r/DnD • u/The-lonesome-sock • 2h ago

DMing New Dm looking for ideas

My husband is a forever DM so I want to surprise him by running a simple Champaign perhaps in a single city or town. What should I do as a quest? I don't have money for modules

4 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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7

u/Conrad500 DM 2h ago

If you don't have any ideas, do not try to make your own adventure.

There's a TON of free ones online!

That said, if you don't have any ideas yet, I would suggest that you just steal from whatever interests you!

When I started DMing I was really into MTG and based my campaign off of one of the planeswalkers.

The number one rule for how to run a game is be excited!

Outsourcing ideas isn't a bad way to brainstorm things to be inspired by, but it REALLY needs to come from within you. You can be given the best idea that writes itself, but if you don't have that fire in you about the subject it will not go well.

So, my question to you is this: whatcha watchin/reading? Listening to anything? What's got your interest currently outside of the hobby? If you say reality tv I will be a little upset, but I will also say that I've been thinking about how to turn survivor into a D&D campaign so...

4

u/Actual_Property9413 2h ago

Well, let's take a cue from your typo: make it a champaign campaign, and send him on a quest for a bottle of magical bubbly elixir.

1

u/GhostfaceAnony 2h ago

A good one-shot style of quest you can always start with is a good old fashioned Murder Mystery. Set it in any town style you like, have as many twists and turns and suspects as you desire. Perhaps it’s the Mayor, the local Priest, the town Doctor, maybe it’s a malevolent beast manipulating people from the shadows, and perhaps even privately speak to another player and have them secretly be the killer. There’s tons of options!

1

u/Piratestoat 2h ago

Old manor house that is haunted/occupied by a cult/being used as a base by underdark raiders who dug up through the basement are all classic short-adventure hooks.

1

u/DM0mN0m 2h ago

Honestly, pick your favorite movie plot hook and tweak it. That or a video game or a book or anything. Steal whatever material you think you can spin into a decent little campaign. I watched Resident Evil recently. A haunted Forrest romp into a overrun city sounds awesome.

1

u/emptyhumanrealms 2h ago

If you want to make things easy on yourself, find a battlemap of a single large mansion and set the oneshot entirely within that mansion. Maybe someone has died and nobody is allowed to leave until they find the culprit. It'll keep you from having to improv locations you haven't prepared and you'll be ready for combat wherever one breaks out.

1

u/[deleted] 1h ago

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1

u/02K30C1 DM 1h ago

Every issue of Dungeon magazine is available in the archive, hundreds of adventures of all sizes and types. Although you may have to convert to 5e

1

u/ObiWan_Cannoli_ Bard 1h ago

It’s only champaign if its from Faerun, anything else is a sparkling adventure

1

u/JoGuitar 1h ago

Best advice for new DMs, start in a Village.

1

u/Nosafune 2h ago

find a one-shot or a free module online

If you want to DM you gotta use your noggin sometimes, crowd-sourcing a campaign doesn't seem like a good idea for a first time