I need help

[penbed400]

I belong to a gaming club at my high school and I am going to plan a campaign but the problem is that I have both new people and experienced players and I need to make a game simple enough for the new people yet difficult enough for the people who have alot of experience because it is never fun when a player gets bored with a dm's game because it ruins the fun for the dm. Any help or suggestions?

[Viscount Einstrauss]

Play to the experienced players, but help the new guys out by either cutting them slack or helping tell them how things work and suggesting courses of action early on. Work with them, getting them up to speed as quickly as possible, so that they can get into the groove. You'll be spending a lot of extra time, but the effort is worth it in the long run.

[penbed400]

I suppose but what if they get behind and I can't help them because it might cause the other players to get ideas. I can't simply take them by the shoulder and lead them away to let them know. And sometimes if I make something a little too strong they mess up and get themselves within a little more mortal danger then the common adventurer should get into. I don't think a player should lose a leg every battle because after a couple battle they can't walk anymore. Also if a new player gets frustrated it sometimes pushes them away from the game which is never a fun thing.

[Shazzbaa]

1) A really awesome story. The story will keep everyone intrigued regardless of skill-level.
2) Help the new player Out-of-Game -- help them make their characters, help them understand how their features work, etc. ...In-game, allow other players to occasionally advise them. It seems like this would happen naturally --
DM: "So you're in a room full of boxes marked 'flammable' and you want to do what?"
New Player:"...cast... fireball?"
Other Players: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
....then just give him the chance to change his mind. =P

Or you can give them things to do and allow other players to suggest things if they don't pick up on it. "Hey... don't you have a spell that does such-and-such? I bet that would help us out." "Hey! I do!" Sooner or later they'll figure out all their stuff.

I mean, seriously, the party will probably mostly be together and working together, it's not like the newbies will be completely screwed and on their own. New players can figure things out and the learning/teaching process will likely be natural as long as you're not playing some kind of power game... just keep an eye on them and make sure they're not getting frustrated.

And as I said in #1, "interesting" doesn't have to mean "mad hard." It can just mean "interesting." :3

[Darkshade]

www.planetadnd.com
has an article series with several really helpful articles on how to bring new players into the game and how to get them up to speed with experienced players.
i think the site is having a brain fart right this minute though

[Scalenex]

If you put them as part of a hierarchy of some sort. Inexperienced players will like the structure as their leaders make many of their decisions for them. Experienced players can have fun with intrigue and politicking.

[Zincorium]

A lot of it depends on what type of players the 'experienced' ones are. I know several people who played for years but never really wanted much beyond the basic framework of crawling through a dungeon, solving a few riddles and killing a few things.

If they're strongly into survival roleplaying (very high death rates, most of the game focuses on combat) it represents and an entirely different challenge than if they merely expect a great deal of complexity.

My advice? Keep things as much on the experience and less on the strict mechanics. Describe things as accurately and clearly as you can, and encourage the question of 'how do I do this?' from the newer players and the more experienced ones can answer it freely. This, from experience, works well because even if they're new to D&D, most players can easily decide what they envision their characters doing, they just need a leg up on how it translates into the game.