A new dm appears needing help

[Miffles]

Im going to be a dm soon and i was wondering if anyone could help me by giving me tips or campaign starters I appreciate all the help i can get

[willdaBEAST]

Don't over prepare. Have some notes and directions, but don't write up entire scripts between NPCs that the party has to passively listen to. Allow your players to collaborate with you and be comfortable improvising when they want to do something you don't expect.

I found using one of the campaign books (in my case Curse of Strahd) immensely helpful. I also watched the entire CoS portion of Dice, Camera, Action which was invaluable. You got to see how all the parts fit together and what kind of arcs you can give your players.

Don't bite off more than you can chew. Your players aren't going to care if all your NPCs have dramatically different voices if they all say the same thing. It's better to have a few characters that are developed and interesting than dozens of cutouts. If you aren't comfortable doing voices, focus on your descriptions. Breathe some life into the world.

Be familiar with your player's character classes, or at least make sure they are. If your'e juggling a complicated plot, voicing several villains and managing an encounter, you really don't want to have to stop and look up the rules for a player's ability or spell. I've found that making yourself available outside of the game to answer questions and go over a player's class very helpful at improving the quality of the game and increasing the pace.

[busterswd]

Allow your players to collaborate with you and be comfortable improvising when they want to do something you don't expect.

This is important. You don't want to script things out in advance; first of all, it's a lot of work for something your players are unlikely to follow, and second of all, you don't want to railroad them.

That being said, have a disposable, "default" plan you can lightly adhere to as well as quest hooks to prod them toward that plan. Also, while too much prep is possible, err on the side of prepping too much for your first couple of sessions. The less you need to rifle through books mid session, the better.

During the game, don't worry about getting everything perfectly "right". If you're not sure about a ruling, adjucate, make a note to look it up later, and move on.

And remember: your goal, and your player's goal, is to tell a story together, and to have fun doing so. They don't necessarily have to win, and you don't necessarily need to be out for blood.

[Samot079]

Another thing to consider is the Geek and Sundry and Matt Colville youtube channels, both are treasure troves of tips and tricks and Colville has a series of episodes geared toward dm's to give them advice or just ideas they may not have considered. As for my own experiences I've found that starting the campaign is the hardest for me but I've found that as long you've got a group of players that are willing to work with you the old you all meet in bar trope is still effective.

[Hooligan]

After a couple sessions you'll get a feel for how powerful each character in your party is; once you figure out which one is the most powerful, customize your encounters towards nullifying that characters contributions.

Oftentimes DM's find it helpful to create a character to play alongside the party; that way you get the fun of DMing and playing. In Addition to making the party stronger, you can use your PC to help guide them towards plot points.

Ban polymorph, misty step, conjure woodland beings, shield, lucky & sharpshooter feats, simulacrum, variant human, loremaster wizard, mystic, scimitars, and the drow race.

[Petrocorus]

Im going to be a dm soon and i was wondering if anyone could help me by giving me tips or campaign starters I appreciate all the help i can get

If you're looking for a campaign, the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the starter set is quite good and easy to dm.
The Tales from the Yawning Portal also has a few low level adventures.

[Malifice]

Im going to be a dm soon and i was wondering if anyone could help me by giving me tips or campaign starters I appreciate all the help i can get


Read the rules and understand them. I'm still shocked that many DMs dont do this.
Understand whats happening behind the curtain. Try and understand the mechanical underpinning of 5E (the 6-8 encounter adventuring day featuring 2-3 short rests default). 5E is (mechanically speaking) a resource management game. Understand that the 6-8 encounter day featuring 2-3 short rests is the balance point for classes and encounter building. Understand what an 'adventuring day' is.
Start small. Design a simple dungeon with 6-8 [medium - hard] encounters in it, preferably tied together thematically (undead horde perhaps, with a BBEG Necromancer). Design a hook to get your PCs intrested, and then put them on the clock (they need to stop a ritual by midnight or else the town will be attacked by hordes of undead).
You have a rulebook; use it. In your first session dont be afraid to pick up the rule book and check you're applying the rules correctly. Things like surprise are often screwed up by DMs.
Dont be afraid to make rulings. If in doubt, call for an appropriate skill check from the PC, with a DC of 15.
Make sure every player is engaged. Ban phones from the table if you need to. If a player hasnt spoken in a while (or another player is drowning every one out) turn to that player and ask him what he is doing. Make sure you talk to each player (and engage with them) at least once every few minutes, telling them what their character sees and asking them what they are doing in response. Listen and dont be afraid to award inspiration for good roleplaying based on those responses.
Keep the action moving. In combat, dont let the players debate. When their turn comes up, ask them what they are doing. Give them a few seconds to tell you, and if they dont their turn ends and they take the Dodge action. Keep things moving, and make combat feel hectic. When its not their turns they'll be watching the action and listenting in, planning their turns in advance to what is unforlding around them.
Be firm, but fair. Dont be afraid to say No, but always try and say Yes. Its your campaign and you're the DM. Dont let them walk all over you, but dont be a jerk either.

[Knaight]

This is my standard spiel:

Things will go wrong. Some sessions will flop, you'll lose track of the rules, you'll come up with NPCs and settings that are in retrospect pretty dumb, and in general your games won't be as good as you imagined they will be. Accept this, and realize that it's an expected part of GMing - especially for new GMs. Let it happen, make a small note when it does, and then keep that in mind for the future to try and improve. Given more practice your games will improve. Given enough practice, they'll get downright good. Your players know this, they aren't expecting perfection, and they will give you more leeway because you're new.

[BillyBobShorton]

Lotta good feedback here on the basics and general "technical/rules-y" side of running a game. I'll offer a few intangibles.

1.) Fun IS the rule. Do your best to make sure the session is fun, above all else. Laughs, comical results from bad decisions, and excessive violence usually hook a new party.

2.) Let them be co-authors of the story- small things that allow ppl to become stars in the script go a long way towards ensuring rule #1 is there and sets the tone. If players get a kill shot-ask them to describe how they slaughter the monster. If someone crits or rolls a 1-make it a memorable event. I once had a rider on a horse come out to warn my players of the danger they were in wandering in the area/open field. A strong wind howled. The horse was startled. The heroic rider made a dex save, rolled a 1. Fell off and broke his leg massively in 3 spots. Comic gold. Everyone still snickers about that moment. The little things can be BIG.

3. STORY. The players should all have enough background depth that you can at least make parts of the night especially specific to them. Could be nothing more than a barmaid's reaction at the size of the lump in a golliath's pants, or fear/nervousness when a Tiefling walks into a shop. Also can be some NPC attached to that Folk hero or criminal's past to engage the party looking for that certain PC.

4.) Contingencies. Some have mentioned it, in one form or another. Have ideas ready for when the unexpected happens. If you accidentially almost TPK the party, have some NPC help arrive. If they get too out of hand and go murder-hobo, introduce a child or maiden in need of rescue. If a barfight goes way off the rails, reel it back in with some town guard arriving.

5.) Keep the enemy interesting-monsters, even kobolds and Orcs, can be more than just piles of hit points to slaughter. Have them be strategic, colorful characters with dialogue, motives, escape plans and battle tactics.

6.) When in doubt, rule in favor of the players. Going back to rule 1-you will make mistakes. But for starters-do your best to keep everyone alive, and if the game feels too hard or strict, players will be more inclined to start cancelling. You want to reel them in. Think of it like a premier of a new restaurant. The owners are more likely to give food away until they know their customers than to treat them like sh*t and never see them again. If a tough rule or some odd situation happens, try to make it favor the players so they feel they ARE the story, rather than little ants in a colony.

7.) CURVEBALL-have some unforeseen switcheroo or betrayal happen to really pull them in. End of the night is a good time. They feel comfy, complete some quest and when they come back for a reward, they find the NPC's captured or dead and they meet some big bad or stand there with a new mystery. This helps you tell a better storyand keeps them wanting more.

Hope this and others' feedback helps. Best of luck!

[Chugger]

Create a world that has a theme and let them know what it is right off the bat. Is your world based on Diskworld? Tolkien? Is it like the one in the youtube series High Rollers? Set the table, so to speak, for the adventures to come - but don't make it so limiting that they feel stuck or forced to do one or a limited cluster of things.

If your world is centered on an event, say The Great Shattering - and there are all these shards - clear crystaline shards and black, burned out shards - and you can find them - and they can mean things or even grant powers (rarely) like magic items - and you should probably be pretty mysterious about what the shards mean and do they even have any value - give some red herrings (false leads) - but build bit by bit toward what the shards mean - like whoever finds them all and reassembles them controls the new world (which might be absurd - but if that's an "impossible goal" that has lesser and perhaps unexpected rewards along the way, it might be cool. This is just a placeholder example.

If there is a great mystery to solve in your world, think about pacing the deliver of its parts. It's got to be hard to grasp but intriguing at first - and you can't be "but it's a mystery" forever - the party must feel it's making at least some progress toward solving what it means - in other words you can't go week after week with it just being a mind-numbing impossible to fathom mystery - and then finally a year later it all gets explained in one night - that usually doesn't work - people can lose interest because they're not being rewarded enough to play. Your intro should tie into a gimmick or concept like this, if you have one.

It's fun to have low level party members bump into the occasional powerful creature. Too often and it gets stupid - but they could encounter a ghost that doesn't attack them. Instead it's doing something really really weird. And it vanishes. Maybe later they see it doing its thing yet again, only this time they observe a new detail they hadn't seen before - or maybe this time the ghost leaves a clue - a dagger encrusted with 100 year old blood - or a hangman's noose - or a necklace - or a bloody shirt. This wouldn't be the exact intro but if it's important to a story line they can choose to follow, you may want to intro it on the first adventure.

If you can give them choices. If you're no good at being spontaneous and doing improv, it's okay to write encounters and sort of guide them through - keep them on a path - if they choose to start it.

The old "you've been hit on the head and wake up in a jail cell with the other party members wdyd (what do you do)?" shtick is old hat by now (very old). But you still see it used.

A lot of times parties meet up in a caravan or on a ship or a ferry while journeying and realize they share common goals and interests - and so join up.

If you have an inn where they can find clues that might start an adventure, make the place colorful. An old sailor who will only talk to you if you buy him a "Salty Dog" - a drink made of strong ale, mead and liquefied fermented fish. But you gotta drink one with him without vomiting or he won't talk to you. The drink costs 2 sp - it's expensive - maybe more - and you gotta roll a Con 12 DC or you vomit. It's okay if you do - the next night he's still there, and he's forgotten you but remembers his old story. Once someone in the party successfully shares this hideous drink with him, he'll talk - and tell an amazing story - one that if they choose to investigate will lead to an amazing adventure (you make up the rest).

Try to make your NPCs colorful. Of course there needs to be an old retired adventurer who "took an arrow to his knee" and had to quit - or is a a heavy crossbow bolt to the knee? If you don't get the reference try something else. A little quirkiness goes a long way to make info-gathering fun. Too much weirdness is bad - players get numb to it - most NPCs need to be "normal" fantasy world inhabitants - dumb, superstitious, opinionated, and not that bright. Just make sure enough are very colorful to keep things bubbly and lively.

Set-up and pay-off is the name of the game - the main thesis - for building a great adventure. If there's a hole in the ground, and there are four goblins - and then there's some big rats - and then some kobolds - and then a chest with a poison needle trap - and then a secret door - and then some skeletons.... that is boring. Why? It's just a LIST. Exciting is the story behind the hole and the fact that a balrog or a lich or a dragon lives down there (it doesn't - it's just a legend) but also something else that's real - and there is some reason or story behind why they need to go there - to find a rare underground mushroom so an NPC in town can brew a rare curative potion to save a merchant's daughter - to find a murderer who is hiding down there and bring him to justice - something - have there be a story if possible to each adventure - and a consequence for not finishing it. And a reward for doing it well - even if that reward is only learning that the little girl is okay and the merchant has a set of chainmail to give them as a gift or w/e. If you can set things up and get them anticipating - and have little pay-offs along the way - all building to one big pay-off (kill the "boss" equivalent) - it's more rewarding and feels richer - and if there are character and NPC and story and legend details too - great. Just try to stay away from sequences of fights that feel like mere "lists". They fight the orc, and then they fight the giant badger, and then _two_ orcs, and then a zombie, and then ... zzzzzzzzz. Good luck!

[Ninja_Prawn]

I know I'm a bit late on this, but we did start a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?529534-Concise-GM-Guidelines) for answering this kind of request. The OP might want to read it, though I'm guessing most of our advice has probably already been covered here.

[Armored Walrus]

My advice is to ignore the folks that tell you to avoid railroading. It's your first friggin session, you need to expose yourself and your players to the game in stages, that means limiting some options.

Think of Skyrim. It's a huge open world RPG, you can do just about whatever you want, own property in every town, engage with different factions, become a vampire... But for the first ten minutes of the game you don't even control your character, and once you do, there is literally only one way you can go. Then you reach the first decision point, and no matter which decision you make you end up in the same place - the enemies are just wearing different colors.

This is about how your first session should be, so you can get your feet under you. Tell the players ahead of time that you have some ideas laid out, and this is the game you're playing tonight. If they want to go have free form storytelling adventures, then they need to find a more experienced DM, or one of them needs to volunteer to DM instead of you.

Have them all meet in a tavern, have the bartender mention that the town has a goblin problem, if someone, anyone, could take care of this problem they would be heroes, and by the way there's a reward, and probably some treasure. Oh, hey, you adventurers, this is probably right up your alley.

They head to the goblin hideout, there's one room with two or three goblins in it, then a room with a couple skeletons, maybe a trap, then a last room with another 3 or 4 goblins, maybe one of them has a wand of magic missile with only one charge left in it.

Bam, first session complete, and you have drawn your players in. Now, after the session, sit down and think about why those goblins were near that town. Did something drive them out of their original home? Is there something valuable in town they were hoping to steal? This will give you your hooks for your next session. And begin your next session with that information. Don't worry so damn much about "railroading." Most players are dumbfounded if you just throw a completely open world at them and say "what do you do?"

Once they're more comfortable, they'll take the reins of the story naturally, and you'll be comfortable enough to roll with it.

Is my example pretty standard stuff? Yeah. Have you run that adventure before? No. And if you're players are new, they haven't played it before either, so don't worry about it. Just go have fun.

Edit: Okay, if you're really worried about being cliche, put the tavern on the edge of a swamp, use bullywugs instead of goblins, throw a constrictor snake submerged in a mud hole instead of a trap, and proceed with a swamp theme from there on out.

Edit2: I would consider your entire first campaign a tutorial. You might be able to hold it together up to level 5 or 6, maybe a bit longer, and then you'll start to realize you've introduced all sorts of plot inconsistencies, or the party will start to fall apart because you didn't have a premise when you started the game, so the players just made random characters. It's ok. You can end this campaign, and prepare a new one. One where you take all of the more advanced advice and apply it. You'll have had time by then to get more familiar with how to run a campaign, what kinds of things your players like to engage with, how to balance combat, how the rules work, how to bury the rails or get rid of them. You'll also have a solid experience of mistakes you've made that you want to avoid this time. My first campaign was one session. We were all 14. I thought since it was called Dungeons and Dragons, that I needed a dungeon, and a dragon. For level 1 characters. Needless to say that session ended with a party wipeout, but we all had fun, and we all came back for more. For nearly 30 years now.

Edit3: This recently revived thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?425679-Army-of-the-Damned-Free-lvl-1-5-adventure-set-in-Magic-the-Gathering-s-Innistrad/page3) contains links to a completely free campaign that will take characters from levels 1-5, with references to a free setting resource, and a lot of handholding for the DM in the module. If you want to really impress your players and not spend days of prep, only to ultimately end up with a campaign that's an utter mess anyway, try running this for them.

[Demonslayer666]

After a couple sessions you'll get a feel for how powerful each character in your party is; once you figure out which one is the most powerful, customize your encounters towards nullifying that characters contributions.

Oftentimes DM's find it helpful to create a character to play alongside the party; that way you get the fun of DMing and playing. In Addition to making the party stronger, you can use your PC to help guide them towards plot points.

Ban polymorph, misty step, conjure woodland beings, shield, lucky & sharpshooter feats, simulacrum, variant human, loremaster wizard, mystic, scimitars, and the drow race.

I disagree with all of this for a new DM.

Shutting down a character is not fun for for that player. Once in a while, yes, but don't do it frequently.

DMPCs are generally frowned upon and other players can easily grow to resent that character. It can be done correctly, but they need to be in the background. Don't spotlight them.

Before you ban anything, play by the rules first. Once you get a good feel for them, then you can start tweaking the rules.

My advice to you is start simple. Give them something to go do, and have them fight some goblins. Don't over plan. Create a few interesting NPCs and have them give out quests/jobs for the players.

I've found very useful tools at https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/.

[Armored Walrus]

I disagree with all of this for a new DM.

I had assumed the post you quoted was sarcasm.




I really hope it was...

[GlenSmash!]

Like others have said my advice is to start small. Here is my favorite starter adventure:

https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/DDEX31_HarriedHillsfar.pdf

It was released for free by WotC. It's basically 5 mini adventures that can be run in any order so your party has some freedom to move around. For me it took two nights to get through the whole thing, but it could potentially be done in one session. It has a variety of simple but fun encounters, and some good instructions on how players can use there skills to gain an advantage in those encounters.

[Hooligan]

I disagree with all of this for a new DM.

Sorry but one of the most underrated and important parts of being a DM is showing the players that the DM is in control.

A DMPC is an ideal weapon in the DM's armamentarium to achieving this subtly. Plus DMing takes a lot of work & time, playing alongside the characters is a great way to defray potential burnout from laboring behind the screen. Personally I recommend picking something you think will be very fun, for example model your PC after your favorite fantasy character.

While I understand your reasoning about this next point, it is important to minimize gamebreaking elements from your table as a novice dm, until you get a better feel for how to adjust the difficulty of your game on the fly. Simulacrum, polymorph, CWB all can break a game.

Finally, another important DM skill is to make all players (and their characters) feel important, which can be difficult when 1 or 2 players are hogging all the spotlight. I dont advocate "shutting a character down", rather tailor your encounters towards putting the kibosh on the group munchkin's shenanigans.

[Malifice]

Sorry but one of the most underrated and important parts of being a DM is showing the players that the DM is in control.

A DMPC is an ideal weapon in the DM's armamentarium to achieving this subtly. Plus DMing takes a lot of work & time, playing alongside the characters is a great way to defray potential burnout from laboring behind the screen. Personally I recommend picking something you think will be very fun, for example model your PC after your favorite fantasy character.

While I understand your reasoning about this next point, it is important to minimize gamebreaking elements from your table as a novice dm, until you get a better feel for how to adjust the difficulty of your game on the fly. Simulacrum, polymorph, CWB all can break a game.

Finally, another important DM skill is to make all players (and their characters) feel important, which can be difficult when 1 or 2 players are hogging all the spotlight. I dont advocate "shutting a character down", rather tailor your encounters towards putting the kibosh on the group munchkin's shenanigans.

lol.

Nice try. Subtle; real subtle.

[Hooligan]

lol.

Nice try. Subtle; real subtle.

Do you deny that scimitars and the drow race are potentially game breaking? I've seen multiple games in which a player ruined a group by playing the drow race & duel-wielding scimitars.

[Malifice]

Do you deny that scimitars and the drow race are potentially game breaking? I've seen multiple games in which a player ruined a group by playing the drow race & duel-wielding scimitars.

Dude, cut it out.

The OP cant tell you're being sarcastic! He's new. Youre telling him to make mistakes.

We get it mate, but a Newb DM might think you're being serious.

[Hooligan]

Ok I've had my fun.

People have made a ton of great suggestions regarding philosophy.

I'll just provide a couple more resources:
http://theangrygm.com/ Really one of the better places to go for analysis of DMing

http://www.critjuice.com/podcasts/
In addition to being wildly entertaining, the DM David crennen is an incredible example of the 5 pillars of excellent DMing, storytelling, encounter design, character voicing, game mechanics, and running a table. If you learn by imitation, listen to those episodes.

2 more things, DMing is work, hard work. And please do not make DMPCs.

[Finieous]

Here's my advice. It basically boils down to "make a simple dungeon." These are magical inventions that have been making DMs' lives easier for 40 years. Use 'em.

1. Go here and grab a dungeon map that looks cool: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/

2. Stock it with some monsters that look cool. Use the simple encounter-building rules here: http://slyflourish.com/5e_encounter_building.html

3. Stock with appropriate treasure. Go here for a random generator: http://donjon.bin.sh/5e/random/#type=treasure;cr=0;loot_type=Individual Treasure

4. Let the players do the rest.

5. Think about (and discuss) what was cool and what wasn't after the game. Build from there.

[furby076]

If you prepared a dungeon crawl, but your players want to stay in the woods. Dont fret, reuse your dungeon creatures in the woods. Just make sure to refluff the gelatinous cube to something else (clear tree ooze)

[furby076]

After a couple sessions you'll get a feel for how powerful each character in your party is; once you figure out which one is the most powerful, customize your encounters towards nullifying that characters contributions. .

How do you mean this?if you mean make critters that somehow know the weakness of one or more players....then unless its a recurring character, or the players have a rep and people know them (typically higher level), this is a no no.

Making enemies who know how to nullify, without some good reason, is DM cheating. Right up there with players whipping out the phb and reading the DM notes while he/she is in the bathroom

[RedMage125]

An Excellent Bullested list



Great spiel



Another great list


My advice is to ignore the folks that tell you to avoid railroading. It's your first friggin session, you need to expose yourself and your players to the game in stages, that means limiting some options.

All these posters used Great Advice. It's Super Effective! Sorry, couldn't resist, after seeing the thread title.

Seriously, Miffles, I have been DMing for over 18 years now, and the advice these guys have given you is so good, that you should read each of their posts a second time.

And please, PLEASE understand that everything Hooligan said was in jest.

I also have a tidbit of advice in my sig.