I am an experienced player. I have played every edition except basic D&D since 1991.
I am now a high school teacher who has been asked by kids in a board game club if I could run D&D for new players after school once or twice a week. Out of the group that is currently interested, only 1 has ever played, & she has only played a couple of times. With this in mind, I would like to introduce them with as "traditional" an experience as possible, so I am planning on using pre-existing 5e products.
I currently own 3 5e books of modules, but I am willing to purchase another.
I have: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Curse of Strahd, & Tales From the Yawning Portal.
I would like to create a coherent campaign for them. What do you think?
Personally I'd recommend Lost Mines of Phandalver above anything for a starter. My next preference would be Tomb of Annihilation. Then really any of the others.
I'd agree on LMoP. It was one of my first campaigns as a player and the first one I ran as a DM (only as well, I haven't had a chance to run a game since then). I thought it was relatively straight-forward, a great introduction to new players, as well as fun for players with a couple games under their belt. A flexible adventure to run and if you wanted to fit it in any setting as well. I had a good time running it and seeing how different it can be for each group (my partner is running it rn, and it is so drastically different from when I was a player in it before and from when I ran it myself). This would be my top pick if most of your players are a bit green.
As far as HotDQ, I have the book but have not had a chance to run it yet (my DnD groups are all occupied with other games atm), but it looks like it has some fun stuff in it (especially the first couple chapters). From what I've heard from reading other peoples thoughts on the module it can be a bit railroad-y and may take a bit more work from the DM. Still I don't think this would be a bad option.
I agree with starting with Lost Mine of Phandelver. It costs $20 on amazon, less if you buy the digital version on here, and it's a great starter set for new players. It gets players used to how the game works with like saving throws and the like. The storyline is simple yet has intrigue, and it comes with premade characters so they don't have to spend three hours creating their own if they don't have to. However, it would fun to host a character creation night for the ones who want to do that. Character creation can be just as fun as starting a game. I personally like D&D beyond's character creator, and it's very user friendly. It's a lot easier to manage and create characters on it than trying to keep track of numbers and values on a piece of paper and having them scribble or erase stuff all over again and writing down a ton of information that can't possibly fit on a blank character sheet. I wish I could say that the other campaigns you listed are good for new players, but I have personally never played them so I have no idea.
I'd start with Sunless Citadel. It has a basic starting area with a straight forward dungeon crawl. Perfect to get people to try out basic Roleplay. The dungeon is great to show you don't need to fight and can talk with and see that monsters don't always have to be enemies. Also gradually introduces more intelligent opponents. Which allows you to introduce more advanced combat game mechanics. On top of that the module is relatively short. After that move to Lost Mines of Phandelver and go from there.
If you want to run a whole set module then LMoP is probably the way to go. It worked very well for me and mine when we started.
If you are unsure if the new players will be all gung ho about DnD maybe thrown a one off at them where they have to save someone from Goblins, the typical ho hum sort of thing to ease them into it
My first choice would be Lost Mines of Phandelver, for all the reasons stated above. It includes pregenerated characters, which I encourage for new players. Those characters all have back stories that connect in one way or another with at least one aspect of the story line. If you use the pregens, you as DM need to read the backstories, something the guide does not suggest. This is especially important for the Rogue pregen, as you and the player will need to decide how to handle some things in Phandelver itself given their backstory. Note that the pregens are not part of the package here, but they are freely available as pdfs on Wizard's website. Somewhere on these (DDB) forums is a thread that spells out how to build them on DDB.
My second choice would be Tales from the Yawning Portal. Sunless Citadel was--like LMOP--written with new players in mind. If you go that route, I would encourage you to use pregenerated characters: Ask the students what type of character they want (sneaky, magical, fighter, good at both magic and fighting) and what race. In the drop-in game I run, I restrict classes and races for new players to keep things a bit simpler for them. After 3 sessions they can create their own character, and the options are pretty much wide open. One of the nice things about DDB is that it makes creating pregens really easy. I keep a library of them at the right level in case we have new players at the table. The downside is that the various adventures in Tales are not exactly one coherent campaign.
I am an experienced player. I have played every edition except basic D&D since 1991.
I am now a high school teacher who has been asked by kids in a board game club if I could run D&D for new players after school once or twice a week. Out of the group that is currently interested, only 1 has ever played, & she has only played a couple of times. With this in mind, I would like to introduce them with as "traditional" an experience as possible, so I am planning on using pre-existing 5e products.
I currently own 3 5e books of modules, but I am willing to purchase another.
I have: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Curse of Strahd, & Tales From the Yawning Portal.
I would like to create a coherent campaign for them. What do you think?
Personally I'd recommend Lost Mines of Phandalver above anything for a starter. My next preference would be Tomb of Annihilation. Then really any of the others.
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
I'd agree on LMoP. It was one of my first campaigns as a player and the first one I ran as a DM (only as well, I haven't had a chance to run a game since then). I thought it was relatively straight-forward, a great introduction to new players, as well as fun for players with a couple games under their belt. A flexible adventure to run and if you wanted to fit it in any setting as well. I had a good time running it and seeing how different it can be for each group (my partner is running it rn, and it is so drastically different from when I was a player in it before and from when I ran it myself). This would be my top pick if most of your players are a bit green.
As far as HotDQ, I have the book but have not had a chance to run it yet (my DnD groups are all occupied with other games atm), but it looks like it has some fun stuff in it (especially the first couple chapters). From what I've heard from reading other peoples thoughts on the module it can be a bit railroad-y and may take a bit more work from the DM. Still I don't think this would be a bad option.
HotDQ is a straight forward adventure without too much content to introduce. just intro the cult and watch the players chase... simple.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
I agree with starting with Lost Mine of Phandelver. It costs $20 on amazon, less if you buy the digital version on here, and it's a great starter set for new players. It gets players used to how the game works with like saving throws and the like. The storyline is simple yet has intrigue, and it comes with premade characters so they don't have to spend three hours creating their own if they don't have to. However, it would fun to host a character creation night for the ones who want to do that. Character creation can be just as fun as starting a game. I personally like D&D beyond's character creator, and it's very user friendly. It's a lot easier to manage and create characters on it than trying to keep track of numbers and values on a piece of paper and having them scribble or erase stuff all over again and writing down a ton of information that can't possibly fit on a blank character sheet. I wish I could say that the other campaigns you listed are good for new players, but I have personally never played them so I have no idea.
I'd start with Sunless Citadel. It has a basic starting area with a straight forward dungeon crawl. Perfect to get people to try out basic Roleplay. The dungeon is great to show you don't need to fight and can talk with and see that monsters don't always have to be enemies. Also gradually introduces more intelligent opponents. Which allows you to introduce more advanced combat game mechanics. On top of that the module is relatively short. After that move to Lost Mines of Phandelver and go from there.
If you want to run a whole set module then LMoP is probably the way to go. It worked very well for me and mine when we started.
If you are unsure if the new players will be all gung ho about DnD maybe thrown a one off at them where they have to save someone from Goblins, the typical ho hum sort of thing to ease them into it
My first choice would be Lost Mines of Phandelver, for all the reasons stated above. It includes pregenerated characters, which I encourage for new players. Those characters all have back stories that connect in one way or another with at least one aspect of the story line. If you use the pregens, you as DM need to read the backstories, something the guide does not suggest. This is especially important for the Rogue pregen, as you and the player will need to decide how to handle some things in Phandelver itself given their backstory. Note that the pregens are not part of the package here, but they are freely available as pdfs on Wizard's website. Somewhere on these (DDB) forums is a thread that spells out how to build them on DDB.
My second choice would be Tales from the Yawning Portal. Sunless Citadel was--like LMOP--written with new players in mind. If you go that route, I would encourage you to use pregenerated characters: Ask the students what type of character they want (sneaky, magical, fighter, good at both magic and fighting) and what race. In the drop-in game I run, I restrict classes and races for new players to keep things a bit simpler for them. After 3 sessions they can create their own character, and the options are pretty much wide open. One of the nice things about DDB is that it makes creating pregens really easy. I keep a library of them at the right level in case we have new players at the table. The downside is that the various adventures in Tales are not exactly one coherent campaign.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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