My account might be 1 year old but actually i dont know a lot of dnd, i am a newbie and wanted to ask other DM tips for creating a good campaing for also new players.
Also, i am quite a creative mind and mostly prefer homebrew campaings (with new rules and kind of stuff)
also got an ice peak essentials kit, i am currently reading the basic rules, are there more things i should know about rules?
Do i need to forcefully use advanced rules?
My homebrew creations can be used anytime at any campaing type?
Are things from other franchises actually allowed?
Hard to say what more you should know about the rules without specifics. There's now a Dnd 2024 ruleset with slight adjustements to the 2014 rules, mainly effecting character creation. So just be sure you and all your players know which set of rules you're working with, 2024 or 2014. On the DM side, just keep in mind that the rules are complex so don't beat yourself up for not memorizing them word for word.
I'm not sure what you mean by advanced rules? Is this something mentioned in Icespire Peak?
For the most part, yes. Homebrew monsters, weapons, magic items, can be used throughout your campaign no matter what adventure you're running.
I'm not sure what you mean by your last question either? Are you thinking of including something like One Ring in your game? It's allowed, no one can stop you from putting this in your game with friends, you just can't sell it as an official DnD product.
My account might be 1 year old but actually i dont know a lot of dnd, i am a newbie and wanted to ask other DM tips for creating a good campaing for also new players.
Also, i am quite a creative mind and mostly prefer homebrew campaings (with new rules and kind of stuff)
also got an ice peak essentials kit, i am currently reading the basic rules, are there more things i should know about rules?
Do i need to forcefully use advanced rules?
My homebrew creations can be used anytime at any campaing type?
Are things from other franchises actually allowed?
First up if this is your first time DMing and playing I’d steer clear of trying to homebrew actual rules. You need to know how the game works as written before trying to break it. Similar with homebrewing monsters, you’ve got hundreds of existing ones to choose from so there’s plenty of flexibility and until you understand game balance you could run the risk of homebrewing something totally broken and wiping out your party.
Not sure what you mean by advanced rules, never come across the term before
And what do you mean by other franchises? As TiredGM said there’s nothing stopping you from throwing in bits and pieces from anything you fancy if you wanted to have your party fighting favourite enemies or chasing iconic magic items from a different fantasy series if that helps you tell the story but I’d be more hesitant if you mean you’ve seen something in a different TTRPG franchise like Pathfinder or Daggerheart you want to include. Again, learn the rules of one game before trying to change them.
My account might be 1 year old but actually i dont know a lot of dnd, i am a newbie and wanted to ask other DM tips for creating a good campaing for also new players.
Also, i am quite a creative mind and mostly prefer homebrew campaings (with new rules and kind of stuff)
also got an ice peak essentials kit, i am currently reading the basic rules, are there more things i should know about rules?
Do i need to forcefully use advanced rules?
My homebrew creations can be used anytime at any campaing type?
Are things from other franchises actually allowed?
It's awesome that you love homebrew stuff but here's an important thing to consider. Homebrewers for years failed to grasp that there are rules for things like say chases in the DMG. As a result they went off and homebrewed their own solutions with varying results. Personally, I'm a big believer in learning the rules so that you know when, why, and how to break them.
An example: Inspiration with 2014 rules is somewhat problematic. A lot of players often forgot about inspiration and it became a rarely used feature at some tables. Often this is largely because having to call the use of inspiration in order to get advantage wasn't all that great if you were at a table with a DM who forgot to hand out inspiration. Pre-2024 rules I saw that few of my players were using inspiration and I was handing it out regularly. I switched to inspiration being a reroll of any d20 test, and having inspiration run out at long rests. The reason was two-fold. Firstly, it was more forgiving for the players and allowed them to see the result of one die before using the resource. Second, was again to encourage it to be used because it became a use it or lose it thing. Players responded well and really got into the swing of using inspiration regularly. They tended to work a little harder at more creative or roleplaying solutions in order to get the inspiration for when they needed it in the future.
In that case though I understood the basic rule, why it didn't work well, and tested ideas on how to fix it. My groups have since moved over to the Luck points system from Tales of the Valiant (an excellent ruleset that is 5e like but is better put together than D&D 2024 imo). With that system they don't have to rely on me as GM to hand out inspiration, and they can gain it both more reliably and use it in more ways. It appears after around a year of use to be more successful than D&D's Inspiration System (2014 & 2024).
On making your own adventures, I almost exclusively run adventures of my own devising and settings of my own devising. I've been doing this across dozens of rulesets (not just D&D), and across a couple of decades now. My best advice here is to run a few official adventures.
Why? Well, when you run official adventures you can get to grips with how and why the writers used the ruleset.
Taking a look at 5e for example Lost Mine of Phandelver contains no real challenge if using the stock adventuring party. It hits every major game mechanic, and gives an example of how and why such mechanics might be used. It showcases how combat looks in different environments (an open hillside, a mountaintop fortress, an old school dungeon). The final dungeon in fact really serves to show why characters having limited spell slots and resources are to assist in creating the challenging environment.
Something more advanced like Curse of Strahd, takes the basic rules and shows us how to mix them up to alter the atmosphere of a game setting. In order to make the player characters feel trapped in this oppressive environment and enhance the horror theming, player characters cannot simply 'Plane Shift' or 'Teleport' home. They are stuck in that realm, with the spells simply failing. Even the cosmetic changes to some spells are all the writers' way of trying to help you as a GM to set the mood and create a feeling of this oppressive environment. Then finally they pull from the madness tables hidden in the DMG's workshop section to introduce DMs who may not have read the guide to mechanics they probably have never bothered to look at.
Similarly, the writers consistently show us their way of dealing with high level adventures. Mostly, the official adventures either invent something like a magic item, or simply have an effect of a realm be something that causes higher level abilities and magic effects no longer work. We see this in Vecna: Eve of Ruin with the Crown of Lies. I won't spoil it but suffice to say it is a magic item created to prevent high level adventurers using low level skills and spells to create a shortcut through the adventure.
All of this to say, running official adventures serves a legitimate purpose for those of us who create their own worlds. Sometimes of course you can get the same effect from just reading the adventures (score one for local libraries), but you do need at least a good level of understanding of the rules as written to get there.
So, I advise running official adventures before creating your own settings and worlds.
If you want to jump straight into your own settings here's a list of things I tend to think need to be factored into your worlds.
Are there gods in your setting?
If not, how do clerics work? Do they misinterpret the weave of magic to be a 'god'. While Clerics in 5e aren't quite as reliant on the existence of literal gods as a system like Pathfinder 2e is, many of their features do somewhat assume the existence of deities. If a world doesn't have them you'll have to decide why and how a cleric's powers work.
How do the planes work?
For example, let's say the whole theme of the campaign is that the bad guy is summoning some ancient demon. Well, there are spells like plane shift and banishment that immediately make such a campaign pointless. As the creator of the setting you can then choose from a few options. The ancient demon is either just immune to spells (which may frustrate your players), or the setting of the world could be such that spells like these don't work at all (much like we see in Strahd). You could even use a more graded approach.
Magic. How common is it?
This is a tricky one, but the availability of magic alters a lot of equations. Your adventurers are either going to be super rare, mega powerful folks walking amongst commoners who could never dream of the magic abilities that Fighters, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and others get. Or they are just yet more magical folks in a world flooded with magic. Ironically, a world with less magic in it can give far more options than a world with lots of magic in it. In world where any old commoner can grab a magic item and use it, a single fortunate accident can make them more powerful than an experienced adventurer. Whichever direction you go in however, you'll end up with a whole load of questions. In a low magic setting how do you ensure that the players get their hands on some magic items, potions, and scrolls? (ancient libraries, and tombs are great imo). In a high magic world, how does the magic item trader protect against rogues, and others of a more sneaky nature?
Magic Items
A glaring omission in the DMG. On the whole, D&D really isn't built for a standardised set of magic items in the way Pathfinder is. Pathfinder 2e is built with a list of expected loot and magic items in mind. By level 4 in Pathfinder, characters will have picked up 2 5th level items, and 2 4th level items, as well as six consumable items. The party should have 200gp, and the player character ought to have 50gp. Pathfinder then is a very rigidly designed system - this has major drawbacks for those of us that create our own settings. A virtue of D&D 5e is actually that there is no proscribed list of what types of magic items one should have at particular levels. This does create an issue for less experienced DMs however. It is WAY too easy in 5e (and 5.5e) to hand out magic items, potions and scrolls too powerful for the designed level of the adventure. Again looking to official adventures can help create your own guides here. Giving players at level 2 a Very Rare weapon however, it likely to heavily skew the balance.
Consumables
Same kind of problem as magic items really, but will be dictated somewhat by the setting and the theme of the adventure. If you're going for a hardcore horror themed adventure, then scattering around too many potions stands to undercut that theme.
Availability of classes, races and subclasses
Something that D&D adventures do dreadfully! Other game systems have somewhat normalised the idea that the adventure setting will dictate which creatures and classes are available, and I honestly think that's a good thing to see. I've seen too many players come to a table after seeing me advertise that say Kenku don't exist in this setting and still want to play a blasted Kenku. Likewise, if I've got a setting in which there are no gods, there aren't any cleric. Then players get all het up about how it's not fair they're having choices taken from them. To be clear, this is a problem with D&D culture, not the system itself. The larger culture has somewhat normalised all the options being available and being a good thing. Clearly, this is something that I personally disagree with. I'm sure other GMs disagree with me. The point though is that this is a choice you as a designer need to make about your worlds. Does every race, class, and subclass make sense for your adventure.
An example: you set your adventure in a landlocked nation, there's a couple of rivers, but few boats travel through it (for reasons). Do you still allow players to choose the 'Sailor' background?
Optional Rules
Many DMs and players forget that in the 5e rules as written Multiclassing and Feats are optional rules. 5.5e has of course changed that, but in 5e these are options for DMs and players to turn on and off as they wish. They weren't a given. If playing 5e then, does multiclassing make sense in your world? For many roleplayers, often multiclassing is a tricky one that doesn't make sense without plentiful class trainers existing in the world. Similarly, once the power of 5e feats is fully understood it's worth asking yourself do all of these feats make sense for your adventure setting?
I'm not happy with the, in my opinion, watering down of the 2024 DMG. It felt to me like a dumbing down, and I don't like it because it misses some of the more advanced stuff in the 2014 ruleset. The DM's workshop in the 2014 contains a lot of cool stuff though. In a high magic world for example, you get the option to give your players the ability to create their own spell. I highly recommend this in fact because it is so fun seeing what players come up with. If your players want more challenge however, perhaps it's time to introduce healer's kit dependency? I think this is a section of the DMG that too few DMs ever paid attention to. The options there really can change up the entire feel of a game and help to make the game more appropriate to the setting in my opinion.
I'm sure there's more stuff that I've forgotten here, but there are loads of factors to creating your own setting and adventures. I could really with hindsight have slimmed it all down to:
- Check that the thing you want to do doesn't already exist - Make full use of the option rules and mechanics in the 2014 DMG - Look for what does and doesn't work in official adventures to help make your work better.
My account might be 1 year old but actually i dont know a lot of dnd, i am a newbie and wanted to ask other DM tips for creating a good campaing for also new players.
Also, i am quite a creative mind and mostly prefer homebrew campaings (with new rules and kind of stuff)
also got an ice peak essentials kit, i am currently reading the basic rules, are there more things i should know about rules?
Do i need to forcefully use advanced rules?
My homebrew creations can be used anytime at any campaing type?
Are things from other franchises actually allowed?
Hard to say what more you should know about the rules without specifics. There's now a Dnd 2024 ruleset with slight adjustements to the 2014 rules, mainly effecting character creation. So just be sure you and all your players know which set of rules you're working with, 2024 or 2014. On the DM side, just keep in mind that the rules are complex so don't beat yourself up for not memorizing them word for word.
I'm not sure what you mean by advanced rules? Is this something mentioned in Icespire Peak?
For the most part, yes. Homebrew monsters, weapons, magic items, can be used throughout your campaign no matter what adventure you're running.
I'm not sure what you mean by your last question either? Are you thinking of including something like One Ring in your game? It's allowed, no one can stop you from putting this in your game with friends, you just can't sell it as an official DnD product.
First up if this is your first time DMing and playing I’d steer clear of trying to homebrew actual rules. You need to know how the game works as written before trying to break it. Similar with homebrewing monsters, you’ve got hundreds of existing ones to choose from so there’s plenty of flexibility and until you understand game balance you could run the risk of homebrewing something totally broken and wiping out your party.
Not sure what you mean by advanced rules, never come across the term before
And what do you mean by other franchises? As TiredGM said there’s nothing stopping you from throwing in bits and pieces from anything you fancy if you wanted to have your party fighting favourite enemies or chasing iconic magic items from a different fantasy series if that helps you tell the story but I’d be more hesitant if you mean you’ve seen something in a different TTRPG franchise like Pathfinder or Daggerheart you want to include. Again, learn the rules of one game before trying to change them.
Ok, thanks :)
Right now i will fully concentrate on learning about the rules and making basic campaings so i dont wipe out my party
It's awesome that you love homebrew stuff but here's an important thing to consider. Homebrewers for years failed to grasp that there are rules for things like say chases in the DMG. As a result they went off and homebrewed their own solutions with varying results. Personally, I'm a big believer in learning the rules so that you know when, why, and how to break them.
An example: Inspiration with 2014 rules is somewhat problematic. A lot of players often forgot about inspiration and it became a rarely used feature at some tables. Often this is largely because having to call the use of inspiration in order to get advantage wasn't all that great if you were at a table with a DM who forgot to hand out inspiration. Pre-2024 rules I saw that few of my players were using inspiration and I was handing it out regularly. I switched to inspiration being a reroll of any d20 test, and having inspiration run out at long rests. The reason was two-fold. Firstly, it was more forgiving for the players and allowed them to see the result of one die before using the resource. Second, was again to encourage it to be used because it became a use it or lose it thing. Players responded well and really got into the swing of using inspiration regularly. They tended to work a little harder at more creative or roleplaying solutions in order to get the inspiration for when they needed it in the future.
In that case though I understood the basic rule, why it didn't work well, and tested ideas on how to fix it. My groups have since moved over to the Luck points system from Tales of the Valiant (an excellent ruleset that is 5e like but is better put together than D&D 2024 imo). With that system they don't have to rely on me as GM to hand out inspiration, and they can gain it both more reliably and use it in more ways. It appears after around a year of use to be more successful than D&D's Inspiration System (2014 & 2024).
On making your own adventures, I almost exclusively run adventures of my own devising and settings of my own devising. I've been doing this across dozens of rulesets (not just D&D), and across a couple of decades now. My best advice here is to run a few official adventures.
Why? Well, when you run official adventures you can get to grips with how and why the writers used the ruleset.
Taking a look at 5e for example Lost Mine of Phandelver contains no real challenge if using the stock adventuring party. It hits every major game mechanic, and gives an example of how and why such mechanics might be used. It showcases how combat looks in different environments (an open hillside, a mountaintop fortress, an old school dungeon). The final dungeon in fact really serves to show why characters having limited spell slots and resources are to assist in creating the challenging environment.
Something more advanced like Curse of Strahd, takes the basic rules and shows us how to mix them up to alter the atmosphere of a game setting. In order to make the player characters feel trapped in this oppressive environment and enhance the horror theming, player characters cannot simply 'Plane Shift' or 'Teleport' home. They are stuck in that realm, with the spells simply failing. Even the cosmetic changes to some spells are all the writers' way of trying to help you as a GM to set the mood and create a feeling of this oppressive environment. Then finally they pull from the madness tables hidden in the DMG's workshop section to introduce DMs who may not have read the guide to mechanics they probably have never bothered to look at.
Similarly, the writers consistently show us their way of dealing with high level adventures. Mostly, the official adventures either invent something like a magic item, or simply have an effect of a realm be something that causes higher level abilities and magic effects no longer work. We see this in Vecna: Eve of Ruin with the Crown of Lies. I won't spoil it but suffice to say it is a magic item created to prevent high level adventurers using low level skills and spells to create a shortcut through the adventure.
All of this to say, running official adventures serves a legitimate purpose for those of us who create their own worlds. Sometimes of course you can get the same effect from just reading the adventures (score one for local libraries), but you do need at least a good level of understanding of the rules as written to get there.
So, I advise running official adventures before creating your own settings and worlds.
If you want to jump straight into your own settings here's a list of things I tend to think need to be factored into your worlds.
I'm sure there's more stuff that I've forgotten here, but there are loads of factors to creating your own setting and adventures. I could really with hindsight have slimmed it all down to:
- Check that the thing you want to do doesn't already exist
- Make full use of the option rules and mechanics in the 2014 DMG
- Look for what does and doesn't work in official adventures to help make your work better.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.