I joined my first D&D group and am enjoying my first character tremendously, but the group has been having issues for a while biggest of which might be our first time DM doesn't seem to have the energy, time and interest in preparing and playing nearly as much anymore. This lead to a bit of a confused panic when group members wanted to play on Christmas Eve and the DM was nowhere to be seen (I mean it makes sense for the day but it's an issue that's not exclusive to that one time). In the chaos I proposed stepping in and ultimately found myself organizing a multi-round arena setup overnight. This has made me ponder if I should bench my Ranger and take up the cloak of a DM going forward and hopefully allow our current DM to play in a way that's less preparation heavy.
Now I have several things on my mind moving forward with this idea ranging from probably "insignificant" to "gonna have to move on".
1- The obvious first step is purely practical, but the current setting I'm kind of DMing is pretty unattached to anything. The players said "we want to make characters and fight on maps" so I mostly enabled just that, but from the moment I opened up the roll20 session for them they started talking about their characters... of which I'm surprised from the lack thereof in our main game, but nonetheless pleased. This also means I don't have any concrete answer on if I need to buy a Dungeon Master book and campaign book for both D&D Beyond and roll20 or if I just do the former, the latter will adjust.
2- speaking of campaign, I'm 100% looking into using a pre-written module as my base, but given the current circumstances I'm already at a split. My players decided they wanted to make level 5 characters and go up a level every round and then during round 1 they decided they wanted those characters in an actual campaign. Would you say it's an issue if I leveled down their characters to get started on a campaign proper or would you advise against this? I ask because I'm thinking of making their current host send them back in time, or have them wake up from a connected dream to have an idea of where they want to get to as characters. For example I have a player who says he's a representative to a brewing company as a way to explain his Drunken Master Monk (so far he's 2/2 for alcoholic characters..) and I'd say he wakes up as a guy who only started brewing recently and dreamed about his current state as a go to goal he'd like to ideally achieve within the settings of the campaign. The other option is to make their subsequent round levels temporary and start them back where they initially presented themselves at level 5... though that brings some specific magic item choices as issues from the onset and starting level 5 campaigns seem pretty rare and few.
If I start them at level 1 I could start an Icewind Dale or a Hoard of the Dragon Queen perhaps. I've seen several suggestions to start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, but unfortunately that's where our current game takes place so I don't want to just redo the same module. If I start at level 5 then it seems I'd have Infernal Machine and Kwalish, but idk if these are good starting off points anyway. We tend to not do Horror, though I hear most adventure books got some level of it regardless so I don't really know where to start really outside of not being able to open with the "beginning to DM" campaign.
3- part of the reason I worry but also kind of want to start fresh is for balancing issues. Currently 2 out of my 3 current players have Ogre Strength, with the other one having magical tattoos to punch within 15 feet. They all have brawler knucklehead characters with no synergy and I have a barbarian Tortle as well as a barbarian Aaracokra who doesn't seem to catch my worry of him starting with a 50ft flying speed from the get go. Am I setting myself for failure from the start? Do I have to litter dungeons with healing potions to give them a chance?
4- at this point maybe just general tips, but I'm trying to piece together what's important. A session Zero, a map creating software and campaign/DM/Monster books. Am I missing anything critical? I already have the PHB, Zanathar's and Tasha's. I kind of want to describe and build them a story where they feel cool and have fun and even have a few NPC ideas in mind to give them a diet Critical Role style fun (thankfully none of them know of the show so my influence isn't too in their face).
Sorry this is a little scatterbrained of me since I'm typing this before I gotta tend to New Year's Eve but any help, correction or suggestion in what I got so far would be very welcomed. I know 1 of the guy seemed to like my style last time but I've yet to get the current DM on board and the other two aren't commenting much so maybe there's a bit of insecurity in my direction right now.
It sounds like you absolutely need a session 0. Your players seem extremely fickle and they seem to be changing their minds on what they want on a session or hourly basis. It is nearly impossible to run D&D successfully under these conditions. You need to sit down and have a long, heart to heart talk with them about what they really want in a campaign, and you should explain to them that they can't just up and change their minds on the entire nature of the campaign next week. As a DM, you will not be able to compensate for this and your job will be impossible. Frankly, if they were pulling this kind of change-their-mind-like-people-change-socks behavior on your prior DM, I don't blame that person for souring on DMing. I would want to sour on it too, under such conditions.
Also, in terms of books, you should definitely buy the DM Guide either here or on Roll20 or wherever you prefer. You will need access to the information contained there. You may also want Monster Manual, but that will be far less important if you run published adventures, since the necessary monsters will usually be provided in the adventure book.
I can't speak to what adventure you should play from among the published ones, as I have not played or run any of them.
I would not de-level existing characters. I would make up completely new ones from scratch at level 1. I would not allow them to have any magic items no matter what level you start them off, especially not things like ogre strength at low level. You will find them just blowing through the existing encounters in the published modules if you allow this, and it'll be too easy, and they will get bored.
I highly encourage you to start simple. Try a starter adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak, or failing that at least something that starts at level 1.
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I am a new DM too, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
1. The way you are describing your players seems like they are telling you what you should do. You definitely need to take what they want into consideration and have open conversation and be collaborative. However, you do have final say as the DM. Don't let them push you around.
2. If you run a premade module then buy that through Roll20 and its all set up for you. It will save you a ton of time. BUT I personally find D&D beyond a lot more user friendly for all the other source books. If you have dual screen its nice to have Roll20 on one and D&D beyond on the other to look up whatever you need. I use Roll20 just for maps and for player character sheets and the rest is a combination of D&D beyond and pen and paper. Though if you buy a module on Roll20 its pretty nice because its all premade for you. Just making homebrew encounters is annoying on Roll20.
3. I am running Dragon Heist but have already made a ton of changes and integrated characters backstories. Its a bit complex for first time but I am managing. I don't know if I would recommend it for first time. I spent so much time watching a ton of youtube videos in preparation. Especially for chapter 2 which is so open ended. I don't regret it cause its a fun concept and I like the big city/politics setting. But it was a lot of work for me being new to both DM and D&D.
4. Definitely don't give them crazy magic items. I made the mistake of giving out some overpowered stuff, plus my only experienced player suggested a way to roll stats that was too overpowered (i didn't know any better). So now I have to modify every encounter of the campaign to make it challenging. Its fine, but annoying.
First time DM here that started like you, as a player and after a short period, took up the mantle of DM due to having less reliable DMs.
I completely agree with BioWizard in having a session 0 to determine if players really want a campaign, or just some fun.
So an idea your group may like is a series of modules where they can create new characters for the different story lines. Gives them chances to use different classes, as they have already demonstrated changing opinions. I didn't want my group to miss out on a session, so during the week leading up to my first session DMing I spoke to them when they were available, some were individually, some were in a pair. This allowed me to tell them what sort of campaigns I would enjoy running as DM and what sort of tone the campaign would have. (just all fun, happy go lucky or actions have consequences. Going easy on them because they are fond of their characters or not pulling punches, characters will die if you go guns blazing into every situation) I then listened to what they would like to see happen, developing side quests related to personal backstory etc.
This allowed me to find a good basis in which to develop the start of a campaign, which we are approaching a year. We have gamed every week, only taking a break for christmas. There were a couple of weeks I was not available, but with some encouragement, one of the players ran a oneshot that lasted a few weeks allowing me to also play when I returned. If you do run a series of modules or start a campaign, check in with the players occasionally to get feedback, if they are enjoying how it is going, any criticism of your DMing style etc. Although don't take that as a need to force yourself to DM how they want if you don't enjoy it. As much as it is about creating a story for the players and letting them go with it, you must also be having fun.
For books and programs, I spent money on trying various sites and tools. Hands down dungeondraft and wonderdraft are awesome and will cover most of your needs. The big bonus is its a good price and no subscription. Roll20 has been good so far but the development of Astral Tabletop, which now also has source lighting, will soon be our virtual table top as I find it is more user friendly and if you go for a subscription for storage space etc, it is better value. I only mention this as buying anything on Roll20 will cement you to that site unless you just want to abandon your purchases. With that in mind, the Beyond20 browser extension is a life saver, allowing you to roll for anything using your characters and monsters here on DND Beyond and have it displayed in Roll20 or other VTT. This means you can have all your adventure and source books here in one place and you lose nothing should you move to astral or foundry. This means creating and using homebrew items, monsters, encounters is much easier.
You're in the perfect position. You already have a group, and you're doing it for the right reasons (to keep your group playing). Though I would say keep the old DM in the loop and express appreciation for having run the game so far. Make sure they want a new DM taking over their group / campaign, or maybe they will want to share responsibilities to a greater or lesser degree.
I would say make sure your players know you're the boss now if you become the DM. If you don't want aarakocra in your game, then there should be no aarakocra in your game. As a new DM, they need to make things as easy on your as possible.
Thanks guys, idk why I thought I'd better rush to get answers in a couple days or whatever my head was at. Trying to break this down in a readable reply form now.
I think the general comment is definitely that I need the Dungeon Master's book, which makes sense and perhaps the Monster Manual but otherwise I might be set compendium wise if I understand correctly.
@BioWizard: Yeah our current group and DM mostly formed with them having the most playing experience and saying they'd handle it, but we never had a session zero or much boundaries, it kind of started the first session with "So what do you guys wanna do?" with barely any guidelines. A mix of wildly incompatible character traits and "As long as you know how to learn your characters" leads to a lot of individual chaos which might in retrospect be biting our DM in the ass more than they expected, that or it leads to moments where I have to pretend my animal loving forest dwelling ranger somehow didn't notice member A and B murdering wolf pups and burning woods because I don't want to halt the group AGAIN because the only rule we were given is "do whatever but you can't fight each other". I suppose you're right, the whole warping characters back in time or dream sequence might be a bit contrived so it might just make sense to get them to start from scratch in the context of whichever module I pick. That whole "we want to fight in arenas and have magic items" didn't feel like it would matter a whole lot in a setting with no story (even if they asked for the setting to be fleshed out immediately), but even at 2 uncommons at level 5 instantly lead to crazy min maxing I would hate to start a campaign or module with. I'll look at your book suggestion, if I'm not mistaken I think that's the one that's part of the essentials kit? If so I think half my group has read that one so I might need to skip over but I'll definitely double check.
@Evil_Lynn I'm definitely trying to put in place a bit of structure so the players don't feel restricted but also don't just run me over. I'm guessing the Adventure books on roll20 might be the way if I'd have to manually transcribe whichever module manually... so far I've been drawing those maps in DungeonFog and if the choice go between that and them being already there it's a pretty simple choice to make. Including fully implementing my characters in the setting is definitely on my mind.... granted I do have some reckless lunatics in the group in our campaign that are already on their 3rd character at level 6 but maybe a bit of structure and encouragement will make them less likely to shield surf into an enemy camp or actively taunt a dragon to breathe on the group hiding in ambush cuz "my character is so crazy"........ sigh. We literally had to collectively say that character needed to go cuz that killed 2 other characters and my pet for the sake of him being looney...
@ThisIsRaving Do Dungeoncraft and wondercraft include a vitual tabletop? I mentioned roll20 cuz that's what we're currently using (alongside the Beyond20 app and our D&D Beyond accounts), but for the current unbound setting it felt fine just drawing and on DungeonFog and integrating manually in roll20.... but that also made me quickly learn I would hate to do that for every single area ever too.. as it's time consuming already and I don't even really have a real story to manage yet. Ideally I'd just keep buying books on D&D Beyond and have everything at the same spot but it seems like this might cause trouble in integration. I'll research a bit more on how I want to run my session zero, but yeah I want my game to be fun and enjoyable, but with a structure that isn't utter freakin chaos. Perhaps start with a smaller sized campaign which sort of makes me look at Horde of the Dragon Queen even more over Icewind Dale, given it's quicker, seems to have an optional follow up in Rise of Tiamat and might not be horror themed (which I hear Icewind Dale is, didn't know).
@pavilionaire I mean I hope I'm gonna do it well and I feel like my intentions are good, which I'd love to keep playing my beloved ranger, if we don't have a session to begin with that's not me playing her either as well as anything else. I do want to include the former/current DM though they've been unresponsive to the current battle royal style I had to create overnight, but I'm gonna try a bit harder if I get an actual "serious" game going. Very frequently they'd just stop a session short cuz they had not planned something or they were getting headaches at character interactions and didn't know how to rule something that has a strict RAW description, but they do say they enjoy their time with the group so maybe a lesser burden might help (fingers crossed they don't burn me out). As mentioned before, the whole aarakorka thing might not matter if I actually start fresh, but in a way after last time that was the actual player who decided they wanted to chat my ear up after the session and I did mention if that specific race was to be around I'd tweak their wings. They seemed puzzled and unhappy but hopefully me mentioning them have about twice as much speed as everybody else WHILE FLYING is a bit unfair for everyone. Also their "But some video games make arrows do more damage to wings" suggestion vanished pretty quickly when another player did exactly that....
Hey, if the aarakocran ever gets annoying, just attack with a ghost. One Wis save of 7 or less and they age 10 x d4 years. Aarakocran lifespans are only like 4 years, so that's instant death.
The Draft programs are just for map making, I would recommend looking at a few YouTube videos on them. While you can go in depth and detailed, they are easy to use to quickly create a map, putting in some objects that may represent a room, important features, icons for towns, forests, roads etc. Using descriptions to add any extra flavour. It helps provide flexibility when you can't find a map that suits your needs and don't want to rely on drawings on Roll20. More of a visual improvement, not necessary for gameplay in any way.
Definitely start small, sticking to a module to help you understand the flow of things and how your players will settle in to their characters. This means should you go into developing your own story lines that continue on from the module, you have an idea of how much RP/intrigue to Combat ratio your group enjoy.
On a side note, one of my players is an Aarakocra but from the start, before even joining our group, she had already ordered custom art work where her character had lost his wings. She wanted the race for flavour and she liked the race not because of features and abilities. I want my party to stay at the same xp level so I regularly reward inspiration points to characters that RP with each other, NPCs or even enemies, play into the flavour of their background or add good descriptions to how they do something, such as getting the finishing blow.
As we worked through the Phandalin module, I spoke with my players, getting them invested in their backstories, fleshing them out. This not only helped my players accept and work with their character flaws, but also helped me as I could include towns, countries, cultures all from their backgrounds. It had my players invested in the world that was being created but also made my life easier as they created more than half of the continent for me. Your don't have to go so in depth, but adding even small details that reference their backstories could encourage their investment to their characters and the story. So just consider the time spent doing a module or two allows you and your group to know if you want to go full blown campaign style and gives you time to think about what that campaign story will be.
The more you research, the more ideas you get from other people such as this awesome community, the more confident you will be with knowing what you are capable of achieving whilst still enjoying the game as a DM.
I ran another round of that battle royal "oneshot" today and the aarakorka certainly had some gripe mentioned toward him flying constantly, I guess this is the prime setting where other players would complain about that. He said that catching him would be easy if the others cast Sleep on him... though considering we're talking about a barbarian and a monk that's not gonna happen in that setting, and on my end I feel it would be silly to have Sleep users and low tunnels everywhere, but I pretty sure I've reached a point where 2/3 of them understand they will roll new characters for a new campaign instead of carrying those over, especially when I waved it between that and leveling down their looney ones. Also I guess in the room for improvement category, they had a disagreement about class features and while I was pulling up the sources it got pretty heated, I'll have to learn and contain them a bit better, though when I sat both down and explain how things are written and how they make sense to me they did eventually quiet down. Oh the joy of cross referencing race traits and class and multiclass features.
I think at this point I'm gonna have to just look into adventure books. I hear Tomb of Annihilation is a bit 2020 on the nose and Hoard of the Dragon Queen has a built in break in pacing .... kind of wish I could read on it before hand but oh well. Icewind Dale is probably too recent to get a group opinion, though I guess in a way I haven't seen much negative about it either. Any opinion on Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder or Princes of the Apocalypse?
It's really easy to neutralize an aarakocran's flight advantage. Just put in a 10-foot or lower ceiling.
But anyway I have an aarakocran in my party, and it hasn't really been a problem for combat. So there's one character it's hard to hit with melee attacks. Then you just concentrate your attacks on the others. Usually the aarakocran won't want to just leave them to die.
The bigger problem for me is that a flying character can bypass certain obstacles in the dungeon that they aren't supposed to be able to.
It's really easy to neutralize an aarakocran's flight advantage. Just put in a 10-foot or lower ceiling.
But anyway I have an aarakocran in my party, and it hasn't really been a problem for combat. So there's one character it's hard to hit with melee attacks. Then you just concentrate your attacks on the others. Usually the aarakocran won't want to just leave them to die.
The bigger problem for me is that a flying character can bypass certain obstacles in the dungeon that they aren't supposed to be able to.
Yeah I think the flying advantage currently is fuming the other players because they asked for a PvP setting, but if anything I now know a few ways to reign it back in.... mind you the player in this case tends to either spend his time hidden in a bag of holding as an air genasi or holding his breath underwater as a lizardman while the group fights kind of often so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't just fly out of range, but yeah now as a DM I'd know of ways to challenge that, though after the tirade that popped up yesturday he'd probably hate every version of that.
Saw a few "new DM"s chiming in, so I will as well. I have run a few minor things (was working on a LARGE dungeon crawl) and one shots. The group I play with is a lot of fun and I wanted to give them something bigger. I made a word in Inkcarnate, set it up (mirror of Faerun for Gods, rules, etc, MUCH more limited races) and drew up a draft of an overlying campaign goal. I am now running the group through 2 different one shot adventures, starting at char level 3 and ending at 5. This was to give them all a feeler for a race/class they were curious about to bring to the main campaign.
Main campaign, I set it up here on DDB, content sharing what I've bought and I created one of every race they are allowed to choose from. On creation night, they will all roll a d20 to determine picking order. We're going to use Point Buy, so racial bonuses are TOO critical, and in any case, it's MY campaign, so whatever they roll, will work in the end, as I will be customizing the adventure around them. The overall arc will remain but methodology and HOW they pursue it will be determined by their actions and OOC discussions of what they would like to be part of.
IMO, freeforming adventures is much easier (for me) because I can shift gears at any given time, or add or remove elements as I want, without worrying if it might mess up something down the line. At the same time, I have always been very creative when it comes to stringing a story, so I may have advantage on that, lol.
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Greetings and good day everyone.
I joined my first D&D group and am enjoying my first character tremendously, but the group has been having issues for a while biggest of which might be our first time DM doesn't seem to have the energy, time and interest in preparing and playing nearly as much anymore. This lead to a bit of a confused panic when group members wanted to play on Christmas Eve and the DM was nowhere to be seen (I mean it makes sense for the day but it's an issue that's not exclusive to that one time). In the chaos I proposed stepping in and ultimately found myself organizing a multi-round arena setup overnight. This has made me ponder if I should bench my Ranger and take up the cloak of a DM going forward and hopefully allow our current DM to play in a way that's less preparation heavy.
Now I have several things on my mind moving forward with this idea ranging from probably "insignificant" to "gonna have to move on".
1- The obvious first step is purely practical, but the current setting I'm kind of DMing is pretty unattached to anything. The players said "we want to make characters and fight on maps" so I mostly enabled just that, but from the moment I opened up the roll20 session for them they started talking about their characters... of which I'm surprised from the lack thereof in our main game, but nonetheless pleased. This also means I don't have any concrete answer on if I need to buy a Dungeon Master book and campaign book for both D&D Beyond and roll20 or if I just do the former, the latter will adjust.
2- speaking of campaign, I'm 100% looking into using a pre-written module as my base, but given the current circumstances I'm already at a split. My players decided they wanted to make level 5 characters and go up a level every round and then during round 1 they decided they wanted those characters in an actual campaign. Would you say it's an issue if I leveled down their characters to get started on a campaign proper or would you advise against this? I ask because I'm thinking of making their current host send them back in time, or have them wake up from a connected dream to have an idea of where they want to get to as characters. For example I have a player who says he's a representative to a brewing company as a way to explain his Drunken Master Monk (so far he's 2/2 for alcoholic characters..) and I'd say he wakes up as a guy who only started brewing recently and dreamed about his current state as a go to goal he'd like to ideally achieve within the settings of the campaign. The other option is to make their subsequent round levels temporary and start them back where they initially presented themselves at level 5... though that brings some specific magic item choices as issues from the onset and starting level 5 campaigns seem pretty rare and few.
If I start them at level 1 I could start an Icewind Dale or a Hoard of the Dragon Queen perhaps. I've seen several suggestions to start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, but unfortunately that's where our current game takes place so I don't want to just redo the same module. If I start at level 5 then it seems I'd have Infernal Machine and Kwalish, but idk if these are good starting off points anyway. We tend to not do Horror, though I hear most adventure books got some level of it regardless so I don't really know where to start really outside of not being able to open with the "beginning to DM" campaign.
3- part of the reason I worry but also kind of want to start fresh is for balancing issues. Currently 2 out of my 3 current players have Ogre Strength, with the other one having magical tattoos to punch within 15 feet. They all have brawler knucklehead characters with no synergy and I have a barbarian Tortle as well as a barbarian Aaracokra who doesn't seem to catch my worry of him starting with a 50ft flying speed from the get go. Am I setting myself for failure from the start? Do I have to litter dungeons with healing potions to give them a chance?
4- at this point maybe just general tips, but I'm trying to piece together what's important. A session Zero, a map creating software and campaign/DM/Monster books. Am I missing anything critical? I already have the PHB, Zanathar's and Tasha's. I kind of want to describe and build them a story where they feel cool and have fun and even have a few NPC ideas in mind to give them a diet Critical Role style fun (thankfully none of them know of the show so my influence isn't too in their face).
Sorry this is a little scatterbrained of me since I'm typing this before I gotta tend to New Year's Eve but any help, correction or suggestion in what I got so far would be very welcomed. I know 1 of the guy seemed to like my style last time but I've yet to get the current DM on board and the other two aren't commenting much so maybe there's a bit of insecurity in my direction right now.
Thank you all again.
It sounds like you absolutely need a session 0. Your players seem extremely fickle and they seem to be changing their minds on what they want on a session or hourly basis. It is nearly impossible to run D&D successfully under these conditions. You need to sit down and have a long, heart to heart talk with them about what they really want in a campaign, and you should explain to them that they can't just up and change their minds on the entire nature of the campaign next week. As a DM, you will not be able to compensate for this and your job will be impossible. Frankly, if they were pulling this kind of change-their-mind-like-people-change-socks behavior on your prior DM, I don't blame that person for souring on DMing. I would want to sour on it too, under such conditions.
Also, in terms of books, you should definitely buy the DM Guide either here or on Roll20 or wherever you prefer. You will need access to the information contained there. You may also want Monster Manual, but that will be far less important if you run published adventures, since the necessary monsters will usually be provided in the adventure book.
I can't speak to what adventure you should play from among the published ones, as I have not played or run any of them.
I would not de-level existing characters. I would make up completely new ones from scratch at level 1. I would not allow them to have any magic items no matter what level you start them off, especially not things like ogre strength at low level. You will find them just blowing through the existing encounters in the published modules if you allow this, and it'll be too easy, and they will get bored.
I highly encourage you to start simple. Try a starter adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak, or failing that at least something that starts at level 1.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Hi!
I am a new DM too, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
1. The way you are describing your players seems like they are telling you what you should do. You definitely need to take what they want into consideration and have open conversation and be collaborative. However, you do have final say as the DM. Don't let them push you around.
2. If you run a premade module then buy that through Roll20 and its all set up for you. It will save you a ton of time. BUT I personally find D&D beyond a lot more user friendly for all the other source books. If you have dual screen its nice to have Roll20 on one and D&D beyond on the other to look up whatever you need. I use Roll20 just for maps and for player character sheets and the rest is a combination of D&D beyond and pen and paper. Though if you buy a module on Roll20 its pretty nice because its all premade for you. Just making homebrew encounters is annoying on Roll20.
3. I am running Dragon Heist but have already made a ton of changes and integrated characters backstories. Its a bit complex for first time but I am managing. I don't know if I would recommend it for first time. I spent so much time watching a ton of youtube videos in preparation. Especially for chapter 2 which is so open ended. I don't regret it cause its a fun concept and I like the big city/politics setting. But it was a lot of work for me being new to both DM and D&D.
4. Definitely don't give them crazy magic items. I made the mistake of giving out some overpowered stuff, plus my only experienced player suggested a way to roll stats that was too overpowered (i didn't know any better). So now I have to modify every encounter of the campaign to make it challenging. Its fine, but annoying.
First time DM here that started like you, as a player and after a short period, took up the mantle of DM due to having less reliable DMs.
I completely agree with BioWizard in having a session 0 to determine if players really want a campaign, or just some fun.
So an idea your group may like is a series of modules where they can create new characters for the different story lines. Gives them chances to use different classes, as they have already demonstrated changing opinions. I didn't want my group to miss out on a session, so during the week leading up to my first session DMing I spoke to them when they were available, some were individually, some were in a pair. This allowed me to tell them what sort of campaigns I would enjoy running as DM and what sort of tone the campaign would have. (just all fun, happy go lucky or actions have consequences. Going easy on them because they are fond of their characters or not pulling punches, characters will die if you go guns blazing into every situation) I then listened to what they would like to see happen, developing side quests related to personal backstory etc.
This allowed me to find a good basis in which to develop the start of a campaign, which we are approaching a year. We have gamed every week, only taking a break for christmas. There were a couple of weeks I was not available, but with some encouragement, one of the players ran a oneshot that lasted a few weeks allowing me to also play when I returned. If you do run a series of modules or start a campaign, check in with the players occasionally to get feedback, if they are enjoying how it is going, any criticism of your DMing style etc. Although don't take that as a need to force yourself to DM how they want if you don't enjoy it. As much as it is about creating a story for the players and letting them go with it, you must also be having fun.
For books and programs, I spent money on trying various sites and tools. Hands down dungeondraft and wonderdraft are awesome and will cover most of your needs. The big bonus is its a good price and no subscription. Roll20 has been good so far but the development of Astral Tabletop, which now also has source lighting, will soon be our virtual table top as I find it is more user friendly and if you go for a subscription for storage space etc, it is better value. I only mention this as buying anything on Roll20 will cement you to that site unless you just want to abandon your purchases. With that in mind, the Beyond20 browser extension is a life saver, allowing you to roll for anything using your characters and monsters here on DND Beyond and have it displayed in Roll20 or other VTT. This means you can have all your adventure and source books here in one place and you lose nothing should you move to astral or foundry. This means creating and using homebrew items, monsters, encounters is much easier.
You're in the perfect position. You already have a group, and you're doing it for the right reasons (to keep your group playing). Though I would say keep the old DM in the loop and express appreciation for having run the game so far. Make sure they want a new DM taking over their group / campaign, or maybe they will want to share responsibilities to a greater or lesser degree.
I would say make sure your players know you're the boss now if you become the DM. If you don't want aarakocra in your game, then there should be no aarakocra in your game. As a new DM, they need to make things as easy on your as possible.
Thanks guys, idk why I thought I'd better rush to get answers in a couple days or whatever my head was at.
Trying to break this down in a readable reply form now.
I think the general comment is definitely that I need the Dungeon Master's book, which makes sense and perhaps the Monster Manual but otherwise I might be set compendium wise if I understand correctly.
@BioWizard:
Yeah our current group and DM mostly formed with them having the most playing experience and saying they'd handle it, but we never had a session zero or much boundaries, it kind of started the first session with "So what do you guys wanna do?" with barely any guidelines. A mix of wildly incompatible character traits and "As long as you know how to learn your characters" leads to a lot of individual chaos which might in retrospect be biting our DM in the ass more than they expected, that or it leads to moments where I have to pretend my animal loving forest dwelling ranger somehow didn't notice member A and B murdering wolf pups and burning woods because I don't want to halt the group AGAIN because the only rule we were given is "do whatever but you can't fight each other".
I suppose you're right, the whole warping characters back in time or dream sequence might be a bit contrived so it might just make sense to get them to start from scratch in the context of whichever module I pick. That whole "we want to fight in arenas and have magic items" didn't feel like it would matter a whole lot in a setting with no story (even if they asked for the setting to be fleshed out immediately), but even at 2 uncommons at level 5 instantly lead to crazy min maxing I would hate to start a campaign or module with.
I'll look at your book suggestion, if I'm not mistaken I think that's the one that's part of the essentials kit? If so I think half my group has read that one so I might need to skip over but I'll definitely double check.
@Evil_Lynn
I'm definitely trying to put in place a bit of structure so the players don't feel restricted but also don't just run me over.
I'm guessing the Adventure books on roll20 might be the way if I'd have to manually transcribe whichever module manually... so far I've been drawing those maps in DungeonFog and if the choice go between that and them being already there it's a pretty simple choice to make.
Including fully implementing my characters in the setting is definitely on my mind.... granted I do have some reckless lunatics in the group in our campaign that are already on their 3rd character at level 6 but maybe a bit of structure and encouragement will make them less likely to shield surf into an enemy camp or actively taunt a dragon to breathe on the group hiding in ambush cuz "my character is so crazy"........ sigh. We literally had to collectively say that character needed to go cuz that killed 2 other characters and my pet for the sake of him being looney...
@ThisIsRaving
Do Dungeoncraft and wondercraft include a vitual tabletop? I mentioned roll20 cuz that's what we're currently using (alongside the Beyond20 app and our D&D Beyond accounts), but for the current unbound setting it felt fine just drawing and on DungeonFog and integrating manually in roll20.... but that also made me quickly learn I would hate to do that for every single area ever too.. as it's time consuming already and I don't even really have a real story to manage yet. Ideally I'd just keep buying books on D&D Beyond and have everything at the same spot but it seems like this might cause trouble in integration.
I'll research a bit more on how I want to run my session zero, but yeah I want my game to be fun and enjoyable, but with a structure that isn't utter freakin chaos. Perhaps start with a smaller sized campaign which sort of makes me look at Horde of the Dragon Queen even more over Icewind Dale, given it's quicker, seems to have an optional follow up in Rise of Tiamat and might not be horror themed (which I hear Icewind Dale is, didn't know).
@pavilionaire
I mean I hope I'm gonna do it well and I feel like my intentions are good, which I'd love to keep playing my beloved ranger, if we don't have a session to begin with that's not me playing her either as well as anything else.
I do want to include the former/current DM though they've been unresponsive to the current battle royal style I had to create overnight, but I'm gonna try a bit harder if I get an actual "serious" game going. Very frequently they'd just stop a session short cuz they had not planned something or they were getting headaches at character interactions and didn't know how to rule something that has a strict RAW description, but they do say they enjoy their time with the group so maybe a lesser burden might help (fingers crossed they don't burn me out).
As mentioned before, the whole aarakorka thing might not matter if I actually start fresh, but in a way after last time that was the actual player who decided they wanted to chat my ear up after the session and I did mention if that specific race was to be around I'd tweak their wings. They seemed puzzled and unhappy but hopefully me mentioning them have about twice as much speed as everybody else WHILE FLYING is a bit unfair for everyone. Also their "But some video games make arrows do more damage to wings" suggestion vanished pretty quickly when another player did exactly that....
Hey, if the aarakocran ever gets annoying, just attack with a ghost. One Wis save of 7 or less and they age 10 x d4 years. Aarakocran lifespans are only like 4 years, so that's instant death.
Aarakocra live 30 years. And I have one in my campaign - I find nothing annoying about them.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
The Draft programs are just for map making, I would recommend looking at a few YouTube videos on them. While you can go in depth and detailed, they are easy to use to quickly create a map, putting in some objects that may represent a room, important features, icons for towns, forests, roads etc. Using descriptions to add any extra flavour. It helps provide flexibility when you can't find a map that suits your needs and don't want to rely on drawings on Roll20. More of a visual improvement, not necessary for gameplay in any way.
Definitely start small, sticking to a module to help you understand the flow of things and how your players will settle in to their characters. This means should you go into developing your own story lines that continue on from the module, you have an idea of how much RP/intrigue to Combat ratio your group enjoy.
On a side note, one of my players is an Aarakocra but from the start, before even joining our group, she had already ordered custom art work where her character had lost his wings. She wanted the race for flavour and she liked the race not because of features and abilities. I want my party to stay at the same xp level so I regularly reward inspiration points to characters that RP with each other, NPCs or even enemies, play into the flavour of their background or add good descriptions to how they do something, such as getting the finishing blow.
As we worked through the Phandalin module, I spoke with my players, getting them invested in their backstories, fleshing them out. This not only helped my players accept and work with their character flaws, but also helped me as I could include towns, countries, cultures all from their backgrounds. It had my players invested in the world that was being created but also made my life easier as they created more than half of the continent for me. Your don't have to go so in depth, but adding even small details that reference their backstories could encourage their investment to their characters and the story. So just consider the time spent doing a module or two allows you and your group to know if you want to go full blown campaign style and gives you time to think about what that campaign story will be.
The more you research, the more ideas you get from other people such as this awesome community, the more confident you will be with knowing what you are capable of achieving whilst still enjoying the game as a DM.
I ran another round of that battle royal "oneshot" today and the aarakorka certainly had some gripe mentioned toward him flying constantly, I guess this is the prime setting where other players would complain about that. He said that catching him would be easy if the others cast Sleep on him... though considering we're talking about a barbarian and a monk that's not gonna happen in that setting, and on my end I feel it would be silly to have Sleep users and low tunnels everywhere, but I pretty sure I've reached a point where 2/3 of them understand they will roll new characters for a new campaign instead of carrying those over, especially when I waved it between that and leveling down their looney ones.
Also I guess in the room for improvement category, they had a disagreement about class features and while I was pulling up the sources it got pretty heated, I'll have to learn and contain them a bit better, though when I sat both down and explain how things are written and how they make sense to me they did eventually quiet down. Oh the joy of cross referencing race traits and class and multiclass features.
I think at this point I'm gonna have to just look into adventure books.
I hear Tomb of Annihilation is a bit 2020 on the nose and Hoard of the Dragon Queen has a built in break in pacing .... kind of wish I could read on it before hand but oh well.
Icewind Dale is probably too recent to get a group opinion, though I guess in a way I haven't seen much negative about it either.
Any opinion on Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder or Princes of the Apocalypse?
It's really easy to neutralize an aarakocran's flight advantage. Just put in a 10-foot or lower ceiling.
But anyway I have an aarakocran in my party, and it hasn't really been a problem for combat. So there's one character it's hard to hit with melee attacks. Then you just concentrate your attacks on the others. Usually the aarakocran won't want to just leave them to die.
The bigger problem for me is that a flying character can bypass certain obstacles in the dungeon that they aren't supposed to be able to.
Yeah I think the flying advantage currently is fuming the other players because they asked for a PvP setting, but if anything I now know a few ways to reign it back in.... mind you the player in this case tends to either spend his time hidden in a bag of holding as an air genasi or holding his breath underwater as a lizardman while the group fights kind of often so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't just fly out of range, but yeah now as a DM I'd know of ways to challenge that, though after the tirade that popped up yesturday he'd probably hate every version of that.
Saw a few "new DM"s chiming in, so I will as well. I have run a few minor things (was working on a LARGE dungeon crawl) and one shots. The group I play with is a lot of fun and I wanted to give them something bigger. I made a word in Inkcarnate, set it up (mirror of Faerun for Gods, rules, etc, MUCH more limited races) and drew up a draft of an overlying campaign goal. I am now running the group through 2 different one shot adventures, starting at char level 3 and ending at 5. This was to give them all a feeler for a race/class they were curious about to bring to the main campaign.
Main campaign, I set it up here on DDB, content sharing what I've bought and I created one of every race they are allowed to choose from. On creation night, they will all roll a d20 to determine picking order. We're going to use Point Buy, so racial bonuses are TOO critical, and in any case, it's MY campaign, so whatever they roll, will work in the end, as I will be customizing the adventure around them. The overall arc will remain but methodology and HOW they pursue it will be determined by their actions and OOC discussions of what they would like to be part of.
IMO, freeforming adventures is much easier (for me) because I can shift gears at any given time, or add or remove elements as I want, without worrying if it might mess up something down the line. At the same time, I have always been very creative when it comes to stringing a story, so I may have advantage on that, lol.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.