D&D 5E The Transition: Old to New DM

[Triumph_Fork]

I have a reliable player who has always wanted to DM. They've been a player for a couple of years now but they have little to no idea of how to be a Dungeon Master. They've admitted this to me as I've asked them before: "Did you ever want to DM sometime?".

At first, I was a little shocked how they've been at my table and haven't known - or caught onto - some of the various math (Like ability check DC's) that I've set for the party. Usually, some of my other players "guess" the DC of a task and it's usually within about 5 of the actual DC I have set or made up. But this player who's wanting to DM is a lot more focused on the "art" side of DnD - the roleplaying & acting - than the math/combat so I can see how they didn't understand some of the DC mechanics, but they have the potential to be a brilliant DM regardless.

Now I've been DMing at this table for a long time in various campaigns & homebrews (3 years). We DID switch DMs once (They took over in a Pathfinder game) and things didn't go so smoothly. Though it wasn't truly his fault, he wasn't the type to write a homebrew or have time to adjust the encounters/plot and he picked a poor module that many players did not enjoy. Unfortunately, 1 or 2 players even left the table due to the slog-like nature of the game and we did call a quits to the game when we arrived at the final dungeon with 3 PC's remaining.

Recently, I bought the DnD 5e Starter Set, and I thought this would be a great thing for this new DM to run. Now the module for this is highly rated (4.5 - 5 stars) and looks easy to follow. She's finally looking forward to DMing but does worry if she has the time to do so...

The Point Is: Do you have any advice for anybody being a new DM after a longstanding one wants to play as a character instead; Especially for a new DM that's busy and short on time! What do you think I can do to help them?

 

[Nagol]

What can you do? Offer gentle encouragement, provide constructive advice, offer help at the table with math, rule lookups, etc., and generally be a positive force on the game. Not much else.

Running a pre-built module is a great start to limit prep. Should the desire to run a bespoke campaign arise, these threads give solid advice to limit prep time.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...rt-time-Prep&p=5768778&viewfull=1#post5768778
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...to-work-quot&p=5164544&viewfull=1#post5164544
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...have-success&p=1553888&viewfull=1#post1553888

Note however, there is likely to be some time spent on prep, especially the first few sessions as the DM is working under the learning curve of DMing, getting a handle on the rules from the DM perspective in addition to groking the module.

 

[Ovinomancer]

1) Read the module. This really can't be stressed enough. Read it through at least once before running it, and review the upcoming section before the session.

2) Most DCs should be between 10 and 15. If in doubt, pick 10 or 15. 10 if easish, 15 if harder. Following this rule of thumb will give decent results without worry. And setting DCs can be very tricky for a new DM.

3) rule of cool -- don't be afraid to make a ruling to move the play along, especially if it's for something cool.

4) remember your role -- it isn't to win, it isn't to kill players, although that happens, it's to provide a situation for the players to react to. If you're caught up wanting to tell a particular story, don't DM, because that's not gonna work out. Don't force outcomes, but also let decisions the players make have real consequences. If they do something dumb, don't pull the punch.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

General:

-If all the rules seem overwhelming to master, decide which ones to ignore. (e.g. I dropped encumbrance, exhaustion, reactions, and opportunity attacks initially; Now that I feel a little more competent I've added the last two back in). With an established group, especially, (mine was new to DnD) this should be spelled out to the players ahead of time.

LMOP Specific (great choice for new DM, by the way)
-copy the maps (or find them online and print) so that you can have them visible and the pages you need for a given encounter.

-Flag those pages you'll need to reference quickly/often.

-if the players are using the pregen characters, be sure to read the backstories and motivations for them yourself (as DM). With one pregen in particular, the DM needs to do some thinking about how to handle encounters in Phandalin, and probably strategize with that player. The book does not mention this at all! If not using the pregens, but creating new characters, some of those backstory details might be interesting to mine (at least as examples of ways to link to the area involved), but the one backstory I mentioned above should probably not be shown to all the players, as it is a bit of a spoiler. (trying not to create a spoiler myself; an alert DM who reads all the backstories should be able to figure out the one I'm talking about.)

-Others on the forum has recommended Kobold fight club for balancing encounters; this would be helpful if the players opt to skip side quests and aren't at the recommended level for a given section.

 

[Quickleaf]

I have a reliable player who has always wanted to DM. They've been a player for a couple of years now but they have little to no idea of how to be a Dungeon Master. They've admitted this to me as I've asked them before: "Did you ever want to DM sometime?".

Yah! More well-mentored DMs is great!

At first, I was a little shocked how they've been at my table and haven't known - or caught onto - some of the various math (Like ability check DC's) that I've set for the party. Usually, some of my other players "guess" the DC of a task and it's usually within about 5 of the actual DC I have set or made up. But this player who's wanting to DM is a lot more focused on the "art" side of DnD - the roleplaying & acting - than the math/combat so I can see how they didn't understand some of the DC mechanics, but they have the potential to be a brilliant DM regardless.

That describes me pretty much to a T, especially during my formative years DMing. My weakness continues to be running fast-and-loose with the rules, and very much being a "ruling over rules" DM. I've had to learn why that can be troubling for some players, how to rein myself in a bit, and bolster my rules knowledge in small increments.

Recently, I bought the DnD 5e Starter Set, and I thought this would be a great thing for this new DM to run. Now the module for this is highly rated (4.5 - 5 stars) and looks easy to follow. She's finally looking forward to DMing but does worry if she has the time to do so...

Starter Set is a good choice.

To spare her brain / save her time, I recommend customizing a DM screen with info that she has trouble remembering. This takes time to create. I made one for 4th edition using a Savage Worlds Trifold Landscape Customizable Screen. That or Hammerdog's "World's Best GM Screen" (which may be 4-fold landscape, can't remember) is a GREAT tool.

Alternately, what I've done sometimes with a group of experienced / tactically minded / rules-lawyer types (even if just one person at the table has that disposition) is designate one of them as our Rules Lawyer. Anytime there's a debate about rules in game, they are responsible for adjudicating swiftly and fairly, so their word is the iron law unless they defer to my DM ruling. Maybe for your group – if the new DM is anxious about mucking up the rules or upsetting old-timers – this could be a nice compromise.

The Point Is: Do you have any advice for anybody being a new DM after a longstanding one wants to play as a character instead; Especially for a new DM that's busy and short on time! What do you think I can do to help them?

One of the best ways to learn DMing is to have a 1-2 hour "demo session" with the new prospective DM just observing, and you really breaking down what you're doing behind the screen. It's not that exciting for some players, but is invaluable as a teaching tool. So, you'd take a published adventure (which is probably for a new DM to cut her teeth on), and explain:

Ok, here I'm deviating from the boxed text because Ed's PC did XYZ...

With these goblins, I'm having to determine if they've surprised you or not. Here are those rules and how I'm applying them. There are some instances where you need to make rulings that aren't covered 100% in the rules – surprise is one of those...

Vanessa's PC set off a trap. Check out the write-up for this trap. On the DM screen you're going to use there are guidelines for making traps that are "appropriate challenges" for a party - what should their attack bonus be, their saving throw DC, etc., etc. These are good trap guidelines to start from until you get a feel for DMing...

So, sometimes players like John will roll all their dice separately. Roll for each attack separately, then re-rolls if he has advantage, and then roll Bardic Inspiration dice Vanessa's PC is giving him, and THEN roll any damage...possibly adding bonus damage as a separate roll. As a DM, I like to gently encourage players like John to roll his dice at once if possible...a faster method is one roll with all attack dice, and then one roll with all damage dice...

Behind my screen, you can see I have notecards of your PCs (and monsters) draped over the top of the DM screen. I use this for initiative order, like you know. What I also do is, looking behind the screen, I've taken note of certain stats for your PCs: Passive Perception, AC, and spell save DC for the spellcasters. That way speeds things up and lets me avoid tipping off the players by asking "what's your AC?" or "what's your passive Perception?"

And so on.

 

[76512390ag12]

Ask the older DM for advice if you want, but make your own decision.
Ignore all the rules if needed. One of the advantages of modern class games is that you and the players have your own versions of rules, not always the same.
Let competent players run their own character, just trust them. They're only cheating them selves.

Advice to old DM, be willing to help but also be ready to keep quiet and let the new one fly solo.

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

 

[pogre]

If you can talk to her players before the game ask them to praise her. You should take the lead in this as tho old DM. She is going to make mistakes, be slow at times, and forget rules. She is also going to be her own worst critic. Praise from players and reassuring her that she ran a fun game will go a long way to keeping her going.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

-Others on the forum has recommended Kobold fight club for balancing encounters; this would be helpful if the players opt to skip side quests and aren't at the recommended level for a given section.

For that matter, some of the encounters as written should be run through kobold fight club, as they can be quite deadly. (Less of an issue with experienced players whose strategy is better than the novice players in my group).

 

[BookBarbarian]

I found this thread by isereth to be very helpful http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?453707-How-to-Adjudicate-Actions-in-D-amp-D-5e

 

[hastur_nz]

I've never been in the situation where a long-term player did actually take up being a DM. However I will just note two simple things:

1) it's totally fine for the DM to focus on just what a DM needs to know, and leave everything else for the players. For example, we played 5e for a year or two before I ever really read much of the PHB, I just focused on parts of the MM and DMG that were required to run the game, and I trusted my players to know the rules for pretty much everything that was generic - if in doubt, I asked the players who knew the rules the best. So a new DM should know the basics of Adjudicating Actions, and the basics of how Monsters work in combat, but they shouldn't feel they have to know all the rules of the game inside out in order to make it a success.

2) as noted above, the reason people love to be the DM can vary, but generally those who succeed are people who want to help everyone create fun together. By all means, you are Captain of the Ship, and should always be able to say "um, no, I don't think so", but generally success comes through Empowering your Players. I've seen seasoned DM's and/or Campaigns go off the rails when they try to hard to force stuff onto the players, be it un-needed rules changes, lack of agency, etc, and the players generally revolt in one form or another.