hi, im new to DMing and also DnD. Me and my friends wanted to do a homebrew game, cause at the time we were all new to DnD. So i took the initiative/challenge of crafting the story, encouters, ect. So I spent sometime to make a story, watched Dm tutorials, and i tired to make everything as good as can be, and when game-day came, it went to hell. We had 5 people, plus a veteran DnD player. They saw our character sheet and blew a fuse. They said out sheets looked like "homebrew trash" and a slew of other insults. (we were using 1e and for our sheets i told them that we would ignore a few things, cause they wanted a story focused campaign. and they also wanted character classes from later editions, so i decided for the sake of fun, we'll add them.) And so for our first session she made us waste 4 hours remaking them.
2nd session, the veteran player wasn't there, so we played on. The session went to hell fast. Nobody wanted to pay attention, they tried killing everybody, one player tried to pick-pocket the party and tried to kill a important npc. Only two players actually payed attention.
The 3rd session, everything was worse. Everyone was there, including the veteran player. (Some time has passed from our 2nd session. My friends played in other campaigns with very experienced Dm's. I never had the chance to cause no-one in my school plays DnD). Some players would make fun of the story, the veteran player would make fun of my limited knowledge of DnD. (saying im an idiot for picking 1e, rather then 5e. I don't have the money to buy 5e books. i got the 1e second hand, plus the group agreed to do 1e since the beginning. The veteran even said it was good to start at 1e. They would also make fun of me for taking to long to pick witch dice to use.) The other players say i was trash compared to their DM's from the other campaigns. So, i gave up and i switched being Dm's with the veteran so i could play their character and they could lead ""properly."" Eventually it lead to people complaining about how they weren't strong enough and how other players were weak, and during battle the Dm would ignore me and players would be mad at me for not doing a action during a turn. by the end of this session it just left me bitter and sad.
TL;DR- thanks to a veteran and 5 other players my campaign went to hell. It went from a smoothed story focused campaign to mechanics/battle focused clunky mess (with out the group letting me know. The veteran even started to use combine other editions leaving everyone confused). I just want to be a good Dm and a good DnD player but thanks to this experience i dont even want to look a another d20 or a d10 again. i know i could've been a better dm, they could've been better players. But i want tips so i can better myself at DMing.
Whats the best edition to use? Should i make a perfect campaign? Whats better to use, a (X)edition campaign book or a homebrew story? ect. any information help! thank you.
First step on your journey to being a "better DM" is to find a better play group. Those people sound like a mess and running any sort of game for them would likely end in sadness.
As for editions, it's usually easier to find people to play with if you are playing the current edition. Older rule sets, while fun for their time, are not as supported with organized play opportunities and generally have a diminished player-base over time.
I would suggest seeing if a local game store has an in-store play program that you can join to get some play experience under your belt. Failing that, try to get a new group of players who aren't ***** and give your homebrew world a second chance. Just know that 1e D&D was not really designed for modern gaming sensibilities and you and your players may not enjoy the experience as much. It was great for its time, but game design has come a long way since the 1970s.
Yeah, definitely sounds more like group conflict then anything else. However, go ahead and jump into 5th edition, it is simple for new players and will be much better supported.
You were not at fault. You did nothing wrong. They, on the other hand, would make good villains. I would use them as villains in one of my games, but even I have some standards.
Just remember that those "players" are, to put it bluntly, jerks--and not at all representative of the D&D community at large.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Take a deep breath; breath in, breath out. Ok? Ok.
You don't need the books to play 5th edition. If you take a look at the compendium page, you will find the basic rules are good enough to get you back on your feet (They're free!).
To what Matthias said, your players are HUGE jerks. You're learning and the players are not supporting that. What I suggest is to stop playing with them at all and find a different group.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
ah thank you for the info :D!! I would like to join comic stores DnD sessions, but i dont know the etiquette (is there etiquette?) for it or who's attending. Would it be better to use this sites character generator, or would i asked the Dm to help make a character? Are most veteran DnD players nice, or they like the veteran player i mention above? (i dont want to be a inconvenience to the other players, im still fairly new :< )
sorry if you dont have the answers to my questions, im just a little nervous about joining a session now, due to the previous sessions.
In-store D&D programs are built for new people to walk in and start playing. Building a character here with the builder or using the Basic Rules and writing out your own on a printed character sheet will work just fine. I can't speak to the nature of other players in your area, but again, in-store programs tend to draw in crowds of newer players and experienced players who want to help them learn, so the environment is built to be welcoming and friendly from the start. I would suggest wandering in to that local shop and just asking about their play program and seeing if they can fit you in. After that, make up a character and bring it with you ready to play. Then make some new friends there and, after you get a bit more comfortable, offer to run a homebrew game for some of them.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Would it be better to use this sites character generator, or would i asked the Dm to help make a character? Are most veteran DnD players nice, or they like the veteran player i mention above? (i dont want to be a inconvenience to the other players, im still fairly new :< )
sorry if you dont have the answers to my questions, im just a little nervous about joining a session now, due to the previous sessions.
The character sheet builder is great if you know what you're talking about. I suggest finding someone who could help you build a character sheet in person. This shouldn't surprise you to learn that most of D&D's fan base are nerds, meaning they want you to like what they like so you talk to them about it. Most of the community loves more people learning and playing D&D. But with any group of people, there are some nice people and some awful people (Personal opinion: it's mainly friendly).
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
I think if you are an aspiring DM then it's a great idea read the ad&d players handbook. It really gives you a feel for what Gygax was trying to create. As far as actually jumping in and DMing a 1e game with 6 players, that is another story. I would consider a reset. Learn the 5e basic rules then take out stuff you don't like and add in stuff from ad&d that you like. Get your hands on a low level adventure, maybe a classic like T1 or B2 and convert it to your new homebrew rule set. Try again with your group, if they act like jerks drop some ad&d cursed items on their characters ;). "You find this cool looking black cloak..."
We all have horror stories of players or player groups that go to hell in a hand basket. Prune out the people who just want to wreck things. Dump the "veteran" who appears to be an elitist troll at the very least. It was damn brave of you to give it a shot DMing the first time you played. Sometimes getting a chance to be the player in another game helps you fine tune how you present the game to the players, and it can give insight as to what makes a game memorable.
Like all things, GMing takes practice. I cringe whenever I think back to the games I ran in Junior High and High School, during the grim and extreme 90's era.
Also, 1st edition is BRUTAL. I grew up on it and returned to it a few years before 5th edition came out. It reminded me how convoluted and counter-intuitive the system is compared to the revisions. I ran a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign on Roll20 for 2 years that ended in a TPK. Even though it was fun as hell, I vowed never to return to the old system again. Use the basic 5E rules for now. They are beautifully crafted.
The group you were in was bad and should feel bad. If they were all more experianced then you with the game and none of them offered to DM before you stood up, then I dare say they were looking to embarrass you. Leave them ASAP and consider those sessions isolated incidents. The real game should be nothing like that.
I agree that 5e is the way to go. 1e is pretty niche, as most of the rules are convoluted for those that didn't come up with it. Plus, seeing as you're a more story based, rule of cool kind of DM, 5e will be flexible for your ideas and mechinations.
If you don't have the money for the books, use online resources to fill in the gaps for now. Double check the wiki's you may find to make sure you aren't lifting some unbalanced homebrew stuff, but all the offical races, classes, and spell are out their for free. I'd never tell you to download the books without paying, but if you do, buy them later when you have money. Gotta support the hobby. Maybe a local library can have the books brought in if you request it.
Lastly, should you jump back into DMing again, talk to your players before the first game and talk about expectations. Some guys love being murder hobo's, and that's fine. But only so long as you know so you can accomadate them. Some people are little Shakespearians who are just there to roleplay, or munchkins that are itching to fight. Maybe your group is a combination of all this, but talking about it is the only way they'll know what you're about and you'll know how to make an engaging game. Tell them the kind of campaign you want to run and see if they have objections. It's fine if they do, so long as there is some social compact between all involved a middle ground can be found.
I would also like to applaud your bravery for taking this risk! The DM is responsible for facilitating the game and making sure everyone is having fun, and that can be really intimidating. I'm just getting back into DMing after more than 20 years, and even though we've been going since May, I still get nervous about it. It helps that I have a really great group of supportive players to enjoy the experience with, so like others have said, you need to find a different group.
You may want to play for a bit before jumping back into DMing so that you get the hang of things and understand the player's perspective.
I would also recommend picking up the 5E starter set; it's pretty cheap these days, has just enough rules to get you going, and the adventure that's included is really well designed for introducing new DMs to running D&D. There's a good mix of combat, roleplaying opportunities, side quests, and dungeon crawling. My players and I are having a *blast* with it, and two of them had already gone through it with me as a fellow player in another group. It's really fun to see how every DM can put their own spin on things to make it a unique experience.
If you get through the starter adventure and you still want to DM, that's a good time to start exploring home-brew settings and stories. But I'd focus on getting the process of being a DM down, getting comfortable with the rules, and building some confidence before investing a lot of time and energy on your own creation.
Anyway, welcome to D&D! I sincerely hope your next experiences are more enjoyable. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! :-)
Big respect for doing your best to try and make the most of the situation. But honestly, it sounds like your players are just trash. If that vet player had pulled any of that I would have told her to **** off and leave.
DnD is meant to be fun. Find rules that work for you. As mentioned before, the 5e basic rules are free, but why not just buy the starter set, it's super cheap and easy to run. The beauty of DnD is that it's just a framework, don't like a rule? Don't use it. The DM is king and your decision is final. Talk before hand, are you running an evil campaign? Neutral or good? Are you going to try and kill the players? You need to sit down before you play any more and have a good discussion on how things will work.
Honestly, find a better group of people to play with.
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hi, im new to DMing and also DnD. Me and my friends wanted to do a homebrew game, cause at the time we were all new to DnD. So i took the initiative/challenge of crafting the story, encouters, ect. So I spent sometime to make a story, watched Dm tutorials, and i tired to make everything as good as can be, and when game-day came, it went to hell. We had 5 people, plus a veteran DnD player. They saw our character sheet and blew a fuse. They said out sheets looked like "homebrew trash" and a slew of other insults. (we were using 1e and for our sheets i told them that we would ignore a few things, cause they wanted a story focused campaign. and they also wanted character classes from later editions, so i decided for the sake of fun, we'll add them.) And so for our first session she made us waste 4 hours remaking them.
2nd session, the veteran player wasn't there, so we played on. The session went to hell fast. Nobody wanted to pay attention, they tried killing everybody, one player tried to pick-pocket the party and tried to kill a important npc. Only two players actually payed attention.
The 3rd session, everything was worse. Everyone was there, including the veteran player. (Some time has passed from our 2nd session. My friends played in other campaigns with very experienced Dm's. I never had the chance to cause no-one in my school plays DnD). Some players would make fun of the story, the veteran player would make fun of my limited knowledge of DnD. (saying im an idiot for picking 1e, rather then 5e. I don't have the money to buy 5e books. i got the 1e second hand, plus the group agreed to do 1e since the beginning. The veteran even said it was good to start at 1e. They would also make fun of me for taking to long to pick witch dice to use.) The other players say i was trash compared to their DM's from the other campaigns. So, i gave up and i switched being Dm's with the veteran so i could play their character and they could lead ""properly."" Eventually it lead to people complaining about how they weren't strong enough and how other players were weak, and during battle the Dm would ignore me and players would be mad at me for not doing a action during a turn. by the end of this session it just left me bitter and sad.
TL;DR- thanks to a veteran and 5 other players my campaign went to hell. It went from a smoothed story focused campaign to mechanics/battle focused clunky mess (with out the group letting me know. The veteran even started to use combine other editions leaving everyone confused). I just want to be a good Dm and a good DnD player but thanks to this experience i dont even want to look a another d20 or a d10 again. i know i could've been a better dm, they could've been better players. But i want tips so i can better myself at DMing.
Whats the best edition to use? Should i make a perfect campaign? Whats better to use, a (X)edition campaign book or a homebrew story? ect. any information help! thank you.
First step on your journey to being a "better DM" is to find a better play group. Those people sound like a mess and running any sort of game for them would likely end in sadness.
As for editions, it's usually easier to find people to play with if you are playing the current edition. Older rule sets, while fun for their time, are not as supported with organized play opportunities and generally have a diminished player-base over time.
I would suggest seeing if a local game store has an in-store play program that you can join to get some play experience under your belt. Failing that, try to get a new group of players who aren't ***** and give your homebrew world a second chance. Just know that 1e D&D was not really designed for modern gaming sensibilities and you and your players may not enjoy the experience as much. It was great for its time, but game design has come a long way since the 1970s.
Yeah, definitely sounds more like group conflict then anything else. However, go ahead and jump into 5th edition, it is simple for new players and will be much better supported.
And the basic rules are free!!
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
This should be enough to get you started
You were not at fault. You did nothing wrong. They, on the other hand, would make good villains. I would use them as villains in one of my games, but even I have some standards.
Just remember that those "players" are, to put it bluntly, jerks--and not at all representative of the D&D community at large.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Take a deep breath; breath in, breath out. Ok? Ok.
You don't need the books to play 5th edition. If you take a look at the compendium page, you will find the basic rules are good enough to get you back on your feet (They're free!).
To what Matthias said, your players are HUGE jerks. You're learning and the players are not supporting that. What I suggest is to stop playing with them at all and find a different group.
Most importantly: Keep learning!
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
ah thank you for the info :D!! I would like to join comic stores DnD sessions, but i dont know the etiquette (is there etiquette?) for it or who's attending. Would it be better to use this sites character generator, or would i asked the Dm to help make a character? Are most veteran DnD players nice, or they like the veteran player i mention above? (i dont want to be a inconvenience to the other players, im still fairly new :< )
sorry if you dont have the answers to my questions, im just a little nervous about joining a session now, due to the previous sessions.
In-store D&D programs are built for new people to walk in and start playing. Building a character here with the builder or using the Basic Rules and writing out your own on a printed character sheet will work just fine. I can't speak to the nature of other players in your area, but again, in-store programs tend to draw in crowds of newer players and experienced players who want to help them learn, so the environment is built to be welcoming and friendly from the start. I would suggest wandering in to that local shop and just asking about their play program and seeing if they can fit you in. After that, make up a character and bring it with you ready to play. Then make some new friends there and, after you get a bit more comfortable, offer to run a homebrew game for some of them.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
I think if you are an aspiring DM then it's a great idea read the ad&d players handbook. It really gives you a feel for what Gygax was trying to create. As far as actually jumping in and DMing a 1e game with 6 players, that is another story. I would consider a reset. Learn the 5e basic rules then take out stuff you don't like and add in stuff from ad&d that you like. Get your hands on a low level adventure, maybe a classic like T1 or B2 and convert it to your new homebrew rule set. Try again with your group, if they act like jerks drop some ad&d cursed items on their characters ;). "You find this cool looking black cloak..."
cheers,
Jocanuck
We all have horror stories of players or player groups that go to hell in a hand basket. Prune out the people who just want to wreck things. Dump the "veteran" who appears to be an elitist troll at the very least. It was damn brave of you to give it a shot DMing the first time you played. Sometimes getting a chance to be the player in another game helps you fine tune how you present the game to the players, and it can give insight as to what makes a game memorable.
Like all things, GMing takes practice. I cringe whenever I think back to the games I ran in Junior High and High School, during the grim and extreme 90's era.
Also, 1st edition is BRUTAL. I grew up on it and returned to it a few years before 5th edition came out. It reminded me how convoluted and counter-intuitive the system is compared to the revisions. I ran a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign on Roll20 for 2 years that ended in a TPK. Even though it was fun as hell, I vowed never to return to the old system again. Use the basic 5E rules for now. They are beautifully crafted.
Wow find some new players!
The group you were in was bad and should feel bad. If they were all more experianced then you with the game and none of them offered to DM before you stood up, then I dare say they were looking to embarrass you. Leave them ASAP and consider those sessions isolated incidents. The real game should be nothing like that.
I agree that 5e is the way to go. 1e is pretty niche, as most of the rules are convoluted for those that didn't come up with it. Plus, seeing as you're a more story based, rule of cool kind of DM, 5e will be flexible for your ideas and mechinations.
If you don't have the money for the books, use online resources to fill in the gaps for now. Double check the wiki's you may find to make sure you aren't lifting some unbalanced homebrew stuff, but all the offical races, classes, and spell are out their for free. I'd never tell you to download the books without paying, but if you do, buy them later when you have money. Gotta support the hobby. Maybe a local library can have the books brought in if you request it.
Lastly, should you jump back into DMing again, talk to your players before the first game and talk about expectations. Some guys love being murder hobo's, and that's fine. But only so long as you know so you can accomadate them. Some people are little Shakespearians who are just there to roleplay, or munchkins that are itching to fight. Maybe your group is a combination of all this, but talking about it is the only way they'll know what you're about and you'll know how to make an engaging game. Tell them the kind of campaign you want to run and see if they have objections. It's fine if they do, so long as there is some social compact between all involved a middle ground can be found.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I would also like to applaud your bravery for taking this risk! The DM is responsible for facilitating the game and making sure everyone is having fun, and that can be really intimidating. I'm just getting back into DMing after more than 20 years, and even though we've been going since May, I still get nervous about it. It helps that I have a really great group of supportive players to enjoy the experience with, so like others have said, you need to find a different group.
You may want to play for a bit before jumping back into DMing so that you get the hang of things and understand the player's perspective.
I would also recommend picking up the 5E starter set; it's pretty cheap these days, has just enough rules to get you going, and the adventure that's included is really well designed for introducing new DMs to running D&D. There's a good mix of combat, roleplaying opportunities, side quests, and dungeon crawling. My players and I are having a *blast* with it, and two of them had already gone through it with me as a fellow player in another group. It's really fun to see how every DM can put their own spin on things to make it a unique experience.
If you get through the starter adventure and you still want to DM, that's a good time to start exploring home-brew settings and stories. But I'd focus on getting the process of being a DM down, getting comfortable with the rules, and building some confidence before investing a lot of time and energy on your own creation.
Anyway, welcome to D&D! I sincerely hope your next experiences are more enjoyable. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! :-)
Big respect for doing your best to try and make the most of the situation. But honestly, it sounds like your players are just trash. If that vet player had pulled any of that I would have told her to **** off and leave.
DnD is meant to be fun. Find rules that work for you. As mentioned before, the 5e basic rules are free, but why not just buy the starter set, it's super cheap and easy to run. The beauty of DnD is that it's just a framework, don't like a rule? Don't use it. The DM is king and your decision is final. Talk before hand, are you running an evil campaign? Neutral or good? Are you going to try and kill the players? You need to sit down before you play any more and have a good discussion on how things will work.
Honestly, find a better group of people to play with.