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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arscott" data-source="post: 2124494" data-attributes="member: 17969">Mini's are definately a bad Idea for the budget conscious student gamer.  The basic set includes a few minis, and there's no use spending your hard-earned change on more when your change will work quite well as more.  Side note: Remeber that Gaming books are books, and as such, may be available from your local bookstore (whether off the shelf or by special order).  While you probably won't get the sort of discounts you might find online, you probably won't have to pay shipping, either.The more the merrier.  The Core books recommend four players, but most groups probably have closer to five or six.  My lunch-hour high school game had as many as eight during it's heydey.  You and your friends are just getting into the, and chances are, not everybody will be involved on the same level.  If you have several people playing though, chances are you'll have at least two or three who will play active, leading roles.Learn the Rules.  The Rules are both your best friend and your worst enemy.  You don't have to know them perfectly by heart, but you should know them better than your players do.There are some lists and sets of numbers that you'll need to know.  Memorize what you can.  what you can't, copy and bookmark for quick reference.Remember: the code is more what you call "guidelines" than actual rules.  If a rule doesn't seem to make sense for the particular circumstances, ignore it.  If somebody's clearly exploiting a loophole in the rules, disallow it.  And if you can't find a rule in an quick and expedient manner, make it up.Caveat:  There is a reason that each of those rules exists.  Never tinker with a rule just because you don't understand it, or it doesn't seem to fit.  The rules for falling reflect reality better than a cursory knowledge of physics might suggest.On that note, don't be stingy with treasure.  Your players will become unhappy, and their characters might well become dead.On the other hand, don't be too generous with treasure either.  That's about ten times worse.The game is not just about you.  It is also about everyone else.  The other players are in control of their character's destinies.  You can be a guide or you can be an obstacle.  You can be a friend or a foe.  You can't be a god, though.  not if you're doing it right.  Never lead the players by the nose, because it's unsatisfying for you and frustrating for everybody else.  There should always be at least two ways of overcoming a challenge.There should also be at least one way of not overcoming it.  If there's no possibility of faliure, then there's no glory in sucess.  Bad luck should be damaging, even if you choose not to make it deadly.You're allowed to cheat in order to save your players from chronic bad luck.  But stupidity is their own damn fault.  If they decide to press the big red button that says "do not touch", you don't need to do anything besides raise an eyebrow and ask "are you sure?"Don't be creepy.  And don't let your players be creepy.  If you look around a bit on this board, you'll find some horror stories.  Dungeons and Dragons is a way to act out fantasies, but if your games involve Lila, the bisexual succubus love slave, or Morgar the entirely to fond of small children, somebody's probably acting out the wrong fantasies.Don't be mean.  It's not nearly as bad as being creepy, but it still doesn't make the game very fun.Be able to command attention.  No matter how great your sense of story or grasp of rules, you can't DM if nobody listens to you.  My unnasuming presence is the reason I'm wasting time writing pithy advice instead of actually out running a game.  There's a time and a place to be shy and fade into the background, but it's not when being a DM.As long as everyone is having fun, then feel free to ignore every single bit of advice I just gave.  And no matter what,  if nobody's having fun, then you're doing something wrong.  It is, after all, a game.</blockquote>

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