Module or Homemade?

[hobbitkniver]

Due to a lack of actually good AND reliable DM's, I thought I'd do some myself. I'm pretty clueless though. I know anything you'd need to be a good player, but DM'ing is another subject. I feel like my biggest problem would be catering too much to the players and bailing them out far too often. So besides tips and tricks, do you guys think it'd be better for me to start with a module made by a professional rather than writing my own story?

[erikun]

The main purpose of a module would be to save time, perhaps by giving you some interesting PCs or writing up the dungeon descriptions for you. Simply producing creatures of the appropriate CR shouldn't be too difficult.

Are you familiar with your group already? Have you gamed with them, and seen what they like in a game? If so, that can help you with setting things up. If your players like backstory or social mechanics, then you can throw in things that tie into their backstories or ensure that a number of encounters can be resolved socially. Just avoid the "Big Bad kidnaps your sister" plotline.

If they'd rather ignore that and smash in some heads, they you can probably focus on battles more and just glaze over the in-town encounters.