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How To DM?

@Miz forum 5 comments schedule
@Miz

So I've played all of one (1) official campaign over a year ago. I've played really simplified versions of dnd since where stats don't matter and rolls are only made to determine which part of the story will be added (basically a choose-your-own-adventure). Considering all this wonderful experience and the fact that I know next to nothing about dnd, I came to the only logical conclusion that I'm ready to create my own campaign for my friends and I…

And, predictably, I'm not sure where to start. I have a very general, very vague idea of aspects to the world, but I'm at a loss for goals. Not only that, but I'm not sure at all how to account for player decisions.

Does anyone have advice for someone like me just starting out?

group
@Katastrophic group

honestly, the best way to learn is to get a premade adventure and run through it with your group, find what works and what doesn't. Some ways of Dm'ing focus more on the story and forego things like rations and some gear stuff, while others focus more on combat and survival themes. For the number side of Dm'ing, its something that just takes practice and learning how to balance encounters and make them fun as well as managing the party. Sometimes you'll get players that really want to do their own thing, so you have to come up with improve a lot or have a lot of options prepared.

The most important part is having your group work with you. If they understand that everyone's learning, double takes/retcons, longer pauses to figure things out, etc. are much more understandable. It's easier to DM if your group is working with you rather than against you.

person_off
Deleted user

I haven't played since 3.5, but I do remember Rule Zero—any of the succeeding rules can be bent or broken so that everybody can have more fun.

That said, first, some guidelines on "house rules" are also helpful (so nobody argues and gets grudges about that one time the D20 rolled under the table where nobody could see and so the consensus seemed to be "try to keep it upright when you pick it up".) I've found checklists of possibly triggering materials that players would prefer were not part of the story, and horror stories of players selectively trying to LARP combat scenes with other players who expected that "combat scenes" remain talking about combat instead of acting it out. Agree on what's the protocol if somebody can't make it to a gaming session—does the DM get to fill in, turning that absent player's character into an NPC, or should a plot contrivance have them temporarily and conveniently disappear? There's no wrong answer as long as it's clear that that's the agreement. This can go for storylines too…some want to collaborate in the planning, others prefer to discover everything during the playing.

Some DM's keep their games very open-world and essentially plotless, a sandbox for players to make whatever out of. I personally prefer the ones in which some concept is plotted out, even though I have witnessed how that can become two 8-hour sessions full of the Dungeon Master doing nothing but getting the bait-and-switch false antagonist to speak in endless exposition because the plot was supposedly just that complex and brilliant at only the set-up. And other DM's can get snappish when players or characters don't pursue the plot in the way the DM wants (because the plot was supposedly just that complex and brilliant)—and then that's no fun, if there's only one way to make the plot happen then might as well write the story out instead of inviting wildcards of player decisions.

While D&D will always have fond memories, I personally prefer the World of Darkness game system. If you must have an early medieval like fantasy setting rather than a modern urban fantasy, I think they released Mage: The Dark Ages…the Changeling expansion is with fairies, there's also one for Vampires and another for Werewolves and another for humans (the "Hunter" expansion), and you can mix and match all of them up with Prometheans (the Frankenstein monsters) and whatever.

Improvisation is made better with practice, how to—not in a cruel way—bait the players' characters into moving the plot forward (if you have a plot) by knowing their personality and motivation, and keep an eye out for character dynamics and group player dynamics (usually nobody likes the DM's Pet.)

I hope this helps!

@Miz

@Katastrophe and @Elly

You guys gave me some really helpful advice! I personally intend to follow a much more combat/survivalist theme where players have to keep close track of their gear/items and health, etc. It'll be mainly sandbox with snippets of plot hidden about and determined by chance, which at some point builds up to an understanding about what their reasoning for being there is and what they need to do next to escape. The main part I'm struggling with is definitely the numbers aspect. As Katastrophe mentioned, full understanding will only really come through lots of practice, but I was curious as to whether either of you had any general tips on balancing enemy encounters and the party's health/enjoyment? I'd like to avoid any character deaths unless the player majorly messes up, which would be kinda hard to do unless they're not paying attention.

group
@Katastrophic group

Essay time, sorry lol but I hope this helps!

DnDBeyond, a very helpful website, has an encounter builder that is very helpful for balancing encounters. it uses CR (combat Rating) to balance between the party and the enemies. A good thing to remember is one hard enemy will be easier than multiple medium enemies, as action economy can take out even a skilled party if they're overwhelmed. There's a lot of ratios and dice rolling stuff i could explain if you want, but pretty much just know that a party is more likely to be killed by a swarm than a single enemy. If you want to play nicer to your players, or if they're struggling, make sure to play the enemies different. For example, the evil goblins are going to each target one person instead of ganging up on the one guy in front (the party will likely divide and conquer, so enemies can too!), or maybe they see the biggest guy in the most armor as a threat and are going to priortize them over the squishy wizard. This is a way to make it more fair or less fair even after the fight starts, but I suggest not changing the stats once the fight starts (before hand is fine, like removing an enemy or swapping them for a more or less stronger one), but your players will likely notice if the enemies suddenly have less hp or are 'missing' all their hits. Don't lie about dice rolls is the main one, even if it helps the party it will do more harm than good in the long run.

Just keep an eye on your character's spellslots and ability slots of they have them, as after a fight or two a level one spellcaster will be out of abilities and useless in a fight. 3 easy encounters in a row can be deadly if everyone's low on health, spells, and supplies. Just try to pace it out so they don;t get burnt out too fast too early on the adventure. There are resting mechanics in 5e, but they can only do so much before a full night's rest is required. (also if you're looking into survival mechanics, definately look into 5e's short/long rest and exhaustion system!)

Another thing I want to mention for encounters is just a homebrew rule my DM uses. When someone is down, or unconcious, etc, they usually with D&D 5e get 3 death saves, above 10 is a pass and below 10 is a fail and so on. They way he rules it is that he the DM is the one to roll them, it adds suspense to encounter and forces players to think on their feet and worry more about healing without metagaming since no one knows. Besides that, decide how you want resurection to work. We use a dice system our DM came up with where after a certain number of dice/death rolls, the characters get too tired to return. Others use a 3 lives rule, or they keep upping the cost to res someone. ofcourse those are preferences, you can have res just be a visit to a temple or unlimmitted via spells and such.