I've decided to take the plunge and be a DM, any advice?

[Woas]

Improvise, don't stick to what you've planned. I cannot stress this enough.

Plan in advance. I cannot stress this enough. Trying to wing it will only cause havoc with the campaign, especially if the player's aren't too interested to start with. Make sure you have a story that progresses with each adventure.

Heres some advice. Combine what these two people said.

Plan in advance to imporvise!!!

Plan for Murphy's Law and to have the players do the EXACT opposite thing you thought they would!!

Plan for your campaign to slowly fall into chaos because of natural entropy and random player actions!!

Further more:

Be as consistant as possable. This is the best way to combat chaotic entropy and randomness in your campaign world. Get a notebook or some sort and write things down and don't be afraid to refence them.

Borrow ideas from whatever you like. As the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun. Don't try to beat yourself over the head with coming up with the most awsomest adventure ever. Sometimes the old cliche with a twist or different setting can be just as heroic and grand.

Use discription as much as possable. Discribe what the characters see. Use colors, textures, smells... When the fighter hits a critical and does 25 damage to the goblin who happends to have only 2 hit points left anyway, don't say "You slay him and he falls over." instead say:
"You cleave him into two pieces and his entrails catch on a chipped bit of your axe and are thrown across the room with your mighty swing!"

ok.. thats a little gory but you know what I mean....

Every trip out of town does not need random monster encounters. Unless your campiagn world is some insane Pokemon world were wild pokemon attack every 3 steps of course... Sometimes it is good to just say, "You arrive safely to the next town after 7 hours of travel along the country side."

Make sure you use weather, seasons, time, etc. I can't count the number of times I've played in games where it has been 70 F, Sunny, no cloud in the sky from the exact moment I woke until the exact moment I fell asleep.... weather and environment allow your players to experience the world even more.

Write things down! I can't stress that enough. Doing things on the fly is perfectly fine. Any DM will tell you they've had to do it. But doing things on the fly doesn't mean they go away after the players are done with it. As a DM, I can tell you from personal experience how embarassing it is to tell the players the name of some NPC or something, forget to write it down, and then have to give the NPC a new name or something cause they went back to talk to him.

Have the players do some of the work. To combat the problem above of not writing stuff down on the fly. Have the PLAYERS do it in a journal, quest log. The party I DM for has the Cleric and Bard write/keep journals/notes. They keep names of towns, NPCs, spells, dates, taste and smell of potions so they don't have to identify them each time **HINT HINT** and other useful information like that. That way the whole load isnt always on you the DM.

Theres more. And I'll post some. But the most important thing to know is:

HAVE FUN!!!!!

 

[ghettognome]

I am DM'ing as a newbie as well. The last time I dm'd was 2e years ago, so it is like starting all over again, so reading the advice is a good thing. The only problem I have to contend with is that my group of players all know the rules really well which can be intimidating to an unseasoned DM. In trying to keep the adventure simple, I hope I can survive it, but how does one not make a fool of themselves in doing so? I should really find a group of beginners.

 

[Nighthawk]

There's some good advice posted already. The only thing I would add is this: some things will be fun, others not, so enjoy it when it is "on" and take it in stride when it is "off." Find out what is enjoyable, realizing there will be disappointments along the way. I sincerely hope it turns out to be a fun learning experience for the two of you.

 

[mac1504]

Great advice so far, the only addition I would like to make is for any aspiring DM to find the original DungeonCraft articles published in Dragon (Monte, IIRC, is penning the current series) that lays out the rules of DM'ing. If you can search the messageboards (or ask nicely for someone else for you) you will probably be able to find the rules here as well.

I think the rules are a great guideline for any DM.

mac1504

 

[Wombat]

Okay, planning is good.

So is improvising.

The one thing to note is Get Ready For Your Players To Do Something You Don't Expect.

This is the one constant of gaming.

I ran a session once where the players spent the entire evening on essentially one sentence in the adventure, due to a failure to pass information -- the whole night just snowballed before my eyes, but we had a blast. Another time my players ended up getting hired as bodyguards by the Big Bad Guy ... just 'cuz it mades sense the way the players phrased it and, at the time, they didn't know he was the BBG.

Make sure major things stay consistent, but don't sweat details.

Above all, breathe.

It's not as scary as it sounds and, as long as you and the players all have fun, forgiveness is very simple

 

[Mark]

This thread, bookmark -

DMing Advice

Help you it can.

Posting like Yoda, I am.

[/silly voice]

Hope that helps!

 

[Grave_Injustices]

plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead.
i can't stress that enough. if you give the players doors a, b, and c, they almost always WILL choose door d or even e. so just be careful.