Dungeon Masters Guide: Starting Fresh

Here is a useful guide to help my fellow DM's in creating new adventure campaigns, or to add new material to existing games that are loosing flavor.
The first thing to remember is to keep this simple, all you need is the facts.

Players Level:
Place:
Problem:
Solution:
Quest Giver:
Enemies:
Reward:
Plot Advancement:
(This is just a very simple layout for the DM to craft an overview for the adventure)
Once you have decided these simple things you can now begin to construct a more in depth adventure, but first I'm going to answer these questions to help give you an idea as to how this will all come together.

Players Level: 1st
Place: Hawkings Rest- small forest village
Problem: Supply wagons not arriving
Solution: Players investigate
Quest Giver: Local priest (Father Goodwell)
Enemies: Kobold Bandits, Wolves
Reward: Return with supplies: 200gp each
Plot Advancement: Players discover a map to the Kobold camp.

Now that we have the basics down, you have to construct a way for your players to meet or if they are an existing group you can simple change the enemies to a higher CR and up the reward for more advanced groups. But for the example lets say you need to get the party started so next you need a reason for your group to all be headed to the same place or already there. This can easily be accomplished without using the age old "So your all in the tavern" bit. Give your players reasons to be headed to the starting location of your game. As an experienced DM I have found that the more interest you as the DM put into your player's characters the harder they want to play them. So take the time to get to know the characters within your campaign. An easy way of doing this is with a history page that each player writes for you to read during down time, maybe even request that they come up with a reason for heading to the start location. Give them a reward for writing these character profiles, not in experience but in a minor magic item such as a +1 weapon or armor. (Now I know some DM's don't like the idea of new characters starting a game with a +1 weapon, but I have never had a +1 item ruin my game.)

Using this method you can then sit down and if you choose to, write up some fluff about the starting location and the inhabitants of the area or simply shoot from the hip and make it up as you go. (If your a new DM its always a good idea to at least have a plan as to what you want the party to do, DMing on the fly can be difficult if your not familiar with the system or struggle to come up with adventure hooks.)

Now you have a level one starter game to get your group together, I will be posting entire campaigns in the future using this method so that people can come and try out some of my best adventures with their players.