Recommendations for beginners?

[Gollum234]

Hi everyone.
Me and my friends are beginners we tried the Pathfinder starter adventure (I was the dm) and the adventure was horrible. I wasn't really sure at the time how to respond to ideas and options that wasn't written in the adventure, the game was mostly roll playing game and not role playing game it was really technical especially in battles no story. One Player(who won't play with us anymore cause he doesn't want to try again) was stealing from other players and cheating on them. The players sometimes felt that I am against them when a bad scenario happened. Etc etc (really bad adventure...).
I was hopping to learn to be better Dungeon Master and give the players and me a good experience of the game.
Does anyone have any Tips or guides for dm?
If it helps both of my friends are into anime. They are competitive but love to co-op. One of them really love playing BY THE BOOK but thinks outside the box I think he would enjoy the exploring part of the game, the other one really love op characters and epic battles and also good stories.
Also a system and an adventure that is suitable for beginners would also be really helpful.
Ty in advance

Edit: BTW the adventure was supper long in real life time we wish the game was more flow

[Rhedyn]

Savage Worlds with Saga of the Goblin Horde.

The system is crunchy enough that your by the book player will like it, but flexible enough so that you and the other players won't be bogged down in crunch.

The adventure is about Goblins fighting off an invasion from the stupid, ugly, evil humans.

Spoiler

Show

The AP ends in a giant mech vs Kaiju fight

Saga is a very well done, free AP.

[Pippa the Pixie]

Does not sound so bad for a first game.....

1. The key to using an Adventure is getting the player buy in. We will play the game and go on this adventure. You really don't want to ''improv the players whims" as a beginer(or ever, really).

2.A published adventure is often generic....so as a DM you will need to alter it a bit to your personal group. For example, if you have greedy players...then adding gold and loot can do wonders. The players won't do anything normal...but toss in a goblin with a big bag of gold and the greedy players will chase him like crazy.

3.You should stop any negative activity at the table as soon as it happens. A big part of being a DM is being a baby sitter to the players. Get used to it.

4.The players should not ''feel" you are against them....but that is there problem. A DM should be Neutral.

[Themrys]

One Player(who won't play with us anymore cause he doesn't want to try again) was stealing from other players and cheating on them.

Seems that problem solved itself, but for the future: That kind of behaviour, I recommend you just don't allow. Just tell the player that you don't do player versus player, end of debate.

IF everyone wants to play like this, and when you are more experienced, you can allow it, but for a beginner ... seriously, just don't let them. Too much potential for real life aggressions.
Rule of thumb: Anything that causes real life emotional problems to anyone, you have to handle outside the game. Don't be reluctant to kick someone out of the group if he prevents the others from having fun. (One of the worst mistakes is to keep annoying people in the group because you want to be "nice" and "tolerant" or whatever. I was there myself.)

The point of playing a game is to have fun. Important to keep this in mind.

Sounds like the adventure you played wasn't good, if that many bad situations happened.

Keep in mind: The adventure is just a suggestion. If the monster in there is so strong it would kill the whole party, you can make it weaker. Hell, you can even outright "cheat" to prevent horrible situations. Again: You play this game to have fun. If changing the rules makes it more fun for everyone, you can change the rules. (Don't make the mistake of making things too easy, though. People enjoy a challenge.)

As a beginner, you will probably often feel a need to railroad because you have no idea what to do if a player doesn't follow the plot you have. Don't punish them for going off the rail. If necessary, just be honest about it. People will forgive you if you tell them "please don't go into the forest, I have no idea how to deal with that" but not if you try bull**** like "your character doesn't want to go into the forest". (Well, the kind of people I play with, anyway. I don't know how toxic masculinity might influence things ... I suppose there could be dudes who view honesty as weakness ... but normal, reasonable people appreciate being told the truth.)

[Wuzza]

If necessary, just be honest about it. People will forgive you if you tell them "please don't go into the forest, I have no idea how to deal with that" but not if you try bull**** like "your character doesn't want to go into the forest".

This.

First time DM'ing is scary, and you have so much more expectations on you than the players do.

I cant comment on the best system for you as I have little experience out of DnD, but Shadowrun would seem fairly suited to an anime setting.

To start, keep it small, keep it focused. If that means your adventure is railroady, then so be it.

[King of Nowhere]

what was said before is very good advice.

I will add that roleplaying has to come from the players, you can't really do much about it.

I started a few people on the game several years ago, now one of them became a good roleplayer and developed good personalities (he still has all his characters share most of his personality, but only the masters can go above that limitation). another has nice fun ideas at the table, but didn't develop any particular personality. two more are very passive and never developed any kind of roleplaying. having goood teammates helps, but ultimately it's the player who has to figure out the character.

[Wuzza]

One thing to add.

If you have players that like a certain type of playstyle, try to accommodate that in the game.
Player A likes to explore, have an exploration section.
Player B likes combat, make sure you have a couple of combats per session.
Etc etc.

[redwizard007]

Practice practice, practice.

Seriously, the best thing you can do is play as often as possible. Sessions with any number of players. Mock sessions where you run DMPCs (this should be the only time you ever use DMPCs.) Sessions with a single player. Arena "what if" combats between monsters. Player vs. player death matches. Literally anything. Your goal here is to get comfortable with the rules, making rulings on the fly (or finding a way to reference the books quickly,) and learning what classes and monsters are capable of. Once you understand those basics, running a game gets much easier.

[Zakhara]

Situations like yours are how "Session Zero" has come into common parlance.

Set expectations clearly. I make it very apparent, as an OD&D referee, that I am an arbiter, not an adversary. Sometimes, bad things will happen to players, especially if precipitated by bad decisions. Sometimes everyone's gotta hold an L.

As for nuisance players causing trouble, speak with them clearly and unambiguously; being a wad at the table is fun for nobody but themselves, and this style of game is a group effort. Everyone contributes, both to their own and the table's enjoyment, and dragging people down--or worse, relishing in cutting down the suspension of disbelief--is something you must address and explain will not be tolerated.

As for "flow," my best recommendation is experience. More practice will make 'preparing to improvise' more natural, and more experience will guide you towards systems which you're happier with.

As has been stated elsewhere, these sorts of games are axiomatical, in that you get out what you put into them. So long as everyone's on the same page, this becomes much easier.