If you google "GM Tips" or "DM Tips" you can find a lot of advice. But for a new DM it's very easy to put the cart before the horse, to make dumb mistakes and bone it up. Or, more importantly, feel that way and get discouraged. About six years ago when I started DMing Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition for my friends I was working midnight cashier at a gas station. I had brought all the books with me, players handbook, dungeon masters guide, and the monster manual. I read all these books and meticulously crafted a series of encounters and small dungeons that would leave the players at third level, introducing organically the main thrust of my little story. Aside, this story was a weird setting. It was set on floating islands in the astral sea. Fourth edition had this idea of the Dawn War, a war between primordials, creatures of huge elemental power, and gods. In this setting there weren't any winners, except people. The war ripped the whole world to shr...