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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7462548" data-attributes="member: 97077">In my experience, new DMs can really benefit from eschewing mysteries and investigations at first and just focus on fundamentals: the basic conversation of the game (DM and player roles), the core mechanic, and table/spotlight management. Once he or she gets those down pat, then he or she can branch out into trickier domains.The best way to do this in my view is with scenarios that focus on an adventure location rather than one that is plot- or event-based. A dungeon is the simplest way to handle this, static at first, then dynamic. I find that nowadays dungeons have fallen out of fashion because they tend to be more prep-intensive than just coming up with a series of scenes the players are expected to run through over the course of a 4-hour session. I can do that in abut 5 minutes - a properly designed and stocked dungeon takes time. Luckily, there a lot of resources online to help with this.So, my advice for what it's worth: Simply practice describing the environment, letting players describe what they want to do, calling for the mechanics to come into play when appropriate, and narrating the results of the adventurers' actions. Once that is internalized and second nature, the DM can start working on telegraphing secrets and information control which opens up other kinds of scenarios to him or her. I even know a lot of experienced DMs that could do with revisiting the fundamentals, especially as it relates to running the particular game in question instead of running the game like some other game or previous iteration of the same. Commonly reported bad outcomes are often a failure to focus on fundamentals. Going back to basics from time to time is a great exercise in my opinion.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7462548, member: 97077"] In my experience, new DMs can really benefit from eschewing mysteries and investigations at first and just focus on fundamentals: the basic conversation of the game (DM and player roles), the core mechanic, and table/spotlight management. Once he or she gets those down pat, then he or she can branch out into trickier domains. The best way to do this in my view is with scenarios that focus on an adventure location rather than one that is plot- or event-based. A dungeon is the simplest way to handle this, static at first, then dynamic. I find that nowadays dungeons have fallen out of fashion because they tend to be more prep-intensive than just coming up with a series of scenes the players are expected to run through over the course of a 4-hour session. I can do that in abut 5 minutes - a properly designed and stocked dungeon takes time. Luckily, there a lot of resources online to help with this. So, my advice for what it's worth: Simply practice describing the environment, letting players describe what they want to do, calling for the mechanics to come into play when appropriate, and narrating the results of the adventurers' actions. Once that is internalized and second nature, the DM can start working on telegraphing secrets and information control which opens up other kinds of scenarios to him or her. I even know a lot of experienced DMs that could do with revisiting the fundamentals, especially as it relates to running the particular game in question instead of running the game like some other game or previous iteration of the same. Commonly reported bad outcomes are often a failure to focus on fundamentals. Going back to basics from time to time is a great exercise in my opinion. [/QUOTE]

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