Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 BabyDragon13 Feb 13, 2015 18:37:43	I've been interested in D&D since I was 8 but only started playing about 3 months ago, I know how to play but not how to DM which is a little bit of an issue because I (in the heat of the excitement of talking about it) invited my friends to be in a campaign I'd been creating. We're waiting on at least 3 more players but I've hit a wall where I'm reading the DMG and I get random bouts of dyslexia or it'll go in one eye and out the other. I'm almost finished with creating this (in my opinion) amazing campaign and I really want someone to play and enjoy it, but I need help learning how to DM. Can anyone help me, PLEASE?
#2 bawylie Feb 13, 2015 18:38:58	Yes. I wrote my blog to help out. Start with DM 101 and poke around. Any specific questions and we'll be happy to help you.
#3 Ath-kethin Feb 14, 2015 5:19:07	Also, RELAX. Its a game. The most important thing is to keep things moving and keep having fun. Very few things bog down a game like hunting for a rule in a book. If you need to, make something up and move on. You can always look stuff up later.
#4 Rhenny Feb 14, 2015 5:44:14	Ath-kethin wrote:
#5 Imaculata Feb 14, 2015 6:41:07	One of the most important things to realize, is that almost no DM reads the DMG from front to back. Thats just not how these books work. Instead, you'll often just look something up when you need it. You do not need to know the book by heart. Instead, the only things you really need to know as a DM are:   How to read the statistics of monsters, and run the combat rules. Know how to read their attack and damage rolls, and how armor class works. How to set skill challenges that are fair. For example, jumping across a pit, is a jump check. As a general rule, a DC of 10 is easy, 15 is average, 20 is hard. If there are circumstances that make a skill check easier, add a +2 bonus to the roll of the players. If it's harder, add a -2 penalty. Know how saves work. You'll need it for when the players are hit by traps or spells, or when the players attack your monsters with special attacks (spells, grenades, traps). Know how to tell a fun story, without railroading your players too much. Bring npc's to life, by giving them short backstories, and playing them out. As a DM you get to play every other character that isn't the players. Be detailed in your descriptions of towns, taverns, dungeons and just simple rooms. When the players enter a room, you need to be clear where they can go, and how many doors they see. Running a fun campaign is a matter of practice really. But try to always be fair and lenient to your players, and if there is any confusion, look up the rules. Understand how experience points and other rewards work. Know what amount of reward is suitabe to the level of the players.   And thats about it. Everything else you can look up when you need it. As for setting up a campaign, here's what I do:   Think of a reason how the player's characters meet each other. Often I'll throw them together in a common situation, or with a common goal, so they need to work together. For example, they are all traveling on the same ship, or the same caravan, or they are all in the same tavern, when something happens. Write out a basic outline of the story in a Word document. It helps to have that to fall back on, incase you forget things. Prepare a list of stores for each town. Sum up all the names of those stores, and the names of the people that own these stores. If the players ask me if there's a blacksmith, I can not only tell them where it is, but the name and owner's name as well. It helps if you don't need to come up with character names on the fly. Make a map of the world or region, so your players have a visual aid that tells them roughly where they are. It makes running a campaign so much easier. Have a list of monsters and foes ready for when you need them. Know what kind of beasts roam the countryside, so you can quickly find them  when they are needed. Have a list of npc's ready, that can be thrown into the story when needed. This also ensures that you the DM remembers what all the characters are called, and not just the players. Have graph paper at the ready, for when you need to draw out a combat encounter. You can use simple pawns to illustrate the positions of players and foes.
#6 Archon007 Feb 14, 2015 10:54:23	Imaculata wrote:
#7 Ranthalan Feb 14, 2015 10:56:03	Like others said, experience is the best teacher.  You should read all you can to prepare, but understand that it will be rough going for a few sessions.  Don't get discouraged.
(Reply to #6) bawylie	Archon007 wrote:
#9 supreme_slayer Feb 14, 2015 17:44:51	Also, something to remember is that your players will invariably try to steer from what you think is the path they will or should take, and you should prepare to improvise.
#10 DM_HEEGZ Feb 14, 2015 18:56:05	Just recognize that you will makes mistakes as you learn to DM. Let your players know this, and also tell them that you will make mistakes, learn from them, and try not to repeat them. Making a mistake does not mean you are stuck repeating them, change the way you DM and become better. If you do have to fix a mistake, try to make it a reason for an adventure. For example, if you give the party way too much gold, maybe they become targets of a thieves guild. Or they find a magic sword, which is proving far too powerful for them, and now a dragon or evil knight is hunting them to get it.    For starters, pick up the Starter Set, it is only $12 on amazon, or $20 in a game store. It is designed to help teach you how to DM, and also contains a set of dice and a really, really fun adventure. It is fun to DM and fun to play a character in. Jumping right into the DMG is not going to be as helpful up front as it is geared more towards tweaking your game or making a new one from scratch. It is much easier to learn how to DM from a premade adventure and that is why I recommend the excellent Starter Set to you. Here's a link:   http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Starter-Set-Roleplaying/dp/0786965592/
#11 Imaculata Feb 15, 2015 15:55:25	bawylie wrote:
#12 Greenstone.Walker Feb 15, 2015 16:23:27	First off, have fun. :-) This is a hobby. It is supposed to be fun for everyone at the table, including the DM.   Second, DM lots. It's the only way to get better at it. Accept that you'll make mistakes but that you'll learn from them. In any case, the mistakes don't matter that much. You rule wrong, you get a monster's stats wrong, it doesn't really matter that much. Just tell your players "look people, I'm sure I'm going to muck up the rules, if I do we'll fix it at the end of the session - during the session we'll just keep going."   Third, read blogs. Bawylie's (see the signature above) is good. I also read Newbie DM and the Mad Adventurer's Society.   Fourth, DM lots. Yes, I know I repeated this, but it's worth repeating. A bunch of people round a table having fun is the only way to get better at this hobby.
#13 Archon007 Feb 16, 2015 8:58:43	Imaculata wrote:
#14 Ariamythe Feb 16, 2015 13:17:35	If you and your players are all new to this, I might highly consider starting with the Starter Set. It's designed to play out of the box and learn as you go. There are rules laid out in the text of the adventure as they're needed, and it follows a KISS philosophy at first, building complexity as it goes. Even if you just borrowed the first couple encounters / dungeons and worked them into your own campaign, it would give you some training.
#15 Imaculata Feb 16, 2015 15:59:42	Archon007 wrote:
#16 Jaxom Feb 16, 2015 17:03:19	As mentioned above, if you have a group that knows the rules, they'll help you out.   As DM's, we've all been in your position. I'm not 100% on thje 5e rules, but I would run a game anyway. As mentioned, if you don't know a rule and can't find it quickly, make it up and try to write yourself a note to look it up later.   I've been in many games where a rule is made up on the spot and between game nights everyone researches it and brings the official rule to the table right before the next session and we move on from there.   I read sections of the DMG to get ideas and inspiration and make note of things like where the rules are for a chase just in case the players put me in a position where I may need those rules.   I'll agree with another post... When you run a combat, it's more important to know how to find a monster's stastisitc quickly than it is to read and memorize the DMG.   The hard part is not letting the story get bogged down with details that aren't important. Giving the players enough information to figure out how to get from scene and have enough information on hand (like generic monster stats that can be used for any quick creature or NPC that the players may fight) for when you have to improvise because the players went in a direction you weren't prepared for. When you improvise and use your imagination, that's where some of the most memorable can happen.
#17 Imaculata Feb 17, 2015 5:02:16	Jaxom wrote:
#18 Jaxom Feb 17, 2015 17:10:43	Imaculata's example of handling information is perfect.   Example of on the spot storytelling: I recall DM'ing a Third Edition game for high level characters, they came upon an underground room with a portal that led to the Demon Web in the Abyss. I thought the player's would just dispel it and destroy it and that would be the end of the encounter. Instead they investigated it and the Wizard rolled a rediculous knowledge check, so I gave him the ability to change the perspective of the portal so he could see into the Demonweb and take look around. He moved the view until he spotted Lolth's daughter and stopped, when she turned her attention to the portal she became very angry. She walked briskly toward the portal and cast a quick spell in the portal's direction. The portal closed and webs shot out from it and into the room covering the entire room and the characters with webbing.   It was an on the spot moment for me to come up with the web idea, but you should have seen the look on the faces of the players when they got to see the main villain of the campaign cast something in their direction. They must of thought something really bad was about to happen and instead they just got covered in sticky webbing. I was just working in the moment and got lucky that in doing so I made a lasting memory of a simple encounter.
#19 Goon-for-Hire Feb 17, 2015 19:13:33	Some good guidelines I have developed over about 30 years of DMing   Don't let the rules weigh you down. Use them when you can because they create fairness and excitement, but if you need to go running around through the books looking for something and it will bring things to a halt, flip a few pages, roll some dice, and make something up.   Don't sweat "story". There is a lot of emphasis in modern role-playing games and newer circles that you must tell a good story with a complex plot.  The fact is, if you don't create one, one will evolve on its own in little flashes of inspiration and moments of role play.  For your first campaign, all you need to know is the reason why they are going to the latest monster-infested pit of horrors.   Know your villain. If you feel that you must absolutely have a killer plot, the most important part is your Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG).  If you know these things stories come very easily:   Who is the BBEG. What is the BBEG's goal. What 10 steps does the BBEG still need to complete to reach their goal. What are the BBEG's favourite ways of accomplishing his goal (violence, manipulation, strange magic, monstrous minions?) What kind of creatures work for the BBEG. If you know these, then you also know how the PCs can foil the BBEG, and any action they take you can imagine the BBEG's reaction when he gets the news.   Don't be afraid of camp. D&D's roots are in pulp sword-and-sorcery and science fiction.  In the early days the game was trippy, surreal, and often nonsensical.  Villains were moustache-twirling bundles of cliche the players loved to hate.  Magic did weird stuff that the spells could never cover. Bizarre illusions that the PCs would never be fooled by in a million years were commonplace.  You don't need to imitate the high art of writers like Ursula K. LeGuinn; Edgar Rice Burroughs or even Terry Pratchett will do just fine.  (cont.)
#20 Goon-for-Hire Feb 17, 2015 19:26:36	(continued)   There is no shame in running a module. Or a really simple dungeon crawl.  You do not need to make it all up on your own.  Especially on your first run, a few pre-generated adventures mixed in with your own ideas will make for a great campaign.  Once you are comfortable, you can build up to greater complexity.   Fun is king. You want the players to have a great time more than anything else.  When in doubt, ask yourself, what would be fun, memorable, or exciting?  Do that.   Let the players frontload. If the player makes up stuff about people he knows or places he's been, use it.  He is saving you tons of hard work.  This will make for a very happy player, when he realizes that he helped build the world.  I find that it is also great to give them the curse of the bard's tongue.  If a player grumbles about a trap and says "watch it be boobytrapped", then grab a trap off of pages 122-124 of the DMG and hit them with it.   Be artfully vague. Never say "there are no traps on the door", say "you don't see any traps on the door."  "The hallways looks clear" will, after one or two nasty surprises, create an edge of mild paranoia that will help the players get into the PCs heads.   Use tokens to track things. Stuff like inspiration can be hard to track.  I give each of my characters a coin when they have inspiration.  I also at first gave them a token to cash in to use their reaction, so they would remember how that worked.  Paper, pencils, books, and dice are all you need to play, but a few more items can make the game run so much smoother.   The PHB is more important than the DMG. In Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, there is very little you need to know, rules-wise that is in the DMG.  The important stuff is all in the PHB.  The only big deal is in encounter design, and everything you really need to know is on pages 81 and 82 of the DMG.  If poison, disease, or environmental hazards come up, you might need the DMG for thse, too, but you can just look them up as you need.   You don't need to be perfect. This is just like every other boardgame in many respects, everyone expects it to e a little slow at first as everyone learns the rules.
#21 RasmusNord Feb 18, 2015 4:37:21	Back when I was your age, and new DM, new players would often have a lot of fun just fighting monsters, sometimes fighting each other, looting everything in sight and gathering treasure. The freedom of the game was what got them exited (a bit like Grand Theft Auto). Let them have that freedom and fun, and don't despair if they don't play along with your story. A good dungeon can box them in a bit. They might 'run wild' in a city or town. I think you have to be most aware of fighting within the party (my character is better/stronger than yours!). It can really ruin the fun.