Over two years ago some friends and I had an idea that it would be cool to try a D&D game, surprised that we’d never played. After lots of back and forth I finally decided that instead of being a player and finding an experienced DM, I would learn the ropes of the game WHILE being the DM. All my players were new, with the exception of one, and I felt like I could probably do this.
The Covid hit and the game got canceled before it started. Literally right before.
we decided the finally pick up again and play for the first time (then someone got Covid) and rather than postpone again, the suggestion was made to take it virtual.
I‘ve finally got the players onboard for their online set ups and those that haven’t yet picked up the characters on Beyond will do so soon.
I say all this because now that the time is finally here, I feel like I may be overthinking the DM role: getting hung up on stats or enemies, things like the intricate Cragmaw Hideout and when to roll initiative (each room? Just once and later in enemies as needed?).
Every new DM overthinks their game--the important thing is not letting your overthinking railroad the players. They will always find something that you did not expect, see some solution you did not foresee, or just decide they are not interested in your carefully crafted important character and just want to talk to the random throwaway NPC you created. A large part of DMing is pivoting what you prepared and adapting it to what the party is actually doing. Eventually you might reach the point where you can do the barest minimum of prep (sometimes none) and ad lib your way through a session, but, for now, being overprepared is the way to go.
For enemies, the important thing to know is that CR is just the latest in decades of terrible systems for evaluating combat power of enemies. If you are using the online encounter builder, something just over the "deadly" threshold will be good for most encounters if you have only a couple per day; if you are running a more combat heavy campaign, the very hard level is a good starting point. 5e also gives monsters relatively low hitpoints for player damage (starting around level 5 that disparity really takes off), so do not be afraid to increase the hitpoints total of monsters, especially bosses. Overall, it takes a bit of augury to really get the feel for balancing encounters, as each playgroup is very different in how they handle combat. Until you get the hang of it, do not be afraid to add additional mobs mid fight as reinforcements arrive. Or, if the fight is too hard, figure out a reason for the monster to want to leave, have the monster not kill the party, but take them prisoner (or for later eating), or just reduce its max hitpoints mid fight to shorten the encounter if you are okay with fudging things (do not tell players monster HP anyway, keep that behind the DM screen--they just will metagame with it).
For initiative, only roll initiative when the players are in combat and at the start of each new combat. Outside of combat, let players freewheel and do whatever they choose in whatever order they choose. Be a bit mindful that some players might try to hog the spotlight (called Main Character Syndrome by the community), and you should keep an eye out for that as it can cause resentment in the party. Also keep an eye out for players who might be a bit shy or worse at roleplaying, and make sure you give them opportunity to excel and use their skills.
Related to that, always make sure you have something for everyone. If you have a big smashy barbarian and a sneaky rogue, be careful to not overdo either smashing or sneaking--give each opportunities where they can use the skills their players decided they wanted.
Lastly, you will make mistakes. You will get the rules wrong, you will put the party in bad situations that are not the most fun, you will mess up on a puzzle design and look silly. Every DM does that--new DMs more so than others, but even experienced DMs make extreme errors. Do not stress it too much--not only is that just part of the game, it can sometimes lead to some of the more enjoyable memories and moments. The important thing is to be honest with your players and own your mistakes once you realize them.
Keep it simple - only prep/build one to two sessions out. First session, you get to "decide" where and how the PCs meet, (working with everyone to generate backstories that put them in the same location, whatever that location is), and what their first encounter is going to be. After that throw out your first couple plot hooks, or adventure patron, whatever method you have of driving the story forward, let them pick the destination and prep that for the next session. Avoid overbuilding / overprepping material that will change or never be seen by the party. It's not unheard of to have some drop-in encounters ready to go.
Stick with either the Basic Rules or the PHB/DMG for guidance on Running the Game. As Caerwyn_Glyndwr mentioned, initiative is rolled when someone declares an attack for the first time during an encounter. Variant rules may guide you to do it differently, this is arguably the simplest.
I'm unclear what you mean by "getting hung up on stats or enemies". If you're running an adventure from a book, or out of the box, there's not much to worry about for encounter balance, so long as the party fits the general 4-5 total characters in the game. Encounter balance is complicated, maybe moreso that it should be. Regardless, it's a probability threshold for how a combat encounter *might* play out. Many here will balk at the idea of allowing for a random outcome to anything, but this is what happens when we roll dice. If you're having apprehension tracking monster stats in game, use a notepad, or the encounter builder to track the initiative order and the HP of the monsters.
Rocking a complex dungeon takes some good prep. I find it usefull to run a mock walkthroug by myself to make sure I understand the entire set of instructions. Putting notes in the margin is an old, but useful tactic, as is using any note taking or tracking system that you prefer. Take good notes, consider a DM binder to keep it all organized.
You might need to find a way to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, you will be the leader of the game. Try to stay with the mentality that this is supposed to be a game, and supposed to be fun. It can be challenging and gritty and sad, and a menagerie of other things. So long as it doesn't become adversarial, or the players being forced into stories and situations they don't agree with, you'll likely be alright.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Thanks for this. The group I am playing with ive known for years and years so Im comfortable saying "Hey...I messed up here"
For initiative, only roll initiative when the players are in combat and at the start of each new combat.
If I understand the initiative bit correctly, my players would roll at the onset of combat, and if they move to another room or cave and find more enemies, they would roll again?
That is correct - when a fight ends, initiative order ends and players can freely act, explore, loot the room, etc. The next time they get into combat, they roll for a new initiative order. This ensures the initiative order changes each combat - keeping a static initiative order based on older roles gets really stale, since players would feel stuck in an order based on a bad roll.
In practice, rolling at the start of combat is not that tedious - it takes only a minute at the beginning of combat. If you are using D&D Beyond’s encounter builder, it will do all the tracking for you and let’s you auto roll initiative for your monsters, speeding up things further. You will also find that “roll for initiative” (sometimes coming out of the blue because they failed a perception check or are being sucker punched due to bad communication skills) becomes something your players will find fun - a signal that things are about to get messy.
Im a new DM online dm'ing myself. I worry about the logistics more than I do the stories. Stats with monsters are something I'll change according to how the game is going. Same with HP.
I've been thinking about doing the same but I didnt want to have 3 programs open as we use discord as well.
I have set up a discord for video and voice chat, since we can also drop stuff into the text channel. Roll20 only for maps and token movement, and D&D beyond for their character sheets to help with rolling on the fly. Im using the Encounter part of beyond to help myself roll for the enemies. Whatever we don't use/like we will adjust and remove.
The most important part as you learn is that everyone is having fun. NOBODY is going to talk about things like "MAN REMEMBER WHEN THE NEW DM MESSED UP INITIATIVE?! I'M SURPRISED WE KEPT PLAYING!"
If you're all mostly learning everyone should be going into it with an open mind and being empathetic about working with new systems.
Don't worry about what others think and be as under/overprepared as you feel comfortable being. It's all gravy as long as your table is enjoying themselves.
we had our first game last night. Aside from some technical issues it went pretty good.
the party seemed hesitant at first, and I reminded them that if they need help overcoming the obstacle of role play, they can just read their character bio. Once they did that, they loosened up and I was able to ask questions, notate off hand remarks that I can use later about their characters, etc.
I feel they understood the basics and checked in with a couple afterwards to make sure they had fun (they did) and I even added a character to LMoP sandbox that kinda gave some flavor to the opening scenes. I knew they were into it when, after describing what was in the wagon they were hauling and it’s monetary value, two players immediately began planning to loot it from their employer.
Overall, I think it went okay and was fun. Just need to work on my story telling a bit.
we had our first game last night. Aside from some technical issues it went pretty good.
the party seemed hesitant at first, and I reminded them that if they need help overcoming the obstacle of role play, they can just read their character bio. Once they did that, they loosened up and I was able to ask questions, notate off hand remarks that I can use later about their characters, etc.
I feel they understood the basics and checked in with a couple afterwards to make sure they had fun (they did) and I even added a character to LMoP sandbox that kinda gave some flavor to the opening scenes. I knew they were into it when, after describing what was in the wagon they were hauling and it’s monetary value, two players immediately began planning to loot it from their employer.
Overall, I think it went okay and was fun. Just need to work on my story telling a bit.
Heck yeah! Glad to hear it went well! And now that the first session happened and you know the loose playstyle of everyone it's only going to get better and easier.
If you ever need some advice on things storytelling wise or other feel free to PM me. I won't say I'm the best DM out there but I've been running games for over 20 years through a few systems and I consider myself a passable storyteller. The only way you grow is by doing, but having some feedback to fall back on always makes the doing easier.
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Over two years ago some friends and I had an idea that it would be cool to try a D&D game, surprised that we’d never played. After lots of back and forth I finally decided that instead of being a player and finding an experienced DM, I would learn the ropes of the game WHILE being the DM. All my players were new, with the exception of one, and I felt like I could probably do this.
The Covid hit and the game got canceled before it started. Literally right before.
we decided the finally pick up again and play for the first time (then someone got Covid) and rather than postpone again, the suggestion was made to take it virtual.
I‘ve finally got the players onboard for their online set ups and those that haven’t yet picked up the characters on Beyond will do so soon.
I say all this because now that the time is finally here, I feel like I may be overthinking the DM role: getting hung up on stats or enemies, things like the intricate Cragmaw Hideout and when to roll initiative (each room? Just once and later in enemies as needed?).
So…any advice for a novice like me?
Every new DM overthinks their game--the important thing is not letting your overthinking railroad the players. They will always find something that you did not expect, see some solution you did not foresee, or just decide they are not interested in your carefully crafted important character and just want to talk to the random throwaway NPC you created. A large part of DMing is pivoting what you prepared and adapting it to what the party is actually doing. Eventually you might reach the point where you can do the barest minimum of prep (sometimes none) and ad lib your way through a session, but, for now, being overprepared is the way to go.
For enemies, the important thing to know is that CR is just the latest in decades of terrible systems for evaluating combat power of enemies. If you are using the online encounter builder, something just over the "deadly" threshold will be good for most encounters if you have only a couple per day; if you are running a more combat heavy campaign, the very hard level is a good starting point. 5e also gives monsters relatively low hitpoints for player damage (starting around level 5 that disparity really takes off), so do not be afraid to increase the hitpoints total of monsters, especially bosses. Overall, it takes a bit of augury to really get the feel for balancing encounters, as each playgroup is very different in how they handle combat. Until you get the hang of it, do not be afraid to add additional mobs mid fight as reinforcements arrive. Or, if the fight is too hard, figure out a reason for the monster to want to leave, have the monster not kill the party, but take them prisoner (or for later eating), or just reduce its max hitpoints mid fight to shorten the encounter if you are okay with fudging things (do not tell players monster HP anyway, keep that behind the DM screen--they just will metagame with it).
For initiative, only roll initiative when the players are in combat and at the start of each new combat. Outside of combat, let players freewheel and do whatever they choose in whatever order they choose. Be a bit mindful that some players might try to hog the spotlight (called Main Character Syndrome by the community), and you should keep an eye out for that as it can cause resentment in the party. Also keep an eye out for players who might be a bit shy or worse at roleplaying, and make sure you give them opportunity to excel and use their skills.
Related to that, always make sure you have something for everyone. If you have a big smashy barbarian and a sneaky rogue, be careful to not overdo either smashing or sneaking--give each opportunities where they can use the skills their players decided they wanted.
Lastly, you will make mistakes. You will get the rules wrong, you will put the party in bad situations that are not the most fun, you will mess up on a puzzle design and look silly. Every DM does that--new DMs more so than others, but even experienced DMs make extreme errors. Do not stress it too much--not only is that just part of the game, it can sometimes lead to some of the more enjoyable memories and moments. The important thing is to be honest with your players and own your mistakes once you realize them.
Keep it simple - only prep/build one to two sessions out. First session, you get to "decide" where and how the PCs meet, (working with everyone to generate backstories that put them in the same location, whatever that location is), and what their first encounter is going to be. After that throw out your first couple plot hooks, or adventure patron, whatever method you have of driving the story forward, let them pick the destination and prep that for the next session. Avoid overbuilding / overprepping material that will change or never be seen by the party. It's not unheard of to have some drop-in encounters ready to go.
Stick with either the Basic Rules or the PHB/DMG for guidance on Running the Game. As Caerwyn_Glyndwr mentioned, initiative is rolled when someone declares an attack for the first time during an encounter. Variant rules may guide you to do it differently, this is arguably the simplest.
I'm unclear what you mean by "getting hung up on stats or enemies". If you're running an adventure from a book, or out of the box, there's not much to worry about for encounter balance, so long as the party fits the general 4-5 total characters in the game. Encounter balance is complicated, maybe moreso that it should be. Regardless, it's a probability threshold for how a combat encounter *might* play out. Many here will balk at the idea of allowing for a random outcome to anything, but this is what happens when we roll dice. If you're having apprehension tracking monster stats in game, use a notepad, or the encounter builder to track the initiative order and the HP of the monsters.
Rocking a complex dungeon takes some good prep. I find it usefull to run a mock walkthroug by myself to make sure I understand the entire set of instructions. Putting notes in the margin is an old, but useful tactic, as is using any note taking or tracking system that you prefer. Take good notes, consider a DM binder to keep it all organized.
You might need to find a way to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, you will be the leader of the game. Try to stay with the mentality that this is supposed to be a game, and supposed to be fun. It can be challenging and gritty and sad, and a menagerie of other things. So long as it doesn't become adversarial, or the players being forced into stories and situations they don't agree with, you'll likely be alright.
Last chunk - Mike "SlyFlourish" Shea has a ton of insight on his blog and on the Tube.
Matt Collville- Bunch of good insight here as well.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Thanks for this. The group I am playing with ive known for years and years so Im comfortable saying "Hey...I messed up here"
If I understand the initiative bit correctly, my players would roll at the onset of combat, and if they move to another room or cave and find more enemies, they would roll again?
Thanks for all this! Ive known the players for a decade or more so Im totally comfortable with a "Hey I messed up here!"
For initiative, if I understand correctly, this means they would roll each time they enter a new cave or room where new enemies are?
That is correct - when a fight ends, initiative order ends and players can freely act, explore, loot the room, etc. The next time they get into combat, they roll for a new initiative order. This ensures the initiative order changes each combat - keeping a static initiative order based on older roles gets really stale, since players would feel stuck in an order based on a bad roll.
In practice, rolling at the start of combat is not that tedious - it takes only a minute at the beginning of combat. If you are using D&D Beyond’s encounter builder, it will do all the tracking for you and let’s you auto roll initiative for your monsters, speeding up things further. You will also find that “roll for initiative” (sometimes coming out of the blue because they failed a perception check or are being sucker punched due to bad communication skills) becomes something your players will find fun - a signal that things are about to get messy.
great! Yeah Im using the D&D Beyond Encounter system (dropping in the first two encounters now actually) and Roll20 for maps.
Im a new DM online dm'ing myself. I worry about the logistics more than I do the stories. Stats with monsters are something I'll change according to how the game is going. Same with HP.
I've been thinking about doing the same but I didnt want to have 3 programs open as we use discord as well.
I have set up a discord for video and voice chat, since we can also drop stuff into the text channel. Roll20 only for maps and token movement, and D&D beyond for their character sheets to help with rolling on the fly. Im using the Encounter part of beyond to help myself roll for the enemies. Whatever we don't use/like we will adjust and remove.
The most important part as you learn is that everyone is having fun. NOBODY is going to talk about things like "MAN REMEMBER WHEN THE NEW DM MESSED UP INITIATIVE?! I'M SURPRISED WE KEPT PLAYING!"
If you're all mostly learning everyone should be going into it with an open mind and being empathetic about working with new systems.
Don't worry about what others think and be as under/overprepared as you feel comfortable being. It's all gravy as long as your table is enjoying themselves.
UPDATE:
we had our first game last night. Aside from some technical issues it went pretty good.
the party seemed hesitant at first, and I reminded them that if they need help overcoming the obstacle of role play, they can just read their character bio. Once they did that, they loosened up and I was able to ask questions, notate off hand remarks that I can use later about their characters, etc.
I feel they understood the basics and checked in with a couple afterwards to make sure they had fun (they did) and I even added a character to LMoP sandbox that kinda gave some flavor to the opening scenes. I knew they were into it when, after describing what was in the wagon they were hauling and it’s monetary value, two players immediately began planning to loot it from their employer.
Overall, I think it went okay and was fun. Just need to work on my story telling a bit.
Heck yeah! Glad to hear it went well! And now that the first session happened and you know the loose playstyle of everyone it's only going to get better and easier.
If you ever need some advice on things storytelling wise or other feel free to PM me. I won't say I'm the best DM out there but I've been running games for over 20 years through a few systems and I consider myself a passable storyteller. The only way you grow is by doing, but having some feedback to fall back on always makes the doing easier.