Mastering 5th edition for newcomers to RPGs

[LucianoAr]

I've played dnd for a while now, some 2nd ed back in high school, some 3.5 after that, and a lot of 5th lately with 2 tables, but i never got into DMing, and its starting to itch a bit so why not give it a try.

im DMing a game for people who have never played rpgs before, and im totally open to any tips you guys have on the subject.

setting is going to be undead oriented at least at first (since most of the table is a walking dead fan, i guess its safe ground to get them engaged).

maybe some way to show them a sketch of what rpgs are about? some combat, some social interaction, some exploring... anything else?

even soundtrack suggestions are welcome and would be very helpful

thanks a lot!

[Knaight]

I recommend having pre-gens. You don't necessarily need to use them, just having the example of what they look like makes things easier (and it does leave an option to use them if people want to). Beyond that, 5e is pretty straightforward - give a quick explanation of RPGs from a high concept angle (and I mean one sentence), then jump right in.

[Yorrin]

When I started my 5e campaign I was playing with all new players (we've since picked up a 3.5 veteran, but it's still a "new" table). None of them had done any roleplaying before. But I explained everything to them, helped them build characters, and then tossed them right into the thick of things. You'll probably want to start off with a bit of dialogue time with NPCs rather than tossing them right into a dungeon, and the first fight should be on the easy side just so they can get a feel for declaring attacks and movement and such, but on the whole the system is pretty easy for noobletts to learn.