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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emiricol" data-source="post: 484079" data-attributes="member: 469">Yes.  Try to limit combats to a single monster per PC or less.  The fewer monsters, the easier the fight is to manage.  You'll be swamped with details, so this really helps YOU keep things straight.Also - don't screw up initiative.  PCs hate that.  Write it down in order, so you can just read it off. That's a broad topic, and it really depends on the group.  Some prefer intrigue, other groups like dungeon diving... Most prefer some mix.Subscribe to any of the online newsletters that focus on DM tips.  There's a number of them, though I don't recall the names off hand.Also, don't get bogged down in the details of combat.  IF there's a disagreement, let the player make their case once, make your ruling and MOVE ON.  If there's still disagreement , the time to go into it and make a more permanent ruling is AFTER the combat. Yep.  Many fewer details for you to deal with.  Most modules go overboard on the loot, though, so you may need to remove a magical item of treasure or two - use the DMG treasure chart as a good guideline for how much to give out. Depends on the group.  If you can get away with it, have a couple of the experienced PCs act as "DM assistants", if you will.  They can be the ones to go to with rules questions, and you can even enlist them to do things like deal with initiative orders and such.  DMing is a heavy load, and anything you can do to lighten it is a good thing when you are a bit inexperienced. Record keeping.  Tracking experience.  Detailing the adventure once you've done the much-more-fun-part of thinking up cool adventure ideas.  Keeping track of which hotel had the creaky door and the bartender with the lisp.  The list goes on.... Horrible, I'm sure.  I had no idea what I was doing, and I was 11.  I read too much, so thought I could do a "deep roleplay experience."  Ha.  The only thing that saved THAT experience from driving me out of D&D was the discovery that HEY, they have these things called modules!Ah yes, A1-4... memories...</blockquote>

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