Simple Question -- Published Adventures

[DizzyWood]

Never have I ever wanted to DM but I have been thinking about it more. It seems it be best to get my feet wet with something that has the majority of the work already done for me like Out of The Abyss. When they say lvl 1-15 do they mean your PCs will go from 1st to 15th lvl in that adventure. Or more probably you can run the adventure with PCs that are anywhere in that range?

[DanyBallon]

Even though OotA is the best adventure released so far, I'd get my hand into DMing with th Starter Set. It's well done and easy to run. OotA is better in the hands of more experienced DM in order for all to have a better experience (many NPCs to manage, a bit sandboxy).

PotA have tools to do the transition between the starter set and the adventure and both are located in relatively close locations.

Or you could just start from scracth with any adventure after going through the starter set.

[DizzyWood]

It will be a cold day in hell before I get my group to go back to a low lvl again. I could get them to roll maybe lvl 6 at the lowest.

[DanyBallon]

Though luck then, published avdventures (HothDQ, PotA, and OotA) assumes you start at level 1 (level 3 for PotA, but with a side quest if you want to start from level 1). Only Rise of Tiamat do not start at low level, but it's the follow up of Hoards.

[DanyBallon]

I guess the easiest to adapt would be PotA in this case, as when you complete the starter set, you are 5th level, and I said, there are tip for transitionning from the starter set to PotA

[DizzyWood]

Though luck then, published avdventures (HothDQ, PotA, and OotA) assumes you start at level 1 (level 3 for PotA, but with a side quest if you want to start from level 1). Only Rise of Tiamat do not start at low level, but it's the follow up of Hoards.

Thats a bummer. Thanks

[DizzyWood]

I guess the easiest to adapt would be PotA in this case, as when you complete the starter set, you are 5th level, and I said, there are tip for transitionning from the starter set to PotA

I do not know IF I am up to that task just yet. But thank you.

[GlenSmash!]

There are 5e adventures that are not published by WOTC, some of which are higher level. take a look at http://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/

[JackPhoenix]

You can run the adventures with higher level group, thanks to Bounded Accuracy, even low-level monsters are still relevant against higher level PC's. The characters will level up slower on weaker encounters, which means it will balance somehow in the end (I guess the difference won't even be a whole level at the end of the adventure). Or you may spend some more time on preparation, add more foes to some encounters or replace them with something stronger to keep the adventure challenging.

Seriously, my level 8 group (true, only 3 players) got their butts kicked by a bunch of CR 1/2 orcs and their CR 4 warchief.

[DizzyWood]

There are 5e adventures that are not published by WOTC, some of which are higher level. take a look at http://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/

Oh wow!! Thanks. I will check these out.

[DizzyWood]

You can run the adventures with higher level group, thanks to Bounded Accuracy, even low-level monsters are still relevant against higher level PC's. The characters will level up slower on weaker encounters, which means it will balance somehow in the end (I guess the difference won't even be a whole level at the end of the adventure). Or you may spend some more time on preparation, add more foes to some encounters or replace them with something stronger to keep the adventure challenging.

Seriously, my level 8 group (true, only 3 players) got their butts kicked by a bunch of CR 1/2 orcs and their CR 4 warchief.

I though about that. Having never DM'd before I feel like that would be a bit much stress for a first go around. So I am going to check out some of the WotC APs. Thanks!

[coredump]

It's pretty easy to work in a higher level group for any of the wotc adventures.

[Theodoxus]

Another option is to grab older modules - as a new DM, you're less concerned with encounter balance, and more with what to actually do. There's a lot of great old TSR / Dungeon adventures that aren't hard to adapt to 5E. Heck, even the Pathfinder APs are pretty easy to convert on the fly. Swap out the monsters they list with the 5E ones - and if they use something you don't have, just fake it. (although I guess it might be better to wait for that until you've ran a couple games to get the feel of it).

Anyway, the point is, there's a lot of older modules and APs that have all the social groundwork and quest plot done - which is the stuff I hate to develop - that doesn't take a lot of work to mold into the 5E combat style...

[DizzyWood]

Another option is to grab older modules - as a new DM, you're less concerned with encounter balance, and more with what to actually do. There's a lot of great old TSR / Dungeon adventures that aren't hard to adapt to 5E. Heck, even the Pathfinder APs are pretty easy to convert on the fly. Swap out the monsters they list with the 5E ones - and if they use something you don't have, just fake it. (although I guess it might be better to wait for that until you've ran a couple games to get the feel of it).

Anyway, the point is, there's a lot of older modules and APs that have all the social groundwork and quest plot done - which is the stuff I hate to develop - that doesn't take a lot of work to mold into the 5E combat style...

I was actually going to put up a post asking about that option when i had some free time. Suggestions and what not. My current DM is running Ravenloft and we love it so far. Thanks!

[eastmabl]

I get your players not wanting to start out at low levels.

I'd also recommend that you get some experience under your belt as DM before Haste, Fireball and high level abilities start to come into play.

If you'd like to do both of these things, I might suggest you steal a page from 13th Age and do the following:

1. Tell your players that they're starting at level 1.
2. Tell your players that they will gain a level each session until they hit level 6.

Define a session as an adventuring day of 2 easy to medium encounters and 2 hard to deadly encounters. Tell them that they can take short rests, but they won't be able to benefit from a long rest until the conclusion of the session.

The players won't start out right where they want to, but they'll be on an accelerated pace to where they want to be. You'll get a chance to practice DMing before magic makes the game a little crazier, as well as get the hang of developing encounters.

Plus, if they like this method, you might keep on doing this once they reach level 6.

[Hudsonian]

First off, As someone who just recently started DMing with only watching the streams of Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins to go off of....... CHILL OUT! IT'S GOING TO BE OK! If you have a pretty solid grasp on the basic rules you should be fine. I would say that at your first session you would ask your players to have at least one PHB on hand where they can readily find and read aloud whichever class ability has come into question.

The spell casters should find a way to have printed out spell cards for every spell that they know (http://hardcodex.ru/ is a fantastic resource) So that they can tell you what the spell does.

With those two things done you have successfully mitigated 75% of the stress of DMing.

I actually would be pretty interested in seeing what a speed run of LMoP would look like with a party of lvl 6 Characters. It would be kind of boring at first, but the story is still kind of interesting.