Help!! 1st time DM need advice!!

[BullMarkOne]

the thought of creating my own campaign world is tempting. But with work and school I doubt that I'll have the time, plus the work required is so overwhleming I wouldn't know where to start.

A fairly rewarding (and low effort) method of creating a campaign world is the 'Inside Out' method. Start with just a 1 shot type of adventure, set in a loosely detailed 'central' location. By loosely detailed I mean something along the lines of: "Generic Fantasy City XX." Use some of the default values in the dmg for things like populations. Don't worry about details, you can flesh them out as you play.

To give your new setting a consistant feel either steal location and people names from a specific region of the real world, or pick a language you dont speak and use and internet based html type translator. http://translation.langenberg.com/ is a pretty good source

You can also easily start with a pre-published module, and start location, and change some names/details as you go (I take notes in the margins of the modules when I do this). This will provide you with a well written adventure, and a good stock of detail you might have overlooked.

Have each player create their own character using only core rules, and make sure they write a background for the character. Let them do some of the overall world design for you with these backgrounds, this works really well if you have a nice diverse party. Pick general relative locations for a couple of other nations etc, no need to draw up and super great maps (or any at all really, so long as you take careful notes about locations)

Now the most important step: Run your one shot adventure. If you need a detail about the world its set in, make it up! Just make sure you've got a notebook handy to write down all the details that you have to make up, so you can keep a moderate sense of consistancy.

Viola! Instant campaign setting!

 

[Agback]

Either pregen some 1st level PCs or the players make their own using ONLY Core material. Trust me it will be easier for you to limit options at first and later introduce things in.

Hear! Hear!

Get confident with GMing the core material before you introduce any extra complexities. Start out with the core classes, core feats, and a restricted subset of the core monsters and magical items. Don't try to learn to use the fancy extras before the basics are second nature.

It doesn't matter how sad their puppy-dog eyes get, do not permit PCs to use, and do not generate NPCs that use prestige classes, funky classes out of supplements, or any other what-have you until you have a really strong grasp on how the basics play out.

 

[DaveMage]

Do you have a link to these adventures?

You are SO lazy!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

 

[Raven Wintervale]

Thanks for the great suggestions Agback & BullMarkOne. My Dm was right about this board being a helpfull place. I really want to do a good job running my first adventure (if you go here http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=150459 you'll understand why). So I really appriciate all the suggestions so far.

Thanks

 

[BullMarkOne]

DaveMage Beat me to it

 

[DonTadow]

My GF is starting a cartoon soon as a brand new DM

ADvice I give her

- ::repeat:: stick to the core material. That just doesnt mean the monster manual and the Dungeon Masters Guide, that especially means the Players Handbook.

- Try not to read any outside material. There's ton of stuff in d and d. Just because your first adventure will have pixies does not mean buy the pixie handbook from mongoose. All that reading will hamper the basics you need to understand.

- Watch your DM and don't be afraid to ask questions after game. We DMs love indcuting a newbie. The DMs in my group ask me questions after game all the time and I have no problem telling them the crs of dead monsters, how I thought of differernt tactics and rehashing known things about the plot.

- Making a world is nice and easy, but I wouldn't recommend it to a brand new DM, not until you run a few out of the box adventures first. Going to Wotc's website or picking up an issue or two of Dungeon Magazine can work. Its just a lot of questions can come up and design is needed for a world (even if you start one city at a time) and when you first start dm'n you want to concentrate on learning the technique.

- Know your players and pick players whom you get along with and can play your style. Theres no wrong style but there is your style.

- Have fun

 

[Agback]

Viola! Instant campaign setting!

My usual, and best-developed campaign setting, Gehennum started out this way in 1988. I had an idea for a miniseries campaign based on a 'twisted' version of the standard fantasy trope "rescue the princess and win her hand in marriage".

The original setting was conceived thus: "Jehannum is a tropical archipelago like the East Indies on a fantasy world with no grasslands and therefore nothing like horses. The people are like the Malays, except that there is a race that can breathe water and a race of winged people. The culture is like Hellenistic Greece except that the staple is rice, not bread. The political arrangements are like Restoration England. You live in the capital, Thekla, which is a vast metropolis like mediaeval Constantinople." Further details I made up, or the players made up, as needed. And noted. There wasn't a map until the campaign had been running two years. And the capital wasn't even sketched until 1994.

 

[Cartigan Mrryl]

1) Monsters and opponents with restricted options to use magical possessions are easier to run while you are inexperienced.

2) Slowing down the PCs' acquisition of extra powers through levelling and acquiring magical items gives you more time to practice with challenges at each level.

3) PCs with fewer feats, class abilities, and magical items are easier to oppose effectively while you have only nascent GMing skills.

4) It is much, much easier to compensate for having been too stingy than it is to compensate for having been too generous.

I especially agree with point 4. Seriously, l made my little brother's stuff WAAAY too strong (note the emphasis on the way.) Anyways, if you think that you're giving them even a SLIGHTLY generous amount, pull back a little, because (like point 4 said) if they beat the Ogre and got 1 piece of gold, and feel cheated, you could always find a way to send a few more gold their way (such as a group of Gnolls are attacking a caravan, group comes in, saves caravan, and are rewarded a few more gold.) Regardless, don't cave if a player is being an ass, if you need an excuse for why you're being hard on them, tell them that (remember, this only works if you set it in your own world) there's a large class division, so money's hard to come by, or something like that. Maybe the world is in a state of depression, so money is harder to get because the wealthy have most of it.

Anyways, if you DO make your own equipment, make sure it's not too strong. If you have a program or a rulebook to use while making stuff, use it.

Also: Does anyone know of a book that is full of just items? Like a "Complete Merchant" or something? Because if there isn't one... there should be.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Well I've finally decided to step up and try to DM a game for my group. So what do I from here? I've thought about buying a pre-printed adventure and just running that. Would that be a safe choice for a 1st time DM? If I do should I let the player use their current PCs or should I make them use the ones in the book?

On the other hand should I try to write my own? I've an interesting idea but I'm not sure what to do with it?

Why not do both? I suggest you get a printed (or web distributed) adventure, and read it a few times. Then, if you have ideas for changes or additions with your own ideas, by all means do it. Just ask yourself if the changes / sidetreck you added is fun and interesting.

When I'm not writing my own stuff, I take a printed one and change the parts I do not like or add things I want to throw at my PCs.

Are your team familiar with 2e adventures? Many of them are gems and can get converted without too much trouble to 3rd ed if you are very familiar with 3e (otherwise, wait 'till you are, or it will take way too much time). There are many threads here on the best 2e adventure and top ten (and there was a dungeon issue with a top 30 list of adventures. It is dungeon # 116). You should read these fan reviews before trying to hunt 2e stuff.

Good luck!

Joël

 

[Hand of Evil]

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