Where to begin?

[zilant]

I am pretty new here so I apologize if this is the wrong place for this kind of thread.

A few people I know and I have a strong desire to play d&d. It would have to be 3.5 and I would probably be DMing.
First and foremost, we are all very inexperienced. We have played a few times (DM'ed by me mostly and by a handful of other people) and have a fair understanding of basic rules.
None of us really come from roleplaying backrounds (I was a heavy RPG videogamer as a kid but thats it) so we all sortof fudged our way through it.

Another issue is we are all pretty busy with school/work.
Were all close friends or family and live close enough to where we can ge together on the fly, it just wouldn't be consistant.

The largest obstical, however, is me. I don't really know what I'm doing. The few we adventures I have run have been "go here and kill all the stuff inside".
I have looked at lists and lists of "adventure Ideas" like:
-the tomb of an old wizrd is discovered
-a haunted tower is reputed ot be filled with treasure
etc.
These all end up as glorified fetch quests/dungeon crawls. I feel like they arent really playing but just rolling dice to see how much hp something has left. I don't really know how to make everything connect and feel like there in a world that remembers them.
I feel as though I am not really using the game to it's fullest potential.
From reading a lot of other posts and from hearing people describe the their experience I feel like I'm doing something wrong or I am not doing enough.
I don't really know how to make adventures, campaigns, NPCs and stuff like that. I know how to read from the DM guide and roll up their stats and give them names but I don't know how to make them.
I have even tried doing a few premade adventures from wizards of the coast and I still felt..clunky at best.

I suppose I was just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction as far as resources for begginers goes or if anyone has some sagely advice for someone who wants to learn how to DM and play the game properly. I'm just looking for a bit of insight so I can start off in the right direction and not end up in a dead end.

Thank you for your time and I apologize if I rambled on way too much. I understand this is quite a read.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You're basically in the right place!

First, in my 30+ years of experience, I would have to say that most of the gamers I met got initiated into the hobby playing a Player Character (PC) with an experienced player running the game as Dungeon Master (or Game Master, Judge or whatever the particular game calls the guy all alone on one side of the screen). What you're doing is extremely rare and difficult to do. I say that not to discourage you, but to give you some perspective.

Second, most of the DMs I know- myself included- started by running commercially produced adventures. The best of them save you a lot of work and give you hints on running the adventure that are often applicable to running a game in general. The worst of them- except maybe the infamous Forest Oracle of 2Ed- are fixable by experienced DMs, who can find the good parts and rework the adventure from there.

Third- you will screw up, that is a fact. Accept it. Every DM does it. Just try to figure out when, how & why you did and learn from it. Usually, you'll figure that out by listening to your players.

Fourth, as a new DM, read your DMG, especially the stuff about running a campaign. There's some good stuff in there.

Fifth, as a new DM, use the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Don't try to use all the books at once. Limit what sourcebooks your group will be using at first until you get a better feel for things. One simple way to do this is use the Core 3 books and the SRD.. After a little time, you can expand the source list and let people rework their PCs or make new ones.

Sixth, don't be afraid to ask questions...of your players or the good folk here at ENWorld!

 

[Morrus]

As far as making adventures goes, read as many free adventures as you can. Perhaps some folks in this thread could link to their favourite free adventures. With luck you'll get a good range of adventure styles to inspire you, and that should help when it comes to writing your own.

To start you off, here's our own free one for D&D 3.5:

http://www.enworld.org/ap/3.5_wotbs_intro_pack.zip

 

[Gilladian]

My suggestion for adventures would be to look at some of the WOTC free adventures for 3.5 that they had posted online. Here's a link: Original Adventures

Many of them can be strung together to form a campaign. Hey, wasn't there a "free adventure path" thread a while back, also? Anyone got a link?

There are also a lot of 5 room dungeons (think mini-adventures suitable for a single evening of play) here: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/

You can often expand on them to become parts of longer or more complex adventures.

As far as how to run your own campaign with friends, I would say that the best way is just to plunge in and practice. Your early years of play are often the most wonder-filled and crazy. You'll be delighted, mystified and awed. Later on, you'll be more technically competent at running and playing, but some of the wonder will be gone. Enjoy it!

 

[zilant]

Wow, thanks for the replys guys.
I may have been overy worried that I was doing something wrong but to hear I'm not too far off or in over my head from other players is encouraging.
I really like that 5 room dungeon page. I think I can start drawing a lot of material from that.
I appreciate the advice and think I'm going to start making some adventures.

 

[Sekhmet]

[sblock=My First 3e Experience as a DM]I played A&D and 2e for years before I encountered 3e. A guy I didn't know walked up to me while I was waiting for my buddy to get out of class (8th grade), and said "Hey, I heard you play D&D".

To cut the story short, I agreed to DM for him because he wanted to play this game he had been given for Christmas, I show up at the Library to play with him and he has all 3e books.
I fumbled my way through it as best as I could, having no experience with 3e at all (I remember running traps with percentile dice), but it was really just hacking and slashing gameplay. [/sblock]

Fun times.

Everyone I know who has tried DMing played a hack-n-slash adventure the first few times, to get the hang of running a game. DMing can be tough, so it is best to ease into with easy stuff - combat is very well adjudicated in the books, so not a whole lot of DM intervention is going to be necessary.
Once they're comfortable with combat, I notice they generally start trying to describe things in more detail. At first, it was a room with four orcs. Then, it was a bedroom in disarray, as if a person had torn it apart looking for something (plus four orcs).
They slowly push combat to the background and pull out other elements, one by one, until they're running a full story. Ultimately, they usually try to run a game with no combat at all - filled with political intrigue, devious doppelgangers, or a strategic warfare scenario with the players acting as generals.
Then they realize a lot of players just really enjoy combat, and is really necessary to hold the Fighter's attention.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that when you're starting out, don't worry too much about adding everything all at once. Ease into it, like you would with any new task, and soon enough you'll be adding in all the fun roleplaying elements that you seem to feel you are lacking.

 

[Sekhmet]

Wow, thanks for the replys guys.
I may have been overy worried that I was doing something wrong but to hear I'm not too far off or in over my head from other players is encouraging.
I really like that 5 room dungeon page. I think I can start drawing a lot of material from that.
I appreciate the advice and think I'm going to start making some adventures.

Dungeon Generator for D&D - Myth-Weavers
(also has a treasure, NPC, and town generator)
Random Monster Advancer (By CR) - Random Encounter Generator 3.5

I use these two resources sometimes when I'm making an adventure. They can really help to inspire, or just downright copy.

 

[Dandu]

You must start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...

 

[xigbar]

A good and easy way to add some basic depth is puzzles, for earlier games where you're spending a lot of time in the dungeon. It makes your players think more, instead of just rolling the dice, and it isn't terribly hard to think up. Sometimes, simply moving a statue to a different tile so it's symmetrical with the other statue across the room takes long than you'd think to figure out. Urban settings allow more control over spacing combat encounters so that your group will have more opportunities for role play.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Many people have given great advice. My additional 2 cents:

-Read plenty of fantasy books. find a fantasy world you like, such as Middle Earth or Narnia, etc, someplace that you and your players would be decently familiar with, and then use the D&D rules to explore things within that world.

-Consider everything you do to be practice. Don't get together expecting to play an epic game, get together to practice for that Epic game you'll play a year or three from now. And that epic game you do eventually play? That was just play testing for the incredible campaign that will be coming next year. Etc. Still enjoy yourself, but don't have incredible expectations. If your practice turns out to become that Epic journey you all really wanted it to be, Extra special surprise!

-Come up with a storyline you really like, if you're going to make your own sandbox campaign. Fall in love with that city you made and gave all those details to, or that NPC that was incredibly cool, or that stretch of road between the mountains and the great forest. ALSO, hold onto it loosely. That NPC you love, that place you spent so much time on, it will be gone, things will not go as expected. Love, but hold on loosely.

-Expect your players will do the Unexpected. Have your plans but expect them to be broken. Talk to your players in advance and ask them to have grace towards you as you adapt, while they can expect grace from you when they ruin your plans.

-Seek feedback from your players often. Ask them what they would like to do. Island hopping adventure? Desert Sands? Deep forest? Urban rooftop adventure? Would they really, really like to fight a dragon? Do they have little interest in rolling skill checks, or have they invested a lot of time into figuring how they could put a high Tumble skill check to good use?

-Always Remember Rule 0 and The Responsibility The DM Carries To Keep The Game Fun.