Considering DMing for the first time, looking for advice

[AttilaTheGeek]

The title says it all, but I'll give some background information. I recently moved off to college, and one of the halls in my dorm has a D&D campaign! However, I can't join as a player because they already have 12 players split among two DMs who are not willing to take on any freshmen. They're still playing the 5E playtest because they don't want to spend money on the full 5E, but I'm not really fond of 5E. I've been playing Pathfinder for years, so much so that I have most of the SRD memorized, and so I thought "Hmm. They don't want to spend the money to invest in a new system? And they have more interested players than the DMs can run? I should run a Pathfinder game!"

However, I'm worried because DMing is intimidating and I don't know how to effectively prepare or run a session. I tried DMing once before, when I somehow convinced myself I could ad-lib the whole thing; that worked out very very badly and has scared me off DMing since. I'll be running a prebuilt campaign, probably Rise of the Runelords, which I also know about because I was in a RotRL group that has since dissolved. System mastery is not the issue- I know all about the system I'll be playing I'm looking for advice on what to do to prepare for a game, how to deal with players going in unexpected directions during a session, how to make players care about NPCs, and other DMing skills that I wouldn't learn from playing.

[draken50]

Okay, so first things first: Nobody starts as an amazing DM. Nobody.
So set your expectations for yourself accordingly.

So here's my first game strategy, and how I did it for my last campaign in the Earthdawn setting.
1. Determine starting level
I had brand new players, so level 1.
2. Determine what settings I want expect the players to start playing around in. Then I narrowed it to specific expectations.
Start in the dwarf city of Throal... travel to the city of Travar.
1.) Thoral (Big dwarf city).
2.)Road travel in forest to river port city
3.)River boat travel to floating city on a lake (Vistrimon)

3. Determine what plot hook/hooks I want to use.
[1. Plot hook to get players to Travar...
Let's say one of them starts the game having just damaged something in the Great Library, not having replacement cash, they send them to pick up a package from the Library in Travar.
2.The party reaches the river port, but a horror cloud overhead begins raining upon the city.
The cemetery is downhill and all dead creatures the rain reaches will rise as cadaver men.
At this point I think I have enough plot hooks for the first session

4. Create encounters.
First I determine what goals I have for my encounters, these are just things I try to keep in mind.
1. Create Excitement
2. Have new characters talk to NPCs
3. Add Mystery
4. Provide Lore.

Additionally, I like to use modular encounters. Things that don't require specific locations or actions to have occured.

Encounter A.) Grog the Ork Troubador.
Grog can be found at the end of the city, ready to walk south, on the road, or at the river port. Grog is a Troubador with little combat ability, but gets along well with people. He is wanting to travel to Cara Fahd, via Travar, but is worried about the dangers along the way. If the players decide not to take Grog along, he will follow them, and claim not to be. The players can drive Grog off with violence, but he will otherwise sulk until they reach the next town. If the players are cruel to Grog he may use his social skills to turn the town against the players. If the players allow him to join he can provide lore, and some advice, but will stay in the background. I created Grog to show the players that social actions can have consequences if they were mean, but mostly as I expected he could be used to provide lore. Not a DMPC by the way, he stuck around the background of a couple sessions to help give lore ect. and then left to get to Cara Fahd, wasn't involved in a single fight, and only got involved in the plot when directly asked to help by the players, help I hadn't anticipated them asking for.

Encounter B) The Birds.
While camped for the night during a players's watch a flock of large birds will quietly settle around the camp, and one will hop into the light, and telepathically communicate with the awake player. It will exchange greetings, and ask for a bit of food and a place by the fire. If the player(s) extend simple etiquette the bird will tell them of orc mercenaries up the road and of a path through a beast-masters domain they can safely travel to avoid them. If the players are unkind rude, or verbally hostile the bird will chastise them, but warn them of a temperamental beastmaster whose territory they should not trespass on, their directions to avoid him will naturally lead them straight into the group of orc mercenaries.
If attacked, they will bloody the pcs until one is unconscious, or until driven off. They will not kill them, but the first pc unconscious may lose an eye.
The Chakta birds are actually a written part of the setting, and I think they're a fun introduction. Their arrival is always intimidating, and they can be used to provide the characters with some expectations of future encounters.

So, I also created some basic encounters involving the risen dead, that I could use if the players fled the port city without helping, or who would come knocking not he gate seeking refuge in the night if they stuck around to help. (Dead mercs in the woods that were rained on as the cloud passed over.) I was able to add some extra mystery and lore with the birds and the horror clouds, and have plenty of opportunity for social encounters.

I played looser (didn't prep) with the orcs and the beastmaster since I didn't know which they would really encounter. They were nice to the birds and crossed the beastmasters terrain, Rather than immediately having another social encounter they were followed by a large wolf. They were tense, but fearing angering the beastmaster they didn't attack, the wolf stopped following once they left the beastmaster's territory (There were markers.)

Also remember, stuff like wolf attacks and the like are tropey, but they work, especially for a first game when people are learning their characters, and even more so with brand new players. Those players often are more comfortable starting with the kinds of things they may have seen in video games or the like.

As you run more and more games, you'll get better and better at determining what kinds of things you need to have planned beforehand and what you're good at making up as you go. A little bit of rails in the first couple sessions really helps new players, and as the game continues you can really open the options up for them. New players in a sandbox game usually feel kind of overwhelmed figuring out what they're supposed to do.

I also really like the encounter creation advice from Angry DM, BTW. Best advice I've seen on it. His advice for creating NPCs for social encounters are very good as well.

TLDR; Prep some stuff, try to make it fun. Don't stress it too much.

[Sartharina]

Pathfinder's kinda tricky since I love 5e more, but it works for low levels. Either buy an adventure path, or plop the players in a tavern, grab some monsters that look interesting, fill out a few encounters with monsters and treasure, then throw it at the players and see what sticks.

DMing is not as intimidating as it seems.

[AttilaTheGeek]

Thank you for your advice. I already have an AP in mind, Rise of the Runelords. I'm looking for suggestions that I wouldn't have learned from being a player, like how to actually prepare for a campaign or what to do when players do unexpected things.

[LibraryOgre]

As you learned, prepare. Have generic NPCs ready to go, especially opposition. If you're doing an adventure path, think of how to bring them into it.

Be willing to set limits on characters. Be willing to say "No" to characters you're not comfortable DMing, either because of power, alignment, or lack of theme (i.e. "Random Ninja syndrome"). Set guidelines.

[jedipotter]

Thank you for your advice. I already have an AP in mind, Rise of the Runelords. I'm looking for suggestions that I wouldn't have learned from being a player, like how to actually prepare for a campaign or what to do when players do unexpected things.

1. Look up everything you might need for the game before the game. Spells, feats, abilities, powers, effects, everything. You might want to make notes, book marks, PDF files or whatever works for you. In classic days I used index cards, but modern days I print everything I need right from the SRD and add whatever I might need in addition to that. Conditions is a very, very important thing to have right at your finger tips..even more in Pathfinder as lots of things give conditions.

2. Read the adventure from start to finish.

3. Plan out the most obvious adventure path. Try to go through and figure out what you might do as a player. You might want to write down a rough outline. Try to look for anything like a hole that might need to be filled in, anything a player might do that is not in the book. Fill in any gaps or holes as needed.

4. So with the Adventure, your path, the holes and gaps....try and think of anything else that might happen. Try and make some encounters, NPC's, places and such to be used if needed. You can make them generic as possible or make them modular or even make them specific. The idea is to have them ready if you might need them.

5. Railroading. This is important. It's the DM's job to keep the game on track. It sounds great to say ''I don't railroad and the players can do whatever they want'', but that just does not work so well when playing the game. And this is even more important if your following an adventure. After all, if you don't follow the adventure, then why are you even using it?

[Arkhaic]

To clarify for the OP, what Jedipotter tends to mean when they say 'Railroading' is what other people refer to as 'what you should do instead of railroading'...most of the time.

You should probably establish that you're using a premade adventure rather than ad-libbing things, so that players are more accepting of redirection.

[ElenionAncalima]

Some advice:

1. You aren't going to be able to memorize everything...and no one should be expecting you to. The trick is knowing how to get to the information you need, when you need it. How you manage this is different for every GM and may take time to perfect. Whether its using tabs to quickly navigate books, keeping notes on index cards or having d20pfsrd.com (http://d20pfsrd.com) open on your computer...find a way to make information accessible.

2. Focus on personalities, motivations and cultures, more than plot. With a prewritten AP, like Runelords, this means spending less of your prep time memorizing plot points, and more on understanding how Sandpoint works, who the important characters are and what they want. Its hard to recover if players go off script, when all you know is where they were supposed to go. However, its surprisingly easy to adjust when you can figure out how the relevant players would respond to the PCs actions.

2a. Its impossible to try an plan for everything that your PCs will do. Don't waste your time prepping this way. All this will achieve is you having to force players down certain paths, because those are the only ones you planned for. Instead, work on your improvisation skills.

3. When possible, pin little slip ups on NPCs. For example, did you stumble over your delivery of that big speech? Don't apologize as the DM. Apologize and correct yourself as the NPC. Sure, its still obvious you screwed up, but you managed to maintain immersion and not bring the game to an awkward halt. Good players will appreciate that.

4. If you are finding the combat book-keeping overwhelming, consider delegating responsibilies. For instance, you can assign a player to track initiative and another player to keep track of damage to enemies.