Advice for a New GM

[Harbinger]

OK, so a few friends and I want to play D&D. I decided to be DM because I am the most motivated to do so.

I created a world, designed a map and came up with some history. I also wrote down the names and alignments of major NPCs the PCs would have heard of. My major question is: do I need to make character sheets for NPCs that I'm 99% sure the PCs are never going to fight?

My PCs are a gnoll druid, a gnome swashbuckler, a goliath barbarian, a human fighter and a raptoran sorcerer, all level one. The gnoll and goliath have had their stats altered as well to be LA +0.

Should I make maps of the cities, or should I just leave it to the imagination?

I should mention that I've never played a real game of 3.5 before. I played some heavily modified 1st edition for a few sessions once, however. The fighter and barbarian in the party have never played either, and the other three have only played a few times.

General advice would be appreciated.

[Juhn]

Depends on how much work you want to put in. I don't suggest giving everybody full-blown character sheets, though. You almost certainly don't need to know how many ranks in Profession (Basketweaving) that local merchant has.

[Rover]

Mapping out WHOLE CITIES?

Map places where there will be fighting or extremely important places. Like your average tavern.

Also, never make the railroads out of anything less than adamantine.:smallannoyed:

[ArcturusV]

Well, it sounds like you're on the right track in a lot of of ways. Although I probably would have limited homebrewing. No matter how much you read up, or who teaches you, etc? In almost anything (Including DnD) it's best to follow the directions on the box and figure out the baseline before you start twinking with it.

One of the other, key ideas, and as I said, seems like you're on track: Keep it Simple.

You don't need the 3,000 year history of the Ondu Empire figured out in textbook details. But you might want a few key details on the Great Tiger War that it was involved in which will directly impact your plot.

Cities should be, generally, blocked out in average detail. If you have various "Districts" where things can be found, along with appropriate land marks kind of roughed in? You can generally just fake description to fit your needs and most players won't mind.

You probably shouldn't bother stating out NPCs unless you plan for them to be involved in a fight. And that should also include "NPCs that might throw down if the PCs are ***** to them". Because sometimes your King just has adventurers be total pricks to him and is going to go "GUAAAAARDS! SEIZE THEM!"

What you might want to do is stat out a few generic NPC templates. Like come up with "level 2 melee fighter" or "level 3 Sorcerer" or something. Not to have a full build, but to have a cheat sheet where you can glance at your notes and see that a level 2 melee fighter would have a +5 to Attack, +3 damage, +5 to Initative, etc, and leave details blank like exact armor they are wearing, weapons they are using, etc. That way you can just scribble in "Leather Armor and Warhammer", etc, if you need to. That way you can fluff in around the skeleton details like "King's guard, chain mail, long swords, shields" or rough tactics like "Will use Trips and Disarms" or "Will sunder items" or "Will power attack smash" more easily.

[Deca4531]

most NPCs are just a voice, so dont feel to obligated to devite a lot of time to them. maps are really only good for areas of battle and dungeons where they might (and should) get lost. were they to get lost in a city they could ask a guard so a map it redundant.

every DM has their own style, im a puzzle and dungeon kinda of DM, i have friends who are blood and battle DMs. some shower PCs with gold and treasure and others are hard pressed to let go of a few silver. find your comfort zone and just wing it, remember the DM is never wrong, but physics and reality might be

[Plerumque]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474) is my favorite guide for new DMs. Personally, I guess I'd just say try to know what's important and don't be afraid to improvise.

[Deca4531]

i think they did an extremely good job with the pathfinder DMG. i was reading through it a while ago and it really explains a lot and how to handle different kinds of games, players and situations, unlike the 3.5 DMG which just seems like more of a small magic item shopping list with a few rule explanations thrown in.