So I am a first time DM and well with me and half the players experience being limited should make me feel better I am so worried about disappointing them. In private I was trying to work through how to DM and I can't do premade encounters... like trying to gather and put stat blocks and what not on screen really just overflows me with information causing me to go into a minor panic attack. Ironically more order leads to me panicking more lol which is why I live in chaos.
Anyways, I am thinking I may have to "set up encounters" but instead have a note written and pretend the stats are there and try to make the fight as interesting as possible while my players think I am going off legit stats. I plan to also use a D20 to compare to their roles and make personally choices to see how it turns out. Basically roles can't be botched this way because it's just me feelings on the matter. I didn't want to DM but we all wanted to and I was the only one who stepped up after a year of talking about it... I have guidelines but more or less it will all be making stuff up on my end and making it seem legit.
1st session is at noon today and it will be over discord because we don't live near each other for it. What would be some advice you would give me from either a player or a DM's personal view that could help me make this campaign remembered positively and not negatively? We also plan to have a 10-20 min session zero before hand to talk through some stuff and go over some character connections.
One problem, the people playing have characters with "hard stats". If you decide in their favor on rolls, most outcomes will be unquestioned. When someone rolls to hit with a d20 roll and gets a17 and adds their bonuses in, you are going to need a stat for AR that you can't really fudge on.
If you want to "wing it", I suggest you use a heavy narrative role play approach. You will have a really hard time trying to make it up as you go along when it comes to the mechanical part of the game so, I would personally make sure I have easy access to some simple stat blocks at the very least.
Problem is spending 15 mins at the start of combat just sitting there gathering stats for each character is going to be a problem with the flow... especially if I have to relook them up multiple times since I can't handle too much visual info on my screen at once and am already at my limit with notes.
Preparation is key. You gather all the monster stats you are going to need in one place before the session even starts. You can even preroll initiative. Then it is as simple as putting the monster mini's or tokens on the map (if you even use a map) and starting combat.
The up and coming encounter builder on DDB will do a lot of the heavy lifting (encounters from adventures should be premade). You will be able to track initiative and HP with that (when it is done), so only the map will be up to you.
Some DM's let players manage their characters stats, I woul look over them quickly just to make sure there is nothing too unbalanced about them and to get a sense of their potential.
My focus would be on story and world building, control and understand your own creations. In my experience, trying to DM specifically to everything about the character group is too much work and can lead to DM vs players mentality. I think most are looking for "players overcome challenges" that are fun and exciting. This is a reward for both DM and players
Yeah issue is I have like not even a quarter of my screen left for info... so monster stats added will make me prone to possible panic attacks as DM sadly... trying to find a workaround here since I know the enemies for the first adventure are bandits and wildlife mainly.
Also sadly that encounter feature will be cool but sadly sitting here with physical books and not the digital ones on this site also without a subscription sooo the encounter thing won’t be something I can use right?
Yeah issue is I have like not even a quarter of my screen left for info... so monster stats added will make me prone to possible panic attacks as DM sadly... trying to find a workaround here since I know the enemies for the first adventure are bandits and wildlife mainly.
Also sadly that encounter feature will be cool but sadly sitting here with physical books and not the digital ones on this site also without a subscription sooo the encounter thing won’t be something I can use right?
The encounter builder will be available to free accounts when it is moved to beta (currently alpha).
You may have to use multiple tabs to manage screen space.
If you don't have the MM on DDB, check if your needed monsters are free, you can homebrew needed monsters, you can make copies of the stat block, or jot down AC, HP, initiative, attack modifier and damage, and MM page number for quick reference.
I know it's eay for me to say but, you have to relax and anticipate this experience to be full of fun and NOT stressfull.
Having fun isn't just your responsibility to provide. The others can interact with each other and your game world to make it particularly vivid and rich.
Aside from having Discord on your screen, nothing is wrong with using your notes and books to run the game. It is also expected that there will be regular pauses in the game when either the players or DM will have to double check rules or abilities.
Everyone has to start somewhere, it is better to start now then later. As long as the players know your a new DM it should be fine. As you gain experience you'll learn to improvise; and you'll get an idea of the flow of stats, enabling you to create and modify monsters, challenges, and magic items without needing a book.
But yes, remain calm. Don't stress out, it's okay if you make mistakes. You don't need to be the best DM and DMing isn't too hard. The players are the main part of the game, you just need to take care of the things around them.
I've got a link for new DMs in my sign, you can take a look for some general advice from multiple people.
If it helps - remember that the players are the experts on their own characters. You DON'T need to know everything, or even very much, about the player's abilities to start. If you trust them to handle their own characters' rules, the only stats you need are those of the monsters.
To start, you can make it even easier on yourself AND the players by having very homogenous encounters - the first few fights can be against only one type of enemy! E.g. the players fight "three goblins" or "four wolves" or "one animated armor". That way, you actually only need *one* statblock to put up before combat! Even later on, you rarely need more than two types of enemies up at once.
Thanks everyone this helped and it went well very well
They all got hired by the city of the guard who couldn't spare the guard to transport the medicine by caravan because of the epidemic in the city causing a psychosis problem. They took turns watching and they met the bandit Vollas the charming bandit leader who leads his crew. They managed to catch one of the bandits after the fight and interrogate him which lead to them finding out the location of the hideout and that someone is above Vollas saving the caravan.
Party is a dwarf paladin who was in the navy, Tiefling warlock mother with an adopted goblin daughter working as an assistant for the wizard, the human wizard is a teacher at the university, and our rat person wizard who is the janitor at the magic university.
So far the stars of the group rp wise are the rat person which is ******* great and the dwarf paladin who did the interrogation and let the bandit leave since he had to keep his word.
Hello I am having the same nerves as you are I have been playing dnd for a year and I am deciding to host my first champagne this Saturday using the scroll theif moduel I am really nervous because I’m scared that something might go terribly wrong but I’m also exited to see how it will turn out I hope you have a awesome career of dming
Hi Ryulvlayre, welcome to the rough and tumble world of DM'ing. I think that a lot of new DM's see shows like Critical Role where the DM is a professional voice actor with a lot of range and who seems to know all the rules backward and forward. But it's okay to break immersion sometimes. If your players want to talk to to an NPC you didn't intend to be important, it's okay to say, "Oh, give me a second to make up a name for them... I didn't expect you to talk to them." If you don't know a rule and you don't want to take the time to look it up, tell your players something like, "I don't know how that's supposed to work, but for now it does this ____", then just do what feels like will be the most fun or exciting for your group. You don't have an audience... it's you and your friends sitting around and having a good time, so don't be afraid to take breaks to look things up, or to prepare a combat encounter you weren't expecting, etc. I know it's corny, but I like the old Magic School Bus saying... "Take Chances, Make Mistakes, and Get Messy."
If you're using any software etc, make sure you test it before starting the session, having to spend 10 minutes sorting out technical issues is not fun.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I would give you the same advice I give to all fledgling DMs, prepare to not be prepared, make sure errybody's havin' fun, and stay calm, ride out the storm, and enjoy yourself.
Don't just serve your players straight-up combat and nothing else ( I'm not saying you do ), but give them roleplaying opportunities, Funny and memorable NPCs, and I cannot stress this enough, HAVE FUN.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
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So I am a first time DM and well with me and half the players experience being limited should make me feel better I am so worried about disappointing them. In private I was trying to work through how to DM and I can't do premade encounters... like trying to gather and put stat blocks and what not on screen really just overflows me with information causing me to go into a minor panic attack. Ironically more order leads to me panicking more lol which is why I live in chaos.
Anyways, I am thinking I may have to "set up encounters" but instead have a note written and pretend the stats are there and try to make the fight as interesting as possible while my players think I am going off legit stats. I plan to also use a D20 to compare to their roles and make personally choices to see how it turns out. Basically roles can't be botched this way because it's just me feelings on the matter. I didn't want to DM but we all wanted to and I was the only one who stepped up after a year of talking about it... I have guidelines but more or less it will all be making stuff up on my end and making it seem legit.
1st session is at noon today and it will be over discord because we don't live near each other for it. What would be some advice you would give me from either a player or a DM's personal view that could help me make this campaign remembered positively and not negatively? We also plan to have a 10-20 min session zero before hand to talk through some stuff and go over some character connections.
One problem, the people playing have characters with "hard stats". If you decide in their favor on rolls, most outcomes will be unquestioned. When someone rolls to hit with a d20 roll and gets a17 and adds their bonuses in, you are going to need a stat for AR that you can't really fudge on.
If you want to "wing it", I suggest you use a heavy narrative role play approach. You will have a really hard time trying to make it up as you go along when it comes to the mechanical part of the game so, I would personally make sure I have easy access to some simple stat blocks at the very least.
Problem is spending 15 mins at the start of combat just sitting there gathering stats for each character is going to be a problem with the flow... especially if I have to relook them up multiple times since I can't handle too much visual info on my screen at once and am already at my limit with notes.
Preparation is key. You gather all the monster stats you are going to need in one place before the session even starts. You can even preroll initiative. Then it is as simple as putting the monster mini's or tokens on the map (if you even use a map) and starting combat.
The up and coming encounter builder on DDB will do a lot of the heavy lifting (encounters from adventures should be premade). You will be able to track initiative and HP with that (when it is done), so only the map will be up to you.
Some DM's let players manage their characters stats, I woul look over them quickly just to make sure there is nothing too unbalanced about them and to get a sense of their potential.
My focus would be on story and world building, control and understand your own creations. In my experience, trying to DM specifically to everything about the character group is too much work and can lead to DM vs players mentality. I think most are looking for "players overcome challenges" that are fun and exciting. This is a reward for both DM and players
Yeah issue is I have like not even a quarter of my screen left for info... so monster stats added will make me prone to possible panic attacks as DM sadly... trying to find a workaround here since I know the enemies for the first adventure are bandits and wildlife mainly.
Also sadly that encounter feature will be cool but sadly sitting here with physical books and not the digital ones on this site also without a subscription sooo the encounter thing won’t be something I can use right?
The encounter builder will be available to free accounts when it is moved to beta (currently alpha).
You may have to use multiple tabs to manage screen space.
If you don't have the MM on DDB, check if your needed monsters are free, you can homebrew needed monsters, you can make copies of the stat block, or jot down AC, HP, initiative, attack modifier and damage, and MM page number for quick reference.
I know it's eay for me to say but, you have to relax and anticipate this experience to be full of fun and NOT stressfull.
Having fun isn't just your responsibility to provide. The others can interact with each other and your game world to make it particularly vivid and rich.
Aside from having Discord on your screen, nothing is wrong with using your notes and books to run the game. It is also expected that there will be regular pauses in the game when either the players or DM will have to double check rules or abilities.
Everyone has to start somewhere, it is better to start now then later. As long as the players know your a new DM it should be fine. As you gain experience you'll learn to improvise; and you'll get an idea of the flow of stats, enabling you to create and modify monsters, challenges, and magic items without needing a book.
But yes, remain calm. Don't stress out, it's okay if you make mistakes. You don't need to be the best DM and DMing isn't too hard. The players are the main part of the game, you just need to take care of the things around them.
I've got a link for new DMs in my sign, you can take a look for some general advice from multiple people.
If it helps - remember that the players are the experts on their own characters. You DON'T need to know everything, or even very much, about the player's abilities to start. If you trust them to handle their own characters' rules, the only stats you need are those of the monsters.
To start, you can make it even easier on yourself AND the players by having very homogenous encounters - the first few fights can be against only one type of enemy! E.g. the players fight "three goblins" or "four wolves" or "one animated armor". That way, you actually only need *one* statblock to put up before combat! Even later on, you rarely need more than two types of enemies up at once.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Thanks everyone this helped and it went well very well
They all got hired by the city of the guard who couldn't spare the guard to transport the medicine by caravan because of the epidemic in the city causing a psychosis problem. They took turns watching and they met the bandit Vollas the charming bandit leader who leads his crew. They managed to catch one of the bandits after the fight and interrogate him which lead to them finding out the location of the hideout and that someone is above Vollas saving the caravan.
Party is a dwarf paladin who was in the navy, Tiefling warlock mother with an adopted goblin daughter working as an assistant for the wizard, the human wizard is a teacher at the university, and our rat person wizard who is the janitor at the magic university.
So far the stars of the group rp wise are the rat person which is ******* great and the dwarf paladin who did the interrogation and let the bandit leave since he had to keep his word.
Hello I am having the same nerves as you are I have been playing dnd for a year and I am deciding to host my first champagne this Saturday using the scroll theif moduel I am really nervous because I’m scared that something might go terribly wrong but I’m also exited to see how it will turn out I hope you have a awesome career of dming
Hi Ryulvlayre, welcome to the rough and tumble world of DM'ing. I think that a lot of new DM's see shows like Critical Role where the DM is a professional voice actor with a lot of range and who seems to know all the rules backward and forward. But it's okay to break immersion sometimes. If your players want to talk to to an NPC you didn't intend to be important, it's okay to say, "Oh, give me a second to make up a name for them... I didn't expect you to talk to them." If you don't know a rule and you don't want to take the time to look it up, tell your players something like, "I don't know how that's supposed to work, but for now it does this ____", then just do what feels like will be the most fun or exciting for your group. You don't have an audience... it's you and your friends sitting around and having a good time, so don't be afraid to take breaks to look things up, or to prepare a combat encounter you weren't expecting, etc. I know it's corny, but I like the old Magic School Bus saying... "Take Chances, Make Mistakes, and Get Messy."
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
If you're using any software etc, make sure you test it before starting the session, having to spend 10 minutes sorting out technical issues is not fun.
Here's the best advice I can give you, before anyone else beats me to it:
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I would give you the same advice I give to all fledgling DMs, prepare to not be prepared, make sure errybody's havin' fun, and stay calm, ride out the storm, and enjoy yourself.
Don't just serve your players straight-up combat and nothing else ( I'm not saying you do ), but give them roleplaying opportunities, Funny and memorable NPCs, and I cannot stress this enough, HAVE FUN.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.