D&D 5E New DM needs help

[Noah Camm]

I’m not new to dnd, but I’m new to DMing, and I’m having trouble finding ideas for a campaign, any advice?

 

[rgoodbb]

Most recommend Lost Mines of Phan...thingy

I started with a little of Mat Colville's: Your First Adventure, Running the Game #1 on youtube. It gave me a great starting point but didn't add too much specifics so I could add my own stuff into it.

Good Luck. Have fun!

Oh and First Post Welcome!

 

[Swarmkeeper]

The Two Page Mini Delves on DriveThruRPG are nice intro material - and some are free:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/6337/Roving-Band-of-Misfits-Press

Also, there are some free 1 pagers from the Prepared! series by Kobold Press:

https://koboldpress.com/?s=prepared

Enjoy!

 

[jasper]

What type? High Fantasy, Low magic, Everything in a pot.? Off the Shelf go with lost mines or one of cheaper hard covers. Anybody got a third party vendor suggestion?
Have you done a session 0? Alright you apes this is how I going to roll!
Do you have any problem friends? Rgoodbb is my bestest friend but he always drinks the last root beer and shaves the cat!
Where are you going to be playing?

 

[robus]

I’m not new to dnd, but I’m new to DMing, and I’m having trouble finding ideas for a campaign, any advice?

So, first question: why are none of the published adventures not satisfactory? Played through them all?

New DMs can really help themselves by running a published campaign IMHO. It can bite you in the behind when things inevitably go off the rails, but that also becomes an opportunity for you to try and roll some of your own stuff as you try to bring things back to the main path.

It’s like having a set of training wheels

 

[rgoodbb]

What type? High Fantasy, Low magic, Everything in a pot.? Off the Shelf go with lost mines or one of cheaper hard covers. Anybody got a third party vendor suggestion?
Have you done a session 0? Alright you apes this is how I going to roll!
Do you have any problem friends? Rgoodbb is my bestest friend but he always drinks the last root beer and shaves the cat!
Where are you going to be playing?

Hey! I love my cats!..................shaved. I'm sure someone more tech savvy will add an appropriate picture.

Seriously Noah Camm, Watch Colvilles stuff. Even if you don't use his dungeon, He has some great advice. Watch out for his doobleedoo.

 

[ccs]

Browse through the Monster Manual & make a list of, say, 15 monsters you'd like to use.

Think about where you'd like to run an adventure. For ex; I like running desert adventures.

Browse through the magic item section in the DMG. Make a list of the ones that strike your fancy.

Watch a handful of bad fantasy/Sci-fi movies on Netflix/Amazon-Prime/etc. There's a lot of crap movie-wise, but idea-wise....

Make a list of things you DON'T want to DM.

Pay attention to the characters your players actually make & what they do. Then write things that relate directly to them/what they've done.

Mix your stuff & your players stuff. Alternating it or blending it, whatever seems to fit.

You don't need to pen an entire campaign up front, you can write this stuff a week or two ahead based upon how plays progressing.

 

[robus]

Hey! I love my cats!..................shaved. I'm sure someone more tech savvy will add an appropriate picture.

Seriously Noah Camm, Watch Colvilles stuff. Even if you don't use his dungeon, He has some great advice. Watch out for his doobleedoo.

Set the speed to .75 unless you can handle a firehose of content!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Pay attention to the characters your players actually make & what they do. Then write things that relate directly to them/what they've done.

Mix your stuff & your players stuff. Alternating it or blending it, whatever seems to fit.

Excellent post. It's great to get the players to do some of the heavy lifting (whether they know it or not).

You don't need to pen an entire campaign up front, you can write this stuff a week or two ahead based upon how plays progressing.

A few GMs in my group does this and it seems to work really well. They know when they want the beats of their overarching plot to occur, so drop them whenever suits them. But each session ends (or between sessions) with the players describing our characters' plan forward. This helps focus the GMs on plots that the players are actively interested in.

 

[Ovarwa]

Hi,

Steal something small that you think is cool. Read through it. Run it straight. See what you like and dislike about the experience, what you might want to do differently.

Start doing a bit of that.

Rinse and repeat.

Anyway,

Ken