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<blockquote data-quote="ArwensDaughter" data-source="post: 7165773" data-attributes="member: 6804968">General:-If all the rules seem overwhelming to master, decide which ones to ignore.&nbsp; (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).&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The book does not mention this at all!&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; (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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ArwensDaughter, post: 7165773, member: 6804968"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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