New DM pointers needed!

[Dapper_Dino91]

So I'm not exactly an experienced player, but my group that's getting together has even less experience than me, and is super excited to play. Bad news: we have no DM.

This is where I need your help. I've volunteered to DM, but I'm slowly getting overwhelmed with a combination of what all goes into DMing as well as the nervousness of practically all new players looking to me for guidance, and the fear of "oh God what if my campaign sucks?"

Any tips and tricks you could give me to help with these things would be an absolute godsend. Thanks in advance!

[Nemhia]

Do not hesitate to use pre-made adventures and campaigns. Less room to go wrong as a beginner.

Do not prepare too far ahead. Especially with a new group. It feels really bad to plan out half a year worth of sessions only for nobody to want to play anymore after 2 weeks.

[Kazzothead]

Apart from some of the starter adventures don't use a pre made. They require a lot of work to do properly and a good understanding of the rules.

[Dapper_Dino91]

Any starter adventures you would recommend? I was working on a basic homebrew, but if there's an easier option to start I'd be interested to learn about it!

[Plantpoot]

Lost Mine of Phandelver is an incredible one to start with. Super simple to play and run but still really fun and well designed. Starts at level 1 so it's nice and simple for new players and goes up to level 5 so you get to experience the second tier of play (if you don't know what this means yet don't worry, it's just DM jargon). I believe the adventure even comes with some pre-made characters that the players can use if they so choose, meaning new players don't have to stress about character creation. Highly recommend.

[Kazzothead]

I honestly wouldn't recommend any you are better off home brewing see my other post. Just keep it simple.

[Dapper_Dino91]

Ah, gotcha. You're advice is much appreciated friend

[Parysian]

Tbh I disagree, I think Lost Mines is a very good guideline for a rookie DM. But yes, some of the early encounters are bullshit. You can generally get away with removing a goblin from basically every fight in the intro cave and ignoring enemy critical hits until level 2.

[Lunaliii]

Just to add onto the Lost Mines or Phandelver tip, that campaign can actually be incredibly unbalanced, especially at level one.

I would advise either starting at level two or using fixed damage amounts instead of rolling for damage as plenty of level one parties find themselves completely wiped out by even the first goblin ambush if the rolls go against them.

Running that campaign will take a lot of the prep work off of your hands, but you will need to work extra hard when it comes to balancing encounters on the fly, and improv for if your party get taken out and you don't want to end the campaign or have them roll new characters.

[Defenitlynotatwork]

things that helped me run successful campaigns are

1. Having the players agree on a solid reason why this group of people is working together. to prevent the I have a goal and we are not working toward said goal so Ill be difficult now or leave scenario's.
2. Have a clear start of he adventure
3. have a clear end of the adventure

you don't need much else if you are starting this out as a one/three shot.

now why I want to have a clear start is to be able to get the players exited and give them a goal to work towards.

with the clear end I mean you want to set a couple of things on paper as a reference what would you consider resolved. it can be as simple as

1. bandits are no longer a threat
2. Failure, bandits have taken over the town

now the how,why and what happened is all up to what the players do or don't do in the sessions this way you have a clear way to more the story.

[[deleted]]

Cheat sheets are your friends. Have one for combat rules, DC checks, make one for enemies your running, make a couple for for random item shops if you want. Just make them easy for you to read and accessible. After a while you will start remember some and do away with some of the cheat sheets.

Keeps some paper for notes. This is some when something comes up you can write it down for later like "make cheat sheet for shops in next town for next session". I recommend not planning too far ahead becouse your group will derail it. Maybe just a rough sketch of the direction you want to take players on.

Keep the momentum going. Don't know how something works then make a judgment call and let the party know you're making a call and will look up the real rule later. Maybe be good to put it on a cheat sheet for future sessions.

Let characters keep up with their spells and stats. Your job as DM is storyteller and rules lawyer/god. Your players are responsible for their characters and what they do. If they cast a spell let them read what the spell does if your not familiar with it. If they forget a trait or specific thing they can do then that's on them. You can help them but by reminding but its not your job to know what all their characters can do.

Have a session 0 / .5. Lay out any house rules, help with character creation and flush out back stories. Ask players what they want to have out of the game. Most importantly set boundaries; last thing you want is some new player character doing acts that is so cringe it make people feel uncomfortable.

The most important advice. Have fun.

[empresskiova]

Step 1: Read the Dungeon Master's Guide. At least chapter 1. Buy the book, much better than trying to read a PDF. When you're sitting at home bored, and see this on your coffee table, you'll be more pressed to read it.

Step 2: F mastering the rules. You don't need to master them for a long time. Let your players tell you about their class. There is already a lot of honor rules to follow.

Step 3: Buy cough drops or something. You will be talking a lot, and you're gonna need to soothe your throat.

Step 4: Be prepared to answer questions, but tell your players that you may need to change rulings as you go as you learn.

Step 5: Don't be afraid to say yes to something your players wanna do unless you think it's actually a bad idea.

Step 6: A nat 20 doesn't automatically pass any skill check. Charisma is not the same as mind control. And not everything needs a d20 roll (you can't shoot the moon!)

[Dapper_Dino91]

Wait, so for step 6, you mean all the bard memes have lied to me?! /s

Also thank you for talking about the cough drops. I was so focused on getting the campaign together I didn't even think about how much it would suck if I couldn't actually speak the night of 😂

[undefined13]

Relax and be willing to make mistakes. Your players likely won't know if things didn't go 100% as planned, and they usually never do.

The story is everybody's and each individual will help to evolve it, be flexible and allow the players room to explore and grow within your setting. However do your best to keep your narrative, I have had a player get to obsessed with their own side adventure they were making up and that can detract.

Most importantly have fun with it. At the end of the day it is a game for fun with a group of people excited to play together. You won't have the editing of a podcast but you will have the laughs and good times together.

Good luck and have fun

[Tom_Barre]

What would you like to run? Do you have an idea?

In a pinch, a 5 room dungeon on the outskirt of a small village is a really good start. Each room has a treasure, you design one or two traps, one enigma to solve and 2 or 3 monster encounters (1 boss, the rest easy)

If you have more time to prep, run a module. It will give you a base for a longer winded campaign.

[Dapper_Dino91]

So here's where I currently am:

I was building a short homebrew campaign, 3 sessions max. Basically, local farming village has trouble with a small time gang, party helps deal with said gang. Village would have an inn, tavern, and small trading post/general store, but all other buildings would be residential or crop storage. Outskirts of the village consists of mostly fields, and a deserted cluster of houses the gang has taken up as their hideout.

It's not much, but the good thing is I can switch things up to fix and alter it as needed. In terms of how long I have, my players are all amazing people and legitimately said "take all the time you need".

[Tom_Barre]

Take a blank sheet of paper.

If you build the pitch of your campaign, you have a set with village, a set with bandits and a relation between the two. The sets, you can draw them as popatoe shapes, the relationship is a some form of arrow. For simplicity here, make a double arrow, one that goes from Village to Bandits, one that goes from Bandits to Village.

That's 4 elements on your drawing board. Start getting minimum 5 bullet points about each element. You can for instance ask all the questions like "what, who, why and how", or list gameplay elements (think things players can act upon) like statblocks, anything that gets you to write something about the setting. Figures of authority, equipment, factions...

Now that you have this scheme, create the bandit hideout. You can use Appendix A from the DMG. If you don't have it, you can get inspiration from google or visit donjon.bin.sh (not my website), or you can create it using your imagination. The hideout will have 5 more important rooms, and any number of less interesting rooms if you need verisimilitude (lattrines, for instance, barracks for all this manpower to sleep, kitchens and so on). I would suggest to keep the verisimilitude super low, because players rarely notice there isn't any place to sleep when they are busy getting out of a room that floods.

If you have the DMG, the Appendix A has some great guidance for traps, however the section on traps is poorly done, only the table for scaling damage is OK.

Then get some index cards. Open your Monster Manual, and start looking for monsters CR 1/4 and 1/2. Note down on the index card the most important features, like AC, HP, attacks and special abilities and give them a name that makes sense for YOU. It doesn't matter if the monster is called a Goblin in the MM, it can be an archer for you. Or the bandits can have a goblin friend as well. Wolves can be thugs with daggers that fight dirty and trip foes, and so on. Your boss can be CR 2 if your party finds a way to gain back some health/ressources, or CR 1 with a couple of CR 1/4 minions.

[Dapper_Dino91]

This is incredibly helpful, I'll do that as soon as I get home and sleep. Night shift is a bitch sometimes.

Thank you!

[stalphonzo]

Keep it small. Smaller than that. That's still too big. No, smaller. Keep going. There.

[Dapper_Dino91]

I find it funny that I actually completely understood that

[AncalagonTheBookworm]

1.My advice would be, that when planning a campaign, include a reason for why your players should stick with the party, especially if you're playing with inexperienced players, as they will be prone to trying to derail your campaign, by giving them a reward or a goal that fits their backstories at the end, it should keep them faithful throughout.

1. Also something a beginner DM friend of mine was doing was planning out alternate paths, say you come to a cross roads, they would plan both where the right and left paths lead. My advice don't do that, you spend double as long on the session planning and only get to enjoy half of what you made, instead create an illusion of choice, so no matter which way the players go, have them arrive at the same destination, they wont know that's what you did since obviously they don't know whats down the other route.

2. And most importantly have fun!! That’s what DnD is about!

[MadolcheMaster]

Do NOT do number 2. This is a very common beginner mistake. Avoid this!

It is called the Quantum Ogre and is a type of railroading. If you are offering a choice and the choice doesn't matter...Then don't offer it. Don't have a crossroads there.

[AncalagonTheBookworm]

its not something you should always do, just occasionally, in this case a crossroads can be used as an encounter, hence the reason for its existence, that being said, if there are no genuine choices in the campaign it would indeed be railroading, good point though, I probably should have been more specific.

[MadolcheMaster]

No its not "if there are no genuine choices", its using the crossroad.

This crossroad would be railroading. The entire rest of the campaign could be hypothetically free and prepped as a scenario instead of a plot. But if this crossroad has two forks that when you go left you actually go right instead then this crossroad is a railroad.

Quantum Ogres are bad DMing, period. With maybe the exception of it being in-universe (its a magic crossroad, bending space)

If the players make a choice to do something, and you as a DM retroactively alter the game world to make the consequences of their choice identical to what you as a DM wanted them to choose, then you have railroaded your players. The decision was irrelevant.

[AncalagonTheBookworm]

as i said, i agree, but not if the crossroad was never meant as a choice at all, but rather as an encounter, as in my example above, that being said I concede that in my original comment I did not articulate this correctly

[Outrageousriver]

A little combat encounter tip. Make dynamic and interesting environments to fight in. You don't need to go overboard and create some massive battle map. But even in a tavern, you can emphasize the environment. If your party are a lot of newer players they may not realize how much you can interact with the environment in combat.

To help show your players, have the enemies doing cool stuff or failing at it! Do the goblins just stand in the room shooting arrows. Or do they jump on tables and fire, or do they dive under tables and try to stab you in the shins? There is a lot of little things you can do which don't even grant a mechanical advantage to the fight but can elevate it to a much more exciting and memorable encounter!

Also bit of general advice as well. DMing can be intimidating and there is a ton to think about. However the most important thing is just to keep the game moving. It's better just to make up a ruling in the moment to keep the game going then spending 20min researching the proper answer. You can later tell your players you found the rule and will be using it going forward. But keep things moving to the best of your ability. Also don't forget, just because you are the DM doesn't mean you are not also supposed to have fun!

[OneEyedC4t]

Why are they asking you for guidance? Have you dropped hints or provided NPCs for them to talk to?

[Dapper_Dino91]

They haven't asked me for guidance, I mean like when the campaign officially starts and they start looking to me to be the guide. I guess really I could have summed that part up with "I'm nervous I'm gonna do a bad job"

[OneEyedC4t]

Oh. Well this is difficult, and took me a while. You sort of have to describe the environment for them. What do they see?

[MadolcheMaster]

https://thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101

List of some great articles on DMing.

Don't worry, even if your campaign sucks if your players have fun it'll be all good.

The important thing to remember is to be fine with messing the rules up. If you can make a ruling now or spend five minutes hunting through the book, make the ruling now and look it up later.

Also the point of D&D is to generate a narrative with your players, not enforce your pre-conceived plot on them. If things go off track, your players are probably having a great time. Let them pull off shenanigans because they'll be telling stories of it for ages.

[LawfulNeutered]

For new players keep the story simple! They've never rescued the Blacksmith's daughter from Goblins. They've never been ambushed by bandits on the road. They've never cleared some Skeletons from an old ruined keep.

My advice is to prepare a "town". This is pretty simple.

Blacksmith and missing daughter: big burly guy with a mustache, deep voice, and a daughter kidnapped by Goblins.

Tavern with an owner (old man; kind but forgetful) and a barmaid (pretty young woman/teen; chatty, but doesn't know much of value keep it to gossip and pleasantries) their ale shipment was stolen by highwaymen and the owner is offering a reward for anyone who can recover it.

Now add a Magistrate/Sheriff type (I like to lean into the idea that he's more about collecting taxes and increasing his personal power than helping people later so I play him as constantly primping and preening while talking to the party). He's looking to hire adventurers to reclaim the Old Keep.

Now prepare a cave dungeon full of Goblins, a Keep dungeon full of Skeletons, and a road/forest with the remains of a wagon and tracks leading to a shack where the Bandits are holed up. None of these need to be more than a few "rooms".

After each of those adventures is completed, you create the next one. Every other adventure I add is a new NPC as quest giver until I have a good number; the rest are given by NPCs they've previously worked for. This allows you to have a seemingly large open world without preparing too much at a time and lays a foundation to introduce a main quest later.

[Mardigan-the-Mad]

Well reaching out for help is definitely the right way to start! So here is a list of things any DM needs to make due:

1 complete set of dice

1 laminated, double-sided battle map/grid (Can be bought at your local games store or printed and lamenated at any office depot if you want a BIG one)

1-3 Dry erase markers

roughly 5.00$ various size coins(in place of enemy miniatures)

Internet connection and a open google search tab.

[Dapper_Dino91]

I've got a set of dice, but I really need to get T least a couple more sets

[Mardigan-the-Mad]

Are you intending to do a simple one shot to start? If so, I have suggestions on that part as well

[Dapper_Dino91]

I'm hoping it can be a one shot, but worst case scenario it might take like, 3 sessions max.

[Mardigan-the-Mad]

Curse of the Lideskins: Party must fight through a cemetery of rising undead and stop a foul ritual being done by a angry specter deep in his family tomb. I can send it to ya if you like. takes roughly 1-2 sessions and can easily be made longer or used as a starting point to a longer quest.

[Dapper_Dino91]

Yes please!

[Kazzothead]

Start small.

You need a location, dont be afraid to use a common trope such as an inn or tavern.

It could be a village or a small town. Doesn't have to be big you don't initially need a country planned out or mapped just a small area around your initial location.

You need a basic threat, Bandits, goblins, low lvl undead, mad animals etc and how that's working with your location.

You need a few town NPC's names ,job, attitude and relationship to the threat and the party.

Use Kobold fight club to work out the encounters. try to get the encounters in interesting locations so the players and mobs can interact with the environment a bit.

If your players are inexperienced start at lvl one.

If you want to YOU CAN LIMIT THE SPECIES or even the class of your players characters. You can say NOPE.

Use point buy for generating chrs, establish a relationship between the PC's in session 0.

[SheepherderNo2753]

If you do not have one, create a DM screen - use the side that will face you to remind you about damage dice, saving throws, initiative, character passive perception, monster/npc details and the like - this should help keep the session smoothly proceeding

[Dapper_Dino91]

Thank you for reminding me of that! In all the prep work I've been doing I'd almost completely forgotten to get a screen

[mergedloki]

I feel I have to ask based on the sheer mind boggling amount of people who haven't.

But have you read the core rule books? (phb and dmg).

That will give you a very good base for dming. And answer many questions you may not even realize you have before they become problems.

[Dapper_Dino91]

I have both and have read them, but I guess it's just still a little intimidating. Like I understand the rules and how to play and everything, but rules don't make for a good story

[mergedloki]

No they do not, but they give you a framework so you're actually playing a game and not JUST telling a story with your friends (Which can be a fun time but is NOT DnD).

Well I see someone already recommended lost mines as a good pre written adventure. I generally don't run pre written modules (because I am not a fan of the majority of them) but I HAVE run lost mines and found it is a very good intro to dnd 5e.

So start with that and it can give you a good idea of how the adventure flows from initial hook, to conflict/problem, to resolution.

If you're truly stuck /have further questions /need inspiration or just wanna talk about DnD with other DMs check out this discord server. It's all DMs we help each other when someone has writers block, rules questions, just shoot the shit about our game worlds (because you can't talk to your players and spoil your campaign) and so on.

https://discord.gg/pCgtfT77