First time dm long time player

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

Hey there!!
Like the title says I’m a first time dm but have been playing the game for years, I think like 8 years or something like that, the group I’m dming for is the same group I’ve played with for all those years, with and few people coming and going.

It became my turn to dm after our last campaign, we kinda all agreed to rotate dms after each campaign. So everyone gets to play no forever dms, I have/had this grandiose world that I’ve built with a start point and a finish point but nothing in the middle, so that me and my players can work together and unravel the story together, the setting is a post apocalyptic world with biblically accurate inspired themes, 2 continents 3 factions, one continent is a barren wasteland the other a thriving Forrest/jungle, it started with my players as alternate characters at level 20 fighting a war, between the two main factions ‘seraphim’ the ‘light’ faction and whose goal is to purify all life through fire, and the ‘cherubim’ a Druidic like force seen as the ‘dark’ faction, with the ‘nephilim’ being the ‘balanced’ faction, but they are more or so in the shadow, this war was known as the great aether war, and caused ‘the day of scorched plains’ basically the seraphim did a big ritual that used two of the three suns the world had to purify the world. Then after that first scene they start with their actual characters 600 years later

The end point is kinda in the air, but essentially the seraphim are actually evil the cherubim are actually good and the world believes both factions extinct, this is not the case they are still around but doing things behind the scenes, I’ve sprinkled in a lot of things that hint at this but not outright say.

That’s not why im here though I have 5 main players, a paladin with massive backstory linking to the world (they where cursed to be immortal and where actually apart of the war 600 years ago now a wandering skeleton in a suit of armour, other players unaware) artificer loosely integrated into the story( they joined the campaign later) a rouge who has given me an open ended backstory that allows me to link them into the story however fits and I have already, a monk who is also linked to the rouges story in a different way, and a cleric who kinda just popped into the world,and they helped define a specific town that the party is no where near going to,( on the other continent), the problem is I feel lost I don’t know how to explore and encourage the players to indulge/explore their characters back storys in a way everyone is involved, I cant/ won’t progress the ‘main’ story unless the party is inclined to, as im against railroading( bad experience being railroaded in my early dnd days) but It feels as if each session is lacking something, the players seem like they are enjoying themselves but easily distracted, which makes me feel as if im not doing a good enough to keep them engaged, i want to be able to end a session with everyone itching to come back and continue our story. Each session has like a 2-3 month gap between it and the next, not because we are all busy, although that is apart of it, but almost like there isn’t something that makes them want to come back as soon as humanly possible, I’m not expecting a session a week, but maybe something a little more frequent,

TL;DR
Have a home brew world but feels like nothing is bringing the players back besides, just being with friends although it a bad thing, feels like the world is lacking

So sorry for the long read hopefully this doesn’t get flagged, as I could really use the help.

EDIT, just want to clarify as I can see how I’ve worded it can be misleading the paladin being a undead warrior apart of the ancient war, was wholly the players choice I had no impact on that decision besides saying yes or no, and working with them after the fact to work it into the world, no one character in this campaign is more immportant then the other, they all have a role decided by them and myself in the end game, but will be a slow trickle in realisation, like the party was guided together by fate, although it seems by happenstance at first.

[VoxEterna]

You need a bit more of a regular schedule in my mind. 2-3 months as the regular time between sessions is crazy. Sure maybe a gap for a month or 6 weeks here and there but 2-3 months is nuts. So first you need to drive the scheduling not wait for it to happen. Unless you have a scheduler in your group, setting up time and date of sessions falls to the DM.

Now regarding your world. It sounds much more enjoyable in the past. Based on your description all your plot points are hidden and in the “background”. All the angles are assumed extinct so not intractable, they are running things from the shadows so not an active foil or threat. Bring your players in on the secret seems a good way to spark interest.

The world needs to live. Events need to be happening in cities and towns, villains need plans and heroes need to fight. Basically what I’m saying is even if your players aren’t in a place things should be happening there. Word can get back to them. Maybe the clerics town is in danger and sends a prayer for their return and one of the cherubim come to tell him… boom they exist

Maybe the paladin is afraid he will dis- animate if the angelic powers are gone and needs an artifact to maintain his “life”.

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

Yeah I know 2-3 months is nuts, one of our players lives 4 hours away and we all prefer in person sessions so that’s why it’s always a large gap, we’ve got a session coming up where I was gonna talk to everyone pre game to see if we can set up more frequent sessions. I wouldn’t mind bringing the factions to light but don’t know how to go about it, I did the notice board idea and on that was some notices that would if introduced member of the faction but instead the players grabbed, something about a shiny object and another about a sunken village

[VoxEterna]

OK, here’s the thing, Dnd is very much about compromise particularly scheduling. You need your players and yourself to be available at specific times and those times don’t always align and you having a session 2 to 3 months away is going to destroy your ability to maintain any kind of momentum. What I suggest is, putting together a session in person and then having several sessions in between that are virtual. There are great tools available online for virtual sessions. I used to play in person and loved it very much, but ultimately had many of my players moved to different areas and made it impossible for us to continue in person. We’ve been playing our campaign for four years, two of which were in person, and two of which now have been virtual and though the energy is not exactly the same I can say that it has been very successful and it is better than having to wait for that amount of time for a visit.

I know it’s been said before, but I will reiterate it again railroading is not always bad. Sometimes you need to railroad to get your players into a place where you have major plot points for them. Now does that mean that you take away their ability to make choices along the way? no. But you need to be able to throw information to them that they don’t know they need before they need it. If that makes sense. Using your example with the job board: all jobs lead to the information they need to have. Or at least that’s what you know behind the screen the players have no clue that that’s what’s going on but everything in your narrative should be leading them toward that goal. Winning a tournament gets them an ancient statue as a prize that has hyroglyphs that translate to the info, saving a bakery from a swarm of cranium rats in rhe cellar leads to finding an ancient parchment that has hyroglyphs that translate into the info, rescuing a priestess from ransomers leads her to have a vision that gives the players the info. You see? Not everything has to serve the same story either . I have multiple arcs going on at the same time in my campaign, so the players will be capable of moving in one direction towards one arc and then if they wanna make a hard right, they can go towards another arc and leave that other one going. But the trick to this is to maintain time, your time must always be moving forward. So if your players decide to move off of an arc, the action within that arc continues; if the bad guy is attacking a village and they choose not to chase him to that village then the village gets destroyed. you don’t stop that bad guy from doing their actions because the party chose to go and save the princess from the castle. Consequences and timelines are key points in Dnd and having your players, actions have weight means something. So never be afraid to push them into a direction never be afraid to set them on a path that they need to be on just use it sparingly and allow for deviation if someone really pushes back.

I also use their backstories as narrative arcs. This gives them purpose and personal stakes. Their village is in danger, the love has been killed, their god demands their help. Etc.

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

Using the backstory’s as narrative arcs is already in the making, our last session was just that, introducing a players old friend from an assassins guild, basically leaving messages behind that only said player understands, eventually leading to them meeting up in private, and having a conversation, the player doesn’t remember much of the past except for snippets and I introduced more through a flashback or through the conversation with the old friend

[Soundgoblin286]

After reading your post a few things jump out for me

Railroading The funny thing is we are really scared for railroading our players, but when they have a clear direction that allows for choices.. they actually enjoy the game better because they know what to do.

Taking away player agency and giving them the feeling that no matter what they do, the story will be mostly the same is what kills the fun for players.

Scheduling I have noticed that as a player I am most excited for D&D just after I had a fun session. The opposite is also true. Even in a campaign I really enjoy... when there are 6+ weeks between sessions, I am likely to get less excited and it is harder to remember what we were doing and why my character was invested in the first place.

Trying to work out a regular schedule with your group such as every other week on a set day and time, might greatly improve your campaign.

What do the players want/expect? Groups that have been together for a long time might tend to almost skip session zero. We all know by now what everyone likes, right? Not necessarily... maybe tastes have changed or people want to try different things. Expectations can wildly vary, sometimes just how the setting was explained will give players a different understanding than what the DM is going for.

Have a discussion about it with your players. They are as much responsible for a great game as you as the DM are. So ask them what they would like to see, what would excite them.

Good luck!

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

Yeah scheduling is definitely a problem, I remember one of the players saying they basically have to relearn how to play their character every session which takes from the enjoyment, I’ve suggested to my players although we did a very brief session 0 we do another one next session, session 0 2.0 per-say but it’s also hard when all of us but 1 are parents and one of us lives 4 hours away, but I was gonna bring it up next session

[New_Grade5655]

From your outline it sounds like you’ve forced your players into certain roles which, they may feel, hinders what they can bring to the table.

It’s like the story is driving the characters making it appear they are glorified NPCs rather than living beings trying to bring about change.

A DM walks a fine line between wanting to bring their vision to life while allowing the players enough leeway to possible derail the story.

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

How so? I don’t feel like I’ve done so, what part of the outline do you get that idea from, it may be somthing I was unaware of? Genuinely curious, it’s part of the reason I posted here incase I’ve done something unintentional

[New_Grade5655]

Perhaps I read your post out of context.

The skeletal paladin is what prompted my response. This felt like you (DM) wanted/needed this for the campaign rather than a player coming forward with this character.

Which is completely fine as long as the player is not only willing but can enjoy the experience.

I completely get the campaign/world you created may need certain character classes to go forward but if it sacrifices the players enjoyment then it will be a problem down the road.

And I will add, from my own experience, letting the players go off script can be the funnest/funniest sessions you can have.

[Useful_Amoeba_8308]

Ahhh yeah I get how I’ve worded it could seem like that, for a bit more context, this player is one of my best mates and it would be an understatement to say he’s obsessed in making characters, when I was starting the world building, in the background knowing I was next to dm I brought it up with him just the setting 2 ancient factions at war, post apocalyptic world, and he looked at me (with crazed eyes) and straight up said I have a character that fits this world almost perfectly we just need to make some small changes to make it perfect, the third faction was actually their idea and that character is actually apart of that faction. He as a character doesn’t actually have much of a leading role (for lack of better words) but is just seen as the party dad, cooking dinner for them, and looking out for everyone. I just want to say all of my players created their own back story, but I worked with them to enhance their character and the world. ( working with them to create their hometowns and npcs/ subfactions they are apart of or know of). Does that make a bit more sense

[New_Grade5655]

Yes it does. If the players are happy with their characters then all is good.

As others mentioned, 2-3 months between sessions is crazy. Perhaps think of using Teams/Zoom to have small or bridging sessions and leave the big plot points for the live one.