D&D 4E New 4E DM - A couple questions

[Feeroper]

Hey everyone,

I am going to be DM'ing for the 1st time ever as a couple friends of mine who have not played D&D before got interested and wated me to run them a game for them (since they know I am a player). They are really interested in it, and I want to make a good first impression, and not look unprepared, so they can enjoy the game and want to continue.

My question is mainly around what resources I should use. I have a couple tile sets, and it has been recommended that i get some graph paper, or a battle mat (currently have my eye on the plain GameMastery flip mat - 24X30).

I know the tiles would be good for a first time run (I was thining of running Keep on the Shadowfel, or something from the Dugeon Delve). But should I also invest in graph paper (assuming it all goes over well) or should I just get a battle mat? Im not really sure where i should go with this.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions, Id very much appretiate it! Thanks!

 

[Jack99]

Tac-Tiles is the best there is, but unfortunately, they are out of production as far as I know. I have no idea what comes closest, but I think it's the battlemat. If so, get that.

Also get a DM's screen. With decent knowledge of the rules and the screen, you will hardly ever need to look through books.

Good luck.

 

[Daern]

I recommend keeping the first adventure short. I think its good to start and finish a story quickly to begin with. Dungeon Delve might be perfect, although you would want to add some roleplaying leading up to it. If you have the tiles for the delve then you don't need a battlemat, but it never hurts to have graph paper. The whole point of roleplaying is that the players can go off the map and then you have to make something up quick! Have fun!

 

[Feeroper]

I have all the tiles from the Delve except Halls of the Giant Kings, which is tough to find at a reasonable price these days.

Has anyone tried the battle mat from Paizo? The GameMastry flip mat? how does it compare to the Chessex battle mat?

Also, should I just get a stard paper sized graph paper, or is it better to get poster sized graph paper? I thought if I got the standard paper sized one, I could plan out dingeons or floor plans, and then tranfer that to the bigger sized paper.

 

[James McMurray]

Unless you're making up your own adventure, I recommend just using a battlemat. For some unknown reason, the vast majority of encounter areas I've seen for WotC's adventures don't match the tiles they've produced.

We've used Chessex maps for years and never had a problem (that wasn't caused by us). Just be careful of red pens. The ink in them will stain if you don't erase it the same day.

If you're using Keep on the Shadowfell, a battlemat is even better, since you'll already have the fold-out maps for several of the encounters.

 

[Betote]

I've been using Dungeon Tiles for months, but eventually left them in favor of the GameMastery Flip-Mat. It's really handy and quickened my set-up time for encounters by 10-15 minutes (the same amount of time I wasted trying to find the right set and disposition of tiles).

I also use some of the premade maps of WotC's adventures, mostly for random encounters or pre-set scenarios (if I need a standard city of forest path, for example).

 

[UltimaGabe]

If you plan on creating the majority of your maps ahead of time, I greatly recommend transparencies in conjunction with a battlemat. Get some transparencies (most easily made by taking some clear plastic sheet covers, or just any flexible clear plastic, and cutting it into single-page-sized sheets) and draw your maps with dry-erase or wet-erase markers on them ahead of time. Then, when the players get to that room, poof! Toss the transparency on the mat, and it'll match up perfectly and instantly. Then, when they enter a new room, get rid of that one and bring out a new one. That way, you don't need to waste time at the table drawing your maps, and you never have to worry about damage to the mat (no matter what types of markers you use). I've used it for dungeon crawl-heavy campaigns, and it works great.

 

[Burrito Al Pastor]

I strongly reccommend that you do not run "Keep on the Shadowfell"; it's overpriced, uncompelling, unoriginal, gives PCs equipment at dramatically below the DMG standard rates, and the difficulty is frequently ludicrous. (To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever defeated the goblin barbarian guy without DM fudging.) Dungeon Delve is a much better idea; all the early 4e WOTC modules weren't very good, and apparently it wasn't until they got to the paragon tier modules that they figured out how to do it right.

As far as grids go, our group just got a big pad of paper with 1" squares on it at Office Depot and a pack of colored Sharpies, and that's been good for us for a long, long time. Erasable marker type boards are, in my experience, a LOT of trouble.

As far as actual DMing advice goes, two suggestions:

1. Get and read a copy of Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. It's my little bible, and it has never steered me wrong.
2. One of 4e's greatest strengths is its flexibility on the DM's part, so use it. When in doubt, make something up. When a monster is too tough, remove some stuff. When a monster is too weak, add some stuff that happens when he's bloodied or something. Don't be afraid to pull stuff out of your ass; you probably won't be contradicting any printed rules in doing so, because that's how 4e is designed. Trust your instincts.

 

[Griogre]

I'd also recommend a very short adventure like a delve with some front end roleplaying. Typically for new players you are trying to show the possiblities so you want easy encounters, because they are going to make mistakes. I would suggest you use pregen characters unless you players have expressed an interest in building a character.

I've run H1 Keep on the Shadowfell several times. I don't think it is a very good module for brand spanking new players as is is written because of the Irontooth encounter. I've TPKed one group twice with that encounter* and another did fine. I would suggest you either run the Kobold hall in the back of the DMG or you can download the free Dungeon 155 which has H1 convertions to FR and Ebberon plus new encounters as sidequest encounters. You can put all these new encounters togeather into a short adventure with very little work. Dungeon #155 Table of Contents

* Note: On that twice TPK my players in the group are convinced to this day they could have won it. After they lost the first time they wanted to try again with new characters (I had made them use the pregens the first time). They were two kobolds away the first time and one the second. I will say that we had a lot of fun with the encounter and that's where 4E really clicked for them and me. I don't recommend that for new players though - my experienced players took it as a challenge and edition learning experience and were impressed with just how much they could do with 1st level 4E characters.

 

[Feeroper]

I may start with a Delve or two, and eventually move into KotS (or at least something more beefy than a delve) if it is that challenging for newbies.

Also, I wanted to just start them with pre-gen characters, but at least one person has expressed quite a bit of interest in making a new one.

I will have to check out that "Robin's Laws" book, sounds interesting and helpful as this will be my 1st time as DM.