So, me, my sister, and a friend of ours have all wanted to play D&D in person together. I've been playing with an online group over Discord for almost a year and a half now, my sister has played a little bit, and our friend has never played. Since I'm the one with the most experience playing, it's kinda fallen on me to DM. Which is fine, I guess, aside from the fact that I really don't know what I'm doing. Maybe it's something I'll get the hang of, but I dunno. I really, really enjoy playing characters in any given campaign but have never really had an interest in DMing, and making up plots isn't really my strong suit. A while back, I tried to DM a game for my sister, our friend, and a member or two from my online group over Discord, and it was really awkward, enough that I wanted to go hide somewhere and never show my face (voice) again, lol.
So, I decided to make up my own city and try and get their input about places both in and out of said city in order to try and make a collaborative kind of world, in which the players will be members of an adventuring guild. I figure this would be good for a) trying something out that we can finish up in one session without pressure of worrying about "if this doesn't work out" for a long campaign (at least to start) and b) if another of my friend group wants to play, or if anyone joins us, we can easily make it work in-game. I've been looking at and downloading some free adventures online that I think I can fit into this world. Eventually, I can probably make up my own, too. I've also taken some note from DMs of games I'm in and made a little questionnaire for them to both add some character building and also find out what they want from the game.
I've watched some videos, listened to some podcasts, and have had nothing but great DMs in my games, so I feel like I'm on the right track? But, I just have a lot of uncertainty as to whether I can keep it together. It was a mess when I tried to do it last time, I was insanely awkward reading things aloud and I think it lowered my confidence in it even more :( Does anyone have any tips? Does this feeling go away when you get into a groove? Am I missing something? Or am I just worrying for no reason?
Reading can be incredibly awkward. It feels stilted and broken to your own ears. Two things: it sounds better than you think. I guarantee it. And know your world and ad lib. This is both harder, and easier.
If you know your world, you know what it feels like. What it smells like. Use pictures for inspiration and describe them. It's hard to "lose yourself" into a setting when you're reading it from a page. But it's much easier to just describe something you can see or picture and let the words flow. At least it is for me. So if you have a setting (a warehouse) get a picture of a warehouse. Maybe add a couple of queue words that describe things you can't see (creaky wood, musty smell) and just ad lib it.
THAT SAID. I'm a chronic over preparer, most of which I never use. So I'm not saying don't prepare, I'm just saying prepare your setting, but not your words.
I’d suggest a published adventure. Lost mines of phandelver is good for both new players and new DMs. It can help you get a feel for how to build encounters and design a plot that stretches across multiple game sessions. There’s lots of others that are quite good as well.
First thing's first: give yourself some credit. You're running a game, and that's a B.F.D. Like MajorPuddles said, it's going better than you think.
Second, it seems like your issue isn't that you don't know the system--since you've been playing for a year and a half, I assume you know it just fine--but rather that you're not feeling particularly confident. Confidence, in part, comes with experience. Since you just ran your first session, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. That's okay; we all did when we started out. The trick is not to get to tripped up on them. The more time you spend with your world, the more that you're going to discover your own creative voice, and the more natural reading your words is going to feel.
Learning how to prioritize your preparation for your sessions can also be helpful. Most of us DMs have a touch of "Worldbuilder's Disease," and though it can be fun to spend hours developing the history of all of the different merchant guilds of your setting, it's not particularly helpful for your next session. As it so happens, I wrote an article recently on how and what to prepare for your sessions. You may find it useful for planning purposes.
Yes, confidence only comes with practice. Running 1 session is enough to scare anyone off DMing. But if you come out of it knowing you have to do it again, you take the first one as a learning experience. What do you mean by saying it was a mess? Was it just how it felt, or did the players say over and over “I don’t know what’s going on.” Or were you constantly stopping the game to look up rules? Did you run a combat and realize you’d been forgetting to use some ability unique to that monster that would have really changed the feel of the fight? All these things and more are really common and make the DM feel like a failure, but they all get better with practice.
I do agree with using pre-published material, at least as a foundation. If you want to change the rewards a bit, swap out monsters here and there, add in side quests—all these things can be done. I’m still a novice DM, but have taken the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy for mid-level characters and am making it an even more open world by doing what I call “Adventure Blurring.” (that’s the story they wanted. They bought an HQ in Neverwinter, and left my old character behind to man it. Then they wanted to go back out looking for more work. So the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy was pre-printed perfection.). So because the characters are traveling the High Road from Neverwinter to resume their work in the adventure setting, they pass several locations the adventure will send them back to. I’m changing the adventure hook that sends them to some of these locations, then adjusting encounters up or down to match my party’s level (Some of these locations are leftover quests from Dragon of Icespire Peak that we were never sent on). And I’m introducing locations from the adventures that they can’t handle till later by inventing little side encounters as the players travel past them, so they feel like these locations pre-existed their quest. It feels like I’ve really made that region my own by doing what feels like very little work.
Firstly, and thankfully I guess, that first session I DM'd was just a one-shot a while ago, and between me just having a hard time speaking for nerves, and not having had much time to read over the adventure, it was slow and awkward. I'm hoping that really preparing enough and playing irl with them will help me to be more relaxed while we play. Narcolex, I took a look at that article and I think it makes a lot of sense! I was unsure how far out I should really plan things, so I'll keep this in mind.
Pretty much everything story-wise I'll be using so far is from adventures I've found online-- since the characters will be part of an adventuring guild I'm looking into one-shots right now that we can use. I might change some names here and there, etc., but I figured that was the best choice. I haven't gone super in-depth on anything I homebrewed (?) but just the bare bones of the city (i.e., the "neighborhoods" in a broad sense, and some visual descriptions etc), and I've left a lot of room outside this one particular city for either things my characters want to see/visit or maybe a way to take a longer-form campaign out of the city once we get the hang of playing together. I have a few NPCs (since there are only two people in this group/party, though I'm trying to keep things scaled enough they won't need them in combat or anything).
I'll do my best and hopefully I can make it work! Thankfully I have time, lol, between one player not having made a character yet, and our general schedule troubles it'll probably be a bit before we can play haha.
Basically: intentionally run a short adventure of three or four sessions - don't try for a long campaign right off the bat. Run a published module so you don't have to make everything up and worry about whether its balanced. And then limit the number of options you have to prepare to deal with by giving the players pre-generated characters. And most importantly, be up front with the players about why you're doing it. Just say "hey, let me run this short thing this way to get the hang of GMing, and then we can take the training wheels off and go."
Also, check out Matt Colville's "Running the Game" video series on YouTube. Excellent advice in there...
Dude, don't sweat it so much, just start creatinga world, all ideas will just start coming from everywhere, create the world and make a loose storyline, don't force your players to follow the path you set for them, because that will make them feel as though nothing that they do has any influence on the world. Remember that even though you created the world, they live in it, so let them change it, thats what we do, look at our planet, it was created we came and changed so much, don't take the power of influencing and transforming a world from your players. You are the DM and you can allways throw a curveball at them and stear them in the path you want them to go, but don't be to annoying with it, cuz in some sessions you just want to have fun and fool around not just follow a quest. And the most important thing is that you aren't too focused in telling your story, cuz you aren't writing a book you are creating a world and allowing people to explore it and change it, you will just be disappointed when your players are seeking some action and all you want them to do is learn about the vast lore that you have crafted up.
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Hi!
So, me, my sister, and a friend of ours have all wanted to play D&D in person together. I've been playing with an online group over Discord for almost a year and a half now, my sister has played a little bit, and our friend has never played. Since I'm the one with the most experience playing, it's kinda fallen on me to DM. Which is fine, I guess, aside from the fact that I really don't know what I'm doing. Maybe it's something I'll get the hang of, but I dunno. I really, really enjoy playing characters in any given campaign but have never really had an interest in DMing, and making up plots isn't really my strong suit. A while back, I tried to DM a game for my sister, our friend, and a member or two from my online group over Discord, and it was really awkward, enough that I wanted to go hide somewhere and never show my face (voice) again, lol.
So, I decided to make up my own city and try and get their input about places both in and out of said city in order to try and make a collaborative kind of world, in which the players will be members of an adventuring guild. I figure this would be good for a) trying something out that we can finish up in one session without pressure of worrying about "if this doesn't work out" for a long campaign (at least to start) and b) if another of my friend group wants to play, or if anyone joins us, we can easily make it work in-game. I've been looking at and downloading some free adventures online that I think I can fit into this world. Eventually, I can probably make up my own, too. I've also taken some note from DMs of games I'm in and made a little questionnaire for them to both add some character building and also find out what they want from the game.
I've watched some videos, listened to some podcasts, and have had nothing but great DMs in my games, so I feel like I'm on the right track? But, I just have a lot of uncertainty as to whether I can keep it together. It was a mess when I tried to do it last time, I was insanely awkward reading things aloud and I think it lowered my confidence in it even more :( Does anyone have any tips? Does this feeling go away when you get into a groove? Am I missing something? Or am I just worrying for no reason?
Any advice would be much appreciated >,<
Reading can be incredibly awkward. It feels stilted and broken to your own ears. Two things: it sounds better than you think. I guarantee it. And know your world and ad lib. This is both harder, and easier.
If you know your world, you know what it feels like. What it smells like. Use pictures for inspiration and describe them. It's hard to "lose yourself" into a setting when you're reading it from a page. But it's much easier to just describe something you can see or picture and let the words flow. At least it is for me. So if you have a setting (a warehouse) get a picture of a warehouse. Maybe add a couple of queue words that describe things you can't see (creaky wood, musty smell) and just ad lib it.
THAT SAID. I'm a chronic over preparer, most of which I never use. So I'm not saying don't prepare, I'm just saying prepare your setting, but not your words.
I’d suggest a published adventure. Lost mines of phandelver is good for both new players and new DMs. It can help you get a feel for how to build encounters and design a plot that stretches across multiple game sessions. There’s lots of others that are quite good as well.
First thing's first: give yourself some credit. You're running a game, and that's a B.F.D. Like MajorPuddles said, it's going better than you think.
Second, it seems like your issue isn't that you don't know the system--since you've been playing for a year and a half, I assume you know it just fine--but rather that you're not feeling particularly confident. Confidence, in part, comes with experience. Since you just ran your first session, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. That's okay; we all did when we started out. The trick is not to get to tripped up on them. The more time you spend with your world, the more that you're going to discover your own creative voice, and the more natural reading your words is going to feel.
Learning how to prioritize your preparation for your sessions can also be helpful. Most of us DMs have a touch of "Worldbuilder's Disease," and though it can be fun to spend hours developing the history of all of the different merchant guilds of your setting, it's not particularly helpful for your next session. As it so happens, I wrote an article recently on how and what to prepare for your sessions. You may find it useful for planning purposes.
Yes, confidence only comes with practice. Running 1 session is enough to scare anyone off DMing. But if you come out of it knowing you have to do it again, you take the first one as a learning experience. What do you mean by saying it was a mess? Was it just how it felt, or did the players say over and over “I don’t know what’s going on.” Or were you constantly stopping the game to look up rules? Did you run a combat and realize you’d been forgetting to use some ability unique to that monster that would have really changed the feel of the fight? All these things and more are really common and make the DM feel like a failure, but they all get better with practice.
I do agree with using pre-published material, at least as a foundation. If you want to change the rewards a bit, swap out monsters here and there, add in side quests—all these things can be done. I’m still a novice DM, but have taken the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy for mid-level characters and am making it an even more open world by doing what I call “Adventure Blurring.” (that’s the story they wanted. They bought an HQ in Neverwinter, and left my old character behind to man it. Then they wanted to go back out looking for more work. So the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy was pre-printed perfection.). So because the characters are traveling the High Road from Neverwinter to resume their work in the adventure setting, they pass several locations the adventure will send them back to. I’m changing the adventure hook that sends them to some of these locations, then adjusting encounters up or down to match my party’s level (Some of these locations are leftover quests from Dragon of Icespire Peak that we were never sent on). And I’m introducing locations from the adventures that they can’t handle till later by inventing little side encounters as the players travel past them, so they feel like these locations pre-existed their quest. It feels like I’ve really made that region my own by doing what feels like very little work.
Ah wow, thanks guys for all your replies!
Firstly, and thankfully I guess, that first session I DM'd was just a one-shot a while ago, and between me just having a hard time speaking for nerves, and not having had much time to read over the adventure, it was slow and awkward. I'm hoping that really preparing enough and playing irl with them will help me to be more relaxed while we play. Narcolex, I took a look at that article and I think it makes a lot of sense! I was unsure how far out I should really plan things, so I'll keep this in mind.
Pretty much everything story-wise I'll be using so far is from adventures I've found online-- since the characters will be part of an adventuring guild I'm looking into one-shots right now that we can use. I might change some names here and there, etc., but I figured that was the best choice. I haven't gone super in-depth on anything I homebrewed (?) but just the bare bones of the city (i.e., the "neighborhoods" in a broad sense, and some visual descriptions etc), and I've left a lot of room outside this one particular city for either things my characters want to see/visit or maybe a way to take a longer-form campaign out of the city once we get the hang of playing together. I have a few NPCs (since there are only two people in this group/party, though I'm trying to keep things scaled enough they won't need them in combat or anything).
I'll do my best and hopefully I can make it work! Thankfully I have time, lol, between one player not having made a character yet, and our general schedule troubles it'll probably be a bit before we can play haha.
Beware the writing style, but the Angry GM has some decent advice for running a first session: https://theangrygm.com/jumping-the-screen-how-to-run-your-first-rpg-session/
Basically: intentionally run a short adventure of three or four sessions - don't try for a long campaign right off the bat. Run a published module so you don't have to make everything up and worry about whether its balanced. And then limit the number of options you have to prepare to deal with by giving the players pre-generated characters. And most importantly, be up front with the players about why you're doing it. Just say "hey, let me run this short thing this way to get the hang of GMing, and then we can take the training wheels off and go."
Also, check out Matt Colville's "Running the Game" video series on YouTube. Excellent advice in there...
I second this. I was a new DM 2.5 years ago, and I watched all of Colville's Running the Game videos, and it made me be a lot better at DMing.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I'll check out that link for sure as well!
I've seen quite a few of Matt's videos too, so maybe I'll go back and rewatch some to refresh.
Thank you all so much! if we get it going I'll come back to report how it goes lol
Dude, don't sweat it so much, just start creatinga world, all ideas will just start coming from everywhere, create the world and make a loose storyline, don't force your players to follow the path you set for them, because that will make them feel as though nothing that they do has any influence on the world. Remember that even though you created the world, they live in it, so let them change it, thats what we do, look at our planet, it was created we came and changed so much, don't take the power of influencing and transforming a world from your players. You are the DM and you can allways throw a curveball at them and stear them in the path you want them to go, but don't be to annoying with it, cuz in some sessions you just want to have fun and fool around not just follow a quest. And the most important thing is that you aren't too focused in telling your story, cuz you aren't writing a book you are creating a world and allowing people to explore it and change it, you will just be disappointed when your players are seeking some action and all you want them to do is learn about the vast lore that you have crafted up.