Really feel like trying to run a D&D campaign at my local wargames club, but I haven't got a clue how to go about starting one. Anyone with experience with D&D got any tips on how to start/run a campaign from scratch?

Lots and lots of planning. And even then, you'll think you've planned for everything and one of the player's will come outta nowhere do something you didn't expect! (I'm very good at doing this when my brother is DM-ing games )

When you're actually running it, you've got to be flexible and be able to adapt to what your party want to do, half of it is just making it up as you go along. I believe the Dungeon Master's Guide has a lot of information on how to go about starting, and the DM section of the WotC website is very handy too (especially if you can afford to subscribe to D&D Insider). Create your locations, as well as the general area your party will be in for the foreseeable future (or use somewhere which already exists in the Forgotten Realms) and draft out a simple map. Then work out what your quest/storyline/plot will be, and break that up into sessions and encounters (roughly). Try and add in some elements of your own which will require the party to work together to solve a puzzle or figure out the best way to go about something. Work out any loot in advance, create NPC's with as much background as you can possibly be bothered to do e.g. shopkeepers, mayor of the town etc. Overall, don't get too worried if nothing goes as you planned - it probably won't.

How much are you expecting people to roleplay? Not at all? A little bit? Or full on method-acting? How are you going to stage it? Traditional pencil-and-paper? Boards and miniatures? Try and give your players as much of an experience they'll enjoy as possible, and you'll reap the rewards. The books have more of the mechanics side of things, this was more just a summary of basic stuff you need to think about. I can probably try to go into more detail where I can if you tell me what you want to know.

Cheers,
Raccy.

Well to be honest, I'm not sure how much interest there'll be or what sort of gamers those who will be interested would turn out to be, i.e. no idea if I'd end up with a group actually interesting in roleplaying or a group who just want to go monster bashing; That said, I'd rather have things planned out before hand, that way, if all they want is to monster bash, I can just strip away the fluff stuff and just let them grind through the dungeons. Plus, if there is no interest, I can always just keep it on my harddrive/in a book/whatever until I have chance to use it. A major obstacle is that the average attention span for a new game at my club is akin to that of a magpie


Personally, I'd like to a have a game with a mix of roleplaying and combat - i.e. so there'd be reasons that the party is going arround killing stuff rather than just for the sake of killing and loot.

As for the combat, I was thinking of modifying the rules given in the rulebooks so that it could be played on regular gaming boards with regular gaming scenery (or at least with those things for above ground combat) by simply changing refence to squares to inches (e.g. say Bob the ranger has movement of 5 squares, then I'd change that to movement of 5").

At the moment, I'm not sure of what story line to use, although I was thinking of something involving zombies and skeletons so that I have an excuse to get arround to painting some Zombie and Skellie minis I bought ages ago but haven't got arround to painting yet Another thing is I'm not sure how to start things off - I'd like to avoid the cleched "You all meet in a pub" reason for everyone being together



Oh, and it'd probably help if I tell you I'm planning on using 4ed (only one I've got rulebooks for )

Still working on this, slowly

Sketched a map:



Numbered so I can talk about it:


1: City (yet to be nammed). 'Starting point' for the campaign. Capital city of the region. Still to work out details for it, but already have a couple of ideas that could be used
A) only has ~100 troops present (the rest are away campaigning or something) [handwave for why the PCs would be hired to investigate the dead raising]
B) possibly run by a council of merchants (originally founded by a king, king died leaving no heir so the barons started quarrelling, allowing the merchants to sieze power over time)
C) if council run, then I have an idea for a criminal organisation/guild the PCs could face at some time; run by three 'half-orc' brothers, i.e. they have half-orc parents, but one is pure half-orc, while the other two are pure orc and pure human respectively.

2: Port city (yet to be named). Has a lighthouse nearby (the tower thing on the island). No ideas for this yet.

3: City. Working name 'Lyceum'. City of artists, craftsmen, scholars, etc. Contains temples to relevant gods. Light/no miliatary defences.

4: Town (yet to be named). Halfling settlement. No ideas for this yet.

5: Town/twin villages. Names are either Westbank and Eastbank, or Nearbank and Farbank. No firm plans for these, though I have a vauge idea of having the PCs arrive at one and go to the local inn to drink, then when they enquire about rooms be told the inn's fully booked and to try the inn in the other village, allowing the PCs to get ambushed on their way (although why they get ambushed i have yet to figure out).

6: Town (yet to be named). Sits at the foot of a pass through the mountains. There is a draon/giant/some big beasty up in the pass cutting off trade (mid level monster to act as a road block until the party is ready to go to the next 'area'). Side quest idea is to have the party hear about a famous paladin who tried to kill the monster but failed; when the PCs do get arround to defeating the monster they find the Paladin's body. He had with him a magic sword which needs to be returned to his order (if there is a paladin in the party was thinking of talking that playing into having his character be from the same order, giving the party incentive to return the sword)

7: Inn. Name 'Halfway House'.

8: Town (yet to be named). No ideas for this yet.

9: Tomb - destination for the first quest. Is the tomb of the king who founded the kingdom, and has been invaded by a necromancer/lich/etc who is causing the dead to raise. The king raised as an undead creature would act as a 'boss' for the dungeon.

10: Mountain/city. Capital of a Hobgoblin empire. The dead rising causes the hobgoblins to mass and come south to invade the kingdom at some point.



Anyone got suggestions on names for the places listed above and any NPCs that could be in those places?

Looks a really good a details map