[Alexander]

O.o Hello all lol.
A few friends and I just decided one day to try DnD out of the blue. We are all pretty serious about it and are getting into it pretty well except for one semi obvious fact. We are all brand spanking new to the game and there for have no experience at all. I was voted to be DM mostly because im the one who usually gets voted to be the one who gets the tougher slice of the pie lol. I need some help tho. i want to give them a good first experience and all but ack there is just so much stuff to know and do and work with i dont know where to start .. or for that matter what to start with O.o lol i would seriously appreciate any help

[WoeTheSinner]

First let me welcome you to the boards. Now let me set about the answer you are going to get from almost all the folks on here. If you do not already have the core rule books, the Players Handbook (PHB), the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) and the Monster Manual (MM) purchase them at your earliest convenience. As the DM it is you task to know these books. Read through the PHB and the DMG. Its not as much reading as you might think and you do not have to read everything in detail, you can skim some parts, like the item creation section and such. Parts like that you can refer to in more detail later, as you need them. It is very important that you know the basics, after that all you really need to know is if a certain section exists, that way when the situation pops up you know where to look it up.

Since you yourself are a beginner I would suggest running on of the pre-made adventure packs.

The Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) Adventure Path series would be a good series to start off with at lvl 1-3. WoTC also offers some free adventures at

http://www.wizards.c...nd/oa/20030530b

Running one of these pre-made campaigns will make your life easier as a starting DM and will give you a good feel for what a game looks and feels like. Also these beginner packs have helpful hints that help simplify the rules and teach you the game in a step by step process. Plus if you opt to buy the nicer packs you can get nifty maps and miniatures! Everyone loves visual aids.

My overall advice is to keep it simple for your first few adventures. Don’t get to complex with some giant storyline about a big bad evil guy (BBEG) trying to create a black hole in a dragon kingdom or something. Stick with the “Guard this” or “Fetch that” or “Kill that monster” games for the first few sessions. Until you get comfortable.

I would definitely recommend using a grid/map and miniatures as with will make combat much easier both for you and your players. It will eliminate so many arguments over where their characters are and where the monsters are and who gets attacks of opportunity on what and whose fireball could hit who…trust me even with very experienced players the grid and miniatures is invaluable. You don’t have to buy one, you can use a chess board or an Othello board or just a piece of grid paper and some pennies or something…but trust me its worth having.

Other than that I think the basic answer is read and play . Read to get a general idea and play to refine it. Remember its ok to make mistakes and in the end you can change any rule you want, so don’t worry about it!

-Woe

P.S. If you find yourself without the books handy you can look up all the core rules on the System Reference Document (SRD) at System Reference Document. Remeber though this is only a generic guide to the rules, I would still sugest getting the books until you are much more comfortable with the rules.

[Jimp]

Welcome to D&D
I'd advise asking around your local gaming/hobby shop or even some of your friends to see if they know anybody who plays already. Learning from somebody who already plays is a great help when it comes to getting started. If you can't find anyone locally, try internet gaming groups. A few of us who use these forums play together over MSN Messenger when we can. There are plenty of websites and programs dedicated to online pen and paper gaming so have a look around and see if you can get someone to show you the ropes.

[Black Faolan]

One of the basic things to remember as DM is how DM is spelt - G O D.

You can let players look up rules, you can follow the rules as closely as you like, but when it comes to a judgement call, its your call, and they don't get to argue. Be careful about favoritism, though, and make sure you're making your calls based on your judgement, not your emotions.

Becoming familiar with the rules is not just a good idea but a necessity as a DM. If you can't learn from watching someone else DM, learning by running simple pre-built scenarios is probably the next best thing.

Keep it simple to start and ramp up the complexity as you go. There's a lot to learn, and trying to learn it all at once is a good way to burn yourself out.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

One last thing that will help you not be so overwhelmed. If you have a laptop, bring it to your first session. Have the SRD open (see the link above). Even if you have the books and memorize them, little bits will slip your mind. God knows I don't have every spell memorized, but I use the SRD as a quick reference when I'm not sure. Also, the laptop makes for a great place to keep notes, keep your OWN set of character sheets that you update throughout the game (this can be important as some people have a propensity to alter their sheets between games. You always use your copy for games, not theirs. If they complain that soemthing is not right, then you rectify the situation - translation - correct their character sheet. I hope it does not come to this for you). Basically, having a computer handy can be real nice and it also opens up a lot of other options as you get more experienced. But most importantly, it lets you use the SRD as a bigass DM's screen.

[Alexander]

thanks for all the advice and the warm welcome its really appreciated. to clarify it a bit more i have allot of the books already including the players guide, DMguide and Monster manual 1-3, as well as allot of other books (we pooled our cash together and bought out our local hobby store.. put a couple of their kids through college and such so as far as overloading myself .. i think i already acomplished that but its all good im a fast learner

Im just a lil nervous cause i dont want things to turn boring or even worse confusing and tedious. I think i got a bit ahead of myself already.. being a creative person i already took some half arse steps twards making my own campain theres just allot of little details that no matter how many times i read over and over in the books they just dont make sense to me.

One of the biggest issues i have is Level adjustment... my players got their hand on information.. that made them heart set on using genasi characters and i cant quite grasp how level adjustment works.. cause the way i think it works has a lvl 1 Genasi ranger with 9 health and a lvl 3 orc barb with 33 health and it seems a bit unbalanced... i could be wrong... i wouldnt know what CR to throw at a group like that .. that would be easy enough to not gank the genasi and enough of a challenge for the barb that can hit for 10 dmg me and a couple of my players have been getting together to run practice sessions to get the hang of the rules and this was what happened

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Do a search on this forum. I know there is at least one thread on LA (level adjustment). But if you want my advice, it is this. Stick to core rulebook stuff initially. PHB (player's handbook) races/classes only. Play a couple premade adventures and let everyone get their footing. This will also give you time to work more on your campaign. To give you an idea, I have been developing my campaign world now for almost a year and I still don't really have anything too playable yet. I barely have how magic works mashed out. Give these things time because it takes time to get everything in place. In the end you will be far happier, and in the process you will learn the game quite well.

If it helps any, I got stuck DMing almost from the start. I only ever got a couple sessions of 2e in before I started DMing in 3e and then 3.5e. Let me tell you, that was not easy, but with practise and patience, it has paid off. Initially, I just worked with a small town, a crude map of a cave, and a whole lot of goblin bashing. But after a bit of that, I got my footing and was able to make fuller adventures, and eventually found that I was trying to create a world with insanely epic things happening. But you cannot attempt the big projects until you understand and have some experience with the details.

This is in no way meant to discourage you from working on your own worldbuilding endeavors (I love doing this and am writing a monthly column on it in the Emerald Alter, whose first issue will publish next month). In fact, there are tons of wonderful resources on the web to aid you in this. The trick, though, is to just plan things out loosely so you can later drop PCs in the world you create. Don't even worry about the rules and keep things generic. The most I'd even mention DnD-related stuff initially would be to give a general class level to a MAJOR NPC to flesh him out. But in the meantime, get use to the rules and the game as a whole.

Finally, I appologize for not saying this earlier, but welcome to the forums. We are glad to have you here and please feel free to run any questions by us. Espeically when it comes to problems you are facing, advice on decisions, or with your campaign building. Many of us run custom campaigns, so we should be of some help.

Irasshaimase!

[Alexander]

Thanks again lol feels good to be welcomed so warmly by everyone.

Aright between browsing all the other forums on DMing and listening to what you guys have told me here i know when to take good advice when its given to me lol. Now one major question i have concerning using a premade campaign setting and the such is this.. I am an UBER MAJOR ULTIMATE fan of Dragon lance lol... the first book i set to buying was the DL campain settings book.. lol just because i had to get it cause im that much of a fan.. i had this book before i actualy had the DM and players guide..

lol now what i notice betweeen the DL campains and what the players guild puts forth is that there are a few differences in the rules.. in good advice would it be smart to start off in a DL campaign setting or should i stick to the basic DnD settings like Faerun or Ebberon. are the rules so different that playing in the DL campaign setting will make using normal DnD rules awkward? being new i dont want to do that to my players or myself.. so i would appreciate adive concerning that

[Black Faolan]

I DM in what is basically a modified generic setting. I don't think any of the official settings makes things any more difficult than your 'random generic fantasy world'

[Dthclaw]

Naw. Plus, one advantage of using the predone campaign settings is that someone else has already gone through the trouble of thinking out all the major details. Which leaves you free to develop adventures and not have to worry about things like world maps, magic details, races, classes, etc. On the other hand, nothing is more satisfying (to me at least) than seeing people really enjoy a setting and want to use homebrew races and classes.