Keeping it Simple

[Valairn]

I used to DM for a short bit, but my problem was, is I always wanting to tell an epic story, and wanted to rush through it. I tried and tried and eventually gave up, I just couldn't get it to pan out.

Now I'm trying to get back into DMing and I was wondering, how in the heck do you start small? I desperately want to be able to DM something small, start getting a knack for getting actions decided and thinking on the fly. Do you guys have any tips for designing small/short campaigns for a "new" DM?

[Prophaniti]

I'd recommend having the party stay in a small area, say a village, and have them solve problems and save people there for a while. Stick with typical enemies and use them at MM listed stats, at least until you're more familiar with keeping track of monsters and npcs. I'd run through a pre-made adventure to get a feel for how your group plays, like did they spend more time in the combats or talking to people in town? which did they enjoy more? Then you have a better idea of what to focus your own adventures on.

[de-trick]

make it core, tell players not to complicate stuff make a simple dungeon crawl

[Driderman]

Start out simple, pace yourself, make that epic tale you want to tell slowly show itself. I had a gamemaster who was much like you, the stories weren't bad but it just wasn't very interesting having a newly created character thrown into some sort of epic tale that really didn't relate to him at all.

I DM'ed a group once where it got fairly epic. But we started out small, lvl 2 characters, basically the troubleshooters of a local lord. A duke, I think. They went out and handled small problems, like goblin infestations, bandits, villages not paying their taxes, so forth and gradually uncovered that several of these minor stories were actually related. We spent a long time playing these small stories, building characters and such, which made it so much more interesting when the epic tale finally unveiled itself.

In short: Make it simple, let your players get to know their characters, let them handle small, easily contained scenarios where it is easier to improvise if(when) they don't follow your carefully laid plans.

[VerdugoExplode]

Keep things small and simple to begin with. Small tasks in a small area because I'm assuming that the characters are starting at a low level. If starting at low level remember that they are one good hit away from unconsciousness and one critical hit away from death. Make sure they understand their limitations early and they will appreciate their endurance later.

Also, watch out for people with overly complex and dramatic back stories. When a level one fighter has a history including single handedly killing 20 orcs in combat followed by hunting trolls for a living you may want to remind them that they are level one. Being low level will keep things small by virtue of the characters being too death prone to do anything world changing.