New DM- Help or Tips.

[Envoy]

I’ve been set to be the DM of a brand new group, and I am personally new to DMing. This leads to my question- do any of you have tips or tricks to help out a brand new DM?

[Lunali]

Start with a pre-made adventure, don't try to change the rules until you've seen them working as they're written, remember that both you and the players are there for the same reason, not opposing reasons.

[Yunru]

Start with a pre-made adventure, don't try to change the rules until you've seen them working as they're written, remember that both you and the players are there for the same reason, not opposing reasons.

On top of that, read the adventure several times, try and memorise the plot lines.
Not, mind you, so that you can rigidly adhere to them, but so you know how your player's choices change things and how to gently guide them back on track if they accidentally wander.

[stoutstien]

I’ve been set to be the DM of a brand new group, and I am personally new to DMing. This leads to my question- do any of you have tips or tricks to help out a brand new DM?

Lots of good ideas already on here but one I see missed alot is keep the "I really messed that up guys. Let's go back and try that again." Button as an option. There are a ton of little interactions that can be unintentional so don't sweat messing up.

I'd run all pregen characters also so you can focus on less and run a better game

[Laserlight]

Start off with a published adventure, such as Lost Mines of Phandelver. You might want to give the PCs extra hit points (say, +6) just as a cushion against bad luck at Level 1, then revert to normal HP at L2 or 3.

A lot of writers just give you a static room and monster statblocks and that makes for a boring fight. When a DM tells me "You're on a flat road, with a field on either side" and there's no cover or concealment or movement effects, I'm really tempted to ask him why he's just phoning it in.
Figure out ways to make the battlefield more interesting. Can you use something to interrupt line of sight in a few places? Might be a horse and wagon moving across the area, or hanging tapestries, early morning mist, old webs, a swirl of snow or rain for a moment. Can you hamper movement? A muddy section of street, a crowd of bystanders, a broken amphora has spilled oil over half the steps, loose rubble, patches of ice. Are there any hazards? Tip-able bookcase or statue, thornbush that might act as a Grapple, fire pit, racks of skulls that give either side a ghostly attack if someone gets too close.

Decide what each type of monster is going to do when it looks like they're losing. Take a hostage, flee, fighting retreat to delay the PCs, surrender, switch sides, activate some emergency plan (such as collapsing the cavern, using a smoke bomb).

For monsters that have a lot of HP, I use 5HP increments. Say the monster has 58HP, I put it on the statblock as OOOOO OOOOO OO (twelve increments) and then instead of counting off "13+6+2+5" I'd mark off 3+1+0+1 bubbles, which is close enough and a lot faster.

[Bjarkmundur]

In each given scene in an adventure, write up where all the NPCs are and what they are doing. This gives you a nice overview of the dungeon and what's happening inside it.

Describe. Everything. Let the story make sense.
Make a consistent world, so that your players can learn how it works and start using it to their advantage in a couple of levels. Once you have established a baseline (the norm) you can start messing with it in a star-trek kinda style.

[Composer99]

Tips for ability checks:

Three questions to answer in order to decide whether or not to call for an ability check:
(1) Do the rules already give the PCs the ability to do the thing without a check (such as most climbing or swimming)?
(2) Is there genuine uncertainty over whether the PCs can do the thing or not?
(3) Is there an interesting consequence for failing, such as being surprised, not getting bonus loot, getting caught sneaking or stealing, etc?

Generally, you call for a check if your answers are (1) no, (2) yes, and (3) yes. Otherwise, don't bother - just have them succeed or fail automatically.

Most published adventures usually already have checks and DCs built in, but you can use those guidelines for when you have to improvise.

Ability check DCs between 10 and 15 are your friends, especially at low levels.

Finally, when improvising content or making up your own encounters or adventures, don't make the PCs' progress hinge on a single pass/fail check. It's okay for PCs to fail checks, and for PCs to perish, but you usually want to avoid the situation where you're twenty minutes in and the game ends because someone didn't spot the trap that collapses the ceiling, or because they failed to get the Plot Information of Ultimate Significance from the NPC of Great Exposition, unless everyone's into playing those kinds of games. (If they are, then go nuts if you like.)

[Yunru]

Have your players say what they want to do and how, if the outcome's uncertain, resolve the outcome, then have said players narrate what their character does.

The underlined bit is something I see surprisingly unfrequently.

[Demonslayer666]

Have fun. Try to avoid looking up rules too frequently. Make ruling calls, and keep the game flowing, go with the flow.

Prepare just enough for the session, a few encounters, a few notable NPCs, but be flexible. The party may not go in the direction you think they will.

Reward the players with some risk.

Keep the game on track, jokes and stories are great, but keep them short by returning focus to the game.

[Jophiel]

On top of that, read the adventure several times, try and memorise the plot lines.
Not, mind you, so that you can rigidly adhere to them, but so you know how your player's choices change things and how to gently guide them back on track if they accidentally wander.
Also because some adventures aren't the best written/edited and it gives you a chance to discover any trip-up moments before being in a game and someone asks "Wait, if there's been torrential storms nonstop for days, how are the armies traveling in a dry riverbed?"

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I’ve been set to be the DM of a brand new group, and I am personally new to DMing. This leads to my question- do any of you have tips or tricks to help out a brand new DM?

Read the rules.

I don't know how many DMs don't know half the rules and either wing it to a large degree or have a player be their "rules guy".

As a player, that's annoying as all hades.

If you have to wing somethingz research it later to make sure you can get it right with confidence later. Relying on "well, it's my game, tough" is a sure fire way to get people to stop enjoying the game. The rules are there for a reason and players expect to be using them.

Rule of Cool is something you should look into. If a player does something cool, give them inspiration or lower the DC. You want people having fun and trying things.

Speaking of DCs... Read the PHB/DMG and don't give stuoid high DC.

Read up on falling forward. Will def keep your game from stalling.

[SirGraystone]

If you have to wing somethingz research it later to make sure you can get it right with confidence later. Relying on "well, it's my game, tough" is a sure fire way to get people to stop enjoying the game. The rules are there for a reason and players expect to be using them.

I have been DMing for a long time, and still it happen to me to forget a rule, the way I handle it if I can't find it quickly in the books, is to tell the players "I'm ruling on this like this for now and i'll look it up later", and not waste too much time with "rule lawyer" specially in the middle of battle, do your best to keep the game going.

On other tips, no matter how much your prepare and plan, thing will go off tracks. Players will decide that saving the princess is not worth risking their lives against a dragon, or climb the outside of a wizard's tower and explore from the top facing the end villain right away. Don't panic, you'll learn to improvise with time.

On creating content, each time you create an NPC or a location, create a secret that come with it. The innkeeper is a reformed cultist, the church is build over a closed portal to the abyss, or the blacksmith is in love with the church priestess. Lots of those informations you'll probably never use, but they can be hook or hint to the players. Say cultists secretly take over that church to open the portal, the innkeeper become a source of information on the cult, the blacksmith may give a discount or free weapon to check the church because he's worried that the Priestess has changed lately.

And always remember to have fun