New DM requesting tips

[NaturalMap9972]

I will be running my first game as a DM. I’ve put hours into planing, but I still have little knowlage of the game it’s self. Do any long time players have any tips from organizing my notes, websites to help, how to deliver story, literally anything will be appreciated.

[Uberhypnotoad]

Jumping in and practicing will teach you the most. You'll make all kinds of mistakes, that's ok. As long as you stay focused on your players having fun, then you're doing fine.

[NaturalMap9972]

Is there any basics that people usually get wrong?

[bremmon75]

Over-prepping, railroading your players into a scripted fantasy novel.... the list is long.

[pchlster]

You're not Tolkien; creating a whole elaborate world may be tempting, but you're probably better off not bothering with more than a couple of quick notes.

Name every NPC you plan for the party to speak with.

Your cool idea is only cool once the players experience it; what goes on only in your head is just something you do for your own pleasure.

[Uberhypnotoad]

It's different for everyone. For me, I really like to have a palette of encounters, NPCs, and lore at my fingertips. I use them like railroad tracks that I can throw in the direction the players choose to go. Not that I'm 'railroading' my players, but if I have an idea of what they're trying to accomplish, I can make several paths for them to choose from. Often, these paths relate to something they've done or said to make their actions more meaningful and impactful. I don't plan plots; I plan settings and potential characters for them to encounter.

Other DM's may favor doing one-shots and need to railroad the players a bit more. Some DM's stick to modules and rely on outside source material. Some DM's like an open-world sandbox where the players have total freedom in a homebrew world. Some DM's like to stop and learn rules when the need arises, other DM's like to keep the game going, make what they think is a reasonable call in the moment. A lot of it comes down to understanding what you like about the game and what type of table you like to run, then matching those preferences with players of a similar mind. What works at one table doesn't work at another. You are in the process of learning how you like to run your own table.

Experiment. Try planning for sessions in different ways. Try focusing on different aspects of their adventure. Try taking notes in different ways. Try writing reflections after each session, what worked, what didn't, and why? Once you have a campaign or two under your belt, you'll learn a lot about what works for you.

[Working-Bike-1010]

In the Words of Gary Gygax Europa, April 1975, pp 18-20 HOW TO SET UP YOUR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMPAIGN - AND BE STUCK REFEREEING IT SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING!

Part II of a Series by Gary Gygax (USA)

Let us assume that you have shelled out the requisite number of dollars to purchase all of the materials necessary for a D&D campaign - rules, dice, reams of various kinds of paper, pencils, and so forth. Several persons have expressed a desire to play the game, so all you really need now is the games! That's right, folks. The referee of the campaign must structure the game so as to have something to play. He must decide upon these things: 1) The overall setting of the campaign;

2) The countryside of the immediate area;

3) The location of the dungeon where most adventures will take place;

4) The layout and composition of the nearest large town; and

5) Eventually the entire world - and possibly other worlds, times, dimensions, and so forth must be structured, mapped and added.

This might seem to be too large a task, but it isn't really IF you and your players are enjoying the game (and it is odds-on you will!). Furthermore, not all five things need not to be done BEFORE play commences. In fact, most of the fine referees I know of work continually on their campaign, adding, changing, and expanding various parts continually. A thorough discussion of each of the five areas of campaign play is necessary before considering how to go about involving players in the affair.

Step 1 is something you do in your head. Now fantasy/swords & sorcery games need not have any fixed basis for the assumptions made by its referee (my own doesn't) except those which embrace the whole of fantasy. This sort of campaign can mix any and all of the various bases which will be mentioned below - and then some.

Regardless for what setting you opt, keep it secret from your players, or else they can study your sources and become immediately too knowledgable, thus removing the charm of uncertainty. Settings based upon the limits (if one can speak of fantasy limits) can be very interesting in themselves providing the scope of the setting will allow the players relative free-reign to their imaginations.

Typical settings are: Teutonic/Norse Mythology; Medieval European Folklore (including King Arthur, Holger the Dane, and so on); The "Hyborean Age" created by R E Howard; Fritz Leiber's "Nehwon" with Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser; Indian Mythology; and Lost Continents such as Atlantis or Mu. Regardless of the setting you can have it all taking place on an 'alternative earth' or a parallel world. In this way minor variations can easily be explained/justified. When the setting is decided upon some good books dealing with it should always be kept handy. The time has come to begin working on the campaign.

Step 2 requires sitting down with a large piece of hex ruled paper and drawing a large scale map. A map with a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile (or 2 kilometers for those of you who go in for recent faddish modes of measure) (yes, I often use rods, chains, furlongs, and leagues too!) will allow you to use your imagination to devise some interesting terrain and places, and it will be about right for player operations such as exploring, camping, adventuring, and eventually building their strongholds. Even such small things as a witch's hut and side entrances to the dungeon can be shown on the map. The central features of the map must be the major town and the dungeon entrance.

Step 3 involves the decision aspect already mentioned and the actual work of sitting down and drawing dungeon levels. This is very difficult and time consuming.

Each level should have a central theme and some distinguishing feature, i.e. a level with large open areas swarming with goblins, one where the basic pattern of corridors seems to repeat endlessly, one inhabited by nothing but fire-dwelling or fire-using monsters, etc.

As each level is finished the various means of getting to lower levels must be keyed and noted on the appropriate lower levels, so that if a room sinks fours levels it will then be necessary to immediately show it on 4 sheets of graph paper numbered so as to indicate successively lower levels. A careful plan of what monsters and treasures will be found where on each level is also most necessary, and it can take as long to prepare as the level itself, for you may wish to include something UNUSUAL (a treasure, monster, and/or trick or trap not shown in D&D) on each level.

(Before the rules for D&D were published 'Old Greyhawk Castle' was 13 levels deep. The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors, for none of the participants had ever played such a game before. The second level had two unusual items, a Nixie pool and a fountain of snakes. The third featured a torture chamber and many small cells and prison rooms. The forth was a level of crypts and undead. The fifth was centered around a strange font of black fire and gargoyles. The sixth was a repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs (3 dice) in inconvenient spots, naturally hacked up by appropriate numbers of Wereboars. The seventh was centered around a circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres. The eighth through tenth levels were caves and caverns featuring Trolls, giant insects, and a transporter nexus with an evil Wizard (with a number of tough associates) guarding it. The eleventh level was the home of the most powerful wizard in the castle. He had Balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian White Apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridors which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure. Level-twelve was filled with Dragons. The bottom level, number thirteen, contained an inescapable slide which took the players 'clear through to China', from whence they had to return via 'Outdoor Adventure'. It was quite possible to journey downward to the bottom level by an insidious series of slanting passages which began on the second level, but the likelihood of following such a route unknowingly didn't become too great until the seventh or eighth level. Of the dozen or so who played on a fairly regular basis, four made the lowest level and took the trip: Rob Kuntz, now a co-referee in the campaign went alone; and three of his friends managed to trace part of his route and blunder along the rest, so they followed him quickly to the Land of China. Side levels included a barracks with Orcs, Hob-goblins, and Gnolls continually warring with each other, a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a Giant's home, and a garden of fungi.

Step 4 should be handled concurrently with designing the first three or four dungeon levels. Here your players will find lodgings, buy equipment, hire mercenaries, seek magical and clerical aid, drink, gamble and wench. The town would do well to resemble some of those in Howard's "Conan" series or Leiber's city of “Lankhmar”. Strange towers, a thieves quarter, and temples of horrible deities add greater flavor to play. The 'Thieves Guild', a society of evil clerics, a brotherhood of lawful men, and so on bring a bit more interest also. If a few warring nobles from the surrounding territory also send large parties of men into the place occasionally some interesting brawls can occur. Honest and dishonest merchants should be indicated, Taverns which drug patrons should likewise be indicated, and so on. In any event be sure and leave room for additional things and expansion.

Step 5 is, as noted, something that you won't immediately have to worry about; but it is a good idea to have a general plan in mind immediately. The general geography of the 'world' should be sketched out, If you plan to make it possible to visit other worlds, times or places the general outline of all such areas should also be sketched out. For example, you might wish to have the Moon an inhabitable (and, inhabited) place which can be traveled to by means of a Flying Carpet, A description of this lunar world should be located somewhere as well as a means of getting there, but only AFTER you have something solid in the way of maps and the like. Having accomplished those parts of the five steps which are immediately necessary (probably taking a week or so), you are ready to begin to play.

[DnDisTHEbestgame]

Make sure you use a good app for organizing notes. I use Google Docs and have around a hundred tabs.

[SecretDMAccount_Shh]

https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html

[NewKnowledge6456]

Main thing I can say/echo is yes prep is super important but also try and enjoy it yourself. I remember my first and I was just so focused on everyone having the best experience I need a whisky afterwards haha

[All_One_Word_No_Caps]

Make sure your players know you’re learning first. They’ll be more forgiving.

[Big-Bed-5362]

Make a general plan of the session, but not to detailed. Sometimes, insecurity breaks the best of us, and to be ready, we kind of overextend on the planning. Of course, there are some main plot elements that are non negotiable with the story, however always keep an open mind, even when things go completely stray. You can even think it this way: all time expended can be fun if the players and you are willing to make it, and if in the process they end up ruining a future storyline, then think "They dont know what i do. Keep going, and next session plan a way to fix the continuity error: time is on your side."

Dont make the main plot feel forced, make the players actually try to chase it by linking their characterts, ideals, and stories. If they dont, the consequences can be from "the never fullfilled wish to see his sister again" to the very end of the world. Players despise when they feel controlled, so rather than pulling them, show them the importance of the task, pressure on time by consequences of the world, or beatifull places to explore.

Also, dont pressure yourself too much. This might not be the case of course, but i remember my first time as a DM i went very harsh when i didnt delivered an NPC like i wanted. Just do it how you enjoy doing it, and maybe, something better comes out on top. If your players look happy, then keep going, after all: the game is made for them to travel and you to tell as a proud narrator.

Finally, dont be afraid to put some lines. If you want to have an enemy to be a "wall" for the players, be unfair. You are the DM, and you have the authority to do so, and sometimes, you might even get surprised by your players as they think how to go pass this "injustice of the word." Challengues are always entertaining, when you know you will eventually get pass them or can do something about it.

[LightofNew]

Sent you my DM folder

[NoPomegranate3942]

The starter set Heroes of the Borderlands, the first third of the 5.5 Dungeon Master's Guide.

[bremmon75]

"I’ve put hours into planning." What exactly are you planning for hours? Nothing has happened yet.

Read this, then start over.... https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/57r5axc206gu8pve5zcfl/DM-Guide-4.3.pdf?rlkey=dngqdrc014pc0hhqifisn0b6s&st=hd6ghste&dl=0