veteran player turned DM for 3 first time PCs

[AdamantlyD20]

I have been playing 3.5, d20, and pathfinder for the past 6-8 years. I've played close to 20 characters and have help fellow party members build their characters is well so in total cost about 60 to 70 characters I've made in my dnd experience.

I recently moved away to another city from my normal gaming group and have found some people interested in playing. None of them have ever played before. I, having many years under my belt as a player, offered to DM/GM for them.

I am a heavy optimizer as a player and know I can't optimize as a DM/GM for new players until they get a better understanding and grasp of the rules.

my question is should I just let the players build their own characters with no guidance whatsoever like my newbie DM did when I first started playing? or should I try to see what their character concepts are and assist them in building something that as closely resembles their character concept as possible?

I plan on being fairly lenient for the first few sessions and slowly upping the anti. I know a lot of first time DM's who make a lot of mistakes but over the years I have been comprising a list of things that I did not like my DM doing and plan on doing my best not to do those things.

Any advice would be nice. We are doing a blend of 3.5/pathfinder most classes are available and all standard races and all LA+0 through LA+1 are available. Mostly RAW.

[Tvtyrant]

I have been playing 3.5, d20, and pathfinder for the past 6-8 years. I've played close to 20 characters and have help fellow party members build their characters is well so in total cost about 60 to 70 characters I've made in my dnd experience.

I recently moved away to another city from my normal gaming group and have found some people interested in playing. None of them have ever played before. I, having many years under my belt as a player, offered to DM/GM for them.

I am a heavy optimizer as a player and know I can't optimize as a DM/GM for new players until they get a better understanding and grasp of the rules.

my question is should I just let the players build their own characters with no guidance whatsoever like my newbie DM did when I first started playing? or should I try to see what their character concepts are and assist them in building something that as closely resembles their character concept as possible?

I plan on being fairly lenient for the first few sessions and slowly upping the anti. I know a lot of first time DM's who make a lot of mistakes but over the years I have been comprising a list of things that I did not like my DM doing and plan on doing my best not to do those things.

Any advice would be nice. We are doing a blend of 3.5/pathfinder most classes are available and all standard races and all LA+0 through LA+1 are available. Mostly RAW.

About a year ago I started DMing with a group that was relatively inexperienced, and I am a mechanics guy (although not so much as some of the people here.) My brother was one of the players and he ended up dominating the game much of the time because he simply had me make him a character, while the greater the degree of independence the group had the more they tended to lag behind.

My suggestion is run a one shot where you let them build their own characters from scratch at the game (which could take a few hours) and run them through a small town crisis unrelated to the actual campaign. This lets them get a feel for the mechanics of the game and tells you where they might need help relative to each other.

[AdamantlyD20]

Good idea. I was planning on ding something like this. So they can learnlearn the feel of how the game works. Just take one night and learn the basics. How to attack, how to use skills, how to figure out bonuses to armor class and attack rolls.

[Kazudo]

I usually recommend a sort of "prologue". Don't go into the bulk of the adventure right up front, have a "starting town" or something with some small, somewhat inconsequential thing going on. Kobolds ravaging farms or a small bandit group, maybe just killing rats or bats in someone's oddly large cellar or the suspiciously spacious sewer system below the town. Make sure that everyone's basic game mechanic is covered. Have an undead or two for the cleric/paladin, some lesser example of the Ranger's favored enemy or maybe some tracking to be done, a lock or trap or two to get the rogue covered, some good ol' combat for the fighter and monk and an opportunity for the casters to solve a few problems or be useful in combat.

Then start the main plot when the basic mechanics are down. Don't be afraid to use "light" versions of certain rules that never really come up to avoid book-diving nearly so much during the early times. Save in-depth rules and such for a bit more experienced crowd.