Hello! I'm a new DM looking for some advice on a good module to use for my first campaign. I have most of my experience with DnD in play-by-post, and would love any module suggestions that could also work well in a pbp format. I'd like to try a semi-long term module as well since I have a good bit of experience in playing DnD, so I'd rather avoid one-shot modules currently!
I was recommend The Lost Mine of Phandelver, but unfortunately it seems like the book is no longer able to be used on DnD beyond. I'd really prefer content that I can use on D&D Beyond, I don't mind buying a module (preferably one that's on the current sale if possible!).
Any advice or recommendations is really appreciated!
In terms of what you could run the first campaign module that I ran was Storm Kings Thunder (levels 1 or 5 - 11) it could last you a while but it- like most modules - requires some editing before you play it - I enjoyed this module but I am aware that lots of people didn't so I might recommend something slightly safer unless you look at its description and go yeah thats for me. You could go with something a bit more well known - Curse of Strahd which can be a very fun campaign to run with one of the most famous villains in all of dnd. Really it is going to depend on what type of things you find interesting look up a video on a brief description of each campaign because most of the modules can be edited fairly easily to make them much better than they already are. The two I would recommend against are Tyranny of dragons and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Get them if you want by all means but they are generally regarded, including by me, as campaigns which require a lot more work than is necessary to make into strong campaigns.
Sorry if I have rambled on a bit there but hopefully you get the idea it's hard to recommend specific modules without knowing what you are interested in but if I had to guess I would say you would enjoy Curse of Strahd or Maybe Storm King's Thunder (although that one is a bit more work than COS)
Lost Mines gets recommended a lot for a very good reason, it’s a cracking little campaign and designed for new or inexperienced players and DMs both. Unfortunately as you say it’s no longer available by itself, that’s because they decided to expand it into a longer campaign and release it as Phandelver And Below: Shattered Obelisk. If you pick up that campaign the first half is still Lost Mines virtually unchanged.
The other great place to start is Dragon of Ice Spire Peak. This was the adventure from the Essentials Kit and again is designed for new people who’ve never played before and you can get it on DDB for about $15 and is well worth it for a nice adventure going from level 1-8
Lost Mines of Phandelver was re-released as Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. It includes the original LMoP with an extension involving a secondary adventure that continues after LMoP but has a couple of tie ins to the original plot line. Instead of the original end point around level 5/6, it now goes to level 12.
Dragon of Ice Spire Peak is another good starter module. It is also based in the town of Phandalin but not at exactly the same time. It runs to level 7 but the digital version contains three additional adventures that will also take the characters to level 11 or 12 or so.
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is another starter adventure but it only goes to level 3 or so.
However, all of these have been designed as introductory adventures that can work well for both beginning and experienced players and DMs.
I've played the original LMoP, not the extended version and I have run DoIP. Either would be a good choice for a first campaign. There is also no requirement to play the additional chapters in Phandelver and Below or the additional adventures packaged with DoIP if you find that your players are looking for a different challenge - however, they do give you the option to play to a higher level if you and your players are interested.
In terms of a new DM running a new adventure, I would tend to avoid SKT (Storm King's Thunder) or CoS (Curse of Strahd) because they both have a lot more going on for the DM to keep track of. I've played SKT and geographically it covers the entire Sword Coast with adventures all over the place. CoS on the other hand may be one land but it has a lot of moving parts and because it is a sandbox there are some places that low level characters can choose to go that WILL kill them. Even the starter adventure for levels 1-3 within CoS (the Death House) can be deadly (though honestly, deadly is one of the characteristics of many of the possible encounters in CoS depending on the DM and experience of the players).
Another good one that I would not recommend as a first campaign is Tomb of Annihilation. It is a really good module that I have played but it has a hex crawl exploration element and covers quite a bit of area (it can also use a bit more mid-game content depending on how the travel in the jungle is run).
ToA, CoS and SKT are among the better WotC adventures but their scope and complexity make them a bit less newbie friendly (although there are new DMs and players that can and do enjoy it) .
Finally, once you are past the intial adventuring, I really like the adventure anthologies as a basis for a campaign. Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Candlekeep Mysteries, Tales from the Golden Vault, Radiant Citadel are all books with self contained adventures that can be strung together to make a very enjoyable campaign or series of connected adventures for a party. You could also choose to start with the low level adventures from GoS or TftYP as an alternative to LMoP/DoIP if you like too.
So, there are lots of options, my suggestions would be LMoP/Phandelver and Below, DoIP, or GoS+TftYP as starting points.
i myself as starter went for icewind dale but it doesn't feel as starter work, adventure have encounters in which dm that don't know power levels just tpk party at lvl 1, adventure throw mechanic which itself destroy by the start winter clothing, and many npc need motivation rework, or being introduced earlier and better eg Vellynne- you meet her first time, but just get into necromancer sled with zombies /s
If you don't mind not being able to get it on dnd beyond then that's definitely what I'd suggest it is always a really fun one and is the official starter set for a reason.
Humblewood. Especially because it's offered here now.
I know people scoff at a lot of 3rd party modules and this one is a premium price, but that is so well crafted and its unique. I did that as my first DM adventure and all of the players were very happy with the outcome. All of the races from the book were used and they used many of the unique subclasses as well. The adventure is SOLID as well culminating with a pretty big boss fight. They even do a lot of nice sidebars about what to do if players don't do this or that and it made my learning of DM stuff way easier.
Being that it was a Kickstarter project originally, I don't know if the additional spells and adventures are part of this release, but there's a LOT to do. And everything is soooooo thematic.
The Adventurer's League adventures have a plethora of modules for low and medium levels. A lot of them are really good and while they are typically designed as one-shots, there are several that link together in a particular area or cover a particular "event" over multiple sessions. Adventurer's League modules will use monsters that are in the SRD and/or provide the stats for you in the books.
Great source for content! Have fun DMing!
Random advice; Don't homebrew rules, focus on learning the rules that are already there. You'll find in the early days that a lot of scenarios you'd want to homebrew rules for ALREADY HAVE RULES in the DMG. :) Homebrew rules if that's fun for you but personally as a player I find the existing rules already fun and games have more depths the more DMs, including myself when I DM!, remember to bring those rules in to the game.
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Hello! I'm a new DM looking for some advice on a good module to use for my first campaign. I have most of my experience with DnD in play-by-post, and would love any module suggestions that could also work well in a pbp format. I'd like to try a semi-long term module as well since I have a good bit of experience in playing DnD, so I'd rather avoid one-shot modules currently!
I was recommend The Lost Mine of Phandelver, but unfortunately it seems like the book is no longer able to be used on DnD beyond. I'd really prefer content that I can use on D&D Beyond, I don't mind buying a module (preferably one that's on the current sale if possible!).
Any advice or recommendations is really appreciated!
In terms of what you could run the first campaign module that I ran was Storm Kings Thunder (levels 1 or 5 - 11) it could last you a while but it- like most modules - requires some editing before you play it - I enjoyed this module but I am aware that lots of people didn't so I might recommend something slightly safer unless you look at its description and go yeah thats for me. You could go with something a bit more well known - Curse of Strahd which can be a very fun campaign to run with one of the most famous villains in all of dnd. Really it is going to depend on what type of things you find interesting look up a video on a brief description of each campaign because most of the modules can be edited fairly easily to make them much better than they already are. The two I would recommend against are Tyranny of dragons and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Get them if you want by all means but they are generally regarded, including by me, as campaigns which require a lot more work than is necessary to make into strong campaigns.
Sorry if I have rambled on a bit there but hopefully you get the idea it's hard to recommend specific modules without knowing what you are interested in but if I had to guess I would say you would enjoy Curse of Strahd or Maybe Storm King's Thunder (although that one is a bit more work than COS)
Hello, thanks for the advice! I'll take a look into them both! c:
Lost Mines gets recommended a lot for a very good reason, it’s a cracking little campaign and designed for new or inexperienced players and DMs both. Unfortunately as you say it’s no longer available by itself, that’s because they decided to expand it into a longer campaign and release it as Phandelver And Below: Shattered Obelisk. If you pick up that campaign the first half is still Lost Mines virtually unchanged.
The other great place to start is Dragon of Ice Spire Peak. This was the adventure from the Essentials Kit and again is designed for new people who’ve never played before and you can get it on DDB for about $15 and is well worth it for a nice adventure going from level 1-8
Lost Mines of Phandelver was re-released as Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. It includes the original LMoP with an extension involving a secondary adventure that continues after LMoP but has a couple of tie ins to the original plot line. Instead of the original end point around level 5/6, it now goes to level 12.
Dragon of Ice Spire Peak is another good starter module. It is also based in the town of Phandalin but not at exactly the same time. It runs to level 7 but the digital version contains three additional adventures that will also take the characters to level 11 or 12 or so.
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is another starter adventure but it only goes to level 3 or so.
However, all of these have been designed as introductory adventures that can work well for both beginning and experienced players and DMs.
I've played the original LMoP, not the extended version and I have run DoIP. Either would be a good choice for a first campaign. There is also no requirement to play the additional chapters in Phandelver and Below or the additional adventures packaged with DoIP if you find that your players are looking for a different challenge - however, they do give you the option to play to a higher level if you and your players are interested.
In terms of a new DM running a new adventure, I would tend to avoid SKT (Storm King's Thunder) or CoS (Curse of Strahd) because they both have a lot more going on for the DM to keep track of. I've played SKT and geographically it covers the entire Sword Coast with adventures all over the place. CoS on the other hand may be one land but it has a lot of moving parts and because it is a sandbox there are some places that low level characters can choose to go that WILL kill them. Even the starter adventure for levels 1-3 within CoS (the Death House) can be deadly (though honestly, deadly is one of the characteristics of many of the possible encounters in CoS depending on the DM and experience of the players).
Another good one that I would not recommend as a first campaign is Tomb of Annihilation. It is a really good module that I have played but it has a hex crawl exploration element and covers quite a bit of area (it can also use a bit more mid-game content depending on how the travel in the jungle is run).
ToA, CoS and SKT are among the better WotC adventures but their scope and complexity make them a bit less newbie friendly (although there are new DMs and players that can and do enjoy it) .
Finally, once you are past the intial adventuring, I really like the adventure anthologies as a basis for a campaign. Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Candlekeep Mysteries, Tales from the Golden Vault, Radiant Citadel are all books with self contained adventures that can be strung together to make a very enjoyable campaign or series of connected adventures for a party. You could also choose to start with the low level adventures from GoS or TftYP as an alternative to LMoP/DoIP if you like too.
So, there are lots of options, my suggestions would be LMoP/Phandelver and Below, DoIP, or GoS+TftYP as starting points.
Lost Mine is very good for starters
i myself as starter went for icewind dale but it doesn't feel as starter work, adventure have encounters in which dm that don't know power levels just tpk party at lvl 1, adventure throw mechanic which itself destroy by the start winter clothing, and many npc need motivation rework, or being introduced earlier and better eg Vellynne- you meet her first time, but just get into necromancer sled with zombies /s
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! It sounds like Phandelver is the most popular suggestion, so I'll look into getting that module!
If you don't mind not being able to get it on dnd beyond then that's definitely what I'd suggest it is always a really fun one and is the official starter set for a reason.
Humblewood. Especially because it's offered here now.
I know people scoff at a lot of 3rd party modules and this one is a premium price, but that is so well crafted and its unique. I did that as my first DM adventure and all of the players were very happy with the outcome. All of the races from the book were used and they used many of the unique subclasses as well. The adventure is SOLID as well culminating with a pretty big boss fight. They even do a lot of nice sidebars about what to do if players don't do this or that and it made my learning of DM stuff way easier.
Being that it was a Kickstarter project originally, I don't know if the additional spells and adventures are part of this release, but there's a LOT to do. And everything is soooooo thematic.
The Adventurer's League adventures have a plethora of modules for low and medium levels. A lot of them are really good and while they are typically designed as one-shots, there are several that link together in a particular area or cover a particular "event" over multiple sessions. Adventurer's League modules will use monsters that are in the SRD and/or provide the stats for you in the books.
Great source for content! Have fun DMing!
Random advice; Don't homebrew rules, focus on learning the rules that are already there. You'll find in the early days that a lot of scenarios you'd want to homebrew rules for ALREADY HAVE RULES in the DMG. :) Homebrew rules if that's fun for you but personally as a player I find the existing rules already fun and games have more depths the more DMs, including myself when I DM!, remember to bring those rules in to the game.