New DM, little help?

[Ryallis]

Hi all, I'm planning a game soon but I've never DM'd, and rarely played dnd. I have three interested players, one who's played alot but has a surprising number of rule misinterpretations, one who's never played before. and one who played a long long time ago. I'm familiar with the rules of the game, but I haven't played much and have very little DMing (or storytelling) experiance. I learned under 3.0 edition (but only played for a month or so), and recently borrowed the 3.5 main books + MM 1, 2, & 3.

The kind of game I want to run (at first at least) is purely combat. Just a dungeon with goblins and lots of dice rolling hack and slash. I've told the players this, they all know what to expect. My plan is to have minimal story at first, and then just let the rping evolve to a level the group is natualy comfortable with (my be alot, may be none at all). Though I doubt we'd be entertained with nothing but senseless mechanics for long period of time, it seems easier to start with the basics, and once those are down, let the more elaborate stuff come later.

So I ask thee newly fellow forum mates: any advice? Any rule suggestions or trip ups you see coming along? Also, how does one go about designing a dungeon, and what level of encounters should I throw in? It seems like 5 cr 1 encounter and then a rest would be really boring, but can 3 level one characters survive a cr 2, 3 or 4 encounter? Oh and I skimmed the new books, and found very little different from 3.0. Is there any glaring gamebreaking differnce between the two, besides a few tweaked spells and a different kind of DR?

 

[scourger]

Just have fun, dude. Here are some tricks and recommendations I've developed over the years.

Download free initiative cards here:

http://www.thegamemechanics.com/freebies/index.asp

These are very handy for tracking combat. They sell pre-printed ones for monsters, too.

Download some free adventures from WotC's web site here:

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

There are 2 mini-modules for 1st level, and there shoudl be enough at various levels for a whole campaign.

Buy an easel pad with a 1-inch grid for use as a tactical map. You can write on the top sheet and then throw it out when the big map is done. Alternatively, you can use any big paper normally sold in rolls. Your local newspaper might even give you some (I buy end rolls at mine for $1).

When you're ready to tackle bigger adventures, get a subscription to Dungeon magazine. Here's a link:

http://paizo.com/dungeon

 

[maddman75]

Get a module. If all you're wanting to do is go into a dungeon, kill monsters, and take their stuff, then get a module that will let you do that kind of thing. You might enjoy Monte Cook's Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, which is a huge mega-module. It uses almost every critter in the Monster Manual, features a dungeon with over 200 areas/rooms, and several smaller dungeons. There's some opportunity for some roleplay too, letting you play different factions against each other instead of just hacking your way through. There's plenty more modules like this, just naming one I'm familiar with.

Other than that, don't be afraid to outsource! Get one player to keep track of everyone's initiative. The DM's got enough to worry about. Have the experienced player be Rules Master - he's the guy to look something up real quick when a dispute comes up.

 

[Mark]

Bookmark the following thread for random reading times...

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=47525

And be sure to pass it on to everyone you know and meet!

 

[Jdvn1]

Actually, I'd recommend being light on the combat. You say you're familiar with the rules, but you want to have your ruleset down pat before rules issues comes up. I think that's the toughest part for a new GM. The roleplaying, though, is easy. You only need a loose story and you'd be surprised how much the players contribute -- they almost put the story together themselves.

 

[Ryallis]

Those links are nice, thanks to both of you. I'm not into to modules, but it's a nice referance to see how things can be put together. Interesting point: What actually inspired me to try this game again is the card game Munchkin. Hence the combat focus. It was almost a joke at first but it's gone a little further than that at this point =P