I want to play D&D 5e with my online friend group, but none of us have any prior experience with it, except for the one game I played a year ago. I will be the DM, since I’m the only one that has actually played before.
How do I prepare? What do I need to do and know before becoming a DM? What campaign can I use as a first time DM with first time players? It just seems a little overwhelming. What do I do if things go in the other direction? How do I know when they need to roll and what number they need to succeed?
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New DM trying to teach some friends how to play, with me having little to no experience :D
I wouldn’t recommend trying to imitate or emulate Critical Role. Your game won’t be like that. Those are professional voice actors with specialized training in improv, a lot of experience, and a history of playing together and they are doing this as a paying job. Your home game won’t be anything like that. I recommend checking out campaign by the same guy as did the vid I posted. It’s a little more representative of the kinds of stuff you can expect.
I would recommend starting with an already published module like Lost mines of Phandelver or Dragon Heist, but it's not required. If you do choose to homebrew, start with a small arc (3-4 sessions) with a simple villain and objective so that things don't get too complicated for you to start off.
For your more mechanics based questions, make sure that you read through the rules and are generally familiar with how the game works (the basic rules can be found here: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules )
I would also just recommend building out a character sheet. By filling it out you'll come to learn about how characters work and how you can run the game.
Youtube is also just a really great resource for videos about how to run the game.
Here's my main piece of advice... don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, give me a minute to look that up", or "if you go there, I don't have anything prepared so there won't be anything to find." The term "Rail Roading" is almost always used negatively, but it's okay to have a linear story planned out. Don't get too attached to all the minute details, because your players will inevitably do something ridiculous you didn't expect, but don't be afraid to have a linear story that proceeds from Point A to Point B without a lot of room for them to explore the world.
It's more important to prepare knowledge about your world than particular events. Know what your NPCs want, and then evolve their decisions according to the PCs statements and actions.
If you don't know the right skill check for a situation, make your best guess, and remember you can also call for a plain Con, Str, Dex, Int, Wis, or Cha check without a proficiency. Your players might speak up with a suggested skill if they want their proficiency to apply. And remember, you can't be wrong about the skill check you call for. It's at the DM's discretion.
The first thing to know is that you're going to make some mistakes but the highest priority as a DM is to make sure everyone, yourself included, is having fun and enjoying the game.
I've recently started DMing and here's my list of advice (which I Will be sorting out for myself before my next session!)
1: Have a list of all the stats in front of you (acrobatics, athletics, etc.) so that you have a quick reference when the players ask you if they can do something out of the blue, otherwise you might forget that Deception is a thing and say "make a charisma check" instead. A quick scan over it each time they ask to do something should give you a relevant ability!
2: Have a list of all the spells the players have access to, and a page reference, so that you can quickly access their spells and check that they are using them properly
3: Read through the section of whatever mission/module you're playing just before the game, so that you have it fresh in your mind! I'm running one I wrote myself, and I still missed a key point in the plot because I was preoccupied trying to work out how much gold some skeletons might have had for the one player who stayed behind to loot them! If I'd read through it, I'd have remembered that the chest opening was meant to trigger something, and wouldn't have had to say "hang on, sorry I've missed that..." and retcon it. Luckily nothing happened in between, but it was supposed to be something of an important event and I had to break immersion to make it happen, which I hated!
4: If there's any chance your campaign might be mistaken for time travel, work out a date system for the game beforehand! I neglected this and it took me too long to work out how I wanted the dates to work!
5: Make decisions and then change them for later games if they were wrong! Better to keep the game moving than get hung up looking for a rule. Write it down to look up later and tell the players you're doing that, so it works like this right now but might change when you look the rule up.
6: Remember that as long as people are having fun, you're doing it well! Your job isn't to get the story to unfold without a hitch, it's to get the players (and yourself) to enjoy the game! I was concerned with making the story play out for my first session, on my second I was more concerned with remaining consistent in what was going on and making sure that my players had fun, even if they were not making great leaps of progress in the story!
I want to play D&D 5e with my online friend group, but none of us have any prior experience with it, except for the one game I played a year ago. I will be the DM, since I’m the only one that has actually played before.
How do I prepare? What do I need to do and know before becoming a DM? What campaign can I use as a first time DM with first time players? It just seems a little overwhelming. What do I do if things go in the other direction? How do I know when they need to roll and what number they need to succeed?
New DM trying to teach some friends how to play, with me having little to no experience :D
Honest to goodness, the best advice I can give you is this:
Watch me
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Tip 1: Expect to make mistakes and be ok with it.
Tip 2: Start off with something small and digestible, like a series of one-shots, or a standalone adventure (3-6 sessions).
Tip 3: Be deliberate. Try improvising, try over-preparing, figure out where your sweet spot is.
Watch videos like IamSposta shared, and watch a couple of sessions run by online DMs like Critical Role to get a feel for the ebb and flow of a game.
You can also download adventures that give you all of the DC checks you'll need and tips for how to run the adventure.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to imitate or emulate Critical Role. Your game won’t be like that. Those are professional voice actors with specialized training in improv, a lot of experience, and a history of playing together and they are doing this as a paying job. Your home game won’t be anything like that. I recommend checking out campaign by the same guy as did the vid I posted. It’s a little more representative of the kinds of stuff you can expect.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You can also watch the new Exandria Unlimited spin-off series of Critical Role, which is treated as being more "realistic" for home games.
I would recommend starting with an already published module like Lost mines of Phandelver or Dragon Heist, but it's not required. If you do choose to homebrew, start with a small arc (3-4 sessions) with a simple villain and objective so that things don't get too complicated for you to start off.
For your more mechanics based questions, make sure that you read through the rules and are generally familiar with how the game works (the basic rules can be found here: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules )
I would also just recommend building out a character sheet. By filling it out you'll come to learn about how characters work and how you can run the game.
Youtube is also just a really great resource for videos about how to run the game.
Here's my main piece of advice... don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, give me a minute to look that up", or "if you go there, I don't have anything prepared so there won't be anything to find." The term "Rail Roading" is almost always used negatively, but it's okay to have a linear story planned out. Don't get too attached to all the minute details, because your players will inevitably do something ridiculous you didn't expect, but don't be afraid to have a linear story that proceeds from Point A to Point B without a lot of room for them to explore the world.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
It's more important to prepare knowledge about your world than particular events. Know what your NPCs want, and then evolve their decisions according to the PCs statements and actions.
If you don't know the right skill check for a situation, make your best guess, and remember you can also call for a plain Con, Str, Dex, Int, Wis, or Cha check without a proficiency. Your players might speak up with a suggested skill if they want their proficiency to apply. And remember, you can't be wrong about the skill check you call for. It's at the DM's discretion.
The first thing to know is that you're going to make some mistakes but the highest priority as a DM is to make sure everyone, yourself included, is having fun and enjoying the game.
get a module, lost mines of Phandelver is a really good one to start with, it will walk you through all the basic mechanics and is good fun.
I've recently started DMing and here's my list of advice (which I Will be sorting out for myself before my next session!)
1: Have a list of all the stats in front of you (acrobatics, athletics, etc.) so that you have a quick reference when the players ask you if they can do something out of the blue, otherwise you might forget that Deception is a thing and say "make a charisma check" instead. A quick scan over it each time they ask to do something should give you a relevant ability!
2: Have a list of all the spells the players have access to, and a page reference, so that you can quickly access their spells and check that they are using them properly
3: Read through the section of whatever mission/module you're playing just before the game, so that you have it fresh in your mind! I'm running one I wrote myself, and I still missed a key point in the plot because I was preoccupied trying to work out how much gold some skeletons might have had for the one player who stayed behind to loot them! If I'd read through it, I'd have remembered that the chest opening was meant to trigger something, and wouldn't have had to say "hang on, sorry I've missed that..." and retcon it. Luckily nothing happened in between, but it was supposed to be something of an important event and I had to break immersion to make it happen, which I hated!
4: If there's any chance your campaign might be mistaken for time travel, work out a date system for the game beforehand! I neglected this and it took me too long to work out how I wanted the dates to work!
5: Make decisions and then change them for later games if they were wrong! Better to keep the game moving than get hung up looking for a rule. Write it down to look up later and tell the players you're doing that, so it works like this right now but might change when you look the rule up.
6: Remember that as long as people are having fun, you're doing it well! Your job isn't to get the story to unfold without a hitch, it's to get the players (and yourself) to enjoy the game! I was concerned with making the story play out for my first session, on my second I was more concerned with remaining consistent in what was going on and making sure that my players had fun, even if they were not making great leaps of progress in the story!
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