Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5417540" data-attributes="member: 94022">As others have said, start small.&nbsp; Looking too much at the big picture can cause you to simply drown in the details.&nbsp; Maybe you have an idea about what the culture of the nation across the ocean from the starting point is, but really, its going to be a long time before the PCs get there, so don't worry about it for now.&nbsp;As for the adventure itself, I usually start with the idea of the adventure and build from there.&nbsp; i.e.&nbsp; Do I want the PCs to &quot;rescue the princess&quot;, &quot;escort the caravan&quot;, &quot;investigate the goblin caves&quot;, etc.&nbsp; Once I have an idea, then I build around that.&nbsp; If its investigating the caves, where are they, and why do they need to be investigated?&nbsp; Presumably they are relatively close to town and the PCs are needed because the goblins have gotten bold -- maybe they are raiding caravans, maybe they are stealing livestock, etc.&nbsp; This will then inform me as to how the PCs get roped in.&nbsp; Caravan raids means merchants might hire the PCs, farm raids would mean either the town or even just some of the farmers, etc.&nbsp; From here, you can now worry about designing the caves and the encounters therein.&nbsp;As for your campaign story, its great that you have an overarching plot idea worked out.&nbsp; However, as others stated already, don't promise a 1 to 30 campaign.&nbsp; Its fine to hope for that, but 1 - 30 will likely take you at least a couple of years with regular sessions (weekly).&nbsp; All that in mind, there's no reason why every adventure needs to be directly linked to that overall story.&nbsp; Take the goblin raid example above.&nbsp; Perhaps when your players finally get to the goblin chief and defeat him, they find a note indicating that the goblins were being paid in weapons and/or gold/food/etc. in exchange for attacking the town or disrupting trade.&nbsp; Now, this adventure still doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the overall plot of let's say having Orcus attempt to overthrow the Raven Queen, but you are slowly tying it together.&nbsp; Later, the party will learn that the entity that hired the goblins was a cultist of Orcus who is trying to distract the town from the cults schemes, the cult then is acting on orders from somebody else, etc., etc.&nbsp; &nbsp;The point here, is to simply try to avoid getting in over your head at the outset.&nbsp; You can always add on later but for now, you need to get your feet wet and get accustomed to running a game.&nbsp;As for general advice, if you are a DDi subscriber, there's an excellent series of articles called Dungeoncraft on the Dungeon site.&nbsp; These are written by James Wyatt IIRC, who also wrote the DMG, and provide great advice for running a campaign.&nbsp; Additionally, there are a lot of blogs on the intarwebs with great DM'ing advice from SlyFlourish, to NewbieDM, to even a few on the WotC site.&nbsp; I'm sure there are plenty of others too.&nbsp;Most of all, welcome to the club!&nbsp; Its great that you are giving it a go as we always need more DMs, if for no other reason than so that we DM's can occasionally be PCs too.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Riastlin, post: 5417540, member: 94022"] As others have said, start small. Looking too much at the big picture can cause you to simply drown in the details. Maybe you have an idea about what the culture of the nation across the ocean from the starting point is, but really, its going to be a long time before the PCs get there, so don't worry about it for now. As for the adventure itself, I usually start with the idea of the adventure and build from there. i.e. Do I want the PCs to "rescue the princess", "escort the caravan", "investigate the goblin caves", etc. Once I have an idea, then I build around that. If its investigating the caves, where are they, and why do they need to be investigated? Presumably they are relatively close to town and the PCs are needed because the goblins have gotten bold -- maybe they are raiding caravans, maybe they are stealing livestock, etc. This will then inform me as to how the PCs get roped in. Caravan raids means merchants might hire the PCs, farm raids would mean either the town or even just some of the farmers, etc. From here, you can now worry about designing the caves and the encounters therein. As for your campaign story, its great that you have an overarching plot idea worked out. However, as others stated already, don't promise a 1 to 30 campaign. Its fine to hope for that, but 1 - 30 will likely take you at least a couple of years with regular sessions (weekly). All that in mind, there's no reason why every adventure needs to be directly linked to that overall story. Take the goblin raid example above. Perhaps when your players finally get to the goblin chief and defeat him, they find a note indicating that the goblins were being paid in weapons and/or gold/food/etc. in exchange for attacking the town or disrupting trade. Now, this adventure still doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the overall plot of let's say having Orcus attempt to overthrow the Raven Queen, but you are slowly tying it together. Later, the party will learn that the entity that hired the goblins was a cultist of Orcus who is trying to distract the town from the cults schemes, the cult then is acting on orders from somebody else, etc., etc. The point here, is to simply try to avoid getting in over your head at the outset. You can always add on later but for now, you need to get your feet wet and get accustomed to running a game. As for general advice, if you are a DDi subscriber, there's an excellent series of articles called Dungeoncraft on the Dungeon site. These are written by James Wyatt IIRC, who also wrote the DMG, and provide great advice for running a campaign. Additionally, there are a lot of blogs on the intarwebs with great DM'ing advice from SlyFlourish, to NewbieDM, to even a few on the WotC site. I'm sure there are plenty of others too. Most of all, welcome to the club! Its great that you are giving it a go as we always need more DMs, if for no other reason than so that we DM's can occasionally be PCs too. :) [/QUOTE]

Verification