I'm almost to my first session as the DM. I have been a player but not a DM. I am worried that I may not have enough side quests for them, as the starting "dungeon" is only one room. Any tips on how to get more content fast?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I exist sometimes, especially when I'm DMing Curse of Strahd.
Random dungeon generators, random message board quests and random plot twists are all ways to whip up some new material quickly that you can pick and choose what makes it into your game.
One of my go-to resources is Donjon. There are others out there, and I'm sure they are great for their purposes.
Good luck in your games and have fun!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I'm almost to my first session as the DM. I have been a player but not a DM. I am worried that I may not have enough side quests for them, as the starting "dungeon" is only one room. Any tips on how to get more content fast?
Buy a module, Goodman Games has converted a number of 1E modules to 5E and they are a good start.
Explain to the players that you are the DM and when a rules question comes up, you'll make a quick ruling to keep the game going, however you'll research it after the game and let them know your call. If someone died due to a misunderstanding of the rules you'll bring them back. If you miss a rule or forget a status and someone tells you about it, reward them with inspiration for helping you out in the session.
I would also suggest setting the basics of decorum, but man can you find some real winners when you get people online. Explain that this is a game and no need to go player vs dm. Do not start making snide comments to the DM or party. Don't make it about you, work with everyone. It might also help you to get those types to NOT join your game and save you a lot of time and trouble.
Seriously, there's no shame in running a pre-made. You can even joke with the players about the bad bits.
I've never seen a pre-made without some truly terrible decisions made. It's quite inspiring!
Plonk down some cash monies on one of the official campaigns, or hell, run Phandelver (is that free?). Making your own campaign can he really hard (depending on how you do it). Walk before you run: get yourself a pre-made.
If you need an adventure for the PCs, then run a module. Frozen Sick is free on this site. Even if you don't want to run it entirely, you can just take the bits you want.
If you are determined to homebrew, as it's your first time DM'ing, don't try to design side quests. Stick to one fairly linear story. You don't need to be a DM'ing god the first time you run a game, and you'll find your feet through playing.
If you need an adventure for the PCs, then run a module. Frozen Sick is free on this site. Even if you don't want to run it entirely, you can just take the bits you want.
If you are determined to homebrew, as it's your first time DM'ing, don't try to design side quests. Stick to one fairly linear story. You don't need to be a DM'ing god the first time you run a game, and you'll find your feet through playing.
Thank you! I have all the adventures thanks to a friend and content sharing. Any suggestions for which one I should run?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I exist sometimes, especially when I'm DMing Curse of Strahd.
The modules are kind of terrible. They are extremely linear, do not react well to players exercising their own agency, and have stories that rely more on tropes and cliches than actual character or story development. They expect the DM to put a lot of effort into making the campaign come alive, and, at that point, you might as well just homebrew. You can use the modules as inspiration--borrow some of their maps and dungeons and the details about the settings, but run your own story within that given setting, or you can just take some of the more fun dungeons and transplant them into your own homebrew world.
Rather than plan side quests, let your party design their own side quests. Know enough about your world that you know what is going on in various towns and wilds, and then have NPCs talk about rumors and other events. Your party will pick what they want and will go investigate--so long as you stay a couple steps ahead of them, you can fairly easily design and ad lib your way through an entre set of side quests. So long as you keep a few generic combat encounters in your back pocket that you can easily insert into any possible situation, you will be prepared for the combat portion, and can just roleplay your way through the rest.
There are a couple of modules that lends themselves well to have parts slotted into pretty much any world (e.g. Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tales form the Yawning Portal). This frees you up to have material, but not necessarily run a whole module that could take a very long time.
If you are then looking for inspiration and ideas, things like old dungeon magazines can be a great resource. There are of course also lots of content creators that put out adventures via dmguild, patreon etc.
If you need an adventure for the PCs, then run a module. Frozen Sick is free on this site. Even if you don't want to run it entirely, you can just take the bits you want.
If you are determined to homebrew, as it's your first time DM'ing, don't try to design side quests. Stick to one fairly linear story. You don't need to be a DM'ing god the first time you run a game, and you'll find your feet through playing.
Thank you! I have all the adventures thanks to a friend and content sharing. Any suggestions for which one I should run?
It depends on how you want to DM. I suggest goodman games "Keep on the Borderlands". Its a rewrite from the Basic Module. Its a sandbox with encounters around the keep, caves of calamity and a cave complex that is the main area. You get an open ended final battle area that is a shrine to chaos. The idea was for the DM to come up with their own plot and to use the keep as the basis of a long campaign. I'm doing: Keep on the Borderland--> Temple of Elemental Evil --> Against the Salve Lords --> Queen of Spiders track. All based on 1E content and I'm updating them to 5E, the first two using goodman game conversions.
The benefits of the older complex is you get a small sandbox, a number of unique encounters to keep the party interested that tend to be random encounters or locations if you so choose to use them. You then will have a few main dungeon complexes. It makes it easy to run D&D and to maintain verisimilitude. You need to have towns and people to anchor the players to a region for a time and goals to help the area. If you go with the 5 rooms, a trap and a puzzle routine (which god I wish it would stop now) it is enough for a session usually and can be made with plastic terrain easy enough. But you don't get the time going into the dungeon and figuring out how to get the main bad guy.
If you go with the older content, don't forget to set up some exits as well, I use a town message board for various tasks. And by exits, have a few other back up areas set up if the players don't like the current area. Essentially its a containerized sandbox, if they don't like the current area, give them a quest where they can move to an entirely new area or new dungeon complex. Also let their be consequences if they ignore the BBEG to chase after treasure, they might find their former base enslaved and the locals being killed by the Hobgoblin king they ignored to get the +1 sword of light.
The older content is just better set up than what WotC (bless their hearts), especially since Winninger is the lead now. Its just too much redaction, poorly thought out plot and going to a lifestyle brand rather than a gaming brand. They released an age 6 to 11 copy of Harry Potter legally changed to be "legal" and tried to sell it to adults as an example of what they are trying to market. I'd run it for my nephew not for age 16+.
I'm almost to my first session as the DM. I have been a player but not a DM. I am worried that I may not have enough side quests for them, as the starting "dungeon" is only one room. Any tips on how to get more content fast?
I exist sometimes, especially when I'm DMing Curse of Strahd.
Random dungeon generators, random message board quests and random plot twists are all ways to whip up some new material quickly that you can pick and choose what makes it into your game.
One of my go-to resources is Donjon. There are others out there, and I'm sure they are great for their purposes.
Good luck in your games and have fun!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Buy a module, Goodman Games has converted a number of 1E modules to 5E and they are a good start.
Explain to the players that you are the DM and when a rules question comes up, you'll make a quick ruling to keep the game going, however you'll research it after the game and let them know your call. If someone died due to a misunderstanding of the rules you'll bring them back. If you miss a rule or forget a status and someone tells you about it, reward them with inspiration for helping you out in the session.
I would also suggest setting the basics of decorum, but man can you find some real winners when you get people online. Explain that this is a game and no need to go player vs dm. Do not start making snide comments to the DM or party. Don't make it about you, work with everyone. It might also help you to get those types to NOT join your game and save you a lot of time and trouble.
Seriously, there's no shame in running a pre-made. You can even joke with the players about the bad bits.
I've never seen a pre-made without some truly terrible decisions made. It's quite inspiring!
Plonk down some cash monies on one of the official campaigns, or hell, run Phandelver (is that free?). Making your own campaign can he really hard (depending on how you do it). Walk before you run: get yourself a pre-made.
If you need an adventure for the PCs, then run a module. Frozen Sick is free on this site. Even if you don't want to run it entirely, you can just take the bits you want.
If you are determined to homebrew, as it's your first time DM'ing, don't try to design side quests. Stick to one fairly linear story. You don't need to be a DM'ing god the first time you run a game, and you'll find your feet through playing.
Thank you! I have all the adventures thanks to a friend and content sharing. Any suggestions for which one I should run?
I exist sometimes, especially when I'm DMing Curse of Strahd.
The modules are kind of terrible. They are extremely linear, do not react well to players exercising their own agency, and have stories that rely more on tropes and cliches than actual character or story development. They expect the DM to put a lot of effort into making the campaign come alive, and, at that point, you might as well just homebrew. You can use the modules as inspiration--borrow some of their maps and dungeons and the details about the settings, but run your own story within that given setting, or you can just take some of the more fun dungeons and transplant them into your own homebrew world.
Rather than plan side quests, let your party design their own side quests. Know enough about your world that you know what is going on in various towns and wilds, and then have NPCs talk about rumors and other events. Your party will pick what they want and will go investigate--so long as you stay a couple steps ahead of them, you can fairly easily design and ad lib your way through an entre set of side quests. So long as you keep a few generic combat encounters in your back pocket that you can easily insert into any possible situation, you will be prepared for the combat portion, and can just roleplay your way through the rest.
There are a couple of modules that lends themselves well to have parts slotted into pretty much any world (e.g. Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tales form the Yawning Portal). This frees you up to have material, but not necessarily run a whole module that could take a very long time.
If you are then looking for inspiration and ideas, things like old dungeon magazines can be a great resource. There are of course also lots of content creators that put out adventures via dmguild, patreon etc.
It depends on how you want to DM. I suggest goodman games "Keep on the Borderlands". Its a rewrite from the Basic Module. Its a sandbox with encounters around the keep, caves of calamity and a cave complex that is the main area. You get an open ended final battle area that is a shrine to chaos. The idea was for the DM to come up with their own plot and to use the keep as the basis of a long campaign. I'm doing: Keep on the Borderland--> Temple of Elemental Evil --> Against the Salve Lords --> Queen of Spiders track. All based on 1E content and I'm updating them to 5E, the first two using goodman game conversions.
The benefits of the older complex is you get a small sandbox, a number of unique encounters to keep the party interested that tend to be random encounters or locations if you so choose to use them. You then will have a few main dungeon complexes. It makes it easy to run D&D and to maintain verisimilitude. You need to have towns and people to anchor the players to a region for a time and goals to help the area. If you go with the 5 rooms, a trap and a puzzle routine (which god I wish it would stop now) it is enough for a session usually and can be made with plastic terrain easy enough. But you don't get the time going into the dungeon and figuring out how to get the main bad guy.
If you go with the older content, don't forget to set up some exits as well, I use a town message board for various tasks. And by exits, have a few other back up areas set up if the players don't like the current area. Essentially its a containerized sandbox, if they don't like the current area, give them a quest where they can move to an entirely new area or new dungeon complex. Also let their be consequences if they ignore the BBEG to chase after treasure, they might find their former base enslaved and the locals being killed by the Hobgoblin king they ignored to get the +1 sword of light.
The older content is just better set up than what WotC (bless their hearts), especially since Winninger is the lead now. Its just too much redaction, poorly thought out plot and going to a lifestyle brand rather than a gaming brand. They released an age 6 to 11 copy of Harry Potter legally changed to be "legal" and tried to sell it to adults as an example of what they are trying to market. I'd run it for my nephew not for age 16+.