Advice for first-time DM?

[UristMcRandom]

First off, I'm well aware that this kind of thing has probably been asked before, but I was reluctant to use my dark thread necromancy to try to get my specific questions answered.

Basically, I'm considering making my first foray into DMing, and I wanted to ask for advice, and try to get some questions answered at the same time.

First off, should I go with a pre-published adventure, or write my own? Or would sandbox-style be the best idea?

Should I restrict my players to the core books? Should I allow some official material (the Complete X series, for instance), or what?

Similar to the first question, should I homebrew a setting, or use a pre-published one like Eberron?

And then in general, any useful tips or anecdotes that can be shared would be greatly appreciated.

[Flickerdart]

First off, should I go with a pre-published adventure, or write my own? Or would sandbox-style be the best idea?
A published adventure will be easiest, if you have access. As you get into the stride of things you'll start seeing how to modify things to work better. Pick something that isn't gimmicky - Tomb of Horrors and Ravenloft are not great first campaigns. However, you will have to learn how to improvise eventually, so it might be best to go with a published adventure as the "main quest" with a bunch of random side stuff you put together as your players run roughshod over the rails.


Should I restrict my players to the core books? Should I allow some official material (the Complete X series, for instance), or what?
This is the worst idea. Restricting books doesn't actually do anything except demonstrate to your players that you don't trust them.


Similar to the first question, should I homebrew a setting, or use a pre-published one like Eberron?
The advantages of a published setting are many - it's much easier for players to get engaged with the world when the world is fleshed out. As above, mix-and-matching an existing setting with your own ideas will work best. So feel free to rip whole cities, guilds, etc out of campaign settings, cross out the world-specific named, and slap them to fill the need you have.


And then in general, any useful tips or anecdotes that can be shared would be greatly appreciated.
The thing you want to do is make it personal. Players expect to get gold and power because that's baked into the game, so tempting them with filthy lucre is only going to go so far. But if Baron Twistmoustache brutally murders the kindly old man who's been helping them for a dozen sessions while everyone else in the city looked down upon the weird, smelly strangers...oh, there will be a reckoning.

[jjcrpntr]

First off, I'm well aware that this kind of thing has probably been asked before, but I was reluctant to use my dark thread necromancy to try to get my specific questions answered.

Basically, I'm considering making my first foray into DMing, and I wanted to ask for advice, and try to get some questions answered at the same time.

First off, should I go with a pre-published adventure, or write my own? Or would sandbox-style be the best idea?

Should I restrict my players to the core books? Should I allow some official material (the Complete X series, for instance), or what?

Similar to the first question, should I homebrew a setting, or use a pre-published one like Eberron?

And then in general, any useful tips or anecdotes that can be shared would be greatly appreciated.

It depends on how familiar or comfortable you are with things regarding pre-published or not. I'm working on my third campaign as a DM now and i've yet to use a pre-published. It hasn't always worked perfect but I've learned a lot as it's gone on.

I recommend restricting the books you allow. When I started I only allowed Core and APG (we use pathfinder), partway in I got Ultimate Combat and allowed that, then later expanded to Ultimate Magic. If you're new to DMing I think one of the worst things you can do is just let your players run crazy with the books. There are mechanical things, feats, traits, classes all kinds of stuff and not having it limited to stuff that's easier for you to grasp may get you overwhelmed.

General advice from someone who has made his fair share of mistakes:
1) Make sure you talk to your players, understand what they want, expect and make sure you understand their characters (IE if someone is playing a warblade in 3.5 make sure you know what the class is)
2) Make sure you prep properly, improve is fun but having some things planned out it helpful.
3) Make sure you control the table. Having fun and going nuts sometimes it's awesome, but sometimes things can get distracting. In my limited experience players will run you over if you let them.
4) Have fun with it and don't get too set on things. When I started I wanted a real rp heavy game, I wanted players to really get in character and stay like that. I learned very quickly that my players were far too goofy for that. They still stay in character to an extent but there frequent instances where we just crack up laughing and go off topic.

[UristMcRandom]

Thanks for the quick reply and good-looking advice. I suppose I need to start researching.

Last-minute question: Do you know of any good places to download adventure modules in .pdf form?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by UristMcRandom
First off, should I go with a pre-published adventure, or write my own?

If it's your first time as a DM, a starting module would be better, since they're designed for beginners all around.

The Sunless Citadel is a classic and a lot of fun; it's a deliberately generic scenario that can be dropped into any world. There's also a first-level module specific to Eberron, Shadows of the Last War, although I haven't played it myself.


Originally Posted by UristMcRandom
Should I restrict my players to the core books?

There's no reason why you can't. If you're just starting out, there's more than enough to keep track of in the core books alone.

Plus, it's your game. If you'd be more comfortable just starting out with core, then that's where you start. Contrary to a lot of loud opinion, you can actually have fun playing in a core-only campaign.

It's true. I've done it. Don't let people tell you otherwise.


Originally Posted by UristMcRandom
...should I homebrew a setting, or use a pre-published one like Eberron?

If you're just starting out, you don't necessarily need to decide on a setting right away. Run a first-level module, see how things develop, and take it from there. Your first-level characters aren't going to be going too far anyway (no flight, no teleporting, probably not even horses) so you'll have time to make a decision.

In terms of workload and DM hassle, using a published setting is vastly easier than creating your own. Forgotten Realms has a ton of material available, and I'd recommend Silver Marches for a great regional setting.




Originally Posted by jjcrpntr
If you're new to DMing I think one of the worst things you can do is just let your players run crazy with the books. There are mechanical things, feats, traits, classes all kinds of stuff and not having it limited to stuff that's easier for you to grasp may get you overwhelmed.

Agreed completely. There is absolutely no need to open it up to every last published 3.5 source. Keep it basic, keep it simple, get used to managing players, NPCs, the initiative sequence, the storytelling, all of that.

Then add other books if you like, but only when you feel you're ready for it. You're running the game, so it's your decision and yours alone.

[NoseFeratu]

First off, congratulations for taking on this role in your group. It's not always easy, and sometimes a bit stressful, depending on the group. Still, there's a magic to running everything behind the scenes.

In terms of pre-written adventures, I'd recommend Al Sousa and Steven Clower's Mask Campaign for a start. It's very well-written, and I think it's a good starting point. The Mask of Illusion bit near the end reminds me a bit of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In short, I think that it's perfect for a low-level party, but if they're over level 9 or so, whip out the Tomb of Horrors on them :smallamused:

[Ken Murikumo]

Always realize that your players can and will take every plot and scenario and run in a direction you had not predicted. This is natural. Dont plan things in painstaking detail, simply because it will NEVER go play by play how you plan.

On the same note, your players will come up with solutions to scenarios that you didn't think of. Let them get away with it if it's really good or they put a lot of effort into doing it. Saying "no" to everything they try will make it no fun for the players.

The players will think of 100 solutions to that one scenario you didn't even consider.

Be flexible and improvise. Reward players for creative thinking. BUT be firm in your decisions. If you say no to something for whatever DM reason you may have, stick with it.

[Flickerdart]

Last-minute question: Do you know of any good places to download adventure modules in .pdf form?
illegalwebsite.com/thisisacrime

[UristMcRandom]

illegalwebsite.com/thisisacrime

I wasn't referring to piracy, I was wondering if there was a good collection of legitimately, legally free adventures online (say, from a independent publisher). I'll assume based on your reply that there is not.

[daremetoidareyo]

I wasn't referring to piracy, I was wondering if there was a good collection of legitimately, legally free adventures online (say, from a independent publisher). I'll assume based on your reply that there is not.

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/re

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by UristMcRandom
I was wondering if there was a good collection of legitimately, legally free adventures online….

You might also look at the Vicious Venues (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/vv) section of the Wizards archive, which has a series of unrelated sites intended for single encounters, usually with one or two creatures statted out. Most of these will be much higher-level than you'll likely need, but you might look through and find a few that interest you, and then string them together into a single narrative.

Another alternative is to use one of the Paizo adventure paths for Pathfinder, since they typically start at first level. Plenty of those available as PDFs on the Paizo website, and the ones I've looked through seemed very well done.

[danzibr]

I've DM'ed a lot, and I can make a good few suggestions.

First, and unfortunately someone else will have to provide the link as my searching is limited here, there's a guide you should read on challenge rating and experience points and difficulty level.

Second, I would suggest against sandbox at the beginning. It's nice to give players options, but in the last campaign I ran with a newish group, they... well, it's hard to describe. It just didn't go well. Like they got to a town, rather than look for adventures to solve, it's like ``I drink at the tavern'' and ``I go with such-and-such to the tavern'' and ``I go pray at my temple.'' I mean, I made it work, but it wasn't what I intended.

Also, as others said, be upfront, know what people want, etc. I also encourage the point of view of it's the DM's job to make a fun environment. I'm not saying you're this way, but I've read stories and even met people who think of it as DM v. player. If something is questionable but innovative and fun, go for it.

If you want I can give more specific pointers from my experience, like speeding things up and what to avoid.

[mashlagoo1982]

I agree with just about everything other posters have stated here...

Premade adventure is definately a good idea.
Restrict books as you see fit... just be sure your reasons are good for the restriction, not simply "because I say so".
Be prepared to improvise (this is a big one).

Additional, depending on your group... consider starting the party at 3rd level. This may help to prevent some of the early unlucky PC deaths.
If you need to make any houserules, inform the players ASAP and be prepared to work on resolutions.

[Flickerdart]

Second, I would suggest against sandbox at the beginning. It's nice to give players options, but in the last campaign I ran with a newish group, they... well, it's hard to describe. It just didn't go well. Like they got to a town, rather than look for adventures to solve, it's like ``I drink at the tavern'' and ``I go with such-and-such to the tavern'' and ``I go pray at my temple.'' I mean, I made it work, but it wasn't what I intended.
They're fishing for plot hooks. A sandbox is pointless without toys, and any DM that expects PCs to take initiative so completely is doomed to disappointment nine times out of eight.

[Brendanicus]

As somebody who is well-into his first real campaign, I've gt a lot of advice.

First use a pre-published adventure, like I did. The beauty is that as the DM, you can simply add or change anything you like. This cuts down on your prep-time immensely, and lets gives you great examples of encounters and NPC's in action. You will learn to improvise as you go on.

In terms of books, I allow my players any class they want, but typically they must use core feats and spells. The exception to that rule is if a player wanted to play a class like Duskblade or Psion, which doesn't have any abilities in core. I suspect I will have to become flexible with the core-feat rule if my campaign goes on for a while; the power level with casters and martials will become too big.

Ask your players what type of adventure they want to play, particularly if you have two or three modules lined up. Don't name the modules by name, but describe their general gist, "A big, LOTR-style adventure where the party fights an army (Red Hand of Doom)" or "A massive, dungeon-crawling campaign (What my group is doing, a modified version of The World's Largest Dungeon)".

Finally, when a player inevitabily breaks your encounter/plotline/plothole, just let them. You will know better for next time, and they get the satisfaction of pulling one over on you.

The best advice I can give you is to always use your environment to enhance the game. This is hard at first, so don't sweat it for your first few sessions. Combat gets more interesting if your players need to make various skill checks to cross the white water rapids where enemy archers are, or if the innkeeper fidgets with her Amulet of Pelor when nervous.

[Zirconia]

Relating to your book question, I'd recommend allowing any books you are familiar with, the real issues don't tend to revolve around which BOOKS are allowed (plenty of broken stuff in Core) but rather different ideas on what power level people want to play at. More books usually = a higher optimization ceiling. If everyone wants a Tippy level (very high powered) campaign, or a low optimization RP-heavy campaign, things will go fine. The problem is trying to mix those in the same group.

I'd suggest having a conversation with the players to set those expectations, and make it clear that if someone is way out of line with their character compared to others in the group, you would like to work with them, ideally in advance so they don't get blindsided, to either bring them up or down enough to be able to have a fun game for everyone. Try to get an idea of planned builds, if you have players who plan in advance, so you can deal with this before they build in a path you won't allow later. If they don't plan in advance, they probably aren't min-maxers anyway. :)

This will also help you figure out which adventures are appropriate, by the way. If nobody wants to build a party face, don't have key plot points revolve around negotiating. If nobody wants to build a trap monkey, maybe keep traps to a minimum, and put things in that anybody can find (your Spot check lets you see that there are holes in the ceiling ahead. What do you do?).

[Jowgen]

One snippet of advice: always project an air of total control and keep your players on their toes.

For example, if they attack someone they really weren't supposed to, do not panic, but smile knowingly, consult some random papers or roll pointless dice as you start the encounter.

Make a point to regularly seem like you're planning something. Count player's, roll dice and look intently at the results, occasionally ask the players for a random bit of information from their character sheets (e.g. "what HP are you on?" tends to do wonders to get them slightly panicy)

The benefit of this is that the players will feel like they can not afford to slack off, which will boost their investment in the game, and may help mitigate shenanigans by making things seem immediate and make you seem fully in control of the world around.


Also, do not let your female player characters get pregnant. Ever.

[danzibr]

They're fishing for plot hooks. A sandbox is pointless without toys, and any DM that expects PCs to take initiative so completely is doomed to disappointment nine times out of eight.
They actually *had* plot hooks. There was a murder on the boat they took to the city, and they got a letter and there was some mysterious cargo, but rather than any investigating they were all like hey let's go slack off.

Also, do not let your female player characters get pregnant. Ever.
I wonder if there's a story attached to this.

[Galen]

Should I restrict my players to the core books? Should I allow some official material (the Complete X series, for instance), or what?
You should restrict to exactly the set of books you're comfortable running the game with. For example, if you don't know much about Incarnum or Psionics, it's perfectly fine to just say "no Incarnum/Psionics" and move on.

Just don't ban things "because they're broken". This is 3.5. Everything is broken.

[Flickerdart]

They actually *had* plot hooks. There was a murder on the boat they took to the city, and they got a letter and there was some mysterious cargo, but rather than any investigating they were all like hey let's go slack off.

I wonder if there's a story attached to this.
Plot hooks that they care about. Murder? yawn. Letters? Get those ten times a day. Mysterious cargo? Sounds like level 1 times. You have to reel players in with things that actually matter to them.

[UristMcRandom]

Allow me to once again say thanks for all the advice, I'm getting some good notes here.

[Firest Kathon]

I wasn't referring to piracy, I was wondering if there was a good collection of legitimately, legally free adventures online (say, from a independent publisher). I'll assume based on your reply that there is not.
Not free but very cheap, and many of good quality (pay attention to the reviews): http://paizo.com/pathfinderSocietyScenarios

[atemu1234]

Not free but very cheap, and many of good quality (pay attention to the reviews): http://paizo.com/pathfinderSocietyScenarios

However, Paizo does have free stuff. Not necessarily the hightest quality free stuff, but free stuff.

Otherwise, I'd recommend making your own. I've done it for a while, now, since I started DMing (and, that was how I learned to play).

[danzibr]

Plot hooks that they care about. Murder? yawn. Letters? Get those ten times a day. Mysterious cargo? Sounds like level 1 times. You have to reel players in with things that actually matter to them.
They were level 2 <.<

While your jabs should not be taken to heart, the last sentence should.

[Arbane]

I wonder if there's a story attached to this.

Entirely too many. I have heard dozens of horror stories about female players' characters getting molested, often ending with some variation on "...and I'm amazed I ever played RPGs again after that." Which leads me to suspect we're not hearing a LOT MORE stories that ended with "...and I never played RPGs again." :smallfurious:

[goto124]

Which leads me to suspect we're not hearing a LOT MORE stories that ended with "...and I never played RPGs again." :smallfurious:

We won't hear them in an RPG forum, I would think :smalltongue:




Like they got to a town, rather than look for adventures to solve, it's like ``I drink at the tavern'' and ``I go with such-and-such to the tavern'' and ``I go pray at my temple.'' I mean, I made it work, but it wasn't what I intended.They actually *had* plot hooks. There was a murder on the boat they took to the city, and they got a letter and there was some mysterious cargo, but rather than any investigating they were all like hey let's go slack off. Plot hooks that they care about. Murder? yawn. Letters? Get those ten times a day. Mysterious cargo? Sounds like level 1 times. You have to reel players in with things that actually matter to them.

'I drink at the tavern'
'Okay. Some time later, a drunk orc dumps into you, then screams 'WHAT DID YOU LEAVE ME FOR YOU BITCH' and starts punching you up. Roll initiative.'

...by 'things that actually matter to them', did you mean 'read the backstories written by the players and follow accordingly'?

I remember a discussion about backstories... sometimes, when the DM goes 'you receive a letter informing you that your sister has been kidnapped, and that she's being held in Druasnan Dungeon' (or some other backstory-based plot hook), I wonder if the player thinks 'Oh that's so cool, a real reason for me to do stuff!' or 'Why is the DM using my backstory against me to railroad me and follow his plot?' The latter could've been a reason for a number of orphan adventurers...

[rrwoods]

Don't restrict any books.

Now, that's not to say you shouldn't restrict anything. As a new DM, there may be subsystems you aren't familiar with that are simply too much work on top of building a world and campaign and adventure and encounters and ... ( ... life!). If you don't have the time to learn a subsystem, ban it.

This will eliminate vast majorities or certain books, sometimes. E.g. banning psionics eliminates 95% of the expanded psionics handbook. But that doesn't mean your lockdown warrior shouldn't be able to take Stand Still. It takes all of a few minutes to learn and understand what that feat does.

Yeah, you can have fun with a core only game. But why would you? Just my opinion.

[atemu1234]

Also, do not let your female player characters get pregnant. Ever.

Well, I give the players the option. Just remember it's their character, so you don't get to make the call.

Also, my best advice is roll with the punches. Don't retcon, just work it in.

[Mystral]

First off, I'm well aware that this kind of thing has probably been asked before, but I was reluctant to use my dark thread necromancy to try to get my specific questions answered.

Basically, I'm considering making my first foray into DMing, and I wanted to ask for advice, and try to get some questions answered at the same time.

First off, should I go with a pre-published adventure, or write my own? Or would sandbox-style be the best idea?

You should propably start with a pre-published adventure. Make sure that all your players are cool with the basic premise before getting it. Also make sure that none of them already know it.

When you have the DMing part down, you can start getting creative, but at the start, you will be gratefull for some training wheels.


Should I restrict my players to the core books? Should I allow some official material (the Complete X series, for instance), or what?

If you know the rules quite well, there is no real reason to restrict your players to just some parts of the material, or just core. Just ensure that they are all on roughly the same power level and their concepts are fitting to the campaign and to each other.

If you realise that there is a drastic imbalance, don't be afraid to ask for some changes, even a few sessions into the campaign. Or, just let the party build their characters together, helping each other out and planning something nice.


And then in general, any useful tips or anecdotes that can be shared would be greatly appreciated.

The main thing you have to realise is that you are going to mess up. Quite horribly. You will forget something important, or balance an encounter the right way, or anything else, really.

What you have to remember, when this happens, is that it is no big deal, the game, and life will go on. Just smile, perhaps acknowledge your mistake, and then go from there, or correct it. Just don't try to be perfect, because you won't.

[Flickerdart]

...by 'things that actually matter to them', did you mean 'read the backstories written by the players and follow accordingly'?
Somewhat. Many players will write whatever into a backstory, partially because they labour under the misapprehension that longer is the same as better. You have to look at how the player plays the character, and work from there.

With your "kidnapped sister" example, if the character never mentions the sister, then it isn't going to matter. If he has a locket with her face that he looks pensively into before the big battle, that's probably going to work out better.