My first ever campaign: Any tips?

[Jhaza]

I've been playing DND (and a few other RPGs) for something just shy of ten years now, but in a few weeks I'll be DMing my first campaign (I've done a few crappy one-shots before), and I'm somewhat nervous. Obviously, since it's my first real, multi-session game, I'm worried about being able to maintain interest/present a compelling, interactive story. Since this will be my first time with 4e, and all my players have done at least one campaign with 4e before, I'm worried about not being able to run the game well (and I know, DM doesn't have to be the rules lawyer, but even so... I don't want my players to be walking me through how my monster's abilities work, you know?). I'm not quite sure how to approach planning out sessions, or how I'll balance combat and roleplaying, or how I'll do a dozen other things that my other DMs just sort of do without seeming to try at all.

So... any advice? Any at all?

On a more specific note: Inspired by a DM I had a while back, I was planning on providing the party with a set of special magic items, customized to that character. I had been thinking about things like (for the tank) a sword that let you pull a target to you as part of an attack, (for a rogue, obviously) a cloak that gave you increasing bonuses to stealth the more people nearby were trying to detect you, or (for the... you know, these descriptions aren't really useful, I'm sure you can figure it out) an item of some flavor that increased the range of support spells and allowed the caster to sacrifice some of their own health to increase the amount of their heals. Things of that ilk. Looking through the 4e skills, most of those things seem pretty useless: there are a lot more things that let you force moment, heals are longer range by default, etc. I was considering making it so they could use their items to empower a daily ability to make it do more damage/heal more/affect multiple targets/last longer, etc., but that sounds pretty boring; I'd much rather have these be awesome than good. If I end up doing this, which may or may not happen, what sorts of things could I use? I'll customize everything to the party, but I could really use some general ideas to get started.

[Reluctance]

Magic items aren't big, character-defining things in 4e. By design. When one magic item is awesome, two are awesomer, and you run a not-insignificant risk of characters being defined primarily by their swag. Artifacts are super-special magic items, but I advise against homebrewing until you have more experience under your belt.

As for the starting adventure, start small. Don't plan too far in advance, don't build too much of the world, don't feel like you have to do Tolkienesque levels of backstory before the characters enter the scene. For one, keeping track of the parts of the world that don't affect the PCs is a decent amount of mental overhead. Also, things that don't affect the PCs probably aren't known by the players. If they get screwed due to the machniations of two epic beings they've never met, all the players feel is arbitrarily screwed. Being too metaplot focused runs the not-insignificant risk of spotlighting your story too much at the expense of the PCs.

Don't be afraid to start with a glorified one-shot. I know it's tempting to plan out the progression of the campaign from 1 to 30. I think you know what happens to plots once they come in contact with PCs.

[INDYSTAR188]

Maybe you could try something easy like one of the Dungeon Delves and expand on it? There are also modules and adventures for free like Keep on the Shadowfell. Something I like to do to help me (because I try hard to stay organized) is use index cards for my encounters. So, I'll write out each monsters stat's onto the card and do the same for the PC's, then once initiative is rolled I just put them in the right order and BAM!

Also, I would suggest checking out the DMG 2. It has lots and lots of really cool storytelling advice, new traps, alternate rewards, and interesting terrain features like:

Chandelier Single-Use Terrain
A large ornate chandelier of iron and crystal hangs over the battlefield. It would be a pity if it fell to the ground.

Standard Action
Check: From a distance to sever or loosen the rope or chain holding the chandelier aloft, make a ranged attack (Level +5). Or you can spend a standard action to cut the rope while adjacent.
Success: The chandelier falls to the ground and smashes to pieces.
Target: Each creature in an area burst 1.
Attack: Level + 3 vs REF
Hit: 2d8 + one half level damage.
Miss: Half damage
Effect: The area where chandelier fell is difficult terrain.

[Jhaza]

My current plan is to start out on a mini dungeon crawl, ending with an item that will (hopefully!) plot hook into what I hope becomes... well... the campaign I have in mind. At the start, there's going to be a fair amount of go-here-get-that-repeat, which I think will give me a bit of a buffer if I decide to scrap the campaign and go for something simpler. I guess I'll see.

I really like that notecard idea, and I'll definitely check out the DMG2! Any other books that might be worth reading? I've read PHB1 and skimmed PHB2, and read DMG1. I'm hoping to get a chance to browse the MM some time in the next week or so.

[Uruz2012]

I would say that you might take a weapon/armor piece that has a useful daily power for a certain PC (i.e. Bestial Armor [Adventurer's Vault pg42]) which allows a character to make a melee basic attack after a successful charge and change that daily into an encounter power. This can easily be unbalancing if you're not careful but can help make an item more useful since I at least feel like daily item uses are sometimes underpowered. It's also an easy way to homebrew an item with less risk of completely breaking the game... I don't have any advice on encounter design but tweaking standard items is an easy way to make a quest reward feel a little more special.

[Drglenn]

Preparation is key. Make sure you know exactly where the stats are for the enemies you use (bookmarking them or printing a copy of them helps massively).

During combats try to get yourself and your players into the habit of planning turns during other people's turns. This will be helped by you putting the initiative order somewhere clearly visible (if you've got a dry-wipe board or battlemat you could put it on there)

[quillbreaker]

One of my favorite things to have happen is when my players predict something in character - it means that they're paying attention to what's going on. Try to keep your "whys" sorted out so the universe retains coherence.

[DrSaering]

This may spark controversy, but my ultimate piece of advice for new 4e DMs is this: fudge monster stats.

4e is a very numbers-heavy game no matter how much experience or preparation you do. If you think there is a good chance the PC's attack hit the monster, instead of looking, I generally just say it did. The pitfall here is looking at the die, rather than the player's total (something my old DM would often do), thus negating the benefits of their bonuses, but whether the Vrock has an AC of 23 or 24 is not worth the pause of you flipping through your papers to check. You can save HOURS by doing this.

Of course, it may be more important for me, as I have very limited space in my available gaming areas, than it will be for you, if you don't have to do things like stack your monster printouts on top of each other.