How to Start Your D&D Games

I started them all in different places of town this most recent time

I would like a transcript of this, or at least the key points, so that I can teach my AI DM how to actually DM. AI is great and all but mine said that they could run the Witchlight campaign for me and I am completely lost. It did not introduce a plot hook, it put the carnival IN THE FEYWILD!, and everything I try to do or say to elicit some sort of direction to proceed results in the NPCs saying "explore the carnival, everything is merry and bright", paraphrasing because... AI.

One hook I've used a few times is "you all met in a tavern". MET, past tense. The game starts after the fact, with each party member being interrogated by a guard captain about something that happened that night. This gives the players a chance to introduce their characters, establish connections between them without having to roleplay, and allows you to introduce the villain or problem they'll have to deal with. From there you can springboard into the adventure by having the captain hire the party to deal with the situation.

Weird how a 7 minute video was made to say "in a tavern".

Thank you

start them in a prison. works every time.

My players are gonna meet inside a cage that is being carried around by horse-riding kobolds, they were captured and need to find a way out, they will introduce their characters, escape the cage and fight the kobolds right near the entrace of a kingdom

The Shrek moment literally made me cry and laugh simultaneously

I would play to learn from you irl

"Your party awakens in a damp dark cellar - naked and covered in a myriad of fluids, some recognizable, some not."

the acting of these always sells it for me lol, so much energy

The best starting scenario I've seen was a funeral.

Every Player Character had known this one man in different ways over his long life.
Two were his close friends
One was resentful and coming for closure
One expected something from his will
And one was a fugitive who'd come to find his help as an old father figure only to find out he was dead.

Everyone had a good reason to be talking and meeting but some of them were nervous about speaking too much for in-character reasons like thinking he'd been a bastard or...being wanted for murder. And the ones who did talk a lot were demonstrating things about their characters by how they acted in a somber buttoned up setting. One trying to commiserate with everyone's grief and another getting drunk and shouting.
Lots of fodder for characterization in each approach.

Then the Guards suddenly close the doors and say that no one is allowed to leave.
Fugitive is panicking.
Drunkard is outraged
Diplomat is sure there's a misunderstanding.

No, the deceased was suspected of being involved in a conspiracy and they believe his conspirators will have shown up to the funeral.
Now everyone will be interviewed by the investigators

Half the players refuse to believe these accusations
Half are worried about being discovered for other reasons

And none of the players know if another player actually was working with the dead man on something very bad.

Can the players fight the guards and escape? Absolutely, being on the run is a wonderful first arc for binding a party.
Can the players cooperate and unravel the mystery? Absolutely. Another wonderful first arc that reveals a lot about themselves and and things occurring in the world.

Choice, room for neutral conversation, emotional stakes, danger, AND built in exploration of the characters themselves.

You're funny, good video

"You're going to steal everyone's ideas." You got me.

I like starting my games in an encampment, either a tribal area where the party is/captured or a camp the party made to get to a certain town/area.

I start new groups in a carriage that gets attacked after introductions.

REAL first step: get friends...

Tavern, got it

I've been toying with the idea introducing the players during a tavern brawl. Gives everyone a chance to kind of show off their character's personality, maybe the big, brash barbarian is laughing and engaging in casual niceties all while beating down other patrons, or the anxious tiefling warlock cowers under a table, the same table the Kenku bard is standing on top of, loudly reciting poetry to an audience more interested in pummeling each other.

Seems a lot better than "you're in a tavern, tell us about your character" by providing a fun prompt for the players to roleplay off of. I wouldn't even have them roll, just build the narrative of the fight off of their actions. Of course, this assumes your players aren't completely socially inept and/or uninterested in RP entirely.

Finding people who actually want to play and scheduling a time to meet up is truly the real challenge trying to run a D&D campaign!

I had my campaign start with a dragon attack onto the village the party was residing in and they helped each other escape from the burning ruins and ran towards the nearest village

My very first time writing a homebrew campaign, I had a class called the alchemist, which one of my players chose. Before the game started, I had the alchemist roll a dex saving throw, which he failed. I started them in a tavern, of course, but because he failed the save, the tavern was completely engulfed in flames.

lets say start in a tavern, if everyone doesnt do enything. two npc start fighting and one gets thrown on a players table ruining their food. time to react.

I'm about to start to start a new game and i decided to have a session 0 in what is essentially a Medieval bus station 😂
Figured they'd get to know each other, have a fight start, and argue with tired employees would be funny. That and their ultimate goal for that sessions is to GET to the town where the rest of the campaign actually takes place in.

Todd Howard has to hire you for Elder Scrolls 6 ASAP, that acting at the end was LEGENDARY.😂

Well put

My first game as a newbie DM is starting off with the players shopping before a big ass prison riot and escape spills over into the center of town where they are at

Taverns are located in a town or city and it's where people gather, a few ways I thought of to do a unique tavern set up a bit out of the box is, all players have been traveling through a dark moon and starless night as thunder rolls in with the promise of a heavy rain storm you all one by one enter this tavern to seek shelter till the storm pass and some much needed food and warmth, (the person who wants to go 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th and so on have picked the line up) with the first person who enters describe a warm cozy tavern that's oddly very dead, and oddly only one table is set up there's a few spots at the bar but the table near the fire looks the best so it is picked. As the first person approaches the table the barkeep yells out, Hey, if you sit there you have to be okay with others joining you, we an't fix'n a mess of tables for one person each especially since we never even use all the tables and chairs!" (This way the players are lol forced to sit together) and introduce each other, make note and comment on how dead the tavern is, why because the first quest is to ride the village of a ....whatever that terrorizes the town's folk as the tavern is the first structure you come to as you enter the village or town it serves as an Inn, as well, and though it sits on the man road it's backed by dense deep dark woods that hinge on chocking the tavern.

Another location or way to force player introduction and action:

A note taken from the new DnD movie, each one of the players have been in prison (I have charges or crimes and their sentences written on paper in envelopes that the players roll for to get randomly and in the envelope is also a letter from a ....whoever as for help from them if they could break out of prison or get paroled or pardon get a group together from prison met at lol the tavern, a castle, wherever this letter promises a reward just for showing up and more of help is given or whatever, this way the group all have a reason to work together to get out of prison a promise of loot or gold when they meet with the author of the letter, but this takes intro and action and brings them together) lol I put that all in the parenthetical and now I have now follow up lol, but you get the point.

Heres a funny one, each player saw an ad flyer to be professional mourner at a local funeral, and although the flyer tells where to go and how much the bottom information of who died is missing from the funeral flyer, players fake mourn laughs through the tears I promise you, DM chips gold, silver or copper to the best one then they are asked to intro themselves and how they knew the deceased? (Mind you no details of who had died is given they have to guess). Each player intros themselves and yadda yadda, and then when all are done and paid the DM /slash Cleric presiding over the funeral closes and talks about Alice the Cat, Samson the Bird, Doug the Dog, anything make it an animal pet as most people hired to mourn will think it's a human that died. With any luck if the player asks for a name you can absolutely give them a human name and then after all the heartache and trouble lol it's over a pet rat or gold fish. But then it begs the question, why were we hired to mourn? It was a clever way to round up adventures who were willing to do anything for money will possibly be interested in more, and I needed people who are bold, caring, imaginative. The way a DM can get out of anyone who wants to roll a intuition or investigation check lol tell them denied as there is no danger here. That way you don't have to spill or spoil the fun. It's great when as the DM you ask oh yeah you and Sam went way back huh, and then they say something like yeah they helped me get my first job or introduced me to my ex-wife/ex-husband, or lead them as tray and ask yeah did Alice help you find your lost bracelet in the woods, some say she was good at finding lost things...and it's a freaking Gold Fish.

Or everyone wakes up in a large metal box that's slowly filling with water, a clue on the ceiling reads that the door will only open based on your name and what and who you are...a real easy puzzle lol if you can even call it that, but don't forget the water is rising and they will drown. Now, if you get a player that wants to be a jerk and not speak just to see if they all die, then they all die, but those who spoke are Resurrected fully and made whole without any punishment as if nothing had happened to them, the player that was a jerk is not resurrected but players can choose and or roll to rez the jerk. Anyway long enough to have been typed on my phone sorry for auto correct mistakes, phone reasons and too long in this small box to edit. Be well and be safe all!!! Thanks for reading!!!

What I just watched? What an awesomely crafted video. Congrats

Starting a game for new players and of course the two first time players are building a Angel bard and a teifling wizard.. already know they won't get along and thier turns will be filled with choice overload

The thumbnail was too good

I personally like starting the campaign with the party already having accepted a quest

"I'M LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!"

I lost it

Can an absolute Chad out there tell me the name of the first song used?

The thumbnail had me laughing so hard 😂😂

This is actually the best video I've seen to introduce someone into being a DM, Coming from someone who will be hosting his first campaign in a few weeks.

Idea :D When you are going to make the characters start knowing eachother you can make the characters/players play real poker as in the story world, one round or two and gamble with some random chips while precenting each character to a another character! or smt like that😅

That Yawning Portal terrain is great, who made that?

I need to send this to my dm.

DM: You enter the cave. What do you do?

Great video, very funny, very creative.

i know this video is kind of old in terms of internet stuff so my comment likely won't be seen, but i was wondering if there's still a way to purchase the twisted taverns content despite the kickstarter no longer allowing pledges. the concept seems really cool and i would love to try it out, but i had missed the pledge period

The party awakes unconscious in the back of a wagon
Npc says to one of the pc's "hey you, your finally awake. You were trying to cross the imperial border same as ys, got caught in that ambush"

So can the dungeon master play as a character to? If not that’s what I’m gonna do. And can your world be anything? Or does it always have to be like dragons and elf’s and warlocks? Or can you do anything you want?

im going to throw all my players inside the cage of a circus.
This will be my first time dming and I have no idea what I'm doing

Thanks!

i started in a taven then i made 3 goblings beat a random guy up and no on tryk to help him but the just dont Care then i go to help the random guy then the look at me the starts to beat my ass up and now i am geting beat up and the just dont Care untill i say ‘HLEPP HELP AHHHHH’ then the come to help me later gurds show up the “try” and help us then the try to kill a gobling the hit the gobling 1 TIME then the both miss then one of my friends looks at Them then he trys to jump to tablet to tablet but the rolled under What the need the the Fall off the tablet i run the try and shot one of the goblings with my bow then MISS and hit the bartender in his guts and pins him to a Wall then a lil later my a gobling chops a random Guys finger and our wizard trys to power up our Bean guy but it Will be hard then he Rolls and g’ets a 5 and miss and hits a random guy and the random guy says “ WOOOOO WHAT IS THIS POWER I FEEL ALVAE!” Then he jump in to a Window and he was just a random guy then after we kill the goblings me and my friend go to Jail bc we kill two men and our wizard needs to pay all his coins a new finger bc the say he was the one Who chop the random Guys finger then my two orther friends the wizard and the Big tank needs to try and get me and my friend the Bean guy out of Jail the find out were the Jail is the try and walk over the then i make Them Roll for check the get 11 both and the doge a Wall explode with 3 robers runding away and the just dont Care and Picks up the coins the fell on the Ground and one of Them gets a nat 20 and a 13 the Pick up 33 coins up and then the go to the Jail and go into an Office the beat the guy up and get his Keys to Jail Room 122 and Big metal door the scane the Room and find a helmet and the wizard gets it and then we stop til we play next time goodbye

you look like pyrocynical

This was a helpful video. I am planning a one shot as a way to test the waters for dming. I hope that it will be fun for my friends as some of them are not first time players. But there super nice and supportive.