How to start a DnD campaign
How to start a campaign?
So you decided you are going to do a campaign or a one-shot? But you still struggling with many convoluted ideas, unclear story you want to tell, well this post will teach you the essential things to get you started as soon as possible to get the game running in no time.
What kind of Dungeon Master are you going to be?
Ideas for campaign
What is the one clear sense that you're passionate about that you have in your head about the campaign? Is it Pirate, a tropical-themed idea of a band of swashbucklers trying to get their hands on some booty, a dark fantasy setting, where many things are scarce and dark entities surround your world? Think about most of the Fantasy genres you have seen and which one of those resonate with you the most.
Writing Ideas for the Campaign
When you have a general idea, spend at least 5-10min. Writing words that come upon a piece of paper in a free-association manner. It can be names, events, serene scenery that you have in mind, the name of a ritual, or just an NPC that the players might encounter. Have at least 25 associations on paper when you proceed to think more about the campaign.
The list should look something like this:
How much time you have on your hands?
Now look, being a Dungeon Master takes an s**t tons of time and some more. Before you get your hands dirty, decide on how much time you are willing to spend on running the game.
Are you doing a one-shot? A short campaign? A long campaign? A sandbox campaign that is never going to end?
To make a great session, you still need to put some effort, especially at the start of running the game. Some DMs manage by preparing for the session in an hour or half of it, some of the prep for couple days, so it's a good thing to know how much time you are willing to spend.
For myself - I keep my sessions in the range of 4-5 hours, and since I like worldbuilding, I may be going to spend the same amount of work during the week till next session.
How long will the campaign last?
Look, all good things must end at some point. Having a rough idea, when it's going to end, is a great thing not to get a stale campaign in the long run. Get your self a number, for example, for my four months campaign, playing weekly. It was 14-16 sessions. In that amount of sessions, I must make a great story that my players will enjoy. I encourage you to plan in a structured way your campaign, even if the campaign will not go as planned, but having a small plan always helps
Number of players + Bench/Guest Players
Now for the number of players, this preference comes as you spend more time DM'ing the game, and it varies with every DM. I'm a massive fan of having 5 up to 6 players at my table and at least 2 or 3 players that are quest/bench players. Why is that and what the heck is a quest/bench player?
Now lets the start off with the number of players at your table. The reason I prefer 5 up to 6 players is that I enjoy playing with a larger group because I think this amount of players is excellent for a group to a roleplay between each other. Still, everybody will have some meaningful choices in the session and will have some time to "shine". That is a little bit harder with 6, but it's still manageable, however, what goes beyond 6+ players is dangerous territory, even then, my current game has usually 6-8 players weekly, so there are exceptions.
Style of Play
There are different kinds of style in DnD games that DM's take from a simple Quest type that is similar to a plot of Lord of The Rings, to Court Intrigue like Game of Thrones and everything in between. Every homebrew game is different and a little bit of everything, so creating a campaign, think of what kind of game you and your players would enjoy. Most of the time, every DnD session is made up of these essential elements - Story/Combat/Exploration/Intrigue/Roleplaying and Puzzles. Getting to know what you like most about the game and what your players want from you will increase your chance of running a great campaign in the future.
Basic elements of Dungeons and Dragons:
Story
The story is one of the most critical aspects of DnD, without one DnD is just a shell in my personal opinion
Combat
But on the same token, DnD combat has a unique wargame element to the game. Having interesting encounters in your session can enhance the session give your players to flex their creativity in battle with their abilities and spells. However, try to use combat sparingly, since having to much combat can leave your players with fighting fatigue.
Exploration
Some people want to know what's on the edge of the town, or why there is a strange bolder on the top of the hill
Intrigue
Oh, let's face it if a player is playing a bard he will be somehow interested in the whole court and intrigue aspect of the game.
Roleplaying
Roleplayers or Actors are people that love playing a role and embodying a character. And I think this is one of the most critical elements that determine the amount of fun your group will have at the table.
Puzzles
And there are puzzles, investigators, Indiana Jones type of players will love your efforts of giving a challenge not only in combat form but also in a way where they will need to think their way out of it.
Extra: Creation/Building
Sometimes some players care about putting a foothold at your world like creating an inn, organization, temple, or a castle. Sometimes players want to create things like armor, weapons, etc.
Starting Village/Town
One of the mistakes I made in my past was starting my campaign by creating too many factions, regions, guilds, NPCs, Towns, Cities, and so on. If you have a writer's room and a bunch of free time, then you can world build the whole world with every NPC that inhabit every corner of the world. But if you are starting, the opposite is exact, and I highly encourage you to start small when you are creating a campaign. Having a small village or town at the start of the campaign will be plenty enough for your first session. And having a little place for your players that have fleshed out characters, many adventure hooks and activities is better than numerous cities and regions that are not fully developed by you and barren.
The Flow of the Game Session
After many years of playing DnD and being a DM, one thing came clear to me - one session usually has from 3-6 encounters over 4-5 hours of playtime. When preparing for a game, sticking to a light plan of 3-6 things to do or encounter gives an excellent general guideline on how to make your game. So what do I mean by the encounter? It could be quick combat, encountering a traveling merchant, encountering a quest giver and so on so as an example, a session could look like this:
1. Meeting a Quest giver in a tavern.
2. Traveling to the quest location, maybe something happens that could be used for a foreshadow in the future session.
3. Arriving at the quest location, if it's a dungeon, perhaps checking for traps, a puzzle to open the door.
4. A combat encounter
5. Exploring the Dungeon
6. Boss of the dungeon combat encounter or Social encounter.
Usually, this will be plenty enough for one session, so guide your self by having 4-6 encounters ready for one session. But to be safe, have a couple encounters ready if a plan will go unexpectedly (And it will. All the time usually). Some players can get stuck on the first step and start to do something in the tavern, roleplay more with each other, and I don't know… Harass every single NPC there? And by the end of 4-5 hours, could only do a couple of things from your prepared list? And that is okay. However, you control the time and the pacing for the game, keep it flowing, keep it moving, and you will have a good session.
Session Zero
If you're serious about starting a campaign session zero is a must for every DM to master. Session Zero is the moment when the party can give their expectations to the game, and you can provide what you are expecting from your players to say it frankly. What are your table rules for your game, what kind of game you are thinking of running? It's the time when you give context to your players about your world history, places, Gods, and other relevant information that the players require.
Session Zero is the time to get people to figure this out when can you play the game and whether or not you can have a day in the week when you play your newly crafted campaign. Doing Session Zero is crucial to the success of the campaign, to set a date and commit to it because many campaigns are derailed or forgotten just because of bad planning or communication. So please, set a day that you will spend playing DnD and that will be half of planning that you will need, trust me.
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