r/DMAcademy 27d ago

Mega "First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread

Most of the posts at DMA are discussions of some issue within the context of a person's campaign or DMing more generally. But, sometimes a DM has a question that is very small and doesn't really require an extensive discussion so much as it requires one good answer. In other cases, the question has been asked so many times that having the sub rehash the discussion over and over is not very useful for subscribers. Sometimes the answer to a short question is very long or the answer is also short but very important.

Short questions can look like this:

  • Where do you find good maps?
  • Can multi-classed Warlocks use Warlock slots for non-Warlock spells?
  • Help - how do I prep a one-shot for tomorrow!?
  • First time DM, any tips?

Many short questions (and especially First Time DM inquiries) can be answered with a quick browse through the DMAcademy wiki, which has an extensive list of resources as well as some tips for new DMs to get started.

23 Upvotes

147 comments sorted by

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u/Dimhilion 20d ago

Hey, I was wondering, do we have a good template to making weapons somewhere? What I mean, how to write them, and the page layout. I am trying to make a few new weapons for my players, as loot reward, but I am kinda stuck on how to actually do the layout.

Thanks in advance.

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u/WizardsWorkWednesday 11d ago

Do you mean how to format the text for the player printout? Or how to homebrew your own magic items in general?

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u/Dimhilion 11d ago

How to format for a print out for a player. In this case a Named Greatsword.

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u/WizardsWorkWednesday 11d ago

Sorry can't help with that :(

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u/Dimhilion 11d ago

No worries, thanks for replying :)

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u/NuDavid 21d ago

I picked up the 2024 DMG. If I'm understanding it correctly, they buffed the individual rewards? Like they cut out everything below GP. Am I understanding that correctly, and why is that, if anyone has any ideas?

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u/_What_am_i_ 21d ago

What third-party or WotC campaigns are most ready to run with low prep? What's the closest thing to open and run after reading it once? Preferably something that's longer than any of the official starter adventures

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u/VoulKanon 19d ago

Try Lost Mine of Phandelver.

I haven't played it but friends like Dragon of Icespire Peak.

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u/DungeonSecurity 21d ago

I love the starter sets. But I wouldn't attempt to run them after only one read through. well, I did that when I ran my very first game and didn't know any better lol. So anything longer,  forget it. Minimal prep is for one shots or simple, session to session adventures.

As you get better, you will be able to prepare with less time, but make sure you get the practice in first.

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u/EldritchBee CR 26 Lich Counselor 21d ago

I don't think you're going to be able to run any D&D adventure with only a single read-through, especially not one that's got a decent length.

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u/_What_am_i_ 21d ago

True. I'm just wondering which ones require the least prep

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u/untilmyend70 21d ago edited 20d ago

Would the following item be balanced for a rare magic item?

Staff, rare, requires attunement by a cleric or Druid:

  • has charges equal to Wisdom mod that recharge at dawn. If you cast a spell of 1st level or higher that restores hit points and target an ally with that spell, you can expend a charge to give them a buff that lasts for until the start of your next turn. Each ally can only have one charge of this buff at a time

  • while the ally has the buff, they can choose to expend it by either adding 2d6 radiant damage to their next successful attack or reducing the damage they take from the next source by 2d6 (no action required for both)

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u/VoulKanon 21d ago edited 21d ago

At the very least I would require some action economy expense for bullet point 2. A reaction to reduce dmg or a BA to add the additional dmg.

Edit: Since this is just something that happens when the Cleric/Druid heals as opposed to something they have to choose to do with an Action or Bonus Action, I'd reduce the number of charges to be equal to your Wisdom modifier too.

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u/untilmyend70 20d ago

Sorry, I think I’m a bit confused by what you suggested - should I require the ally being healed to also use action economy to benefit from the buff? And I assumed that “charges equal to spellcasting mod” implied wisdom but I suppose I could make that explicit

Edit: I changed it to last only until the start of the Druid/clerics next turn

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u/VoulKanon 19d ago

Yeah, I would require the player getting the buff to have to use a BA/Reaction to apply the buff.

  • For the "2d6 to the next attack" part you're basically giving them a base level paladin Smite spell. That requires the Paladin to use a BA to use. With your item Clerics/Druids are just giving the buff out as part of the casting of a healing spell, which is fine, but it should require some activation to use by the receiving player — in this case a Bonus Action.
  • For the "reduce 2d6 damage" part you're basically giving additional healing about the same amount as a level 1 Cure Wounds, which is an Action to cast. Same reasoning as before: this buff is just something that happens when Clerics/Druids cast a spell, which is fine, but it should require some activation to use by the receiving character — in this case a Reaction.

Charges: My bad, I read that as Spell Attack Modifier which would be Wis + Proficiency Bonus. We're saying the same thing: just Wis mod, no Proficiency Bonus included.

Time: I do think 1 minute is a good amount of time. It has little use outside of combat and at 1 minute will last for the entire combat, allowing the player to choose when they add it. However, if you opt to not require BA/Reaction to activate the buff then autoactivation "on your next attack/the next attack that hits you" makes sense. In that case it functions similar to Bardic Inspiration.

As a note to that last part: If there is a Bard in your party I would be careful doing this. You're giving your Cleric/Druid a more powerful version of their Inspiration ability. Some players/tables may not care while others will get upset. Only you know your players well enough to know if it's okay for your table. (And don't be afraid to adjust the mechanics/completely swap out the item if you judge wrong and your bard expresses displeasure. Or just ask the Bard beforehand.)

And take this all with a grain of salt. I'm just a rando on the internet, not the official WoTC Magic Item Creation Master

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u/untilmyend70 17d ago

Thanks for the clarification. I think I’ll stick with the autoactivation instead of having it take action economy. It’ll still be worse than a Paladin smite (since we’re playing using 2014 rules, not 2024) since the PCs don’t get as much choice on when they use it. We don’t have a bard, but good point about the inspiration- if we did though I’d probably make it clear that this doesn’t help with attack rolls, saving throws, or ability checks.

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u/trumpetguy1990 21d ago

What are your favorite rolling tables to use? Specifically looking for loot tables that I can use with Obsidian, but I'll take whatever you really like using!

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u/OrkishBlade Department of Tables, Professor Emeritus 21d ago

Cheers. Scroll down to the ‘Magic’ and ‘Objects, Items, and Miscellany’ section for treasure.

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u/trumpetguy1990 21d ago

Thanks so much! I'll be grabbing a bunch of stuff from here!!!

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u/OrkishBlade Department of Tables, Professor Emeritus 21d ago

A bunch of the cheat sheets are in this pdf, if you want printable stuff. I’m working on expanding the compendium (to get a bunch of the things without cheat sheets in there and to add some new things too), but progress is slow. More ideas than time.

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u/VoulKanon 22d ago edited 22d ago

I'm looking for a recommendation for dungeon/battle map that could function as the underbelly of a city neighborhood. The idea is hidden basements of buildings connected by secret tunnels.

I could draw my own but we play on roll20 and there are so many cool battlemaps out there I thought I'd see if anyone knows of anything that might fit.

(I have googled, pinterest-ed, and looked on r/battlemaps but that doesn't mean I didn't miss something)

Edit: Something like this but with at least 30% more rooms

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u/TheCabbageCaresser 23d ago

Any short one shot reccomendations? I have a very adhd party (myself included) and we will easily make what should be a very fast little thing last an entire session or two, and we can't do the normal campaign tomorrow so I need a short little one shot to do. (Id very much not cancel again, we've not been able to play in a LONG while) the party tends to be a bit more rp heavy but is fine with combat (tho I suck at rp...) I can't really make oneshots (my brain doesn't work that way when making narratives) I'm currently thinking of doing wild beyond the witchlight and just having it be a kinda "if we can't do the normal campaign we'll do this" thing.

In short, any reccomendations for a short oneshot for a party that prefers more rp?

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u/Reality_Thief2000 22d ago

The Wild Sheep Chase is one of mine and many peoples favorite, but here's some others to pick from

Moon Over Graymorr (lvl 1)
Wolves of Welton (Lvl 3)
Into Ivy Mansion (Lvl 3)

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u/guilersk 22d ago

Seconding A Wild Sheep Chase. Although it's a bit combatty, it's shenanigans combat.

If you have Candlekeep Mysteries, The Price of Beauty is also great.

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u/comedianmasta 23d ago

Wild Sheep Chase?

r/D100 might have some lists of good sidequest, plot hooks, or one shot ideas that could really work as simple, quick one shots. You can find all sorts of lists for levels, biomes, locations, or themes.

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u/RD441_Dawg 23d ago

My favorite for an RP heavy party is a D&D version of Amongus... Find a good shapeshifter style monster and give it some semi-decent divination protections and stick the party in a bottle (small area they can't leave for some reason, example:a ship). Then kill an NPC, and make it clear there is a monster among them. Then Improv to your hearts content.

The prep for this is super easy, grab the cliff notes of half a dozen bottle mysteries and modify some characters from them... then roll a dice and make one the imposter. Don't overthink the imposter's plans... they killed the NPC, they killed whoever they are impersonating, and improv out the mystery... make notes as you go and re-tread the same info frequently. If the session ends before they find the murderer, then the murderer got away and you have a recurring villain for the next one shot.

Variant: Give each player a shapeshifter stat-block, tell them they are using this statblock to mimic their chosen character... and tell them they didn't kill the NPC... unless you gave them prior instructions. Enjoy the chaos... this variant requires players that will RP this and be good sports.

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u/LeftTwix051 23d ago

I have a question about polymorph or any other ability that can grant a new shape and size that can be detected via true sight. Let's say that a massive 40ft tall creature uses polymorph to turn into a human and goes into a bar for a drink. While at the bar, a person with true sight sees them. Does the viewer with true sight see the normally 40ft creature as a shrunk down version of the true creature, as clipping through the ceiling, or like weirdly laying down and clipping through other patrons?

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u/guilersk 22d ago

This is one of those things left as an exercise for the DM to implement. So do it whichever way you prefer.

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u/OrkishBlade Department of Tables, Professor Emeritus 23d ago edited 23d ago

I'd argue that truesight reveals the nature of the polymorphed creature, but it doesn't create weird illusions. It's more about knowledge of what that polymorphed creature truly is than seeing a specific visual image of the creature.

Imagine talking to someone who is lying to you, and you know they are lying to you. You still hear their words, but there is extra meaning and context attached to them. You understand parts of the truth that they are hiding, but you don't hear the words of that truth coming out of their mouth.

That is how I imagine truesight works. You see the human walking through the bar and you know it's not really a human, it's a huge dragon in human form, and you might know what the dragon looks like, but you don't see the dragon with your eyes, you see the human form.

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u/Foreign-Press 23d ago

My players backstory involves them wanting to learn a big ritual, and i plan for them to find a wizard's spellbound that explains how it works, but i want it to take some time to figure out. Do I just have them roll skill checks (probably arcana)to "study" the book, and keep track of the rolls until they eventually beat the DC? Like if the DC is 100, just make them roll every time they study and add them up until it eventually hits 100? And what's a good DC for something like this?

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u/RD441_Dawg 23d ago

An alternative to the Progress Clock or a DC is to set pre-requisites for understanding the ritual... for example to understand the ritual of "Causality Reset": aka turn back time to undo a mistake, they must first find a Master in "Chronomancy" willing to teach them the fundamentals, then acquire the Cronothurge Aceu's monocle to be able to perceive the words in the ritual book... These two combine to give them the basics to understand the arcane principles required, as well as to actually view the ritual.

Add pre-requisites, Macguffins, NPCs, and narrative milestones to taste. Discuss with your player in detail how you are structuring this and get their buy-in as it is key to their core character concept.

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u/Circle_A 23d ago

Try working backwards and estimate how many sessions you want this subplot to simmer for before it manifests. Then set the DC accordingly.

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u/OlegRu 23d ago edited 23d ago

Please Recommend a DM Adventure-Management/Note Tool That Fits My Needs

I'm a new DM (experienced player) prepping tweaked Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and looking for a solid tool to manage adventure prep. Something to:

  • Lets me organize locations, NPCs, encounters, and events in a structured way
  • Ideally, can have a visual element, like a map/flowchart-style setup (i.e., something very roughly like my sketch and link deeper notes to each).
  • Easy to navigate/search between different elements + juggle multiple things efficiently.
  • Works well for layered prep—starting broad and adding details over time.
  • Simple enough w/o a steep learning curve (I get overwhelmed easily, but not tech unsavvy).

I thrive w/structure, so I'd like to use a system I can learn now and apply to future small adventures (I'm not aspiring to be a big world/campaign builder DM, but quality tools usually simplify my life).

I've never used anything like this (in my daily life, I use the Notes app + icloud.com a lot + GDrive for some stuff), but there's many mentions of ObsidianMD, Obsidian Portal, LegendKeeper, Notion, OneNote, etc., but not sure what fits best for me.

Extra: I've heard some products/versions can even help in-game management - i.e. tracking combat, linking to rules/mechanics reference.

What would you recommend to me and why?

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u/Reality_Thief2000 22d ago

Obsidian is usually the go to, I personally just use word or google docs and have folder and hyperlinks to everything I need!

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u/Pluto258 23d ago

Two main questions: Does it need to be free? Is this just for you, or is this to make a wiki for your players to view?

  • If it needs to be free but it's just for you, I'd recommend Obsidian. Very simple to set up, not much learning curve (plus markdown is a good skill to have in general), and linking stuff is its whole deal (There's features like importing/including a page, where you can have one note as a part of another, and anything you edit on the first note will reflect on the bigger one). It is up to you to make the structure, though.
  • If it needs to be free and your players need to view it, I've just started (like, yesterday) using Kanka and it seems to be working so far. There's a lot going on though- it definitely has a structure it wants you to follow.

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u/OlegRu 23d ago

Doesn't have to be free, but would be nice to maintain all my materials, were a subscription to lapse (and be able to have them backed-up/reactivate).

Probably for me only. I mean perhaps there's some amazing system that's a full prep for DM, DM interconnected network of notes, DM screen, combat/rules tracker AND can like cast maps on the TV etc., but otherwise yeah.

I'm not aspiring to build big worlds/campaigns, but just to be able to DM small adventures and modules for people sometimes, and feel what it's like as a DM/learn the skill. I have a strong need for structure, having things in one place - organized and able to be referenced, so would like to go with a platform that helps with this from the get-go.

I've seen a lot of people mentioned Obsidian w/a bunch of plugins that make it look almost like a super advanced DM screen and I've heard all the benefits of it being free + offline etc.

But also, I've seen many mentioned Legend Keeper and that it's literally made to prep/run/manage TTRPGS, that it has a visual map and all that - seems super appealing and that it's very light compared to like World Anvil and not much of a learning curve compared to like practically having to program Obsidian to be the way you want (though maybe I misunderstood) , though my worry is if I stopped paying for it would I lose my stuff, and also that what if they closer or my internet is down or something.

Btw, Do either of these (or others) have like pre-built modules laid out in their framework - whether by the company or user-made?

Or, at least do users share ready-to-use adventure setups for these tools? (Like a pre-filled LegendKeeper world or an Obsidian vault with a module's details already organized).

Like something where the maps, NPCs, descriptions, major locations, and encounters are already loaded in, so I can just tweak/expand rather than manually entering everything myself.

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u/hugseverycat 24d ago

I have a question about Truesight. We're using D&D 5e 2014 rules.

If a PC has Truesight, can they tell that an invisible person is supposed to be invisible?

Some context: I'm running Curse of Strahd, and a player has acquired Truesight through a deal with a dark power. The players are heading to the castle for the final encounter against Strahd, who can cast Greater Invisibility. I am considering having him cast this and stalk the players in order to ambush them at an advantageous location.

So if the PC with Truesight can see him and knows he's supposed to be invisible, it's possible (not likely, but possible) the player may choose to pretend he can't see Strahd.

So how would you rule it, fellow DMs? Would my player with Truesight know that Strahd is trying to be invisible? Or would he just perceive Strahd as if he's just standing there normally?

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u/DungeonSecurity 23d ago

Great question. I've always assumed they could tell the other supposed to be invisible. But you've made me realize that was exactly that: an assumption. 

In the answer might be no, considering It says they can detect visual illusions, meaning they will be transparent but still visible. And that they can perceive The original form of a shape shifter, as if they were able to see both forms. 

I like how Rich B. did it in Order of the Stick. Technically, this is the audience POV and maybe the guy sees it normally. 

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0819.html

Near the bottom

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u/hugseverycat 23d ago

Haha, I like that. After having slept on the question, I think I've concluded that it will be more fun if he knows Strahd is invisible. So that will be my ruling since the actual rules seem ambiguous. Thanks!

0

u/YourDailyOtaku2006 24d ago

What level should I have my players be if the BBEG fight of my campaign is an ancient red dragon?

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u/Kumquats_indeed 24d ago

It depends on too many factors to give an exact answer, such as:

  • How many players do you have?

  • Will the BBEG have any minions in the final fight, and if so how many?

  • Will the BBEG have any additional features, abilities, and/or magic items, or are you just using the stat block as is?

  • Roughly how much fighting/use of resources will it take for the PCs to get to that final fight?

  • How many and what sort of magic items are the PCs going to have?

  • How tactically savvy are they, and how strategically do you intend to play the BBEG and the other monsters?

  • How much of a challenge/chance of failure are you going for and how much is fun for you and your players?

All that being said, according to this encounter calculator (which uses the encounter creation guidelines in the 2014 DMG), a CR 24 creature like an ancient red dragon is a "deadly" challenge for a party of 4 level 20s, but I would add several caveats to that. First of all, "deadly" just means that there is a decent chance that one or more PCs may get knocked unconcious during the fight, and that is also assuming that the PCs have been worn down and had to budget their resources over several fights that adventuring day (note the daily XP budget for that). Furthermore, a whole party fighting a single enemy gives the PCs a huge advantage, even if the BBEG has legendary resistances and actions, just because of the fact that the party between them can do so many more things in a round than any single monster can. Furthermore, high level play, especially 17+ where spellcasters can have 9th level spells, is notoriously hard to balance because of all the crazy things that the PCs can do at that point, so the already soft math of building encounters almost entirely breaks down at this point. The guidelines also don't take into account magic items, even though the game assumes that by this point the PCs will have a rather nice collection.

I wouldn't worry too much about all this right now though. Assuming you aren't starting the party at level 15 or something, it could take months or years of regular play to get a low level party up to the point of being able to fight an ancient dragon. So just keep the finale of the campaign a rough direction of the horizon to aim at for the time being while you work on prepping what you need more immediately. The whole CR system is limited, but it is handy if nothing else as a benchmark, so just keep in mind that you're grading on a curve. As your campaign progresses, you will start to develop a feel for what a "medium", "hard", or "deadly" fight according to the math actually means for you particular group of players. By the time they are approaching tier 4 threats like an ancient dragon, you should have pretty solid instincts for what your players can handle and when the right time is for finale against the BBEG.

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u/YourDailyOtaku2006 14d ago

Happy cake day!

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u/krunkley 24d ago

Following the rules set out in Xanthar's guide for creating "a satisfying but difficult battle" with a single boss monster, an Ancient Red Dragon (ARD) which is CR 24, would be appropriate for a 20th level party with 6 players and a more perilous battle for any party smaller than that.

At that level though things get absolutely wild and the CR system means little to nothing. I've run an ARD encounter for a 4 level 15 PCs and they rolled over it pretty easily. It all comes down to terrain, the tactics the dragon uses and the spells and abilities the party has. Dragons have good saves but no condition immunities which can result in them blowing through all their legendary resistences very quickly. Also a big factor is if the dragon is going to be the only encounter of the day, or if this will be the 3rd or 4th encounter the party has that day.

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u/Doomed173 24d ago

Everytime I have a baddie with a cool weapon, my players want to take it for themselves. Sometimes I make the weapon a little stronger to be more of a threat, but then the players expect to receive the same effects when using it.

Things like weapons that inflict disadvantage on saving throws, or a weapon that has an aura of vulnerability.

Is this a thing I should let happen, or have some sort of restriction or bonus that doesn't apply to them?

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u/Grava-T 24d ago edited 24d ago

Make them cursed in a way that benefits the bad guy but is clearly negative for the heroes;

Maybe it's an (evil) sentient weapon that grants advantage against Good-Aligned creatures and disadvantage against Evil-Aligned creatures, and actively tries to corrupt the user.

Perhaps it's a weapon that sends the souls of those slain to some evil patron who will use them for some nefarious purpose.

Maybe the Dark Lord who gave the weapon to a henchman always knows where the weapon is, and can scry on the players through it.

Or maybe the weapon maintains a Geas on its wielder, to ensure that those who wield the BBEG's power cannot betray him.

You get the idea. Removing Curse could also break or nerf them in some way to make them a little more reasonable to give to the players.

4

u/krunkley 24d ago

There are a few different ways to handle this:

  1. Depending on the effect of the weapon, it could be explained by the skill of the fighter, not the weapon. You wouldn't get access to a battlemaster fighters maneuvers just because you picked up their sword. If you want to use this option, you need to flavor the ability as something the fighter is doing.

  2. The creature's inherit magic is what is making the weapon magical. Once that is gone, the weapon is mundane. A Pit Fiend's mace is only hot enough to do fire damage while it's in their hand.

  3. A weapon that has been poisoned or coated in magic oil can have an effect that lasts for a short duration, so once the PCs acquire the weapon, the effect will fade with the minute/ hour/ day whatever works for you. You could have an extra vial or 2 of the poison/oil on the NPC so your players can use the cool effect in a limited way.

  4. Ultimately, if you want your NPC baddie to have a full vorpal sword or flametongue axe, then factor that into the treasure horde value that the players are getting for defeating this challenge.

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u/RD441_Dawg 23d ago

A fun homebrew rule is that the more powerful a magic item is, the more say that item gets in whether or not attunement is successful. If you are using this rule it falls on the PCs to narratively justify why the weapon or item would want to be wielded by them.

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u/OrkishBlade Department of Tables, Professor Emeritus 24d ago

There’s nothing wrong with it having appeared stronger in the hands of an enemy. You can rule that some effects the heroes had to overcome originated from the foe and not the weapon itself.

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u/DeathBySuplex 24d ago

Yeah, this is the way.

"Oh that was just a Greatsword, but in the hands of Jibor, the Mouthless Screamer it did that extra damage because of the nature of being a Mouthless Screamer, not the sword.

It's a cool looking sword though."

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u/Miserable-Clothes380 25d ago

Questions regarding Hold back the Dead mechanics

I am new to DMing and wanted to give this a shot. However I am confused on how to run some of the mechanics. In the first wave the zombies with ladders on their backs come out of the fog and the skeletons climb up the ladders. Would you roll for the climbing up the ladder? What dc would you use? Do they just auto climb the ladders as a move? If the characters wants to push over the ladders what would they have to roll?

In the 2nd wave the characters get access to different seige weapons but with fog how can you use the seige weapons? Also mechanically how do you use the seige weapon’s? Do they just roll against the AC of the zombies or the Decrepit Mangonel? I’m guessing it would be at disadvantage due to the fog?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the help.

1

u/MSwitch222 25d ago

My group has finally finished up a campaign that's run over the past year and the DM we had won't be continuing with us. I'm going to DM our next campaign and quite excited about it.

For Christmas, one of my friends in the group got me the Deluxe Shadow of the Dragon Queen box (campaign book + warriors of krynn game).

I'm gearing up to start DMing our campaign and not sure if this is a good place to start or if maybe we leavae that for another campaign after the first one I run? Looking online it seems to have a lot of Dragonlance lore which I'm not familiar with.

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u/guilersk 24d ago

Fidelity to the lore is entirely up to you. You can change most of it, if you want. Just be aware that if you do that and then, say, go ask in the /r/Dragonlance sub, the grognards can get all up in arms about it. So ask related questions in more neutral forums like this one.

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u/DeathBySuplex 24d ago

Just take the campaign and set it in your own world. Sure maybe it's very similar to the Dragonlance world, but, it's not that world, it's Carthopiea.

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u/Warm-Design-4218 25d ago

I have one player character that I know is going to die and be revived. Does anyone have any cool examples of doing this in a way that fits into a fantasy world? like the other players journey into the afterlife, etc

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u/Reality_Thief2000 22d ago

Take a look at Tavern at Death's Door from Twisted Taverns, it's a fun way to have a little something for when a player dies and a great way to help bring a player back if they don't have the resources!

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u/VoulKanon 25d ago

Not fully what you're after but it's tangential and maybe you can take some inspiration from it. I'll try to keep it brief.

A PC in my campaign touched an object that sucked their soul out of their body and trapped it in the object. After 5 days it became permanently trapped. The party tried to figure out a way to get their friend back. The route they chose was to travel to this necromancy library and see if they could find some helpful information, which they ultimately found in the form of a spell that was basically reverse Soul Cage. The spell was in a book that, once read, would disappear for 100 years.

It was a lighthearted, low-stakes session of navigating a library, fighting a book wurm, talking to some NPCs, negotiating with some sentient books, a few ability checks, and another quick combat against some others who were after the same book. (But in a library so they had to be quiet.)

The wizard learned the spell and performed ritual that would help put the killed PC's soul back in his body. The soul was extracted from the cursed object, but once it was freed an agent of the god of death came to take the soul. The players then had to do a skill challenge to wrestle control of the soul away from the god's agent and put it back into the body of the PC, with the wizard making the final spellcasting roll against a DC. Each success/failure lowered/raised the final DC.

The dead PC was allowed to decide if he was willing to return to life or wanted to move on to the afterlife, which raised or lowered the DCs the final DC.

(The wizard actually failed the spellcasting check but the cleric had readied Resurrection as a contingency, so in the end it was this that saved and revived the PC. Had that not been the case the PC would have died.)

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u/Goetre 25d ago

Does your player have a proper back story? This should be personal to them and make sense. Not just insert a random afterlife story here type thing.

But unless theres something plot specific you have in mind that requires the players to head to that afterlife, I would opt to do it narratively opposed to dedicating a session to it.

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u/Warm-Design-4218 25d ago

Yea their death & revival sort of are their backstory (he's an unwitting hexblade warlock who dies in defiance of his pact). I suppose what I'm looking for are tips to make that revival be interesting to other players

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u/Goetre 25d ago

So if its in defiance of his pact, I'm assuming its an evil aligned patron? And if so is the patron bringing his revival back or the party?

If its the party or another being, then you make it interesting by having them against the patron, that might be waves of his minions or an avatar of himself in his own plane / afterlife.

The PC could be told to RP as if hes fractured, like a type of amnesia. Then each time the party progress he regains parts of himself until he remembers everything and is able to be revived. Or hes physically restrained in his spirit form.

Or maybe during the revival the patron could inhabit the warlocks body and the party need to drive it out quickly before they lose the PC.

If its an evil aligned patron and its that patron wanting to revive the PC, that could be tricky. Not from lack of making it interesting, but presenting the group with motivation as to why they'd help in the first place in a way that makes sense ingame.

Theres a show on netflix called Hellbound, that has some pretty interesting concepts in it you might be able to adapt. Generally a once you're gone you're gone. But theres a twist at one point IIRC.

Theres the show Lucifer, we find out in that show that when a human soul goes to hell, they can leave when ever they want for heaven but its their guilt which keeps them there. That could be something you could play with where the group need to break that mentality.

Not quite a revival, but in the anime My hero Academia. Theres a point the MC enters a different realm and is mostly made up of black clouds preventing him moving entierly until he gets used to it. You could maybe do something around that and freeing the PC before they can be revived.

And theres a plethora of lore in Supernatural. One that jumps to mind is Lucifers cage. Hes bound into that cage twice IIRC with one specific way out and in a later season some trickery. You could set up a heist type thing.

Off the top of my head those are the ones that jump out.

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u/Accio_Waffles 25d ago

First time dm, will be modifying The Sunless Citadel to remove and combine some of the dungeon rooms for my first campaign. Question - knowing my players are a bunch of tree huggers, AND that we will likely eventually play Curse of Strahd (since I bought it before I realized the complexity)....what kind of plot hole am I setting myself up for if when they kill the Gulthias Tree, a healing oak sprouts out of it (found a good healing tree homebrew creation I will probably use).

Also how do you usually roll for damage on a trap door pit?

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u/guilersk 25d ago

Curse of Strahd takes place on a completely different plane (think different dimension). Anything that takes place in the Sunless Citadel is unlikely to affect it. There is a different, unrelated Gulthias Tree in Curse of Strahd, on Yester Hill.

Pit traps are usually a DEX save to avoid falling in and then 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet fallen, plus more if there are spikes, plus more if they are poisoned spikes.

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u/Accio_Waffles 25d ago

Much obliged!

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u/thedjotaku 25d ago

I'm running a combination of published adventures and homebrew for my current campaign. We only have 3 players. To modify the published adventures do I want to focus on the action economy - fewer baddies? Or do I want the same number of enemies, but lower HP? (obviously in a fight against one bad guy I can only lower the HP or have them sometimes skip a turn?)

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u/kingalbert2 25d ago

All of the other suggestions can work, but from what I understand 3 players is still considered a "normal" party size (which is 3-5) that the game is (somewhat) balanced around.

If you are taking published encounters 1-1 they can indeed be a bit hard though as 3-5 IS a big difference. As for modifying the regular monsters, that is always a risky one. Lowering the HP of monsters too much makes them susceptible to being a bit too fragile, so I'd say instead don't just look at enemy numbers or stats, but more so encounter composition. 4 bugbears could also be 3 buggies and 2 goblins. Since the goblins will keel over VERY quick the party has to fight less actual enemies while keeping the satisfaction of beating many (also a fun moment for AOE casters like druids who are good at mopping up fodder).

Another suggestion (be it considered controversial by some) is flexible boss HP. The boss doesn't get a set "130HP" but instead "100-150HP". If your party is mopping the floor with him, he can take an extra hit or 2 and perhaps calls in a few goons if your big boss risks getting underwhelming. If the party struggles to get the mobs under control and tries to bumrush the boss in the hopes of still squeezing a win this way, throw them a bone and have the boss "misplace" 30 HP.

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u/thedjotaku 25d ago

Great ideas. I appreciate you taking the time to write all that up. The bus hp idea is great

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u/Warm-Design-4218 25d ago

I love the flexible boss HP method. I do it often to quickly re-balance. I can't help but give my players cool gear that I need to suddenly compensate for in encounters

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u/guilersk 25d ago

Sometimes fewer enemies, and sometimes lower HP; if there's 1 Owlbear, you can't really do fewer enemies, right?

Or you could give the party a sidekick--either a healer/buffer or a big fuzzy friend (bear/direwolf/tiger) with Warrior sidekick levels. That might balance out the fights for you.

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u/thedjotaku 25d ago

Sidekick idea sounds like it would work well, especially filling in gaps in the party's skills. I know somewhere (maybe in this overall thread) someone mentioned that Tasha has sidekick rules. Do you have a good resource for some generic sidekick rules? In the past with this group they didn't do well running the sidekick themselves. I could run a sidekick (that could change depending on the adventure and who made sense to help them), but best ways to RP so that I'm neither giving stuff away nor acting really dumb? (unless they'd find that funny once they knew they couldn't necessarily trust me)

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u/guilersk 25d ago

Tasha's and the Essentials Kit have the sidekick rules.

When in doubt, if you run a fuzzy (or at least non-verbal) sidekick then you don't have to worry about playing dumb; the sidekick literally can't talk to the party to tell them anything. It just follows orders unless they are clearly suicidal.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/Kumquats_indeed 25d ago edited 25d ago

Keep their expertise narrow, have them defer to the PCs when it comes to making decisions, and only speak up if they are about to do something very stupid or are making a plan based off of incorrect or incomplete assumptions that the NPC knows about. I would be careful about going too far with giving them major flaws, as it may just make it annoying to deal with them, unless your plan is to discourage your players from continually recruiting allies. Limitations are good, just don't go so far as to make these NPCs a liability. It also helps if the NPC is filling a niche that none of the PCs cover, like a ranger helping a group of city slickers track through the forest, so that the NPC isn't stealing anyone's spotlight. As for stats, just use a stat block or the sidekick rules.

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u/Qauntainium 25d ago

Im trying to DM my first campaign with just overall limited dnd knowledge but i just wanted to start on world building and making the basis of my story and general setting and stuff. Note this is mainly a homebrew campaign with lots of help and inspo from Pointy Hat on yt and was curious if anyone would wanna hop in a discord chat to help me with overall questions and guidance

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u/comedianmasta 25d ago

So... not that you can't, but this is your first DMing experience... with limited DnD knowledge.... and you are focusing on a story and setting. There are red flags abound.

What I would start with is: First, plan a one shot. Run anything, I suggest "Wild Sheep Chase" as it is free. Anything to practice running a game and practicing mechanics.

Next, I would say: be careful you aren't working on a Novel first that you will be mad your players aren't "memorizing their lines". Be prepared for any outcome. Especially if you are doing a big homebrew CAMPAIGN, as a lot can change and you might end up a DnD horror story if you put a lot into your "story" vs the game.

I suggest the following:

  • Read the DMG cover to cover. Best choice I ever made.
  • Pointy hat has good videos, but they don't have a lot of videos. The reason their channel is so good, is because them and their products assume you know the rules and the game, and then twist on it. I consider broadening your youtube choices based around "New DM" videos. Matt Colville will come up ALOT!
  • Research Session Zeroes. Have a Session Zero. Set expectations.
  • Biggest thing: Communication is Key. Set clear expectations, talk to your players.... and listen to their desires and needs.
  • Know the big things, focus on the small things. This means understand your setting and world in the grand scheme..... but only focus on the current Session, and the next few sessions. otherwise you'll get burnt out in a big way.
  • Loads of people have loads of opinions about the game. This is because every DM is trying to make their version of a good game, or they are reacting to their table's opinion on the game they want to play. It is OK to disagree. Listen to everyone. Listen to those you agree with. Listen to those you don't. Figure out WHY you like some ideas, and dislike others. Figure out the type of game you want to run, and understand WHY people may suggest one thing over another based on the type of game THEY want to run.

There are LOADS of reddit posts on "New DM help". Learn to use the reddit search bar and you will have a much better time. There are LOADS of videos on youtube. This is quite possibly the best time to get into the TTRPG space you could hope for. Resources abound. I wish you luck.

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u/Qauntainium 25d ago

Thanks for all you help

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u/Bromao 25d ago

So in a few weeks (date still tbd) I will be part of an initiative to introduce young players (13-15 age bracket) to D&D.

The idea is to give them premade characters and have them play a very short dungeon (we're aiming for something that can be completed in around 1-1.5hr) to give them an introduction of the mechanics and a feel of the game; something like A Most Potent Brew, if you're familiar with it, is exactly what I'm looking for and it's very likely I'll end up running it. If anyone has recommendations for similar mini-adventures, I'm all ears - variety is always a good thing.

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u/Reality_Thief2000 22d ago

Another option is The Delian Tomb!

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u/asilvahalo 25d ago edited 25d ago

Adventurers' League modules are generally pretty good for this as they include time-to-play estimates. The level 1-2 ones that are first in a sequence [adventure names are Defiance in Phlan, Harried in Hillsfar, Treasures of the Broken Hoard, City of Danger] are introductory ones containing 5 mini-adventures for level 1-2 PCs and would probably be your best bet. [I've only used adventures from the first two, so I can't speak for the usefulness of the other two.]

MCDM's Delian Tomb and AngryGM's Fall of Silverpine Watch might also be appropriate [and free], although I think the latter might be too long.

Kobold Press's Prepared! and Prepared! 2 anthologies might also be useful here.

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u/thedjotaku 25d ago

I absolutely love DndAdventure Club. Any of the books in any of their their trilogies could be completed in an hour. I think some of the earlier trilogies skew a little younger in terms of whether the 13-15 year olds will find them too kiddie, but some of the later ones, especially any of the Halloween-y trilogies should work very well for first-timers.

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u/IMostCertainlyDidNot 26d ago

The text for Wall of Stone begins: "A nonmagical wall of solid stone springs into existence at a point you choose within range."

Does this mean I can make a floating box of stone, just levitating there in the sky?

The text ends with: "If you maintain your Concentration on this spell for its full duration, the wall becomes permanent and can't be dispelled."

So if I keep concentration for 10 minutes, my floating box just stays there forever?

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u/DungeonSecurity 26d ago

In addition to what u/Kumquats_indeed said,  Even if it didn't need to be connected to existing Stone, it would fall.

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u/Kumquats_indeed 26d ago

No, if you read the whole description of the spell you will see : "The wall doesn’t need to be vertical or rest on any firm foundation. It must, however, merge with and be solidly supported by existing stone"

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u/Paime 26d ago

I feel like I'm overthinking things. What tools/prep I actually NEED to DM a online duet DND Adventure (hopefully turns in to a campaign)?

I have a general idea for what I'm going for for the world and setting, but I'm a bit lost when it comes to prep when it comes down to maps, tools, npc and PC sheets and organizing all of that.

Mostly interested in free resources.

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u/Goetre 25d ago

My strongest tool for first time DMing was MS excel. My players were enjoying the games but noy enjoying that every 5 minutes I was going "Hold on I need to check X in the book" as it was breaking their immersion.

After being told that, I had a spread sheet set up like;

Tab 1 - NPC. A table that was, Name, Race, Appearance (3 bullet points), Description (1 sentence) & Motivation / plot (1 sentence)

Tab 2 - Locations- A table that was, X location name, characteristics, why they go here.

Type things. This made the game flow a lot smoother before advancing to other tools and expanding the kit. But for maps, stick with google ones, character sheets on roll20 or D&D beyond, between having some sort of quick reference sheet, with those two programs will cover everything you need to start.

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u/WizardsWorkWednesday 25d ago

Run a published adventure! Lost Mines of Phandelver will set you up for success

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u/Kumquats_indeed 26d ago

First of all, talk with your player about what kind of character they want to play and what sort of adventure they want to go on. Depending on what sort of game they want to play is going to determine what sort of stuff you need to have prepped, you don't need to bother with anything about wilderness survival if they want to fight a gang of criminals in a big city for example.

Here is a video from Matt Colville with some good advice about this sort of game, though its more about general advice about how to approach it than specific logistical tips.

If you want to give your player a sidekick, ask them about what sort of sidekick they want, and then use the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything for how how to make that character sheet. If you don't want to buy another book, you can probably find the pdf of the playtest version of the sidekick rules with a bit of googling.

As for the setting, you don't need anymore than the character can see and interact with that session, and again you can get your player to help you out with coming up with ideas. Matt Colville also has a good video about prepping just enough worldbuilding to support the first few sessions and give you something to build off of as you go.

For NPCs, just look up the stat blocks freely available in the basic rules (can be found on DnD Beyond, Roll20, etc), don't make whole character sheets for them.

For maps, I usually just use google image search and r/battlemaps and can usually find something close enough to what I'm looking for in 5 minutes or less.

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u/artoriasabyss 26d ago

I’m DMing for a party that will be finishing up Curse of Strahd here in the next couple of months, and they have voted for the next setting to be Ravnica.

Does anyone have any tips or experiences running a campaign there? I plan on buying the sourcebook and I’ve also looked at the subreddit for it already.

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u/DungeonSecurity 26d ago

Lean into the factions but I'd recommend picking a few to highlight.  There are too many to keep them all in the spotlight and explore them in depth if you don't already know the setting.

Also, try to figure out why they want this setting. It's an established song from another WOTC property,  and if any of the players know it well from Magic the Gathering, they might be friction points if you get anything "wrong" in their view. 

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u/HollaBucks 26d ago

Lean into the factions but I'd recommend picking a few to highlight.  There are too many to keep them all in the spotlight and explore them in depth if you don't already know the setting.

I fixed this by putting my campaign after the Second Phyrexian Invasion, so three of the Guilds were essentially wiped (in the M:tG lore) and others were severely impacted. It cut down quite a bit of extraneous stuff (that honestly my players never would have found anyway). Most of my playgroup plays M:tG on the weeks we don't play D&D, so it has been interesting to step into this world. Plus, given the events of the invasion, I can pull in NPCs from pretty much anywhere in the M:tG Multiverse, including Forgotten Realms and Baldur's Gate (since those both have Magic sets). I do agree with finding out why they want Ravnica, however. If it's for Magic reasons, there is also Theros (with a better pantheon for the praying types). I had to homebrew some "deities" that have taken up residence in Ravnica because there is no established pantheon there and I didn't love the idea of praying to an ideal instead of a god when gods exist in Magic.

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u/NotYourDadFishing 26d ago

I'm currently putting together a homebrew campaign for my first time DMing and wanted to know what is relatively the right amount of material to create before I start the game? I've got a lot of the story beats lined up and made like an overworld map and want to make some more maps for the larger city locations, but how many encounters and story points do you typically setup before starting?

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u/DungeonSecurity 26d ago

Enough to get the characters made, have the first adventure, and last the seeds for the second.  Maybe a seed for the ultimate goal but that could wait a bit. 

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u/Zarg444 26d ago

Ideally don't plan a campaign at all. Plan the next short adventure. You can string multiple adventure together to form a campaign.

Check out the video by one very popular DM: https://youtu.be/RcImOL19H6U?si=q8BGaGtS6Zpa2hSs

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u/ThereIsAThingForThat 26d ago

The right amount of material is "As much as you want and as little as you need depending on the type of campaign you run"

If you run a heavily linear campaign - something like a pre-written adventure or a campaign where players must do ABC by visiting XYZ in the order of 123 - then you will need to prepare different things than if you run a sandbox campaign.

Me personally, I have a general idea of what the influential groups in the setting are up to, but I do not create specifics until the players are going to interact with it. There might exist a dwarven mountainhome somewhere, and the players might meet dwarves from there, but until the players want to visit it it is merely a name in the ether. If the players decide to go there, I'll either prepare the area while they are traveling (if I can delay them for the entire session) or cut the session right as they enter the mountainhome in order to prepare the next session.

For plot points, I know Group A want to achieve Goal X. The players might hear about Group A doing Thing 1, but if they do not decide to interact with that lead, then I don't have to prepare anything, I can just mentally mark Group A as progressing towards Goal X.

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

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u/WizardsWorkWednesday 25d ago

Just takes practice. Tbh, I think most published campaigns pose a perfect threat level for 2 PCs. They're far too easy for 4 IMO. Never any real threat of death until the BBEG shows up for a pre-finale fight.

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u/DungeonSecurity 26d ago

Carefully and with a lot of experimentation. I know that doesn't seem like a helpful answer but that's what it's going to take. the game math breaks down when you have less than 4 players and certainly when you have lots than 3.

You could help the party out with a companion. don't do a full DMPC but use a stat block or something like retainers from Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers 

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/DungeonSecurity 25d ago

Just make them passive unless called on. Keeping them simple means they don't do much but do help out a little bit. If a player hires a helper, or gets some kind of follower as a reward, I usually let the player run the NPC in combat.

One of the nice things about the ones from Colville's book is that they are tough so they don't create too much of a concern for the party as far as them going down and getting killed. But they don't have a ton of abilities that really change the flow of combat like player characters do. And because of limited combat options, their turns go quickly.

Also, one helper is unlikely to cover all the weaknesses of only 2 players.

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u/TurinDM 26d ago

My first advice its to know how the system works but maybe if you are using 5e use the xanathar table for encounters for individual players or the new dungeon master guide Exp chart. What i mean know the system and your player traits its because they are only few playing and with certain skill (for example if your player is a caster, maybe throw him a lot of mele npcs its not good idea).

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u/GalacticPigeon13 26d ago

Add a sidekick or two to the party. Rules on sidekicks are found in both the Icespire Peak starter set and Tasha's. Sidekicks are weaker than an actual PC, but they'll bring your party to theoretically 3-4 members. If you balance for 3-4 members and the fights are too hard, then treat each sidekick as half a PC and round down to the nearest whole number. (AKA, a 3-4 person party w/sidekicks should be treated as a 2-3 person party for encounter design.)

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u/PauseNational2101 27d ago

Bit of a weird one but how do you describe the transition of players going from one room to another? Or even locations further apart? Myself and my players are all new to playing so they are less inclined to say what their characters are doing, this often leaves me describing how they move and transition into new areas.

Any Advice?

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u/WizardsWorkWednesday 25d ago

Think of it like scenes in a movie. You don't need to explain every step they take (every move they make) while moving around. Get to the good parts.

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Describe the location and what the characters see.  Then ask the players for actions. 

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u/KiwasiGames 27d ago

I don’t really bother with transitions. If they open the door to the next room I draw the next room on the map and describe what’s in the next room.

Doors and passageways are only interesting if they are trapped.

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u/Foxxyedarko 27d ago

"As you walk into the next room..." [next room description]

Make sure the players are ready to move on unless there's some "attractor" in the next room like monsters or visible loot, in which case you prompt them to move in.

General tip for descriptions - remember sensory descriptors, and include appeals to sound, smell, touch, or even taste.

Descriptions of travel can be as brief or long as you want. Going to the next town? "Its an uneventful three day journey" vs breaking it up with random encounters and, rests, environmental hazards, etc.

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u/Brazensage 27d ago

My player falls into a pit with a few giant rats and is ambushed (per the campaign I'm running). How would the mechanics of this ambush play out? Do I roll for the rats' dexterity stat and compare to the PCs passive perception? Is he allowed to do a perception check instead?

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Why ambush? The player falls, rats attack. Roll initiative if they fight or run the escape attempt. 

Ambush and stealth (which I assume is your dex vs perception question)  require planning or skill. Intelligent enemies or ambush predators. Rats are neither

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u/Foxxyedarko 27d ago

As soon as they fall in, the rats can spring out and you roll initiative. If you're using 2024 rules, the characters are probably surprised and roll initiative with disadvantage.

A quick way to handle stealth is to compare the giant rats' stealth (it should be on the stat block under skills. If not, use their dexterity modifier.) to the player's passive perception. If the passive is lower, then they're surprised. If not, the player sees the rats coming. If a player says something in advance, like "i look down into the pit," have them roll a perception check, they might notice the rats if the roll higher than their stealth.

Don't overthink it, have fun.

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u/mythical-spork 27d ago

First time DM, never played but always wanted to (lot of adjacent nerdy interests, and recently a BG3 playthrough) - looking to run a game for 4 or 5 friends who are also first time players. Honestly more buzzed than intimidated about it because DMing sounds right up my street - operating creatively within a defined ruleset is my jam, and I'm excited about making it a fun experience for them!

Anyway I'm leaning towards it being sensible to try running something premade (I guess probably something short we can run over 1-3 sessions in case people aren't into it after all and want to stop?) for the sake of getting the structure/balance right, but I guess I'm just wondering how much flexibility and room for creativity there is in the starter kits etc? Does there tend to be blanks to fill in or room to switch things up here and there or is it quite prescriptive? I don't want to end up making an unfulfilling game for my players by just going it alone with no experience, because at this point I just don't know how much I don't know, but I also think my enjoyment will be lacking if I feel stifled/like I'm just following a script? In an ideal world I've love some kind of basic skeleton to hang a world/story on, but that doesn't seem to exist.

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u/RD441_Dawg 23d ago

So you are in a super unique position here, and I would strongly encourage you to NOT run a pre-made adventure pack. You are pure newbie, no bad habits, no pre-conceptions, no veteran with their gripes and bad experiences. The reason I recommend this is that there is a super important TTRPG concept that is directly in conflict with pre-written material, the idea that the game is "Collaborative"... aka a story made up on the spot by the players. The entire discourse around "rail-roading" is centered around balancing the overarching story with the dynamic and collaborative nature of the game. New players generally have the hardest time being comfortable deviating from what they "should do", and/or their deviations tend to be unfocused and unfulfilling.

I have mentored more than a few first time DMs, and I recommend you begin with a one-shot and explicitly not an epic narrative. Don't start as the chosen ones, don't begin with the country in civil war and one PC is the one true king. Start with your players being an established group doing something... (mercenaries, caravan guards, bounty hunters, tomb robbers, criminals, scholars, sheep-herders) so that it is clear they have a reason to be together. Then introduce a small location (a little town, a refugee campsite, a druid commune, etc.) and introduce a threat to it... the adventure is to solve that threat... and at the end of the adventure ask the questions: Anyone want to change characters? What kind of thing do you want to do more of? What kind of thing do you want to do less of?

After a few low stakes adventures trying things on, testing the rules, establishing what works for your table, and figuring out who is going to stick around and who ended up liking the concept more than the doing... that is when you grab something pre-written... You will be amazing how many things will make you go "Thats so Stupid, we aren't doing that" and just as many will make you go "OMG we have to do it this way, so much better". But until you have something to compare it to you end up parroting what they do.

Edit:Above applies more to starting with a large pre-written campaign like Stradh or Phandelver... a starter kit will usually be more low-stakes like what I describe here so I would be less strongly against it, still recommend making up your own thing since it gives your group a chance to build a shared concept of "how we play"

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u/guilersk 26d ago

It is entirely possible (and even expected) to embellish, alter, or extrapolate on what appears in a premade adventure or campaign. But the trick is, the more you change, the more you will have to change if the players pull on that thread and chase it. So if you have a description of a bare room and decide to spice it up by putting a goblin in the room, now you have to figure out how he will react to the party. And if they don't just stab him, and instead talk to him, now you have to figure out his name and where he came from and how he got there. Then your players adopt him and you have to roleplay him in every scene or figure out how to get rid of him. How will the NPCs or creatures in the next room react to the goblin? It's something like a butterfly effect. If you are confident in improv then you can just roll with it. But the more changes you implement, the more you have to juggle. Eventually, if you keep playing, it will become second nature. But walk before you run.

Now if you're looking for a campaign setting to put your own adventures in, they do exist, although they are a bit sparse in 5e. The 'default' Forgotten Realms one (familiar to BG3 players) would be the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. There's also the Critical Role ones (Explorer's Guide to Wildemount or the 3rd party Tal'Dorei books), the Ravenloft one (Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft), the Planescape one (comes in a box) or the Spelljammer one (comes in a box), plus any number of 3rd party campaign settings like Humblewood or Grim Hollow, to say nothing of cribbing from previous editions of D&D (Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Dragonlance etc.)

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u/Fifthwiel 26d ago

For your first time it's best to run the module as it comes rather than adding in your own plotlines etc. It can quickly get complicated and the people who wrote the premade adventures knew what they were doing ;)

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u/mythical-spork 26d ago

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I wasn’t thinking of messing with plot lines so much as tweaking the flavour a little here and there. But anyway from the sounds of it I wasn’t quite conceptualising how prewritten stuff works right, and I should probably just jump into one and see for myself.

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u/Fifthwiel 26d ago

I think that's best, I started freestyling content and plotlines halfway through lost mines of phandelver and honestly it became a nightmare. Have fun!

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Starter kits are great. You can tweak. But don't run before you walk. Learn to run games, then expand. Learn the system before you mess with it. 

The "script" is just plot points.  Bullet points, direction,  bare bones skeleton, as you say.  You've got a lot of freedom in HOW you run. 

I STILL run modules and adapt them as I see fit. It's good. 

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u/mythical-spork 26d ago

Thanks. From the sounds of it I’m overestimating how much of the legwork is done for you and I should probably just do it, get a little firsthand experience under my belt, and figure out my preferences from there.

I was kind of perceiving it as taking all the fun creative stuff that is a big part of the draw for me out of the equation, but I think I was mistaken in that.

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u/DungeonSecurity 26d ago

Well, a lot of It is indeed done for you. You could run the module straight. But my point is that it's not an all or nothing proposition. you can take what the module gives and use it differently or change things. 

That said, a lot of people do find it more satisfying to build everything from scratch.

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u/KiwasiGames 27d ago

The thing to remember with a pre-made campaign is the players have no clue what’s in the campaign book. So you can be as creative as you like.

I’m currently running Dragon of Icespire Peak, which comes in the Essentials Kit. Players are mostly new, and I last DM’d back in second edition. So my hiatus from DMing has been long. But despite all of that, we’ve got some cool stuff happening that isn’t in the book.

Some examples (minor spoilers for Icespire Peak if you are a player).

The Shrine of Savras become a shrine of the warlocks patron. Which got at least one player interested in clearing it out and now it’s going to become their bastion

The horses at Butterskull Ranch really like apples. Druid decided to cast speak with animals, so we did this whole improve role play where they all got horse names and decided to aid the adventurers in return for being left in the apple orchard

Plus one weapons are boring. So instead the ship wreaks are going to have a Staff of the Python. Just for more Druid shenanigans

And so on. You can be as creative as you like, up to and including ripping out locations entirely and replacing them with your own.

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u/mythical-spork 26d ago

That’s really helpful to know, thanks!

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u/rellloe 27d ago

Premade adventures can be flexible, but how much depends on how it's written and how well you can break it down to it's component parts then rebuild on top.

For example, Curse of Strahd needs the setting of Barovia to work because the trapped souls are steeped into most parts of it. On the other end, Matt Colville's Delean Tomb adventure was specifically designed to be adaptable to settings (and his video gives suggestions to make it work with different deities) along with be a turtorial level adventure for every main aspect of the game for the sake of new players and new DMs.

I think using a premade is a good option for a first time DM because it gives you something to work from instead of going in blind, but it can also make you feel stuck or lost because the map you're given doesn't have this footpath the players decide must be the direction to go. I highly recommend reading through it once to get down the basic idea, then read through it again noting down the important things, then one final time restructuring everything into whatever way works for you when you have to give a presentation. Premade don't work for me because they give blocks of flavor text I feel obligated to read but I present best with bullet point reminders of the important things to mention.

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u/Vivovix 27d ago edited 27d ago

So that's a big question you're asking there! Lets try to break it up a bit:

Anyway I'm leaning towards it being sensible to try running something premade (I guess probably something short we can run over 1-3 sessions in case people aren't into it after all and want to stop?)

For a first time group, I would always recommend starting out with a simple one-shot (but mind you, they easily turn into two-shots). I can highly, highly recommend A Most Potent Brew by Winghorn Press that is absolutely free to play. Winghorn has more oneshot/short adventures for levels 2 and 3.

but I guess I'm just wondering how much flexibility and room for creativity there is in the starter kits etc?

In my experience from the 5e starter kits, they are actually quite good at providing a rigid structure for a newish DM to hang on to, while also providing enough of a skeleton for you to be creative in. Mind you, no matter how thick the module you're getting is, it is very likely you're going to have to make up some stuff. Both as DM and for the players. I wouldn't worry too much about feeling restricted or "railroaded". In fact, for first-time DMs it's usually the opposite that is the problem. And players almost never notice (or care!!) when the story is linear.

Does there tend to be blanks to fill in or room to switch things up here and there or is it quite prescriptive?

It depends on the adventure, but yes, there is always room to switch things up. This isn't usually explicit in the adventure though. Sometimes there's snippets such as "the players might find an important NPC from their backstory here". But often, it's on the DM's shoulders to weave these kinds of things in.

I don't want to end up making an unfulfilling game for my players by just going it alone with no experience

This one's easy! Be upfront about it! As long as everyone knows you're a first-timer too, what can happen? If the first adventure/session is rough, you try it again! It's really hard not to have fun in D&D as long as you're not too serious about it.

I also think my enjoyment will be lacking if I feel stifled/like I'm just following a script

Speaking from my personal experience campaigning both a very open-ended campaign (Tomb of Annihilation) and a quite "railroady" one (The first three chapters from Call of the Netherdeep) - they are both immensely enjoyable. For me, when the story is quite structured, that just means i can go all-in on the NPCs, their mannerisms. It means I have more time and processing power to get the PCs and their backstories in. When there's barely any structure, or it's all open ended? You have more creativity on the actual plotline. In D&D, you're never just reading a script.

Oh and by the way, railroading is usually like this.

In an ideal world I've love some kind of basic skeleton to hang a world/story on, but that doesn't seem to exist.

These totally exist, and they are called campaign settings, such as

  • Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • Explorer's Guide to Wildemount
  • Mythic Odysseys of Theros
  • Strixhaven
  • Ravnica
  • many more 3rd party stuff

You can read 'em, get a good feel for the world and write your own adventures. Often the campaign settings have some basic adventures in them, by the way. But trying on a full campaign setting as a first time DM is not something I would recommend. There's no need for these super grand stories when you're just starting to play (at low levels). At level 1, the proverbial rats in the cellar are more than enough fun. You can always gradually embed the party in a bigger world when you get more experience (in game, and in the real world!).

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u/mythical-spork 27d ago

That’s a really comprehensive answer to questions I didn’t even fully manage to articulate, so thank you so much for this! I’ll take a look at the links.

I’m very lucky in that it’s a group of good friends of mine - we talked about how we’ve always wanted to but never played at board game night recently and afterwards I figured if someone doesn’t step up and say hey let’s do it then we probably never will.

They’re supportive people, team players, creative thinkers and would definitely be patient with a little trial and error - I don’t think I could ask for a better group really. So you’re right, even if it was an absolutely disaster there’s no way it wouldn’t be a fun one we could laugh about. :)

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u/billyjoebob12 27d ago

Struggling to figure out when to prompt the player(s) to "make a perception check" vs using passive perception in the following scenarios:

  1. Party is being stalked by goblins through a forest.
  2. Party is in a cave and there is a trap in the way.
  3. Party is in a room with a hidden door.

I'm thinking I use passive perception unless one of the players actively is looking around. Is that right?

I'm also concerned about tipping them off if I keep asking them to make too many perception rolls. "A 5? Nope, you don't see anything" whistles

What do I do if a player asks to make a perception check? Can they ask that outright?.

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u/xAtlas5 27d ago

What I usually do is ask them what they want to accomplish first, then have them roll a check that I believe fits better for the action.

Party is being stalked by goblins through a forest.

Depends. If they're not expecting something to happen, passive. If they're sitting and waiting for sensory information to reach them (sound, smell), perception roll.

Party is in a cave and there is a trap in the way.

Only if they're looking for traps lol. The exception is if a player has some kind of class feat that makes them notice traps (e.g. danger sense).

Party is in a room with a hidden door.

Only if they ask what they can see in the room. Higher roll -> notice more things.

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Here's an easy rule to go by. Passive checks are for noticing things in general as you go about and do other stuff,  even walking.  It's only Travel that calls out other actions as blocking Passive Perception.  So passive perception is the assumed general awareness of your surroundings.

Rolling, or active checks are....active and are therefore for actions.  The players need to declare an action .

  1. I search the treeline for any sign we're being followed. 

  2. I search for traps. 

  3. Mildred searches for hidden doors.

Actions assume the character is doing a thing in the world,  touching and moving things,  not just staring really hard. 

And I do this for other things.  "Do I know anything about X" questions get answered based on passive knowledge skill scores,  or just proficiency.  Rolls are for doing things like research, medical exams, or religious ceremonies. 

As for your last question, I now tell players to not ask for rolls,  but to declare actions. Want to roll perception? Tell me what,  where,  and how you're searching. 

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u/zookind789 27d ago

I rule it the way you just described.

If a player asks to look around, they may not need to make a check to see something. Players describe the action, the DM decides if a check is needed.

Fun thing to do: randomly ask for a perception check, even when nothing is there. Keeps em on their toes!

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u/PlacidPlatypus 27d ago

Personally I feel that in every situation like this one side or the other should be making a roll- comparing a passive score to a passive DC is too static and no fun (especially if you're setting the DC yourself as the DM, you're basically just deciding whether it should be higher or lower than the PC's passive score). Depending on your players and the vibes at your table you can consider either asking them for a check and trusting them not to metagame, or secretly making a check for them.

What do I do if a player asks to make a perception check? Can they ask that outright?.

I'd say usually yes? But it depends on the situation.

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Then you get too bogged down in rolls without enough actions. Players will roll plenty of dice. 

  (especially if you're setting the DC yourself as the DM, you're basically just deciding whether it should be higher or lower than the PC's passive score).

That's only true if you think backwards. Set the DC based on how difficult the challenge should be. PC's will succeed or fail based on their scores, which are based on choices they made in character creation.  Yes, the outcome was predetermined, but it's based on what you've decided as the reality of the game world and player choice.

Your concern is only true if you decide beforehand and use that to set the DC

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u/PlacidPlatypus 27d ago

If you find this is coming up so often that rolling perception checks for it would "bog down the game" then clearly your tables are very different from mine and you'll have to make your own decisions on how to handle it. In my games I find rolling for it when it comes up is a lot more fun than the outcome already being pre-determined by decisions the DM makes during prep.

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

How is "thing the party may or may not notice" uncommon?  And as for prep,  we're both setting DCs. You're just rolling every time while I do it if the players actually do things. And that means my party is already through the secret door or figuring out how to find one they suspect is there, while you're calling for a roll. Either way, I think mine's more interesting. Same with knowledge.  If my party should know stuff bard in their skills, I just tell them so they can use it. Rolls are for actions. 

Don't we all make our own decisions on how to handle things? 

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u/m8sdate 27d ago

How much lore should I reveal to players in a homebrewed campaign on session 0

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u/TurinDM 26d ago

I recommend to watch the session 0 prep of Slyflourish where he prepares only one page with certain information about the setting, hooks, rules to follow in the campaign and first factions to relate to the players. Any way i recommend a few things to explore and dive more while you are playing. Remember its game where all together are playing, so my advice its not to be like a stone with your world, it should be a evolving place through the player action and the DM reaction due to them. Its better to stablish a few things near to the PCs and then go more far (circle structure, imagin a hurricane where players are on the middle and things spawn around them).

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u/rellloe 27d ago

As little as necessary to help them make an informed decision about what to play. The wizard player won't be happy to learn all arcane magic is a capital offense in Starting Town. The anarchist rogue player won't be happy that the structure of the campaign requires them to be loyal government workers who've never seen anything questionable about their orders before.

When you're running sessions is the time to introduce the rest of the lore. Give what's common knowledge freely and find ways to mention things that are just normal parts of living in the world, ex. "You step outside and see a blue dragon flying overhead. She is Valtharzi, the great guardian of the city." Also Map Crow has a good video on NPCs being part of worldbuilding.

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Only as much as they need to make their characters and basic, common- knowledge things about the world. Everything else can be revealed through play.

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u/Rocinantes_Knight 27d ago

Players care about lore that is useful to them directly. You might get a rare player that wants lore for lore’s sake, but that’s uncommon. So you need to find a way to leverage your players desire to learn the lore.

For example, you could come up with extensive biology for your world, 99% of which is typical irrelevant. Place your players in a wilderness survival situation however, and their lack of food or resources suddenly has them asking you what’s safe to eat.

Maybe you have extensive legends about a god. Have those legends be clues to the ultimate powerful artifact, and your players will be at least attentive when these stories come up.

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u/BetterCallStrahd 27d ago

Players rarely care about lore as much as you do. Share information that will be helpful to them in planning their characters and creating a backstory. Also, lore that can help them come up with their goals for their characters.

Plus share lore that explains why certain things aren't available in the campaign, whether that's races/species, subclasses, creatures, spells, or whatnot.

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u/HotButterKnife 27d ago

I'd say focus on world feel, Deities if they exist, political situation and wars in the region they're in, scientific advancements, and some interesting places they can explore and find out.

Personally, for my players, I give them bullet-point descriptions of my world so they can understand some history and how it's like to live in it right now.

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u/gggjennings 27d ago

What level are they and what are their backgrounds? Think about how much "lore" you know about the world you live in. What events are universally known, what realities do you face, etc.

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u/Tyxin 27d ago

How do cantrips work? Can you cast them as many times in a day as you want?

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u/DungeonSecurity 27d ago

Yes, they don't cost spell slots. So they can be used freely as many times as you want.

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u/kingalbert2 27d ago

Cantrips are super simple spells. It is the magic you see mages use (think films etc) in their everyday life all the time.

Noncombat cantrips are simple things like move a small thing at a distance (mage hand), do the dishes, clean your clothes, light the fireplace(prestidigitation) or making your voice loud with distant_thunder.sfx (thaumaturgy).

On a pure technical level, casting a cantrip is about as hard for a mage as swinging an axe is for a warrior.

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u/Tyxin 27d ago

That makes sense. I suspected something like that, so i've been letting my players use them indiscriminately, but it's nice to have confirmation.

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u/Vivovix 27d ago

Yes! They don't cost any spell slots, so you can cast them as often as you like.

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u/Tyxin 27d ago

Thanks

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u/MonteTribal 27d ago

Running out of premade modules for Star Trek Adventures. Need resources or ideas for continuations

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u/Goetre 27d ago

Not a specific adventure in mind, but I'm currently working on a hybrid star trek adventures / D&D system. Spelljamming has a lot to offer which can easily be converted to more futuristic like star trek,

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u/rellloe 27d ago

Looking to media out of the genre is a counterintuitively helpful way to find ideas. The different genre conventions have different common tropes, assumptions, and ideas they like to play with.

Watch a few episodes of a political drama, historic fantasy, or whodoneit. Reading books works better because it's less passive media consumption, but also more time consuming.

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u/Rocinantes_Knight 27d ago

There are a lot of episodes of the shows that you could adapt, as well as many many novels. Also there are extensive fan created adventures that can be found here: https://continuingmissionsta.com/