New DM

[ThatKreacher]

So, I'm going to become a DM. And I'll be Dming for the first time with people who have never played before. Is there anything I should and should not do? Are there certain kinds of problems I should try nip in the bud before they start? How can I make an original and fun campaign for the players, and some'what easy for me to DM and make?
I'm thinking of getting the potential group together and help them all make a character and take them through a relatively simple encounter. Is this a good idea?

[gurgleflep]

As a first time DM, I suggest you don't let anybody play races or classes outside of the Players Handbook.
My first time DMing, everybody was a monster race and all of them chose classes from different books. Needless to say, it made for a very confusing gaming session. I suggest this restraint to keep things from getting out of hand.

[LeshLush]

If there's a complex ruling to be made, you're almost always better off just making a decision that seems fair on the spot and then getting out the books and making an informed decision after play has ended. Sure, there's a chance you were wrong, but play didn't get bogged down and people were having fun. No one is having fun when everybody's nose deep in rulebooks trying to figure out how two spells interact.

[Acanous]

Obvious pitfalls a new DM might stumble into?
Hm.

1: Do not make a PC. You're the DM, your job is to run the world and flesh it out. Don't tag along and hold the party's hands with a PC of your own.

2: Establish goals and limits in your campaign. Get the players on board with the theme of your game, and let them know what things won't fly (Like if you're playing a time-sensitive game, making an Artificer is probably a bad plan). Is PVP a thing? Are you doing combat heavy, intreague, indoors, outdoors? You don't have to tell them what you'll be doing every step of the way, but if the majority of your plans have to do with being in a city, then a Fist of the Forests is right out, savvy?

3: be flexable. If your group wants to try something off the wall and unexpected, try to run with it and thread it into the rest of the adventure. Don't give them a flat "No" unless you really have no idea how to handle it. Even then, explain to them that the reason why you've got to give them a No is because it's something you aren't sure how to deal with, and you'll look into it for the next session during down-time.

4: Try to keep your enemies plausable. Read up on the ecology of the enemy types you plan on using. It should give you some idea of how they work and who they work with. An occasional Gibbering Mouther off in an unused corner of a dungeon is acceptable. Plopping an Aboleth or Mind flayer in there with no warning is not.

[doc neon]

This formerly stickied thread helped me a great deal. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474)

Beyond the advice there, I'd second what everyone has said. As far as the storyline goes, consider looking into a published setting for inspiration, and keep it fairly simple to start. Remember that tropes are not bad. Just because your story is derivative doesn't make it cliched, but try to keep what it's based off of hidden; don't make a campaign about destroying a cursed ring.

At some point, consider trading jobs with one of the players. I just recently started playing, and things look much different from the other side of the screen. Things that are funny as a player aren't that great as a DM, and some common DMing mistakes are obvious from the player's point of view.

Finally, realize that you're going to fail at something. We all do, whether it's misunderstanding rules, accidental TPKs, or forgetting who an important NPC is. When you do make mistakes, apologize and learn from them. Don't beat yourself up over it. No matter what Jack Chick would like us to believe, it's just a game.

[Phelix-Mu]

Obvious pitfalls a new DM might stumble into?
Hm.

1: Do not make a PC. You're the DM, your job is to run the world and flesh it out. Don't tag along and hold the party's hands with a PC of your own.

4: Try to keep your enemies plausable. Read up on the ecology of the enemy types you plan on using. It should give you some idea of how they work and who they work with. An occasional Gibbering Mouther off in an unused corner of a dungeon is acceptable. Plopping an Aboleth or Mind flayer in there with no warning is not.

I agree with most of what has been said so far. Keep it simple. Your players will be looking for a positive, but not overwhelming, first experience. Limiting access to books, especially advanced stuff like Unearthed Arcana and such can help reduce the rules load that people need to be coping with.

The running npc, also conflated in some places with the DMPC, is not as big a pitfall as horror stories on forums might make it out to be. Maybe there is a member of a PC class in a town, some class not present in the party. Let's say ranger. Maybe there is a plot reason that he's around the party more than other npcs, maybe the party needs a tracker. In a realistic setting, it's okay, and even optimal, for the PCs to make friends.

As long as you aren't hogging limelight or solving problems with said npc, it's really not the end of the world. Make sure the players have the initiative to do stuff, and that the priorities of the npc are soundly back-seat. In general, as a starting DM, make a few (2-3) npcs in towns that the players can use as resources, and give these npcs a decent selection of npc/pc class levels appropriate to their role in the town. Make a backstory and a fairly detailed description of what the person looks like.

If the players decline the opportunity to interact with said npc, however, let it go; the players decide what the PCs are interested in, and forcing interaction with potential plot hooks is just as likely to attract hostility from the players and their characters as any kind of desired response.

Plausible is good. But surprise and plot twist are a thing, and can even add to a mystery or involvement. Do try to avoid setting up plot-based encounters that are well beyond the scope of the party to defeat, because it is extremely unwise to expect that novice players will understand when it is necessary to retreat. TPK (total party kill) comes all too quickly, and it is important when planning a monster encounter to consider if the monster has access to win buttons relative to the abilities of the party. Usually not a problem at low levels, but can be a problem if you are setting up a "hopefully non-combat" encounter with a creature/person of significantly out of reach CR/ECL.

Remember, starter players may have little to no idea about how strong a given monster is, or may have similarly erroneous ideas about dragons or such that originate outside of the game. Zombies are a good example of a place where confusion might arise. In pop-culture, zombie is a contagious condition. In D&D, it is not; you can't catch zombie, and if a zombie kills you, you are just dead. It's up to some necromancer to give you a case of zombie. Players might not realize this, but allow characters with high intelligence or good Knowledge (religion) a chance to know about how undeath works in game.

Anyway, /ramble. Good luck. I know it can be daunting, but stick to some old classics and make some interesting role play with memorable npcs and you should be fine. Someone is always on the forum, so if you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.

[sambouchah]

Make sure the players know who is boss. We(me and the other players) unfortunately weren't taught in our first campaign and now we sort of run the show. It makes things rather difficult.

From my experience as DM I try to stick to point buy(keeps everything a challenge) and I try to describe everything in enough detail to make them feel like they are actually there.

Also don't let them metagame much. We sit there for hours talking about strategy. At least let them do it all in character. My DM has just recently started enforcing little to no metagame and it makes things interesting and challenging.

[Mnemnosyne]

As a group of entirely first-time gamers, I would suggest using easier classes, ones more specialized in their roles, rather than trying to take on most of the PHB classes. I also suggest avoiding tier 5 and below classes - don't let the players think those classes are great classes to play.

Casters, ideally, should choose one of the three fixed-list casters. It makes things easy, they don't have to think about their spell selection or about memorizing spells each day. They simply get to choose their spells from a list that's already decent, it'll give them a chance to understand the casting mechanic and get their feet wet without giving them information overload like playing a Wizard or a Cleric would, and without allowing them to gimp themselves by choosing poor spells known as a Sorcerer.

Divine casters find themselves in the unpleasant position of not having fixed-list casters like the Beguiler or Dread Necromancer. They do have the Healer, but that's a tier 5 class unless you dive through three different books to expand their spell list, which is something we're trying to avoid for first-time players. In the end, there's not a lot of choice in this arena. The druid can be replaced by the Spirit Shaman (suggest: switch their spellcasting to be either WIS or CHA based, rather than split between the two) but the Cleric doesn't really have an easy replacement.

And for those who want to play melee, they should be steered toward the Warblade, Crusader, Swordsage, and Barbarian, in that order of preference, I would say. The duskblade is a decent magic-using warrior type if someone is interested in that sort. This is also probably the easiest place to use psionics, which should definitely be introduced early; don't let anyone start thinking psionics is a bad system. Psychic Warrior is a good class for new D&D players to get introduced to psionics with.

Anyone interested in a skillmonkey should definitely be pointed toward the Factotum. While a little more complex than a straight rogue, it's much more effective once the player starts to learn and understand the class, and it can still be played in a straightforward manner.

The two invocation using classes - Warlocks and Dragonfire Adepts - are also quite simple and straightforward, and very good for new players to work with, especially since it gives them the ability to do their thing as long as they want to. Battles in newbie groups sometimes actually last long enough for endurance to make a noticeable difference.

So, for a group of entirely new players, I would pretty much give this list of classes to use: Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Warmage, Cleric, Spirit Shaman, Warblade, Crusader, Swordsage, Barbarian, Duskblade, Psychic Warrior, Factotum, Warlock, Dragonfire Adept.

Now, if your players want to come to message boards and get advice with building their characters, I would feel free to add spontaneous casters like the Sorcerer and the Psion to this list. Indeed, with a little early help to make solid spells known lists, the Sorcerer, Psion, Favored Soul, and Bard are all really nice choices, because the players will only need help with initial selection of spells and powers.

But with an entirely first-time group and no one in the group to give advice, if they're not up to seek out external advice, I'd think familiarizing themselves with the system through the 'easier' classes is a better route for their first characters.

[Lorsa]

A small thing I wanted to add. Just because something is original doesn't necessarily mean it is fun. And just because it has been done 10 times before doesn't mean it is not enjoyable. The early levels is a great way to let simple things as kobolds, goblins and zombies be a problem. I've had very few players complain about encountering these creatures no matter how un-original it might be. :smallsmile:

[Deaxsa]

I would like to add that just because a battle was easy or over soon does not mean it was not fun, or not challenging, or not rewarding. once, my party had our tank provoke an AoO every time he could, so us squishies could run circles around the enemy. we mopped the floor with the enemies we managed to pull that off against. Likewise, i was once in a space campaign, and after boarding a ship, we found that all the remaining crew had holed up in an extremely defensive position. instead of fighting, what did we decide to do? we vented atmosphere in the ship. in summation, if the players are using their brains and breezing through encounters, that's not necessarily bad. what's bad is when they are breezing through encounters and NOT using their brains. and as a final note, just for you sake, don't let hard battles be solved with a save-or-die (at least, not at the beginning). that just removes fun for almost everybody(especially if the other classes get to do nothing). there's a fine line, and that line lies where the players have to come up with their ideas (disintegrate the BBEG lich vs venting atmosphere)

[eastmabl]

That, and a list of random names for taverns and NPCs. :smallbiggrin:

This is the most true thing you're going to run across. As a first time DM, names for random NPCs are the toughest thing to do on the fly, especially if you have the rest of the adventure layered on top of it.

[RolandDeschain]

This is the most true thing you're going to run across. As a first time DM, names for random NPCs are the toughest thing to do on the fly, especially if you have the rest of the adventure layered on top of it.

Had a buddy that used to giggle when I struggled making up names on the fly, and when he took his turn DMing I created a high charisma character and simply walked around introducing myself to everyone. "Hello! My name is Roland. What might your name be?"....it was quite humorous. In the years since he has become most helpful when I have to generate place names or npc names on a moment's notice.

[Story]

Our campaign uses lots of place and character names taken from TV Shows, videogames, novels, etc.

[ThatKreacher]

Thank you all very much for the help. I only have access to 5 books, the three standard books, Tome of Magic and Exemplars of Evil. I would love to use and introduce all the classes listed above however, is there anyway I can get that information for free?
And the name suggestion is definitely something I shall need, for I have a lot of difficulty coming up with names for people.

[Story]

Some classes are available on WOTC's website (Ultimate Magus and Dweomerkeeper for instance), but for most of them you'll just have to buy the book/pdf or obtain it through "perfectly legal means".

[Bakkan]

The Warblade and all the maneuvers are available for free through the Wizards website.

For tavern names, if I ever find myself needing one that I haven't already figured out, I just use "The <random color> <random animal>". It usually has the right feel. The Red Fox, The Purple Salamander, etc. It's obviously similar to "The Prancing Pony", but we all steal from Tolkien anyway, so be bold about it.

On that note, to get ideas for campaigns, enemies, etc, read fantasy books and watch fantasy movies/TV shows. If you haven't read Lord of the Rings, try to do so. That said, use these more for settings and premises rather than as a "plot". Some things work very well in a book but not so well in a game. Check out the webcomic "DM of the Rings" for an exploration of this. To be specific, you will generally want your combats to be more varied and your loot acquisition to be greater in a tabletop game than you would in a typical fantasy book.