First-time DM--Where Do I Start???

[Fusiox]

Hello. Thanks, by the way, for reading a poor newbie's plea for aid.

Well, it's my first time DMing. My party needs a new adventure--nothing too radical, nearly all of us are newbies, and still stuck in the good 'ole heroic tier--and I reckon I got 1 month to prepare before everyone is available to play. Easy, right?
Lots of time, lots of books, and a heck of a lot of coffee later (buckets, I tell ye! BUCKETS!), and all I have to show for it is a table full of ripped paper and patches of skin where I ripped out my hair.

Just kidding.

In any case, where do I start? I already have a basic idea of what the big picture is going to be, but I guess I need to get the creative juices flowing. Except I don't know how...

What do you veteran DMs like to do when you have to get cracking on that new adventure? Should you make the town first, or start from the climatic endgame battle and work your way backwards? I'm not really into the whole small-scale treasure raid--I read too many fantasy books to limit myself to a mere ruin-run--but as a first-time DM, should I scrap the whole fatal-war thing and wait until I'm a bit more experienced? I have lots of time, but time's a-wasting, and I'd like a bit of help before I start banging my head against the wall. Again.

Thanks so much!

 

[Dice4Hire]

This is all my opinion, so YMMV

For your first foray, go for a short set of about 5 encounters, with an option to continue.

The first encounter should be rules-less, just characters speaking and negotiating.

The second should be an easy fight with not too many baddies (1 per character) who do not last too long.

The second should be one with minions and numbers (2 or 2.5 per character), but not much danger.

The next should be a skill challenge of some kind

The last would be good as 2-3 baddies (half the party), maybe one of them an elite.

I think with these encounters, you can get people into the game and try out the combat system a bit.

Outside of the encounters, I would go with rules-light or rules-less and hype the feel of your world and hints of the story you are trying to tell.

But please, oh please, do not promise them a 1-30 jaunt in your first campaign. I've seen that too much on online games that don't get past the first encounter.

 

[Zaukrie]

Welcome to our small and exclusive club....

First, know that DMing is a lot about winging it for me. I always have a map and always have encounters prepared, but sometimes the story changes mid-game. That skill takes time to develop, but don't be afraid to let your story change and bend as you learn more about your style and what drives your players to have fun, and their characters to do things.

Second, most sessions at my house run 4-6 hours. That is somewhere between 3-5 encounters and an hour roleplaying w/o fighting, and a good 30+ minutes of "wasted" time at the table talking about non-gaming stuff or even gaming stuff that isn't necessarily "in game".

As the previous poster said, start small. Don't think you'll design some epic campaign to take people from level 1 to level 30. That said, if you string things together with recurring NPCs (even if they are in the background) or story lines, then you can build a campaign as you go.

The easiest campaign to run, for me, is one based on the stargate TV show. Give them a base with a portal, send them on missions, and slowly weave some story in there. If you keep the missions to 3-5 encounters, they don't have to be "related" at all. They can be sent almost anywhere, and they still have an underlying story of doing missions from the base.

 

[Diplomat123]

Sounds like you you have an overall plot idea in mind. That's good. Assuming you are starting at 1st level, then start small. Go for one of the classics. Goblins raiding trade caravans, local businessman's daughter kidnapped by bandits, someone wants escortin gto the next town through bandit country.

Work out a few encounters based around that. Work out a couple of plot hooks to get the pcs interested in getting into your plot.

What works for me in the group i am DMing for is to work out what the bad guys plan is and what they will do until the pcs get involved. Then i point the pcs at the plot and light the blue touch paper. They are very good at derailing what i have planned and doing unexpected things, and by not being too commited to anything particular happening i am happy to roll with their crazyness.

If the pcs choose to sit in the pub drinking then the bad guys plan rolls along and thing happen and more plot hooks will appear, or the pc decide they have a more entertaining idea than what i dangle in front of them. In which case i will go with that.

Also, if you have a long term plot, try to introduce hints and foreshadowing early on.

In my current campaign i had the pcs first fight end up with them rescuing an NPC who was a leader in a shadowy group and by early paragon has become a semi sponsor of the group.

 

[vagabundo]

Okay, here's my 2cm:

Keep It Simple Stupid: As a first time DM you're going to have a lot of balls in the air, so keep that in mind when designing your encounters and adventure as a whole.

Keep It Focused: It is tempting to have these big rambling byzantine plots and setting and details. But keeping the first few adventures focused on your theme or plot and seeing what kind of complications your players will bring to the table tends to work better.

Keep it Varied: Adventure writing is a lot like cooking, get a load of nice mechanical ingredients and mix them up good and proper and then sprinkle with a lot of spicy RP opportunities.

Be Not Subtle: Players do not get subtle or they get it wrong a lot (see the rule of three below). And this applies equally to clues and NPC quirks - ham it up mang.

Rule of Three : When designing any plot point, clue, hidden door that is vital to the adventure, etc... use the rule of three, so have three clues pointing to where you want them to go, because as sure as muck is brown they will miss two of them (and they may then misinterpret the third!!).

I got a lot of that from the 4e DMGI/II and some blogs on the web.

Some other things you can note are pacing and adventure structure and winging it, but they are best tackled with a bit more experience.

Make the adventure something you are passionate about and don't get too attached to any of the pieces, because it is never going to run like you imagine it, the player will muck it all up.

 

[Riastlin]

As others have said, start small. Looking too much at the big picture can cause you to simply drown in the details. Maybe you have an idea about what the culture of the nation across the ocean from the starting point is, but really, its going to be a long time before the PCs get there, so don't worry about it for now.

As for the adventure itself, I usually start with the idea of the adventure and build from there. i.e. Do I want the PCs to "rescue the princess", "escort the caravan", "investigate the goblin caves", etc. Once I have an idea, then I build around that. If its investigating the caves, where are they, and why do they need to be investigated? Presumably they are relatively close to town and the PCs are needed because the goblins have gotten bold -- maybe they are raiding caravans, maybe they are stealing livestock, etc. This will then inform me as to how the PCs get roped in. Caravan raids means merchants might hire the PCs, farm raids would mean either the town or even just some of the farmers, etc. From here, you can now worry about designing the caves and the encounters therein.

As for your campaign story, its great that you have an overarching plot idea worked out. However, as others stated already, don't promise a 1 to 30 campaign. Its fine to hope for that, but 1 - 30 will likely take you at least a couple of years with regular sessions (weekly). All that in mind, there's no reason why every adventure needs to be directly linked to that overall story. Take the goblin raid example above. Perhaps when your players finally get to the goblin chief and defeat him, they find a note indicating that the goblins were being paid in weapons and/or gold/food/etc. in exchange for attacking the town or disrupting trade. Now, this adventure still doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the overall plot of let's say having Orcus attempt to overthrow the Raven Queen, but you are slowly tying it together. Later, the party will learn that the entity that hired the goblins was a cultist of Orcus who is trying to distract the town from the cults schemes, the cult then is acting on orders from somebody else, etc., etc.

The point here, is to simply try to avoid getting in over your head at the outset. You can always add on later but for now, you need to get your feet wet and get accustomed to running a game.

As for general advice, if you are a DDi subscriber, there's an excellent series of articles called Dungeoncraft on the Dungeon site. These are written by James Wyatt IIRC, who also wrote the DMG, and provide great advice for running a campaign. Additionally, there are a lot of blogs on the intarwebs with great DM'ing advice from SlyFlourish, to NewbieDM, to even a few on the WotC site. I'm sure there are plenty of others too.

Most of all, welcome to the club! Its great that you are giving it a go as we always need more DMs, if for no other reason than so that we DM's can occasionally be PCs too.

 

[SoulsFury]

I don't know if I have much to add, but I will definitely tell you some things you should remember, and most have been said above.

1. Keep it very simple.

2. If you get stumped, don't look up the rules over and over. An 11+ succeeds, a 10- fails. Nobody likes to sit and watch the DM flip through books.

3. Keep up the pace and encourage roleplaying.

4. Don't over design the world. As your campaign progresses, you will want to add things, so don't place everything right away, let it slowly unveil naturally.

Good luck! Learn from what your players say and do.

 

[Nork]

If you know mechanically what you are shooting for, it makes it easier to build towards that, and then the plot and scenery just falls into place around it. You know the general story you want to tell, but the mechanics that will be used to tell it will help define the details of the story. The mechanical format should be the same, even if it is a simple dungeon delve or something grandly sweeping and story driven.


Mechanically, the standard template for an adventure is this:

Five encounters before you allow them to take an extended rest. Four of those encounters will be combat encounters, and one of them will be a skill challenge. The skill challenge will not be the last encounter of the set. Do not trap the PCs without a means of escape after encounter number four. Let the PCs achieve some partial measure of success after encounter four, and total success on the completion of encounter five. DO NOT use level inappropriate monsters.

Stick to that format like glue.


Some general tips:

Preventing the extended rest is really important mechanically. If the adventure is over several days, explain to them that they can only "truly rest" when the chapter is complete. Do not bend on this. Short rests provide plenty of recovery.

If you want to avoid a "railroad" situation, you can allow the encounters to happen in an order chosen by the PCs as a result of their investigations (maybe encounters 1-3 could be in any order, and the last two encounters are the conclusion). You can also prepare alternate encounters (If the PCs do X they will have this encounter, but if they do Y they will have this other encounter instead), which provides them the option to make actual decisions, while allowing you to stack the deck so that you get your five encounters.

Do not be afraid to re-skin monsters to suit your storytelling needs. Nobody has to know that the were-rat brute you described was really a stat-block for a level appropriate troll, where you replaced fire with silver.

If your story really needs more than five encounters, but you can't extend it into a set of two five encounter blocks, then use modulo math. Make a five encounter core to the adventure, and then put the remaining encounters into a second "lite" block that you just accept will be easy. It is usually best to put this easy block first as a warm-up, and then let them have an extended rest and the five encounter main block that has the potential to challenge the PCs.

Start with 4x encounters with an xp budget equal to the PCs level. This should be easy, but you never know how effective a party is. If it was easy, then go with 4x (PC level + 1) for your next adventure, and so on until you find the right calibration point. If the PCs have to retreat, then dial it back on the next adventure.



This is why you should stick to the format like glue (at least to start):

Five encounters lets the PCs get 3 action points.

One skill challenge mixes things up, and five combat encounters can be too much.

Not having the last encounter as the skill challenge allows the players to spend their action points in combat. Which is where the players want to spend them.

Not trapping the players after the fourth encounter means that if the players made mistakes and don't feel like they can tackle the fifth encounter, that they have the option to admit defeat and retreat to fight another day. It is best to make most of the big bad evil guy's plan thwarted by the fourth encounter, and to make the fifth encounter required for a "total victory" where they capture the bad guy, or at least send them packing.

It takes between three and four combat encounters before you really start to tax PC healing surges and daily powers without risking a TPK. Three combat encounters being the exhaustion point if the party is making mistakes, and four combat encounters being the exhaustion point if the party is playing average.

If you go with fewer encounters and jack up the encounter difficulty, you STRONGLY risk creating an accidental TPK. Sooner or later your dice will be hot, and when when the encounter level is jacked up hot dice will kill players instead of just beating them up to the point that they will have to retreat after combat encounter three. Players do not like it when they get killed because of hot dice, and players do not like it when they know that the dice killed them and the DM waved their hand and made it go away.

If you want a swarm of weak foes, use minions, not low level mobs. Low level mobs are not balanced for that purpose.

If you want a tough monster, use elites or solos close to the party's level, and do not use a high level monster. elites and solos are balanced for that purpose. High level monsters are frustratingly difficult for players to hit, and hit the players a frustratingly large portion of the time. High level monsters also tend to apply more status effects, and use more potent status effects, than the party is usually equipped to handle.

 

[ragingpeanuts]

A lot of good advice in this thread. Before 4e, I had three levels worth of dm'ing in 3.5. The players had either the same experience, or less. So I kinda know what you're going through Not only that, I did start a lvl. 1 to 30 adventure. I've got quite some digital rpg-experience (e.g. baldurs gate, dragon age, fallout, etc.) and already knew the dmg and ph by heart when we started, but still.

This post has become longer than I thought it would be. In short:

1. Keep it simple is the best advice
2. Work from big to small: overall story, story per tier, story per session
3. Don't be afraid to improvise, use smoke and mirrors. Like James Cameron said: it doesn't have to make much sense, as long as it's entertaining

The most valuable advice given in this thread is: keep it simple. Your playes will probably need so much time figuring all the rules and options out, that each encounter will take a long time. What you thought they'd go through in one session might take two or three at first.

As for actually designing your adventure:

DMG 2 has a nice section on how to bond players together beforehand. I strongly recommend doing that - I just threw them together and as a result, the group cares much less about what happens to the other.

Check with your players before designing a big adventure what kind of stuff they're into. What tone? Light-hearted or pitch-black? What setting intrests them? Natural, undead, fey, etc.? In the beginning, when all is new, you might not get many answers, but it will help entice them. I've started a pretty dark campaign, but it's sprinkled with a lot of nonsense during moments of rest (the witchalock called Francis Thunderfluff is a favourite of my players, as are the effeminate halfling tailors Gianni, Louis and Ralph. Trash-talking ugly as f*ck pixies that pick their noses and spread their boogies on the naive gnome pc are the cherry on top). Some might like such things, others don't. On the other hand, my players aren't so much into combat. Maybe half of the encounters are combat. The other half are skill challenges and puzzles. Tastes may differ, so check first. Check again after a few levels, when people have a grasp of things.

Also, the whole retraining thing for characters: meh. Let them modify their char. as you go along, up to about level 5. By then they should know what their character does, etc. Every tier I built in room for them to completely re-pick their powers, feats, etc. without having to build a new char.

First: think of a goal. If you do go for a longer arch, cut your story up in the tiers first, making each tier a separate, satisfying stand-alone story.

I kinda worked backwards, from big to small. Think of your story as a flowchart. Check out masterplan: Masterplan - it can help you plan your story.

1. Work out an overal story, but no details: I wanted an epic story, involving dead gods, politics, deceit, demons and undead. I created an outline for each tier. Your story will go in directions you didn't anticipate, so don't work out any details for tier 2 and 3.
2. Work out the tier at hand in more detail: The first tier should be a little more detailed, with well defined overall goals. I then cut this up into chapters.
3. Design the sessions: We play only once a month. If we do a level each month, it would take 2,5 years for the story to end, not counting any delays. I design each chapter with fewer encounters and more exp per encounter. Sometimes we do a session where they the pc's go up one or two levels. Point is: bend the rules to your needs.
4. Biggest DM-secret: Don't be afraid to use smoke and mirrors. Can't work an awesome idea out into perfect detail? Don't worry, your players don't know what's happening behind the screen. Example: The final encounter of heroic tier I sorta cheated. Enemy's attacked a church where the pc's were holed up (they fortified it beforehand). The attackers came in waves, coming at an increasingly shorter time. The size of the waves were randomized by dice-rolls. A ritual had to be completed to escape. Completion would mean victory (sort of). I had no idea how many waves it would take for the pc's to die, but I wanted them to escape on the brink of desperation. So instead of defining beforehand how many waves would attack, I just went on with it till it reached the point of desperation. If you just built tension and narrate it good, they will never know that you had absolutely no clue how to pull it off without under- or overwhelming.

Let the players keep a diary of what happened. They're so busy with their own character that they will not remember the story in the beginning, except for certain moments.

Hope this helps, let us know how it all went

 

[Dice4Hire]

This post has become longer than I thought it would be. In short:

And you have barely gotten started yet

Good post.