D&D 5E I think I'm in trouble

Greetings!

I'm hoping some of you folks might be able to help me out. I played D&D Saturday night. 30 years ago. I enjoyed it immensely but trying to find other individuals who shared my opinion was exceedingly difficult at the time. As I got older, other things took on greater importance (things like girls, beer, girls, parties, girls, cars, girls, and beer) so I basically stopped trying to get back into it. Over the recent holidays, my wife's niece and nephew and a few of their friends mentioned that they were interested in playing. Being the intelligent guy that I am I explained that I had played before and that I was willing to pick up the 5e starter kit to play on New Year's Eve if they were interested. They agreed so I ordered the starter kit on Monday. It came in today and I realized that I would be acting as DM while not having a clue as to what I'm doing. I don't even remember how to play. So all that being said, is there any chance I can pull this off?


PS - I hope this is the right forum. I looked around but didn't see any other forum that seemed pertinent.

You have a fair amount of reading to do before tomorrow, but yeah, you can do it. DMing is a lot easier than some think. Just remember your goals of play: (1) Everyone having a good time and (2) Creating an exciting, memorable story - together - while playing. Don't let anything get in the way of that and you can't go wrong.

The Starter Set is reasonably good at providing you with everything you need to get going. You can also download the free basic rules on the Wizards of the Coast website. If you have specific questions, post them here and lots of people will be happy to help.

Welcome back to the hobby, and good luck!

This starter box is a great tutorial. Just keep two things in mind, first show don't tell, describe things to them. Second let them do with their characters what they want, you and the dice decide if it works. If it isn't a big deal just let it happen.

Starting kit is pretty easy. Everything you need is in there. Just read through the rules book and the adventure. Don't get too hung up. Just have them state what they're doing, decide if they need to roll, and if so, decide what the target number (DC) is. Then narrate. When in doubt, make stuff up.

xOgrex said:

Greetings!

I'm hoping some of you folks might be able to help me out. I played D&D Saturday night. 30 years ago. I enjoyed it immensely but trying to find other individuals who shared my opinion was exceedingly difficult at the time. As I got older, other things took on greater importance (things like girls, beer, girls, parties, girls, cars, girls, and beer) so I basically stopped trying to get back into it. Over the recent holidays, my wife's niece and nephew and a few of their friends mentioned that they were interested in playing. Being the intelligent guy that I am I explained that I had played before and that I was willing to pick up the 5e starter kit to play on New Year's Eve if they were interested. They agreed so I ordered the starter kit on Monday. It came in today and I realized that I would be acting as DM while not having a clue as to what I'm doing. I don't even remember how to play. So all that being said, is there any chance I can pull this off?


PS - I hope this is the right forum. I looked around but didn't see any other forum that seemed pertinent.

Click to expand...

1. Yes, the right forum;
2. Yes, it's easier than it looks. You can do it.

The first thing to do is read through the DMs section once. You don't have to memorize stuff, just give it a read through to get a feel for things.

The most important thing to remember: almost everything involves a rolling a 20 sided die, adding a modifier, and comparing the result against a fixed number.

The fixed number might be the armor class of a creature, it might be a difficulty class of some task, but it will be something printed in the book, or which you make up on the fly.

So you don't need to worry about memorizing a bunch of numbers. And if you don't know, and you don't want to look something up, then just remember this: if the players want to do something, have them roll a 20 sided die and add one of their ability modifiers to it. So if it's something that being strong would help with (like hitting something with a sword) let them add their strength modifier (a number from 0 to 4 probably). If it's something that being agile would help with, it's dexterity modifier. If being smart would help, use intelligence. If being charismatic would help, then charisma. Etc.. Once they get the roll done and the number added to it, make up a target they need to accomplish that goal. If you want it to be really easy to do, make the target number 5. Average, make it 10. Hard, make it 15. And nearly impossible, make it 20.

That's mostly it. If you can do that, you can do most of the game. There's a bit more of course. There's rolling for initiative to see who goes in what order (just another roll of a twenty sided die and adding your dexterity modifier). There's hit points (a fixed number on the character sheet or the monsters description), which gets reduced by damage done. Damage is really the only thing that doesn't use a 20 sided die - but the book or character sheet or monster description will tell you what die to use.

It's really not too complicated. Just describe things in fun ways, and don't worry if you run into something you don't know how to do. You instincts will be pretty close to how the rules work anyway.

If it is everyone's first time, you can probably stop your reading of the adventure after the goblin caves, perhaps with a brief overview of the town of Phandalin. Unless you play a marathon session or your players are lightning fast, it is unlikely they will get farther in one session.

You're in the right place.

Yes, you're in trouble...the good kind! Welcome back to D&D.

The starter set is a good purchase, give it a quick skim, don't worry about more than 2 chapters at this point...you won't get that far. Read some posts here on ENWORLD about the starter set...there are some pitfalls, but mostly be aware it can be deadly if you play to close to the rules. In your case, relax, have a beer, kiss your girl, and let things slide. Let the PCs be heroes, don;t try to kill them, they'll do that on their own ;-)

The set spells things out pretty well. The bottom line is this:

1) Describe the scene (usually read-aloud text)
2) Ask the players for what they will do
3) Resolve those actions
3a) Actions that are "reasonable" for their PC, let it happen, if there is a chance of failure, in combat, etc. Roll dice
3b) Most Roll Dice moments are d20+Relevant stat bonus+Proficiency bonus if applicable. The result must beat some number (5 is easy, 10 is average, 15 is hard, 20 is extreme, 25 is damn near impossible, 30 is impossible). If its combat, roll damage.

That's it. The role-play part is probably the toughest. Don't let what's written get in the way of a good story. If one of your players is jazzed about their character being hunted by the "mob", then make someone in the adventure part of the "mob" hunting the players character. Don't let the "canned" adventure get in the way of what will be an awesome New Years Eve.

Enjoy!

You made the right choice with the starter kit. READ THE BASIC RULES! There's also an online version you can check out in PDF format:

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Now basically the idea like iserith described is to have fun, which is the first priority and second it's to make it an activity everyone will remember fondly.

I recommend making voices for the monsters. Grunts, laughing, etc...

Make sure to make the players shine when they do something cool.

Don't be afraid to wing it in a moment where you're not sure what the rules are. The point is to keep things moving at a steady pace.

Use the stat blocks for the monsters. All the information you need is there.

Don't be afraid of skipping fights if you feel it makes sense.

The starter kit comes with pre-made characters, offer these to the players.

Wow! Thanks for all the feedback! To be honest, I only expected to get 1 or 2 replies. You guys have definitely boosted my confidence and I plan on reading through the rulebook and adventure this evening, then maybe running through it again tomorrow afternoon. Regardless of how things go, I'm going to stick with it. I went whole hog and grabbed a battle mat, a DM screen, an extra set of dice, and some plastic tokens for the people to use. I figured it would make things a little more "interactive" for the players. In my research I also came across a local, independently owned hobby shop (they seem to focus on Warhammer based on their inventory) and plan on stopping in at some point in the near future to try and connect with fellow players.

And all of this has nothing to do with the fact that the person who sleeps next to me keeps telling me I'm becoming a hermit and need to get a hobby.

You've taken the first step already. Bewilderment and an intense feeling of unpreparedness is the natural state of DMs.