Me & my friends started up a tabletop group right before the pandemic hit. I was kinda put as default DM—I don’t think anyone else in our group was really up for the position. We played a whopping one session before the pandemic hit, and that’s all we played since. We were playing with Epithet Erased rules, so we didn’t have preset monsters or anything; I had to make [i]everything[/i]. Their powers, the enemies, the maps, the story, everything! I put so much work in and we never got to play. :( Edit: Somehow I missed the part where you asked for advice. I don’t have too much, as I said we only played one game, but I do have one; do some playtesting! You don’t need to play through the whole campaign, but you should play through some of the big encounters, with estimated levels & such, to see if the difficulty curve is about where you want it. Remember to always assume it’ll ge harder for your players than it is for you.

Talk your players through what you see, that’s the advice i have as a player. Anything other than that idk

Have an npc to help get them on the story path. Always have stupid stuff happen, like coming across drunk barbarians in a clearing and slaughtering them by rigging the entire forest with snares and bear traps.

The game goes best when the players start doing stupid stuff Just roll with it and laugh

I’d say the biggest piece of advice I can give is to talk with your players. Whether it be describing the scene, an enemy’s attack or adjudicating a conflict, make sure to talk to them. For some tables, you won’t need to be Tolkien and describe the thicc lore of the tavern with its birch beams glinting in the torchlight. For others, a simple map can do. Find out what your players would like, but be honest with what you can prepare and what you can’t. On describing enemy’s attacks, like above, find the balance of how much you need to say. Some people like seeing the spell caster grab the component, pinch the dust or something, and whisper the magic word. Others just want [i]Fireball[/i] and that’s enough. In short, find out how much description is needed. Lastly, talk to your players. Session 0 is the most important part of a good campaign, and feel free to have another later to check up and gauge player interest, plus get feedback. Hearing what people liked and disliked can be rough, but feedback is essential to improvement. At the end of the day, you’re there to have fun too. Remember that, and happy rolling