Been watching Critical Role and its convinced me try out DnD. Managed to get my friends to also give it a go, I was just posting here for any general tips/tricks you experienced DMs can give me as I attempt to steer a new band of travellers through all the adventures to come!
My current plan is to take them through a One shot campaign to test the waters and afterwards try to make a long campaign if it all works out.
Do a one-shot adventure first so everyone gets the feel of playing (and you get the feel of running) the game. I would suggest Matt Colville's five-encounter tomb. It has combat, it has traps, it has puzzles, and it requires very little prep and can be packaged nicely into a block of a few hours. Watch the 13-minute video if you have not already and see what you think. If that goes well and everyone has fun, I would suggest rolling up characters and running the players through the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set. It is a tried and true campaign that puts very little overhead on you while you are learning how to take on the role of the Dungeon Master.
2) You'll mess up and that's okay. The main key is to have fun.
3) Know the rules better than your players. Not the spells, just the rules of running the world.
4) Watch your players very very closely, they'll show you what type of game they like.
5) Don't compare yourself to other DMs. They're not running your game, you are.
6) Prepare random names, personality quirks and personas. Trust me, they'll want to know what that random guard's name is, and it better be more than Guard No.2!
7) Talk to your players. After every new group I always ask what about the game they enjoyed. What would they like more of and what didn't they particularly care for.
8) Finally. The players care more about their characters than your world. They are the heroes. Never ever ever make them feel like you care more about your world than their characters or their experiences. You build this world for THEM. You build it and prep it so that they can feel that it's a real world but at no point should they feel like you hold it in higher regard than their experience of it. I hope that makes sense.
7) Talk to your players. After every new group I always ask what about the game they enjoyed. What would they like more of and what didn't they particularly care for.
And talk to them before you play. Find out what kind of gaming you're going to be doing--serious, silly, etc? There's little that's worse than a GM who wants a serious campaign with drama and tough choices and tension and etc., and the players just want to hang around at the tavern and get into bar fights, find magical ways to enlarge their junk, etc.
I've also sometimes found, depending on the group and what resources/books you have available, that it can help to divide up tasks for new players/DMs. For example, one person is the Spell Guru. When questions come up about what spell does what, she whips out the PHB and looks it up. Another player is the Combat Guru, and is in charge of looking up what happens when the goblin runs behind that rock. You'll want each spellcaster to have the basics of the spell written down, but sometimes it's best to not have everyone flipping through their unfamiliar books looking for the same info--instead have one person who knows where the combat info is, and can look it up for everyone.
Also...change rules if the alternative is no one having fun :)
1: "Death is death, death is there." Remind your players of death, and that you aren't going to "have a golden arrow fly out of nowhere from the left where a wall that was searched earlier disappears as the illusion fades and a figure charges through!". I was scared to kill a player for a long time, and in a campaign still am. Because I haven't reminded them of death. But I have so with my group of newer players. Then you don't have to worry about a natural 20 killing a PC. Unless they are level 1-2. Level 3 wizards/sorcerers can be quite squishy be else there, you can pull it off a few times.
2: "Yes. Yes you, you can do that. Yes... you can unfortunately do that. *******, OKAY." Even if a player wants to do a task so weird and just seemingly useless and time wasting task. At times it's okay to let them. When you see Matt on CR he allows Nott to lay down on her stomach, go upside down and fire into the doorway underneath the floor in the burning building. That I never have the pleasure of allowing because my players haven't been that creative yet but stuff like that makes d&d feel open and not limiting yourself to a piece of paper. Or 3 if you're a spellcaster. A player says he wants to aim for the eye of a bandit? Okay. He has -10 to hit with his bow, but a +10 damage bonus. The arrow may ruin one eye but if he tries to do it with the other eye, perhaps on the big evil guy then you don't have to blind him. Just say that it grazes the temple. Someone running away and the fighter with sharpshooter says he wants to shoot an arrow ******* 480 ft into the man's leg to trip him? Sure! -5 AC or more/less. But he has to make a strength check equal to 8 + half the damage or fall prone, and perhaps even have a moment speed reduction. But sometimes, it's good to know when to say stop and drag it backwards a little.
3: "You're in this. Your players are in this. You are ALL in this." If you're feeling overwelmed by the need for prepping or having to run 8 monsters at once? Remember to talks with your players right before the game about it, and remember they are in this too. While DMing needs a little special finesse called "knowledge" which players expect you to have triple expertise in, you don't need to have it. I can barely remember my spells. So when a player says "I ask Scorching ray!". I normally reply (if I don't know what it does) "Okay, what does it do?". There is a trust between the DM and the players, and that means that you don't need to know EVERYTHING.
4: "Have fun!" For the love of Tymora! Have fun! If a DM doesn't have fun, the players rare will. My DM last session had us fight 5 hill giants. While this was his first time DMing 5e, after having played 5e as a player for a little while, he looked frustrated. But when you give your barbarian a +3 speed great axe, and a very skilled ranger archer and a pegasus to 1 player. It's bound to make it harder for ya. I had a flying carpet, the ranger could stay out of the fight, and the barbarian could **** everything else up. In an open field, with 1 character never need to move or for the giants impossible to attack, then it's hard. So think about what could make it more fun in a fight. So we got an open field. 3 characters. 5 hill giants. First off, no need to stick to the MM (Monster Manual) by every word and number. Say that they appear more armored, it seems like that frost giant jarl has better troops than most! Suddenly, they have an AC of 16. Then, as the giants are charging the first one gives of a loud war cry! He uses his rally ability! Now they all get 30 temp hit points! And have advantage to strike until the end of his next turn! Okay that's one way to make them more dangerous. Now the open field. As the giants charge down the hill, stones and large boulders that they have been collecting suddenly begin to plummet. So the town now gets hit by these and that allows the giants to slaughter the town inhabitants or a character on the ground could get hit by em! Doing a whole 4d10 damage. Fun is also sometimes difficulty. Sometimes you wanna throw 4 animated armors at a level 4 party of 2 and a bear! My player said that it was the best I had made for the yet (I am very proud of that) because they were so pressed that entire fight. The wizard ended up with 1 spell slot left. One of the best times I've had was in a house where I was low on spells, low on health, and had to save some spells for the big bad guy who kept going invis or teleporting away! Some I had to save for healing and others I had to save for utility. (That one got way longer than I had planned)
5: "Curses aren't fun when they aren't cursing anyone." This is a slightly later game tip but whatever. When thinking of giving out a cursed item, think about "why" the party would use it. It seems like a +2 shortsword! You swing toward the goblin with your new sword, you are now cursed! You have disadvantage on all attacks and do 1 damage. That's not very fun. Think of a curse you can live with, at least somewhat. And an ability that is really good. And is hard to pass up. Because you can't change that attunement later. So when making a cursed item, make it a good item on top of that. That will make the players think of using a cursed weapon, BY ******* CHOICE! Now that's some cool DMing! Getting a player to WILLINGLY attune to a cursed item. Remember Kraven Edge? Didn't seem that cursed when he used it. No bad effects. Oops! You use it too much and if you can survive the exhaustion points then you do 2d6 necrotic damage. But when resting, DC 16 save or die. Just a free little tip. Oh and remember to be careful with cursed items. No one likes to attune to a cursed item with no other good effects and the DM being like "Yeah you have to get a cleric to do that. Oh yeah your cleric friend can't do it, she is not high enough level" at level 10 just because the DM wants to curse someone. That can really quickly ruin a character.
ELSE, HAVE FUN! I hope you find D&D as fun and entertaining as you hope! I wish you the best loot on your travels, the best stories told in taverns! Good luck my friend! Good to see more people coming over to d&d! Now is the time to be a nerd! ^^
Lots of good advice in here, I only have a couple thoughts that I didn't see mentioned:
If everyone is new to the game: Play Lost Mines of Phandelver first. It's probably one of the best starter adventures that has been released in a long time. Light weight in the sense that the basic rules given in the box are enough to run it successfully. The pre-generated characters will help players get an understanding of the character sheet, the level up process, and immediate plot/character hooks. The way the adventure is written also does a decent job and giving the DM a lot of direction and assistance for handling the adventure and uncommon actions the players may take.
Having a PHB (Players Handbook) will be the most help, the Monster Manual (MM) is probably second and then the DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide). These three core books will be enough for you to run years worth of material and purchasing them in this order generally covers most of the concerns that arise at a table in a natural progression. PHB will cover the foundation of how the game is played, the combat rules, the spell and action rules, as well as character progression and most of the items they'll ask about. The MM second because, as DMs and players are bound to want, you'll need to figure out the stat block of new/different monsters to throw into your games. The DMG comes last because, after playing a couple modules, it is natural that DMs will want to craft their own stories, the DMG is the tool to do just that.
I, personally, suggest not doing a homebrew until you have 2-3 modules under your belt. Study the pace, the flow, the progression, and the structure of a few different modules to get an understanding of why the designers put each element in. Why do they have a weapon that seems function-less show up in the 3rd chapter? Did you miss the small side quest where that weapon became important? How are the rooms set up to make it feel like you're constantly in danger? What special traits do the NPCs in that town have to make them fit into the overall theme of the story? Why do they offer both XP and Milestone leveling, and why are they gaped the way they are? All of these questions, and more, will help you understand your role as a DM better.
In the end you're all sitting down to pretend to be in LoTR and you'll wind up looking more like Monty Python. So enjoy, have fun, and welcome to the fold, may the dice gods favor you!
Almost everyone will tell you that the Lost Mines of Phandelver (may have spelled it wrong) is probably the best starting campaign you can go with for a group of newbies. It's got a little bit of everything and it's not too difficult to DM or play. After you've done that one-shot, give it a try.
Be flexible, sometimes players will derail what you plan so get good at improvising. Craft some events around the player character's background so they feel more involved. Give everyone a chance to shine, if there's something your players have and don't use a lot, give them an opportunity to use it.
Give yourself and your players time. Don't worry about trying to learn all the rules before you play, and don't expect new players to, either. As long as you all have some understanding of the basics (attacks & damage, ability checks vs. saving throws, DCs & CRs, etc.), the rest will come in time. Plan on spending some time flipping through the various books to look up monsters and spells, or make yourself some notecards with the basics written down. The same goes for getting into the groove of playing and RPing. Don't expect your players to do voices and really RP starting out, they will get more comfortable over time. And so will you.
Also, when you start to get ready to run a campaign, try not to over-prepare. Your instinct is going to want to have everything ready and available, but remember, the story can be as fluid as you want it to be, YOU are the DM. If your players completely bypass the NPC encounter you had set up for one location, move the encounter. If they leave town and head in the opposite direction of the dungeon you had prepared, guess what? Now it's over there. It's no problem keeping the story moving without "railroading" your players, just by moving things around behind the scenes. You're not writing a novel, you don't need to have everything scripted and locked into place. Take enough notes to know where you left off, and important NPCs and locations, but not so much that you end up eventually flipping through a book of your own to find something from a month ago.
Most importantly: RELAX. HAVE CONFIDENCE. HAVE FUN.
This is all amazing advice, thank you all for spending the time helping me out!!! I'll definitely be taking all this advice to heart as I begin playing! <3
When you start, you'll be learning so much, and so will your players. I've found some people really struggle with a game where they can do absolutely anything. They tend to want more guidance, and you'll need to ask some more leading questions, or point out features or people/objects that they can interact with.
Role play can be a real struggle for new players, so getting that to happen can take time. It starts with you. Give your NPC's character. Do voices if you're comfortable with that. With NPC's, I like to find pictures from online that I can look at when RPing that character. It helps me visualise them. How they move. What they look like. I also base voices on movie characters. Don't use cliché's, but sometimes it's easier to stay in character if you're thinking about how Forrest Gump would say it, or Batman, or Bond, or whatever obscure character you like. Don't use their catchphrases (life is like a box of chocolates etc), just their voice. And it doesn't need to be someone iconic, I only use those examples so you know what I'm talking about. It can help keep you focussed.
Keep the game moving. If you don't know the rule, use logic. Don't let the game get bogged down every 5 minutes while you sift through the dmg, phb, volo's etc etc etc. Make a ruling, keep playing, then double check it later to see if you got it right. If you didn't learn from it. No big deal.
Have a session zero. Get all your PC's on the same page. What's acceptable? Player on player violence? Party composition. Having a group of 5 level 1 wizards is probably not going to end well.... Backstories! They're the lifeblood of a character and really help players get invested in their creations.
As everyone else has said, Lost Mines of Phandelver is a great place to start. But it's a lot longer than a one shot, so maybe try to get your hands on Tales from the Yawning Portal. Most of those you can knock over in a few sessions, and have natural stopping points if you want to wrap it up early. You may get lucky at your local library with a copy. You see them second hand online every now and then. Best of luck!
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Hey guys!
Been watching Critical Role and its convinced me try out DnD. Managed to get my friends to also give it a go, I was just posting here for any general tips/tricks you experienced DMs can give me as I attempt to steer a new band of travellers through all the adventures to come!
My current plan is to take them through a One shot campaign to test the waters and afterwards try to make a long campaign if it all works out.
Thanks all :)
Do a one-shot adventure first so everyone gets the feel of playing (and you get the feel of running) the game. I would suggest Matt Colville's five-encounter tomb. It has combat, it has traps, it has puzzles, and it requires very little prep and can be packaged nicely into a block of a few hours. Watch the 13-minute video if you have not already and see what you think. If that goes well and everyone has fun, I would suggest rolling up characters and running the players through the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set. It is a tried and true campaign that puts very little overhead on you while you are learning how to take on the role of the Dungeon Master.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
1) Watch this series... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_
2) You'll mess up and that's okay. The main key is to have fun.
3) Know the rules better than your players. Not the spells, just the rules of running the world.
4) Watch your players very very closely, they'll show you what type of game they like.
5) Don't compare yourself to other DMs. They're not running your game, you are.
6) Prepare random names, personality quirks and personas. Trust me, they'll want to know what that random guard's name is, and it better be more than Guard No.2!
7) Talk to your players. After every new group I always ask what about the game they enjoyed. What would they like more of and what didn't they particularly care for.
8) Finally. The players care more about their characters than your world. They are the heroes. Never ever ever make them feel like you care more about your world than their characters or their experiences. You build this world for THEM. You build it and prep it so that they can feel that it's a real world but at no point should they feel like you hold it in higher regard than their experience of it. I hope that makes sense.
#OPENDND
Awesome, thanks guys. I'll watch both of the videos. Great tips, Ill write up just a bunch of random names and little personality notes, great idea!
And talk to them before you play. Find out what kind of gaming you're going to be doing--serious, silly, etc? There's little that's worse than a GM who wants a serious campaign with drama and tough choices and tension and etc., and the players just want to hang around at the tavern and get into bar fights, find magical ways to enlarge their junk, etc.
I've also sometimes found, depending on the group and what resources/books you have available, that it can help to divide up tasks for new players/DMs. For example, one person is the Spell Guru. When questions come up about what spell does what, she whips out the PHB and looks it up. Another player is the Combat Guru, and is in charge of looking up what happens when the goblin runs behind that rock. You'll want each spellcaster to have the basics of the spell written down, but sometimes it's best to not have everyone flipping through their unfamiliar books looking for the same info--instead have one person who knows where the combat info is, and can look it up for everyone.
Also...change rules if the alternative is no one having fun :)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
1: "Death is death, death is there."
Remind your players of death, and that you aren't going to "have a golden arrow fly out of nowhere from the left where a wall that was searched earlier disappears as the illusion fades and a figure charges through!". I was scared to kill a player for a long time, and in a campaign still am. Because I haven't reminded them of death. But I have so with my group of newer players. Then you don't have to worry about a natural 20 killing a PC. Unless they are level 1-2. Level 3 wizards/sorcerers can be quite squishy be else there, you can pull it off a few times.
2: "Yes. Yes you, you can do that. Yes... you can unfortunately do that. *******, OKAY."
Even if a player wants to do a task so weird and just seemingly useless and time wasting task. At times it's okay to let them. When you see Matt on CR he allows Nott to lay down on her stomach, go upside down and fire into the doorway underneath the floor in the burning building. That I never have the pleasure of allowing because my players haven't been that creative yet but stuff like that makes d&d feel open and not limiting yourself to a piece of paper. Or 3 if you're a spellcaster. A player says he wants to aim for the eye of a bandit? Okay. He has -10 to hit with his bow, but a +10 damage bonus. The arrow may ruin one eye but if he tries to do it with the other eye, perhaps on the big evil guy then you don't have to blind him. Just say that it grazes the temple. Someone running away and the fighter with sharpshooter says he wants to shoot an arrow ******* 480 ft into the man's leg to trip him? Sure! -5 AC or more/less. But he has to make a strength check equal to 8 + half the damage or fall prone, and perhaps even have a moment speed reduction. But sometimes, it's good to know when to say stop and drag it backwards a little.
3: "You're in this. Your players are in this. You are ALL in this."
If you're feeling overwelmed by the need for prepping or having to run 8 monsters at once? Remember to talks with your players right before the game about it, and remember they are in this too. While DMing needs a little special finesse called "knowledge" which players expect you to have triple expertise in, you don't need to have it. I can barely remember my spells. So when a player says "I ask Scorching ray!". I normally reply (if I don't know what it does) "Okay, what does it do?". There is a trust between the DM and the players, and that means that you don't need to know EVERYTHING.
4: "Have fun!"
For the love of Tymora! Have fun! If a DM doesn't have fun, the players rare will. My DM last session had us fight 5 hill giants. While this was his first time DMing 5e, after having played 5e as a player for a little while, he looked frustrated. But when you give your barbarian a +3 speed great axe, and a very skilled ranger archer and a pegasus to 1 player. It's bound to make it harder for ya. I had a flying carpet, the ranger could stay out of the fight, and the barbarian could **** everything else up. In an open field, with 1 character never need to move or for the giants impossible to attack, then it's hard. So think about what could make it more fun in a fight. So we got an open field. 3 characters. 5 hill giants. First off, no need to stick to the MM (Monster Manual) by every word and number. Say that they appear more armored, it seems like that frost giant jarl has better troops than most! Suddenly, they have an AC of 16. Then, as the giants are charging the first one gives of a loud war cry! He uses his rally ability! Now they all get 30 temp hit points! And have advantage to strike until the end of his next turn! Okay that's one way to make them more dangerous. Now the open field. As the giants charge down the hill, stones and large boulders that they have been collecting suddenly begin to plummet. So the town now gets hit by these and that allows the giants to slaughter the town inhabitants or a character on the ground could get hit by em! Doing a whole 4d10 damage.
Fun is also sometimes difficulty. Sometimes you wanna throw 4 animated armors at a level 4 party of 2 and a bear! My player said that it was the best I had made for the yet (I am very proud of that) because they were so pressed that entire fight. The wizard ended up with 1 spell slot left. One of the best times I've had was in a house where I was low on spells, low on health, and had to save some spells for the big bad guy who kept going invis or teleporting away! Some I had to save for healing and others I had to save for utility. (That one got way longer than I had planned)
5: "Curses aren't fun when they aren't cursing anyone."
This is a slightly later game tip but whatever. When thinking of giving out a cursed item, think about "why" the party would use it. It seems like a +2 shortsword! You swing toward the goblin with your new sword, you are now cursed! You have disadvantage on all attacks and do 1 damage. That's not very fun. Think of a curse you can live with, at least somewhat. And an ability that is really good. And is hard to pass up. Because you can't change that attunement later. So when making a cursed item, make it a good item on top of that. That will make the players think of using a cursed weapon, BY ******* CHOICE! Now that's some cool DMing! Getting a player to WILLINGLY attune to a cursed item. Remember Kraven Edge?
Didn't seem that cursed when he used it. No bad effects. Oops! You use it too much and if you can survive the exhaustion points then you do 2d6 necrotic damage. But when resting, DC 16 save or die. Just a free little tip. Oh and remember to be careful with cursed items. No one likes to attune to a cursed item with no other good effects and the DM being like "Yeah you have to get a cleric to do that. Oh yeah your cleric friend can't do it, she is not high enough level" at level 10 just because the DM wants to curse someone. That can really quickly ruin a character.
ELSE, HAVE FUN! I hope you find D&D as fun and entertaining as you hope! I wish you the best loot on your travels, the best stories told in taverns!
Good luck my friend! Good to see more people coming over to d&d! Now is the time to be a nerd! ^^
Lots of good advice in here, I only have a couple thoughts that I didn't see mentioned:
If everyone is new to the game: Play Lost Mines of Phandelver first. It's probably one of the best starter adventures that has been released in a long time. Light weight in the sense that the basic rules given in the box are enough to run it successfully. The pre-generated characters will help players get an understanding of the character sheet, the level up process, and immediate plot/character hooks. The way the adventure is written also does a decent job and giving the DM a lot of direction and assistance for handling the adventure and uncommon actions the players may take.
Having a PHB (Players Handbook) will be the most help, the Monster Manual (MM) is probably second and then the DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide). These three core books will be enough for you to run years worth of material and purchasing them in this order generally covers most of the concerns that arise at a table in a natural progression. PHB will cover the foundation of how the game is played, the combat rules, the spell and action rules, as well as character progression and most of the items they'll ask about. The MM second because, as DMs and players are bound to want, you'll need to figure out the stat block of new/different monsters to throw into your games. The DMG comes last because, after playing a couple modules, it is natural that DMs will want to craft their own stories, the DMG is the tool to do just that.
I, personally, suggest not doing a homebrew until you have 2-3 modules under your belt. Study the pace, the flow, the progression, and the structure of a few different modules to get an understanding of why the designers put each element in. Why do they have a weapon that seems function-less show up in the 3rd chapter? Did you miss the small side quest where that weapon became important? How are the rooms set up to make it feel like you're constantly in danger? What special traits do the NPCs in that town have to make them fit into the overall theme of the story? Why do they offer both XP and Milestone leveling, and why are they gaped the way they are? All of these questions, and more, will help you understand your role as a DM better.
In the end you're all sitting down to pretend to be in LoTR and you'll wind up looking more like Monty Python. So enjoy, have fun, and welcome to the fold, may the dice gods favor you!
Almost everyone will tell you that the Lost Mines of Phandelver (may have spelled it wrong) is probably the best starting campaign you can go with for a group of newbies. It's got a little bit of everything and it's not too difficult to DM or play. After you've done that one-shot, give it a try.
Be flexible, sometimes players will derail what you plan so get good at improvising. Craft some events around the player character's background so they feel more involved. Give everyone a chance to shine, if there's something your players have and don't use a lot, give them an opportunity to use it.
Give yourself and your players time. Don't worry about trying to learn all the rules before you play, and don't expect new players to, either. As long as you all have some understanding of the basics (attacks & damage, ability checks vs. saving throws, DCs & CRs, etc.), the rest will come in time. Plan on spending some time flipping through the various books to look up monsters and spells, or make yourself some notecards with the basics written down. The same goes for getting into the groove of playing and RPing. Don't expect your players to do voices and really RP starting out, they will get more comfortable over time. And so will you.
Also, when you start to get ready to run a campaign, try not to over-prepare. Your instinct is going to want to have everything ready and available, but remember, the story can be as fluid as you want it to be, YOU are the DM. If your players completely bypass the NPC encounter you had set up for one location, move the encounter. If they leave town and head in the opposite direction of the dungeon you had prepared, guess what? Now it's over there. It's no problem keeping the story moving without "railroading" your players, just by moving things around behind the scenes. You're not writing a novel, you don't need to have everything scripted and locked into place. Take enough notes to know where you left off, and important NPCs and locations, but not so much that you end up eventually flipping through a book of your own to find something from a month ago.
Most importantly: RELAX. HAVE CONFIDENCE. HAVE FUN.
He's BONA-FIDE!
This is all amazing advice, thank you all for spending the time helping me out!!! I'll definitely be taking all this advice to heart as I begin playing! <3
When you start, you'll be learning so much, and so will your players. I've found some people really struggle with a game where they can do absolutely anything. They tend to want more guidance, and you'll need to ask some more leading questions, or point out features or people/objects that they can interact with.
Role play can be a real struggle for new players, so getting that to happen can take time. It starts with you. Give your NPC's character. Do voices if you're comfortable with that. With NPC's, I like to find pictures from online that I can look at when RPing that character. It helps me visualise them. How they move. What they look like. I also base voices on movie characters. Don't use cliché's, but sometimes it's easier to stay in character if you're thinking about how Forrest Gump would say it, or Batman, or Bond, or whatever obscure character you like. Don't use their catchphrases (life is like a box of chocolates etc), just their voice. And it doesn't need to be someone iconic, I only use those examples so you know what I'm talking about. It can help keep you focussed.
Keep the game moving. If you don't know the rule, use logic. Don't let the game get bogged down every 5 minutes while you sift through the dmg, phb, volo's etc etc etc. Make a ruling, keep playing, then double check it later to see if you got it right. If you didn't learn from it. No big deal.
Have a session zero. Get all your PC's on the same page. What's acceptable? Player on player violence? Party composition. Having a group of 5 level 1 wizards is probably not going to end well.... Backstories! They're the lifeblood of a character and really help players get invested in their creations.
As everyone else has said, Lost Mines of Phandelver is a great place to start. But it's a lot longer than a one shot, so maybe try to get your hands on Tales from the Yawning Portal. Most of those you can knock over in a few sessions, and have natural stopping points if you want to wrap it up early. You may get lucky at your local library with a copy. You see them second hand online every now and then. Best of luck!