Tips for DMing my first campaign

[Khosan]

So, this summer, I'm thinking I'll take my first crack at DMing. I know a few people at my college who are interested and I think I can do it, given some of the experience I've gained over the past semester.

I'm going to run a Pathfinder campaign of largely my own creation. Pathfinder because most of my experience comes from 3.5 (so not a huge jump for me) and almost all Pathfinder stuff is available online. As for the campaign, I've had the setting essentially sitting on my hard drive for years and it's something I frequently end up going back to when I have the time.

Right now, I'm thinking I'll run it here on the GitP forums, since class will be ending soon. I'm not sure how good of an idea that is for my first time DMing and, for a few of them, their first time playing. The other option is to run it through IRC or something similar, but I'm unfamiliar with that sort of stuff.

Any suggestions?

[Grinner]

Don't sweat the small stuff.
Have a game plan for every session.
Be willing to ditch that game plan if the players go off rails.
Take nothing personally.
Try not to get too attached to your NPCs. They're going to die, sooner or later.
Keep the Rule of Cool in mind at all times.
Don't be afraid to improvise details into adventures. My best plot hooks always come that way.
Avoid Play-by-Post at all costs. You seem to be significantly invested in this setting, and PbP games always die prematurely.
IRC works well.
With my last group, we discovered that conducting combat via Google Docs works extremely well in conjunction with IRC.
Be open to player suggestions.
Edit: Have a strong command of the group's native language and the concept of imagery. A good description makes all of the difference between epic and anticlimactic.
Don't go overboard with descriptions. Keep them short and sweet unless good theatrics and the Rule of Cool command otherwise.


Do any of these players have previous experience with RPGs*?

*Not the computer kind. Those don't count.

[moritheil]

Learn the rules better than your players.

I know people say it's not all about the rules. I know that sometimes fudging things to keep the party alive or the fight interesting is desirable. I know that you should not allow rules lawyering showdowns to take place. This is not about that.

This is about you not having to stop and consult the books mid-fight. This is about you not appearing hesitant, weak, or unsure when pronouncing judgment.

Learn the rules.

[Ranting Fool]

Learn the rules better than your players.

I know people say it's not all about the rules. I know that sometimes fudging things to keep the party alive or the fight interesting is desirable. I know that you should not allow rules lawyering showdowns to take place. This is not about that.

This is about you not having to stop and consult the books mid-fight. This is about you not appearing hesitant, weak, or unsure when pronouncing judgment.

Learn the rules.

As with many things (Such as quite a few jobs I've had) acting like you know what you are talking about helps out a lot :smallbiggrin:

highlighted a very important point, if you are not sure on something don't let people bully you into taking their word (or view of the rules) for granted. I have a rather strong house rule that if something is unclear and I make a ruling it is not open for debate until the game session is over with the exception of "if i'm wrong they all die" but nothing slows down a game more then arguing for an hour weather or not Bob the Mighty is able to do a backflip and land on the head of a pin or not.

Knowing all the rules = nice
Knowing all the rules and abilities that the players can use = More important.
No Arcane spell casters in the group, don't worry so much about that then, no druids then wildshape isn't an issue. No flying mounts or fly spells yet, then save reading those rules till later.
It is far better to have a compleate grasp of things you know are likly to come up (And being a DM you know what sort of challeges your heroes may face since you made them :smallbiggrin:)

[Ranting Fool]

Oh one more thing. The Q&A Thread here is VERY useful with lots of helpful advice given quickly and often with links/page numbers so you can look it up later:smallbiggrin:

[Khosan]

Do any of these players have previous experience with RPGs*?

*Not the computer kind. Those don't count.

A few of them do, yeah. I'm in a campaign with a few of them that'll be wrapping up tomorrow-ish. For the others, I'll ask how familiar they are with Pathfinder/3.5, but I'm honestly not sure how much they know beyond them stating they were interested.

[Peelee]

NAMES. Names names names names names. DMed for the first time myself about a year ago, spent almost all my free time at work writing out all sorts of sidequests and plot hooks, since I wanted a completely open-ended sandbox-type world, put tons of details into fleshing out the world around the the players, including tons of NPCs with their own different jobs and stories and possible sidequests and red herrings and NO NAMES ANYWHERE. As we were around the table, I was lucky enough to be facing the pantry and food shelf, so I had tons of brand names to bastardize for the NPCs. Pring'l and O-Rio work well enough as names, and the big bad was named Wittekerke (hooray for beers with easily-transferrable names), which worked, but I was always in a panic whenever I needed a name on the fly. Though Placeholder Island was a big hit...

[Ranting Fool]

NAMES. Names names names names names. DMed for the first time myself about a year ago, spent almost all my free time at work writing out all sorts of sidequests and plot hooks, since I wanted a completely open-ended sandbox-type world, put tons of details into fleshing out the world around the the players, including tons of NPCs with their own different jobs and stories and possible sidequests and red herrings and NO NAMES ANYWHERE. As we were around the table, I was lucky enough to be facing the pantry and food shelf, so I had tons of brand names to bastardize for the NPCs. Pring'l and O-Rio work well enough as names, and the big bad was named Wittekerke (hooray for beers with easily-transferrable names), which worked, but I was always in a panic whenever I needed a name on the fly. Though Placeholder Island was a big hit...

+1

I'm rather bad when it comes to thinking of names on the spot. My campaigns are known to have names such as
"The Evil Monkey Tribe" -I have a Family Guy Evil Monkey on my Desk :smallbiggrin:

"Smells like Evil Sprits Tribe" - I wonder what music was playing

Though all these names are meant to be translated into common and the tribe name is based on what the Shamans see in the omens :smallbiggrin: *cough*:smallredface: *cough*

Names are good. Remember to try and do names you can REMEMBER also making a list of NPC's the players have met is good (I make the players keep a list since they forget whos who more then me)

You can always tell what book i've been reading or what T.V show i've been watching before playing D&D.
"You arive at a small coastal town called Gnomes Landing" *Players Snicker and reply* "Better buy a fur cloak and items of Cold Res... as Winter Is Coming"

Also make sure you name people names you can actually say. Random name gen's aren't always a good thing :smallbiggrin:

[AslanCross]

Good advice all around. :D I do agree most heartily with coming up with good names. Sometimes I find that in the course of making up names, they sound too much like other people they've already met. I don't really have trouble inventing names, but these names typically need to be unique enough so as not to be confusing.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

dont be afraid to have a debriefing after a session, just to reclarify the world background and customs, problems that players may have or you have about a player, change of direction in the campaign if need.

dont level the players to fast

always have consequences for actions that players may do, if you dont the players can start to think it is ok to demand things from kings or lords, and even attack them as they reach higher levels.

[nedz]

+1 to knowing the rules.

-1 to running your first game online.

The next two points are about campaign consistance. Its not critical, but it does help.

Do try and make brief notes immediately after the session of all of the things you make up on the hof, NPC names especially.

Do publish any houserules you might have up-front, BEFORE char-gen.

[Soulean]

Take a bit of time to describe amazing feats of prowess. If a player gets a crit and finishes a big enemy a brief death scene can go a long way towards getting into the game.

Make sure you go over all the abilities your characters have so you know whats coming and to make sure you don't plan an epic battle that ability X that character Y got last level will make it a 1 round affair.

I always have a test dungeon at the start of a campaign. Throw a few different types of situations at the PCs so you and your players get to see the parties strengths and weaknesses. Single big, caster, lots of small, small group of semi or well organized humanoids maybe an ooze or swarm depending on starting level.