I'm a new DM coming up on the 41st session of my campaign. I started with a published series of one-shots (Defiance in Phlan) rethemed to my world. I wanted to get my feet wet before I committed to a campaign. Most players were engaging with their characters and the world, though, so I just dropped a plot hook leading to the original plot opening I'd had in mind. They followed that hook for a while before eventually dropping it, but by then they'd hit enough plot twists to keep them busy.
My current campaign is in a school setting. The first session was them doing a battle royal between each other and some NPC's so they can get "sorted" into classes. The next few sessions were them working through their classes and other team building exercises and school activities (clubs, dinosaur races that go amok, book fair haha). They have finally started their internship which means they have left the school grounds and are now doing a "normal" DND type mission.
The group I play with has 2 other campaigns we're all currently participating in, all which are very sandbox so I wanted to change it up and have mine be a bit more railroad. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. :) The atmosphere is also very light and is meant to more silly than the other serious campaigns we play in. (For now at least, there will be a twist later! Cue evil laugh)
I'm not sure it is accurate to call yourself a "new DM" when you are 41 sessions into a campaign. Playing weekly that is nearly a year.
As for how my game started... It's a Roman Empire based campaign. It started in the Forum of a small border town where the players watched as the town Prefect (= mayor) came under fire from the citizens for not protected the city from goblins and undead. The Prefect just got done insisting "there is no such thing as zombies" when a horde of zombies attacked the town. The Roman Century guarding the town protected most of it, and the clerics from the Temple of Apollo came out and started doing some turning, but 4 zombies made it into the forum area, and the players took out their weapons and spells to defend the innocent people who were running for their lives. After showing their skill, the Prefect hired them to go to the cemetery outside of town and clear out the undead.
There are clues that larger forces are at work and have been since day 1. A border town north of their start town was overrun by unknown forces and an entire legion sent to reclaim it never came back. By level 5 the PCs had been hired to go examine that area, and they just finished a partial recon of the place and are camped outside, probably planning to head back (we stopped before getting to that point last Saturday). They have learned a little -- they found where the legion was killed, fought a couple of creatures who may or may not have been involved in the initial collapse of the fort, and discovered a map and a journal. But they still don't know exactly what is going on regarding the larger forces at work.
No idea where they are going to go next -- we'll see what they decide. It might be a short session if they decide to go somewhere I don't have prepped... like the city of Rome, which I have sketched out a little but have definitely not finished building to the degree that I could run a session in it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
My current campaign started in my homebrew world of Avaigne, which is based on German and English folklore, especially the King Arthur legends. It started with a short dungeon in which the level one party, having met on the road, arrived in the town of Fort Ruinous and dealt with a kobold kingpin living under the village. The bartender then pointed them to the setting’s three chief adventuring guilds: the Order Errant of Hartwall (think Indiana Jones with Arthurian knights), the Huntsmen of Saint Perrault (think Witchers but Brothers Grimm), and the Merry Company of Merton Wood (basically a Robin Hood knockoff). The players chose to join the Order Errant, which defined the story direction for a good number of sessions.
I'm a brand-new DM (have actively DMed for less than one hour). We're starting with a free campaign/module/thing called The Zeppelin Effect and the beginning had a guy called Lord Skipwyth giving them some background (fight giant spiders, we'll pay you). Everyone introduced their characters and went to the watchtower. After hearing where the spiders came from and a theory from the watchman on why, they left for the bakery.
Here was where I made my first mistake (that I noticed). I said they heard people fighting spiders, and the direction. I was hoping they'd leave those spiders to the dozen or so townspeople fighting. Instead, they went to join in. They snuck up from behind. I forgot to have them make a roll for stealth. I had them roll initiative. I forgot about dexterity. We pretended that didn't happen, and I forgot to have them roll stealth. I had them roll initiative but didn't for the spiders. After that, one of the wizards cast Magic Missile, hurt the spiders, and the ranger killed one of them.
That was the end of the session. I think it's off to a great/terrible start!
Join the club on forgetting to have players roll for things. It won't be the last time you do that.
Also, don't ever expect players to actually do what you think they'll do. No matter how obvious and logical you think the "best" course of action is, they will find something else.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
One campaign started as Lost Mine but I had the map be a fake taking the party to Sunless Citadel which had one of the gems from Curse of Strahd.
The other campaign started as a one-shot into White Plume Mountain. My kids had such a good time that they wanted to continue playing with those characters. After I sent hunters after the weapons, they don't want to play those PCs anymore for fear of losing another Legendary.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I'm very new to DM-ing, but I did have someone who has been running games for years help me out with starting it up. It started with one of the cronies of the main villain getting very drunk in a tavern and hiring the party because he mistakes them for someone else. They are given an artifact that shunts them to the homebrew world I made for this campaign. It's basically a rogue planet (a planet not orbiting a star and just kind of wandering about space). Its not like the Shadowfell, there are stars and a moon which glows still. All the plants also glow while the moon is up to provide a sorta 'daytime'. When they arrive at the main settlement they are confronted by the villain who promptly orders the death of the party due to them not being who he asked for. The party fights for their lives while the villain causally leaves. He is completely unaffected by any attempts by the party to stop him (to, A. show that he is actually really powerful and B. make it so the party has a face to put on the guy whose plans and followers they are going to be stopping for the rest of the campaign). After the fight I then presented them with several hooks around town for them to find. Every hook ends up in the same place (without the party's knowledge), an ancient ruin currently inhabited by bandits. I picked an old ruin because I could toss in some clues and/or puzzles to get them interested in the history of the world including some that they very clearly can't solve at the moment (in this case a large room where reality is so warped that no matter which way they walk from entrance the party just walks right back out the door). As they are getting their quest rewards two squads of soldiers from the two countries that border the settlement have a brief stand-off right outside the tavern before leaving. So at the end of the session they end up with:
A. Knowing who the bad guy is and a bit about what he is like.
B. Finding out enough about the world to not feel lost.
C. Have been introduced to the two main factions they will be dealing with
D. Have a number of hooks set for future sessions so each type of player in the group has something they can look forward to:
Player 1 - wants to get stronger so he can beat up the villain the next time around. (he likes leveling up, getting stronger, and having a specific enemy instead of just random creatures)
Player 2 - wants to find put more about the setting (what the history of the world is, what is it like living without a sun, what else is different about the world, etc.)
Player 3 - wants to solve all the mysteries (what is the villain's goal for bringing people here, what happened to the ancient civilization, how do you get through that puzzle room that is sitting right outside town and what's on the other side)
My first campaign, still underway, started with the party journeying with two of the members back to their home town.
My second campaign, also underway, started with the paladin's 21st birthday and he was given a sort of quest by his father to travel to a neighboring Barony to help improve relations with the Baron. We are still travelling to the barony and have settled some smaller affairs to help the rulers that sent us including killing a few bands of bandits, meeting some representatives of other cultures, and helping to find a cure for a plague that is popping up in our lands.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
It is simple enough. I created a continent, with a history, geography, and economy. I explained that setting to players who were interested what it was. Hard and soft copies. I also gave them my set of Table Rules, which got rid of some of the more ridiculous stuff, and made some game mechanics a little harder.
Then the players built backgrounds around that continental history, demographics, and geography. I railroaded them as a group into a starting point on that continent. Then I started creating plot hooks that moved them along the overall arching plot I have. I consider players as creating a novel, where I have some very high level plot points I want covered, but the players make the actual dialogue, and actual nitty gritty of the novel.
My campaign is for all intents and purposes my own module.
We are playing our 4th session Saturday. my players started as a group of freelancers hired to guard a caravan across the desert. Their departure was delayed when it was discovered that the local well was running dry. after some investigation they found the underground passage was blocked by a large rats' nest. As they were clearing the nest an ahnkeg appeared. After clearing the nest they set off into the desert which appears to be haunted with the remains of an ancient ocean. The paladin cast detect evil to determine how many undead were around them. He discovered that not only were they surrounded by undead on all sides, but all of the other members of the caravan are evil. They can't decide if they want to stay with the caravan and play along or chance it and strike off into the desert on their own.
My campaign started with my party meeting up in a tavern to sign up for a captain looking to protect a weapons shipment. Everyone was new to D&D so of course the Rogue started stealing things and the Ranger tried to start a fight with the over-powered tavern bouncer, right as their boss showed up. Boss told them they were a disgrace and if they wanted a job they could hike to the mountain on the center of the island and back. On their hike so far they have a) Burnt down a ***** caravan. b) Saved a town from Tribal Warrior invasion, c) Discovered a cultist plot, d) Fought a ton of spiders, e) Now encountering a bunch of drow-Tribal Warriors and their spiders.
It's a mess of a story because it's been a big learning experience for everyone and I decided that as a brand-new DM making a world from scratch was a good idea....
*Shakes head silently.*
But I've designed a really nice dungeon and an epic climax that should tie up this story arc nicely. If for some reason we defy all odds and actually complete all that then I have an plot hook with an over-powered NPC/BBEG with a plot to capture and kill the trio of gods that created the world. 👌
Not mine, but my favorite one I played in started with (It was a 3.5 campaign, so it's been a few years, so I'm paraphrasing):
You wake up in a field. You are naked, covered in blood and surrounded by corpses. You do not recognize the four other people nearby who look to be in the same situation. At your feet are shards of metal and stone that could serve as weapons. A few of the corpses start moving, in a fashion that is unnaturally different from you and the other four. Roll for initiative.
It was just brilliant. It set the tone and started with a mystery to help drive the action forward. It gave the PCs a reason to work together. And all in six sentences. I'm still jealous of it.
Not mine, but my favorite one I played in started with (It was a 3.5 campaign, so it's been a few years, so I'm paraphrasing):
You wake up in a field. You are naked, covered in blood and surrounded by corpses. You do not recognize the four other people nearby who look to be in the same situation. At your feet are shards of metal and stone that could serve as weapons. A few of the corpses start moving, in a fashion that is unnaturally different from you and the other four. Roll for initiative.
It was just brilliant. It set the tone and started with a mystery to help drive the action forward. It gave the PCs a reason to work together. And all in six sentences. I'm still jealous of it.
That is very cool and it might just be stolen. Maybe even for Frostrime ...
I am running a few games. One is a heavily modified Descent to Avernus. Modified because a few of the players tried and failed to survive the city first and I didn't want to run the same ground over again. The following is the blurb to set the scene for the campaign:
The Hellriders of Elturel - elite protectors of they holy city of the Sword Coast. Symbols of good and justice, a light against the monsters and evil that pervades this no mans land. Legend has it that the Riders earned their name by literally riding into the first layer of hell - Avernus - to rescue one of their own. Every child of Elturel wants to be a Hellrider, at some stage in their life - to the point where the term "hellion" is a great compliment, not a slight.
The lead squad is made up of living legends of near mythic strength. Their holy light rivals that of the Companion itself! These near-living-saints are revered through out Elturel and are often colloquially called "The God Squad".
You are not that squad. Lead by Reya Mantlemorn your squad is officially known as "The First Irregulars", though they are often referred to as "The Odd Squad", "The Motley Crew", "The Mongrels" or more cruelly "The Monster Squad". The First Irregulars are an exercise in politics and inclusion; something not everyone approves of. Each of these people are unique in a way that does not sit well with the people of Elturel. Diverse from each other, united only in their desire to be part of the Hellriders.
This is their story. _______ I then started them travelling to an outlying town as their first real assignment in the squad (until then there were given scut work). The trip was supposed to be a nothing assignment but of course turned into something.
My current campaign I started as a player in Lost Mines. We were only a few weeks in when the DM just disappeared and we couldn't find one willing to run sessions. I had never DM'd before but after 6 months of trying different groups, this was the first group of individuals that felt right. Knowing that if you start missing weeks then a new group easily falls apart, I decided to jump in the deep end, bought the Lost Mines module, moved from player to DM, recruited a couple more players into the group, and had a few days to read the module, learn roll20 and run the next session. Was a bit janky but everyone enjoyed it and sessions only got better.
Went on to make a homebrew campaign within a homebrew world that carried on from the module end. Spoke to the players about their backgrounds to help develop them more, which helped me develop the world and personal quest lines for them. Been 34 sessions of the campaign now plus a couple of the players have run one shots for when I wasn't available.
I was a new player and wanted to find a second game, but no one in my circle was playing DM, so I bought the Essentials Kit and jumped in. It's been all online (we were thinking of doing some in-person games this last summer, but, you know, 'Rona), and we've met infrequently over the last year or so, had maybe 15 sessions so far. We're about 2/3s of the way through DoiP, and I have plans to take them through the expansions if the group wants to stick with it.
Here's the biggest mistake I made at the start: I invited way too many people. I wasn't sure how many would be able to continually participate, so I cast a wide net. During the entire campaign, Session Zero is the only time the entire group has played together. After a few months, I introduced a magical MacGuffin in the form of a powerful Gnome Wizard to keep everyone included in the storyline as often or as infrequent as they wanted/could attend. At this point, I have two original players still in the story, have picked up 3 new players in the interim, and lost 6 players to real life and lack of time to commit.
The campaign has chugged along, despite all the personnel issues. We started at the end of Session Zero with a quick Orc encounter just outside Phandalin, to stress the threats to the town before the party even reached it. I kind of railroaded them into the Umbrage Hill quest the first full session, since as a new DM with 8 players at the time, I wasn't quite sure how to handle everything. As players came and went, other side quests have been thrown in (Goblin Cave and an altered Redbrand Hideout from LMoP) to flesh out the challenges for different characters or to just spin the wheels until more players could attend for the bigger quests.
At this point in the adventures, the group has befriended pretty much everyone in town, even the downright awful Harbin Wester. They've faced off against Talos cultists and the White Dragon. The group has defeated the mimic of Gnomengarde, and cleared the Dwarven Excavation (the Gnomes gave them a magic barrel to take back to Barthen, and every so often they send something they've tinkered together to Barthen's through this barrel to sell or gift to the adventurers) They've liberated Mountain's Toe Gold Mine (I gave them a royalty for this; when they are in town they can visit the Miner's Exchange to get a 1dx of gold as payment, I just randomly grab x dice), cleared the Logger's Camp (the ankheg killed Tobin), and rescued Big Al, saving his ranch. They are now at the gates of Axeholm, having been ambushed by the dragon on the way back from Big Al's. They decided to take the guaranteed reward and give the townsfolk a place to retreat should the dragon return to harass the town.
Once DoiP is finished, I plan to take the party through the expansions. I want to tie Cryovain, dead or alive, into the business w/ Mortus, maybe he has to resurrect his pet dragon and needs Cryovain's body. If the group has killed Cryovain, he will be resurrected way more powerful than the first time. If they let him live, maybe they have to defend Cryovain from being killed by Mortus and his agents. Not sure how it will shake out, but I'm sure whatever I carefully craft, my players will take the most circuitous route to get to the goalpost I set, as usual :D
One thing I've done while DM'ing this campaign is write up logs of what the group has done during their travels, and share those with the group. I don't take the most detailed notes, and often find myself writing these logs days or weeks after a session, so it's usually just the highlights, but it does give a decent running record of what the party has accomplished.
As a player, my first campaign started with our characters attending a festival... a sort of lottery system was set up to decide on a group of challengers to participate in a tournament, and all of our characters, of course, won the lottery. But as we were all preparing for a tournament of some kind, an earthquake rocked the stage we were standing on, pulling it down a sinkhole until we landed in the Underdark. The characters found themselves in a collapsed temple of some kind and were getting attacked by Drow cultists. We ended up killing a Drider on our way out, but got overwhelmed by a small army of cultists. The players were then cursed by a Drow priestess... given a powerful blood curse that forced us to go on an adventure to find rare and dangerous magical items or we'll all die horribly and painfully. The main benefit was that it was a way to justify having a group of wildly varying alignments work together without being able to separate.
As a DM... I started with Lost Mines of Phandelver, so everyone just got hired by the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker to escort supplies. The only unique details were that one of the players, as part of their backstory, had worked with the Rockseekers before and so knew all of them personally before the adventure began. The other detail was that one of the players was a student wizard, and he was essentially assigned to this job as basically an internship to get some real-world experience.
One thing I've done while DM'ing this campaign is write up logs of what the group has done during their travels, and share those with the group. I don't take the most detailed notes, and often find myself writing these logs days or weeks after a session, so it's usually just the highlights, but it does give a decent running record of what the party has accomplished.
I do this too for my main game. Great for recaps. Sometimes I will write it from the view of an enemy or from a commoner etc. Lets me flex my creative writing muscle which is nice too.
I had a group of friends who wanted to play D&D, all new or relatively new including myself, and nobody wanted to DM. It struck me as the kind of thing that I'd really enjoy so I gave it a shot. I created a homebrew world, plugged the Sunless Citadel into a location in my world, tied the PCs backstories to the world in various locations/factions and let everything loose.
A year and half and 75 sessions later, Meepo the Kobold from the Citadel is a recurring character, leading a band of brave kobolds into the world, while the party slowly teaches them about civilization, religion, and capitalism. The Citadel's main villain was resurrected to serve the Demon Lord Zuggtmoy and is factoring into the final arc based loosely on Out of the Abyss, the party's Goliath Barbarian was reincarnated as a Forest Gnome, and they're all embroiled in a contract with a Night Hag with their souls hanging in the balance. All in all, a chaotic and thrilling first shot at DMing in a homebrew world.
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"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
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I'm a new DM coming up on the 41st session of my campaign. I started with a published series of one-shots (Defiance in Phlan) rethemed to my world. I wanted to get my feet wet before I committed to a campaign. Most players were engaging with their characters and the world, though, so I just dropped a plot hook leading to the original plot opening I'd had in mind. They followed that hook for a while before eventually dropping it, but by then they'd hit enough plot twists to keep them busy.
My current campaign is in a school setting. The first session was them doing a battle royal between each other and some NPC's so they can get "sorted" into classes. The next few sessions were them working through their classes and other team building exercises and school activities (clubs, dinosaur races that go amok, book fair haha). They have finally started their internship which means they have left the school grounds and are now doing a "normal" DND type mission.
The group I play with has 2 other campaigns we're all currently participating in, all which are very sandbox so I wanted to change it up and have mine be a bit more railroad. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. :) The atmosphere is also very light and is meant to more silly than the other serious campaigns we play in. (For now at least, there will be a twist later! Cue evil laugh)
I'm not sure it is accurate to call yourself a "new DM" when you are 41 sessions into a campaign. Playing weekly that is nearly a year.
As for how my game started... It's a Roman Empire based campaign. It started in the Forum of a small border town where the players watched as the town Prefect (= mayor) came under fire from the citizens for not protected the city from goblins and undead. The Prefect just got done insisting "there is no such thing as zombies" when a horde of zombies attacked the town. The Roman Century guarding the town protected most of it, and the clerics from the Temple of Apollo came out and started doing some turning, but 4 zombies made it into the forum area, and the players took out their weapons and spells to defend the innocent people who were running for their lives. After showing their skill, the Prefect hired them to go to the cemetery outside of town and clear out the undead.
There are clues that larger forces are at work and have been since day 1. A border town north of their start town was overrun by unknown forces and an entire legion sent to reclaim it never came back. By level 5 the PCs had been hired to go examine that area, and they just finished a partial recon of the place and are camped outside, probably planning to head back (we stopped before getting to that point last Saturday). They have learned a little -- they found where the legion was killed, fought a couple of creatures who may or may not have been involved in the initial collapse of the fort, and discovered a map and a journal. But they still don't know exactly what is going on regarding the larger forces at work.
No idea where they are going to go next -- we'll see what they decide. It might be a short session if they decide to go somewhere I don't have prepped... like the city of Rome, which I have sketched out a little but have definitely not finished building to the degree that I could run a session in it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
My current campaign started in my homebrew world of Avaigne, which is based on German and English folklore, especially the King Arthur legends. It started with a short dungeon in which the level one party, having met on the road, arrived in the town of Fort Ruinous and dealt with a kobold kingpin living under the village. The bartender then pointed them to the setting’s three chief adventuring guilds: the Order Errant of Hartwall (think Indiana Jones with Arthurian knights), the Huntsmen of Saint Perrault (think Witchers but Brothers Grimm), and the Merry Company of Merton Wood (basically a Robin Hood knockoff). The players chose to join the Order Errant, which defined the story direction for a good number of sessions.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I'm a brand-new DM (have actively DMed for less than one hour). We're starting with a free campaign/module/thing called The Zeppelin Effect and the beginning had a guy called Lord Skipwyth giving them some background (fight giant spiders, we'll pay you). Everyone introduced their characters and went to the watchtower. After hearing where the spiders came from and a theory from the watchman on why, they left for the bakery.
Here was where I made my first mistake (that I noticed). I said they heard people fighting spiders, and the direction. I was hoping they'd leave those spiders to the dozen or so townspeople fighting. Instead, they went to join in. They snuck up from behind. I forgot to have them make a roll for stealth. I had them roll initiative. I forgot about dexterity. We pretended that didn't happen, and I forgot to have them roll stealth. I had them roll initiative but didn't for the spiders. After that, one of the wizards cast Magic Missile, hurt the spiders, and the ranger killed one of them.
That was the end of the session. I think it's off to a great/terrible start!
Join the club on forgetting to have players roll for things. It won't be the last time you do that.
Also, don't ever expect players to actually do what you think they'll do. No matter how obvious and logical you think the "best" course of action is, they will find something else.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
One campaign started as Lost Mine but I had the map be a fake taking the party to Sunless Citadel which had one of the gems from Curse of Strahd.
The other campaign started as a one-shot into White Plume Mountain. My kids had such a good time that they wanted to continue playing with those characters. After I sent hunters after the weapons, they don't want to play those PCs anymore for fear of losing another Legendary.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I'm very new to DM-ing, but I did have someone who has been running games for years help me out with starting it up. It started with one of the cronies of the main villain getting very drunk in a tavern and hiring the party because he mistakes them for someone else. They are given an artifact that shunts them to the homebrew world I made for this campaign. It's basically a rogue planet (a planet not orbiting a star and just kind of wandering about space). Its not like the Shadowfell, there are stars and a moon which glows still. All the plants also glow while the moon is up to provide a sorta 'daytime'. When they arrive at the main settlement they are confronted by the villain who promptly orders the death of the party due to them not being who he asked for. The party fights for their lives while the villain causally leaves. He is completely unaffected by any attempts by the party to stop him (to, A. show that he is actually really powerful and B. make it so the party has a face to put on the guy whose plans and followers they are going to be stopping for the rest of the campaign). After the fight I then presented them with several hooks around town for them to find. Every hook ends up in the same place (without the party's knowledge), an ancient ruin currently inhabited by bandits. I picked an old ruin because I could toss in some clues and/or puzzles to get them interested in the history of the world including some that they very clearly can't solve at the moment (in this case a large room where reality is so warped that no matter which way they walk from entrance the party just walks right back out the door). As they are getting their quest rewards two squads of soldiers from the two countries that border the settlement have a brief stand-off right outside the tavern before leaving. So at the end of the session they end up with:
A. Knowing who the bad guy is and a bit about what he is like.
B. Finding out enough about the world to not feel lost.
C. Have been introduced to the two main factions they will be dealing with
D. Have a number of hooks set for future sessions so each type of player in the group has something they can look forward to:
Player 1 - wants to get stronger so he can beat up the villain the next time around. (he likes leveling up, getting stronger, and having a specific enemy instead of just random creatures)
Player 2 - wants to find put more about the setting (what the history of the world is, what is it like living without a sun, what else is different about the world, etc.)
Player 3 - wants to solve all the mysteries (what is the villain's goal for bringing people here, what happened to the ancient civilization, how do you get through that puzzle room that is sitting right outside town and what's on the other side)
My first campaign, still underway, started with the party journeying with two of the members back to their home town.
My second campaign, also underway, started with the paladin's 21st birthday and he was given a sort of quest by his father to travel to a neighboring Barony to help improve relations with the Baron. We are still travelling to the barony and have settled some smaller affairs to help the rulers that sent us including killing a few bands of bandits, meeting some representatives of other cultures, and helping to find a cure for a plague that is popping up in our lands.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
It is simple enough. I created a continent, with a history, geography, and economy. I explained that setting to players who were interested what it was. Hard and soft copies. I also gave them my set of Table Rules, which got rid of some of the more ridiculous stuff, and made some game mechanics a little harder.
Then the players built backgrounds around that continental history, demographics, and geography. I railroaded them as a group into a starting point on that continent. Then I started creating plot hooks that moved them along the overall arching plot I have. I consider players as creating a novel, where I have some very high level plot points I want covered, but the players make the actual dialogue, and actual nitty gritty of the novel.
My campaign is for all intents and purposes my own module.
We are playing our 4th session Saturday. my players started as a group of freelancers hired to guard a caravan across the desert. Their departure was delayed when it was discovered that the local well was running dry. after some investigation they found the underground passage was blocked by a large rats' nest. As they were clearing the nest an ahnkeg appeared. After clearing the nest they set off into the desert which appears to be haunted with the remains of an ancient ocean. The paladin cast detect evil to determine how many undead were around them. He discovered that not only were they surrounded by undead on all sides, but all of the other members of the caravan are evil. They can't decide if they want to stay with the caravan and play along or chance it and strike off into the desert on their own.
My campaign started with my party meeting up in a tavern to sign up for a captain looking to protect a weapons shipment. Everyone was new to D&D so of course the Rogue started stealing things and the Ranger tried to start a fight with the over-powered tavern bouncer, right as their boss showed up. Boss told them they were a disgrace and if they wanted a job they could hike to the mountain on the center of the island and back. On their hike so far they have a) Burnt down a ***** caravan. b) Saved a town from Tribal Warrior invasion, c) Discovered a cultist plot, d) Fought a ton of spiders, e) Now encountering a bunch of drow-Tribal Warriors and their spiders.
It's a mess of a story because it's been a big learning experience for everyone and I decided that as a brand-new DM making a world from scratch was a good idea....
*Shakes head silently.*
But I've designed a really nice dungeon and an epic climax that should tie up this story arc nicely. If for some reason we defy all odds and actually complete all that then I have an plot hook with an over-powered NPC/BBEG with a plot to capture and kill the trio of gods that created the world. 👌
Not mine, but my favorite one I played in started with (It was a 3.5 campaign, so it's been a few years, so I'm paraphrasing):
You wake up in a field. You are naked, covered in blood and surrounded by corpses. You do not recognize the four other people nearby who look to be in the same situation. At your feet are shards of metal and stone that could serve as weapons. A few of the corpses start moving, in a fashion that is unnaturally different from you and the other four. Roll for initiative.
It was just brilliant. It set the tone and started with a mystery to help drive the action forward. It gave the PCs a reason to work together. And all in six sentences. I'm still jealous of it.
That is very cool and it might just be stolen. Maybe even for Frostrime ...
I am running a few games. One is a heavily modified Descent to Avernus. Modified because a few of the players tried and failed to survive the city first and I didn't want to run the same ground over again. The following is the blurb to set the scene for the campaign:
The Hellriders of Elturel - elite protectors of they holy city of the Sword Coast. Symbols of good and justice, a light against the monsters and evil that pervades this no mans land. Legend has it that the Riders earned their name by literally riding into the first layer of hell - Avernus - to rescue one of their own. Every child of Elturel wants to be a Hellrider, at some stage in their life - to the point where the term "hellion" is a great compliment, not a slight.
The lead squad is made up of living legends of near mythic strength. Their holy light rivals that of the Companion itself! These near-living-saints are revered through out Elturel and are often colloquially called "The God Squad".
You are not that squad. Lead by Reya Mantlemorn your squad is officially known as "The First Irregulars", though they are often referred to as "The Odd Squad", "The Motley Crew", "The Mongrels" or more cruelly "The Monster Squad". The First Irregulars are an exercise in politics and inclusion; something not everyone approves of. Each of these people are unique in a way that does not sit well with the people of Elturel. Diverse from each other, united only in their desire to be part of the Hellriders.
This is their story.
_______
I then started them travelling to an outlying town as their first real assignment in the squad (until then there were given scut work). The trip was supposed to be a nothing assignment but of course turned into something.
My current campaign I started as a player in Lost Mines. We were only a few weeks in when the DM just disappeared and we couldn't find one willing to run sessions. I had never DM'd before but after 6 months of trying different groups, this was the first group of individuals that felt right. Knowing that if you start missing weeks then a new group easily falls apart, I decided to jump in the deep end, bought the Lost Mines module, moved from player to DM, recruited a couple more players into the group, and had a few days to read the module, learn roll20 and run the next session. Was a bit janky but everyone enjoyed it and sessions only got better.
Went on to make a homebrew campaign within a homebrew world that carried on from the module end. Spoke to the players about their backgrounds to help develop them more, which helped me develop the world and personal quest lines for them. Been 34 sessions of the campaign now plus a couple of the players have run one shots for when I wasn't available.
I was a new player and wanted to find a second game, but no one in my circle was playing DM, so I bought the Essentials Kit and jumped in. It's been all online (we were thinking of doing some in-person games this last summer, but, you know, 'Rona), and we've met infrequently over the last year or so, had maybe 15 sessions so far. We're about 2/3s of the way through DoiP, and I have plans to take them through the expansions if the group wants to stick with it.
Here's the biggest mistake I made at the start: I invited way too many people. I wasn't sure how many would be able to continually participate, so I cast a wide net. During the entire campaign, Session Zero is the only time the entire group has played together. After a few months, I introduced a magical MacGuffin in the form of a powerful Gnome Wizard to keep everyone included in the storyline as often or as infrequent as they wanted/could attend. At this point, I have two original players still in the story, have picked up 3 new players in the interim, and lost 6 players to real life and lack of time to commit.
The campaign has chugged along, despite all the personnel issues. We started at the end of Session Zero with a quick Orc encounter just outside Phandalin, to stress the threats to the town before the party even reached it. I kind of railroaded them into the Umbrage Hill quest the first full session, since as a new DM with 8 players at the time, I wasn't quite sure how to handle everything. As players came and went, other side quests have been thrown in (Goblin Cave and an altered Redbrand Hideout from LMoP) to flesh out the challenges for different characters or to just spin the wheels until more players could attend for the bigger quests.
At this point in the adventures, the group has befriended pretty much everyone in town, even the downright awful Harbin Wester. They've faced off against Talos cultists and the White Dragon. The group has defeated the mimic of Gnomengarde, and cleared the Dwarven Excavation (the Gnomes gave them a magic barrel to take back to Barthen, and every so often they send something they've tinkered together to Barthen's through this barrel to sell or gift to the adventurers) They've liberated Mountain's Toe Gold Mine (I gave them a royalty for this; when they are in town they can visit the Miner's Exchange to get a 1dx of gold as payment, I just randomly grab x dice), cleared the Logger's Camp (the ankheg killed Tobin), and rescued Big Al, saving his ranch. They are now at the gates of Axeholm, having been ambushed by the dragon on the way back from Big Al's. They decided to take the guaranteed reward and give the townsfolk a place to retreat should the dragon return to harass the town.
Once DoiP is finished, I plan to take the party through the expansions. I want to tie Cryovain, dead or alive, into the business w/ Mortus, maybe he has to resurrect his pet dragon and needs Cryovain's body. If the group has killed Cryovain, he will be resurrected way more powerful than the first time. If they let him live, maybe they have to defend Cryovain from being killed by Mortus and his agents. Not sure how it will shake out, but I'm sure whatever I carefully craft, my players will take the most circuitous route to get to the goalpost I set, as usual :D
One thing I've done while DM'ing this campaign is write up logs of what the group has done during their travels, and share those with the group. I don't take the most detailed notes, and often find myself writing these logs days or weeks after a session, so it's usually just the highlights, but it does give a decent running record of what the party has accomplished.
"World's okayest Dungeon Master"
As a player, my first campaign started with our characters attending a festival... a sort of lottery system was set up to decide on a group of challengers to participate in a tournament, and all of our characters, of course, won the lottery. But as we were all preparing for a tournament of some kind, an earthquake rocked the stage we were standing on, pulling it down a sinkhole until we landed in the Underdark. The characters found themselves in a collapsed temple of some kind and were getting attacked by Drow cultists. We ended up killing a Drider on our way out, but got overwhelmed by a small army of cultists. The players were then cursed by a Drow priestess... given a powerful blood curse that forced us to go on an adventure to find rare and dangerous magical items or we'll all die horribly and painfully. The main benefit was that it was a way to justify having a group of wildly varying alignments work together without being able to separate.
As a DM... I started with Lost Mines of Phandelver, so everyone just got hired by the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker to escort supplies. The only unique details were that one of the players, as part of their backstory, had worked with the Rockseekers before and so knew all of them personally before the adventure began. The other detail was that one of the players was a student wizard, and he was essentially assigned to this job as basically an internship to get some real-world experience.
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I do this too for my main game. Great for recaps. Sometimes I will write it from the view of an enemy or from a commoner etc. Lets me flex my creative writing muscle which is nice too.
I had a group of friends who wanted to play D&D, all new or relatively new including myself, and nobody wanted to DM. It struck me as the kind of thing that I'd really enjoy so I gave it a shot. I created a homebrew world, plugged the Sunless Citadel into a location in my world, tied the PCs backstories to the world in various locations/factions and let everything loose.
A year and half and 75 sessions later, Meepo the Kobold from the Citadel is a recurring character, leading a band of brave kobolds into the world, while the party slowly teaches them about civilization, religion, and capitalism. The Citadel's main villain was resurrected to serve the Demon Lord Zuggtmoy and is factoring into the final arc based loosely on Out of the Abyss, the party's Goliath Barbarian was reincarnated as a Forest Gnome, and they're all embroiled in a contract with a Night Hag with their souls hanging in the balance. All in all, a chaotic and thrilling first shot at DMing in a homebrew world.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"