First Time DM Help

[Nevereatcars]

I'm about to DM for between three and five characters in a homebrewed setting not of my own devising, in 5E. I know how to play. I don't know how to DM. Help me?

This would be more specific if I had an idea of what specifically to ask about.

[Firest Kathon]

You mentioned playing in a home-brewed setting that is not your own. I assume that it has been created by one of your players. You should make sure that he understands that you are the GM now, and that you have the final word on what happens and does not happen in the setting. Otherwise you may have unpleasant discussions in the game if you e.g. have King Morlox III being an evil ruler, when he imagined him has a good monarch.

[Nevereatcars]

The setting is something our old DM put together. He's gone off to college now.

[Composer99]

I think there are a few pieces of advice I can provide. They are limited in scope compared to what I should prefer to write, but I alas don't have all day.

First: As the GM/DM, you're "in charge". One of the duties of DM is to be the referee of the rules. Now, rules disputes between players hopefully aren't a big thing, but you're the person mediating the players' experience of the rules, the setting, and each individual scene. It's a pretty weighty responsibility, and should have the authority to go with it. While you shouldn't "power trip" or go all Cartman on your players, at least during a game session your rulings are final for the sake of moving play forward, though I would suggest that you keep an open door for revising rulings in between sessions.

Second: What you're in charge of is making sure that everyone, including yourself, has a good time in each play session. You should probably solicit feedback from your players after each session, especially during these early days, about how much they enjoyed themselves. Since humans aren't necessarily the best at introspection, you should also keep an eye on your players during the session: are they engaged with the action? No player will be universally engaged all session every session, but the more your players are obviously paying attention and getting into things emotionally, the more fun they're having. Also, make sure you're having fun, and don't be afraid to ask the players for help. Just because you're the DM doesn't mean it's not a game for you, too.

Third: Don't be afraid to take adventures, especially older D&D or third-party OGL/"D&D" material, re-fluff it to fit your setting, and run them; that takes some of the workload off your back until you're more comfortable. While your own encounters/adventures in your own organic setting are the aspiration for any "career" DM, early on you probably want to focus on building your skills in-session, rather than back-end world-building (which hopefully per your comments is mostly done for you) or adventure-building.

Fourth: System mastery is key; fortunately at this stage in 5e it's not too hard with only 2 core rulebooks out. Just as a conductor of a musical ensemble pretty much needs to know every individual part (in some respects better than the part's own player/singer) and how they all fit together into a cohesive whole, a DM has to know the rules (if possible, better than the players do) and how they fit together. Fortunately, reading the rules and reading these and other fora should help in this regard.

[Nevereatcars]

Thank you for your advice. I've got a first session pretty well developed, and I have a better idea of what I still need to know. How do people deal with improvising at the table, especially dialogue? What tips are there to keep the session on track without obvious railroading, and what should I do if the session becomes completely derailed? As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

[Firest Kathon]

What tips are there to keep the session on track without obvious railroading, and what should I do if the session becomes completely derailed?

Just tell your players upfront that it's the first time for you, and that you would like to keep to your planned scenario for the first few sessions, and that they should please keep on track.

As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

For the battlemat, I simply printed the grid on A4 papers (roughly letter format, if you are in the US) and laminated the sheets. I combine multiple sheets for larger battlemaps, and you can draw on them with erasable marker (e.g. whiteboard markers). Dice or other tokens will do most of the time. Replace expensive miniatures with good descriptions (or pretty pictures) and let your players' imagination do the rest.

[Nagash]

Thank you for your advice. I've got a first session pretty well developed, and I have a better idea of what I still need to know. How do people deal with improvising at the table, especially dialogue? What tips are there to keep the session on track without obvious railroading, and what should I do if the session becomes completely derailed? As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

Improvising?

Ask the players lots of questions, leave lots of open ended options and roll with whatever they choose to follow. The clues and rumors they choose to follow are the ones they find most interesting. So go with them.

Keeping it on track without a railroad?
Dont have a railroad. Dont build tight, highly defined adventures dependent on players following certain hooks. Build interesting ideas, and then imagine just what the bad guy is doing and how. The players will find a way to stumble onto these plots. No PC ever hit town without checking the local bounty board and asking the bartender whats up in town. They will find your hooks. Dont worry about that.

Dialogue?
Be goofy and extreme. Do accents, they dont have to be right. Its a fantasy land. There is no wrong accent. There are only inspirations and how close you are to them. Play your NPC's dialogue out. Make it fun. If you do it your players are more likely to do it. And there is no wrong way to do it, so whatever you do is okay. Know that and roll with it.

Session derailed?
No such thing. If the players get off on a tangent then that tangent was more interesting. Make it the adventure. Dont force it into your pre-planned adventure, just roll with it and make a new one. The players will love it. It shows they have freedom to explore the world. Not just your adventure.

battlemat?
Use graph paper and coins. Players are quarters and enemies are everything else. Heads up is alive and tails up is dead. graph paper is cheap and so are crayons. You could also laminate it and use markers. Or just not use one at all. They really dont ad anything to the game in my experience except hassle and slowdown.

[Nobot]

Improvising?

Ask the players lots of questions, leave lots of open ended options and roll with whatever they choose to follow. The clues and rumors they choose to follow are the ones they find most interesting. So go with them.

Keeping it on track without a railroad?
Dont have a railroad. Dont build tight, highly defined adventures dependent on players following certain hooks. Build interesting ideas, and then imagine just what the bad guy is doing and how. The players will find a way to stumble onto these plots. No PC ever hit town without checking the local bounty board and asking the bartender whats up in town. They will find your hooks. Dont worry about that.

Dialogue?
Be goofy and extreme. Do accents, they dont have to be right. Its a fantasy land. There is no wrong accent. There are only inspirations and how close you are to them. Play your NPC's dialogue out. Make it fun. If you do it your players are more likely to do it. And there is no wrong way to do it, so whatever you do is okay. Know that and roll with it.

Session derailed?
No such thing. If the players get off on a tangent then that tangent was more interesting. Make it the adventure. Dont force it into your pre-planned adventure, just roll with it and make a new one. The players will love it. It shows they have freedom to explore the world. Not just your adventure.

battlemat?
Use graph paper and coins. Players are quarters and enemies are everything else. Heads up is alive and tails up is dead. graph paper is cheap and so are crayons. You could also laminate it and use markers. Or just not use one at all. They really dont ad anything to the game in my experience except hassle and slowdown.

No offense, Nagash, but this is a pretty personalised style... It doesn't work for everyone to a) not railroad; b) voice act; or c) roll with everything.

To a new game master I would advise making your first session pretty standard. Have a map , a dungeon and a motive; most adventurers are driven by cash (especially in the first few sessions) so a promise of wealth can easily lure them into your dungeon.

As for improvised dialogue, you are the DM: you determine what NPC's say. If you have nothing to say, then the NPC doesn't either. Not everyone offers quest or plot hooks. Only the NPC's that you want to.

As time progresses and you get more experience, you might grow more into Nagash' model, or you become the Railroading King of Twenty-nine Level Dungeons Drawn out on Graph Paper up to and including Latrines and a Realistic Systems for Heating, Transportation, and a Multi-Leveled Daycare Centre for Monster Children and/or Eggs.

It's all fine; to each his own style. Just don't be afraid of critique and/or players quitting your campaign if your styles don't match.

[Anonymouswizard]

How do people deal with improvising at the table, especially dialogue?

I can't really help here, except that most players won't notice poor dialogue, so don't be afraid to say anything.

What tips are there to keep the session on track without obvious railroading, and what should I do if the session becomes completely derailed?

Cheat. My notes never say where a scene takes place, and there's never nothing to be salvaged from a plot. Although here in Britain the contract is "you see the plot and make up a reason.

As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

Don't. I'm my experience they just add more fiddly bits and get in the way of dice.

[Vitruviansquid]

When you're starting off as a DM, you want to keep things nice and simple.

Railroad your players if it's easier for you. Don't impose any house rules on your game until you recognize a need for it, and try to make as few house rules as possible. Don't use any homebrew at all. Only after you feel like you've gotten a fairly good grasp of the game as written should you start experimenting.

[Composer99]

Thank you for your advice. I've got a first session pretty well developed, and I have a better idea of what I still need to know. How do people deal with improvising at the table, especially dialogue?

When I DMed regularly I winged almost everything, which I would not do again if and when I start DMing again. (Then again, I mostly DMed, or I suppose GMed, Star Wars RPGs of some edition or another, so maybe it was easier to wing it than with D&D/PF.)

If you want at least a little prep for dialogue, write down with a one-sentence "way" your key NPCs in each scene, encounter, or adventure say or do things (e.g. "Burt the human innkeeper is gruff and curt", "Sandrille the elven alderwoman likes overdone, flowery language") and then build off that when speaking to the PCs in character.

If you are looking at improvising in response to players wanting to follow tangents, as others have noted make sure "mission-critical" encounters can be moved as required. If the adventure is supposed to be in City A and the PCs want to go to City B, make sure there are hooks in City B and just set the adventure there instead.

What tips are there to keep the session on track without obvious railroading, and what should I do if the session becomes completely derailed?

Since you're new, I think you can ask the players not to go overboard in this respect. Playing a fairly "scripted" adventure can be fun, especially if you're playing for light recreation. For example, I'm playing right now in a Pathfinder Adventure Path, and we may be riding with the Published Adventure Railroad & Co., but we're having fun doing it.

However, an easy way to keep players "on track" without railroading is by crafting encounters and adventures that tie into the PC backstories or allow them the opportunity to fulfill their ambitions. You can leave hooks for other adventures or encounters you want to run (or that, as Big Damn Heroes, the PCs should sort out for the sake of Saving The Day/Getting All Teh Lootz) because you're still playing the game and you get to have fun, too.

As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

It should be feasible to do without entirely in D&D 5e. I wouldn't, myself, but you could give it a go for a session and see whether you like it.

If you want a battlemat on the cheap, get a pad of graph paper, draw in 1 inch by 1 inch squares with pen on a few sheets, glue them together (with, say, a glue stick) and laminate them. You can draw on it with dry erase marker. (Or, as someone's already mentioned, laminate individual sheets and combine them for size.)

Then use cut-up pieces of cardstock (from, say, cue cards) for features. If you have any game pieces from, say, fantasy board games that can be used for PCs, NPCs, and monsters, use those. Otherwise use cut up cardstock for those, too. Sure, it would just have "goblin", "goblin", and "goblin shaman" written on it, but whatever.

If you have a few bucks to throw around, or can reasonably expect to receive them for Christmas if you ask, the D&D 4e Monster Vaults or Pathfinder Bestiary Box & NPC Box all have a pile of counters & stand-up pawns you can use.

[Firest Kathon]

As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

I just remembered, flip-chart paper has a 1-inch grid already printed. I've used it to make maps, but if you don't laminate it you obviously cannot draw on it (or rather, you can draw on it but you cannot erase it).

[Seto]

This remarkable thread by AKA-Bait could help you.

[Ettina]

As a guy on a budget, what should I do for a battlemat and miniatures?

We bought a selection of tokens and use random tokens that vaguely resemble the characters (my tibbit character is usually represented by a wererat token because it has humanoid and animal forms on opposite sides) and either use a random battlemat or draw our own on a piece of paper. Very low-cost.

[Totema]

The only truly important thing you need to do is make sure everyone has a good time.

[draken50]

Personally I think AngryDM has a lot of really really useful advice.

Beyond that, know you're going to suck. Set expectations accordingly. Most GM's when they start out, seem to try to live up to another. Don't bother. Figure out what you're good at, try to have fun with it, and work to have your players have fun too.

i.e. If the DM you played with was good at world building and making super believable NPCs, but you're good at running action scenes. Rely on the latter, while you work on the former. So figure out what you're good at, and use it more, while you work on the other stuff.