Help for a novice dm
roguerouge
First Post
One of the things that I found was that I got burnt out making up the world, its mythology, every person in the world, and the adventures. This time around, I've been using modules to make my work load easier, allowing me to focus on the RP stuff that happens in between monster slaying. It's worked out nicely.
The other thing is to sit down with your players and figure out what kind of game they want. Don't be a mind-reader. If they're uncommunicative, maybe start them with a dungeon crawl or an arena bout for the first adventure and see whether they're bored or into it. Then make some decisions from there.
The other thing is to sit down with your players and figure out what kind of game they want. Don't be a mind-reader. If they're uncommunicative, maybe start them with a dungeon crawl or an arena bout for the first adventure and see whether they're bored or into it. Then make some decisions from there.
Herzog
Adventurer
Don't panic. 
First of all, do you have ideas yourself, or are you flying blind?
In case of the former, please share. It will help us help you.
In case of the latter:
Are you planning to create an entire campaign world and campaign story?
You might want to start small.
Define the world as 'standard D&D'. That way, you and your players can refer to the core books any time you want to know something about the world. Leave changes (even subtle ones, like : there are no orcs) for a later campaign, when you're comfertable with the rules and story building.
Go to the wotc site: Original Adventures
There is a large list of adventures free for download that you can use.
Use some of the suggestions found in those modules on 'further adventuring' to build your bigger story, if any.
Keep a good eye on your players. Ask them after the session if they had fun. Don't just rely on your own gut feeling: ask! I've been DM-ing for over 15 years, and even I get it wrong sometimes. Both in my gaming methods and in my evaluation of the amount of fun had by the players.
Good luck!
First of all, do you have ideas yourself, or are you flying blind?
In case of the former, please share. It will help us help you.
In case of the latter:
Are you planning to create an entire campaign world and campaign story?
You might want to start small.
Define the world as 'standard D&D'. That way, you and your players can refer to the core books any time you want to know something about the world. Leave changes (even subtle ones, like : there are no orcs) for a later campaign, when you're comfertable with the rules and story building.
Go to the wotc site: Original Adventures
There is a large list of adventures free for download that you can use.
Use some of the suggestions found in those modules on 'further adventuring' to build your bigger story, if any.
Keep a good eye on your players. Ask them after the session if they had fun. Don't just rely on your own gut feeling: ask! I've been DM-ing for over 15 years, and even I get it wrong sometimes. Both in my gaming methods and in my evaluation of the amount of fun had by the players.
Good luck!
Flatus Maximus
First Post
I'll echo roguerouge and suggest you look at some modules or adventure paths -- folks can give you suggestions if you let us know what you're looking for. There are some good ones and they do most of the work for you. Once you get used to running the show, you can always strike out on your own. Since this is EN World after all, you might start by taking a look at the War of the Burning Sky adventure path....
aboyd
Explorer
Yeah, that's a good point. And the lure of that is deceptive -- most DMs like that kind of stuff, so they don't even realize how unhappy it's making them until they're just burnt out and want to quit.
It really pays to know when you've had too much of a good thing. Know when you're feeling obligated/compelled to spend hours & hours on backstory and fleshing out the world. When you get that feeling, back away and find ways to cut things out or use modules or otherwise aid yourself so that you don't end up overworked.
Yeah, that's a really good idea, although there is another side worth noting. That is, you need to know what kind of games you want to run, too. If all your players want combat and you want roleplaying, you need to know that you're going to feel miserable if you run their game. In many cases, there is common ground. However, I know at least one campaign that ended abruptly because of this stuff. So know how to have fun instead of having obligations. The moment D&D is an obligation, game over.
I would add a couple of my own ideas. If you're first starting out, overprepare. Generally, when you're first starting is your highest energy point, and it's also the place where you know the least and are capable the least. So use that enthusiasm to compensate. If you want to read advice, do. If you want to read a module, do. If you want to roll some dice to playtest an idea, do. Induge your enthusiasm, at least at first. Know your game world, know your NPCs, know your plots, and know what to expect from your players (ask). Even with all that, you should expect your first session will throw you for a loop. You'll have a monster that you think will be awesome, but the party will wipe it out in 1 round. You'll have a town for them to explore and they'll ignore it entirely and ask you about the forest which you never researched or planned for. And so on. Expect it.
My other tip builds on that. It's sort of my own personal advice cliche, as I say it every time one of these threads pops up. And that is, your players don't know what you know, so feel free to move props around. I've seen DMs fall apart because their main bad-guy was killed. Those DMs never realize that often the players don't know they killed the BBEG. And therefore, they have no idea if you just quietly give that NPC a different name and rebuild your BBEG with better stats for the next week. Once you realize things like this, it is so freeing. You realize that your plotline can live on, even if the players just broke something. You realize that all your work in some amazing stat blocks can be salvaged for another quest. And so on.
Once you know that, you'll never be like the DM in the "Wall of Force" thread, who absolutely positively insisted that his dragon sweep down on the players, even if they had a pretty reasonable way to stop the dragon. Instead, you'll be able to roll with the punches. You'll be able to let the players have their moments (which is kinda the point), and then you'll go about changing your game world so that you can try your strategy again with a different monster or something.
I agree with Herzog, the Original adventures are a goldmine for hooks. I took the Secret of Bone hill and spun it out into a whole setting that has supported 2 different campaigns and a novella.
You might also want to sit down with your party and work out a group template as described at Fear the Boot. I have had good luck with that for first time groups.
Don't focus on the details until you absolutely have too. Be as nebulous as possible until you have to. Give yourself a framework that when the characters wander towards it you can start hanging more details as needed.
You might also want to sit down with your party and work out a group template as described at Fear the Boot. I have had good luck with that for first time groups.
Don't focus on the details until you absolutely have too. Be as nebulous as possible until you have to. Give yourself a framework that when the characters wander towards it you can start hanging more details as needed.
jaywolfenstien
First Post
My advice:
1.) Keep things simple. Keep things moving. Do not use complex monsters/NPCs. Maybe run only a Core-only game for your first one so you have fewer books to rule-hunt through. Start small, simple, and learn the craft of DMing before tackling epic battles in the middle of a hurricane forest fire with a dragon flying over head and 35 different magical effects each with their own timer plus seven hidden traps on the battlefield and an army of monsters lying in wait ...
A Vanilla Core-only "save the village from Goblins" adventure is just fine for a first crack at DMing. It might not be the most "creative" encounter in the world, but creativity doesn't count for crap if you don't make the session fun.
2.) Don't build your own world with your first campaign. Use a campaign setting, use a published adventure, or something and keep in mind just because it's written one way doesn't mean you have to present it that way. The published adventure might describe the inn keeper as a nondescript guy, but you can tell your players, "he's a morbidly obese dwarf who is wider than he is tall". When you run a game, you are running your interpretation of that game. Change up the aesthetics however you want, it's much faster and less time consuming than building everything from scratch.
At the end of the session, absolutely nothing in your notes or your DM-created world matters ... the only thing that matters is how you presented it all to your players. Many new DMs have great notes on a wonderful world, but they blow it at the table because they put absolutely NO thought into "How am I going to do this at the table?" Again, focus on learning the craft of DMing, focus on your performance at the table.
Once you've gotten a few sessions under your belt, and you've handled role playing, skill challenges, battles and so on, then you can start building your own world if you want to. Then you can start making the battles more interesting with hazardous terrain, and very tactical enemies, and complex monsters.
If you pick up a musical instrument, you have to learn to play the notes before you can play a song.
1.) Keep things simple. Keep things moving. Do not use complex monsters/NPCs. Maybe run only a Core-only game for your first one so you have fewer books to rule-hunt through. Start small, simple, and learn the craft of DMing before tackling epic battles in the middle of a hurricane forest fire with a dragon flying over head and 35 different magical effects each with their own timer plus seven hidden traps on the battlefield and an army of monsters lying in wait ...
A Vanilla Core-only "save the village from Goblins" adventure is just fine for a first crack at DMing. It might not be the most "creative" encounter in the world, but creativity doesn't count for crap if you don't make the session fun.
2.) Don't build your own world with your first campaign. Use a campaign setting, use a published adventure, or something and keep in mind just because it's written one way doesn't mean you have to present it that way. The published adventure might describe the inn keeper as a nondescript guy, but you can tell your players, "he's a morbidly obese dwarf who is wider than he is tall". When you run a game, you are running your interpretation of that game. Change up the aesthetics however you want, it's much faster and less time consuming than building everything from scratch.
At the end of the session, absolutely nothing in your notes or your DM-created world matters ... the only thing that matters is how you presented it all to your players. Many new DMs have great notes on a wonderful world, but they blow it at the table because they put absolutely NO thought into "How am I going to do this at the table?" Again, focus on learning the craft of DMing, focus on your performance at the table.
Once you've gotten a few sessions under your belt, and you've handled role playing, skill challenges, battles and so on, then you can start building your own world if you want to. Then you can start making the battles more interesting with hazardous terrain, and very tactical enemies, and complex monsters.
If you pick up a musical instrument, you have to learn to play the notes before you can play a song.
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