More questions from a newb DM

[Wandering Saint]

Okay, so after poking my players with a cattle prod to get me a character/class composition for the party going, I think we've finally got something. So now I have to make maps, and of course, Dungeons.
So, pulling on what I have learned, you need to let your players figure out where they want to go. That said, I don't plan on keeping my players at lv 1 for long. They might get a level and a half in this first dungeon (There's 4 encounters in there).
My question this go around is, how does one prepare dungeons and large encounters with that amount of spontaneity? Is it expected of me to create two or three lv 1 dungeons, and adjust them as the players go through them?

[Edge of Dreams]

Different GMs have different styles. Some make everything up as they go. Some map out the whole world to exact detail.

Personally, I like to plan in a "zoom in, zoom out" sort of style. At the start of a campaign, I'm zoomed out - I get a general idea of the setting, the area the players start in, the major cities, and the major points of interest. Then, I zoom in to the actual area the players start in, and add some detail there - a few dungeons, a few potential quests, and so on, but I leave those vague. Then, I see which dungeon or quest the players decide to focus on, and I improvise the first part of it if necessary. Finally, between sessions, I zoom in on the specific quest or dungeon and fill in the details. After a quest or dungeon is complete, I zoom back out and look again at what upcoming adventures the players have to choose from.

Even within a single dungeon you can do some of the same stuff. You don't have to detail every piece of furniture in every room, so long as you know what the purpose of the dungeon is, what general types of monsters are there, and what the key locations will be. I often skip over things with "Ok, you explore several empty hallways and rooms before entering what appears to be a throne room..." or whatever, in order to give the sense that the dungeon is big, without wasting time on "Then we turn left. Empty hall. We go forward 100 feet and open a door. Empty room." etc. etc.

[Wandering Saint]

Different GMs have different styles. Some make everything up as they go. Some map out the whole world to exact detail.

Personally, I like to plan in a "zoom in, zoom out" sort of style. At the start of a campaign, I'm zoomed out - I get a general idea of the setting, the area the players start in, the major cities, and the major points of interest. Then, I zoom in to the actual area the players start in, and add some detail there - a few dungeons, a few potential quests, and so on, but I leave those vague. Then, I see which dungeon or quest the players decide to focus on, and I improvise the first part of it if necessary. Finally, between sessions, I zoom in on the specific quest or dungeon and fill in the details. After a quest or dungeon is complete, I zoom back out and look again at what upcoming adventures the players have to choose from.

Even within a single dungeon you can do some of the same stuff. You don't have to detail every piece of furniture in every room, so long as you know what the purpose of the dungeon is, what general types of monsters are there, and what the key locations will be. I often skip over things with "Ok, you explore several empty hallways and rooms before entering what appears to be a throne room..." or whatever, in order to give the sense that the dungeon is big, without wasting time on "Then we turn left. Empty hall. We go forward 100 feet and open a door. Empty room." etc. etc.

I suppose I'm more talking about encounter difficulty. That's some good advice, though.

[John Longarrow]

For a low level party I'd suggest making encounters that match their level or are weaker. I'd also have the encounter play to the characters stengths rather than their weaknesses.

As an example, if you have a spell caster that is geared for close combat, a melee character geared for close combat, a sneaky guy geared for close combat, and a healer geared for close combat, let the party face some close combat instead of sending the flying monkeys throwing javelins at them.

Likewise if you have four arcane casters who all specialize in ranged combat, don't have big burly fighters just pop up on them. You can save that for later.

For better advise, you would have to advise us what kinds of characters the players are running, why they adventure together, and what plot hook or hooks they are running with.

[Wandering Saint]

Fair enough.

My players are as follows:
A Sergal Paladin (Yup.)
A Kobold Rogue (Personal Favorite)
And a wizard or sorcerer of unknown race.

[Edge of Dreams]

Ok, so, for encounter difficulty, you've got two extremes, and then kind of a range between them.

On the one hand, you've got the "realistic" approach - if you decide there's a dungeon full of level 1 goblins, then it's gonna have the same level 1 goblins no matter what level the players are when they go in there.

On the other hand, you've got the "schrodinger" approach - nothing is fixed until the players actually see it. Thus, if the players enter the dungeon at level 1, it's got level 1 goblins, but if they go in at level 5, it's gonna have level 5 orcs instead.

Somewhere in the middle is the idea that some things stay fixed, but you adjust partially for the party's level and such. So, that "level 1 goblins" dungeon won't be completely revamped if the players wait to level 5 to do it, but maybe the goblins will be a couple levels higher, or have some monster pets, or a few more mages or goblins with class levels or whatever. In other words, easy content is still easy, but you scale it up partially so it's not a totally boring cakewalk.

[Glimbur]

You can also flat out tell the level 5 party that the dungeon planned for level 1 characters is not a challenge. You don't have to run through every combat if there is no risk.

Whether or not this is acceptable depends on your group, but most people can at least get behind the ability to kidnap a peasant in a dark alley without rolling for it.

[Magesmiley]

Not sure what edition you're playing - it's a bit of helpful info to provide - different versions do things a bit differently. I'm guessing right now that it is 4th.

One question is how experienced your players are. If they're relatively new, don't be too quick to gloss over the low levels - a lot of learning happens there, especially on your first time around. By pushing things too fast you rob them of some very valuable learning. My advice is to stick to the recommended number of encounters for the edition that you're playing.

As far as planning encounters, make sure that you've got ones that a 'balanced' party can deal with (and don't forget that running away sometimes is the right way to deal with some encounters). Make sure that you have a variety of encounters where different sets of skills and abilities will shine.

And always, always, play your monsters as well as their intelligence dictates. If a race is as smart as a human, play them as such in their tactics. Don't have them do dumb things to make life easier on the party. Dumb monsters should make tactical errors that players can exploit. Dragons (being above human intelligence) shouldn't.

[Mr Beer]

It can be easier to just buy and run a module. If nothing else, reading modules normally gives you some good stuff to rip off for your own dungeons.