Playing Dungeons & Dragons for the first time is a daunting task, especially for a new Dungeon Master running their own game. But you don't need to know all of the rules of D&D or be a trained voice actor to get started, you just need a story to tell with friends.

Published adventures such as the one in the new D&D Starter Set, Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, help you avoid much of the work that goes into running a game by offering you a complete story with thought-out characters, maps, and combat encounters to run at your table.

But which adventure should you run? Here are our recommendations for new DMs:

• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
• Dragon of Icespire Peak
• Your Own Adventure

D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

Navigate the dangers of Stormwreck Isle while deciphering the clues behind an ancient war between dragons!
Character levels: 1st to 3rd level

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is part of D&D's latest Starter Set and is the perfect introduction to the game for new players and DMs. The adventure introduces game concepts slowly, to allow players time to grow accustomed to the rules.

This adventure is short but tightly written. It provides the players with clear objectives but also an element of choice that allows them to make meaningful decisions.

For players, the Starter Set comes with five pregenerated character sheets for players to use that will walk them through their features as well as what happens with their character when they level up. Or, if your players want to use D&D Beyond's free digital character sheets, they can simply choose a premade character to get started!

We've provided tips for running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, and there is even a video walkthrough of Drowned Sailors, the first combat encounter.

Play Intro to Stormwreck Isle for Free With a D&D Beyond Account!

Intro to Stormwreck Isle is a free introductory adventure that leads into Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. All D&D Beyond users can claim this at no cost, all you need to do is sign up for a D&D Beyond account and click the button below to claim the adventure. Once claimed, you can use its contents with D&D Beyond's Encounters tool and digital character sheets.

Dragon of Icespire Peak

Become local heroes of a mining town! Defeat a vicious white dragon!
Character levels: 1st to 7th level

Dragon of Icespire Peak takes players to the small mining town of Phandalin, which is nestled on the foothills of the icy Sword Mountains. The adventure offers new players and DMs ample time to get settled into the rules of D&D. Side quests are aplenty in Dragon of Icespire Peak and necessary to advance in level. These side quests also help establish the threat of the adventure's key villain, the young white dragon Cryovain, who has moved into the area and threatens the town.

This adventure is built for flexibility, so you can make adjustments for pacing. If you want a short adventure, you can reduce the requirements needed for players to level up. You can also use the short quests offered in the early part of the adventure to run one-shots. Cryovain is a wandering threat in Dragon of Icespire Peak, so there's ample opportunity for the dragon to make an appearance in your sessions.

To raise the stakes for your players, you might encourage them to purchase property in Phandalin. Or, perhaps, a friendly NPC offers them a place to stay. By establishing Phandalin as their home turf, your party will be more inclined to come to its aid and get to know its residents. Then, you can build up to the showdown with Cryovain. Afterward, you can move on to Storm Lord's Wrath, which continues the action after Dragon of Icespire Peak and takes players from 7th to 9th level.

What Happens When I Purchase a Book on D&D Beyond?

D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset to play Dungeons & Dragons. Your free account comes with the Basic Rules of the game. When you purchase a digital book in our marketplace, it is unlocked for your use on D&D Beyond. You can easily read and search the contents of your purchased book, browse the monsters you've unlocked, and even use new character options in our character builder. With integrated dice rolling on character sheets and DM tools, D&D Beyond makes playing the game more accessible.

D&D Beyond subscribers receive special benefits. Master-tier subscribers, for example, can freely share books they've purchased with other players, making the game more affordable for your table.

Your Own Adventure

Here’s a dirty secret of being a DM: Most players don’t care how good your adventure is as long as they get to hang out with their friends. My players love it when I break out a deep and intricate storyline, but they’d just as soon kill some goblins, tell some jokes, and eat pizza. As long as you give them a simple quest with a clear objective—such as to save a person, find a treasure, or kill a monster—with a funny NPC to make fun of, they’ll have the time of their lives.

The very first game of D&D I ever ran followed this exact formula. The player characters met in the small town of Onset. They were summoned to meet Duke Frederick, who tasked them with apprehending a mysterious kidnapper that had made its lair in the nearby forest. They traveled through the forest, fought a river monster, and then found an abandoned ruin. They avoided a few traps, and then found a green hag in the ruin’s basement. They beat up the hag and went home happy.

Frankly, that adventure was crap from a storytelling perspective. Its NPCs were flat, it had no personal stakes for the characters, the monsters had no unified theme, but none of that mattered. We just had fun. So, don’t let your own anxieties stop you from running a fun, terrible first game of D&D. Everyone has to start somewhere.

What Do Your Players Want?

If you’re a new Dungeon Master, odds are you don’t know what your players want out of D&D. Some players want to go on an epic quest like in The Lord of the Rings, while others want to have an open-world sandbox to joke around with their friends, like a multiplayer version of Skyrim. Other players are wallflowers that just want to hang out with their friends and are content to swing their swords when their turn in combat comes around.

If you know exactly what your players want, great! You can choose from our recommendations above. But it's OK if you don’t know your players’ tastes very well. Odds are, if your players are newbies also, they don’t know for sure what they want either. In situations like this, it’s a good idea for your first adventure to be a buffet of different playstyle options. That way, your players will probably find some part of the adventure they can latch onto. Just be sure to take note of when each player’s eyes light up—you’ll want to include more of that in future adventures.

When running your adventure, keep in mind that the best beginner adventures:

• Are short
• Feature memorable NPCs
• Give the players clear objectives
• Offer lots of room for player creativity
• Allow the players to make their own stories

Remember, the story that you’re telling is not just the plot of the adventure you’re running. It’s the story of incredible successes, hilarious failures, and riotous jokes that your players create when their characters breathe life into the plot on the page.

James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his two reckless adventurers, Mei and Marzipan.

Michael Galvis and Mike Bernier contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article was updated on October 10, 2023.