5 Tips For Creating Your First DND Campaign

Yesterday, I was Dungeon Master for the first time.

For those of you who don’t know, the Dungeon Master, or DM for short, is the person in charge of the game Dungeons and Dragons. They create the world, the challenges, the quests, etc. To be a DM, it is important to understand the “rules” of the game. My group, the Magnificent Legends of Contingency (MLC), had a fantastic DM during our last campaign. He had an elaborate world prepared, was very good at improvising, and knew the “rules” of DND like the back of his hand. Trying to DM after that felt like I was the punchline of a bad joke, especially since I had never done it before. I’ve only been playing for a little less than a year. I understand enough about playing as an adventurer, but knowing all there is to know about everyone else’s characters, the world, stats, and when to ask for a roll… It was overwhelming. So to all you new Dungeon Masters out there, I present to you 5 tips for successfully creating your first Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

1.  Don't Worry About Memorizing All The Rules

This was my first struggle as I started to prepare for gameplay. I had a month and a half to create a world, a plot, and a game plan. It took me over a year to develop the world for my book, and that one is still a work in progress. On top of it all, I felt that I didn’t know enough about the game to DM, so I wasted my first week frantically trying to read through the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide all at once. While doing this helped create a base for the world I wanted to create, it wasn’t necessary, and it took up a lot of time. There was no way I’d be able to retain the information in all three books. Besides, when you DM, it’s pretty common to have the rule books with you as reference. So, if you’re going into a campaign, skim the books, maybe read a bit more carefully in sections that you know are relevant, but don’t get stuck there.

2. Don't Let Inspiration Block Hold You Back

My second week working on my campaign was spent pacing… and pacing and pacing. I was banging my head against the wall in frustration. I could not think of an idea. Not even the vague flicker of a bad idea appeared. My problem was that I became too caught up in having an idea, that I didn’t allow my brain time to find one. I just kept repeating “I need an idea. I need an idea. I need an idea.” in my head. The key here was that I needed to focus on finding inspiration rather than finding an idea. Forcing it rarely ever works, but ideas will flow when you’re inspired.

I got my idea by reading, a common source of inspiration for me. I don’t remember exactly what I was reading at the time-- my December was extremely hectic-- but it triggered my memory of something called The Feywild, a realm I’d read about in the first chapter or two of The Dungeon Master’s Guide. From there, it was just a matter of time, and talking to a bunch of different people, before I’d created a world and had a vague notion of a quest.

3. Do NOT Procrastinate

This one applies to so much more than just DND, but for now, I’m going to discuss it in context with DMing.

After I got my campaign idea and world mapped out, I thought the rest would come easy. I let time pass, and before I knew it, I had a week left to figure out important details such as where and how the characters would meet and what their first challenge would be. By this point, college classes had started up again, so I was trying to balance blogging, school, work, and creating a campaign. Needless to say, I was working up until the very last minute before we started gameplay. I think it’s especially important for DMs not to procrastinate because players tend to throw last minute changes at you, or something else will happen, and you won’t have time to fix it. Your stress will show in you DM capabilities, and it will all go downhill from there.

4. Have  Your Someone You can Discuss Your Ideas With

Creating a world is hard enough on its own and having an outsider’s perspective can help so much. With their help, you’ll be able to notice that you may have missed before, such as plot holes, lapses where characters might grow bored, or even character/world inconsistencies. On top of that, having someone to bounce ideas off of is a gift in of its own.

For me, I had three people that I consistently talk to during my creating process, two of which were DND/DM vets: Natalie, Mason, and my dad. I bet you can guess who hadn’t played before.

Natalie is a good friend of mine from church. She helped a lot with ideas and developing a loose plot line to follow. She’s been playing DND for years, and a few months prior, I had helped here with developing parts of her campaign as well.

Mason was the last DM MLC had, the one I described at the beginning of this post. He is currently playing a High Elf named Vahtrin in my campaign. Despite him being an adventurer, he offered to help me develop the finer side of things not related to the actual story, such as NPCs (non-player characters), general world culture, and governments.

My dad never really understood the game, but he was great at listening. I, oftentimes, need to talk through my ideas to fully understand them myself, and he was more than willing to listen. He’d even chime in with these ridiculous ideas that would never work during gameplay, but they would spark a different idea in my own head.

While creating your campaign, it’s important to find people to talk to. They’ll make the world-building process more fun and go much smoother.​

5. Remember: You Make The Rules

You may have noticed earlier that I put quotation marks around the word “rules”. That’s because, in the famous words of Captain Barbossa, the rules of DND are “more of what you call guidelines than actual rules.” As the DM, you create the world and the rules that govern it, so if you want something to happen or a creature to act differently than depicted by the books, then do it. You don’t need a reference for everything that happens in the game. Besides, a lot of DMing is flying by the seat of your pants. Improvise. Feel free to stretch your creative muscles.

---

Being Dungeon Master can be quite stressful, but it’s also a lot of fun. Just remember, your very first session does not define your whole DMing career. Just like anything, you have to learn and improve. Being a DM is not a skill that is acquired overnight. Be patient with yourself and the characters, and I assure you, your campaign will turn out alright.

Stay Creative,
Alexa C.

Additional Tips That Didn't Make The List

• Keep a notebook with all the world and character information, page references, and plot points. This will help you keep things way more organized and consistent.
• Everyone wants something. That means all your NPCs will have goals and desires of their own. Thinking of what those goals and desires are will help bring them to life.
• Perception rolls do not happen nearly as often as it feels like when you play as an adventurer. They only need to roll to see if they notice something.​​​