I am new to both playing and hosting a session and I was wonder if anyone has any tips or advice.
Could you provide a little more detail on which areas you'd like tips or advice on? I would recommend checking out the videos on the homepage (https://www.dndbeyond.com/) as there are many instructional videos aimed at helping new DMs.
Relax. You are going to make mistakes. Try to have fun anyway. Read the rules, but know that you are not in a rush to memorize them, mastery will come with use. Have a session Zero with your players so that your ideas about what you want to do with the game and the player's ideas mesh. Do this so you are not thrown by the Warforged Druid the player drops on your intrigue based Waterdeep adventure. Watch videos on YOUTUBE like GM Tips with Matt Mercer and/or Satine, Nerdarchy, etc; They offer lots of tips from very experienced DMs. Watch live streams, say on Twitch (which owns DDB) of groups playing DnD. Have informal debrief sessions with your players, ask how they think the game is going, and how can you make their experience more fun. Make the Players responsible for their own crap. You have the World to worry about, they need to know about their character, what their abilities do and what their spells do. That said, have a copy of their CURRENT character just so you know if they fudge their AC or HPs. ;P Make up a list of names for the NPCs the players are going to meet. Just a list of names. Assign the npc a name when you intro them and make a note of it. Now you have Urdan the friendly gnome bartender with the limp in Beregost, instead of "ummmm...ummm he's a gnome. He asks you wat chu want?'
Endeavor to have fun with your new hobby, it is a blast.
I would recommend that you check out both Geek and Sundry's DM Tips on Youtube and Matt Colville's Running the Game series on Youtube.
Also - Web DM on Youtube has a lot of good ideas as well.
If you can stomach the writing style, then I would really recommend The AngryDMblog ( content is F#%$$ gold; writing style is F#%$$ S%#$ - but I can forgive it because the content is so damn spot on).
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
My experience DMing is play to your characters. Encourage and reward players for developing their characters and backstories. If your friends are anything like mine, things can derail pretty quickly. Make your plans, but have contingencies, and always look for ways to redirect those derailments in such a way that you can make use of the prepared content, but ultimately this will make your players enjoy the game far more. There's nothing worse than a DM that tries to hamfistedly shoehorn his characters into the content he has planned. Remember that you're telling their story. One thing I do often is end each gaming session by asking, "what are you going to try to do next time." This allows them to plan things out, and it gives me the opportunity to plan. It keeps things feeling sort of open world.
-Pregenerate your monsters; just 1 of each mob the PC's will face will be fine, you can rubber stamp the stats from mob to mob.
-Create the setting the game will take place in; add 3 quests, 3 side quests, & 3 rumors the players may hear.
-Create 3 notable locations in your setting's immediate locale that have nothing to do with any quest
-3 lists of 10 descriptors for NPC's: 1 list of 10 names, 1 of 10 races, 1 of 10 features
-find a visual way to track initiative order (paper pictures on a DM screen work well & cheaply)
-Take notes during play. Even if you delegate this, the character won't be thinking like a DM. When you get hit by that thunderbolt concept for your Sun-Elf Ranger named Kyle's origin conflict, write it down.
-track mob HP carefully & with details
These are some very basic, ground concepts for beginners. Hope this helps, my friend.
I am new to both playing and hosting a session and I was wonder if anyone has any tips or advice.
You should have a notebook to write notes about your campaign. Also get to know what your players like to do in D & D, whether it be roleplaying, combat or optimizing their characters. Most of all, have fun! Also keep the rulebooks nearby during the session.
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I am new to both playing and hosting a session and I was wonder if anyone has any tips or advice.
Relax. You are going to make mistakes. Try to have fun anyway. Read the rules, but know that you are not in a rush to memorize them, mastery will come with use. Have a session Zero with your players so that your ideas about what you want to do with the game and the player's ideas mesh. Do this so you are not thrown by the Warforged Druid the player drops on your intrigue based Waterdeep adventure. Watch videos on YOUTUBE like GM Tips with Matt Mercer and/or Satine, Nerdarchy, etc; They offer lots of tips from very experienced DMs. Watch live streams, say on Twitch (which owns DDB) of groups playing DnD. Have informal debrief sessions with your players, ask how they think the game is going, and how can you make their experience more fun. Make the Players responsible for their own crap. You have the World to worry about, they need to know about their character, what their abilities do and what their spells do. That said, have a copy of their CURRENT character just so you know if they fudge their AC or HPs. ;P Make up a list of names for the NPCs the players are going to meet. Just a list of names. Assign the npc a name when you intro them and make a note of it. Now you have Urdan the friendly gnome bartender with the limp in Beregost, instead of "ummmm...ummm he's a gnome. He asks you wat chu want?'
Endeavor to have fun with your new hobby, it is a blast.
I would recommend that you check out both Geek and Sundry's DM Tips on Youtube and Matt Colville's Running the Game series on Youtube.
Also - Web DM on Youtube has a lot of good ideas as well.
If you can stomach the writing style, then I would really recommend The AngryDM blog ( content is F#%$$ gold; writing style is F#%$$ S%#$ - but I can forgive it because the content is so damn spot on).
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
My experience DMing is play to your characters. Encourage and reward players for developing their characters and backstories. If your friends are anything like mine, things can derail pretty quickly. Make your plans, but have contingencies, and always look for ways to redirect those derailments in such a way that you can make use of the prepared content, but ultimately this will make your players enjoy the game far more. There's nothing worse than a DM that tries to hamfistedly shoehorn his characters into the content he has planned. Remember that you're telling their story. One thing I do often is end each gaming session by asking, "what are you going to try to do next time." This allows them to plan things out, and it gives me the opportunity to plan. It keeps things feeling sort of open world.
A few easy tips for a newbie:
-Pregenerate your monsters; just 1 of each mob the PC's will face will be fine, you can rubber stamp the stats from mob to mob.
-Create the setting the game will take place in; add 3 quests, 3 side quests, & 3 rumors the players may hear.
-Create 3 notable locations in your setting's immediate locale that have nothing to do with any quest
-3 lists of 10 descriptors for NPC's: 1 list of 10 names, 1 of 10 races, 1 of 10 features
-find a visual way to track initiative order (paper pictures on a DM screen work well & cheaply)
-Take notes during play. Even if you delegate this, the character won't be thinking like a DM. When you get hit by that thunderbolt concept for your Sun-Elf Ranger named Kyle's origin conflict, write it down.
-track mob HP carefully & with details
These are some very basic, ground concepts for beginners. Hope this helps, my friend.