Q&A for How to Create a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign

It's Complicated. CR is a good starting point but it's not foolproof. It's based on conditions like having 12 encounters a day, using a standard array for hero stats, and a party of four characters. So, while it's useful for initial planning, you'll need to use your own judgment to fine-tune the difficulty of encounters.

If the campaign has a story-arc that includes a main antagonist, you can end it with accolades/celebration after the villain has been defeated, encouraging the characters to retire with some sort of noble titles/positions (or to pursue professions or independent character goals). Otherwise, you could keep going until characters are level 20, or until they're gotten powerful enough that you can no longer present plausible challenge for them. Make sure previous storylines have been satisfied, and make it rewarding for the players.

Absolutely. This can be really effective if the player maintains the secret, sabotaging the rest of the party from within.

To level up your PC, you need to acquire experience points (XP), which are awarded by the DM, usually from defeating enemies or finishing milestones in a campaign. After accumulating a certain amount of experience points, you gain a level and all the bonuses that come with it. Most of this can be found in more detail in the Player's Handbook.

1h means it takes one hand to hold the object, 2h means it takes two hands to hold the object.

You're the narrator, you can do many things. Perhaps your players have been captured and kept in prison, only to be released a week later by an unknown entity, or maybe they've been traveling for several days, but finally arrive at the city gates. Of course, it will vary depending on what kind of situation you have, but make sure your players do everything they want before the jump, or ask what their characters would do during the jump.

The dagger requires one hand to use, and the staff requires two. This comes into play for multiple-weapon use or spells with somatic parts (hand gestures).

Yes; if the characters are recognizable, it will be fun for the players and they'll have an idea of what to expect from the characters. Think about how each movie character would be adapted to your realm with regard to class, race, level, alignment, statistics, bonds, traits, equipment, etc.

It really depends on how long or detailed your campaign is. It can also depend on your experience level.

D&D is meant to be played with 4-5 people, including the DM. So, you can. But you most likely won't have as much fun since not as many ideas will be spread around.

If he needs help then for sure! GMs guild is practically this. If you want to play a campaign you designed, make sure he knows before-hand this, as to not offend him, by implying that his campaigns are bad, and he should do yours instead.

Yes. It should even be encouraged that players create a backup character just in case the main one dies. The DM will alter the narrative in order to introduce this new character into the game. However, don't be too quick to write off a character who's died; there are plenty of magical means of resurrection that the remainder of the party can consider to bring the character back to life.

It depends on what you mean by monsters, if you mean by Orcs and Bugbears and the like, then there are rules for that. It's more difficult if you want to play as Dragons but the only limit is your imagination. As for being a DM PC, you've really got to be careful about it because you don't want to overshadow your players. If you know what's coming in the dungeon you have an unfair advantage. I mitigated this by making by 1: not always having my character be there, and 2: my character is less powerful than the players. (I have 4 players, with level 4 characters, my character is level 1, and he's usually doing something else.)

Yes, absolutely! Although, it is very dependent on the environment of the campaign as to how much success you'll have.

An ability check is calculated by either the dungeon master or a player rolling a 20-sided dice. It determines how a player character preforms in a game. Example: if you were to roll a strength check to open a locked door, you would roll a d20 and depending on how high you got would determine whether you opened the door or not.

If you are inexperienced or if the party is particularly rowdy/complicated, then it might be a good idea to recruit help but it isn't mandatory.

As many as you like. An average number would be in the range of 3-6, but there's no limit. Keep in mind that very small groups make it more difficult for the DM to balance combat, and very large groups means that everything will take a lot longer because there will be more turns during battle and it will take longer for players to come to a consensus about what to do. Some DMs like to run campaigns with a lot of players but the players rotate in and out depending on who is available that day.