCs. Lots of the NPCs that they will meet they will not see again, because it is a big city, and there are many different people living there. If you run LMoP, you'll have to remember all of the NPCs. That is not good for a starter DM.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a good module with a nice introduction to role playing and good combat encounters. However, it has four possible villains and plot lines for the final chapter that affect some of the encounters in the earlier chapters. This gives it some replayability.
However, the biggest issue with Waterdeep, as with any city setting is that it is a sandbox that never gives you all the details you might want. Characters can choose to go anywhere. They can turn right or left at an intersection, enter one of hundreds or even thousands of shops, explore squares, sites, offices, businesses, look for work, be attacked by thieves or urchins (though Waterdeep is relatively safe since the penalties for crimes are steep). The module gives you most of the important locations for the adventure plot line in the module. This works really well if your players decide to just follow all the hints in the module and do the specified content. (This ties into an earlier posters comment about railroading). The module doesn't railroad the players, it just doesn't provide the content if the players choose to do something other than "A". An experienced DM just makes the stuff up at that point and eventually the campaign will segue back to the intended plot and the players may not even notice. However, making that work seamlessly takes practice and experience.
The reason Lost Mines of Phandelver (Starter Kit) or Dragon of Ice Spire Peak (Essential Kit) are sometimes suggested is because they are both set in the much smaller village of Phandalin. There is a smaller set of NPCs. The player choices are more limited by the size of the village and local geography so they tend to stick to the story a bit more closely.They also have relatively accessible plot lines. I think LMoP might have more options for some role playing with the townsfolk while DoIP has a pretty well defined quest structure with quests posted to a notice board outside the townhall. Either work and are pretty good for new players and DMs.
However, both can have some issues with the level 1 encounters since they can involve combat and survival of level 1 PCs is never guaranteed. It can depend a lot on luck. I'd suggest a plot mechanism so that each character can receive a potion of healing at the start of the campaign (depending on how you start it) since that will likely increase their survivability. A team mate can use it on a character who is knocked to zero hit points to get them back up before they fail 3 death saves. In addition, as DM, most of the time the monsters might choose to not attack unconscious characters in favor of those still attacking. This increases the chances that knocked out characters will survive an encounter since each hit on an unconscious character counts as both a critical hit and two failed death saves ... two hits or enough damage on one and the character will be dead which isn't uncommon at level 1. Much of this can be mitigated by DMing and being careful with the number of opponents but at level 1 a lot rides on the dice.
The bigger modules like Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder, etc are full campaigns spanning from level 1 to 11-15 so I'd suggest it is a bit much to start with. LMoP and Waterdeep are 1-5 while DoIP is 1-7 (with a few more adventures going up to about 11 if you get the Deluxe version).
Finally, there are Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tales from the Yawning Portal. These both contain smaller scale adventures. GoS is a bit of a nautical theme while TfYP are dungeons that could be set anywhere in your world. You could even base a campaign in and around Saltmarsh and incorporate the adventures from GoS and TfYP to get a more sandbox type of feel to the game.
If you are playing in Faerun (Forgotten Realms - main world for most of D&D 5e so far), LMoP, DoIP and GoS are all set in the same geographical area. I would probably choose one of these sources if starting off a new group with a somewhat new DM (or even an experienced DM). I just finished running DoIP for a group and am now running GoS for another group.
P.S. Having played Dragon Heist there were some aspects of it I really liked (it had more roleplay elements than some of the other options which was really good). I think it was a good module ... the main issue was for new DMs having to try to guide the campaign in a complex city setting with lots of NPCs. It is doable but probably a bit more work. If you really want to try that one then go for it but there is lots of content that should do just as well.
I've been playing DnD for years, but want to DM for the first time. I've also got three players I'd like to introduce to the game. I was looking at running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist for them, but wondered if that was the best way to introduce them to RPGs.
Anyone that has feedback or thoughts is much appreciated.
If you're thinking you want to dip your toes in a bit first, you could do a one-shot to start. My go-to for a quick game to introduce new players is A Most Potent Brew by R.M. Jansen-Parkes. It's pay-what-you-want, a quick and simple "clean out the nasty things in the cellars" for a gnome who went and built a microbrewery on top of the ruins of a wizard tower.
It boils down to a few relatively simple fights and a trap/puzzle, so it runs well in limited time or if you're helping new players work out how things go. That said, it'd be easy to add more bits of the old tower basement on if you felt like fleshing it out more (or adding more NPC interactions - the gnomish microbrew owner can be fun, but the rest is all giant rats, centipedes, and a big fire-spitting spider).
WDH does have a lot of moving parts, but there's nothing wrong with just jumping into it if you want to. Maybe have a quick sit down with your players and see what they'd prefer? Doing a session zero to make sure everyone's on the same page is generally a good idea anyway.
No, Dragon Heist is one of the hardest modules to run and the least representative of the way D&D is usually played. Combat and exploration (excluding your own content within the campaign) are both very rare, which leaves it predominately RP heavy. While most D&D campaigns are modules to explore, Dragon Heist is a story to be told. Players get very rail roaded, and any decisions they make tend to create very large, difficult to manage lasting consequences unless they're all very well behaved and passive. Of course, that was just my experience.
If you are new as a DM, and especially if your players are new, I strongly suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd. Lost Mines may be billed as the "starter" kit, but it's regularly considered in the top 3 of; if not the best 5e module. Strahd is more lengthy, a lot more atmospheric, and is well edited and fairly simple to grasp as both a player and a DM despite it's excellence.
Thanks for the feedback, friends. The party expressed interest in solving a mystery, but I think we’ll save Waterdeep for a later game. I really want them to get a good taste of the game, and I worry that my ability to run the module won’t be up to par.
I’ll look into some of what you suggested and see which one might suit them the best.
I am currently running Dragon Heist and I find that it is a good combination of role playing and combat, but not for a new DM. There are a boatload of characters that overwhelmed me, at first. I read and reread the sections to finally get it down. Even then, my players often went away from the way they were "supposed" to go. I had to do a lot of improvision to deal with that, but it helped me grow as a DM as well. Also, you get to choose who the main villan is in Dragon Heist which completely changes the adventure, but is another layer you need to constantly keep in mind.
This adventure has already given me some of the best sessions I have ever played, but, I cannot recommend it if your just starting to DM. I should also mention that since I used Milestone leveling, my players were first level for the first five or six sessions. That could be very annoying for players who are new and anxious to gain new powers and abilities.
I started with the Lost Mines and it helped tremendously. Phandalin has but a tenth of the NPC's (vs. Waterdeep) for a DM to deal with and it is a great first step. Yet, it provides for multiple player paths and leaves room for DM creativity. If I am not mistaken, The Sunless Citadel (In Tales from the Yawning Portal) was inteded to be a good starter adventure in 4e and may be a good place to begin as well. (Someone correct me if I am wrong)
Just food for thought.
*Edited post shortly after for rephrasing and because I got trigger happy with my ctrl V.
"Shadow Hide You..."
You should do Dragon Heist, because it has many factions, and lots of different NPCs. Lots of the NPCs that they will meet they will not see again, because it is a big city, and there are many different people living there. If you run LMoP, you'll have to remember all of the NPCs. That is not good for a starter DM.
DM: Dragon of Icespire Peak PbP
The answer depends on you and your players.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a good module with a nice introduction to role playing and good combat encounters. However, it has four possible villains and plot lines for the final chapter that affect some of the encounters in the earlier chapters. This gives it some replayability.
However, the biggest issue with Waterdeep, as with any city setting is that it is a sandbox that never gives you all the details you might want. Characters can choose to go anywhere. They can turn right or left at an intersection, enter one of hundreds or even thousands of shops, explore squares, sites, offices, businesses, look for work, be attacked by thieves or urchins (though Waterdeep is relatively safe since the penalties for crimes are steep). The module gives you most of the important locations for the adventure plot line in the module. This works really well if your players decide to just follow all the hints in the module and do the specified content. (This ties into an earlier posters comment about railroading). The module doesn't railroad the players, it just doesn't provide the content if the players choose to do something other than "A". An experienced DM just makes the stuff up at that point and eventually the campaign will segue back to the intended plot and the players may not even notice. However, making that work seamlessly takes practice and experience.
The reason Lost Mines of Phandelver (Starter Kit) or Dragon of Ice Spire Peak (Essential Kit) are sometimes suggested is because they are both set in the much smaller village of Phandalin. There is a smaller set of NPCs. The player choices are more limited by the size of the village and local geography so they tend to stick to the story a bit more closely.They also have relatively accessible plot lines. I think LMoP might have more options for some role playing with the townsfolk while DoIP has a pretty well defined quest structure with quests posted to a notice board outside the townhall. Either work and are pretty good for new players and DMs.
However, both can have some issues with the level 1 encounters since they can involve combat and survival of level 1 PCs is never guaranteed. It can depend a lot on luck. I'd suggest a plot mechanism so that each character can receive a potion of healing at the start of the campaign (depending on how you start it) since that will likely increase their survivability. A team mate can use it on a character who is knocked to zero hit points to get them back up before they fail 3 death saves. In addition, as DM, most of the time the monsters might choose to not attack unconscious characters in favor of those still attacking. This increases the chances that knocked out characters will survive an encounter since each hit on an unconscious character counts as both a critical hit and two failed death saves ... two hits or enough damage on one and the character will be dead which isn't uncommon at level 1. Much of this can be mitigated by DMing and being careful with the number of opponents but at level 1 a lot rides on the dice.
The bigger modules like Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder, etc are full campaigns spanning from level 1 to 11-15 so I'd suggest it is a bit much to start with. LMoP and Waterdeep are 1-5 while DoIP is 1-7 (with a few more adventures going up to about 11 if you get the Deluxe version).
Finally, there are Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tales from the Yawning Portal. These both contain smaller scale adventures. GoS is a bit of a nautical theme while TfYP are dungeons that could be set anywhere in your world. You could even base a campaign in and around Saltmarsh and incorporate the adventures from GoS and TfYP to get a more sandbox type of feel to the game.
If you are playing in Faerun (Forgotten Realms - main world for most of D&D 5e so far), LMoP, DoIP and GoS are all set in the same geographical area. I would probably choose one of these sources if starting off a new group with a somewhat new DM (or even an experienced DM). I just finished running DoIP for a group and am now running GoS for another group.
P.S. Having played Dragon Heist there were some aspects of it I really liked (it had more roleplay elements than some of the other options which was really good). I think it was a good module ... the main issue was for new DMs having to try to guide the campaign in a complex city setting with lots of NPCs. It is doable but probably a bit more work. If you really want to try that one then go for it but there is lots of content that should do just as well.