12-15 Session Campaign Ideas

If this is a first time group that has never played DnD before I would recommend running Lost Mines of Phandalver as it explains everything and it is fairly short to run. Or if you want to run a full length campaign where the characters end on a higher level I would recommend Curse of Strahd and do set events instead of doing the Tarroka Reading. I would give them either Van Richten or Ezmeralda as their NPC ally and then I would have the items located in towns. For the final fight have it be in the throneroom of the castle so that the players aren't wandering around aimlessly trying to find a specific location. Curse of Strahd CAN be short as long as your players don't get stuck on puzzles for to long which is where the NPC comes in because in the book it tells the DM how to solve the puzzle. Most of the stuff in the book is optional depending on set up. I got done Wity Curse of Strahd in 15 sessions but one session was wasted on trying to solve a puzzle because I didn't think to give them a NPC ally because I did the Tarroka reading. Their are plenty of good beginners modules but those two I have found are the best because Curse of Strahd has a tutorial like section in the back of the book called Death house and Lost Mines of Phandalver is made for beginners

I'm assuming sessions are about 3-4 hours which is pretty standard.

The WoTC campaigns that go beyond level 10 will be too long for your timeframe but technically some of them can be trimmed down.

Campaigns that run level 1-5 like Lost Mine of Phandelver or Waterdeep: Dragon Heist would probably run short of that time but kind of depends on how efficient group is with play and whether people want to go on tangents, etc.

You could also consider either Tales From the Yawning Portal and/or Candlekeep Mysteries which are anthologies of shorter adventures at various levels and link of few of those together. That could give you the best flexibility on time. And if players need to drop out or pop in it gives you some nice cutoffs for those transitions.

Good luck!

Buy the D&D Starter Kit. In it is a campaign called Lost Mines of Phadnelver. It's written and designed to be run by newbies for newbies. Do that. As newbies, the whole thing should take about the right amount of time.

The story itself is super campy and covers all the D&D tropes. I think it's written to be so bland to force DM's to add their own spices and content.

For you (and others) I usually advise that you buy the campaign, strip out all the proper nouns and replace them with your own. Instead of Sildar Hallwinter, call him Lord Buttmunch. Instead of Halia Thronton, go with (literally) Donald Duck. Whatever floats your boat.

Just keep the mechanics and story structure exactly the same. The first encounter is a squad of Goblins ambushing the party. If Goblins don't fit your crowd, just call them kids with rocks, or little dudes that look like Mickey Mouse.

But the stats and mechanics stay the same until you know better. Right now you don't know what you don't know. Run through LMoP and see where that takes you.

As for characters, if everyone's a newbie, I strongly advise people play characters based on pop culture icons. A-listers that everyone knows. Must headline a movie that grossed north of $100MM box office on opening weekend. I'm talking Marvel Heroes, Disney Princesses and WWE Superstars. No fair using obscure Anime characters that nobody knows.

When people play characters of their own creation, their characters tend to reflect something about themselves. When you ask Kevin "your party is under fire by goblins, what do you do", Kevin locks up and doesn't know what to do because Kevin's never been under fire from Goblins. There's also social pressures to "play optimally" because everyone knows who Kevin is and expects Kevin to do what Kevin would do.

But if Kevin is running Macho Man Randy Savage (the Hill Dwarf Frenzy Barbarian), he knows Randy does two things: Snort Cocaine and Smash Goblin Faces, and he's all out of Cocaine. Maybe those little fellers with the pointy sticks have some in their pockets. He's gonna go find out real quick.

Having a character the table already knows helps establish a different social contract too. After all, Kevin is playing Macho Man Randy Savage, so it would actually be "in-character" for him to ignore Elsa (the Half-Elf White Dragon Sorcerer) bleeding out on the carriage to go smash some faces. When Elsa's player Brandon sees him doing this, he just laughs at the impression instead of getting butthurt about getting left behind.

Another benefit is to YOU as the DM. If you've got Elsa in the party, the party will already know to ask "Where is Elsa and Olaf"? Now you've already got engagement in the world. Line out "Phandalin" and write in "Arendelle" and now Elsa can walk around town knowing she runs this place. Line out "Sildar Hallwinter" and write in "Princess Anna" and the party instantly has a massive plot hook to go rescue her in the 2nd encounter.