What is the best campaign for my group to start with. My uncle recommended the Waterdeep campaign but I would like a second opinion. Tell me what you guys think.
What would you like in your campaign? Different adventures provide different things, particularly in genre.
I will say that if you're talking about Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, there are a lot of NPCs involved, which might be intimidating or challenging for a beginner DM. If you're just starting out and little experience in D&D generally (not a judgement - I just have very little information to go on), then might I suggest one of the starter set ones? I've done The Lost Mine of Phandelver and The Dragon of Icespire Peak. I'd recommend the latter out of those two, it's quite easy to slip into as a first adventure, there's not a lot of "campaign overhead" to distract you so you can focus on the individual quests, it gives freedom but structure as well. It also walks you through how to set up and adapt encounters for your party size.
There is also Dragons of Stormwreck Isle the new ones not long released - but I haven't played them yet to give any advice.
There are other adventures, but it really depends on what you want from the game. Strahd is excellent...if you want gothic horror. If you hate werewolves, vampires etc, then you'll hate it.
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I’ll second Lost Mines or Dragon of Icespire Peak, I’ve run both (Lost Mines was my first ever one DMing) and they’re both great campaigns for beginners as they’re designed to introduce mechanics one by one. Waterdeep Dragon Heist was my second campaign and I really like it, it’s got a lot of flexibility in the way the story unfolds, it’s got four villains to choose from so you can go with whatever you find most interesting, and being all in one city means you can get away with a lot less lore research but I agree with Linklite that it’s got a lot of NPCs and moving parts and I’m glad I’d had some practice before running it
If you want to use the 2014 rules, Lost Mine of Phandelver is great. Icespire is also a starting adventure, but it's not great. A lot of the encounters are REALLY brutal (12 orcs and 2 ogres for a level 3 party), and the story is very weak.
If the players are completely new, then I'd recommend starting with something really short to let everyone get familiar with how things work without worrying about long term repercussions, and then switching to a proper campaign when everyone knows what they're getting into.
Should I use on of the premade ones from the wizards of the coast or a homebrew campagin
Plenty of people active on forums like this are homebrew-only diehards, but if you're new to the game I'd highly recommend running at least a couple of premade adventures first. You can always customize the story to make it your own while keeping the general balance good for a low level party as everyone learns. As Maruntoryx mentioned even the professionals give some pretty tough encounters for low level characters, hitting the right balance when you are just starting out seems tricky to me. After you've run a couple of premade adventures you'll be much better positioned to start creating your own I think.
What is the best campaign for my group to start with. My uncle recommended the Waterdeep campaign but I would like a second opinion. Tell me what you guys think.
It depends on what kind of adventure you want. Will it be against some organized thugs trying to take over a town via extortion? Or infiltrating a camp of Orcs (Kobolds, Goblins etc) that have been raiding nearby villages? Or just dungeon crawling?
I would suggest one of the best series of pre-made adventures from TSR, called "In search of Adventure" that will take you from level1 to levels 3 or 4 before your party becomes to powerful, then you can graduate to another series, "Scourge of the Slave Lords" that will connect to higher level series on to a final confrontation with Lolth.
I won't link to anything because I don't know what links are allowed/disallowed.
"In Search of Adventure" is a nice product but be aware it was written for the 1980s Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules. It's several generations behind the current game. The story and situations may be great, but someone trying to run this needs to know how to convert monsters, trap stats, incorporate modern skill proficiencies, etc... to 5E. I think someone new to the game would be much happier running something like Lost Mines of Phandelver that is designed to ease you into 5E and help you learn the system, then once you feel comfortable you can dive into classic products that give you a good structure but require a lot of DM prep and conversion.
Should I use on of the premade ones from the wizards of the coast or a homebrew campagin
It really depends on you, to be honest. Some people dive into homebrew campaigns like a duck to water. Others find it easier to go by prewritten campaigns. People have their own biases and whatnot and will try and persuade you to do things their way because they struggle to grasp that different things work well for different people.
My recommendation is that if you already have Lost Mine of Phandelver, then give it a go. With it already having the structure set up, that means least investment on your part and you get a taste for what the game is like. You'll also have a feeling for wether you prefer prewritten or to make up your own adventures.
Personally I prefer Dragon of Icespire Peak - it's more flexible and allows you to make up your own story around it. It also uses levelling mechanics that are more popular. No, the encounters aren't "brutal", my wife and I did it as our first adventure as a duo, and it was fine. The quests for level 3 don't even have ogres in them - the one that does is for level 5/6. We also found there were issues with LMoP. However, if you already have LMoP, it makes little sense to be buying something else to try out the game.
Perhaps you feel differently and that you just want to do your own adventures...but my personal recommendation is to run LMoP, it should give you enough of a taste of the game that you can decide whether you like it and also how you want to proceed.
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What is the best campaign for my group to start with. My uncle recommended the Waterdeep campaign but I would like a second opinion. Tell me what you guys think.
What would you like in your campaign? Different adventures provide different things, particularly in genre.
I will say that if you're talking about Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, there are a lot of NPCs involved, which might be intimidating or challenging for a beginner DM. If you're just starting out and little experience in D&D generally (not a judgement - I just have very little information to go on), then might I suggest one of the starter set ones? I've done The Lost Mine of Phandelver and The Dragon of Icespire Peak. I'd recommend the latter out of those two, it's quite easy to slip into as a first adventure, there's not a lot of "campaign overhead" to distract you so you can focus on the individual quests, it gives freedom but structure as well. It also walks you through how to set up and adapt encounters for your party size.
There is also Dragons of Stormwreck Isle the new ones not long released - but I haven't played them yet to give any advice.
There are other adventures, but it really depends on what you want from the game. Strahd is excellent...if you want gothic horror. If you hate werewolves, vampires etc, then you'll hate it.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
dragon delves is good for beginners
I’ll second Lost Mines or Dragon of Icespire Peak, I’ve run both (Lost Mines was my first ever one DMing) and they’re both great campaigns for beginners as they’re designed to introduce mechanics one by one. Waterdeep Dragon Heist was my second campaign and I really like it, it’s got a lot of flexibility in the way the story unfolds, it’s got four villains to choose from so you can go with whatever you find most interesting, and being all in one city means you can get away with a lot less lore research but I agree with Linklite that it’s got a lot of NPCs and moving parts and I’m glad I’d had some practice before running it
I’ve got lost mines of phandelver so I think we’ll give it a try. Thank y’all.
Lost Mines is a fantastic beginner campaign. There are also tips built in for the GM and the players.
Waterdeep might be too complicated for beginners.
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If you want to use the 2014 rules, Lost Mine of Phandelver is great. Icespire is also a starting adventure, but it's not great. A lot of the encounters are REALLY brutal (12 orcs and 2 ogres for a level 3 party), and the story is very weak.
If the players are completely new, then I'd recommend starting with something really short to let everyone get familiar with how things work without worrying about long term repercussions, and then switching to a proper campaign when everyone knows what they're getting into.
Should I use on of the premade ones from the wizards of the coast or a homebrew campagin
Plenty of people active on forums like this are homebrew-only diehards, but if you're new to the game I'd highly recommend running at least a couple of premade adventures first. You can always customize the story to make it your own while keeping the general balance good for a low level party as everyone learns. As Maruntoryx mentioned even the professionals give some pretty tough encounters for low level characters, hitting the right balance when you are just starting out seems tricky to me. After you've run a couple of premade adventures you'll be much better positioned to start creating your own I think.
ok
It depends on what kind of adventure you want. Will it be against some organized thugs trying to take over a town via extortion? Or infiltrating a camp of Orcs (Kobolds, Goblins etc) that have been raiding nearby villages? Or just dungeon crawling?
I would suggest one of the best series of pre-made adventures from TSR, called "In search of Adventure" that will take you from level1 to levels 3 or 4 before your party becomes to powerful, then you can graduate to another series, "Scourge of the Slave Lords" that will connect to higher level series on to a final confrontation with Lolth.
I won't link to anything because I don't know what links are allowed/disallowed.
"In Search of Adventure" is a nice product but be aware it was written for the 1980s Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules. It's several generations behind the current game. The story and situations may be great, but someone trying to run this needs to know how to convert monsters, trap stats, incorporate modern skill proficiencies, etc... to 5E. I think someone new to the game would be much happier running something like Lost Mines of Phandelver that is designed to ease you into 5E and help you learn the system, then once you feel comfortable you can dive into classic products that give you a good structure but require a lot of DM prep and conversion.
It really depends on you, to be honest. Some people dive into homebrew campaigns like a duck to water. Others find it easier to go by prewritten campaigns. People have their own biases and whatnot and will try and persuade you to do things their way because they struggle to grasp that different things work well for different people.
My recommendation is that if you already have Lost Mine of Phandelver, then give it a go. With it already having the structure set up, that means least investment on your part and you get a taste for what the game is like. You'll also have a feeling for wether you prefer prewritten or to make up your own adventures.
Personally I prefer Dragon of Icespire Peak - it's more flexible and allows you to make up your own story around it. It also uses levelling mechanics that are more popular. No, the encounters aren't "brutal", my wife and I did it as our first adventure as a duo, and it was fine. The quests for level 3 don't even have ogres in them - the one that does is for level 5/6. We also found there were issues with LMoP. However, if you already have LMoP, it makes little sense to be buying something else to try out the game.
Perhaps you feel differently and that you just want to do your own adventures...but my personal recommendation is to run LMoP, it should give you enough of a taste of the game that you can decide whether you like it and also how you want to proceed.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.