Tips for a fledgling DM?

[Subtlepanic]

Try not to nerf powers. Let monsters provoke Opportunity so the fighter can use combat superiority. If creatures are marked, make them trigger those marks. Basically, know your players' roles. Give minions to the controller, etc. It's easy to challenge the party - not so easy to ensure they have a good time.

If characters have crazy powers that shift giant opponents, pull clever bad guys towards them, or lay oozes prone - roll with it. Try to think of a good description for why, but if not, just roll with it. That's 4E.

Know your characters' backstories. In each session, try to give each player a share of the spotlight. A plot development just for them, or a moment for them to shine, however small. Minor quests tailored for each character in your group are great, especially if they have ongoing duties, e.g. "record one or more traits of each monster you encounter so you can sell your bestiary to the beastmaster in town".

Good tip from the 4E DMG: when a player asks whether or not they can do something, condition yourself to think "yes" or "yes, but..." before thinking "no". This was actually a bit of an epiphany for me, and I've found my games improving hugely as a result.

Play at a low level if you're new. If you're playing at level 5+, 4E can get very tricky with conditions and ongoing effects. I use filing cards, folded in half so they stand upright, with the names of each character/monster group scribbled as headers on the cards. Then, when initiative is rolled, I arrange the cards in a line so everyone can see them and move a marker along the line to show whose turn it is. On the marker I note down what round it is.

If someone gets hit by a condition, I grab the appropriate card and jot down "5 FR D/2" (Ongoing 5 fire damage until the end of Devlin's turn in round 2). Takes a while to get used to - I have a lot of codes - but it's dead quick once you're used to it.

Above all, make it seem like you're having a great time. If so, they should do too.

 

[Shin Okada]

Well, having a good game cannot be achieved just by a DM. When participants all want to have a good time, you will usually have.

You do not even need to be the best expert of a certain game system. Rely on some power gamer player when vast amount of rules overwhelm you.

Rely on some nice role player when your games need lively dialogues.

Rely on someone good at making/painting miniatures or likes to collect miniatures, to provide better 3d-game experience.

Rely on someone good at cooking and/or like to buy and share good food, to make game sessions even better.

DMG and DMG 2 have a lot more suggestions how to co-operate your friends to have good times.

One tip I always use when running a long campaign is that after each games, write up (by myself, or by someone good at writing story) the summery of that day's adventure. Share that document on the web, send that document via e-mail, or just photocopy it and had them to all the participants. That way, before attending the next game, your players (and yourself) can re-read the text and understand what is going on better. It also keep participants' interest on the campaign.

 

[nnms]

My advice for a new DM would be to create situation and not plot.

Don't try to script what will happen. Just make an interesting situation or challenge and let the players decide how they're going to deal with it.

 

[talarei07]

i agree with most of what they have said so far. as to wotbs. i found some of the encounters needed to be adjusted either made harder or easier. specifically the the last encounter i found to a little to weak for the group of characters we had

 

[MichaelSomething]

Be sure to familiarize yourself with the adventure so you have an idea on what should be going on.

 

[Vartan]

Be sure to familiarize yourself with the adventure so you have an idea on what should be going on.

On a related note: know your monsters. When you read through the adventures try to think about what they will do and how you can use them to make the encounter more interesting. Coming out of 2E and 3E, where monsters pretty much made attacks or (if they were complicated) cast spells I didn't think that I really nedded to know much about my monsters before a battle began. As a result, even my well-designed combat encounters were boring.

Don't take your foot off the accelerator: drive those beasties like you're on the Autobahn and you'll provide the right level of challenge for your players. You can always hit the brakes if it looks like you'll butcher the party before they have a chance to get into the adventure, but if you don't come out strong at the beginning of the battle then the PCs will lock your monsters down and the battle will turn into a grind. Most 4E bad guys don't last for too many turns, so try to get as much out of them as you can in a short amount of time.

 

[beverson]

Lots of good advice so far that hit most of the points I would have made. As for general GM advice, it's hard to beat Gnome Stew. Not only do they have tons of articles loaded with helpful advice, but they are also more than happy to take suggestions for new articles if you post something in their comments section.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I believe we have a forum on War of the Burning Sky and they might have specific advise to that adventure path.

 

[Initiate]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I appreciate it.

I was happy to see that several of the things I had been implementing in my last campaign, notably working your characters backstories into the campaign and quickly giving a ruling instead of searching for it in the middle of a battle, were among the things suggested.

 

[pemerton]

My general advice - everything in the module you're running that can be altered to integrate into the backstory of the PC's, should be so altered. This could be gods,
NPCs, political factions, etc, etc.

My 4e-specific advice (these are all aspects where getting the most out of 4e means running it a bit differently from d20):

(1) When designing and running combats, look for opportunities to maximise movement on the part of the NPCs/monsters, and thereby to generate incentives for the PCs to move.

(2) When running non-combat encounters, use the Skill Challenge framework to set the basic parameters: the whole thing should be over in 6 to 14 primary checks, plus maybe the same number again of secondary checks. Don't let things drag out without any structure or guidance to the players as to how they can resolve a situation. And give them XPs as appropriate, if they achieve what they were aiming for in the encounter.

(3) When the players want to do interesting things with their skills - use Religion to cleanse evil shrines, or Arcana to detect the presence of demonic foes - then let them. If you're worried about balance, have the PC in question take damage or lose a healing surge on a failed skill check (or maybe even on a successful one).

(4) Use quest XP to reward players for setting and pursuing PC goals. Don't just award them for the quests specified in the module.