Hey guys, newish DM 'ere, any help would really be appreciated.

So I'm intending to run my first ever homebrew campaign ever soon for my sister and her best friends, they are all new to D&D. Since my sister is a big Wood-elf fan because of her Hobbit/LOTR love, I decided to make a wood-elven kingdom the centre focus of my campaign, at least for a while.

Not sure whether to run a custom homebrew world or modify the Forgotten Realms. I think FR High Forest would be neat, though supposedly the elves live highly spread out in small tribes, but I'm more worried about not knowing EVERYTHING about the world's lore, having to research all the time and creating inconsistencies. Would be nice to know what you reckon on that.

Where and how to start the players off is difficult. I'm not very good at coming up with adventures ideas or how to put them into practice. I thought maybe a cultist of Orcus threatening the forest with some sort of necromantic magic which wilts the forest and raises recent dead as zombies. Maybe too much too soon? If that quest does happen, I have no idea what on earth they'd be doing next 😅

 Additionally I'm not sure how to set the players off on the right foot, particularly when it comes to teaching them to roleplay. Don't want to force them into it, but if I rely on them to do it themselves then they might never learn it at all.

Anyway, sorry about the rambling worry-rant. Thank you to everyone who read it, double thanks to any replies! Appreciate it! 😁

I personally love wood elves, so good choice. I think you should probably make your own world, unless you want to spend a few weeks researching FR lore. Also, Vecna and Bane are other options for undead cults. 

PS: Move this thread to DM's only.

As for running the campaign, do what you want. If the players are having fun, and you're having fun, then everything is good. 

PS: A undead cults would be fine at this level if you use Zombies, Skeletons, Cultists, and a Cult Fanatic.

In regards to starting off an adventure, blights would work very well as enemies in a forested area and you could have that be the first sign in your campaign that things are very wrong in the elven kingdom; I used them at the start of my campaign, and my players were super jazzed by it.

As far as getting your players to roleplay, something I do in my campaign is I'll take a moment after I've described a scene or a period of time like a travel montage to ask my players "Is there anything anyone wants to do while X is happening?" or, if it's just one or two players who are staying quiet I'll ask, "Is there anything that you character would like to do?"  Mostly, what I try to do is extend the invitation to do something without forcing or trying to pressure them to do it.

Oh, and as for whether to use the Forgotten Realms or a homebrew setting, you can use FR and not worry about knowing every bit of lore by saying, "This is my version of the Forgotten Realms, which is slightly different."  Alternatively, you could do what I'm doing and create a homebrew setting and use official materials as inspiration; in fact you could do both, either make your homebrew world and incorporate things directly from the FR (which I'm thinking of doing myself) or vice-versa.

Let’s see...Are you starting the campaign at level 1? Probably best not to drop high level story hooks on them until they’re near ready to tackle those problems.  Players tend to think short term in game.   

So where to start?

I think starting in a dirty urban setting with more human/dwarf influence and less elven influence is a good idea.  You can quickly introduce an elf NPC or story hook that sends them to an elven civilization. The contrast between the two settings will make the elves seem more special, which I think is something you’re hoping to achieve.

So, are they setting themselves up to be a lawful good, helper-hero party? That’s something important to know before planning any tasks for them. If so, having them stumble across some bandits or thugs attacking someone in an alley is good lvl 1 action.  Giving them low level work among humans and dwarves who talk of the elves, but that they haven’t seen any in a while seems a good way to build the anticipation of working more with them.  Once established in town, forest animals could start wandering in and attacking. Wolves, bears, panthers, whatever sounds good. At that point, you could introduce an elf that made his way out of the forest to seek help. Where elves have lived in peace throughout history with animals, something has driven the beasts feral, and set them attacking even elven cities.  He was sent out to see how widespread the problem is.  So there’s some solution that requires them going with him into the forest. That could be several sessions worth of story arc with the right amount of encounters and roleplay.

As for how to get them to roleplay, what Mezzurah said above is good. Asking them to describe the kind of activities their character would be doing in a given situation is a good way to get them thinking like their character in a low-risk way. They won’t be worried about ruining things for the party by saying the wrong thing to an NPC or something. You might ask what everyone’s doing while they sit around the campfire. One might be whittling, one might be trying to remember the face of the man who killed her father, one might be reading his spellbook, or chatting up another player (completely oblivious to the fact that they’re trying to read). As they get into the head of their character, they’ll start making other decisions like their character, and hopefully will start talking like them.

Hi Guys! Thank you everyone for your fantastic replies, I really appreciate it!

kcbcollier - I was thinking we might start off at level one or two in the Elven Kingdom, since I know before we even play that they will definitely, non-negotiably want to play nothing but wood-elf rangers, that's just their thing. Though I suppose it is a possibility to start elsewhere as scouts or something maybe? I dunno.

Thank ye all!

No, if it’s a party of all elf rangers, starting them among elves makes total sense. In that case, you can use the feral beast plotline I described, only they’re protecting their home. Or have them escort elven exports on their way to other realms. Or take seeds from a rare and dying tree, and plant it somewhere safe, where it can reproduce again. Or help find the right materials for a special musical instrument that the local bard wants to build. Lots of possibilities.

As far as ongoing, you can take your cues from the players. I’ve had quite a few campaigns shift when players gave me much more credit than I deserved. They thought I had something planned for things to go a certain way — a way I hadn’t thought of and that was much better than what I’d planned, so I ran with their idea. I never told them it wasn’t my plan to do that all along, and they never realized.

That might not work with new players, they might need a bit more hand holding to get them to follow plot hooks. You could always start with your orcus cult, then after they beat it, some new threat rises, and so on. After three or four they realize the threats were all connected and the real enemy is BBEG. They beat him, campaign over. 

What Xalthu said is some really good advice.  Some of my best ideas have come from my interactions with my players, and in the last couple sessions I DM'ed I introduced some of the BBEG's henchmen in a super dramatic way that I would not have even thought of if I hadn't been talking with my players a few days prior.

One other really good piece of advice I came across is to let your players come up with something in the world, such as a town, organization, etc.  It gives them their own personal touch in the world as well as opportunities for RP in the future, and trust me, it can be a gold mine for your own ideas as well.