Looking for Resources (And Advice) To Help First Time DM

[Aeradom]

Title pretty much says it. I'm just really getting comfortable in 5e and I've been asked to DM the next game. This particular group is more a relaxed one, basically just doing one offs that share the common theme of being part of the Assassin's Guild. The members are doing a round robin sort of thing where we each take a turn DMing and it just happens to be my turn next. I'm very nervous about doing this; bit of a procrastinator and have some ADD so it will be a challenge, but I've got a decent head start and along with general advice about DMing, i'd appreciate any particulars on my idea:

So the contract that will be carried out is a local politician locked in a neck and neck race for Mayor of the township. What the party (nor the guild) actually know is that the person who took out he contract, is the target of the contract. I thought about doing it simpler and having them just target the other guy and make it with the condition that it appear like an accident or natural as possible. But I thought, how much more unique would it be, for the guy to take the contract on himself, looking to be prepared for the assassination attempt, and then blame it on the other guy, thus causing a scandal and forcing him out of the race. I want to allow maximum freedom, so I thought I'd tell them of the target's iteniary for the next three days (and the assassination must be carried out in that window) as well as the location of his residence and let them decide how they wish to proceed.

The part that scares me the most, and is the most intimidating, is the details. Like how to stat out his security, the locations themselves where the different events will be occurring (thought one day would be a speech, second would be a enjoying an opera, and third would be fundraising dinner) oh and the "boss" persay, which is the head of his security detail. all of that just... fills me with dread trying to figure it out and balance everything.

Any help would be awesome!

 

[Halivar]

As a beginner, it helps you to be more prepared than to attempt to improv the whole thing. As for arranging locations, you don't have to do it awesome, or even right; just have it prepared so you don't freeze up when it's time to lay it out or describe it. Use minis, because theater of the mind will provoke performance anxiety like nothing else; confusion may arise and you will have to adjudicate. You neatly avoid that with a battlemat.

Also, a couple excellent resources for a newbie DM:

http://slyflourish.com/lazydm/

and

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Master-Dummies-James-Wyatt/dp/0470292911

That last one is for 4th edition. I have 3.5. Both are excellent, and useful no matter what edition (or even RPG) you're running..

 

[Nytmare]

The first thing that springs to my mind is "why is hiring assassins a better idea than setting up a fake assassination attempt?"

The second would be "he probably has to be pretty specific as to how he wants the attempt to take place, and have his security team in the know as well, otherwise he's probably a dead man."

The third is "If he's not going to be specific, or let his security force lead the assassins into a trap, what plan does he have in place to protect himself from a gang of hired assassins?"


[EDIT] PS - a lot of people here use the default black background which makes reading dark grey text problematic.

 

[Nytmare]

Beyond those nigling details, what's the world like? Is this taking place in huge metropolis full of schemes and intrigue, or some place smaller? Is it strange to have a mayoral candidate with a security team? Are you thinking like "a bodyguard" or "The King's Guard?"

How big an Assassin's Guild are we talking about? How are they going to react to something like this? I'm assuming that if they find out about the politician, he's a dead man. But even if they don't find out what his scheme is, would they be willing to just let a job go unfinished? Would their reputation be able to handle that? How are they going to react to the assassins they sent out who weren't able to finish the job? Are there going to be repercussions for failure?