A few friends and I were thinking about putting together a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and they all want me to be the DM. We've all played before, but only as player characters. I have never been a DM before, so I was hoping someone here has been/is one, and could help me out? What should I do, keep notes on, and things like that? Thank you in advance!
A few friends and I were thinking about putting together a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and they all want me to be the DM. We've all played before, but only as player characters. I have never been a DM before, so I was hoping someone here has been/is one, and could help me out? What should I do, keep notes on, and things like that? Thank you in advance!
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Best advice I've had thus far has been to keep notes digitally - this allows you to quickly flip between notes (especially if you use OneNote, Scrivener, etc. that allows you to break apart your documents). A tablet or a laptop are best for this.
Your players will inevitably do something that you haven't planned for, so be prepared to improvise. Don't railroad your players by saying they have to do it your way, or by taking control of their characters.
Have a session zero with your players where you, and your players, state exactly what they are looking for out of your game. Do they all want to be murder hobos? Do they want to investigate more than fight? What are their backstories? How did their characters all meet up, and, most importantly why do they want to party with one another? Set ground rules - are you a 100% casual game that doesn't care about moving the story along quickly, or do your players want encounters every session? These are things for you to know in order to build a game - as well as being important for your players to know so that everyone can have fun. If one person wants strict rules, and the others all want to be casual - you might not want them all to be in the same group.
I recommend not using the traditional alignment set-up (chaotic, neutral, lawful, good, evil) as, in my experience, it has been used more as an excuse rather than as a logical character mindset. Instead, ask your players situational questions. If they saw a hungry kid steal a loaf of bread, how would their character react? Saw someone being enslaved, what's their reaction?
I said it before - but improvisation is your friend! If you aren't good about thinking things up on the fly, develop roll tables where you roll a die and pick from the table. Some roll tables I've used before: attacks that kill the boss before you plan on it (with style), random monster encounters, random NPCs (note: for this one you have to develop NPCs, stats and all- don't forget the name! If a player asks for a name, they'll either get attached to it, or try to kill it x_x), etc.
If your party has a stereotypical bard - be prepared for chaotic randomness, mostly involving seduction.
Critical Role is an amazing podcast series that you can watch for more ideas. Matt Mercer is an epic-class DM, and I've picked up quite a bit from watching the show ^_^
Best advice I've had thus far has been to keep notes digitally - this allows you to quickly flip between notes (especially if you use OneNote, Scrivener, etc. that allows you to break apart your documents). A tablet or a laptop are best for this.
Your players will inevitably do something that you haven't planned for, so be prepared to improvise. Don't railroad your players by saying they have to do it your way, or by taking control of their characters.
Have a session zero with your players where you, and your players, state exactly what they are looking for out of your game. Do they all want to be murder hobos? Do they want to investigate more than fight? What are their backstories? How did their characters all meet up, and, most importantly why do they want to party with one another? Set ground rules - are you a 100% casual game that doesn't care about moving the story along quickly, or do your players want encounters every session? These are things for you to know in order to build a game - as well as being important for your players to know so that everyone can have fun. If one person wants strict rules, and the others all want to be casual - you might not want them all to be in the same group.
I recommend not using the traditional alignment set-up (chaotic, neutral, lawful, good, evil) as, in my experience, it has been used more as an excuse rather than as a logical character mindset. Instead, ask your players situational questions. If they saw a hungry kid steal a loaf of bread, how would their character react? Saw someone being enslaved, what's their reaction?
I said it before - but improvisation is your friend! If you aren't good about thinking things up on the fly, develop roll tables where you roll a die and pick from the table. Some roll tables I've used before: attacks that kill the boss before you plan on it (with style), random monster encounters, random NPCs (note: for this one you have to develop NPCs, stats and all- don't forget the name! If a player asks for a name, they'll either get attached to it, or try to kill it x_x), etc.
If your party has a stereotypical bard - be prepared for chaotic randomness, mostly involving seduction.
Critical Role is an amazing podcast series that you can watch for more ideas. Matt Mercer is an epic-class DM, and I've picked up quite a bit from watching the show ^_^
I havent DM'd much or ever taken it too seriously, but if there is any single important thing to know, I agree with Arkin on not railroading your characters to the way you expect them too.
The point of playing is to do things the players way. So long as they have fun, who cares if you bend the story or rules a little.
Just wanted to put a little extra emphasis on that.
Be as chaotic as possible to keep the mood light and fun but don't go ape with the nonsense. make the nonsense make sense and give your players a breather with some normality every now and then. Constant combat encounters gets tiring, as well as constant story/rp sessions. Mix it up to keep players from getting bored
Be as chaotic as possible to keep the mood light and fun but don't go ape with the nonsense. make the nonsense make sense and give your players a breather with some normality every now and then. Constant combat encounters gets tiring, as well as constant story/rp sessions. Mix it up to keep players from getting bored
I have only DM'd once. It wasn't for me. Especially when I had only half of a (100 page adventure path book) prepped in advance and somehow my players managed to no-clip through the entire half of the book due to some good rolls and foresight and straight to the part I hadn't prepped. I was not ready hahaha...
I guess my advice is...
At least make a general gist of EVERYTHING. I feel like being more detailed will hinder you in the long run, since most likely players are going to choose paths you never thought of.
I have only DM'd once. It wasn't for me. Especially when I had only half of a (100 page adventure path book) prepped in advance and somehow my players managed to no-clip through the entire half of the book due to some good rolls and foresight and straight to the part I hadn't prepped. I was not ready hahaha...
I guess my advice is...
At least make a general gist of EVERYTHING. I feel like being more detailed will hinder you in the long run, since most likely players are going to choose paths you never thought of.
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I haven't DMed, but I have friends who have.
My advice is: Read and understand the combat rules ahead of time, and answer questions about the combat rules quickly. If you don't know the official ruling on something up, make it up instead of making someone's turn last 15 min as you pull out the rulebook and debate the exact wording of a rule.
Ie, the player tries to throw their sword at the enemy. You don't remember if there is even a rule for how to do this, or even if the player can do this. On the spot you make this up: you tell the player they can throw it, but they take a -5 to hit and they have to go retrieve their sword if they want to throw it again.
I haven't DMed, but I have friends who have.
My advice is: Read and understand the combat rules ahead of time, and answer questions about the combat rules quickly. If you don't know the official ruling on something up, make it up instead of making someone's turn last 15 min as you pull out the rulebook and debate the exact wording of a rule.
Ie, the player tries to throw their sword at the enemy. You don't remember if there is even a rule for how to do this, or even if the player can do this. On the spot you make this up: you tell the player they can throw it, but they take a -5 to hit and they have to go retrieve their sword if they want to throw it again.
[quote name="epicpython" date="2019-07-04 21:48:43" ]
I haven't DMed, but I have friends who have.
My advice is: Read and understand the combat rules ahead of time, and answer questions about the combat rules quickly. If you don't know the official ruling on something up, make it up instead of making someone's turn last 15 min as you pull out the rulebook and debate the exact wording of a rule.
Ie, the player tries to throw their sword at the enemy. You don't remember if there is even a rule for how to do this, or even if the player can do this. On the spot you make this up: you tell the player they can throw it, but they take a -5 to hit and they have to go retrieve their sword if they want to throw it again.
[/quote]
Same.
If you don't have a ruling on something and no one at the table for-sure knows the rules, make a ruling for the time and say "I'm ruling on this to move things along, but I'll have a clear answer for you next week" so that the player knows that the ruling might change. Then write down the question to look up later.
Here's some stuff that's come up in the D&D Adventurers League games that I've run over the course of multiple sessions.
https://jessica-paints-minis.tumblr.com/post/185332903998/learn-something-new-every-game
https://jessica-paints-minis.tumblr.com/post/186030376068/learn-something-new-every-game-2
My other advice is if you're running a premade module, read it twice. The first time just to get an idea of what's going on, and the second to highlight and make notes. I like to make notes on all NPC so that when players interact with them, I know that the NPC "has no patience/has a love of coin/doesn't like humans" with a glance. :)
epicpython wrote on 2019-07-04 21:48:43:
I haven't DMed, but I have friends who have.
My advice is: Read and understand the combat rules ahead of time, and answer questions about the combat rules quickly. If you don't know the official ruling on something up, make it up instead of making someone's turn last 15 min as you pull out the rulebook and debate the exact wording of a rule.
Ie, the player tries to throw their sword at the enemy. You don't remember if there is even a rule for how to do this, or even if the player can do this. On the spot you make this up: you tell the player they can throw it, but they take a -5 to hit and they have to go retrieve their sword if they want to throw it again.
Same.
If you don't have a ruling on something and no one at the table for-sure knows the rules, make a ruling for the time and say "I'm ruling on this to move things along, but I'll have a clear answer for you next week" so that the player knows that the ruling might change. Then write down the question to look up later.
Here's some stuff that's come up in the D&D Adventurers League games that I've run over the course of multiple sessions.
https://jessica-paints-minis.tumblr.com/post/185332903998/learn-something-new-every-game
https://jessica-paints-minis.tumblr.com/post/186030376068/learn-something-new-every-game-2
My other advice is if you're running a premade module, read it twice. The first time just to get an idea of what's going on, and the second to highlight and make notes. I like to make notes on all NPC so that when players interact with them, I know that the NPC "has no patience/has a love of coin/doesn't like humans" with a glance. :)
Awesome forum, I’m considering DMing a campaign this year for the first time so these are some great tips! :)
Awesome forum, I’m considering DMing a campaign this year for the first time so these are some great tips! :)
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