First D&D Campaign Tonight? The 6 Must-Have Tips To Making It Memorable and Stress-Free

Maybe you’ve run some one-shots or even multi-night campaigns. But now you’ve made the decision to run a long-term campaign for many levels – maybe all the way to 20th. How do you make the jump? What do you need to know that will make the transition seamless? What are the differences between running a single session and many sessions that tell an epic, massive story?In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with our recurring special guest and player – the Monster Wrangler himself, Matt! Along the way, we discuss the tips, tricks, and pitfalls to making the jump to running a whole campaign. For all you new DMs, check out Episodes 29, 90, and 113 for more tips!4:00 What made Matt want to take it to the next level?6:40 Matt’s next level of immersive play: costume changes!8:30 What are you going to run? Homebrew? Published? What made Matt want to run Tyranny of Dragons?10:15 Tip #1: Published material is just information: use what you want.14:10 Tip#2: Balance out the stronger and weaker play styles.15:10 How to go forward when you have to have actions and consequences affect later sessions?20:38 Tip #3: How the make-up of your table will affect how you run the campaign.23:30 Tip #4: Let what the players offer to you about their character guide the campaign.26:55 What did Matt take away from the first session?30:00 Finding inspiration for the adventure hook and introduction.31:50 The consistent lack of good adventure hooks in the early 5e campaigns.33:50 How do you make a general campaign unique? Answer: The Players.36:30 Where do we go from here? Weaving the sessions together.42:20 Tip #5: Not every session will start as exciting as a dragon attack and that’s okay.43:15 Tip #6: “I wouldn’t have changed anything.” DM Matt reveals the best tip. You didn’t mess up or ruin anything. Don’t carry things with you into the next session. 45:25 Final Thoughts.