Planning a newbie D&D campaign

[Nettlekid]

Hi all in the playground,
I was first introduced to D&D when I was a Freshman in college by a group of nerdy juniors who were really into it. Now that they have graduated and I am now a nerdy junior, I would like to plan a fun newbie campaign for new players who are interested in playing. Although I find high levels much cooler, of course we'll be starting at level one, bare basics. I intend to let them find their own way with regard to making characters, though if they ask "How can I do this thing?" then I'll give them a good answer, and probably steer them away from doing things like taking Stealthy on their stealthy character.

My first dilemma is whether I want to the feeling of the campaign to be. I want it to be memorable and engaging, but does that mean making a very retro, classic D&D campaign (goblins and kobolds, bags of holding and decanters of endless water) or do I want to draw up a D&D-ified version of a well known adventure, like Lord of the Rings? What kind of adventure would encourage creative thinking and really engage newbies in the spirit of the game?

[Phelix-Mu]

Hmm. The pressure to make it impressive might be misleading; in my experience, low-level play tends to create its own drama, and heavy plot has to wait a number of levels to cope with learning how given players and the given party approach challenges and role play. I'd avoid a pop-culture fantasy ripoff, but maybe a melange of different influences.

Consider the following:

1.) At low levels, there is much more that can be termed "a challenge" than just monsters and traps. Off the top of my head, there is bad weather, angry townsfolk, onerous laws, unfair taxes/government corruption, disease/poison, and lack of ample rest time. All of these can be mix-and-matched in various ways to make up interesting scenarios. Like maybe...

The party first meets in a crossroads town, where the non-resident population has been forced into a quarantine situation by a plague. As if to make things worse, a massive bit of bad weather (hurricane? earthquake?) happens, freeing the party, but leaving the town in dire straits. The party can escape, try to help, or take advantage and loot, all leading in different directions.

Well, later on, maybe that plague turned out to just be some clever trickery. Turns out, some kind of famous con-man had pretty much filched everyone in that town, making off with life savings, family jewels, and the like, after pulling a pyramid scheme or some such. And then the earthquake? That was a group of inevitables that have been told that con-man is their target, but this was all a bit of clever misdirection by the real culprit....

See?

2.) Try to ensure that people have time to get a good sense of how to play before really putting their heads on the chopping block. A DM treads a fine line of the guide of the party through the world, and their worst enemy. Thus, you don't want to hit the thumbscrews too heavy too fast, because these noobs will need more of "the guide" to help them figure out how dangerous group encounters are, just when to run, and who to pick fights with in the first place.

Hmm. I think that is it for now.

[Nettlekid]

Those seem like good ideas. I like the idea of playing up the more mundane dilemmas like disease and weather. From what I've seen, newbies really like to put effort into figuring out problems like those (and just making skill checks in general; I once saw a group who tried to roll Gather Information and Diplomacy with each question they asked a friendly guard) so getting them to scramble around things like "What do we do when they say to go with them?!" is a good idea. And I can just let them run around as they please and improvise a lot of it.

I could use some good plot ideas though. I like the whole "Players come to town, either willingly go to a hospital or be forced to go to quarantine or escape and observe the town, and then...stuff happens."

[Brookshw]

So none of them have any experience? Do you have a friend with a moderate amount of experience that you can ask to join? New groups have lots of questions, a knowledgeable player who can help with mechanical issues will help keep the game going at a decent clip. Having to basically pause the game to explain the trip rules to the one guy tripping leaves the rest bored. The player-helper can take care of that guy while you focus on the over all group.

Keep options limited. Do not open up every splat book and option. Try core only so they don't get overwhelmed with options. It's very intimidating to new players who can feel like it's too much hassle and too complicated to want to learn.

Provide focus. If they're new to role playing games they'll at best be interested by various shows or video games which have very scripted activities. Complete free form can be hard on new characters who don't understand what their options are. Goals are good!

[Raezeman]

i also recently started a new campaign. Me, with 3 years of experience as a player and 5 friends with no experience at all. So to get these newbies into the games, in started them with core only. I beforehand explained roughly the different classes and races without the books at hand, and when they decided what they wanted to be brought in the books for the statistics. Of course, i gave advice on what was and wasn't a good idea, like not combining a charisma based caster with a charisma-penaly race. I then explained rules they needed to know individually. Meaning, i did not explain the rules of sundering weapons to the caster, nor did i explain how the calculate the DC of spells to the fighter.

Then the adventure started, it began simple. First just a linear piece of story to get them familiar with combat and round based combat. Some of them learn quicker than others (like the fighter saying things like 'i charge that one using full power attack' versus the druid that when i say it's his turn immediately rolls a d20 and looks at me). The story in this part was that the group is a bunch of bounty hunters that have a prisoner in custody that has to be brought back to the capital, where they will get a reward for him, more if still alive. Basically, in the beginning, they had to go from point A to point B while keeping themselves and the prisoner alive.

After this introduction, they will get into the main story, where they have more choices of what and how they want to do. Choices that may not seem that important at first, but that in the long run will make changes in who they meet, what they witness, ect...

[lytokk]

Typically, I have a 2 session plan for breaking in new players. Most of them want to get to the combat quickly, so session 1 is normally something simple and straightforward. Clear a warren of kobolds. This way they get used to basic skill checks (spot, listen, move silently, hide), a few simple traps with reflex saves, and combat rolls. Not usually much RP in session 1. If I start level 1, typically after it they get up to 2. That way, you can spend some time after the game helping them learn to level.

Second session, a lot more RP. Heading back to town and wanting to spend their gold. Diplomacy rolls, shopping, talking with people in town, looking for new work. It also gives me a chance to judge what kind of players these new players may become. My plan is always to make sure the session has a combat in it, most likely a single combat at the end, which leads into the rest of the overarching story, if you're doing a story. If not, it opens the sandbox.

Biggest thing I could say, is resist the urge to get to the good stuff early. Give the players some time to learn the system before throwing them into a 3 way war between opposing nations each with the idea they're on the side of good forcing them to choose a side when the whole time it was an ancient lich setting the nations at war so he could blast his way through the weakened nations in order to establish his own nation where the citizens would be forced to revere him as a god so that he may eventually cheat death once again and rise into the divine. Level 3 adventurers really shouldn't be anywhere near something like that, IMHO at least.

[Red Fel]

The first thing I would do is sit down and talk with each of the players. Discuss what they want, what they like, what they expect. Don't guarantee them anything, but knowing in advance what people want will better enable you to see if you can provide it, which will make for happy players. It will also tell you how well the party will mesh - for instance, if one player expects an epic narrative of political intrigue and espionage, while another wants fights and blood and battles and more fights and then something EXPLODES, you're probably going to run into some friction. Finally, as your players tell you what they would like, they may inadvertently give you some ideas for the game that you might not have come up with on your own. (Always take notes on what the players say. Always.)

Next, I would put together a general idea for a campaign. Determine your balance of combat to non-combat. Determine your locale - is it a city? Wilderness? Asian-flavored? Tropical? Determine your atmosphere. Is it green and sunny? Dark and gritty? Determine your challenges. Are there hordes of undead? A war with orcs? A nearby dragon menacing the village? Or is it more political? Is someone conspiring to kill the king? Have new laws been put in place resulting in civil unrest? Are a group of citizens fomenting revolt? Tell your players, in general terms, what to expect, and let them begin character generation.

Again, speak with your players. While I like that you're leaving them to their own devices with regard to character generation, a blank character sheet can be fairly daunting. But more than that, talk to them about their character backgrounds. Help them flesh out a history. Help them fit into the setting you've proposed. Perhaps most importantly, try to get your players to collaborate some on backstories, so that they can have a reason to adventure together right from the get-go. Additionally, you might consider trying to steer them into a given Tier range, to make it easier on you as a DM to maintain a balanced encounter level.

Once you've seen their starting builds, you can refine your general campaign idea further. Say nobody wanted to roll a Wizard. Fine - perhaps you'll make the world low-magic. Say nobody wanted to roll a skill-monkey. Fine - perhaps you'll slightly reduce (although don't eliminate - don't make it too easy) the importance of skill rolls. And so forth.

Lastly, look at their character backgrounds. Make sure each one has given you plot hooks. Weave those plot hooks throughout your campaign. Don't dump them on the party all at once, but leave little clues here and there. This tells each player, "Look, this is your story."

For example, perhaps one player is an orphan, seeking his parents; the only hint of them he has is an unusual symbol. Drop that symbol in various locations. Perhaps another is researching an ancient demigod. Slip scrolls or odd books in every now and then which have partially-obliterated references to this demigod. (Bonus points if, later on in the game, this demigod's sigil bears a strong resemblance to Player One's symbol.) And so on. Ideally, each player comes away from a session feeling like they've had a moment to be the star, not only in terms of their use to the party, but in terms of their value to the plot. That's how you engage a player, right there. Make them feel like they're part of an epic tale, like their character has some noble destiny that they get to unfold.

That, and the explosions.

[Falcon X]

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but I recently started a Newbie game, and here are a few insights I found:

A. Classes - To appeal to the new guys, I decided to refine a base class list to only classes I knew were balanced and I had found fun to play from level 1 to level 20. And they all are self-sustaining, so going Prestige wasn't banned, it just became unnecessary. Here was my class list. All are straight Tier 3 for those who care:

Beguiler/DreadNecromancer/Warmage - To replace Arcane Spellcasters. Vancian magic is really hard for new guys unless they are naturally obsessive.
Holy crap I've played each of these classes and they were a BLAST.
I did, alternatively, offer Sorcerer up, but I made sure they picked a theme and preferred schools.

Duskblade - A knowledge-based magical swordsman? I gave him knowledge devotion and a familiar and he really felt like a guy who had the brains for wizardry, but the preference for swinging swords.

Factotum - The Jack-of-all-trades. This is what I feel a bard should be. And if you REALLY want to perform, just homebrew a feat to give him Bardic Music. It won't break the game. Trust me.

Barbarian Druid - A Druid, but forced into the Shapeshift and Druidic Avenger Alternate Class Features. It honestly became more like a Barbarian with Druid flavor. It also gets rid of the bulky rules behind Wild Shape and keeping an Animal Companion.
If you are willing to stray into the homebrew realm, change it's spellcasting to be sorcerer-like or Warmage-like. Much simpler. I got spell list ideas from Mystic Ranger (Dragon 336)

Crusader/Warblade/Swordsage (Tome of Battle) - These are basically Paladins, Fighters, and combat-based Rogues that are brought up to Tier 3 with the rest of them.

Homebrewed Healer - Because I'm not a fan of prepared spells and newbies. I took the cleric stats, healer's abilities, gave spontaneous casting like Warmage, and used the Healer Spell list + Sanctified Spells (BoED).

These 10 classes may seem thrown together, but I really agonized over them and they worked like a charm. Had a blast.

B. Themes:
1. Keep It Simple Stupid. I used to make giant sandbox games with goodies everywhere. Some players can handle that, but not all can. Especially for newbs, keep the scope of the world limited while not rail-roading them too bad.
2. Themes are great. They created a box for PCs to learn quickly and build from. I started a newbie game using mostly Frostburn material and they LOVED it. My next one I plan to be mostly in the Underdark.
Alternatively, as you said, playing a game based on material they know, like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or cliche D&D can help them understand the world quickly.
3. Don't surprise them (too much). Fighting illusionists late game is an instant Total Party Kill unless it's something they knew to watch out for at the beginning.
The feel of the game should be pervasive from day 1 unless you really have a good idea of an alternative.
4. Consider giving them access to one or two RACES that aren't core, but are thematic to the environment or monsters you'll meet. (Ex. Merefolk for water, Necropolitan for Undead, Spellscale for dragon, Goblin for forests, Mongrelfolk for multi-racial areas, Tiefling for fiends etc.)