I want to try DMing. But, it’s confusing. I looked at Rise of Elemental Evil, and was just confused on where to start. What campaign do you guys suggest I start with?
The starter kit is pretty ideal from what I hear. (I played through it as a player not a DM so I wouldn't know anything about it from that perspective.) By all accounts I've heard that new DMs should steer away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (I didn't see that advice before I jumped into the world of DMing with HotDQ just a few months after playing D&D for the first time in my life.)
In the beginning, it all may seem confusing -- so start simple!
Perhaps hand out some premade characters and make a simple 5 room adventure. You can learn about character creation as you make the premade characters.
Something like, "Strange happenings have occurred near this tower on the hill, your group has been asked to investigate." Have a simple and direct premise and you can run through basic mechanics and get the feel for your group. You may want to do a few of those before starting a campaign. Once you do that, you'll have a better feel for the adventures/modules (if you choose to use them).
As a DM you run the world and everything the players interact with. Don't try to carry the whole world at once. Find what works for you and have fun.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Agree with Koradgee. And once you have done a few of those and want to expand - think about something like the "return of the lazy DM" - a short PDF which pitches a simple style of putting adventures together. I just acquired and am impressed with the approach.
By all accounts I've heard that new DMs should steer away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (I didn't see that advice before I jumped into the world of DMing with HotDQ just a few months after playing D&D for the first time in my life.)
Ha, same. No regrets though. Although we haven't quite made it to the end of chapter 1 and my players seem burned out (been playing a homebrewed adventure with another DM), but I don't think they disliked it.
The Starter kit is a great place for a completely new group to start. By completely new I mean no D&D or even role playing game experience. The text takes guides the DM into the world and provides information that the DM needs to run the game. On the other hand it can, like a lot of modules feel a bit Railroady at times. That said, if you are running a module for a group they SHOULD accept the railroad for the sake of the game.
HotDQ is not a great module. Sorry, it is not. It relies far to much on player choices to progress through in the manner the writer intended. (Really? How many times do they need to return to the Bandit Camp? Three?).
Other than the Starter set, I would suggest starting small as well. A town, a threat, and a suggestion the party deal with it. Allow the party to decide how to deal with the threat on their own and be delighted when they succeed. Make your first encounters (threats) small and easy to manage, there is no need to create a large and overarching plot. You are strictly writing and developing a Pilot for your new series. Let's see if the Networks option you for a whole season before really investing in all that work.
I played Lost Mines of Phandelver, I was teaching my wife how to DM so I played. It's a well put together adventure, it seems to have a lot of notes in the material to help the fledgling DM find their way, and it's not a bad story.
If you want something that is just as easy to run, but a little less hand-holding, I would suggest Sunless Citadel. It's my all time favorite adventure, the one I use to introduce players to the game, and it leads into many other adventures since it's from the Tales of the Yawning Portal book.
Either module will open the doors to many other adventures, and both modules are made for new adventurers and DMs.
Starting with something like Curse of Strahd, Elemental Evil, and even Horde of the Dragon Queen, is a difficult thing since those modules assume a bit more understanding of the game.
Just chiming in to agree with others. Get the starter kit and run Phandelver.
I started DMing 12 months ago (give or take), with playing experience from 25 years ago. Phandelver was great. My crew, who were almost entirely newbies, loved it. We've gone on to 2 more campaigns since then, so it seemed like a good place to get our feet wet.
By all accounts I've heard that new DMs should steer away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (I didn't see that advice before I jumped into the world of DMing with HotDQ just a few months after playing D&D for the first time in my life.)
Ha, same. No regrets though. Although we haven't quite made it to the end of chapter 1 and my players seem burned out (been playing a homebrewed adventure with another DM), but I don't think they disliked it.
I don't regret it either. There are a lot of resources out there for how to improve it. We're in episode 4 right now. I don't know how invested my players are any more so I'm going to have to ask them about that and see if we need to abandon the module all together or if I should just homebrew the rest of it.
The Starter kit is a great place for a completely new group to start. By completely new I mean no D&D or even role playing game experience. The text takes guides the DM into the world and provides information that the DM needs to run the game. On the other hand it can, like a lot of modules feel a bit Railroady at times. That said, if you are running a module for a group they SHOULD accept the railroad for the sake of the game.
HotDQ is not a great module. Sorry, it is not. It relies far to much on player choices to progress through in the manner the writer intended. (Really? How many times do they need to return to the Bandit Camp? Three?).
Other than the Starter set, I would suggest starting small as well. A town, a threat, and a suggestion the party deal with it. Allow the party to decide how to deal with the threat on their own and be delighted when they succeed. Make your first encounters (threats) small and easy to manage, there is no need to create a large and overarching plot. You are strictly writing and developing a Pilot for your new series. Let's see if the Networks option you for a whole season before really investing in all that work.
Yeah, that was terribly written. I actually condensed everything in those 2 episodes into 1 and they never actually left the camp. Made so much more sense both in general and with decisions the players made leading up to it. (They took a long rest after the fight with Cyanwrath and didn't leave until almost 24 hours later so the camp was abandoned by the time they reached it.) If you do run it, there are, thankfully, a lot of resources out there for improving it. I foresee a lot of homebrewing and rewriting in my future if we do continue the module but at the same time I don't regret starting this. I've learned a lot about DMing from all the research it's taken to get prepped for each session.
Whatever you do DON'T start with Tomb Of Annihilation. It's too much for a first time Dungeon Master. It was my first pre-made and it was just... I didn't give my players any direction, I left it open as a sandbox and it was a mess.
Curse of Strahd is a good one to start with as well, though I'd recommend starting them out at level 1 and sending them into the Death House. It is well structured, in my opinion. The Death House is a rail road starting point that gets the players from level 1 to 3. So you can get your GM feet underneath you and establish your bearings. It then opens up into a sand box from level 3 to level 10 and allows plenty of creativity, both from players and GM. It also has one of the funnest villains to play as.
As a first time DM I ran Mines of Phandelver. We were all new players with a new DM so it really was a learn by playing event. The module was well written easy to follow and gave lots of instruction for me as a new DM. I would recommend looking at Matt Colville's youtube stuff as well as How to be a Great DM with Guy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I want to try DMing. But, it’s confusing. I looked at Rise of Elemental Evil, and was just confused on where to start. What campaign do you guys suggest I start with?
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
The starter kit is pretty ideal from what I hear. (I played through it as a player not a DM so I wouldn't know anything about it from that perspective.) By all accounts I've heard that new DMs should steer away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (I didn't see that advice before I jumped into the world of DMing with HotDQ just a few months after playing D&D for the first time in my life.)
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
In the beginning, it all may seem confusing -- so start simple!
Perhaps hand out some premade characters and make a simple 5 room adventure. You can learn about character creation as you make the premade characters.
Something like, "Strange happenings have occurred near this tower on the hill, your group has been asked to investigate." Have a simple and direct premise and you can run through basic mechanics and get the feel for your group. You may want to do a few of those before starting a campaign. Once you do that, you'll have a better feel for the adventures/modules (if you choose to use them).
As a DM you run the world and everything the players interact with. Don't try to carry the whole world at once. Find what works for you and have fun.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Agree with Koradgee. And once you have done a few of those and want to expand - think about something like the "return of the lazy DM" - a short PDF which pitches a simple style of putting adventures together. I just acquired and am impressed with the approach.
I hear lost mine of phandelver is a good first adventure for players and DMs alike.
Ha, same. No regrets though. Although we haven't quite made it to the end of chapter 1 and my players seem burned out (been playing a homebrewed adventure with another DM), but I don't think they disliked it.
The Starter kit is a great place for a completely new group to start. By completely new I mean no D&D or even role playing game experience. The text takes guides the DM into the world and provides information that the DM needs to run the game. On the other hand it can, like a lot of modules feel a bit Railroady at times. That said, if you are running a module for a group they SHOULD accept the railroad for the sake of the game.
HotDQ is not a great module. Sorry, it is not. It relies far to much on player choices to progress through in the manner the writer intended. (Really? How many times do they need to return to the Bandit Camp? Three?).
Other than the Starter set, I would suggest starting small as well. A town, a threat, and a suggestion the party deal with it. Allow the party to decide how to deal with the threat on their own and be delighted when they succeed. Make your first encounters (threats) small and easy to manage, there is no need to create a large and overarching plot. You are strictly writing and developing a Pilot for your new series. Let's see if the Networks option you for a whole season before really investing in all that work.
I played Lost Mines of Phandelver, I was teaching my wife how to DM so I played. It's a well put together adventure, it seems to have a lot of notes in the material to help the fledgling DM find their way, and it's not a bad story.
If you want something that is just as easy to run, but a little less hand-holding, I would suggest Sunless Citadel. It's my all time favorite adventure, the one I use to introduce players to the game, and it leads into many other adventures since it's from the Tales of the Yawning Portal book.
Either module will open the doors to many other adventures, and both modules are made for new adventurers and DMs.
Starting with something like Curse of Strahd, Elemental Evil, and even Horde of the Dragon Queen, is a difficult thing since those modules assume a bit more understanding of the game.
Just chiming in to agree with others. Get the starter kit and run Phandelver.
I started DMing 12 months ago (give or take), with playing experience from 25 years ago. Phandelver was great. My crew, who were almost entirely newbies, loved it. We've gone on to 2 more campaigns since then, so it seemed like a good place to get our feet wet.
I don't regret it either. There are a lot of resources out there for how to improve it. We're in episode 4 right now. I don't know how invested my players are any more so I'm going to have to ask them about that and see if we need to abandon the module all together or if I should just homebrew the rest of it.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Yeah, that was terribly written. I actually condensed everything in those 2 episodes into 1 and they never actually left the camp. Made so much more sense both in general and with decisions the players made leading up to it. (They took a long rest after the fight with Cyanwrath and didn't leave until almost 24 hours later so the camp was abandoned by the time they reached it.) If you do run it, there are, thankfully, a lot of resources out there for improving it. I foresee a lot of homebrewing and rewriting in my future if we do continue the module but at the same time I don't regret starting this. I've learned a lot about DMing from all the research it's taken to get prepped for each session.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Same experience for me. I had played when 1e came out but never DM. All my players were new. Lost Mines was a great place to start!
Whatever you do DON'T start with Tomb Of Annihilation. It's too much for a first time Dungeon Master. It was my first pre-made and it was just... I didn't give my players any direction, I left it open as a sandbox and it was a mess.
Curse of Strahd is a good one to start with as well, though I'd recommend starting them out at level 1 and sending them into the Death House. It is well structured, in my opinion. The Death House is a rail road starting point that gets the players from level 1 to 3. So you can get your GM feet underneath you and establish your bearings. It then opens up into a sand box from level 3 to level 10 and allows plenty of creativity, both from players and GM. It also has one of the funnest villains to play as.
As a first time DM I ran Mines of Phandelver. We were all new players with a new DM so it really was a learn by playing event. The module was well written easy to follow and gave lots of instruction for me as a new DM. I would recommend looking at Matt Colville's youtube stuff as well as How to be a Great DM with Guy.