I suppose calling myself a first time GM is a bit of a lie since I HAVE been in charge of campaigns before, but that was years ago and i basically amounted to pulling random ideas out of nowhere to facilitate progression (most parties do not face off against flaming badgers that throw logs and advance a size category every round, for example). This is simply my first campaign that I'm planning. I have the idea for the beginning areas thought out. Essentially, they show up in adventure town number 387 to seek their fortunes (they can choose their reasons for being there.) While they are there, they can find a few adventure hooks that are linked to the more overarching campaign.
The first hook is a merchant hasn't received a shipment of supplies from one of the outer towns and sends the group to investigate. Upon arriving, they find the town deserted aside from the cowardly youngest son of the ruler of their starting location and a group of Hobgoblins. The hobs are a group of mercenaries who purchase supplies from the town who are investigating the disappearance themselves, and will likely assume the players are somehow responsible for the disappearance, likely resulting in a fight if they can't persuade the hobgoblins someone else was at fault. In either outcome, the end result is tracking the missing people down to an old ruin. In the old ruin, they will find undead, all of the townsfolk killed in a strange ritual, and a strange undead at the head of it all, along with a masked man who seems to be communicating with it. The man flees and the PCs hunt the undead, making a friend out of the noble and possibly the hobs depending on how that works out.
Second hook involves another noble, either the middle child of the ruling family of the town (disguised as a member of a different family). The noble hires the PCs to investigate a nearby ruin. The eldest of the three noble children is alongside a group of a rival noble family (which the noble is disguised as a member of) clearing it out as a means of repairing the relationship between the two families. Unfortunately, the elder son and his team are trapped in the deepest section of the dungeon being hunted down by either bandits or monsters (not sure which to fill the second dungeon with). If the PCs are fast enough, the can arrive in time to save the eldest son. Upon exiting, the will find the middle child with a gunman at the ready to try and finish off the eldest son as they exit. The mission was a plot to frame some mercenaries and the rival family with the murder of the eldest (and most beloved and heir to) the family that rules the city. The middle child will leave his men to finish of the players, who upon surviving can try and bring the middle child to justice (easier if either the eldest or the youngest child is their friend) or simply leave town on the run from the law (giving me a new BBEG). If they DO pursue the middle child, they will find he is being backed by the same masked man that was involved with the undead (although this might be the first time they meet him, the players can pursue either path first, depending on which they find out about first). The masked man will flee and the middle child will likely be slain by the PCs. By this point the players will likely be suspicious of the masked man and so will the nobles. Whichever nobles are left standing will hire the players to investigate the masked man.
The masked man does have plot to him, but the two hooks listed are already several sessions worth of campaign (depending on dungeon length) so I don't want to plan out a path for someone they might not even wind up confronting. Plus I've rambled on about stuff that is sort of irrelevant to the main topic enough already. But hey, I like getting my ideas criticized.
Back on topic, I obviously need 2 dungeons (one undead and the other either monsters or bandits) some hobgoblins (I'm trying to enforce certain themes among the cultures since the activities of the various courts is intended to come into play a lot, so training their soldiers in certain ways helps make them stand out). Problem is I don't know a good way to do any of that.
I can obviously use a dungeon generator for the maps, but what about traps and encounter balancing inside? I also know that one of the players really wants puzzles in be involved, does anyone have advice on building interesting puzzles? Is it even worth including the hobgoblins in the first arc (originally they were going to have been hired to kidnap the town and then be angry when the masked man killed them all for the ritual, but by that point the players would have no reason to believe the hobs were innocent and I doubt the leader would forgive the death of most of his men either way). What about stating up enemy characters? Do I just use the expert stat array (15 14 13 10 9 8, I think) or do I give them their own point buy? What about mooks vs. important characters?
Yeah, I know I'm overthinking this a lot, but I feel like I have no reference point in building this, so I'm trying to figure out everything I can. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks in advance.
EDIT: one thing I forgot to ask about and point out. Because one of the players is a ranger that comes from the tech-y area of the world, we agreed it would be cool if he used a gun instead of a bow. Unfortunately, rangers don't have a gun-based style. Any advice on building one? Also, the most experienced player here (admittedly most are first/second timers, but he has significantly more D&D experience than myself) is playing as a sprite with houseruled racial stats that I okayed. He doesn't feel too overpowered (yet, he hasn't fully built his character sheet yet) but I'm worried about one of the things he gets as a sprite being a flight speed. Granted, his experience of preference of storytelling over mechanics lead me to trust him not to be too cheesy, but I'm still worried about being able to fly simply breaking encounters/traps. Am I worrying too much? I don't want to simply go back and veto his race because I already said yes to him and he's already had to ditch a character concept because we couldn't find a way to build it in the rules, I don't want to make him start all over again.
