Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MagusPrimeX 08-11-04, 10:22 PM	Heyas :) I've been harboring an interest to get into D&D for years now, throughout most of high school, but I could never find anyone else who wanted to. Now that I'm in college, it seems almost every friend I have here would like to get into a game of D&D. Thing is none of us have ever played D&D, or any PnP RPG for that matter, and for whatever reason the felt comfortable with me trying to DM a good experience. So I now own the three core rule books to D&D 3.5 and have been reading through the Player's Handbook and the DM's Guide as diligintly as I can, but without having ever played before (and no one else either) I'm just never sure I'm getting and understanding everything, nor am I really 100% sure of what a good DM does. Heard a story or two of some other DM's, and the guide itself is helpful, still just a bit of a lack in confidence if I'm doing things right or making them as fun as possible and the like, debating about whether I should try and get some kind of grid or grid mat for battles etc. Any of you D&D DM's here have any advice for this all first-timers starter? I mean, I've been putting off starting anything until I feel I know what I'm doing, is there anyway I can know for sure I'm ready to DM, know enough of the mechanics and rules to mitigate circumstances and run the game properly?
Helmed Horror 08-11-04, 10:34 PM	as a new dm as well, I figured out most by reading examples of play maybe you are the same way... read the example of play in the DMG, the one about the spider and mielee. read it, learn it, love it, helmed horror.
egeborg 08-12-04, 03:09 AM	Hi Magus & welcome to the wonderful world of D&D! To be honest I envy you in some ways. Being new to the game and unaware of the advanced game mechanics can be a truly wonderful thing indeed!...magic is mysterious....nothing is certain.... on the other hand it can be quite tough on the new DM. As said earlier - read as many game examples as possible.... read it once....twice...thrice...ehh..? :) Advantages of a new group: No-one really knows what to expect..with this in mind, keep it simple and small for starters..dont go into the Underdark first thing since it will make things too complicated. Why not draw a small dungeon (2-4 rooms..one trap..small treasure) that lies in a small wood nearby? ... take notes of the pages where you will find monsters stats in Monster Manual to speed up things. The other aspect is that the players should give you a "break" since they should understand that being a new DM, you just couldnt have a 100% understanding of the rules... take your time... find the rule....and take notes of the "most frequent questions" by the group and yourself. Follow up the notes between sessions.... important! third.... dont "make up" to many rules when not knowing how to judge.... these house rules may come back to haunt you later on..... And finally my best advice: be prepared. Not for every situation... but for the situations to be expected within your adventures... be prepared. Any help? :) - Egeborg
Valoren 08-12-04, 05:22 AM	For the first campaign i.e. series of stories, I suggest the following... For players.. 1. Players make simple characters. Focus on the "character" of the character, rather than the statistics, equipment, abilities etc. Those are useful but not absolutely essential to get right on the first try. 2. Don't be fancy. No insane class/race/template combinations. 3. Talk about how the group will work together. The characters shouldn't be too drastically different in alignment, outlook or goals... having a Paladin and an Evil necromancer in the same party on the first try at DnD is disruptive. For you, the DM... 1. Keyword search on google, and the wotc website for DM tools, aids, supplements. I've got a nice file with all the tables and charts, I printed them all out, and pasted them on cardboard..and voila, my own DM screen with every commonly used modifier, rule etc I need. 2. As a new DM, consider using a pre-made adventure, or at least adapting parts of it. The wotc website has some good low level ones. 3. Plan in advance. Place yourself in the characters shoes. If there's an enemy with a poisonous attack, then give him a neutralize poison potion in his treasure. Think of it as "easy" mode... as DM you WANT the players to succeed as they learn the rules and get a hang of the game. Make everything logical, zombies don't normally have a good reason to share a dungeon with pixies, who likewise wouldn't be roommates with ogres, and none of them would have much tolerance for a black pudding on the loose...all within a 500 foot radius of one another. 4. On the flipside of point 3, Prepare well but be flexible if they try things you didn't expect. There's no harm "winging" it. How do you know you're ready? There's no hard and fast rule for it... but you could try this. Look at the adventure you have planned, pretend you are playing in it... run yourself through it. Did you have problems deciding what rules to use? Did you feel that it was a "fair" adventure, with opportunities to do what you want, when you wanted, in a logical, "in character" manner? If you can answer that favourably, then you're probably ready! And most of all... the whole group must remember... HAVE FUN. The beauty of RPGs is that nobody needs to keep score, there is no winning team and losing team at the end of full time... the winners are the people who have fun, and enjoy themselves in the fantasy setting they've helped create.
+10 holy club 08-12-04, 12:08 PM	I've ran many adventures with new players, ranging from 40 year old moms (dead serious) to 9 year old newbies kids. Any way, when creating characters. -when selecting classes, give the players the pictures of the races to choose from, rather then the abilitys modifiers, etc.. (from my experaince, this will result in a lot of half-orcs) -Likewise, give the players the illustrations of the weapons (still tell them the weapons they can use) rather then the game effects (don't say "do you want to less damage, but score critical hits less often", etc...) - Same goes classes, description of classes works better then show them class abilitys, etc... (you may not want to show them to class illustations either, depending the player, they may ask "what hero/character" can i play.) More will prbabaly come...
jasper 08-12-04, 12:19 PM	Create a standard map like the map in dmg on page 84 of the 3E Dmg. Or I think page 124 of 1e dmg. With various rooms sizes, halls. Populate it with monsters, traps, good guys etc. Run the gamers through. Repeat this a few times basically just doing dungeon crawls until you and the gamers/dm get comfortable with rules. Use the core rules only at first. And always start at first level and don't be afraid to kill them all, make mistakes, and correct mistakes. Aka Um Jasper I know I gave your first level paladin an +5 holy avenger. I made a mistake. Could you mark it off your sheet. After at least 20 sessions (4 hour length). Start over. Either grab a campaign book or start mapping your own world. Use store bought modules/adventures. You will have to edit most adventures because they either have too many magic items, or the group already has magic and does not need a third +1 sword.