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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 6981856" data-attributes="member: 413">As others have mentioned, it seems you have some things a little too scripted.  A DM's job isn't to play out his story.  It's to populate an adventure setting with NPCs and monsters that have motivations and then give the PCs some hooks based on their motivations (that are hopefully somewhat counter the those of the NPCs) and then let things play out so the players feel like it is their story.You risk painting yourself in a corner or worse, locking yourself into a plotline that your players don't care about by planning too far ahead.  Give them hooks and details that you haven't fully fleshed out yet and see what they bite on and where it leads.  Listen to their speculation about what is going on AND USE IT.  Present to them problems you have no idea how they will solve and obstacles you have no idea how they will overcome.  Then sit back and watch them solve it.If you are just starting out as a DM, start small.  Savor the low/mid levels.  Give them a small home base to operate out of and fall in love with.  Save the farmstead.  Run some errands for the local hedge wizard.  Gain the favor of the local nobility or the patronage of a retired adventurer (preferably a PC turned NPC from a previous campaign).  Establish connections to the setting for the PCs.  Then have an NPC or NPC faction CRUSH EVERYTHING THE PCs LOVE.  Preferably in front of them while they are helpless to stop it or make it seem like their fault so the locals turn on them.In the early levels don't even hint at your greater campaign (at least not until level 4 or 5.   This is a time for the players to establish who their PCs are, not for you to showcase your plot line and uber NPCs.  In mid levels (6-10) start to throw out some foreshadowing and by around 8th level or so the PCs should be fully engaged in your story but to them if feels like THEIR story (and I promise you, it will have changed several times by then).  Wrap up some major chapter around those higher levels and introduce something new (that was maybe foreshadowed earlier) for the high (11-15) and epic levels (16-20).  Above all give the PCs time.  Don't give them the opportunity to continuously adventure from 1st to 20th level without taking a breath.  Some sessions should be "So...you got back to town, gained 6th level and had some time to spend your loot and tie up some loose ends.  Three years pass mostly uneventfully.  What have your PCs been up too?"  Let them fill in.  Then based on that give the new hooks to new adventures.</blockquote>

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