I have been DM once before for a fun little game and that is all really and I am now going to be taking over a 5e game as DM
wanna let me know a bunch of common mistakes? some do's and don'ts?
maybe some past experiances you or others you know that have been DM that turned out really good or bad?
Thank you 
- Ask for a roll if there are no conseqences, if there are no consequences for failing the roll but you ask for a roll anyway, save time and cover your mistake by allowing them to succeed at the first reasonably high number, (it could be a 10 lol).
- Make npcs that are so cool they overshadow the players. The players are the main characters, not the npcs.
- Avoid giving them too powerful of items for their levels
- Provide consequences for their actions, but try to avoid situations that they cannot possibly overcome (a situation they can only get out of rolling multiple 20s counts in this category too)
- Playing monsters stupidly, i.e if their intelligent play them like they were intelligent, strategize, create enviornments that encourage strategy, and not just a boring run up and smack till they die, scenario
These are all lessons I learned from mistakes I made. Their all I can think of off the top of my head, but i'm pretty sure you'll get a lot more replies.
My best advice for a new DM is to buy and run the Beginner's Box adventure. It is set up to teach new DMs and is a really fun and well designed adventure. It includes dice and premade characters as well. You can also purchase the Players Handbook, which is pretty much essential to running the game. And as the DM, you need to have read most of it so at least one person knows how to play the game. The Monster Manual and Dungeon Masters Guide are not required but extremely helpful for DMing as well.
As far as suggestions for DMing specifically at the table. I strongly recommend having your players describe their actions, and you as the DM resolve them. Do not default to rolling dice all of the time. It has been really helpful for me to resolve scenarios just by going back and forth with the players verbally a lot of the time. Otherwise, my players tended to call out their actions as dice rolls, and the game was significantly less interesting.
For example, a player can say, "I draw my sword, charger over to the orc and slam into him with my blade!" To which I would reply, "The orc attempts to deflect your blow with his scimitar, so make an attack roll." If you do not focus on getting yourself and your players to roleplay, it turns into things where players say, "I move 4 squares to here, and roll a dice 20. I rolled a 14, did I hit it?" and you are like "Yeah!" Which is far less entertaining in my opinion.
The key to a well run game is described on p. 6 of the Players Handbook, under "How to Play."
1. The DM describes the environment. You really need to sell the scene and the NPCs and creatures in play.
2. The players describe what they want to do. Don't let them do this like "I roll a strength check to lift it." but more like "I try to lift the fallen bookcase off of the princess."
3. The DM narrates the results of the adventurer's actions. Use dice when you aren't sure how things turn out, but otherwise just narrate the story and move things along.
Finally, don't give out XP or gold or treasure too rapidly. You can always increase awards over time, but it is really difficult to remove stuff after the fact. Go off the suggestions in the MM and DMG for treasures and XP and adjust slowly from that as necessary.
The key is to make sure everyone is having fun (yourself included). I always question my players about how things are going, what sorts of other things they would like to do, and to critique how I handled things, etc. Some of my best improvements as a DM are from taking other people's criticisms to heart and changing the way I DM. This has led to me learning a variety of methods for DMing, which vary depending on the type of groups I DM. Just make sure to have fun while you are at it!
know your material, know your players, have consistancy, and repurcussions for bad descisons. kill a character if needs be. some players get aweful frisky when they think they can't die. also have some back up plans for when they go off target. keep it simple and keep it fun.
Get your players to help! Let them know before you start (in a session Zero) what sort of aspects of DMing you're worried about, and ask them to bear with you, or to forgive you if you make mistakes. I've always been honest with my players that I struggle with the "interaction" pillar of D&D 5e, and they go with it, allowing me time to think or skip over sections if I feel uncomfortable. Now, interaction-heavy sessions go a lot easier for all of us, and I'm gradually building my confidence.
Similarly, don't be afraid to delegate some DM tasks. One player in my group already keeps track of each session's events, and posts a recap blog after each session. I ask for another player to track initiative, so I have more thought-space for the other aspects of DMing. If there's a non-urgent rules dispute, I ask the player to look up the relevant rules so I can move on to narrate or discuss another player's activities and keep things flowing. You might even want to delegate tracking of monster HP to your players, or get creative input in describing NPCs or events.
Work with the players to discover and agree the game they want to play, but don't be afraid to tell them that you don't think you can run a certain kind of game, or if you feel uncomfortable with a certain style. I'm up-front with my players that I don't have the time or mental energy to create a whole campaign myself. I offered to run a published adventure, so they knew that's what they were gonna get. That might mean being contstrained to the events and locations of the book, at times, or allowing me plenty of time to think if they do something un-anticipated. If they didn't want that, someone else could volunteer to run a different game. I do try to give the players the best possible game for them, but I always keep it within what is reasonable for me to achieve.
Lastly, try not to dwell on mistakes from past sessions. Inevitably I will forget a key piece of information, or realise later a really cool opportunity I missed out on last session. Get over it, and move on! If you can easily work it into a future session, go for it, but sometimes you should just let things stand and move on to the next awesome thing.
Read everything in my signature.
Good luck.
RoguishDelight wrote:
wanna let me know a bunch of common mistakes?