How to Make a Successful D&D Campaign

Familiarize yourself with the rules. Read the books for both the Dungeon Master and the players. Go over enough of the Monster Manual to understand how statistics work for determining creature abilities and how to incorporate them into encounters. The DM must be aware of all of the rules, whether they apply to how the game is run, what the players are capable of doing or how to handle the monsters.

Decide what kind of world your players will inhabit. D&D has a strong medieval flavor, but there's plenty of room to customize. Your basic worldview will determine the context of every adventure. You can design a world where magic and spells are common and there are fantastical creatures around every corner; you could also make an environment where the mystical is rare, increasing the impact and importance of running across a powerful wizard or magic item. Create a general outline for local politics, current events and landscape. There is no need to go overboard, just aim for some flavor. When you're done, name your world.

Create a common location for the players' characters to inhabit. A small town outside of a city is a good example. Ask the players how their characters know each other, whether they're related and how well they get along. Find out if they have been adventuring for years or if they've just met. Details like these allow you to bring verisimilitude to your campaign and give everyone the opportunity to engage in the focal point of D&D: role-playing.

Create your first adventure. Keep it simple and use a setting close to the characters' homes. Give them some information about the locale and design a proper lead in. Don't start your characters in the middle of a dungeon. Tell them a local resident's wife has gone missing and there are signs of a struggle leading off toward a natural cave entrance. Give them a reason to be curious and allow them to discover things on their own and with their own methods and character abilities.

Use successive adventures to build upon events in previous ones. While your first few adventures are best ran slowly and deliberately in order to give everyone time to adjust to the numerous game rules, subsequent ones should bring events and characters of greater importance into play. By your third or fourth adventure you should be thinking of a specific storyline and fleshing out recurring character roles to facilitate a goal or objective greater than the plot of any one adventure. This information should come to the players in a steady stream. Never hold back too much, but always keep them curious.

End each adventure with a cliffhanger. Part of a captivating and successful campaign is the ability to keep the players guessing, curious and wanting more. Adventures that end with resolutions take away the momentum of the grander idea of a persistent world with glorious quests and actions that have far reaching consequences. Never deny the players their victories, but always leave them wondering what's going to happen next.