Hello! I am brand new to D&D and recently agreed to DM a campaign for four of my close friends. However, I’m worried that because I’m so new, I won’t be able to make this a fun experience for my players. I was hoping that some more experienced DMs would be willing to offer general advice on how to run a good campaign, as well as maybe give some feedback on my current overarching plot. 

I have four players—a bard, a paladin, a druid, and a ranger. They’ll be starting out at level 3. I’m currently operating under the assumption that gameplay will lean towards social interaction and exploration, because it seems like that’s what they’re into. The characters themselves are very sweet, lawful good types. As players, though, they’re into themes and tropes like heists, cults, necromancy, eldritch beings, mysteries, horror, gods, and so on. So I’m in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to balancing what’s good for the characters vs what’s fun for the players. 

My current idea is that they’re in the employ of an artifact collector, who sends them out on various fetch quests throughout the region. That’ll remain at the core of the campaign, with sidequests sprinkled in to break it up. At the end of their first venture out, I want them to stumble upon a very powerful ring that’d been hidden in the same ruins as their planned artifact. When they bring it back, they find out its existence was believed to be a myth. A long time ago, artificers from one of the regions (very insular and magic-oriented) created four rings (one for each player). On its own, each ring has an ability,  but when together, something catastrophic can happen. One of the regions is ravaged by weakened spirits and vestiges, so I thought maybe the rings caused that. When the artificers realized how dangerous the rings were, they split them up and hid them away in various library-fortresses throughout the continent....not that they stayed there. And then the players have to try and find the rest of the rings so they can be....studied, destroyed, used as a weapon for the kingdom, I’m not sure yet. And there’d be various antagonists trying to steal the rings before the players can collect all four. The players would definitely get to use them at some point, likely at some kind of boss battle. 

My current issue is...what should the rings do? I’ve been searching through magical artifacts and haven’t been able to find any that would match this situation. I’ve never written magical artifacts before, and I’m not sure what would be too OP versus too boring. I also am still not entirely sure how deities and planes work in D&D, so any insights into that would be much appreciated. 

Sounds like a fantastic hook. Try this: the rings are part of a ritual used centuries ago to banish and forever seal a family of evil dragons. Bringing the rings together again weakens the seal that binds those banished dragons and having them in close proximity for too long will unleash them on the world. The rings themselves don't have to *do* anything, but make sure you have an NPC or two play-up their nature and importance in the wider scheme. Make the party realise they need to keep them safe or hidden.

There might be parties interested in creating the chaos the potential dragon-rising brings. Others might worship those dragons in a cult. There might be those interested in studying/enslaving the dragons. Some groups might not even know what the rings are, just that they're valuable. Lots of opportunity to play around with this and have other sub-quests revolving around those groups. Also utilise character backstories heavily to ensure they're invested.

Honestly, though? Don't plan too far ahead. Have that summary above be your plan and then after 2-3 sessions get a feel for where your players are going and how their characters interact with your world. Build from there. Talk to them out of the game and see what they're enjoying and what they're not.

As for details of planes of existence, I think there's an addendum in the back of the DMG that gives a visual representation of the different planes. It is above all, however, your world - that means you can do what you want with this as a guide.

Hope that helps. Enjoy yourself, though! :)

I find that having an end-game planned out, but not necessarily the in-between makes it the most fun as long as you can come up with fun little scenarios on the fly while getting there. The rings themselves could be established Very Rare/Legendary items, or you can homebrew them to be specific items that exist for this sole purpose. Perhaps some of them can cast abilities, or increase an ability score. You can always reflavor the ability of some other magical item into a given ring.

You can sprinkle lore about old testaments to the catastrophe that happened prior, have it as a fable or legend, or even just a common tale that the characters may have heard as children which is now coming to fruition before them and they are very involved, only realizing this once they've gathered two or three of the required four rings. 

Items like this are meant to be OP, but they can also take a toll on the user/wearer, so you can always have your players do a Charisma/Wisdom check when wearing the ring to see if they could even utilize it's power, otherwise they can just hold onto them Ringbearer style with a chain around the neck and the ring hanging off it as to not get hurt by the Ring's power.

I would recommend taking it just a baby step at a time though, the lore will come through and it is always fun to start very small in a focused environment while you drop the bread crumbs of the overarching end-game lore that they'll get to in many session's time.

So, there are two questions here. The first is "what do the rings do?" and the second is "what will the players do with them?"

The first question is definitely the easier one. If there are four rings, my first thought is the four elements - Earth, Air, Fire, Water. So you could start with the framework of the Rings of Elemental Control and just tweak them a bit. Along a similar line, each ring could govern a season - Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. Maybe each ring's power rises or falls depending on whether it's in its prescribed season. That would be one way of managing the players' overambitious misuse of the rings, since only one would be at peak power at any given time. 

And that leads us to the second question - "what will the players do with the rings?" 

Well... whenever we're developing story ideas or plotting arcs, we're naturally inclined to think about what we want to happen or what we expect the players to do. An important lesson to learn is this: when planning anything, think to yourself, "what is the absolute worst possible thing that could happen right here that could derail my entire campaign?" Because I promise you, there's a better than average chance that THAT is exactly what your players will try to do. 

Player-proofing a campaign is like baby-proofing a house. You can hope for the best, but you always have to plan for and prepare for the worst. So... there are four Rings of Power. If the players get one they will try to get them all. And they will seek to use them in conjunction. And this will either unbalance the game or tear a hole in the space time continuum. So you need a way to limit the extent to which the players can abuse the use of the artifacts. A few options:

1. Simply make sure they never get them all. Maybe one ring is owned by Orcus. Maybe one is in the heart of an active volcano. Maybe one is consecrated to a god and that god shows up at the last minute to claim what is theirs. Maybe once the players find a ring, their employer the artifact collector, somehow teleports that ring to his hand. I know, that's unfair. It's a heavy handed approach. But it might work.

2. Make the use of the rings cost something. Let's use the Four Elements example for a moment. Maybe the Earth Ring can turn rocks into gold or something. So the players become rich. But then they discover that each time they use the ring, an earthquake gets triggered somewhere in the world. Their wealth has cost thousands of lives. How would they react to that knowledge? Or maybe the Winter Ring gives you certain powers, but your heart turns to ice. You lose all emotional connections. You cannot feel joy, or love, or pride, or hatred, or anything at all. Maybe the Autumn Ring ages you each time you use its powers. Sure, an elf could use it a few times without much consequence, but a human could be dead by the third use. Balance. There is no light without darkness. Make the players learn to not want to use the rings. 

3. Remember that your players are not the only players in the game. Nor are they the most powerful. Just because they find a ring doesn't mean they'll be able to keep it. Every "fastest gunslinger in the west" had to look over his shoulder every day. Once word gets out that they found an artifact, every thief, assassin, mercenary guild, arch-mage, devil, dragon, lich, pangolin, and drunken bard will be hunting them down to take it. Maybe they'll decide that they're better off without the rings. Maybe they'll learn that it's in their best interest to destroy the rings before they get destroyed. You'll just need an NPC named "Gamwise Samgee" to help them figure that out. 

Oh! Or the four Rings could represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death! And since there are four players in the group, they might each want one. BUT!!! How do we entrust players with such power? Easy - When you put on the ring, you BECOME that Horseman. Boom. End of your character. As long as you wear the ring of pestilence, you ARE Pestilence! You wear the ring of death, you ARE Death! You become an NPC. So the players will face a decision: Do they want to give up the artifacts and keep playing these characters, or do they want to keep the rings but give up the characters?

After all... "With great power comes great responsibility." 

...

I hope some of that helps a little. 

As far as the cosmology of the deities and the planes, that'll be a longer answer. I'm gonna need another Dr. Pepper first.

Quote from Omen064 >>

Sounds like a fantastic hook. Try this: the rings are part of a ritual used centuries ago to banish and forever seal a family of evil dragons. Bringing the rings together again weakens the seal that binds those banished dragons and having them in close proximity for too long will unleash them on the world. The rings themselves don't have to *do* anything, but make sure you have an NPC or two play-up their nature and importance in the wider scheme. Make the party realise they need to keep them safe or hidden.

 I really like Omen's answer.  A) The party will turn defensive at some point while the clishe is that the player party is most often on the aggressive/invasive side. B) they could not protect all rings as a party. . because then the rings would be in close proximity. Do they choose to only have 1 and defend? or will they choose to split the party? who knows how players fiddle their way out of this. 

In addition, one thing regarding your first DM experience, a general tip for setting up your first campaign: "tie your players into the main quest-line beforehand". It is the best advice I ever got on how to keep players invested. 

for example, 

1)My Warlock had a mystery patron by the name of "The Dutchess"  and she wished to figure out who the patron was> I turned a Silver dragon into the Dutchess and gave all her spells Silver/draconic flavor. This Dragon was one of the main characters in the main quest and had to be freed from a Yuan-Ti fortress. I've never had a player so dedicated to researching npc's and the word's lore, especially when the hints came in her Patron played a mayor role in the questline. 

2) I overhauled my entire campaign once because player backgrounds (without them knowing) lined up so perfectly that all person quests created a full story arch (wont bother you with details, but you get the point).

Good luck on your first Campaign!