Advice for a virgin DM?

[GuardianLurker]

Don't Panic

Others have answered your exact questions fairly well; I'm not going to try to better them in the specifics.

Overall general advice :
1) Don't Panic!
When your players kill the NPC you had intended to be their arch-nemesis, Don't Panic! Let them. You can always reuse the NPCs stats, and probably most of the Backstory as well.
When your players miss that subtle clue, or do something that completely demolishes the plot of the adventure, Don't Panic! Let them. There will be other adventures, and you will find that they can often be easily sidetracked into something minor that lets you scramble to get the next thing in place.

2) Be adaptable.
No module, no adventure, no plan of the GMs survives contact with the players. No matter HOW much you prepare, you'll always have to "wing it" at some point. Balancing this, your players will generate some of your best ideas - listen to their chatter and use it.
Players are both geniuses and complete and utter idiots. They're Murphy's Law incarnate. (And I speak as both Player and GM here.)

3) Never forget the 7Ps : "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance"
Especially in the beginning, plan and prepare more than you think you will need to. Somethings you won't use, others you will forget. Change. Over time, you'll discover what the proper amount of preparation for you is.

Honestly, the various tricks work well to solve the mechanics, but it's the attitude you bring to the sessions that makes all the difference.

 

[Zappo]

Re: Don't Panic

When your players kill the NPC you had intended to be their arch-nemesis, Don't Panic! Let them.

...and then, have him come back, undead, and more powerful than before.
Mwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!!

 

[Graf]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Advice for a virgin DM?

This comment makes me curious. What did you do so wrong there that you were forced to stop the campaign?

Oooh. Where to begin?
1. I lost at least two games to poor follow through... I couldn't follow through with the initial story idea so it withered on the vine. Werewolf, and a fantasy version of Over the Edge (brilliant game by Jonathan Tweet).
2. I think I lost 4 or so games to player disinterest after the first few sessions. You need to understand you're competing with other things in people's lives for their time.... Shadowrun, an In Nomine game I co-DM'd. Another Werewolf game D&D.
3. My first game that I tanked (back in grade school) was too gross (wanted to make the bad guys bad and the torture made people pretty uncomfortable). In retrospect it was a little thing, the torture happened to an NPC, off screen but it was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back in a poorly conceived game...
(I was in another game where a similar thing happened. Wasn't in the room but the DM apparently really really went overboard and freaked out a friend of mine. I'm glad that MC and WotC brought this up with the whole Book of VD, thing. I think its been pretty positive for raising awareness.)

This doesn't count all the games that I was a player in that fell through.
Throughout the whole thing the one thing I think I learned was the importance of managing players, their expectations and group politics. Not in a negative way, it can be a lot of fun once you've got the swing of it.But one person's bad mood/sense of inferiority/need for attention can spoil the experience for everyone. Managing the game so that people get what they want is crucial, I find.

I don't think I really felt like I got control over the role the hobby played in my life until I walked away from a game last year. After that things suddenly clairifed.

 

[Sanackranib]

virgin DM

all of your players will vie for your attention. be sure you give it to all of them. don't spend 2 hours with 1 player and 5 minutes with another. everone like to be the star so let them.

 

[EarthsShadow]

virgin DM advice

Follow the KISS method: Keep it Simple Stupid! (I learned this the most when I was in the Air force, and it has paid dividends ever since, with a few minor exceptions).

Keep things simple. Let them know that its their first time with you as DM, and its your first time, as someone else has stated. Let them know what kind of adventure or feel your going after, this way they know what to expect. Ask them what they would like to do, and if possible start at first level with them so you get the feel for beginning campaigns. Use Forgotten Realms, but say its your version and their version is in a different plain of existence and doesn't exist on yours.

Keep things simple. Give small amounts of experience and treasure. Use small challenge rating creatures (kobolds are great target practice...sorry Meepo). Let them know your going to start off slow, and ask them all for advice, especially the DM.

Here's an example of too much treasure/XP on one campaign I was in: we all decided to run a mercenary campaign, in which everybody would take turns running adventures. We had all agreed on how to create adventures, style, and for the first four sessions it worked. Then one guy (it was his first time ever running a game in any game, same situation as yourself), who had missed a couple sessions, made a adventure and the party got split up. I was a dwarf and I encounter two pixies by myself. They fired their bows at me once and then ran away. Pixies are CR 4 creatures, my character was 2nd level, he gave me 2600 XP for the Pixies, instant level up. My character was unfazed by their magic arrows. Everybody else fought six kobolds and four goblins, there was five of them, and got less than half what he gave me. They were very upset and in one swift motion he unbalanced the entire campaign.

The tresure he gave out: he had a wizard give one player a +4 longsword, gave one player a ring of jumping, and one player a ring of protection, and told the other two players that was all he had planned on, and he even told us he didn't plan on all the characters surviving.

And he mad two tenth level NPC's that did all the fighting for them.

This is a example of what not to do. I hope this helps.

And Remember: KISS!!!!!!!

 

[Voadam]

Shame on you Vo! You forgot this little one, the Scarred Lands!

Nightfall, I said obscure ones. Those with their own internet prophets and which are placed prominently at borders and B & N do not count as obscure. I'd say among D&D gamers WoT is probably more obscure than Scarred Lands.

 

[Sanackranib]

obscure

ou hear that Nightfall, we're comming up in the world. Our little campaign world has reached the point where it is no longer considered "obscure". better watch it, the WORD is gettin' out!