So I'm new to dming and I've had a look at few published books and there seems to be a kind of format of how to read them and use them which I don't really understand. I haven't read the dungeon master's guide from front to cover so is there anything in there on how to read these campaigns and how to write your own campaign in the the same fashion?
I can't remember if all of the adventures have this, but many have a section in the first few pages called "Running the Adventure" that will explain how to read the different text blocks. Generally speaking, most of the text in the published adventures is for the DM to read and then choose how much to share with their players and how to paraphrase it. Smaller blocks of text are meant to be read to the players verbatim because it's setting a scene or describing a character. Pretty much anything that looks like an Excel spreadsheet is meant for the DM to use behind the scenes as well.
As for writing your own campaign... I mean, it all depends on what you're trying to do. If you're putting something together for your home game and you aren't planning on sharing it? Then just write it out in whatever format makes sense to you in Word or whatever text editor you prefer. If you're writing something to publish? I think DMs Guild has some templates you can use.
So I'm new to dming and I've had a look at few published books and there seems to be a kind of format of how to read them and use them which I don't really understand. I haven't read the dungeon master's guide from front to cover so is there anything in there on how to read these campaigns and how to write your own campaign in the the same fashion?
I can't remember if all of the adventures have this, but many have a section in the first few pages called "Running the Adventure" that will explain how to read the different text blocks. Generally speaking, most of the text in the published adventures is for the DM to read and then choose how much to share with their players and how to paraphrase it. Smaller blocks of text are meant to be read to the players verbatim because it's setting a scene or describing a character. Pretty much anything that looks like an Excel spreadsheet is meant for the DM to use behind the scenes as well.
As for writing your own campaign... I mean, it all depends on what you're trying to do. If you're putting something together for your home game and you aren't planning on sharing it? Then just write it out in whatever format makes sense to you in Word or whatever text editor you prefer. If you're writing something to publish? I think DMs Guild has some templates you can use.
Thanks quite helpful.