And lastly how keep a campaign interesting and engaging?

Quote from Jayden0 >

 ... I don't know everything so I hope ddb adds homebrew creator guide soon, although I'm getting the hang of it.

 Yes. I agree.

If you're a kobold with 6 STR, can you heal people by punching them? It's -1 damage...

No, an attack that hits and can deal damage always deals one damage, if the creature you are trying to hit has immunity or resistance it just deals zero damage. 

So an unarmed strike does a minimum of 1 damage? I thought it was just straight up 1 + STR mod. And if you build a character on DDB who has -1 STR, the character sheet shows the unarmed strike as doing 0 damage.

I wasn't actually serious, by the way.

I find spending a little time with the dmg or xanithar random tables give me inspiration, and the there are other online resources that can help with that too. The source books have a ton of stuff to draw from.

I am running a campaign and i am wondering if i need zoom or anything for the ADVENTURE. lastly i am wondering how to get the campaign out to lots of people.

For a campaign, it's typically best to have a group of 3 to 6 people. If you don't have players yet, then when you're ready to start, you can go to the D&D Beyond Forums, find the Looking for Players and Groups section, and post there. You can also look through the people who are looking for groups to join and respond to their posts. 

As for Zoom, I play online using Discord voice chat and text chat, and that works well enough for me. Discord has a video chat feature, but I haven't used it. Zoom would work for a video chat campaign just as well, though, I think.  

Hopefully that helps a bit! If you have more questions like that, let me know. :)

another question is Could I play with people I do not know?

Yeah you could, but then you wouldn't know their mannerisms until after the fact (e.g. I either play nontypical [think brutish rogue] or cold nasty characters, but I digress). But that's what Session Zero is for

Yeah, you can play with people you don't know. That said, I'd personally recommend individually talking to people you're considering DMing for even before session zero to make sure that you'll enjoy their style, that they'll enjoy your style, and that they're cool with playing a campaign run by (I'm guessing here) someone new to DMing. Once you've picked the people you think are a good fit for your group (again, three to six; more than that and it would probably get overwhelming for you), then you would want to have a session zero.

Although I've heard of people who started with D&D as a DM, I'd recommend starting as a player first if you haven't played before and you possibly can. :)

Quote from ArceusMaster106 >>

How do you start a campaign in a way that’s exciting for your players? I avidly followed your world building article but found myself lost after that.  

 You can do this cheaply by using a few clichés. If you want a fairly standard opening, you can have a character's contact(s) ask them to go some unknown local. This opening was used in Tomb of Annihilation and Princes of the Apocolypse. You can use the spontaneous starting quest start by having an NPC ask the heroes to go on a quest. This was used in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. You might take a page out of Dragon Heist's book by having abrupt combat prove the hero's skills. I once started a campaign like this by having a theatre troop kidnapped and the characters enlisted to help, and another one by having the characters enlisted to rob a museum. Another common clichè is dropping the characters in the middle of an unknown land and telling them to survive, like what we see in Out of the Abyss or Curse of Strahd. Finally, you have the old standby: the characters are in a small village when it comes under siege. This was used in Tyranny of Dragons and Storm King's Thunder.

Quote from BKThomson >>

I cannot imagine this is a unique post but I'm just banging my head getting the fundamentals correct for when to make the players roll for Perception or Investigation checks. 

I've read Players and DMG multiple times on Wisdom vs. Intelligence.  I've checked out videos on this topic but what I've seen pretty much regurgitate Players or DMG.  It's just not clear to me what the trigger would be either from a player's standpoint to a situation I can deduce which proper ability check to make.

I'm just not consistent and as the DM I want to be consistent on what check, the proper check, I'm asking my players to do and not have them confused asking "But last time with situation X you had us roll Perception but new in a similar Situation Y you want Investigation???"   

So I'm looking for some help or feedback on to you make the determination of Perception vs Investigation checks.  Again, I've read Players and DMG and it's not getting through to me, by no fault of the books, it just me who trying to get more concrete examples or understanding how to properly identify and request the proper skill check.  

Yes, DM Experience is key and I'm sure it will all come to me during game session 42 but my compulsion to get the rules right is compelling me that I'm not getting it and I need some DM assistance. 

Maybe a more clear concrete examples of when to use one over the other or more detail how to approach the two.

ALSO

I've been reading up on Passive rules and I was wondering if Passive Perception is only for noticing creatures or can a person notice traps and other items as well?  I'm looking at some published adventure for lower lever players and that 10 DC traps seem awful easy to notice without much effort of concern when the average passive perception of the party is 12.  

Also how to DM situations like these when something like a trap or secret door is found, is there more than "You found a trap."

 

 

If they are just looking it's Perception, but if they are putting their hands on it then it's Investigation.

The way I see it, as a general rule, Perception is looking for something; Investigation is seeing something and determining what it means.

I think it is a matter of perception.  Do not choose *which* skill to apply, determine *if* a skill applies.

There are a lot of things that involve multiple schools, tool abilities, etc... 

For example, it is often common to lie while intimidating someone (deception and intimidation), to need to see something and understand it in order for it to be meaningful (perception and investigation), and for someone to be nimble and strong to escape danger (acrobatics and athletics).  Rather than deciding *which* skill applies, I ask the players to tell me what ability score they're using (usually indirectly, by asking how they are approaching it) and then determine if they get to add proficiency (or expertise) to it based upon their skills, tool proficiencies, background and recent history.  

So, if the players are checking out a ruin and want to 'investigate the dwarven stone door' (which has a poison gas trap on it), I ask how they're doing it.  If they say they're just looking at it, I'll make it a wisdom roll and allow them to add their proficiency modifier if I know that they have either perception skill,  trap making abilities, a history with poison gas traps, etc...   I end up allowing proficiency rolls more often than other DMs, but it makes them feel like heroes.   If they'd said they wanted to look at how the door works, I'd have allowed them to make an intelligence ability check with a proficiency bonus for investigation, for trap making abilities, for experience with poison gas, etc...

if a dragonborn's parents are frost and fire, will the children be water?

Is the player's guide even going to exist with the change over of creative talent?  It's been a long, long, long time since it was announced.

how do you buy a race I want to have a sea elf but I don't know how to make it

Quote from DremlawtheRedeemer >>

And lastly how keep a campaign interesting and engaging?

 You make choices matter, and have your world follow a consistent internal logic, even if only as a facade, because once your players know everything is bullshit, then nothing means anything and they don't matter, and if they don't matter to the world then they don't have a reason to keep playing in it.