New to D&D and becoming a DM

[KMageau]

I would suggest you start off at a slow enough pace, so that your are comfortable with applying the rules. Encourage your players (if they are new) to ask questions regarding the rules. This will help you, by looking them up and understanding them better for yourself.

I would not invest in other books for now till you have grasp of the rules and what your players' expectations are. Example: Buying the Worlds Largest Dungeon ($100) but your players prefer an overland adventure type game. Once you know what your players want in a game buy only what you need to help your players have a better gaming expierance.

During your first session with all of the players, I would create characters and get some feedback from them regarding what they want in a game. Knowing what the want/like in a D&D game will help you better prepare your adventures. Being prepared is a key goal for a DM (IMHO).

Hope this messgae helps you out and Have fun DMing!!!

 

[Samothdm]

Welcome!

One of my friends (who is currently a player in my campaign) has decided to take up the DM mantle himself and I suggested that he check out Role-Playing Tips to give him some good DM ideas.

I agree with everyone else so far - there's so much material available out there that it's probably best to just stick to the core rules for now and get a feel for your players and the type of campaign they, and you, want.

I've never played or DM'd Sunless Citadel, so I can't help you there.

 

[SuperFlyTNT]

Thanks for the warm welcome Are there any house rules you guys suggest

I dont let my players make wizards above 3rd level. Basically I start all my groups at 1st lvl and make them advance, if they didnt put the time in as a low lvl wizard (or sorcerer) they cant make one when their charecter dies. They dont deserve to be able to blast everything. Just my house rule though. Also do voices for your charecters, and give them personalities and names. It makes the game much more enjoyable for you and your players. Its also confusing when Mr Harding sounds exactly the same as his wife and two daughters.

 

[Nightfall]

Well I'd do like four-five sessions with a module you feel comfortable with. (Not sure I'd recommend Sunless Citadel as much as a Necromancer Game mod. But that's a personal preference.)

Secondly, if you decide to pick a campaign setting after running a few times, my advice, come to me and the Scarred Lands! I'm here 24/7 to answer any and all SL related questions.

 

[VirgilCaine]

The current edition is very good, and works very well without any modification.

Thats something to get used to--varying opinions. I think a lot of the things in the new edition aren't as good.

Some good websites....


www.squid.org
Name generators.

www.seventhsanctum.com
LOTS of varous generators.

www.opengamingfoundation.org
The SRD--System Resource Documents--all the basic stuff from the PHB, DMG, and MM.

www.wizards.com

Don't forget all the FREE adventures, spells, magic items, monsters, places, etc. that you can get here. It's all FREE and from an official source.

You could run many whole [and completely different] 1st to 20th level campaigns just from the adventures on this website. A little conversion might be necessary, but three, perhaps four campaigns could be run using this material.

Now that I think about it, it's probably the best site out there on the whole 'Net for quality D&D stuff I can think of.

 

[Azul]

No disrespect to Nightfall, but I'd suggest that you not worry too much about your campaign setting for a fair bit of time. Most published campaign settings offer way more information than a novice DM and party can easily absorb. As others have advised, focus on learning the rules of the game and getting used to the idea of just playing a roleplaying game.

As a DM, keep your storylines fairly simple at first, so you don't tangle yourself up. Always remember that roleplaying is a group activity and that the main goal is for everyone to have fun.

Gently guide your players so they feel they have a sense of direction, but be careful not to force them down any particular path. Always let new roleplayers get used to the idea that they can do "anything" (within the bounds of reason and their skills). The sheer open-endedness of pen and paper RPGs can be intimidating to some beginners - some others take to it like a duck to water. Let the latter group enjoy themselves so long as they are not shutting out the more timid players.

As a new DM, using a premade adventure like the Sunless Citadel is probably a good idea. It will help you learn how to structure an adventure. Remember that you are learning too, and you might make mistakes. That's ok. Do try to mitigate them though. For example, if you realize that you faced the party off against excessively strong monster that is likely to kill them, consider having the creature capture them (if it is intelligent) or merely knock them unconscious. Looks for ways to transform a potential disaster into a cool story twist.

Remember that few monsters (besides mindless creatures like zombies) will tend to fight to the death. Also remember that NPCs and monsters have motivations and will act in accordance with those motivations. Not every creature is aching to chew off the PC's faces and feast on the gizzards.

Most of all, both you and your players should remember that you are learning the rules of a game and that it's perfectly ok to make honest mistakes while learning. Don't harp on mistakes. Instead, move on and keep learning. After you become comfortable with the rules, you and your players may decide you want some house rules to tweak things just the way you like them. Don't be over-eager to use house rules until you have a good feel for how all the different elements of the game interact and balance each other out.

Also, once you are comfortable with the rules, then you have reached a good point to introduce your group to a complete campaign setting (e.g. Forgotten Realms, Scarred Lands, Eberron, Greyhawk, or one of the many others). Alternately, you as DM may find that you are having fun creating your own world and just use your private homebrew. That's perfectly fine too.

In roleplaying games, nothing is sacred except having fun. Everything else is just the details.

 

[Nightfall]

Az,

I DID say after four or five sessions!

Besides I think Sunless Citadel is just...horrid compared to the awesomeness of Tomb of Abysthor!

 

[cybertalus]

No one else has suggested it yet, so I will.... as a new DM, get yourself a subscription to Dungeon magazine. Each issue contains three adventures (a low, mid, and high level one), plus regular columns chock full of ideas and advice useful to DMs.

From your post it sounds like you're new to D&D itself, not just to DMing. If that's the case, I'll strongly recommend that you find a second game which you just play in, rather than DMing. There are several advantages to this. For one you can learn from observing other DMs, both things you want to do and things you want to avoid. For another in my experience it is much easier to learn the rules of D&D as a player than it is as a DM, and when you are DMing you need a decent rules foundation in order to keep your game flowing along.

Good luck, and welcome to the boards and the game.

 

[maddman75]

Some general advice

- Remember that goal #1 is for everyone to have fun, including you. If it comes down to exactly following a rule of something cool or fun happening, I go for cool or fun every time.
- Don't be afraid of rule 0. If a rule question comes up that can't be resolved easily, listen to everyone's opinion and make a ruling to keep the game moving. Look it up in detail, or ask on the rules forum later so you know for sure next time. That said, take some extra time if its a matter of life or death. Don't want someone to lose a character because you missed a rule somewhere.
- Encourage players to think by allowing for solutions outside the box. If someone thinks of something unusual that might work, let them go with it! That doesn't mean everything automatically works, but if you cut down every plan that they come up with they'll stop thinking of plans more complicated than their long sword.
- Stick to the CR and Treasure Levels. Back in AD&D I didn't have that, and it would have been a great aid. And I wouldn't house rule much - even with years of experience when I started on 3e I ran a game as is before I started tinkering. Alter one area of the rules and you can throw other things out of whack.

Have fun, and welcome to the hobby!

 

[Rel]

I'd advise having a look at the D&D Basic Game, especially if you or any of the players is totally new to D&D. There's a lot of information in the core books, and it can be overwhelming.

I think this sounds like a grand idea. I've been playing RPG's for well over 20 years and I'm thinking about picking up that set for teaching starting gamers.

From everything I've seen, it would make an absolutely great intro to the game before you play Sunless Citidel. The miniatures it includes are almost exactly the sort of basic set you'd need to run that adventure: An adventuring party, some Kobolds, some Goblins, some Skeletons, a Dire Rat. Perfect!

And despite the fact that you don't NEED to have minis, they give a great tactile-visual sense to the game that can help people visualize things when they are first starting out in gaming. Seeing the rooms or caverns sketched out in front of you with the various figures or tokens or whatever can help to jump start your imagination.

Good luck and welcome to the best online RPG community I've ever seen! If you have ANY questions at all, feel free to ask them here. I guarantee you'll get plenty of friendly responses. There is nobody we roll out the welcome mat for faster than a new gamer.