I'm the new D&D DM! Help?

When in doubt, throw in a random encounter.

If this is your first time DM'ing, I'd suggest looking for a pre-done adventure module you can modify. With a module, someone's already done the work of setting up the dungeon, treasure, and populating it with appropriate monsters. Think about your overall adventure arc, but use the modules as stepping stones. Also, running a module as a trial run can give you a taste of what's to come.

I've only DM'ed once and didn't enjoy it, but I love talking about DND.

In my DND group, we decided the name for a group of DM's was a "chaos of DM's".

Good luck!

Yeah, I was gonna recommend starting with a canned campaign rather than trying to make one up your first time. Don't let the guys sense any fear in you. DM's need to rule with an iron fist.

If you've never DM'ed before, the technical aspects can get overwhelming, which is why I suggested the module. Use it as a trial run just to get familiar with running a game before you launch into your own storyline. If your group is anything like mine, it'll take them several sessions to get through a single module.

What level are the characters starting at? Will the players be running the same characters throughout the whole adventure? If yes, then use the trial run as the hook adventure which puts the party together.

One of the best DM's in my group uses the floor plans from existing modules since he's lousy at drawing, but comes up with his own adventures.

My secret to successful DMing? Punishment throws.

Me: roll the twenty sided die.
DNDer: I rolled a 4.
Me: (passes a note that reads) your character is now a nymphomaniac who has a thing for dwarves.

JoNightshade said:

So. I'm freaking scared. Mainly I'm scared that all the guys are going to think my stories are dumb and laugh at me behind my back.

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The biggest frustration you'll have as a DM is how players always seem to go the wrong way. You'll direct them very clearly to find a soothsayer, and then something like this will happen.

DM: "You come to a fork in the road. Two signs point into the distance. One points to the left, and says JORELLE; the other points to the right, and says LANDER. Jorelle is famed for the quality of its soothsayers, and you've heard that Lander is at war with ogres."

PC: "Looks like a trap. Let's go to the right."

And if they run into ogres that stomp them into the dirt, they'll actually be mad at you for some reason. Well, I said "this way to soothsayers and that way to ogres" - and you chose ogres. What's the problem?

So you need to get familiar with the "magician's choice", which is not really a choice at all. You offer a choice, but the same thing will happen regardless of the choice. In the case above, tell them one sign says LANDER and the other says JORELLE, and give them the information about which is which - but don't tell them which way they point. Whichever sign they choose to follow actually points to Jorelle; if they choose the other one, well, someone must have switched the signs to misdirect them... but they were too clever, and saw through the trap!

Once you get comfortable with this sort of thing, you'll be considered an excellent DM, because your adventures will always be fun. The temptation is always to let the chips fall where they may with the characters, because - after all - they're doing stupid things. But that's no fun.

You'll also need to think about preparing multiple solutions to problems. Sometimes the guy who likes politics will be sick, and it will be the exact night your players need to negotiate with the king of a neighboring land. There needs to be an alternate storyline that will let someone else pick up the slack and win the king's favor some other way.

At all times, telling a good story must take a backseat to ensuring people have fun. Sure, it's completely unbelievable that the king of a very formal and proud people would challenge the dwarven warrior to a belching contest, but if that's where the players are leaning - that's what you give them.

These are the biggest ways DMing differs from writing. There are others, but they're generally pretty easy to figure out.

At all times, telling a good story must take a backseat to ensuring people have fun. Sure, it's completely unbelievable that the king of a very formal and proud people would challenge the dwarven warrior to a belching contest, but if that's where the players are leaning - that's what you give them.

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Just wanted to highlight that part.

As far as the campaign goes, I'd also advocate starting with a pre-packaged module, and altering it as needed to fit the story line you have in mind. Writing a whole campaign from scratch is about the same amount of work as writing a series of pick-your-own-path novels where the reader can choose any one of a million different options--that is to say, a heck of a lot. Make sure your players realize this, and offer appropriate sacrifices in the form of pizza, chips, pop, etc. Otherwise, kill 'em all!

Yeshanu said:

Just wanted to highlight that part.

As far as the campaign goes, I'd also advocate starting with a pre-packaged module, and altering it as needed to fit the story line you have in mind. Writing a whole campaign from scratch is about the same amount of work as writing a series of pick-your-own-path novels where the reader can choose any one of a million different options--that is to say, a heck of a lot. Make sure your players realize this, and offer appropriate sacrifices in the form of pizza, chips, pop, etc. Otherwise, kill 'em all!

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Don't you mean "receive sacrifices like pizza from the players"? Trying to bribe the DM is also a time-honored tradition.

And if you haven't seen it yet, here's another shameless plug for Nodwick: www.nodwick.com . It's a D & D based comic by Aaron Williams which is hysterical. Full Frontal Nerdity is his take on the game from the player's perspective.

Yay, Nodwick!

Oh noes, it's been an age since I DMed! My best two copper pieces worth is, have some good solid NPCs prepared, and maps, and don't worry. The hardest part is the Mommy act, keeping all players satisfied and not letting anyone dominate and get all the action.

Modules suck. They are all right to base things on, but they are like wearing a lot of hard plastic and polyester--no breathing space for a creative mind--if you try to stay with them. Anyway, that was my impression of those I saw in my old dungeon days.

Came in to echo the pre-packaged campaign nod. You'll need as little distractions as possible. The last time I rana game, I planned for the players to run off on tangents. My group was notorious for screwing up the best laid plans. Be prpared to nudge them as much as possible. And the bext rule of thumb: BS them thoroughly!

Pike

I'm going to throw in a totally bizarre suggestion that you might hate: Can you pick another rules system? Because D&D sucks in terms of comprehensible game mechanics, so as a newbie you'll get tripped up on things that won't work because the dice don't work that way.
If you can convince the others that GURPS is okay, or some system with fewer/less weird dice, you might find it easier.

Beyond that, I think your campaign sounds great. Small-scale stuff leading up to larger-scale stuff all in one arc, and not dungeon-crawling. I'd like it
GMing with good players is just like storytelling, really; the MCs don't do what you want them to do, and you have to scramble to make that work

I've only DM'ed introducing my sons to the game, and not much of that. But I've played under several DMs (using D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Car Wars, Star Trek-the RPG (yea verily)), and here's what I learned:

Storytelling is great as long as you keep it simple. The more backstory you have to get involved in, the more bogged down it's going to get and the more rebellious the PCs are going to be. They want adventure, not novelization.

Do the campaign like Stephen King writes his novels: get the characters together, put them in a situation (quest) and send them forth. If they start getting moody, fling them into a scorpion pit -- or some other complication.

Use a general outline. Here's the goal. Here's the setting. Here are your resources. The rest is just improv. And don't be afraid to get silly. Every few sessions give 'em a night on the town, or a really stupid side adventure reminiscent of a Loony Toons short.

The most fun gaming night I ever encountered was when -- in the middle of a long, arduous, and (for my character) fatal Call of Cthulhu adventure -- the leader of our group got to play Batman, complete with costume, batmobile, and a snakeman in a Robin outfit, and chase down a couple of bank robbers, while the rest of us were trying to keep the nuclear reactor in the basement from going critical, using a sonic screwdriver and a fifth of gin. Had nothing to do with the adventure, but we really needed the comic relief.

KODB said:

Storytelling is great as long as you keep it simple. The more backstory you have to get involved in, the more bogged down it's going to get and the more rebellious the PCs are going to be. They want adventure, not novelization.

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Depends on how you do it and what the players want. The game I'm running, there's backstory influencing things that they were trying to figure out. After a year and a half game time (6 years real-time) they actually found out some of the mysterious stuff. And they loved it.

What they don't want is an infodump. Or if there must be an infodump they want it in game prop form. Like, a letter or something. Something they can look at, study, and figure out the lies in. Or something like that.

The most fun gaming night I ever encountered was when -- in the middle of a long, arduous, and (for my character) fatal Call of Cthulhu adventure -- the leader of our group got to play Batman, complete with costume, batmobile, and a snakeman in a Robin outfit, and chase down a couple of bank robbers, while the rest of us were trying to keep the nuclear reactor in the basement from going critical, using a sonic screwdriver and a fifth of gin. Had nothing to do with the adventure, but we really needed the comic relief.

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That's great

One of my game's best moments was april fool's day in the place that was under siege.

Okay, I've been playing D&D since 1980 or so and running games as DM since my second session. I've also had published four gaming books, two of which were official D&D books.

It is possible that you'll have situations where you plan on the players going right and the players actually go left.

MY players rarely do that.

This is consistent no matter who's playing the game; the only constant is me.

Here's my secret: let THEM decide that going right is better. It doesn't matter if "going right" is actually rescuing the princess, looking for the lost MacGuffin, or killing the dragon.

Find out what the players want and what the characters want and give them some of that. If one character is trying to find his wife, missing since the refugees fled the occupied city, give him a clue in that direction. If one character hates slavery and wants to free all the slaves in the land, make sure one of the bad guys in the scenario is a notorious slaver.

You can feed them this information through skill checks (Knowledge or Gather Info checks are best), through background knowledge characters automatically know or by using NPCs from the character's history. Maybe the princess is THE princess from the character's homeland. The lost wife could have worked in her palace. Perhaps the dragon's lair has a particular magic item that unbinds chains.

The cool thing is that you usually only need to interest one of the players and the rest will follow.

Anyway, I'll chat about this all day long.

LloydBrown said:

Find out what the players want and what the characters want and give them some of that. If one character is trying to find his wife, missing since the refugees fled the occupied city, give him a clue in that direction. If one character hates slavery and wants to free all the slaves in the land, make sure one of the bad guys in the scenario is a notorious slaver.

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Yep. This how I do it.
I make them tell me, too, what their characters most want, most fear, and most care about. And they tell me because they trust me not to use it only against them. Though the player whose character is scared of heights is gonna kill me in a couple weeks

My first professional sales were D&D gaming modules to TSR back when it was still TSR.

Don't sweat the small stuff. Look secretive when you don't know the answer, and when players want to know something the phrase "I don't know, you tell me" sometimes works. Players might supply answers you can use to improvise something cool.

I loved DMing. It was great fun, but I'd have been grateful for some pre-written adventures when starting out, just to get the hang of things.

I found linear adventures (get from point A to B to C and pick up points on the way) were boring.

Non-linear modules were better for me and the players. You could play them several times and have different outcomes. The players start at A, but can jump to D or H and end up at C.

It was a challenge, as the players were good. We once played a 5th level game with 1st level characters and totally wasted the bad guys through pure sneakiness.

Here's a place where you can download modules for free.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads

I opened one up and it looked like WAY too much reading to me. My rule's always been Keep It Simple and steal-steal-steal.

I've sent players on D&D versions of Shakespearian plays---minus the iambic pentameter.

How would your friends do if dropped into the middle of Macbeth's court? King Duncan's been murdered, Lady Macbeth is on the way to the loony bin, the erratic new King Macbeth is killing his rivals, and young Malcolm the rightful heir is sneaking up to attack the castle with his army swathed in tree branches!

Do your players make a deal with Malcolm or Macbeth? Seek out the three weird sisters to get to the bottom of the old king's death? What if Lady Macbeth is a magic user? An INSANE magic user consumed with guilt? And WHAT is anyone doing about that pesky ghost of Banquo who keeps turning up at mealtimes?

Who needs a module when you've got material like that to work with?

Gillhoughly said:

Don't sweat the small stuff. Look secretive when you don't know the answer, and when players want to know something the phrase "I don't know, you tell me" sometimes works. Players might supply answers you can use to improvise something cool.

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Notes are also your friend.
Especially the note you pass to player A that says "Read this, glance at Player B, grin evilly, and nod at me."

Do your players make a deal with Malcolm or Macbeth? Seek out the three weird sisters to get to the bottom of the old king's death? What if Lady Macbeth is a magic user? An INSANE magic user consumed with guilt? And WHAT is anyone doing about that pesky ghost of Banquo who keeps turning up at mealtimes?

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OMG I LOVE THIS. I am so using this the next time a player character goes on an astral quest

Gillhoughly said:

My first professional sales were D&D gaming modules to TSR back when it was still TSR.

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Dude, you're such a tease. I have to ask which ones.

I rather like Dark Heresy's system--just get a couple d10 and you're set--but it's a completely different game with a drastically different setting/feel.

Just throwin that out there.

If they piss you off, yell out "ROLL INITIATIVE!" and give them some monsters to deal with.