Hi! So about 2 hours from writing this I was given https://imgur.com/a/RN2Qq6F (these) as Christmas presents. The monster-card box was from my mother's friend, the rest from my mother herself. I've only really shown a bit of interest in D&D before, so my ssslight issue is that I know barely anything about D&D and DMing. I'll read up on the books, but is there any other advice you guys can give?
Hi, newbie DM here too, started a few months ago :)
First, read the player's handbook. If you make a character yourself (can be used as an NPC later on or thrown away), you get to learn what players can and can't do. Read the dungeon masters guide afterwards (magic items, creating adventures, etc). The monster manual is to look up stats for monsters.
The shiny "DM cover" is the dungeon master screen. Important information for you on the backside for quick reference. Not everything is needed, some things may miss. I would customize it after the first few games for your campaign/your special needs. It's also good, if you want to "fudge" dice rolls.
The starter set contains basic rules and one adventure. Teaches by doing the adventure with your group.
If you want tips for great DM'ing, watch some YouTube videos (Matt Mercer, Matthew Colville, MonarchsFactory, Puffin Forrest, Dingo Doodles are some that I really like), read articles (e.g. AngryDM) or just watch some live play (Critical Role for example).
Most importantly, find a small group of players and have fun ;)
watch some YouTube videos (Matt Mercer, Matthew Colville), watch some live play (Critical Role for example).
Most importantly, find a small group of players and have fun ;)
Best, Chicken
The beauty is you do not need a lot to start. All the rules the player's need are in the Player's Handbook. The DM Guide and the Moster Manual give you more DM tools to have at your disposal. But all you really need to do is familiarize yourself wiith the PHB (Player's HandBook), learn how to create characters, have some dice paper and pencils and perhaps, as mentioned above, watch a few videos to get some good pointers. Matthew Colville is excellent for helping someone realize that they can DM as well with his Running The Game series. Critical Role on Geek and Sundry's YT channel, though long episodes, really put some fun to watch casual gameplay out there so you might get an idea of what to expect. And a good example of when the party can go Off The Rails. They have a great series with Matt Mercer and Satine Phoenix featuring GM tips.
Aside from that, have a town drawn out, a little one. Have anywhere from 5 to 10 NPCs ready for your players to meet. Have a dungeon or a cave setup up complete with rooms and some basic opponents for them there. A great place to get info on monsters without needing to buy the book would be The Kobold Fight Club so you can know what the monsters can do to your friends. D&D Beyond has lots of resources right here. There's the Character Builder, they even have a set of free Basic Rules to use, Monsters, Spells, Equipment that your party can use and so much more. And if you decide that you like this little adventure in dungeon mastering, the books are well worth purchasing as they are invaluable tools at your ready disposal. Looking for character sheets? D&D and Wizards of the Coast has plenty for you to choose from and print out.
All the DM serves as, when you boil it down, is as a liaison between your players character sheets and the PHB. You give them a world in which they can tell you and each other a story. You do your best to help them do what they want their characters to do. A lot of prep can go into a session but when all is said and done, that is all there is to it. See if the gift givers might be willing to play a single quick adventure and maybe a couple of your friends as well. Who knows, might be the beginning of an adventurous relationship.
The most important advice of all: Have an open mind. D&D is about the DM telling a story. All you really need to know is a basic outline of the story that you want to tell, with monsters, NPCs, and villains. The players make the choices that change the course of the game. The their may seem like a lot of rules at first, but it's all easy to understand. Bill Allen has some series, and Season 1 is short, and explains the rules very easy and understandably.
The first campaign I played in, I don’t think any of us really understood the rules and we did just about everything mechanically wrong, but we had a great time. Create an interesting story that the players can interact with and you’ll all have fun. If you run into something you don’t understand rule wise and it’s going to take a while to figure out, just wing it, keep the story going and figure it out later.
Welcome to a world of friends and great storytelling.
From my point of view, D&D is about the stories. The group meeting is about getting together with your DM and your friends and experiencing the DMs story. This is why the DM is in charge, because he has a story to tell.
The DM has to put a lot of work into telling his story, so help him tell the story and enjoy it (all of you).
If you have a party that just wants to side step all the challenges and get the loot you are missing the real fun of the game. Nobody gets a trophy for having the highest level character. Everybody wins by enjoying the time you spend playing the game.
Likewise, some DMs don't have the desire or lack the experience to make and tell a good story. In the first case, just politely get through the campaign and then don't ask that fellow to be the DM again. In the second case, lack of experience, strong players can help the new DM place color into the story by asking questions like "How are the guards dressed?" "What does the air smell like as we enter the cave?" "What do the arrows look like that we found in the skeleton's bones?" This will give the DM a prompt to tell a more vivid story and hopefully you will get a hint about what is ahead as a reward for your curiosity and observation.
If you're new to the game, your friends are probably new to the game also. As DM you need to be "ahead" of them in the story. You also need to have enough experience in just going through the steps of an encounter. Encounters include both combat encounters and "meeting" encounters. If you are bringing in new players I recommend playing through a sample battle of four or so Player Characters (PCs) against six or so Monsters in a constricted space so the six monsters can't engage the four players all at once. This helps the new players learn the sequence of events in a fight and a little about controlling the engagement so they don't get overwhelmed. The other encounters, like meeting a town guard at the gate, or a shopkeeper to buy/trade goods may be learned as you go. The final type of meeting encounter is entering a room that has some sort of device, like a trap door, a hidden treasure or important scroll. Some discussion about searching a room might help a new player understand how these things are managed.
I recommend starting at the beginning with entry level characters. In this way you only need to learn spells up to about level 3 as you get started since higher level spells just won't be used. Why level 3 and not just level 1? Your NPCs (non-player characters controlled by the DM) might have access to higher level spells. Generally though they should not be accessing level 9 spells because that makes them a top level player and level one players would not be high enough to attract their attention so they just wouldn't be interacting normally. If you need to do that, make sure it is an important storytelling element.
Find some friends that enjoy spending time together and invest some time in writing and telling a good story. It's like reading a great book but you get to be part of the story. Imagine getting to be Bilbo in the Hobbit. He started out inexperienced with some special burglar qualities. He came through the challenges rewarded for the experience. But he never tried to stop the story. He just rolled with it. Most D&D parties are made up of players with the same degree of experience, not like having Gandolf, Legolas and Strider there to protect you.
If you are the DM, flesh out a bit of the world around your encounter. Remember the players are not operating in a vacuum. The place where their "dungeon" encounter occurs is in larger place, often within the domesticated area of the world that is part of a kingdom, province and county. What bigger events are transpiring around the party while they are searching for the key to the Lost Mine or the fabled map of Celedron? Why does Melchezidak want you to take this message to Prince Balthezor?
Good luck! Happy storytelling. Merry Christmas!
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Hi! So about 2 hours from writing this I was given https://imgur.com/a/RN2Qq6F (these) as Christmas presents. The monster-card box was from my mother's friend, the rest from my mother herself. I've only really shown a bit of interest in D&D before, so my ssslight issue is that I know barely anything about D&D and DMing. I'll read up on the books, but is there any other advice you guys can give?
heyy.
Hi, newbie DM here too, started a few months ago :)
First, read the player's handbook. If you make a character yourself (can be used as an NPC later on or thrown away), you get to learn what players can and can't do. Read the dungeon masters guide afterwards (magic items, creating adventures, etc). The monster manual is to look up stats for monsters.
The shiny "DM cover" is the dungeon master screen. Important information for you on the backside for quick reference. Not everything is needed, some things may miss. I would customize it after the first few games for your campaign/your special needs. It's also good, if you want to "fudge" dice rolls.
The starter set contains basic rules and one adventure. Teaches by doing the adventure with your group.
If you want tips for great DM'ing, watch some YouTube videos (Matt Mercer, Matthew Colville, MonarchsFactory, Puffin Forrest, Dingo Doodles are some that I really like), read articles (e.g. AngryDM) or just watch some live play (Critical Role for example).
Most importantly, find a small group of players and have fun ;)
Best, Chicken
The beauty is you do not need a lot to start. All the rules the player's need are in the Player's Handbook. The DM Guide and the Moster Manual give you more DM tools to have at your disposal. But all you really need to do is familiarize yourself wiith the PHB (Player's HandBook), learn how to create characters, have some dice paper and pencils and perhaps, as mentioned above, watch a few videos to get some good pointers. Matthew Colville is excellent for helping someone realize that they can DM as well with his Running The Game series. Critical Role on Geek and Sundry's YT channel, though long episodes, really put some fun to watch casual gameplay out there so you might get an idea of what to expect. And a good example of when the party can go Off The Rails. They have a great series with Matt Mercer and Satine Phoenix featuring GM tips.
Aside from that, have a town drawn out, a little one. Have anywhere from 5 to 10 NPCs ready for your players to meet. Have a dungeon or a cave setup up complete with rooms and some basic opponents for them there. A great place to get info on monsters without needing to buy the book would be The Kobold Fight Club so you can know what the monsters can do to your friends. D&D Beyond has lots of resources right here. There's the Character Builder, they even have a set of free Basic Rules to use, Monsters, Spells, Equipment that your party can use and so much more. And if you decide that you like this little adventure in dungeon mastering, the books are well worth purchasing as they are invaluable tools at your ready disposal. Looking for character sheets? D&D and Wizards of the Coast has plenty for you to choose from and print out.
All the DM serves as, when you boil it down, is as a liaison between your players character sheets and the PHB. You give them a world in which they can tell you and each other a story. You do your best to help them do what they want their characters to do. A lot of prep can go into a session but when all is said and done, that is all there is to it. See if the gift givers might be willing to play a single quick adventure and maybe a couple of your friends as well. Who knows, might be the beginning of an adventurous relationship.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
The most important advice of all: Have an open mind. D&D is about the DM telling a story. All you really need to know is a basic outline of the story that you want to tell, with monsters, NPCs, and villains. The players make the choices that change the course of the game. The their may seem like a lot of rules at first, but it's all easy to understand. Bill Allen has some series, and Season 1 is short, and explains the rules very easy and understandably.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&list=PL-e8SjU6HftvVUPc_-5gccjoVKZc-oWk_
The first campaign I played in, I don’t think any of us really understood the rules and we did just about everything mechanically wrong, but we had a great time. Create an interesting story that the players can interact with and you’ll all have fun. If you run into something you don’t understand rule wise and it’s going to take a while to figure out, just wing it, keep the story going and figure it out later.
Welcome to a world of friends and great storytelling.
From my point of view, D&D is about the stories. The group meeting is about getting together with your DM and your friends and experiencing the DMs story. This is why the DM is in charge, because he has a story to tell.
The DM has to put a lot of work into telling his story, so help him tell the story and enjoy it (all of you).
If you have a party that just wants to side step all the challenges and get the loot you are missing the real fun of the game. Nobody gets a trophy for having the highest level character. Everybody wins by enjoying the time you spend playing the game.
Likewise, some DMs don't have the desire or lack the experience to make and tell a good story. In the first case, just politely get through the campaign and then don't ask that fellow to be the DM again. In the second case, lack of experience, strong players can help the new DM place color into the story by asking questions like "How are the guards dressed?" "What does the air smell like as we enter the cave?" "What do the arrows look like that we found in the skeleton's bones?" This will give the DM a prompt to tell a more vivid story and hopefully you will get a hint about what is ahead as a reward for your curiosity and observation.
If you're new to the game, your friends are probably new to the game also. As DM you need to be "ahead" of them in the story. You also need to have enough experience in just going through the steps of an encounter. Encounters include both combat encounters and "meeting" encounters. If you are bringing in new players I recommend playing through a sample battle of four or so Player Characters (PCs) against six or so Monsters in a constricted space so the six monsters can't engage the four players all at once. This helps the new players learn the sequence of events in a fight and a little about controlling the engagement so they don't get overwhelmed. The other encounters, like meeting a town guard at the gate, or a shopkeeper to buy/trade goods may be learned as you go. The final type of meeting encounter is entering a room that has some sort of device, like a trap door, a hidden treasure or important scroll. Some discussion about searching a room might help a new player understand how these things are managed.
I recommend starting at the beginning with entry level characters. In this way you only need to learn spells up to about level 3 as you get started since higher level spells just won't be used. Why level 3 and not just level 1? Your NPCs (non-player characters controlled by the DM) might have access to higher level spells. Generally though they should not be accessing level 9 spells because that makes them a top level player and level one players would not be high enough to attract their attention so they just wouldn't be interacting normally. If you need to do that, make sure it is an important storytelling element.
Find some friends that enjoy spending time together and invest some time in writing and telling a good story. It's like reading a great book but you get to be part of the story. Imagine getting to be Bilbo in the Hobbit. He started out inexperienced with some special burglar qualities. He came through the challenges rewarded for the experience. But he never tried to stop the story. He just rolled with it. Most D&D parties are made up of players with the same degree of experience, not like having Gandolf, Legolas and Strider there to protect you.
If you are the DM, flesh out a bit of the world around your encounter. Remember the players are not operating in a vacuum. The place where their "dungeon" encounter occurs is in larger place, often within the domesticated area of the world that is part of a kingdom, province and county. What bigger events are transpiring around the party while they are searching for the key to the Lost Mine or the fabled map of Celedron? Why does Melchezidak want you to take this message to Prince Balthezor?
Good luck! Happy storytelling. Merry Christmas!