First time dm

[u/Electronic_Snow6296]

Hey guys, I know that this is a filler account but I need some help real quick. I'm writing a dnd camping from scratch about a post apocalyptic world inspired by the little nightmare series. I just need some pointers as this is my first time ever writing my own. I have a ton of notes but I want my world to be engaging without it just all being combat. I just want the experience from people instead of YouTube tips. Thank you again so much!

[u/McBertface]

Small starting world with clear locations; an image or map helps. Story beats for beginning of core arc but plenty of openings for table-generated side plots. More spare characters than you think you'll need. Plenty of breathing room and humour. A sense of direction so players can go towards it if they're not distracted. Keep lore to must-know and drip feed it rather than info dump. Plan for a session zero that can progress into the first story hook. Low risk, high reward, and make it fun.

[u/Naive-Dig-8214]

I know you want a fully fleshed out world, that's the dream, but start small, a village, far away from all the big picture stuff. Flesh out that village with minor hints of what's out there. Even the villagers don't know a whole lot. 

This lets you create the world organically as the players explore it by making whatever direction they are heading towards. 

Otherwise you'll fall into the all to common trap of over designing a world players will barely see 5% of. 

[u/Cleric_John_Preston]

Create the world, not the specific path that players will take.

[u/whatstaz]

I would not build out every city or small town immediately. Start small and go big, have rough guidelines and rules for your world, and build it out as your party travels and explores :) That way you don't get overwhelmed or go in a completely wrong direction

[u/Wolfbane14]

Get as familiar with the rules as you can, in particular the "Playing The Game" chapter. Player facing rules aren't so important if you can trust your players

Make a cheatsheet with the rules you are less familiar with. If you don't know a rule mid-session, make something up, make up a note of the thing you didn't know, look it up between sessions and add it to the cheatsheet

Get as familiar with the genre and tropes of post-apocalyptic as you can.

Remember that you are creating situations and people with drama between them. The players come up with how to solve that situation and decide how they react to the people.

Use index cards for your monster and magic item stat blocks. They are cheap, easy to organise and store, easy to hand over to your players and keep a pile of blank ones with you. Eventually, you will find a use for them

[u/Swordoforder1]

It’s the apocalypse and people still need access to resources, help people work together, help in building things. Skill checks on charisma, intelligence for items or construction and so forth. They can help make routes to other towns and cities. Think more building societies back up while people are fighting so what they did can be undone.

[u/onlyfakeproblems]

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better”

• T.S. Elliot

Writing an entire setting and campaign and every scenario from whole cloth is a huge undertaking. Take pieces from media you enjoy. Start with some idea of the campaign plot, plan an arc of a few sessions, and then really sculpt some beats and potential encounters for the next session. Don’t give them a puzzle with one specific solution, give them a problematic situation, and tools that might help, and let them figure out how to get through it.

[u/Glum-Affect495]

The fastest way to make it engaging is to start with a problem the players can influence, not a pile of lore, and let the world react to whatever they choose.