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 shreds, leaving floating chunks hovering in the void. The people lived on, dealing with this by building huge canals between islands to sail ships through. The players were active in a time of the dawning of flying ships, which were powered by mysterious singer's stones. The players found out the secret of the stones in the first adventure, that they are made by ripping someones charisma out of them and stuffing it in a stone.
Anyways, the lynchpin of this adventure was the players going to a tavern and noticing a beautiful woman, who was a bard, and would begin singing. After she was done singing she would step outside and be kidnapped. All the players had to do was follow the lady.
That didn't happen. Instead some of my players were busy playing on their phones, others were too buzzed to notice. So, I had to take the active approach. A storm started, a druid bursts in, yelling he needs help with the monolith. They follow that. This leads to them following the druid into a field to watch a huge stone plinth get struck by lightning and crazy tentacle beats pour out. I had it that these things were clumps of tentacles that were parts of a much larger far realm creature poking through. To accentuate this I explained every time lightning struck, they saw tendrils connecting these things to the ruins of the stone monolith.
It was explained later that the monoliths were there to seal the far realm away from this realm. Then the thankful druid paid them, and asked them to investigate a nearby town. Then the second half of all the shit i wrote slotted in nicely.
OK let's slice that story loaf into tasty morsels.
1. Don't over plan on your first outing.
All you need is a set up, and a reason for players to go kill stuff. "goblins did a bad thing go get em!" is fine, have a big battle. Start with a battle! Maybe they're in a tavern and goblins storm in to rob the place. Something small. Start small. SMALL! Smaller than that, whatever you are thinking. It just needs to feature combat and role play. That's it. No over arching story no world lore, get started.
2. Actively engage your players.
Don't expect to drop bread crumbs on your first outing and have players pick up on it. Have a big dumb THING happen, that gets them interested. This is your first session and it needs EXCITEMENT. Have something attack have someone run in screaming have the town burn down have a dragon attack do something big to get people interested. If you absolutely NEED to get someone interested in some small story tidbit, repeat it like ten times. If I did it again I'd explain it like this:
"A woman is singing, and as she goes outside you hear a scream. The bar is serving ale, mead, and cider, and outside you hear a woman scream. You see people playing cards in the corner, a couple is sharing a meal, and outside a woman screams. Outside a woman screams, and outside you hear a woman scream, when suddenly, a woman outside screams!"
But that said, don't beat them over the head. They will whip out that old insult, that old stinky chestnut. "you're railroading us dude." NO SHIT, this is the first session. It's understandable to railroad at first outing, because you don't know how not to, you'll learn.
3. Remember, you are the world, and so are your players.
You players are basically playing games with their brains, and you're filling in the details of the world for them. Your brain is the world, and you're showing them. Eventually your players will tell you what they want, their backstories, whats going on with them. Integrate this into your idea. Some people think "Well that conflicts with what i have planned and it doesn't fit the tone and i don't have anything planned there." Good, steal their ideas and Katamari them into your world. It'll be richer for it. It will MATTER more to that PLAYER. Then they will want to play again.
4. Big Plans Later.
The last thing I'll say is make all your crazy plans and dungeon maps for second session. Third session. The first session is about players forming a dynamic and getting to know their characters. That's why it should be so small. After that go hog wild. You need your players to have fun and be invested BEFORE you should invest. Now, if you already have done a bunch of stuff, maps, encounters, poems, sonnets. Don't be afraid to recycle that shit, use it later. then use it again.
5. A Fifth Thing
Lists should have a fifth item, so I put one. I'm basically done though.
Overall I used a lot of words to say four things.
1. Keep your first game small.
2. Actively engage your players.
3. Let your players influence you.
4. Plan once they're invested.
But if you only follow one, KEEP YOUR FIRST GAME SMALL.
And that's it. Hopefully they're already talking about coming over next week. If not, next next week. Just remember one word, fun. There are lots of types of fun, make sure you're having one of them.
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 shreds, leaving floating chunks hovering in the void. The people lived on, dealing with this by building huge canals between islands to sail ships through. The players were active in a time of the dawning of flying ships, which were powered by mysterious singer's stones. The players found out the secret of the stones in the first adventure, that they are made by ripping someones charisma out of them and stuffing it in a stone.
Anyways, the lynchpin of this adventure was the players going to a tavern and noticing a beautiful woman, who was a bard, and would begin singing. After she was done singing she would step outside and be kidnapped. All the players had to do was follow the lady.
That didn't happen. Instead some of my players were busy playing on their phones, others were too buzzed to notice. So, I had to take the active approach. A storm started, a druid bursts in, yelling he needs help with the monolith. They follow that. This leads to them following the druid into a field to watch a huge stone plinth get struck by lightning and crazy tentacle beats pour out. I had it that these things were clumps of tentacles that were parts of a much larger far realm creature poking through. To accentuate this I explained every time lightning struck, they saw tendrils connecting these things to the ruins of the stone monolith.
It was explained later that the monoliths were there to seal the far realm away from this realm. Then the thankful druid paid them, and asked them to investigate a nearby town. Then the second half of all the shit i wrote slotted in nicely.
OK let's slice that story loaf into tasty morsels.
1. Don't over plan on your first outing.
All you need is a set up, and a reason for players to go kill stuff. "goblins did a bad thing go get em!" is fine, have a big battle. Start with a battle! Maybe they're in a tavern and goblins storm in to rob the place. Something small. Start small. SMALL! Smaller than that, whatever you are thinking. It just needs to feature combat and role play. That's it. No over arching story no world lore, get started.
2. Actively engage your players.
Don't expect to drop bread crumbs on your first outing and have players pick up on it. Have a big dumb THING happen, that gets them interested. This is your first session and it needs EXCITEMENT. Have something attack have someone run in screaming have the town burn down have a dragon attack do something big to get people interested. If you absolutely NEED to get someone interested in some small story tidbit, repeat it like ten times. If I did it again I'd explain it like this:
"A woman is singing, and as she goes outside you hear a scream. The bar is serving ale, mead, and cider, and outside you hear a woman scream. You see people playing cards in the corner, a couple is sharing a meal, and outside a woman screams. Outside a woman screams, and outside you hear a woman scream, when suddenly, a woman outside screams!"
But that said, don't beat them over the head. They will whip out that old insult, that old stinky chestnut. "you're railroading us dude." NO SHIT, this is the first session. It's understandable to railroad at first outing, because you don't know how not to, you'll learn.
3. Remember, you are the world, and so are your players.
You players are basically playing games with their brains, and you're filling in the details of the world for them. Your brain is the world, and you're showing them. Eventually your players will tell you what they want, their backstories, whats going on with them. Integrate this into your idea. Some people think "Well that conflicts with what i have planned and it doesn't fit the tone and i don't have anything planned there." Good, steal their ideas and Katamari them into your world. It'll be richer for it. It will MATTER more to that PLAYER. Then they will want to play again.
4. Big Plans Later.
The last thing I'll say is make all your crazy plans and dungeon maps for second session. Third session. The first session is about players forming a dynamic and getting to know their characters. That's why it should be so small. After that go hog wild. You need your players to have fun and be invested BEFORE you should invest. Now, if you already have done a bunch of stuff, maps, encounters, poems, sonnets. Don't be afraid to recycle that shit, use it later. then use it again.
5. A Fifth Thing
Lists should have a fifth item, so I put one. I'm basically done though.
Overall I used a lot of words to say four things.
1. Keep your first game small.
2. Actively engage your players.
3. Let your players influence you.
4. Plan once they're invested.
But if you only follow one, KEEP YOUR FIRST GAME SMALL.
And that's it. Hopefully they're already talking about coming over next week. If not, next next week. Just remember one word, fun. There are lots of types of fun, make sure you're having one of them.
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