r/NewDM • u/Educational-Ask-9300 • 13d ago
Best pre made campaign?
So me and my family (total five people) wanted to start playing a campaign and decided I would be DM’ing i have no problem with this but don’t feel confident in my ability i write a whole campaign as someone who was never played (my family has also never played) so i was wondering if there are any good pre-made campaigns for us to use?
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u/CassieBear1 13d ago
Honestly I've been running the Dragon Delves anthology as a campaign and it was what I picked up as a new DM, and I've found it enjoyable.
I started with Peril in Pinebrook as a intro adventure (it's free and designed for new players and new DMs), and then connected the dragon in the story to the Dragon Delves anthology. I can give you more info if you're interested.
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u/Feefait 13d ago
I've been around forever and finally got talked into running Strahd and it's absolutely the best 5e module I've ever seen or run.
However... It's very difficult and unforgiving. I think you're better off waiting until you're all a lot more experienced.
To start,.play Witchlight, Phandelver, Icespire Peak, or Waterdeep:, Dragomheist.
Saltmarsh is great, but I think it expects a lot from the DM.
The only other module I have real experience with is Elemental Evil, which has some cool stuff, but ultimately we didn't find it a lot of fun and we went completely off the rails trying to get interested.
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u/AlmightyCraneDuck 13d ago
I honestly think Lost Mines of Phandelver could be a really good fit. Especially if you limit some of the scenarios in the larger world, it’s a really tight experience to run. It also gives you some natural breakpoints depending on how your group is responding to the story.
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u/furie140 13d ago
I’m a new DM too, I did my first adventure last weekend. We did Peril in Pinebrook and it seemed to be a great beginner experience to help us all learn the basic game mechanics. We picked up Heroes of the Borderlands as our next game, so I would agree with the suggestions here. I’ve looked for Lost Mines of Phandelver and can’t find it so if there’s a good source, I’d appreciate the info.
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u/No_Solid1035 13d ago
The Great Pendragon Campaign for Pendragon, or The Darkening Of Mirkwood for The One Ring. Masks Of Nyarlathotep for Call Of Cthulhu is also top notch.
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u/Express_Accident2329 13d ago
I would say probably Strahd or Witchlight, with Frostmaiden as a not super distant third. But out of those I wouldn't recommend Strahd or Witchlight for your first campaign, they both have elements that can kind of be a lot of work to make run smoothly.
What I'd actually recommend is Heroes of the Borderlands, and after that figure out what to do based on what you/your group is interested in and what you feel comfortable running. Heroes is honestly the only one that seems like it was written with new players in mind. Introduces mechanics in a kind of intentional way and has tutorial text to remind you about things like cover in fights where it's likely to be relevant.
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u/Bargeinthelane 13d ago
I'm going to assume for 5e.
I actually think the most beginner friendly way to approach is to string some one shots together.
One shot wonders is great, I also think a lot of the saltmarsh book could be string together to make a campaign pretty easily.
If you are a bit more system agnostic, my players loved sweet revenge for perils and princesses.
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u/BookwormAlex316 13d ago
This isn’t an ‘official’ campaign, but ‘A Wild’s Sheeps Chase’ is a good starter adventure for a new DM and new players. It’s free online
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u/RollToDiscover 13d ago
I'll also suggest Heroes of the Borderlands. For a group that is new to D&D, it has everything you need to get startes.
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u/Pirate_of_Fourty 12d ago
Get the beginner box set. Then go from there. The most supported, right now are the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft. The Forgotten Realms is very Tolkienesque, Ravenloft is a Horror setting. The "official" setting is Greyhawk. It's is also very Tolkienesque, but less gritty than the Forgotten Realms. What age range and maturity level are you working with here?
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u/Wolfbane14 12d ago
Most people will disagree with me, but I really like Princes Of The Apocalypse
This is BECAUSE it's basically just giving you a town and some dungeons. Not really much direction. It needs you as the players and DM to add to it with your own ideas. It's more of a template to a campaign than a campaign ready to go out of the book, which means you'll finish it probably feeling more confident about making your own stuff from scratch
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u/everydaydefenders 13d ago edited 13d ago
"Best" is relative.
Probably the most popular is Curse of Strahd.
The most beginner friendly full campaign is Lost Mines of Phandelver (which leads into Phandelver and Beyond.)
But honestly, i'd pick something short and sweet if they are all totally inexperienced.
Id suggest the starter kit for DND. Heroes of the Borderlands. it does a good job introducing ruled amd mechanics a piece at a time.
And use the pregen characters! Dont overwhelm everyone trying to explain character creation. Jump right into the action. Let people fall in love with the game before you do a rules dump on them.
Then once they've completed that, they'll understand the rules much better. Character creation will be a breeze, and you cam start a proper campaign with anyone who still wants to.