DnD question

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Me & my friends want to start a DnD campaign, we already have all the books necessary and i have the great task of being the DM (along with a friend of mine, we have chosen to have 2 DM's so it would be easier for our first campaign)

I've read some things about it and i think a campaign with quests that need thinking instead of 'just killing that bunch of goblins' would be much more fun (i think the players would like it that way aswell)

now my question is... how do you make a campaign that isn't all fighting?

maybe someone could give me some examples...?

that way i hope that this campaign won't become too boring

 

I would like to suggest to you that you start with something simple, a simple dungeon crawl (I know you don't want combat heavy quests but you need to get the hang of DMing and that's the easiest way to start.) Also, I'd hold off on having two DMs, that will get complicated way too fast (unless you plan to delegate responsibility for different areas to the other DM (I still don't recomend that though.))
Like I said, just start off simple so you and the players can get to know the mechanics of combat, of role playing and so forth. Reading the manuals is one thing, actually implementing something or that first combat are completely different things entirely (I've been playing D and D for 12 years so I've seen it all...)

 

Like Atreides said, just start out with a simple dungeon crawl, few things to kill, maybe some traps, ya know real simple. Make it big enough that they get to lvl 2 in that (easy job). Then, after that, do one of the adventures in the DnD adventure books (you can find some online here at SP). Once you feel comfortable after one or more of those, start trying to make up your own, or using the adventure books, but changing things around a bit.
I also do not recommend 2 DM's tho....

 

I agree with the simple dungeon crawl to begin with, as to your question about not making it kill all goblins in sight, you could have the players not know their current xp, just tell them when they level. This way they'll probably not go to unconsciously pursue teh last gobling for 30min for the extra 10xp, and eliminate a lot of annoying questions regarding xp "how many xp do we get? Do we get xp for killing that PC?"

Detective work is a great idea for something non-combat related. Could be a theft of some wizard's spellbook, or an assassin to some NPC close to the players, hten they would have to find and follow some clues you give them, and ask around town. Figure out who's running the spy-network in town, or what old inn-regular who see and hear everything of people stopping by, stuff like that.

 

Another thing you could do is to purchase a pre-made adventure. They usually are fairly balanced and can give you a lot of ideas about designing adventures.

For additional ideas of things that are not all hack and slash, get the "Book of Challenges". It has many ideas for traps and "thinking stuff", plus many ways to challenge a party using some mundane monsters. For example, try putting a gelatinous cube at the bottom of a pit trap.

 

Thank you all for your advise

For all those people that are going to 'not reccomend' 2DM's... We have already tried a few quick starter things (not very difficult quests 2 single-DM ones and one double-DM one) to let the players and the Dm's get to know the game a bit, and I like the way the story ends up when you have 2 DM's (very different then i had imagined, it helps me get new idea's for quests) and if we try it this way is just our choice... if this doesn't work out so be it.. we'll try a single-DM campaign then.

I presume the people advising me to start with a dungeon crawl mean that i have to start in a dungeon and let them kill lots of monsters that are all walking around there waiting to be slaugtered.. i think that's a good idea and i'll try and start with that
The players will need to learn to watch out for traps aswell so they will also be present..

Lokken: I think i like the XP idea, but isn't it a bit difficult later on when you are able to spend your XP points on certain things?

Baldak: I have already thought of using those pre-made adventures but i don't really have the money for buying them (maybe that's why we've started a P&P game instead of a computer one )
I will look for them on the internet and see if i can get some idea's from those stories..

There's just one thing left... I don't think i'm gonna make this dungeon crawl thing last very long because the players are easily bored with that.. i still would like some idea's from you on how to make a quest that doesn't involve fighting.

 

later on there'll be certain situations where the xp question will arise. At this point, you could just tell them if they need to know. If they want to create items, or certain xp heavy spells.

as for non-fighting plots, here is a few ideas that don't necessarily has fighting in them, but a fight could be easily put in:

Could have players go through a court and need to gather evidence by bribing or sneaking around, could include use of divinations too or just normal talking to people and gain friends.

Another way could be to play the spy or infiltrator game, like someone hires the group to get inside an evil fortress to open the gates so a strike team can rush in. That way the players won't do the actual fighting if planning carefully. (could be either way, depends if the group is good or evil)

Free someone from prison during the night, escaping unnoticed. Could be like a rebel leader, eg. robin hood like character and have him returned safely to his woodsmen in the forest.

[ October 22, 2002, 21:45: Message edited by: Lokken ]

 

A dungeon crawl as defined by my friends and I is a really monster infested area (level dependent) located near a town where the PCs can run back to and rest.
One thing you need to be careful of is restricting your PCs to one single set of events. You and your other DM need to learn game play mechanics before trying something like this, but once you learn them you can have a story with multiple paths for the characters to tread. For example, the DM for my friends and I has us in Westgate (not a really nice place to be) but we can do just about anything we want. However, the world is "alive" so if one of your characters robs a merchant and gets caught the whole city will know about it and the guards aren't likely to look too kindly on that individual. Again, this is some pretty advanced stuff, but this is a possible path that you and your other DM could take.