6 min read

How to start a D&D campaign

Want to run your own Dungeons & Dragons campaign but not sure where to start? This is a comprehensive guide to how to begin your D&D adventure.

A photo of the front cover of a copy of the 2024 version of the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide.

Whether you’re already familiar with the iconic tabletop roleplaying game as a player or you’re entirely fresh-faced, starting a Dungeons & Dragons campaign can be seriously intimidating. 

Running a game of D&D is an entirely different kettle of fish from being a player. Not only are you narrating the story, controlling all the non-player characters and managing the combat, you’re also having to corral a group of - probably unruly - people into concentrating on the game instead of looking at their damn phones. However, the burden of DMing your first D&D campaign can be lightened considerably with the right preparation.

If you haven’t already gotten a party of willing players to hand, you can look for people to play D&D with in a variety of places. There’s in-person options such as local board game cafes or shops - many of which host their own D&D nights - as well as conventions such as PAX Unplugged or London MCM Comic Con, though your access to these may vary. Alternatively, there are several online options such as Start Playing Games, which is a website that connects players with game masters, and the D&D Adventurers’ League: an official Dungeons & Dragons community of DMs and players. 

Once you’ve found your players, you’ll want to start planning your campaign. Dungeons & Dragons can be all sorts of things to all sorts of people, but at its core it’s a game about exploration, which is exactly why worldbuilding matters when starting your first campaign. As its architect, your goal is to provide a world your players are going to want to explore, to look in all its nooks and crannies as well as follow the obvious main storyline.  

A photo of the 2024 version of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook open to Chapter 1, Playing the Game.
The basic rules for playing the most recent version of Dungeons & Dragons can be found in the 2024 version of the D&D Player's Handbook. (Wizards of the Coast)

The first step along this particular path is to determine what type of world you want to make for your players. When it comes to genre, the sky’s the limit. DMs have made D&D work for everything from science fiction to horror to post-apocalyptic. However, for the purposes of this article, we’re going to use different flavors of fantasy to illustrate how to use inspirations to create your world. 

It’s helpful to think about your personal favorite fictional worlds and stories. Maybe, like many of us, you’re a fan of The Lord of the Rings series of novels and/or films. Which elements from TLoTR could you use as inspiration for your own world? Perhaps a land inhabited by vastly different species, who are able to come together against a common enemy - like the hobbits, elves, dwarves and men against Sauron. Or powerful relics that pose a terrible threat if placed in the wrong hands: mirroring the role the One Ring played in Sauron’s reign of power over Middle-earth. Maybe you’re a lover of classical fantasy like the Legend of King Arthur. You might take inspiration from the concept of chivalry and knightly romance, creating a world where people are encouraged to perform noble deeds for a higher purpose. Finding clear inspirations for your worldbuilding will give your campaign a reliable rudder to steer its story.   

However, you don’t have to do all your campaign worldbuilding from scratch. The beauty of playing Dungeons & Dragons is being able to choose from a huge variety of resources created for the game. These resources include entirely pre-written campaigns - both official and homebrew - that you can use if you’re not 100% confident in starting from scratch and/or simply don’t have the time to make absolutely everything. Campaign books like Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus and Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep both feature fully formed storylines - complete with locations, enemies and items - for you to either adapt for your own campaign or just use wholesale. Alternatively, sites like DrivethruRPG  have tons of resources - from guides to harvesting to ship combat - you could utilize in your campaign. 

Whether you’re running an entirely original campaign set in an original world or you’re using a pre-written one, it’s still a good idea to have a condensed campaign structure to hand. Though the art of good DMing comes from being able to improvise - especially when your players choose to sidestep your initial adventure hook - having a collection of key moments, characters, locations and events to hand will give you a lot more confidence in managing your campaign. Why should your players pursue your story? Maybe there’s a central event that binds all the player characters together, like the destruction of the city they call home. This could lead them to the ruins of a previously leveled city where they might find some answers, here they may run into a non-player character who witnessed the event first-hand, but won’t tell the group anymore until they save their kidnapped friend. 

Of course, it’s not guaranteed that your players are going to immediately follow along with each part of the story you’ve laid out. Part of the appeal of tabletop roleplaying is the freedom players have to make a wide variety of choices. However, having a selection of resources to hand, will enable you to be flexible in your DMing and respond to your players’ whims quickly. You could create and store these resources via Legendkeeper, whether they’re pages outlining interesting characters for players to talk with, maps for locations to explore - with pins highlighting points of interest - or stat blocks of a enemy type for players to fight: they’re elements you could quickly whip out at a moment’s notice to keep your players engaged.   

Front cover artwork for the 2024 version of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook.
There are a ton of D&D resources out there for dungeon masters in the making to use when planning, from annotated maps to pre-made campaigns. (Wizards of the Coast)

Once you’re ready, and your players have created their characters - which you should provide guidance in wherever it’s needed - it’s generally a good idea to hold a session zero before launching into your campaign proper. A session zero is essentially a dry-run of the campaign, allowing players to introduce their characters, get their very first taste of your world and settle into roleplaying together: all without the pressure of a combat encounter or any serious stakes. It’s also a fantastic tool for gauging how your players respond to your initial campaign plans, providing the opportunity to see which aspects they seem to be drawn to and the ones they’re not as keen on. You can then use this feedback to continue writing the campaign, as well as alter any existing elements to make them more enticing for your group. 

Make sure you take notes during your sessions - wherever you can - so you can keep track of which of your resources you’ve used, where your players are in your campaign and what decisions they’ve made. This isn’t just good organization, it’s also a great source of inspiration for writing more of your campaign, as you can introduce new adventure hooks and events in the form of consequences for players’ previous choices. For example, if a player decided to steal something from another character, then that theft victim could return in the form of an antagonist. 

Most importantly, don’t strive for perfection. It’s okay not to be prepared for everything, it’s okay to lean on your players to drive the story sometimes and it’s okay for a campaign-beat to not necessarily go the way you’d planned. You should be having fun along with your players, but you absolutely won’t be if you’re constantly picking apart your performance as a DM. If you’re focusing on everyone having a good time - including using safety tools like the X-card and a consent topic list - then you’re undoubtedly going to start a great D&D campaign.

 

Published
Written by Alex Meehan

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