D&D 5E Advice on how not to feel like a lousy DM

[jasper]

Rule 0. Unless a dead PC is on the ground at the end of session don’t worry about bad calls.
@Lanefan
1 Do you retcon the play later using the correct rule? NEVER DO THIS unless you correcting during the next round of combat. Opps Sorry Lanefan take 6 hit points less.
2 Do you let the ruling stand and lock it in as a campaign houserule going forward? (Insert lots of bad language) Never do this as it becomes a huge tower of bad house rules which will crash and burn.
3 Do you let the ruling stand but explain it as a one-off exception that won't happen again? And both the players and DM need to read up on the rule. I had Ghost of Saltmarsh session with all DMs Sunday. Lots of discussion about how spells worked and how others decided. I read the rule on truesight made a call and told the players My Table my Ruling. Half of the table wanted to treat as a video game radar so all the players would know where all the enemy were even if they were hidden by walls.
4. Don’t be a jerk and don’t let your best friend or other table mates be a jerk.
5. Fix major things as soon as possible even if going to tick people off. Hey jasper that magic missile light saber is too powerful I reducing to a +1 sword. Hey Bob that third party/UA/homebrew class is too uber. Bring a PHB class of the same level and I will adjust the magic items.

 

[rgoodbb]

By reading all the responses here and utilising this great and supportive site, you are already on to a winner.

I have found it incredibly useful as a new DM to ask lots of questions here and gauge how near I was to the general answers to see how I am doing as a DM.

Oh, and nice one for becoming a DM!

 

[Christopher Bixby]

So upon reading all of the responses to this post I have begun to take better notes and mark things down better for our next session which will be happening more than likely next week, and I want to thank everyone who has posted on the subject here for all the advice and encouragement that you all have given me. As I stated in my original posting I was looking to my wife every now and than for a bit of advice for the dice rolls that were needed for the game play. All but two of the players and myself have found a dice rolling app on our smart phones that we have been using and it keeps a history of all of the dice rolls that are made on it unless you erase them. I have been trying to get things more organized on my part as the dm and will continue to try to improve how I run this campaign. Again I want to thank everyone who has posted on this thread and hope that other new dms will find this feed back on here as valuable as I have.

 

[Mistwell]

In my opinion, often less preparation is better.

For example, you were trying to cover all your bases in reading the text and missed the players could investigate in a different way.

But that's not something you need to prepare for. If the players try to investigate something...just let them. If you didn't expect that, that's OK. A whole lot of what the player's do isn't expected. Your job is just to roll with it. So they say to the innkeeper "Hey what's up with that creepy old lighthouse on the hill?" Just feed them some information from the innkeeper. Make the innkeeper interesting too - that's an interaction they chose to have so make it an interesting one.

I think the biggest hitch new DMs run into is over preparing. The hardest preparation is just organizing your thoughts and being prepared with random names and characterizations and a new NPC on the spot.

That, and don't sweat anything. If you screw up, act like that's what you meant to do. If you describe something different than the book - well that's what it looks like now. Just keep the flow of the game going. Your players won't know the difference unless you tell them - so don't tell them.

 

[aco175]

I have posted several modules that I have run for my home game on DMsGuild. Several people have criticized me about not having though about every possibility to an encounter. I may plan on one way to get across a pit and think about another that I feel the players may come up with, but my playtest group may come up with a third that I include in the playtest notes. I few reviews I have received talks about their table coming up with a 4th way that I did not include because of their table makeup. Point is that it is hard to plan for everything. You may need to be flexible and work on dealing with the unexpected by the players.

It is nice to see that you are working on being better. Keep up the effort and don't be afraid to throw away what is not working.

 

[Coroc]

So I'm a new DM when it comes to D&D and would like to know if anyone else as a DM had the issue of feeling unprepared during a first time campaign as far as set up goes and wanting to be the right person for the job. Last night was my first time doing any kind of DMing for a campaign and I feel like I blew it when it came time to start. I hadn't looked over the campaign good enough to reali,ze that the players might investigate a certain part and had forgotten to add my own little touches to the campaign that might make it feel to them that i knew what i was doing. We ended up using the campaign that i have been working on for the last few months but by that time everyone was getting tired and it didn't seem like anyone was having fun with it. I guess what I'm asking for here is a bit of advice on how not to feel like a failure as a dm but to my party members that are playing.

Update: I will be going through all of the bools today that i have and marking things down on sticky notes that stick out of the books for a quick guide for myself and when we get together tonight to continue with the campaign that i have been working on i am hoping to be better prepared for the players the one thing I'm have a bit of difficulty with now is trying to figure out prices for the weapons and armor as well as health potions at shops and things like that i do have a few notes marked down for locating things in the books if i have to. However i would like to get feed back from my fellow DMs here as well as the groups that i am a pert of through Facebook on those prices just to see what the other Dms out there have done during their own first sessions and will more than likely go off of those with a slight variant.

Read the campaign note down what you want to use and what not

Make a spreadsheet with all potential mobs, attributes + and - saves hd hp range so if you have to emergency fudge it it won't be noticed.

E.g.
Orc Str 18 Dex 14 Con 16 etc. to hit +6 HD3+9 HP 12-33 AC 17 (Chainmail+dex) #At 2 1d8+4 scimitar
Below the stats write +4 +2 +3 etc in this case and note if some save is better or worse.
Note down special attacks defenses legendary resistances and spells (select soem upfront a caster mob will use)

Also note down XP and how much cash they have with them if you like

Leave some space on the spreadsheet and note some cryptic layout of how it is most likely to go:


Hired in village by NPC Wizard Elminster, Conditions Strange mob sightings in forest, Unnatural howls at night.
Forest -> encounter wolves orcs orc messenger ( hint on stronghold in message) Stronghold old ruins trapped drawbridge 2d10 save dex(13/0) inside Big bad evil, after endfight secret door perception 15 magic sword in trapped chest.
Note catchphreases for roleplay also e.g. Elminster grudgy old fool always lifts an eyebrow when talking.

As a newbie do an adventure path something more or less railroady. Do not attempt a sandbox because you would need to improvise much eventually.

I always use the spreadsheet i rarely have to look something up in the rulebooks during game and i roll totally in the open.

When i need the bathroom i just turn the sheet around that no PC by mistake looks at my notes and spoils himself and that is it.

 

[Christopher Bixby]

It would be helpful to have some more details about the adventure. Was it a plot the PCs had to follow by interviewing quirky, cagey NPCs? Was it a dungeon to explore filled with dangers and loot? What are we looking at here?

As it likely relates to everyone's level of fun and thus energy, I also wonder if you can break down how many "scenes" in which there were "stakes" during your session. What I mean by that is how many instances of conflict were there in which the characters (and by extension the players) could win or lose something they care about (a battle, a negotiation, etc.).

the main plot that i have for this campaign is that a wizard has had a powerful artifact stolen from his tower and has hired these players to retrieve it for him. what they don't know though is that the wizard is infect Loki from Norse mythology in disguise trying to get the mask of Loki back for himself to rule the nine realms as it were. He was the one who orchestrated the theft of the mask to see if there were any people brave/stupid enough to challenge him. on top of that i was thinking that i would throw Thor and Odin into the mix and have them help out the players from time to time during this quest. Because of poor planning on my part for this campaign at this point I forgot to do some of the basics and take notes on the monster stats and getting to know where everyone is located at the beginning of the actual quest so right now everyone is at an apothecary vendor getting a few things that they might need for the journey and that is where we left off. with session one. I initially wanted them to be at the bandit cave for the end of the first session but with me being as unprepared as i was we didn't even get out of the first town that they all met each other in as it was getting late and i was trying to look up a few stats for their individual races that they each took but was unable to find anything on the sea elf race as far as what the size was and how their base stats would affect what kinds of weapons and armor they can each use. we have a light foot halfling barbarian with a battleaxe and chain mail armor, but i could look up that race and see that they could use that stuff but i am at a loss on the sea elf race. i haven't been able to find anything about it anywhere.

 

[Haffrung]

I few reviews I have received talks about their table coming up with a 4th way that I did not include because of their table makeup.

I wouldn't worry about what unimaginative DMs who feel everything needs to spelled out for them feel about your adventures.

 

[Oofta]

I wouldn't worry about what unimaginative DMs who feel everything needs to spelled out for them feel about your adventures.

Describe the scene, describe an obvious option or maybe two and leave it at that. There's no reason to try to determine every possible avenue of success; there's a reason we have DMs instead of computer code.