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So I think I wanna get into D&D

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E

Evil Monkey DTT

Banned
A group of friends and I thought we should give it a shot. After all, as a fan of video games it should interesting to see where all the tropes and ideas come from. I am going to be DMing, none of us have any experience what so ever other then gaming? Any good tips, any good tutorials online? What's your experience like with table top games?
 
K

Kieli

Member
Try the pre-made modules/adventures. It'll take away the burden of having to come up with your own unique characters, scenario, encounters, etc...
 
C

Chorazin

Member
For your first game, highly recommend picking up one of the premade modules and running that. Way easier than thinking up a whole world!

Other than that have fun, and don't be a rules lawyer. If a player thinks of something awesome and is really excited about it, sometimes you'll want to say you failed a saving roll even if you didn't. 😁
 
C

Ceebs

Member
Kieli said:
Try the pre-made modules/adventures. It'll take away the burden of having to come up with your own unique characters, scenario, encounters, etc...
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This, plus don't be a stickler for every tiny little rule. If a player wants to do something unorthodox, let them. Most DM guides you will read will say something about "Saying yes to your players". As long as the player is not attempting to hijack the game, go along with their off the wall ideas, and come up with creative ways they can accomplish it.
 
P

Professor Beef

Banned
Evil Monkey DTT said:
A group of friends and I thought we should give it a shot. After all, as a fan of video games it should interesting to see where all the tropes and ideas come from. I am going to be DMing, none of us have any experience what so ever other then gaming? Any good tips, any good tutorials online? What's your experience like with table top games?
Click to expand...

Don't take the first couple of sessions too seriously. Just have fun with it, get some snacks and drinks, and use the first couple of sessions as practice to see how deep down the rabbit hole you guys wanna go.
 
R

Rasen

Banned
Me and a rather large group of friends got into tabletop RPGs last year (well, to make a long story short a few of us did at first then we added more people as it went on) and it's been a blast. DMing, especially as someone with very little tabletop rpg experience beforehand, was intimidating but it's become one of my favorite hobbies now. I love it. Currently swapped the DM position with someone else so I could try out playing for a bit and he could try out DMing.

Some general tips and stuff:

1: Don't be worried about playing everything exactly by the rules and doing everything right, especially if nobody there is very familiar with them.The rules are there for a reason and generally should be followed as best as possible, but if something is more funny/dramatic/entertaining and kinda bends the rules a little, allow it. The rules are a structure and tools that help ground and guide the story, but they shouldn't overwhelm and restrict it if it's preventing enjoyment or fun.

2: Don't plan too much. If you're making your own campaign, make a few ideas you really wanna do, like maybe a location, some plot hooks, characters, etc, but leave big chunks of things undefined and unplanned so that you and the players can make and establish them together. There's a balancing act to this that is really hard until you get a feel for it, and for your first time or two you're probably going to find that you either planned too little (the players will do something and you may find it hard to improvise something) or too much (making a bunch of stuff the party won't end up seeing because they wanted to go somewhere different/do something else) and you'll get better at it as you go.

3: HAVE FUN. No, seriously, above all else your job as a DM is to make sure everyone is having a good time. Sometimes this can be hard with things like inter-party conflict, but if you do your best to make sure everyone is invested and having a good time with their character, even through bad situations for them, you're doing a good job.

There's a lot of resources out there online for people in your position, btw. The RPG community is one of the most welcoming and kindhearted I've seen. I've kinda started to loathe reddit but I'm continually impressed by how awesome and helpful the people over at r/rpg and r/dnd are. There's a lot of YouTube videos on DMing and good practice, tips, etc. Matt Mercer, who you probably know as a game voice actor, has a pretty awesome playlist of such videos you should probably check out.
 
S

superNESjoe

Member
Ceebs said:
This, plus don't be a stickler for every tiny little rule. If a player wants to do something unorthodox, let them. Most DM guides you will read will say something about "Saying yes to your players". As long as the player is not attempting to hijack the game, go along with their off the wall ideas, and come up with creative ways they can accomplish it.
Click to expand...

Jesus man, this. I tried playing with a group at the local comic shop and it was unbearable. We got attacked by rats and I wanted to try and trap them in this large pot I had, but the DM said there wasn't a mechanic for that, but I could smash them with it and do an improvised weapon roll.

He got sick of me being the only person actually role playing or being creative, so he killed me. I just laughed and got up and left and never played with them again.

I love DnD because it's bound only by what I can think of. I have video games to play if I want to be stuck to a set of unbreakable rules.

EDIT: Also my party didn't like me after we came into a village that was under attack and I questioned why they would jump to the conclusion that the nearby Kobolds were responsible. I told them we should get their side of the story too, but they told me they were evil because they were Kobolds.

No sense of humor at all.

EDIT 2: My DM wouldn't let me pick Swahili as one of my language proficiencies.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
Note that a DM isn't an opponent to the players. The role as the DM is to make the game an enjoyable experience for all of the players. You want to make it interesting and challenging, but you don't want to do everything in your power to fuck over the players and "win." Bend rules, be flexible, let the players be creative, etc.
 
P

Professor Beef

Banned
Our old DM let my character, a Dragonborn Bard, get away with the name "Handsome B. Wonderful." I knew that we were in for some fun times.
 
P

Prurient

Banned
I would love to get into to but don't really have friends who would want to play, are there any good ways a beginner can play online?
 
B

Beartruck

Member
superNESjoe said:
EDIT: Also my party didn't like me after we came into a village that was under attack and I questioned why they would jump to the conclusion that the nearby Kobolds were responsible. I told them we should get their side of the story too, but they told me they were evil because they were Kobolds.

No sense of humor at all.

EDIT 2: My DM wouldn't let me pick Swahili as one of my language proficiencies.
Click to expand...

Is this you:
http://theglen.livejournal.com/16735.html
 
N

Nairume

Banned
If both you and your players are going to be all new, I highly recommend starting with either the free basic rules or the starter box. Both use the basic version of the current edition of D&D, which gives you the easiest to learn parts of the game and holds the more complicated stuff out. Between the two, the free rules have the benefit of being free and including more character building stuff while the starter set has the benefit of giving you a premade adventure, premade characters, and a set of dice. If it clicks after you give it a go or two, then I'd recommend getting the books, which will introduce more complicated mechanics and stuff.

As far as advice, echoing others, always be sure to be flexible. While there is virtue in trying to keep your players on path, one of the easiest ways of ruining a game is railroading players and not giving them a chance to do things. You might be the primary storyteller, but it's the players' story too.
 
D

Davidion

Member
Ah yes, memories of taking five hours to walk down a hallway and maybe start to swing your sword against a kobold.

I echo everything everyone is saying about a good dm. Pre fab adventures are fine; a good dm with player chemistry to match can make it great. Good games are all about storytelling, not aimlessly following game mechanics.

If someone in your group is a good improvisor and is interested in doing dming, you've hit gold. Find you a Q-from-star-trek grade of dm.
 
N

Nairume

Banned
Baron von Loathsome said:
My sister and I are both interest in playing it, but we don't really know anyone else who plays it.
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If you have any stores in the area that do tabletop/card games, it might be worth checking into seeing if they host D&D Adventurer's League. Those are officially sanctioned open campaigns that anybody is free to join in at any point and are usually pretty good for new people to try out if they don't have a group ready to go.
 
S

Speely

Banned
Don't forget to have fun yourself, as the GM. Let your players surprise you and change your direction up. Running a game doesn't have to be a stressful set of guidelines inside which you are trying to keep the players. At its best, it's shared story telling with the thrill of the dice roll to keep things uncertain.

The most fun I have had as a DM/GM were games where the players challenged the direction of the campaign/session and I just rolled with it. (Edit, bad pun intended.)
 
D

disappeared

Banned
Whatever you do, don't play with somebody who goes by every fucking rule in the book. I once played a mini one-off battle with a few friends and this one grieving little shit. It was supposed to be a fun little encounter, not more than an hour maybe. It lasted nearly four thanks to that fussy son of a bitch and in the end the DM just sank the ship and we all drowned.
 
S

ScatheZombie

Member
If you ever have this happen in one of your games, you are D&Ding correctly:

otWqC2G.jpg
Click to expand...
 
A

Alcotholic

Banned
Like others have mentioned: Dont be strict to the rules and campaigns. Use the rules as a guide through the experience, but always make sure improvise. Give and take, you know?

I personally recommend other RPG systems as D&D can often be too focused on stats and combat as opposed to a shared narrative experience.
Call of Cthulhu, Aces and Eights, Labyrinth Lord, and Numenera are other great options.

Also its good to have a back up RPG for one off games if all your players cant make it.
I recommend Fiasco, Fall of Magic, The Quiet Year, The End of the World, or Dread.
 
N

Nairume

Banned
Also, as another word of advice, don't go into it expecting things to be Lord of the Rings on your first session. Things will get goofy.
 
S

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
Honestly, the starter set Lost Mine of Phandelver is very good. Just keep it loose and try to collaborate with players instead of push them and everyone will have a blast.

Pro Tip:
When a player tried something fun but unexpected, have them roll a d20, pick a skill that makes sense to accomplish the thing they are trying and have them add that bonus to the roll.

If they roll higher than 10+ let them succeed but something goes wrong or is complicated.
15+ they get what they want.

If they are trying something stupid or really hard add 5 to the above target numbers (called a DC)

That alone and honestly you'll be better than 90% of first time DMs and you can resolve the majority of edge-case shenanigans and it'll feel organic and exciting.
 
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