I've played D&D pretty casually from time to time, but always as a player and usually just short one shots and not big campaigns.

This year I started feeling the urge to play in a big campaign, and some of my friends were showing interest. I decided why not try my hand at DMing! I went all in, I bought 6 books (DMG, PHG, Xanthars guide, tashas, MM, and MotM) a ton of paint supplies, and some tiles/maps.

And I'm glad I did! We've had four sessions so far and it's going great. We are starting on the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign, and afterwards we will be moving into homebrew, eventually reaching level 12+. I have already started changing a few things from LMoP to fit the homebrew campaign I am planning where the BBeG will be Atropus and its chosen Warlock who is trying to attract the elder evil to Toril.

I didn't have any experience running a campaign, or even painting, but there are so many useful resources on youtube that I feel confident I've got a handle on things!

If anyone has any tips or pointers for a first time DM I'd love to hear them! I am always willing to learn.

If anyone wants to see more of the figures I've painted, heres a couple of pics https://imgur.com/a/1SMF4jr?