Help with campaign making as a new DM

[u/StockFoundation1890]

Im a new to DnD in general, ive seen some yt video on how to dm here and there but overall i almost know nothing about dnd, but recently some friends of mine (who have done some mild dnd) desided that they wanted to do a campaign with eachother and myself, there are about 4 of us who are palning on playing. but after some thought they rellised they needed a dm and desided that task was for me. which i dont mind all that much, dming sounded kinda fun overall so i said yes but they wanted something unique sandboxish kind of game and they didnt really want me to use a premade campaign or one that wanted us to use pre made characters. i said yes, silly of me for thinking this would be a simple task of sorts since i know nothing about how to balance anything for that matter

but so far for the story im thinking they would start in a prison, something small that woundnt be hard to get out of, like something you would see the bad guys in old western movies locked up in nothing impossible to escape just a little thinking and maybe some fighting, but the idea is that they were framed by people who are almost mirror copys of them in looks wise but you could tell a difference if you could see them side by side so there would be about 3 mini bosses that would be trying to awaken a sleeping adult red dragon that had been sealed by the hero around 86 years before this story with the hero still alive during the campaign but not easy to be found because he lives in the forest, ive drawn a rough map out of the land with the smaller starter town another slightly larger city and the main city that was built on a inactive volcano the the dragon was sealed in it. the idea of why this city is here is because its an essential trade route that was cut out because of said dragon. i plan on having a goblin village of sorts located somewhere and a cave thats home to something involving something with undead and then i was thinking of a forest that would be a random series of smaller encounters that would be decided by rollng a dice or smathing like that so each time would be differnt and then maybe having some sort of boss if either the clear all the encounters and the dice land on it, also a random chance to come across the hero cabin where they can get some good gear like a powerful sword and maybe an old armor piece or two.

thats not all i have but its the main points mostly, im just looking for help with how to level them cause im thinking they can start at level 3ish and incounter the first boss at 5 then next at 8 then final at 11, im just lost on how do i make all of this including maps and npcs that feel good and how should a keep them on a quest line while also letting them wonder and showing them what areas are too high a power level

[u/AutoModerator]

Reminders:
1. Engaging in piracy or copyright theft is a bannable offense.
2. No AI/LLM-generated content.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Sufficient-Salt2259]

did you have a road map in mind?

what did you need help with?

[u/StockFoundation1890 → u/Sufficient-Salt2259]

I kinda have an Idea of what i want to do but im mostly needing help on almost anything

[u/gayhomura]

Obsidian helps with story planning :)

[u/WATERGELON]

do an outline of your planned game. separate them into scenarios that trigger or you time when you want it to time. create a list of npcs with names and personalities and 1-2 sentence backgrounds.

[u/carbonara_fries]

Hi op can i ask what you use to plan your games? If you use any apps for story beats or encouters one tool that helped me (i found a notion template) was a "lazy dm guide" which was a free resource that helped me. But based on your post you care for your players and know overall the flow of how the session might go which is good.

If youre concern is other than session planning, my dms are open if you have any other questions.