D&D 5E New DM with New Players, looking for help!

[TartarSauce]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! You've all given me some good stuff to think about.

 

[Ancalagon]

Oh this recent thread is very on topic:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ures-For-Children-Writing-RPGs-For-Youngsters

 

[Imaculata]

What I tend to do, is just do a lot of work before hand to create a sort of sandbox for my players. Yes, it is a lot of work. But once you've prepared it all, you can just let your players loose in the world. I have random tables for everything to come up with things on the fly, and the rest is just improvisation.

 

[Gonat]

Watch "Axe Cop".
It is an animated series. Very short episodes but really in line with what you described as your stile (they have flying police cars, dinosaurs, alien, planet explorations, magic, etc ^^ )

 

[thorgrit]

It's straining farther from "D&D", but you can steal elements from other more narrative systems, in that you ask *them* what happens. I don't know what system it's from, but I liked the idea of 4 granularities in rolling:
1. Roll really high, the player narrates what happens.
2. Roll middle-high, player narrates, but GM can change a minor thing
3. Roll middle-low, GM narrates, but player can change a minor thing
4. Roll really low, GM narrates.

Also, make puzzles with no solutions ahead of time, and reward creative ideas. Like, every time the players try to walk down a hallway, a big squirt gun pops out of the ceiling and sprays them back to the beginning. You could decide ahead of time that there's an off switch in a hidden panel, and if they can't find it, they can't get down the hallway. Instead, just see what they try, and when something sounds cool, why, that was the solution all along!

 

[Imaculata]

You can also randomly assemble dungeons (assuming your story involves exploring buildings and such).

You can print out prefab rooms on paper, and then assemble them in random configurations to make a new dungeon on the fly (kind of like making your own very large dungeon tiles). All you need is to have prepared some content for the dungeon, and drop that in as you see fit.

Let me explain a bit about dungeon creation. A lot of people simply draw out the whole dungeon, and determine where every monster, clue, trap and treasure is. But drawing a whole dungeon every time is pretty time consuming. Especially if the players visit only half the dungeon, and skip a lot of important encounters/clues/treasures. That can be a lot of skipped content, and a lot of wasted effort.

You can save yourself a lot of trouble, by not defining the exact locations of every object in the dungeon, and then simply moving them to wherever the players are going. For example, when I created an underground city for my players, I prepared some points of interest before hand, but I didn't write where they would be. They could be anywhere. Then as the players started exploring, I simply decided as a storyteller which of these they encountered.

(Obviously your theme is very different from mine, but this method could easily be used for your own setting)

Shrine to the God of Death
The shrine to the God of Death is littered with old candles and decayed scrolls. A search check may reveal valuable items around the shrine. There’s a basin of water that is holy water. Search DC 30 to find a secret stash.

Wall carving
Human figures are shown worshiping the God of Death. A shaman, brings food and treasure to the statue of the god, while inhaling what seems like incense. The next depiction shows the same shaman lying down on what seems like a bed, while dreaming of a vision. The third depiction shows a cloud filled with grasping hands, and a terrified shaman who seems to be seeing this in his vision. The fourth depiction shows the shaman telling his people of this danger, and the people are frightened. The fifth depiction shows the shaman and his people leaving in boats, while taking only food and their most important possessions.

Stone coffin of a Saint
This stone coffin of some sort of holy shaman seems warded by magic, and is littered with candles and flasks. There are jars that smell strongly of incense, and carvings on the side of the stone coffin. The coffin is warded my a magic missile spell, which can be dispelled. The coffin also contains a hidden hatch where a piece of treasure is hidden.

Fertility room
A chamber filled with erotic images, and statues of fertility figures. Some statues resemble pregnant women, and well-endowed men. It looks like this room may have contained beds, but decay has eaten away most of the furniture. Hardly anything remains of the wall tapestries either. A search check may reveal valuable items.

Nether crypt
The entrance of a crypt has a depiction of a gate with eyes surrounding it. The door to the crypt is clearly made to resemble a mythical gateway. Inside the crypt is filled with stone caskets, and images of the Lady of the Waves cover the walls. The entrance to the crypt is trapped (Search DC 18), so it will lock anyone inside who enters.

Embalming Room
This room smells of chemicals, and various jars and stone tables fill the room. The contents of the jars have long perished. There are also some upright stone coffins against the walls, containing mummified bodies. A search check DC 15 may reveal treasures.

Embalming mural
A mural on the wall shows the process of embalming the dead. Corpses are laid down on stone tables, and then treated with chemicals. Crying women wrap the dead in cloth.

Cursed altar
A holy alter with a beautiful jewel encrusted holy symbol (50gp) lines one of the walls. The altar has an inscription on it, that when deciphered reads: “Woe to whoever disturbs the dead, or steal from them, for the God of Death shall have no pity on them in this life, or the life after.” The altar is warded with a spell. If someone removes the holy symbol, an animate undead spell is cast on all corpses on this floor.

"The passing of the dead" mural
A wall mural shows the dead being brought to their tomb by mourning people. The spirits of the dead then rise from their bodies, and step through the gateway with eyes. A figure of the God of Death awaits them, while holding a set of scales that weigh their good acts against their bad. One figure is shown to be sent to heaven, while another is cast into an ocean of tormented souls.

"Drowning of the dead" mural
A mural on the wall shows a sailor being thrown off his ship during a storm. He drowns and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where the Lady of the Waves takes his hand, and brings him before the God of Death. The God of Death holds a set of scales, and to judge the man, and then sends the man to heaven.

Spiders nest
A large chamber where a partially crumbled crypt, stands on a large platform. Down below is deep water, filled with spider webs with air bubbles (both spiders and players can use these). Several waterfalls cascade down into the water below, which hide the tunnels of the spiders behind them. The spiders can throw their webs through the waterfall, and pull players off the platform, into the water below. A thin crumbled bridge zigzags to the central platform. Underwater a large stone door seals off the room, but it has a hole in it that you can crawl through. A net of webs is spanned between the platform and the walls, so any players that fall down become constricted.

So all of these encounters can be dropped into any room at any time, except for the last one, which is a very specific boss battle. There is no need for the players to skip anything, since I decide where everything is. The lay out of the dungeon is less important. What matters, is what is in all those empty rooms. And its a lot less preparation than drawing a whole dungeon every single time.

I also create a loot table for the dungeon, which I can randomly roll on. So whenever I decide that a room contains a treasure, I just roll a D100 on the table, and tell the players what they find. The extra benefit is that I can reuse the loot table for other dungeons as well. That saves me a lot of work.

 

[TartarSauce]

Wonderful ideas, everyone. As a new DM, it's this kind of stuff that is really going to help us have a great time gaming.

Since it came up, making up personalized treasures to give away is probably my favorite part of DMing. I try to make sure everyone gets one special treasure each time we play.