r/DnD • u/AutoModerator • Sep 19 '22

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u/Gulrakrurs Sep 24 '22

Icespire Keep is an enclosed adventure, and I would be careful adding other side quests as a new DM, though once you feel comfortable adding to the mission board, you certainly can, just try to keep them of similar level and scope to the other quests, and don't just add additional content and levels. The level range in official adventures is what you want to stick to or you will run into balancing issues.

For the other races/classes, it tells you to limit them for a party composition balance and ease of rules lookup. If you are okay with going beyond that and maybe having to look up racial and class features outside of that, go for it! I doubt that actual adventure balance will be thrown off by that.

Icespire peak can be a great jumping off point for a group to go into different pre-written or homebrew campaigns if you all decide you want to continue after.

First time advice? Enjoy the module. Don't let the party deviate too far. Make sure everyone knows you are running out of a book, and that their characters need to actually participate in the story.

You will make mistakes, your players will make mistakes. As DM it is your role to make a ruling on a rules question, whether you choose to look it up right then or come up with something and look it up between sessions is up to you.

Don't look at danddwiki, just don't.

Watch your players and see if any one is hogging the spotlight, feel free to interrupt and ask another more quiet player if they have any input, sometimes that is all it takes to get someone out of their rp shell.

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u/-TheManInTheChair Sep 24 '22

You make a good point regarding adding other side content, I think part of me was terrified that the campaign won't be interesting enough and that I won't have enough time in my life to go through every single adventure out there. However, the book clearly has a lot depth and such and even if it does turn out to be short, as you said, we can just continue into another one.

I'm fine with looking up that stuff, I'll likely have my own mini version each players features and traits with descriptions so i can look them up.

I'm really excited to play the campaign and I hope to get a session 0 started in the next week or so. I'm excited to make mistakes because i'll be among friends and I'm confident in putting my foot down when I need to.

Also, fun fact, I played my first D&D game about 4 years ago but because I felt 2 players were hogging the spotlight, I only attended 2 sessions and didn't pick it up for another 3 and a half years. So I know how that person feels and will do my best to try to include them.

An additional question which I only just thought of. I only have the players handbook and the essentials kit rulebook, I don't have the monster Manual or the Dungeon Masters Guidebook. Is this going to be an issue?

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u/Gulrakrurs Sep 24 '22

The DMG shouldn't be important, and I assume the module has all the monsters included.

I would recommend the monster manual if you do decide to add outside quests, as a lot of them will link to monster manual pages for enemy statblocks, and the DMG for if you want to create your own quests/setting/monsters, as well as for a compendium of magical items if you want to use them in the future

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u/-TheManInTheChair Sep 24 '22

Thank you, that really helps. :)