Never played D&D and taking role as DM

[Meloncov]

Should I alow the PHBII? I know someone is going to buy it?
How do i go about pressuring someone into a class they dont want to play? and I have a feeling its going to end up 1 fighter,1 cleric, and 3 sorceror/wizard types...and I WILL put traps in regardless of rogue or not.

I would strongly reccomend against allowing things from the PHBII. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, but its an added level of complexity you really don't want at first.

As for your second question, you answered it yourself. When someone dies due to a trap, they will surely see the value of having a rogue in the party.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Or you could simply eliminate the trapfinding ability. There are a few D&D-like games that don't have rogues, and simply allow anyone with the requisite ranks in Search to find traps.

Personally, I'd do the following: Have your first session be devoted to nothing but character creation. Talk to the players before they roll up (or build using point buy) their characters, and explain that D&D is a team game in which success often depends on having a properly balanced party. A balanced party is *not* made up of a bunch of sorcerers with a single fighter and a cleric. Also, explain that if *they* haven't played before, spellcasters can be tricky, and have an annoying tendency either to die or to be relatively useless.

As for more players: I say go for it! More players make for easier DMing in most cases, since you can often sit back and let player interaction drive your sessions. You may also be able to get one of your players to sit in as an "assistant DM" on occasion to help run complicated fights or handle role-playing NPCs.

Some more suggestions:

1) Have each player write up (or explain verbally in the character creation session) a detailed background and set of motivations for his or her character, including a piece on how his character knows the other characters in the group. This has several advantages:

First, it forces the player to think of his character as something more than a set of stats. Joe isn't merely a 1st-level fighter with a 16 Strength; he's an adopted farmboy from the Western Dales whose parents perished in a plague (rumored to be magically created by priests of the evil Blightlord Zargus), leaving Joe to grow up as a physically strong but socially awkward farmhand who finally broke out of his shell, packed his bags, and left to see the wide world.

Second, it gives you fuel for creating adventure subplots. If Joe's parents died in a plague created by Zargus's minions, perhaps they were really the target of some deeper plot, that gets revealed to Joe along the way.

Third, it gives the players a chance to think about how their characters might know each other and what their own goals are, allowing for better roleplaying and a more focused gaming experience.

Fourth, you don't need to create a coercive beginning for the campaign. If the players have all established how their characters know each other and what they're doing, you can just start running the game!

2) Go slow. Sunless Citadel is a good choice for a first adventure, and it has plenty of advice for a novice DM. Try at first to keep the plot linear, without too many branches, subplots, or diversions. Your players will almost certainly want to go on side tangents; if they do, let them feel like they can (this is the advantage of playing a tabletop game rather than a computer RPG), but try to rein them in quickly so that you're not stuck preparing three different adventures at the same time. (Once you're comfortable with the mechanics, you can wing it better.)

3) Learn the rules together, and try to avoid arguing with your players about them. D&D has a lot of complicated rules, even when you're just using the core books. At first, you may find play bogged down as everyone flips through the books trying to figure out what x spell does, or whether y action provokes an attack of opportunity. That's okay. Take your time, be reasonable, and if necessary, explain to the players in advance that where there's a difference as to what the rule for a particular situation is, you are the DM and your interpretation controls. If you were wrong, you can make it up to them in some other way later.

I know this conflicts with argo's (excellent!) advice about not getting bogged down in the rules, but I think at first you have to do a little bit of pontificating so that everyone can learn and get familiar with the rules.

 

[Jurble]

hi everyone,
alsoa new DM here and im thinking of using Sunless citadel for my groups first adventure.
Does it need conversion (between 3.0 and 3.5e?) or anything like that?

Also how far does it take your characters in levels? Ive looked it up and it seems to be the first of 8 adventures in a series? Would love to fidn out what the following adventures are but cant find it anyway.

anyway thanks guys, this soudns alot easier than trying to wing my own first module

M

 

[Mitchbones]

The module looks really good to me, I dont think it needs any conversions, it should take them from 2-3
<3 meepo

 

[irdeggman]

Should I alow the PHBII? I know someone is going to buy it?

Don't allow books you don't have access to. You will need to understand what is going on and wy the PC is the way it is.

How do i go about pressuring someone into a class they dont want to play? and I have a feeling its going to end up 1 fighter,1 cleric, and 3 sorceror/wizard types...and I WILL put traps in regardless of rogue or not.

Don't force a player to play a character he doesn't want to.

Warn them up front about the kind of game you are planning on running. If they don't adequately plan (as a group) then they will end up paying the price. That is part of the learning curve.

As an example I just started running the Age of Worms (it is the most recent adventure path from Dungeon magazine) and I "warned" by players that the series had a strong undead flavor to it. I told them I had read on line of the problems that parties who weren't ready to handle undead had and the amount of charcter casualties becasue of it.

I then let them choose the character they wanted to run, being fore warned of what was going to happen.

Somethings this group has been doing for years (I've only been in this group for about 9 months now, I've been with my other group for 10+ years) that might be good for a group of "new" players:

After the first session the player has a chance to "rebuild" his/her character if it didn't "play" the way he/she wanted to. {Only let this happen once otherwise players will never get into their character enough to allow the PC to "grow"}


When making a character roll up 3 "keepers" and choose which one you want to play. {This allows for a better than average ability score build, and most players have touble with character with a wide range in scores - especially newer players.} { I allowed 2 "keepers" or the elite array from the DMG (15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8)}. {This will help with newer players and not feeling that they have been shafted by dice rolls - the other way to hande it is via point buy, but IMO most new players like the idea of "rolling dice".}


Other points.

Something I did (which I learned from "elder" group) is to have each player give you a character history of their PC. Explaining the main parts of the character - but more importantly covering their motivations and what makes the PC. This will serve a lot of purposes. It will give you something to go by when building the game, some reason to tie the PCs together (other than you all meet in a tavern) and most important it give the player something to focus his role-playing around. {I also give xp awards for the quality of their background - usually between 50 and 250 xp.}

As far a setting goes. I think using a setting is important to the overall feel of the game, but seing as how you are just starting it might overwhelm you (and the group) at first. If you are going to use a setting then Eberron is good choice. It has "everything D&D" in it, is relatively new (hence fewer books to choose from), and does have some adventure out ther for purchase (as well as routinely in Dungeon magazine.

Definitely get some issues of Dungeon magazine.

Various house-rules (notice they really aren't rules based but awards) I use that may help:

I award a "fun" xp bonus at each session. This is an ad hoc award and depends on how everyone felt about the session. It is pretty important, especially for new players, to feel that they've accomplished something each session. Many adventures don't award xp until the adventure is over, which can be several gaming sessions. This is way to work around that.

I award role-playing bonuses at sessions (this is in the DMG) - usually between 50 and 300 xp, depending on character level and "quality" of role-playing.

Something not to do. Many of my GMs (DM but term used for non-D&D games also) have awarded miscellaneous xp awards for non-in game things like researching subjects for the DM, making up spreadsheets and character sheets for use, etc. While I have received an awful lot of these in the past (more than most of my fellow gamers) - I don't think it is really a good practice since it makes other players feel like they are being "shafted" or that I am being the "DM's pet player".

 

[wedgeski]

Welcome Mitch! Some handy things that help me out whenever I'm starting a new system or DM'ing new people:

Allow only the Core Rules. For players, this means that it's the PHB or nothing.

Even though some of your players have the PHB and may want to do it on their own, ensure that character creation is a collaboration between the both of you. At the moment, it'll be as much a learning experience for you as it is for them.

Once the characters have been generated, run two or three test combats outside of the game. Stress to your players that this is not part of the game proper, and there will be no XP; you're just doing this to try out the combat rules (which are where the game becomes most complex).

Use a battle-mat. You may want/decide to get rid of it later but new players are going to get huge benefit from it in the early days. Don't stress about counters/miniatures - the jelly-bean idea above rocks.

Don't overly concern yourself with roleplaying for the first few sessions. RP will likely be intimidating for new players and they'll need to be comfortable with the game and the rest of the group before they even consider getting 'into character' (if they ever do).

That's about it. To be honest I'm worried that you're going to be a little overwhelmed with 5 players. DM'ing is as much an exercise in crowd control as anything else! But in any case, good luck, have fun, and tell us how it went.

 

[Mitchbones]

Don't overly concern yourself with roleplaying for the first few sessions. RP will likely be intimidating for new players and they'll need to be comfortable with the game and the rest of the group before they even consider getting 'into character' (if they ever do).

This statement helps me out alot. Well in a few weeks (going to dadsfor a month in another state) Ill be running my first session. Im planning it for around 4-6 hours (if the host doesnt mind) and going through the whole basic game where they get the basic idea, then go through character creation (<3 the basic game and its premades...)

 

[mearls]

The Sunless Citadel shouldn't require any conversions. The system reference document that others pointed out also has all the monsters from the Monster Manual, so you can use that to start with.

I'd hold off on the PHB II for now. It's a good book to add after you have a few sessions under your belt, but if you add too much too early things can get confusing.

For a battlegrid, the one in the DMG is good to start with. If you want one that you can write on, I recommend a Flip-Mat. Here's a link to the company that makes them:

http://www.steelsqwire.com/prod01.htm

Flip-Mats are great because you can use dry and wet erase markers, they're light, fold up for easy transport, and durable. I've been using one since last August and I'm really happy with it. Plus, it's only $10.

 

[Mitchbones]

Do you just use the battlemat for combat? Seems like a great buy! Wish my mom would pay me back my $100 (NEVER LOAN MONEY TO YOUR PARENTS!)

 

[howandwhy99]

Tons of suggestions and all good. I've just come back to DMing and am having to re-memorize all the rules. Knowing the basic rules though is really the 1st-things-1st part of DMing.

My advice? At least once before every session sit down for at least a few minutes and imagine the situation and world the PCs are in. Visualize it, listen to it, make it move. When this isn't going on in my head, I'm not quite sure the players are getting a similar experience. Plus, playing around in the world I've found I naturally come up with devious tricks and cool ideas.