Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
How to Make a D&D Quest
Pick a level for your characters. The difficulty of all the challenges in this quest will be based on this level, as well as the monsters they are going to face. Lower-level quests will have less of a variety of monsters, but are much simpler to play. Higher-level quests have more spells, more attacks and more monsters, but are much more difficult to play and to lead. You can see what the characters can do at certain levels in the Players Handbook and what challenges lay in wait in the Monster Manual.
Make the main quest story. This is what the characters are trying to defeat or find. They might be looking for a treasure, defeating an army, finding out what has been taking over the Shadowdeep Caves. Either way, this will be the framework for the quest and the villains.
Fill in the quest. Look in the Dungeon Master's Guide for types of challenges to put your characters on. Look in the Monster Manual for monsters at the right level and lay them out on the path. The quest should have challenges, both with role-playing and fighting. You might want to draw out your first encounter on the whiteboard to start. This will allow you to place your bad guy markers at will and keep the game moving.
Let your gamers play. Tell them what level their characters are. Print out character sheets from the back of the Player's Handbook and use the first few chapters to fill them in. Then figure out a way to introduce them and start the mission. You have to find the happy medium between allowing the characters to make their own choices and leading them on the path you have designed. But the more you DM (dungeon master), the more you will find that medium.
Have fun. As the DM, you are storyteller, decision maker and god, at least in the world you have created. Don't let your game get bogged down in rules debates. If it comes down to it, make a decision and move on. Try to be consistent and fair, but keep in mind that if the game is engaging enough, your players will want to move on, too. Remember, it is not whether the range of a magic missile is 60 feet or 50, it is what sound the monster makes as it gets hit by one.