I'm going to begin to DM seriously. Any advice?

[Zarrgon]

I am thinking to use "The Goose" .

You do want to do this, but not this specifically. To have a weird animal just show up will more disrupt the game then anything else. It can also break the game immersion. BUT the idea of having such a distraction is a good one. Except you want to blend it into the game more. All you need is a tough encounter, and it does not even need to be a combat one, to keep the players busy. For example, a nice trapped treasure encounter is near perfect for this: the characters find a chest of loot, but it's in a hard to reach or trapped spot.

[Demidos]

I've DMed a few campaigns and had some fantastic DMs over the years. I'll try to distill the highlights of DMing down to a few key points:

1. When you are building the world, build a few interesting characters, and have their interactions with each other and the PCs dictate the storyline. This will make your story far more flexible and engaging than one with scripted story events. If you have to get your PCs to the Dragon Temple across the continent in two days time for a prophecy, you're going to have to contort your story to fit. If the Dragon Elder notices the PCs due to a revelation from his god, then he can come to them. I would suggest making a list of 9-12 important "movers and shakers", or disruptive influences in your world. This might be the plucky girl on the verge of joining the rebellion, or the ambitious lieuteinant about to murder the army's general and take command. Have the players bump up against them in various stages of their plans and your story will come together without you even needing to try!

2. Avoid the temptation of DMPCs, and compensate by making more interesting villains and allies. You can come back to them if you want once you're an experienced DM, but they tend to be a bad crutch early on.

3. For session zero, make sure you set the tone (morally grey? horror?), the power level (give the players an example build or two!)

4. As a previous poster noted, expect your players to act in unexpected ways, which may seem dumb to you. Puzzles will be nearly impossible for most groups, and they may murder someone they shouldn't. Don't take it personally, and don't be afraid to ask for a couple of minutes to think while they plan their next strategy -- they'll be thrilled they did something unexpected!

5. Reskinning is your best friend. Keep one extra encounter in your back pocket (a recurring villain, a dangerous cult operating in the area, a run in with the law), and have the mechanics be simple -- if need be, pick a monster off the SRD with the right CR. Then reskin it to what you need -- An Aboleth (tentacle abomination with illusions) can become a cultist with horrible implants, a cowboy with a whip and a flair for the dramatic, or anything else you can imagine. Don't be afraid to refluff the monster, and once you're done the players will never even notice.

6. If you have any issues with the players playing builds that are too strong, or made a mistake giving them an item that is too strong -- TALK TO THEM. give them a weaker item they can customize, or tell them "Your build is awesome, but it's too strong and taking away from the other players. May I use it as a villain instead?". Most will appreciate the flattery, but "dealing with it in-game" by throwing arbitrary encounters at them and making them feel powerless will make them angry in 99% of cases.

[magicalmagicman]

4. As a previous poster noted, expect your players to act in unexpected ways, which may seem dumb to you. Puzzles will be nearly impossible for most groups, and they may murder someone they shouldn't. Don't take it personally, and don't be afraid to ask for a couple of minutes to think while they plan their next strategy -- they'll be thrilled they did something unexpected!

...

TALK TO THEM.

I'll give a personal example. The DM had a magically indestructible door that could only be opened by solving a puzzle. As someone who loathes puzzles my solution was to break parts of the wall holding the door. DM said the magic protects those parts too. So my second solution was to just either tunnel under the door or tunnel through the walls. At this point the DM asked me not to do this with a sad face, so I didn't, and instead did nothing until my party members solved the puzzle (I loathe puzzles because I am bad at them.)

[LurkytheDwarf]

Skimming, something I didn't see mentioned is random tables. Collect a bunch of them, cut-paste them together and print them out, double-sided, on one or two sheets of paper. It removes a lot of "on the spot" thinking. Have things like random npc names, npc talents/mannerisms/flaws and secrets, tavern names, local town ruler status/notable traits/what's it known for/current calamity (this stuff mostly appears in the 5e DMG which I've been playing recently, but similar tables can be found in the 3.5 DMG and online), and a small non-magical treasure table for discovering a hidden cache in a thieves' house or on the corpse of a rich merchant, etc.

Have the answers to these question, which I copied to my notes a long time ago from an OSR blog I can't remember the name of...

Spoiler: Eventually, the players WILL ask you the majority of these questions.

Show

1.) What is the deal with my cleric's religion?
2.) Where can we go to buy standard equipment?
3.) Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?
4.) Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?
5.) Who is the greatest warrior in the land?
6.) Who is the richest person in the land?
7.) Where can we go to get some magical healing?
8.) Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?
9.) Is there a magic guild my mage belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?
10.) Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?
11.) Where can I hire mercenaries?
12.) Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?
13.) Which way to the nearest tavern?
14.) What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?
15.) Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?
16.) How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?
17.) Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?
18.) What is there to eat around here?
19.) Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?
20.) Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

You can answer most of these before the game even begins and just adapt them to fit this final piece of advice...

During Session 0, ask your players what Flavor of Fantasy they want to play. For example,

• Heroic Fantasy: Classic Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Mystara, campaigns tend toward more regional threats and only become high-stakes toward the very end.
• Sword and Sorcery: Grittier, fabled ruins in deserts and jungles, PCs motivated by greed and/or power, pockets of civilization ruled by spellcaster-tyrants.
• Epic Fantasy: Good-versus-Evil, fate of the world, Lord of the Rings.
• Mythical Fantasy: Classic greek and viking mythology, PCs are descended from mighty heroes or gods, gods frequently affect the adventure, monsters are unique (THE medusa, THE dragon).
• Dark Fantasy: Strahd and Ravenloft, Chthulu-esk stuff, secret cults and body horror.
• Etc, etc...

Talk this over with the group and settle on something everybody (yourself included) can agree upon. Make sure everybody is on the same page when they're making their characters. Because when one PC thinks the game is LoTR and another thinks it's Conan the Barbarian and the DM has written up a Political Intrigue/War campaign, you're going to get into ridiculous situations.

[D+1]

I am thinking to use "The Goose" to buy some time if (and when) the party will throw me off. This is an animal that sometimes appear witout warning and only the PCs seem to notice it. The Goose has 25 AC, +13 Fort, Ref +17, Will +10, SR 30, and 14 HP. It is very hostile and will take unattained items whenever it can and dispose of them. Even if the goose is killed another seemingly identical goose will spawn from time to time. The remains of the goose disappear after the animal's death leaving nothing behind.

Objection. The job of DM is not one of being the wizard of oz - the man behind the curtain who fails when anyone actually sees what levers he's pulling. Don't be that guy.

EVERYONE at the table knows (or should) that you are manipulating the hell out of everything for a variety of purposes. If they throw you off JUST ADMIT IT. Don't play f'n games to try to distract them from the fact that you're suddenly floundering. Just TELL THEM. "Hey guys, I wasn't expecting this. Let's take a break for 5 mins while I think about how to handle this." That makes you an honest and more readily trusted DM than one that's trying to constantly pull wool over everyone's eyes as if the game will collapse if players think you don't have ABSOLUTE control over all situations at all times.

Admitting you're stumped is an admission to the players that they've done well. Admit when you don't know the btb answer. Admit if you're making up a ruling rather than using a written rule. Admit if you got something wrong but you think it will be more disruptive to go back and reverse it. Admit if a published adventure doesn't adequately cover the tactics they're using. Being the DM is not taking an oath of secrecy that you must never reveal to the players HOW you do what you do, or especially WHY you do what you do.

You're allowed to be fallible. As long as you put in good faith efforts you're doing it right. You don't need to hoodwink the players into thinking you're any better at this than they are. The more you DM, and the more honest feedback you get from players about your own honest perceptions of what you did right or wrong then the better a DM you will be. Having to scramble as a DM is not a failure nor a sign of weakness.

[D+1]

I do have a "all manuals are legal" policy since this allows for the players to play whatever character concept they might have without homebrew. But I won't allow custom magic items, or similar things. Those can break the game quite easily.

I would be one of those people who suggest that an "Everything's legal!" policy can be an issue. It's important that as DM you be comfortable with the rules. It's important that you be FAMILIAR with all the rules you're going to be using. Don't run games for which you don't have full and complete access to the rules that players are supposed to be operating under. I would certainly say that if you don't personally own the rulebook someone wants to use material from that you NOT allow it until you own it yourself or are so familiar with its contents that you don't need it. That is not a hardship for players who are RESPECTFUL of their DM. This is not something that is about them - it's about YOU. And don't be one of those guys who's been mistakenly convinced that ALL character concepts are ALL equal under ALL circumstances and DM's can just shove it if they don't like it. You still have to run the game. Don't let players tell you where you may set your own limits. By all means be aware of where your own limitations as a DM are, but don't let players pressure you (and don't pressure yourself!) into allowing rules and materials that you aren't actually familiar enough with to know when players are or aren't abusing things. This is especially important while you're still a new DM.

It takes a while to actually come to grips with how to handle things that you aren't familiar with as DM. If players are as creative as they want to claim they are by insisting that they be allowed to use this or that book, then they are actually creative enough to do something no less fun WITHOUT that particular book. They want to play a particular class or race or use a particular set of feats to let them do whatever - well, it's good to want things. They don't HAVE to have that right now, nor do they HAVE to have it in YOUR campaign. And again, if they respect you and your wish to be able to DM within what YOU feel your ability is, they'll gladly accept the limitations you impose. Players do not run the game - YOU DO. Don't let anyone - including any book - tell you different.

Even if you have ALL the books that you're going to let players use it's a bad idea to just dump them all into a kitchen sink campaign. Kitchen sink games may be a fun playground for certain players, especially the hardcore optimizers, but just saying it's a rules free-for-all overwhelmingly makes for highly unfocused and even bland campaigns. There is also a very real thing called paradox of choice. I usually refer to it as Spock did back in original series Trek: "Having is sometimes not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical - but it is often true." Human beings THINK they want ALL the options, that they have to have ALL the choices. What they really need however is only to have SOME choices. There's an unknown point where things cross over from where having some choice is obviously better than no choice, but where having too much choice makes us unhappy with the choices we do make, continually kicking ourselves for not choosing differently, and generally being LESS happy even if objectively having the wider number of choices means we DID do better than if we had fewer.

Don't just throw in everything as valid - BE CHOOSY about what options you allow and don't allow and players are actually almost certain to have more fun and be more satisfied with their limited choices. On top of which - you are WILDLY optimistic or uninformed if you think it's only custom rules and items that are going to break the game. Published materials are VASTLY more likely to break your game simply because they can't hope to know all the other stuff you're including and ensuring that their little slice of extra stuff is actually going to work with it the way you want. ONLY YOU know what all the extra rules and expansion materials are actually going to be, and thus ONLY YOU can really ensure that it all works together for the better and doesn't simply break your game. It's YOUR responsibility as the DM to ensure that ALL materials, whether official stuff or not, actually FITS, actually BELONGS in your game. You need to DESIGN your campaign and be selective about what all you throw into it because nobody will have done that for you.

[Trandir]

Nobody likes "The Goose". Oh well it will still be one of the NPCs in the main hub.

Ok I'd like to propose this during the session 0 and they are free to tell me "no we don't like this" but here is my plan: they are the first (and only) members of a newly founded Adventurers Guild.

They'd have:
- a hub (so they can't be murderhobos but just regular murderers) and they can send there any NPC that they will inevitably recruit;
- a place where to go and look for new quests if they don't like the direction the campaing is taking;
- a vendor, everything mundane and any magic item up to 4k gp;
- a healer to take care of: resurrections, poisons, curses, illnesses and more
- "The Goose" cause l'm a dumbass.


Also about the "less is more" I can see the point but I don't want to do that.

About the powergaming I will make very clear that it's ok only if they all do it and they want a constant flow of threats to feel like heroes for defeating them. If that's not the case I'll have to talk the powergamer out of the build, and I'd rather not do that.

[Doctor Awkward]

Well I'll begin to DM a party of 4. Soon we'll do a session 0 to set the campaign, discuss the rules, character concepts and what have you.

I am worried that I'll screw up. Any advice? Anything would help.

Rule #1. You aren't the boss. You are the judge.
Probably the biggest newbie mistake that I see from DM's. Your job isn't to be in charge of the game. Your job is to adjudicate conflict in a reasonable and consistent manner. Reasonable means that you have a specific reason for making any decision, whether that reason is based on logic of the moment, activities of your NPC's behind the scenes that the players are not currently aware of, or something that is in keeping with how your world works. Consistency means that if you decide something occurs one way something based a set of circumstances, it will resolve it self the same way should those identical circumstances arise in the future. If you want a different outcome to the same action, then you need to change the circumstances. Being a DM is a lot like being an elected official: you can't run an effective game if the players don't trust in your judgments and decisions. Players will accept anything that happens so long as they believe you have a reason for doing it.

Rule #2. Listen to your audience.
Your players are the central figures of the story you are about to tell, and the whole world is being built just for them to play in it. That doesn't mean that the world has to revolve around them. Just the story that you are telling. This means letting them do as much of your work as you can.

For example if a player comes to you and asks you what elves are like in your world, you might have no idea. He then might say, "Well I had this character idea, and I'd like it if the elves are much more in tune with nature, visiting the faerie circles and such, and have a close relationship with the fey and other natural spirits. Well that's fantastic, because now that player has a character and you can run off to create this amazing enchanted civilization largely free from modern trappings because the magic of the wilds has prevented any foreign intrusions. If you already know what elves in your world are like and they aren't anything like that suggest another race for the player, or perhaps their character can still be like that but society will be treating them very differently. Either way the majority of the time your response to player suggestions and requests for narrative purposes should be, "Yes! Yes, yes, ummm... let's maybe tweak that one a little bit."

And this advice follows for mechanical purposes as well. The only balance that matters is the balance between party members. If all of the characters are equally powerful and capable, and they are bored steamrolling your encounters, then you as the DM can simply up the challenge factor of what they are fighting to compensate. Or if they enjoy simply steamrolling everything and you aren't bored watching them do it, then just carry on as normal. Similarly if they are all underpowered, you can reduce the hit points on monsters, have fewer enemies present than you originally planned. If it turns out that one person is exceptionally powerful and the rest of the party isn't, encourage other players to take mechanical advice from that player, or encourage that player to challenge themselves by playing down at a level they don't normally do.

Also at what level should they begin?

This depends entirely on what your players want to do, the kind of story you want to tell, and what you are comfortable adjudicating in terms of complications for NPC's. Interpersonal conflicts and character-driven drama doesn't usually happen in the later stages of the game, beyond level 12 or so. Similarly it's much more difficult to be the key figures in stopping a world-shattering demonic invasions and going on missions to the Outer Planes at levels below 9 or 10.

[EldritchWeaver]

What is the Goose?

[Trandir]

What is the Goose?

This:

I am thinking to use "The Goose" to buy some time if (and when) the party will throw me off. This is an animal that sometimes appear witout warning and only the PCs seem to notice it. The Goose has 25 AC, +13 Fort, Ref +17, Will +10, SR 30, and 14 HP. It is very hostile and will take unattained items whenever it can and dispose of them. Even if the goose is killed another seemingly identical goose will spawn from time to time. The remains of the goose disappear after the animal's death leaving nothing behind.

So basically a last resort to use if the party throws me off and I don't have any other encounter to fit in that situation to buy me a couple of minutes

[Shocksrivers]

Best advice I've ever gotten as a DM: Dont ask for dice rolls unless there are consequences for success or failure.

Very much agreed! And something I still need to learn myself...

[Xervous]

The goose is a cardinal sin of invoking modern cultural references and may obliterate verisimilitude if you are otherwise aiming for a serious tone.

[YellowJohn]

If you throw a puzzle at them, be prepared to accept any reasonable solution - no matter how obvious you think the 'correct' answer is. Your players think differently to you, and what seems simple to you may be something your players stumble around for hours failing to find.

[Vander Nars]

There is a million trap holes to fall in when trying to dm, there are so many styles of playing and not all of them mesh well. The best advice I can give is be open minded and willing to hear them out when an issue arises but also be firm and willing to explain your stance on an issue after you have heard them out. Open communication helps avoiding hurt feelings and haboring bad feelings.