Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5287815" data-attributes="member: 44797">Deset Gled is pretty grim in his assessment, and while I'm on a more positive-thinking side of things, I do fully agree with his "take charge" advice.  If you are going to be the DM, your first games ever probably should only use books that you are at least passingly familiar with.  So, tell 'em: PHB only.  Or, "core books only" (PHB, DMG, MM).  Or "core + complete series" (adds Complete Champion, Complete Adventurer, and all the other "Complete ____" books).Note that even seasoned DMs do this stuff.  It isn't bad.  I began DMing 27 years ago, had a big break, and re-started about 3 years ago.  My opening email to attendees *always* has a list of books allowed, along with other info.  For example:Note that regarding the theme, I usually keep it real general (just as a hint for character creation).  However, my girlfriend goes *very* specific when she runs her campaigns -- she will mention that only certain alignments will work in the game, that there must be at least 1 paladin (or whatever), etc.  Like this: "Rogues-only game of stealth & intrigue, must be any alignment but good, and at least 1 player should be a diplomacy build.  That particular character might be allowed to optionally be a bard if his/her skills in stealth are also very high."Try to avoid shoving the adventure down the player's throat.  If they don't bite the theme or hook, don't railroad it if you can avoid it.  But also, don't forget that you can reuse stuff -- if your players talk to the blacksmith as expected but then also unexpectedly talk to some random dude walking down the street, nothing stops you from grabbing the blacksmith character sheet/card, and hastily copying it, and scrawling in the name of the random dude.  You don't have to have everything be perfect.Also, it was good advice to require players to have to show you the rules for things that are unfamiliar to you, but don't let it bog you down.  If you find people getting bored while you & 1 other player have a supposedly fascinating discussion of the grapple mechanics, maybe just make a temporary ruling and move on for the night.  You can always revisit things later.  Good luck.</blockquote>

Verification