I have only played one session of dnd ever, but my brother is starting to get more and more into dnd. His campaign he is currently a player in right now is almost over, and I want an excuse to hang out. I personally am not much into dnd, but I love fantasy, especially Zelda. He really likes Zelda too, so I was thinking of starting a homebrew campaign that is Zelda inspired. Would this be a good idea if I only have very basic knowledge about the game? What do I even need to start a game? Would co-DMing be a good idea if I can find someone? I have dice and a lot of time on my hands, but no money for the books or anything like that, but I figured sense it's homebrew that wouldn't really matter too much. I am just looking for advice from some decently experienced dms about this, and maybe some pointers? I'll probably end up doing it regardless, but I don't want to go in completely unequipped and ignorant.
Think the key sentence here is " my brother is starting to get more and more into dnd, and I want an excuse to hang out " So is your brother DM'ing or playing in someone else's campaign your not privy to? I don't quite get the my brother into it but somehow I'm outside and I think understanding this is important in best advising you.
Regardless the usual path way to DM'ing is through playing that way you become familiar the the rules and mechanics of the 5e DnD rule set and you experience a DM in action you get to see what works what you feel doesn't and start imagining how you might do it differently... This path is the one I'd really recommend
that said its not the only way and sure you can straight off start as a DM and never played a session of DnD though in this case I would highly recommend you start with a pre-written adventure
So does WOTC provide a free rule set and a free simple adventure to get you started?
Free DnD intro heck I'm a new DM with new players help me out here Adventure - Errr.... Mmm... think I might have to get back to you on that one
edit grumble mumble covid frostmaiden grumble mumble bloomin omincronioneons... I swear WOTC or DnD Beyond should do a best free intro new DM and players Adventure competition and it's free bundled with the basic rule set in mind... and the winner get loads of feels and can sell a continuation spin off campaign on the Dungeon Masters Guild site or something
edit WOTC does have Dragon of Icespire peak preview adventure as part of the stay at home play at home thingy... not played it or ran it or noted any reviews of it dragon_icespire_peak_preview.pdf
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I can see how my wording concerning my brother was confusing, I think I fixed it. He is not the DM, he is one of the players.
Thank you for the links with the resources, I will be sure to check those out!
Also, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst idea imaginable and 10 being the best, how bad is it to go in with loose guidelines vs a set story to follow? I ask this because you mention the pre-written adventure, and was a bit curious.
Recognize the stakes. No one is going to be harmed or injuried (at least irreparably) if you DM a game for your brother (and maybe some friends).
Loose ideas are fine. It may not seem it from the ... intensity ... some poster here (myself included) discuss D&D but I think most D&D is played on a much more casual level.
What I'd recommend, pick up some free stuff. Either follow and adventure or see if seat of your pants works. If it goes ka-blooey, you and your brother at least have a "remember that time you tried to DM?" story to hang onto. If you like it, but thought it went a little rough, or you want to improve your game but keep the loose casual approach going, check out some of Sly Fox's guidance like The Lazy DM and Return of the Lazy DM. There's even a video hosted by DDB that interview him with his main ideas.
[There are some folks who do thing "D&D is Serious Business" and will consider everything above this sentence some sort of heresy. Ignore that strain of DM insistence. Go have fun with your brother. Only thing really stopping you is you and THE INTERNET OF SERIOUS D&D PLAYERS shouldn't get in your way.]
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My first foray into D&D was as a DM--I threw together a group of new players and dove right in feet first. That is to say, being an experienced player helps with DMing, but it is not a prerequisite.
If you are starting as a novice DM, your primary goal should be learning the basic mechanics. Reading the DM Guide cover-to-cover is a pretty good place to start--it gives you a basic idea of the rules as well as general tips for DMing. Some additional tips the DM guide does not really go over:
1. You can fudge numbers and dice roles to make the game more fun. No one likes if a monster keeps missing/keeps hitting too high, so you can lie about what you rolled for accuracy and damage for the benefit of entertainment. Same goes with randomly increasing or decreasing a monster's HP, changing skill difficulty checks, etc. Your goal is to facilitate fun--not be a slave to your own dice.
2. When making entities for your campaign, try to deal in broad strokes, rather than write specific dialogue (other than for important information you need the party to find, and are going to shoehorn into the NPC interaction). If you have an NPC/City/Country/other entity and you know their general personality/politics/motivations, you can easily have that entity react to any situation that might come up. Players are unpredictable--they are going to do things you cannot predict and you do not want to be unable to react or so stuck in your story that you cannot change.
3. Be prepared to abandon plot points that are not working, diverting your players to something they are more interested in.
4. Do not ignore the small elements of the world. For example, making sure NPCs and city names in the same region are based in the same language, so they feel etymologically related. Or having a few small NPCs that your players seem to enjoy show up every now and then.
5. Be sure to always put your players' fun first, even at the expense of your story.
that said its not the only way and sure you can straight off start as a DM and never played a session of DnD though in this case I would highly recommend you start with a pre-written adventure
Quiet frankly, the pre-written adventures--particularly the ones written by Wizards of the Coast--are garbage. They tend to be very limited in their breadth and emotional depth, and it can be really easy for novice DMs to stick only to the four corners of the book, without realizing they are more frameworks than enjoyable campaigns. They serve as a fun read to get to know a setting so said setting can be used in a homebrew, but I would never recommend anyone actually play them as written.
Beyond simply being more interesting, homebrews are a bit more forgiving. You can always adjust a homebrew to fit with player chaos--it is too easy in a pre-written campaign to try and react to chaos by forcing players back onto the rails.
I have only witnessed dnd as a serious game that is pretty strict, so it's really nice to know it can be more casual! It is interesting to me that dnd has so many different play types.
Thank you for more of those examples, I am finding more and more dnd content tailored to new dms or casual playing like that. It's really nice.
Your advice on keeping it more fun based and less "slave to your own dice" based will be really helpful I think, so thank you!
Your points on plot and essentially going with your players flow to keep it fun will also keep things fun I think. I think I'd find that actually less stressful than trying to keep to a solid plot. And NPCs sound really fun, I've heard and seen a lot of fun things surrounding NPCs and how players interact with them.
ah thanks EmollientFirr that makes it much clearer in my mind
like MidnightPlat said "If it goes ka-blooey" oh the humanity!
The reason I suggest a pre-written adventure is it's giving you a structure to follow if it's well designed with introduction in mind it will by taking you through the steps of some tricky rules like surprise, stealth perception checks environmental modifiers and "I have thieves tools what do I role!?!" that often catch a new DM out.... all the while your looking at the story the encounters and you'll be thinking I could do this Zelda thing here maybe hint at that Zelda lore there... and that is exactly what you should do sprinkle it with your own ideas all the while letting the pre made story structure do the heavy lifting getting you through that first adventure
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
So mixing a pre-made story with my own ideas or Zelda cannon? I was already going to pretty much directly steal dudgeon layouts from Zelda. So maybe stealing ideas from pre-made adventures would make the building plot and actual battle part easier. Am I understanding here? I will admit that I am drawn to a more go-with-the-flow campaign, but I am here to see both sides, that's why I posted here!
I am also thinking that this might just be a one-shot, that sounds like less pressure maybe. Just a thought.
EmollientFirr "So mixing a pre-made story with my own ideas or Zelda cannon?" Oh most definitely, I just see it as a stepping stone to that "homebrewed Zelda campaign" that your aiming for all the while your actually playing and learning the rules and developing ideas...
Oh Dear Caerwyn_Glyndwr miss the irony much? "Free DnD intro heck I'm a new DM with new players help me out here Adventure - Errr.... Mmm... think I might have to get back to you on that one"
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Trying to emulate an existing setting can actually be a lot of work, because you'll run into lots of issues where your source doesn't actually match up with the game system you're trying to use (I'm not particularly familiar with Zelda, but I'd be surprised if its mechanics are terribly similar to D&D).
My familiarity with dnd is pretty much completely related to combat, so I wouldn't try to change too much from that and replace it with Zelda combat. I just meant layout and staircases to different floors of an area, nothing too fancy. I'd be taking basic map layout so I don't have to design my own environments or locations, plus a nostalgia bonus for me, my brother, and a few of our friends. Thank you for your point though, gives me something to consider while I try this out.
As I noted, I encourage stealing ideas from the source materials, but not utilizing the premade material in its entirety (because, again, they're poorly-written drivel). There are some fun encounters in the premade campaigns, but the glue that binds them together tends to be rather flimsy. Essentially, skip over everything that is story-related and jump right to the suggested encounters and puzzles--those actually are useful, particularly for new players.
If you want to borrow heavily from a Zelda game for the setting, I would recommend Link to the Past. LttP is one of the better games in the franchise. It keeps the traditional dungeon crawling elements, but you have a lot of freedom to do the dungeons in variable orders, giving you a nice open world feel. Add to that a fun little parallel world setting that can serve as a navigation puzzle, and you have a rather nifty start to your campaign.
As for one-shot versus a full campaign: That depends on what you want. You said your primary goal is to play with your brother--a one shot is not as conductive to long-term play. DMing your first full campaign can be a bit intimidating, but you pick up the ropes pretty quickly. You and your players just need to be ready for the first few sessions/dungeons to be a bit rough--but most players understand there is a learning curve, and there's a certain joy in discovering and figuring out the game alongside your players.
Fortunately, Zelda games lend themselves to starting as a one-shot, while leaving open the possibility of going further. Many of them start with an introduction mission that is relatively self-contained. You could do something similar that has a definite end point (rescuing someone, finding an item, etc.), but leave the next steps somewhat open ended. Let's keep with LttP as our example. In LttP, you start the game by receiving a psychic message from Zelda and have to go rescue her. Your one shot could be rescuing her from the tower.
And, if the one-shot goes well, you can continue the story from there--rescuing Sages, finding magical pendants, crawling through dungeons--all the things that make Zelda games fun.
That's a really good point, making the option of continuing after a one-shot would be ideal in my mind.
I have played and love LttP, I recently replayed it actually. The map is simple enough and makes sense, and the dungeons are really fun with good puzzles to boot. How hard is it to make puzzles in dnd? Like I said, almost all of my experience was in combat.
Also, I like the idea of a rescue, but I want to steer clear of too many cannon main characters other than some random NPCs in the game itself. It will probably take place either directly before or after the events of the cannon story. But at the same time, I don't want to bore the players with stuff that I find interesting but isn't inherently exciting. I'll have to find a balance.
This feels like more of a story telling aspect. I think I have what I need in terms of things to keep in mind while doing this. I have been looking at a lot of pre-made and homebrew content other people have made and think I have a good starting point. I have a basic story/basic events thought up, so I should be fine there.
I will still accept any advice anyone else feels like sharing though!
Even if you want to get into DM’ing, you still have to either make a world or use a man existing one such as Toril or Krynn. Think about what to do first and then get down to business. How many players do you want? How much rping would be included and how much combat? If you choose to make your own world, base it off a current one and change it in significant ways. Add a new background and a new NPC that starts the adventure off. I know that I’m a serious D&D player, but that doesn’t mean that my way goes. Make up whatever you want but dont make it too easy or difficult for your players or they’ll stop playing because imagine if you walked into a cave holding a arrow and a torch and suddenly a massive black dragon spits out a cone of acid that kills you instantly. Make sure to give common loot at the start of the campaign and then start throwing out rarer items at lvl 9-12, gradually increasing the rarity and danger at the same level until they hit 20. This is mainly in the long term but there are a few tips in this mess that can make a player into a DM. try to play about 3-4 4 hour games spread over the course of a month and then try to write down what your DM says (as long as they’re a good one). Then just organise a campaign on Play by Post and then slip into Discord. I for one would love to join in a few months or so. Thanks for reading!
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...I was thinking of starting a homebrew campaign...
All of this concerns me.
D&D can be an amazing, collaborative experience that lets you spend time with people you like and explore worlds and tropes and stories that engage you. However, if the DM is not having fun, nobody will have fun. I answered "No, but..." in your poll, and below is why:
1. D&D is not a monolith. If my first exposure to the game had been in a combat-heavy session, I would have said I didn't like D&D much either. Some people love that; not all players do. You have very limited experience with the game, and there are just about as many ways to play it as there are personalities (serious, casual, lighthearted, mystery-focused, hack-n-slash, etc.). You and your brother might very well have differing tastes in D&D, and the kind of game he likes to play is not really your speed, and vice versa. That's perfectly okay - but it might make running a full-blown campaign unsustainable.
2. DMing is performing and staying organized, not just playing make believe with friends. Yes, you absolutely can hang out while you're DMing. But you are going to be very busy trying to set the scene, staying on top of NPCs and dice rolls, adjudicating rules, making things up on the fly when your players do things you didn't prepare for, and all the other nitty gritty details that come with running a session. You will be surprised at how draining it can be, and it might disappoint you that it feels so different from just being at a table with your brother as a player.
3. Homebrew is hard. DMing a module is tough enough as it stands, but those at least give you some structure and ideas for what to do when players try things. With homebrew, the world, the consequences, the plot points, the magic items, the science, the history, the NPCs, the locations, the economy, the scarcity of materials, the cosmology, the political history of the kingdom...absolutely everything is on you to create. Can it be fun? Oh yeah. But boy is it a ton of work - work that often never gets seen or appreciated by your players. Work that often gets trampled (either accidentally or intentionally) by your players. You have to be 100% invested in the universe you build, and in the game you run, and enjoy the players you have, to put up with it for the long haul.
All of this to say: I think running a campaign with the limited experience you have is a bad idea. However, I think running a homebrew Zelda one-shot is a great idea. It gives you a chance to get a feel for 1) DMing, 2) what you might like from D&D, 3) if your brother's playstyle is compatible with your DM style.
Since one-shots are self-contained, the amount of information you have to create to run the game is significantly reduced. All you need is a hook (e.g., "a dragon has kidnapped the princess!"), a single location to flesh out, an obstacle (e.g., "gotta get through the dragon's lair to save her"), and a reward. That's it. You can even find a published one-shot online (there's plenty of free ones, just poke around Google for 5e one-shots) and run it if you don't want to do the work. If you end up having fun and your brother does too, then maybe you can start putting together a few more one-shots set in the same universe. Because there is a biiiiig difference between DMing a one-shot and DMing a campaign. Again, I say this from experience.
Tl;dr - get a better feel for what you like out of D&D and run some low-key one-shots for your brother, then go from there. Good luck!
A lot of the caution being ladled onto this thread is exactly the "D&D is SERIOUS BUSINESS" malarky I warned the OP about. There's even advice on world building, when the OP clearly wants to do something loosely inspired and riffing on Zelda. That, and facility with the rules (the OP is versed in the combat system) and you're really good to go.
I think some folks are forgetting the game is designed for entry by 12 year olds. The casual style of play (which I feel is representative of most D&D than what we're talking about in a lot of the guidance above) allows players to build characters on likely uniformed "what if?" (what if I am?...) principle and the DM takes those imaginative concepts and confronts them with a further "what if?" (what if this happens to them?). Everything beyond that is levels of sophistication that may be nice (but can also backfire, some DMs get too into world building they never play or find the inability of their players to truly immerse themselves in the DM's world building genius incredibly frustrating or the players find the DM a bit uptight about the verisimilitude of the world).
Taking an understanding of the rules (even an imperfect understanding) and skinning or porting Zelda into your game is a perfect way to start playing. If everyone has a good time, keep at it*, if there were rough patches but folks want to keep going, those instances and how to make them better are what this forum are most useful for.
*Don't even bother calling your game one shots or a campaign. Play the adventure you had layed out. If it's completed and folks want to keep going, do another one. There is a style of play called "episodic" where players keep the same characters and they increase in power and challenges increase commensurately, but there's not a real through line to the playing. Knowing they're in the world of Zelda is enough, and this mode actually save many tables the frustration of having to recall everything in the game.
OP came into this really asking for validation "should I DM" not instruction "how do I DM". The context the OP provided is perfectly vallid way to start playing D&D and from that play let the groups play style evolve organically. A lot of the cautions and caveats being dumped in this thread from my view are making the act of DMing seem overly precious and while reflective of one way of playing are actually not in fact essential to the game.
So, to repeat my earlier post, "Absolutely DM, go for it." This forum is better served for tuning and coaching once you're "in it." I think a lot of the advice leveled at new people is actually more discouraging and intimidating and specifying than need be.
When I started playing D&D, there's a was a red box. My first group I was the only one who had that red box, but I was able to explain what we were going to do with my friends, we made characters and we played the game "right out of the box." We might not have gotten everything right, but we had fun. In time I met other people who played the game beyond my group of friends, and I learned of other ways of playing. Some of what I learned I liked and worked to incorporate into my game. Some to a lot just seemed like the no fun zone so were ignored and didn't come into my game. Thing is, the core to my playing was and always will be those initial fun moments of playing. And it seems like a lot of the advice here is getting that dynamic woefully backwards.
Let the OP play before tasking them with world building work orders and mechanical homework. Let them come back and let folks know how it went and ask questions to improve if they want. Gaming is just a better way to learn than pre gaming at the outset of someone's entry into the hobby. Also more time efficient.
I'm not sure if outside links are allowed (I'll edit and post it if they are) but The Angry GM has a really good guide to running a game for the first time that I found pretty helpful. The biggest piece of advice is to just remember that it probably wont go well, and everyone will probably have fun anyway. Recently I apologized to one of my first players and said "Wow, I'm so sorry that our game was so bad! I look back on it and see all sorts of mistakes in rules and world consistency and player agency that I made." The response I got was, "What are you talking about, that was a ton of fun!"
These last three posts have been really interesting to read and contrast. I like that it is pointed out that it won't be a walk in the park, I'm brand new after all. But the emphasis on having fun more than anything despite mistakes is really encouraging more than anything.
Having the different perspectives of "be realistic, get your logistics handles then have fun" but then having the "If it doesn't go a certain way don't panic, just go with it." will probably be the most helpful. I definitely need to learn the rules, I don't even know how magic works and that's probably important to know. I don't know what's over powered vs what's too weak. There are just things I should get an idea of before starting. All of that doesn't mean it shouldn't be fun though, the only way I can fail here is if the players and myself don't have a good time, or at least a laugh. Even if I make mistakes it's a shared memory me and my brother can look back on.
Again, thank you guys for taking the time to give input, and please feel free to keep posting here. I'll check back on this pretty frequently.
(External links are perfectly fine in my book, idk about the forum rules.)
Magic works via things a spell caster uses called spell slots and you gradually get more spell slots the more you increase in level. Of course there’s a lot more of that but that’s the basics.
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I have only played one session of dnd ever, but my brother is starting to get more and more into dnd. His campaign he is currently a player in right now is almost over, and I want an excuse to hang out. I personally am not much into dnd, but I love fantasy, especially Zelda. He really likes Zelda too, so I was thinking of starting a homebrew campaign that is Zelda inspired. Would this be a good idea if I only have very basic knowledge about the game? What do I even need to start a game? Would co-DMing be a good idea if I can find someone? I have dice and a lot of time on my hands, but no money for the books or anything like that, but I figured sense it's homebrew that wouldn't really matter too much. I am just looking for advice from some decently experienced dms about this, and maybe some pointers? I'll probably end up doing it regardless, but I don't want to go in completely unequipped and ignorant.
Think the key sentence here is " my brother is starting to get more and more into dnd, and I want an excuse to hang out "
So is your brother DM'ing or playing in someone else's campaign your not privy to? I don't quite get the my brother into it but somehow I'm outside and I think understanding this is important in best advising you.
Regardless the usual path way to DM'ing is through playing that way you become familiar the the rules and mechanics of the 5e DnD rule set and you experience a DM in action you get to see what works what you feel doesn't and start imagining how you might do it differently... This path is the one I'd really recommend
that said its not the only way and sure you can straight off start as a DM and never played a session of DnD though in this case I would highly recommend you start with a pre-written adventure
So does WOTC provide a free rule set and a free simple adventure to get you started?
Free basic Rule Set - check -> DnD Beyonds basic rule set or WOTC DnD Basic rules download page
Free DnD intro heck I'm a new DM with new players help me out here Adventure - Errr.... Mmm... think I might have to get back to you on that one
edit grumble mumble covid frostmaiden grumble mumble bloomin omincronioneons...
I swear WOTC or DnD Beyond should do a best free intro new DM and players Adventure competition and it's free bundled with the basic rule set in mind... and the winner get loads of feels and can sell a continuation spin off campaign on the Dungeon Masters Guild site or something
edit WOTC does have Dragon of Icespire peak preview adventure as part of the stay at home play at home thingy... not played it or ran it or noted any reviews of it dragon_icespire_peak_preview.pdf
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I can see how my wording concerning my brother was confusing, I think I fixed it. He is not the DM, he is one of the players.
Thank you for the links with the resources, I will be sure to check those out!
Also, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst idea imaginable and 10 being the best, how bad is it to go in with loose guidelines vs a set story to follow? I ask this because you mention the pre-written adventure, and was a bit curious.
Recognize the stakes. No one is going to be harmed or injuried (at least irreparably) if you DM a game for your brother (and maybe some friends).
Loose ideas are fine. It may not seem it from the ... intensity ... some poster here (myself included) discuss D&D but I think most D&D is played on a much more casual level.
What I'd recommend, pick up some free stuff. Either follow and adventure or see if seat of your pants works. If it goes ka-blooey, you and your brother at least have a "remember that time you tried to DM?" story to hang onto. If you like it, but thought it went a little rough, or you want to improve your game but keep the loose casual approach going, check out some of Sly Fox's guidance like The Lazy DM and Return of the Lazy DM. There's even a video hosted by DDB that interview him with his main ideas.
[There are some folks who do thing "D&D is Serious Business" and will consider everything above this sentence some sort of heresy. Ignore that strain of DM insistence. Go have fun with your brother. Only thing really stopping you is you and THE INTERNET OF SERIOUS D&D PLAYERS shouldn't get in your way.]
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My first foray into D&D was as a DM--I threw together a group of new players and dove right in feet first. That is to say, being an experienced player helps with DMing, but it is not a prerequisite.
If you are starting as a novice DM, your primary goal should be learning the basic mechanics. Reading the DM Guide cover-to-cover is a pretty good place to start--it gives you a basic idea of the rules as well as general tips for DMing. Some additional tips the DM guide does not really go over:
1. You can fudge numbers and dice roles to make the game more fun. No one likes if a monster keeps missing/keeps hitting too high, so you can lie about what you rolled for accuracy and damage for the benefit of entertainment. Same goes with randomly increasing or decreasing a monster's HP, changing skill difficulty checks, etc. Your goal is to facilitate fun--not be a slave to your own dice.
2. When making entities for your campaign, try to deal in broad strokes, rather than write specific dialogue (other than for important information you need the party to find, and are going to shoehorn into the NPC interaction). If you have an NPC/City/Country/other entity and you know their general personality/politics/motivations, you can easily have that entity react to any situation that might come up. Players are unpredictable--they are going to do things you cannot predict and you do not want to be unable to react or so stuck in your story that you cannot change.
3. Be prepared to abandon plot points that are not working, diverting your players to something they are more interested in.
4. Do not ignore the small elements of the world. For example, making sure NPCs and city names in the same region are based in the same language, so they feel etymologically related. Or having a few small NPCs that your players seem to enjoy show up every now and then.
5. Be sure to always put your players' fun first, even at the expense of your story.
I vehemently disagree with the below:
Quiet frankly, the pre-written adventures--particularly the ones written by Wizards of the Coast--are garbage. They tend to be very limited in their breadth and emotional depth, and it can be really easy for novice DMs to stick only to the four corners of the book, without realizing they are more frameworks than enjoyable campaigns. They serve as a fun read to get to know a setting so said setting can be used in a homebrew, but I would never recommend anyone actually play them as written.
Beyond simply being more interesting, homebrews are a bit more forgiving. You can always adjust a homebrew to fit with player chaos--it is too easy in a pre-written campaign to try and react to chaos by forcing players back onto the rails.
I have only witnessed dnd as a serious game that is pretty strict, so it's really nice to know it can be more casual! It is interesting to me that dnd has so many different play types.
Thank you for more of those examples, I am finding more and more dnd content tailored to new dms or casual playing like that. It's really nice.
Your advice on keeping it more fun based and less "slave to your own dice" based will be really helpful I think, so thank you!
Your points on plot and essentially going with your players flow to keep it fun will also keep things fun I think. I think I'd find that actually less stressful than trying to keep to a solid plot. And NPCs sound really fun, I've heard and seen a lot of fun things surrounding NPCs and how players interact with them.
ah thanks EmollientFirr that makes it much clearer in my mind
like MidnightPlat said "If it goes ka-blooey" oh the humanity!
The reason I suggest a pre-written adventure is it's giving you a structure to follow if it's well designed with introduction in mind it will by taking you through the steps of some tricky rules like surprise, stealth perception checks environmental modifiers and "I have thieves tools what do I role!?!" that often catch a new DM out.... all the while your looking at the story the encounters and you'll be thinking I could do this Zelda thing here maybe hint at that Zelda lore there... and that is exactly what you should do sprinkle it with your own ideas all the while letting the pre made story structure do the heavy lifting getting you through that first adventure
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
So mixing a pre-made story with my own ideas or Zelda cannon? I was already going to pretty much directly steal dudgeon layouts from Zelda. So maybe stealing ideas from pre-made adventures would make the building plot and actual battle part easier. Am I understanding here? I will admit that I am drawn to a more go-with-the-flow campaign, but I am here to see both sides, that's why I posted here!
I am also thinking that this might just be a one-shot, that sounds like less pressure maybe. Just a thought.
EmollientFirr "So mixing a pre-made story with my own ideas or Zelda cannon?" Oh most definitely, I just see it as a stepping stone to that "homebrewed Zelda campaign" that your aiming for all the while your actually playing and learning the rules and developing ideas...
Oh Dear Caerwyn_Glyndwr miss the irony much? "Free DnD intro heck I'm a new DM with new players help me out here Adventure - Errr.... Mmm... think I might have to get back to you on that one"
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Trying to emulate an existing setting can actually be a lot of work, because you'll run into lots of issues where your source doesn't actually match up with the game system you're trying to use (I'm not particularly familiar with Zelda, but I'd be surprised if its mechanics are terribly similar to D&D).
My familiarity with dnd is pretty much completely related to combat, so I wouldn't try to change too much from that and replace it with Zelda combat. I just meant layout and staircases to different floors of an area, nothing too fancy. I'd be taking basic map layout so I don't have to design my own environments or locations, plus a nostalgia bonus for me, my brother, and a few of our friends. Thank you for your point though, gives me something to consider while I try this out.
As I noted, I encourage stealing ideas from the source materials, but not utilizing the premade material in its entirety (because, again, they're poorly-written drivel). There are some fun encounters in the premade campaigns, but the glue that binds them together tends to be rather flimsy. Essentially, skip over everything that is story-related and jump right to the suggested encounters and puzzles--those actually are useful, particularly for new players.
If you want to borrow heavily from a Zelda game for the setting, I would recommend Link to the Past. LttP is one of the better games in the franchise. It keeps the traditional dungeon crawling elements, but you have a lot of freedom to do the dungeons in variable orders, giving you a nice open world feel. Add to that a fun little parallel world setting that can serve as a navigation puzzle, and you have a rather nifty start to your campaign.
As for one-shot versus a full campaign: That depends on what you want. You said your primary goal is to play with your brother--a one shot is not as conductive to long-term play. DMing your first full campaign can be a bit intimidating, but you pick up the ropes pretty quickly. You and your players just need to be ready for the first few sessions/dungeons to be a bit rough--but most players understand there is a learning curve, and there's a certain joy in discovering and figuring out the game alongside your players.
Fortunately, Zelda games lend themselves to starting as a one-shot, while leaving open the possibility of going further. Many of them start with an introduction mission that is relatively self-contained. You could do something similar that has a definite end point (rescuing someone, finding an item, etc.), but leave the next steps somewhat open ended. Let's keep with LttP as our example. In LttP, you start the game by receiving a psychic message from Zelda and have to go rescue her. Your one shot could be rescuing her from the tower.
And, if the one-shot goes well, you can continue the story from there--rescuing Sages, finding magical pendants, crawling through dungeons--all the things that make Zelda games fun.
That's a really good point, making the option of continuing after a one-shot would be ideal in my mind.
I have played and love LttP, I recently replayed it actually. The map is simple enough and makes sense, and the dungeons are really fun with good puzzles to boot. How hard is it to make puzzles in dnd? Like I said, almost all of my experience was in combat.
Also, I like the idea of a rescue, but I want to steer clear of too many cannon main characters other than some random NPCs in the game itself. It will probably take place either directly before or after the events of the cannon story. But at the same time, I don't want to bore the players with stuff that I find interesting but isn't inherently exciting. I'll have to find a balance.
This feels like more of a story telling aspect. I think I have what I need in terms of things to keep in mind while doing this. I have been looking at a lot of pre-made and homebrew content other people have made and think I have a good starting point. I have a basic story/basic events thought up, so I should be fine there.
I will still accept any advice anyone else feels like sharing though!
Even if you want to get into DM’ing, you still have to either make a world or use a man existing one such as Toril or Krynn. Think about what to do first and then get down to business. How many players do you want? How much rping would be included and how much combat? If you choose to make your own world, base it off a current one and change it in significant ways. Add a new background and a new NPC that starts the adventure off.
I know that I’m a serious D&D player, but that doesn’t mean that my way goes. Make up whatever you want but dont make it too easy or difficult for your players or they’ll stop playing because imagine if you walked into a cave holding a arrow and a torch and suddenly a massive black dragon spits out a cone of acid that kills you instantly.
Make sure to give common loot at the start of the campaign and then start throwing out rarer items at lvl 9-12, gradually increasing the rarity and danger at the same level until they hit 20. This is mainly in the long term but there are a few tips in this mess that can make a player into a DM. try to play about 3-4 4 hour games spread over the course of a month and then try to write down what your DM says (as long as they’re a good one). Then just organise a campaign on Play by Post and then slip into Discord. I for one would love to join in a few months or so. Thanks for reading!
All of this concerns me.
D&D can be an amazing, collaborative experience that lets you spend time with people you like and explore worlds and tropes and stories that engage you. However, if the DM is not having fun, nobody will have fun. I answered "No, but..." in your poll, and below is why:
1. D&D is not a monolith. If my first exposure to the game had been in a combat-heavy session, I would have said I didn't like D&D much either. Some people love that; not all players do. You have very limited experience with the game, and there are just about as many ways to play it as there are personalities (serious, casual, lighthearted, mystery-focused, hack-n-slash, etc.). You and your brother might very well have differing tastes in D&D, and the kind of game he likes to play is not really your speed, and vice versa. That's perfectly okay - but it might make running a full-blown campaign unsustainable.
2. DMing is performing and staying organized, not just playing make believe with friends. Yes, you absolutely can hang out while you're DMing. But you are going to be very busy trying to set the scene, staying on top of NPCs and dice rolls, adjudicating rules, making things up on the fly when your players do things you didn't prepare for, and all the other nitty gritty details that come with running a session. You will be surprised at how draining it can be, and it might disappoint you that it feels so different from just being at a table with your brother as a player.
3. Homebrew is hard. DMing a module is tough enough as it stands, but those at least give you some structure and ideas for what to do when players try things. With homebrew, the world, the consequences, the plot points, the magic items, the science, the history, the NPCs, the locations, the economy, the scarcity of materials, the cosmology, the political history of the kingdom...absolutely everything is on you to create. Can it be fun? Oh yeah. But boy is it a ton of work - work that often never gets seen or appreciated by your players. Work that often gets trampled (either accidentally or intentionally) by your players. You have to be 100% invested in the universe you build, and in the game you run, and enjoy the players you have, to put up with it for the long haul.
All of this to say: I think running a campaign with the limited experience you have is a bad idea. However, I think running a homebrew Zelda one-shot is a great idea. It gives you a chance to get a feel for 1) DMing, 2) what you might like from D&D, 3) if your brother's playstyle is compatible with your DM style.
Since one-shots are self-contained, the amount of information you have to create to run the game is significantly reduced. All you need is a hook (e.g., "a dragon has kidnapped the princess!"), a single location to flesh out, an obstacle (e.g., "gotta get through the dragon's lair to save her"), and a reward. That's it. You can even find a published one-shot online (there's plenty of free ones, just poke around Google for 5e one-shots) and run it if you don't want to do the work. If you end up having fun and your brother does too, then maybe you can start putting together a few more one-shots set in the same universe. Because there is a biiiiig difference between DMing a one-shot and DMing a campaign. Again, I say this from experience.
Tl;dr - get a better feel for what you like out of D&D and run some low-key one-shots for your brother, then go from there. Good luck!
A lot of the caution being ladled onto this thread is exactly the "D&D is SERIOUS BUSINESS" malarky I warned the OP about. There's even advice on world building, when the OP clearly wants to do something loosely inspired and riffing on Zelda. That, and facility with the rules (the OP is versed in the combat system) and you're really good to go.
I think some folks are forgetting the game is designed for entry by 12 year olds. The casual style of play (which I feel is representative of most D&D than what we're talking about in a lot of the guidance above) allows players to build characters on likely uniformed "what if?" (what if I am?...) principle and the DM takes those imaginative concepts and confronts them with a further "what if?" (what if this happens to them?). Everything beyond that is levels of sophistication that may be nice (but can also backfire, some DMs get too into world building they never play or find the inability of their players to truly immerse themselves in the DM's world building genius incredibly frustrating or the players find the DM a bit uptight about the verisimilitude of the world).
Taking an understanding of the rules (even an imperfect understanding) and skinning or porting Zelda into your game is a perfect way to start playing. If everyone has a good time, keep at it*, if there were rough patches but folks want to keep going, those instances and how to make them better are what this forum are most useful for.
*Don't even bother calling your game one shots or a campaign. Play the adventure you had layed out. If it's completed and folks want to keep going, do another one. There is a style of play called "episodic" where players keep the same characters and they increase in power and challenges increase commensurately, but there's not a real through line to the playing. Knowing they're in the world of Zelda is enough, and this mode actually save many tables the frustration of having to recall everything in the game.
OP came into this really asking for validation "should I DM" not instruction "how do I DM". The context the OP provided is perfectly vallid way to start playing D&D and from that play let the groups play style evolve organically. A lot of the cautions and caveats being dumped in this thread from my view are making the act of DMing seem overly precious and while reflective of one way of playing are actually not in fact essential to the game.
So, to repeat my earlier post, "Absolutely DM, go for it." This forum is better served for tuning and coaching once you're "in it." I think a lot of the advice leveled at new people is actually more discouraging and intimidating and specifying than need be.
When I started playing D&D, there's a was a red box. My first group I was the only one who had that red box, but I was able to explain what we were going to do with my friends, we made characters and we played the game "right out of the box." We might not have gotten everything right, but we had fun. In time I met other people who played the game beyond my group of friends, and I learned of other ways of playing. Some of what I learned I liked and worked to incorporate into my game. Some to a lot just seemed like the no fun zone so were ignored and didn't come into my game. Thing is, the core to my playing was and always will be those initial fun moments of playing. And it seems like a lot of the advice here is getting that dynamic woefully backwards.
Let the OP play before tasking them with world building work orders and mechanical homework. Let them come back and let folks know how it went and ask questions to improve if they want. Gaming is just a better way to learn than pre gaming at the outset of someone's entry into the hobby. Also more time efficient.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm not sure if outside links are allowed (I'll edit and post it if they are) but The Angry GM has a really good guide to running a game for the first time that I found pretty helpful. The biggest piece of advice is to just remember that it probably wont go well, and everyone will probably have fun anyway. Recently I apologized to one of my first players and said "Wow, I'm so sorry that our game was so bad! I look back on it and see all sorts of mistakes in rules and world consistency and player agency that I made." The response I got was, "What are you talking about, that was a ton of fun!"
These last three posts have been really interesting to read and contrast. I like that it is pointed out that it won't be a walk in the park, I'm brand new after all. But the emphasis on having fun more than anything despite mistakes is really encouraging more than anything.
Having the different perspectives of "be realistic, get your logistics handles then have fun" but then having the "If it doesn't go a certain way don't panic, just go with it." will probably be the most helpful. I definitely need to learn the rules, I don't even know how magic works and that's probably important to know. I don't know what's over powered vs what's too weak. There are just things I should get an idea of before starting. All of that doesn't mean it shouldn't be fun though, the only way I can fail here is if the players and myself don't have a good time, or at least a laugh. Even if I make mistakes it's a shared memory me and my brother can look back on.
Again, thank you guys for taking the time to give input, and please feel free to keep posting here. I'll check back on this pretty frequently.
(External links are perfectly fine in my book, idk about the forum rules.)
Magic works via things a spell caster uses called spell slots and you gradually get more spell slots the more you increase in level. Of course there’s a lot more of that but that’s the basics.