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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 1411227" data-attributes="member: 8835">Don't make more than you need.  If you have no PCs that are religion based (ie. paladin, druid, ranger), don't go beyond naming the gods and having a short paragraph about religion.  Invent it when you need it.We use spare dice to order ourselves for initiative.  We just line them up and its your turn when I get to your die.Miniatures are very handy for combat.  Much of the feats rely on them.  Just get something simple (coins, blocks of wood, re-used minis, or even paper tokens) and get yourself a battle-mat, be it paper or otherwise.  Monte Cook's site has a good article on DMing 3e without minis which is also good to review.Some Basic DCs are good for adlibbing rules.DC 10 = really easyDC15 = trickyDC 20 = toughDC 25 = really hardThe above should get you buy with low-levels, until you get more familiar with specific rules.  In general, they all follow that scale.Don't tell the Players what they're fighting.  Let them figure it out or guess.  Even better, is to change the description on them.  Never say "3 orcs attack you." Instead say, "three large brutish men with grey skin rush at you with axes drawn"The players will never know if they're Orcs, or if you made a new race.  In fact, I often make up new races by renaming existing ones.  This re-asserts the newness of the world, in that the players don't know what everything is.In the beginning, stick to the suggested CRs, until you get a feel for the balance.  A good rule of thumb is add up the party's total levels, then divide by 4. This gives you the CR of what should use 1/5th of their resources.  This is an average.  In theory, 5 encounters at that CR in a row will kill the entire party.  If you wanted 5 combat encounters total, try 2 <CR, 2 at CR and 1 CR+1 encounter for the big bad guy.  Its tough at 1st level, since there are few encounters you can make under CR1.Good luck!Janx</blockquote>

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