I was in the same place as you, trying to create a whole story and world. But then I followed some advices out there to "start small" and "leave gaps". So I've created a small town and a few events, but I haven't put any meaning to them at first. Every game session I'm thinking about the story accordingly to the players actions and I'm giving meaning to everything and attaching each event to another. It's working pretty well so far.
That advice "out there" is called the Dungeon Master's Guide.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I have a group of friends and we all meet up once a week to play. I would really like to DM a campaign. My only issue with this is I have zero faith in my writing skills as well as creativity. Every time I try to build a world for my story I lose faith and just trash the idea. Are there any veteran DMs that could have any tips on getting past having zero faith in yourself when it comes to world building and DMing? My biggest fear is people finding it boring.
My advice to you is to start with a little sandbox.
So, create a small town and then make a dungeon (it doesn't need to be a mega dungeon like the guide says. I doesn't even have to be more than one floor).
Create a help wanted board, with a few side-quests (find the missing people, recover my heirloom, defeat the bandits at X, etc.)
Make a few rumours to point people in certain directions (I hear there was a ruin discovered in the hills to the northeast. The mayor is getting really worried about those bandits, he's raised the reward on that job again, etc.), some rumours that are nonsense.
Make sure you outline a few important NPCs in your town, like the guide says.
Drop your players in this world, make them pay their lifestyle costs for every night they spend (to add minor time pressure) and let them explore and watch what they do. Also, after the game talk to them-- let them speak, listen to them-- they will tell you what content they liked and then add more of that sort of thing. Eventually, you might find an adventure you might want to run.
And if you run Lost Mines of Phandelver, you can just skip most of this, use the town of Phandalin. You could merge that module with this idea: have the players start in Phandalin and let them adventure a bit and then you throw the hook at them: "Hey, you guys have been helping the town. There is this caravan that was supposed to arrive today. It is the third one in a row that has gone missing. It has supplies we desperately need. I need you to recover those supplies." Or you could throw a different adventure at them. Or you could keep making your own content.
Don't worry about creativity. Listen to your players and react to them-- but in a way that is fair and furthers the story.
I was in the same place as you, trying to create a whole story and world. But then I followed some advices out there to "start small" and "leave gaps". So I've created a small town and a few events, but I haven't put any meaning to them at first. Every game session I'm thinking about the story accordingly to the players actions and I'm giving meaning to everything and attaching each event to another. It's working pretty well so far.
That advice "out there" is called the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Where I actually found this advice more comprehensively was with other DMs not on the DM's guide. The DM's guide just point out the only two obvious approaches. It says "you can do it top-down or bottom-up. Some DMs prefer top-down, others prefer bottom-up" (page 14).
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That advice "out there" is called the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My advice to you is to start with a little sandbox.
Here's something to help with that. https://rayotus.itch.io/gygax75
So, create a small town and then make a dungeon (it doesn't need to be a mega dungeon like the guide says. I doesn't even have to be more than one floor).
Create a help wanted board, with a few side-quests (find the missing people, recover my heirloom, defeat the bandits at X, etc.)
Make a few rumours to point people in certain directions (I hear there was a ruin discovered in the hills to the northeast. The mayor is getting really worried about those bandits, he's raised the reward on that job again, etc.), some rumours that are nonsense.
Make sure you outline a few important NPCs in your town, like the guide says.
Drop your players in this world, make them pay their lifestyle costs for every night they spend (to add minor time pressure) and let them explore and watch what they do. Also, after the game talk to them-- let them speak, listen to them-- they will tell you what content they liked and then add more of that sort of thing. Eventually, you might find an adventure you might want to run.
And if you run Lost Mines of Phandelver, you can just skip most of this, use the town of Phandalin. You could merge that module with this idea: have the players start in Phandalin and let them adventure a bit and then you throw the hook at them: "Hey, you guys have been helping the town. There is this caravan that was supposed to arrive today. It is the third one in a row that has gone missing. It has supplies we desperately need. I need you to recover those supplies." Or you could throw a different adventure at them. Or you could keep making your own content.
Don't worry about creativity. Listen to your players and react to them-- but in a way that is fair and furthers the story.
Where I actually found this advice more comprehensively was with other DMs not on the DM's guide. The DM's guide just point out the only two obvious approaches. It says "you can do it top-down or bottom-up. Some DMs prefer top-down, others prefer bottom-up" (page 14).