Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ZeronHitaro 03-04-06, 11:58 PM	Ok, I picked up DMG and MM a few days ago and have started work on campain creation. What are the bare bones basic things I need to start a game? (As I don't want to make any in depth detail desicions on monsters and loot for anything past the starting area until I see who's playing and what their characters can do.) And if possible keep the explainations simple as possible since I'm still learning the terminology and provide page number references if possible so I may look this up later. Please and thank you.
WizO_Cat 03-05-06, 12:19 AM	What I would recommend is that you review some adventures that people have already written. You know, see if you can pick up something from people who have already walked a mile in the shoes. >HERE< (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b) are some adventures that you can review on the D&D website. Hope that it help.
Ralphius_Maximus 03-05-06, 07:20 AM	I'd say keep things simple early on. It gives you a chance to see how the mechanics work and allows the players to get used to working together. Look at providing challenges suited to each of the basic class groupings (fighting, sneaking, magic, maybe diplomacy) so as to give everyone something to do. It might be an idea to lay off traps and stuff too. They can score a TPK very easily at lvl 1.
sherretz 03-06-06, 08:31 AM	I'm also a very novice DM, but I can give you a few general pointers: Keep your goals very general for a given situation. This keeps the players from feeling railroaded and keeps you from either doing too much extra work for no gain, or getting frustrated WHEN they veer from your intended path. For low level, try to create situations where the party relies a lot on teamwork, so that they get comfortable with each other's playing styles. Some good recommendations would be to incorporate traps that require all the PCs to do something, or a room/encounter that requires everyone to work together to defeat a foe.
Mitchell 03-06-06, 10:20 PM	Work from the in out. If you are developing your world from scratch, start in a city or town first. Just get it built up and the immediate surroundings. Little by little add to that, with a few nearby towns and finally the kingdom/ country. Then from there you move to the next kingdom/ country/ region and on you go. You may also want to "populate" regions. Not creating names or much less stats for every NPC, though you will want to know how large these cities and towns are population wise, but what I'm talking about here is what is out "there". Where do the orcs live? I know that they can wander about and you may find some practically anywhere, but are there large pockets anywhere? This also applies to the player races. If you are using a pre-designed world, then none of that matters, I suppose. You also have to consider allowed classes, races, prestige classes, religion/ dieties, equipment... Just using the core books can help you here, but if you are familiar enough with some things and see no harm, then it's your call. Find a comfort level and work with it.
Nate Jones 03-06-06, 10:45 PM	I have always worked things from end to beginning. It helps me visualize where things need to be and why. I'll admit, I've never been one able to spontaneously generate fantastic locations and encounters. I find that if the players surprise me with something unexpected (Which happens far more often than a new Dungeon Master (DM) might think), I am much better abled to cope with the new direction. As far as my experience goes, the more pre-planning and thought you do, the more prepared you are when nothing goes as planned. If you have some grand goal for your campaign, start there and work backwards. Don't worry about the specifics of an encounter that your PC's (Player-Characters) might not come across for a few sessions, but having a general idea may make your world appear more vivid. If anything start small. Plan a five level campaign (And make sure you let your player's know this. Nothing irritates one more than having a character map that really starts kicking at level six, only to find out the character will never get a chance to reach that point). Keep you're world small, find some natural way to contain your players (Mountains, Inhospitable Forests, Vast Seas etc.). Straight dungeon crawls (Your basic 'explore the dungeon to defeat vile monsters and find cool loot') are very nice for the novice group, in that they have a pretty low possibility for unexpected twists, are relatively self-contained, provide ample opportunities for new players and DM's to flex their muscles with the somewhat complex combat mechanics and provide enough roleplaying chances to get your feet wet, but not so many that new players get entirely overwhelmed. All and all, have fun. Good luck, and welcome to DnD.
ZeronHitaro 03-06-06, 11:51 PM	Thanks for the advice all. ^^; Oddly enough I seem to have a better idea on how to do this than I gave myself credit for. XD The DM of our comic shop (has done this for about 35 years) told me I've done more prep work than even moderate DMs do. ^^; *reads over everyone's advice again for future reference*