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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Buttercup" data-source="post: 484757" data-attributes="member: 990">Don't run your game in the Forgotten Realms, or in any setting the players know too well.  It can be annoying and intimidating to a new DM if the players bring in meta-game knowledge.  They aren't as likely to do this if they know nothing about the world.  Also, if it's your world, you have more fudge room.  Don't want your orcs to be so predictable?  Give them a bonus to intelligence, a love of poetry, and an allergy to gnomes.You have to be ready for anything.  Expereienced DMs can pull stuff out of the air in response to player actions.  The rest of us have to do a great deal of planning ahead of time.  I've got a whole notebook of pre-generated NPCs, sorted by class & level, with brief back-stories.  (Download Jamis Buck's NPC Generator, and you, too can spew them out by the hundreds.)  I also have several inns, taverns, shops and such generated.  I have floor plans, NPC proprietors and customers, and several plot hooks for each establishment.  If the PCs don't visit Selwick's Spell Shop when they are In Oakdale, maybe they'll want a spell shop when they reach Greyforge.  In which case, I'll change the name to Urwim's Spell Shop, and leave everything else the same.  I'd also recommend thinking ahead of time about your monster palette.  Do you favor orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins?  Lizard types?  Bandits?I've found that if I think all this stuff through ahead of time, I have more confidence, and I can move things along much faster.  This makes me look like I know what I'm doing, <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> and so the players trust me.  But then, I have really cool players.Absolutely.  I'd recommend Wizard's Amulet & Crucible of Freya, or the Freeport series, or one of the low level Kalamar adventures, depending on what sort of feel you want.  Modules will make your life so much easier until you really get confident in your skills.Not unless they're jerks.  If everyone is in it to have fun, rather than to bully or get ego stroking, they'll cut you some slack if you make mistakes.  And, to paraphrase the Bard of Avon, "First thing we do, let's kill all the rules lawyers!"I think this is different from person to person.  If you hate making maps, that's the task that you will struggle with the most.  If you like mapmaking, but have a tough time cobbling plots together, then that will be the part that is most traumatic for you.  Personally, I don't have a part that I dislike, but I do take a long time to come up with intertwining plot hooks, especially if I want to create a mystery. My first experience was online, in a message board game.  Two of the players didn't bother to post regularly, leaving the other three to carry the story.  I made some mistakes, and got some things confused.  But all in all it was ok.  Good enough, anyway, to convince me that I like DMing.  I hope you have a great experience, boxstop.  The intellectual challenge of spinning a good story for your players can be loads of fun, and really rewarding.  May your players be as kind to you as mine have been to me.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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