Just wanted to bounce an idea off of you guys

[AnonymousPepper]

So my DM for one of my 3.5 campaigns just bowed out for personal reasons and we're kinda left without a DM. He might be back but not for a looong time.

I'm the next-most-qualified person in the group to DM, probably, but even I'm not that good at it, and I would feel as though I'd need to retire the PC that I'm quite attached to in order to avoid the risks of DMPCs.

So instead what I was thinking of doing was shelving our current characters and putting them on hold until our DM returns, and then breaking out Elder Evils. As far as I can recall, each Elder Evil has a whole campaign path specced from 1 to finish. So what I was going to do was have the party roll up new characters and run through an EE path. After that one's beaten, roll up different characters, and go kill another one of them. The goal here would be to work our way through the entire Elder Evils book (and the further ones introduced later).

Does that sound doable for a DM with slight DM experience and some player experience, and does it sound enjoyable for a group of players?

Edit: If so, which would be the best to start with?

[Aegis013]

Unless I'm missing a very large portion of the book, it doesn't provide an entire campaign path from 1 to appropriate level to challenge (insert Elder Evil of choice). It generally gives a timeline of what signs appear before they come/wake up/whatever and wreak havoc. It'll provide their motives and minions, but it doesn't provide a fully fleshed out adventure the way a module does.

For a new DM, what I'd recommend, is finding yourself a number of modules that you think are ok in the level range you think you'll be playing for awhile. Create some kind of overarching plot that will take your party from module to module. This can take a lot of the burden of creating a campaign/designing encounters/etc off of your shoulders while you get your feet wet, so to speak.

If you want to run Elder Evils, you can tie signs regarding them into even the early modules. Add some mysterious hieroglyphs to a room in a dungeon. Drop a hint here or a crazy tin-foil hat guy preaching the end of days there.

Realistically though, everybody starts DMing somewhere. Run a few sessions, ask for honest feedback. Practice will help you improve, but considering you're concerned enough to ask on a forum for help, you'll probably do well.

[John Longarrow]

AnonymousPepper
Top 5 pieces of advice I can give you for your future behind the screen are;
1) Have FUN. If your not having fun, or your players are not, find out why and change it.
2) Find out what your players want to do. About the worst thing a DM can do is work out a massive story arch where the players, heroic warriors, fight their way through the demon lords castle only to find out everyone is bringing a bard who's more interested in seducing the lord/lady of the keep and RP intrigue.
3) Respond to your players desires. If they want a dungeon crawl, work out how they can do one. If they want some wilderness encounters, build them in. If they want to have a day in the town where they do nothing but talk and shop, great!
4) NEVER decide how the players should deal with an encounter. They won't. You will see this from the get go. Put toys out for them to play with, but don't tell them how to use them. Its far more fun this way.

5) Start studying the Rat-bastard DM's guide. Start watching adventure shows/anime/cartoons/what ever looking for fun things to toss at your players. Let them encounter the old guy who's secretly a total perv and wants them to get him something he shouldn't have. Let one of the adventurers be hit on by a bar maid. Look for all of those neat social situations that will be memorable and try to figure out how to work one or to into RPing sessions. Nothing is more memorable to the players than those odd situations that pop up that take their entire plan and spin it around just as badly as they do to your plots, plans, and preparations. Let them get attacked by a werebear that turns out to be a young girl who's just scared. Let them have to deal with their clan leader trying to marry them off for a political alliance. Let them face the fun times when their brother needs their help in replacing the wedding feast after dogs ate the previous one. Seldom can you get a BBEG to be as memorable as some of the "What the %#)&" moments you can pull off with fun RPing!