Learning DMing/ Planning the campaign

[FTG82]

So hey I've been a player for a few years now (Quite literary 2 years). And I've been interested in DMing. I've been watching videos of what to do while Dming and learning how to dm. And at the same time I'm going to try and build my homebrew world slowly as i learn how to dm. Right now i'm building some main character while watching videos and I've learned of something that made so much sense for a character. The steel dragon (Here's the link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2BO-LtoMgs ) and i was wondering if what i've heard was true. And if so where i could find a steel dragon stats and everything to make a steel dragon in one of it's lives. Also don't be afraid to link me to pages to help out with DMing and balancing homebrew stuff. (it'll be a few years until this campaign is even ready to be played but it's a fun past time)

[Saintheart]

There's a lot of different philosophies about how to DM, but I wish I'd found the Angry DM many years before.

Kobold's Guide to Game Design is also pretty solid.

[Kayblis]

Steel Dragons appear in 3.5 in the little-known Dragons of Faerun book. It's a setting book, and a very optional one, so it's not usually cited as a source in most lists.

It's great to spend time on you setting, everyone here will encourage you. But remember that practice makes perfect, the best way to become a good DM is to actually go and DM for a group. Start with premade adventures, connect dots between adventures with your own ideas, try to elaborate a 1-session adventure once in a while even if just a simple story that leads to a couple combats. You'll get the hang of it by doing, and that'll make your worldbuilding that much richer and more consistent.

Good luck with your DMing!

[Ken Murikumo]

As was said, the best way to get good is by experience. Although, here are some tips i wish i learned sooner:

-Don't write you whole campaign from beginning to end. If you do, your players will immediately do something you didn't plan for. You then face the options of "go with the PCs and let them do it their way" or "force the the PCs back onto the railroad and repeate as needed". Make big plot points that you want to happen (scenes, certain battle encounters, NPC encounters) but leave them flexible and let the PCs carve their own path. If they miss one or skip past an encounter in a way you didn't plan for roll with it.

-Be flexible. As said above, you need to be able to adapt to your players' choices.

-Reward creativity, don't punish it. Allow them to craft a zany plan and let the dice fall where they may. Sometimes a little hand-waiving is needed.

-Be ready to improvise. Always. All the time.

-You may introduce a "main character" that you think is sooooo cool. The players may not share this opinion. Be ready to have the players fall in love with side characters that have little planning and depth.

-Know your setting and why things are the way they are. It helps with the improvisation bits.

-Never make the players take a side seat for your DM characters. Certain scenes may be an exception, but never overshadow your players in the plot with a DM character.

[Telonius]

Echoing what the other posters are saying: flexibility is key. Session plans never survive contact with the players. Have some general guidelines of where you want it to go, but DMing is an exercise in cat herding. They will get distracted by objects you didn't even realize were sparkly.

Communication is critically important. Talk to your players, and make sure they're comfortable in talking to you.

If you have any house rules, tell the players as soon as possible, preferably before the first session.

Here's something that helped me when I was first DMing: make sure the players know that this is your first time DMing, and that you know you're going to mess up. (If you haven't realized this yet - yes, you are going to mess up). After the end of the session, ask your players what you're doing right, and what you're doing wrong; what they're liking, and what they aren't. (They can tell you however they want, in person, email, whatever). Be prepared to listen to whatever answers they give. You may not like hearing it, but it's information that's important for you to know. Adjust what you're doing accordingly. (You don't have to bow to every demand, but try to incorporate things where it makes sense). Check in every few sessions then to see how you're doing.

[Quertus]

There's a lot of different philosophies about how to DM, but I wish I'd found the Angry DM many years before.

Kobold's Guide to Game Design is also pretty solid.

The Angry GM is awesome. I mean, he almost always gives you the wrong answers (because he has 1 particular playstyle, and generally doesn't seem to comprehend that other valid playstyles exist), but he is the best I've ever seen at asking the right questions.

So, if you go in ready to ignore his answers, and just look at the questions he asks, he is arguably the best resource out there.

If you look at his answers… he's always wrong.

[FTG82]

Thank you for the help and thank you Kayblis for the source. I still don’t feel ready which I think is also a huge part of dming once I feel up to the task I’ll do some modulars and stuff. But in the mean time building the lore and characters of my world is fun and exciting.

[Efrate]

I would recommend a premade to start, with someone who has dmed as a resource and assistance. I have a friend who just started dming giving me a chance to play for the first time in I do not know how many years. I'm the assistant. He has a question or not sure how something works, i give him the heads up. Do not worry about the nitty gritty, just be sure your players and you have fun. The rest come with time.

[King of Nowhere]

the advice i can give based on my personal experience is: don't follow advice from this forum. really.

because people posting here are very experienced players, and they have very different expectations from most people. I made a lot of mistakes trying to follow this forum with a group of casual players.
now, this forum is great for a lot of stuff. you can get ideas, you can get help with mechanics, you can discover nice stuff that you would have missed. but in the end it's your table and your friends, and you know your table and your friends, and this forum don't, and this forum is very different from the average gamer, and is probably very different from your friends.

[JNAProductions]

Communicate. Communicate communicate communicate.

If you're worried that you're goofing up, just talk to your players! Ask them questions after the session like "Fun game today?" "How can I do better next time?" "Anything you want to see more of, or less of?"

Also honesty. If you, for instance, roll a crit for 20 damage on a 4 HP Wizard, don't just fudge the roll and say they live with -5 HP. Tell the players what you rolled, and ask them if they're cool with a fluke death, or if they'd rather retcon/fudge it, or some other third option.

[Mordante]

I recently took up DMing.

My take on DMing might not be useful to you but this is how I try to do it.

1) create a storyline. Don't Google, don't take a pre-made, just think what would you like to do
2) think of the atmosphere, is it a dark gloomy place, cold and miserable, rainy and bitter, how is you world?
3) Think of a few key characters, use and abuse fantasy novels you've read. Writers are often much better at working out a character compared to the average DM
4) steal ideas and make them your own
5) don't worry too much about the rules.

My group is easy I just drop them a few hints and they will discuss the best course of action for hours.

[rrwoods]

The Alexandrian’s blog is an excellent resource regarding a pretty wide variety of topics. Action resolution (when to roll, how to determine what the results of a roll are, making failed rolls interesting) is the big one for me, but there’s also stuff about planning and lots of other topics. They go into many other systems, and there’s plenty of articles that aren’t relevant. But there’s lots and lots that are as well.

As a new DM, you might be tempted to limit material based on what book it’s from in order to make sure you’re familiar with the material. I strongly recommend AGAINST doing this; instead, limit the subsystems your players have access to. For a longer explanation as to the benefits of this (especially as they apply to a new DM!) see this quote from another New DM thread:

If you’re running from actual level 1 I’d recommend not limiting the books, and asking your players to explain their choices and abilities to you. The reasons for this are:

1) at level 1 there are not going to be that many abilities any one character has. 1-2 feats, one level of class features from only one class, maybe some spells or some other subsystem.

2) aside from subsystems (see below), stuff that is not core is not really more “complicated” or “difficult” than stuff in core. E.g. if the rogue wants to take Darkstalker it’s really easy to explain — you don’t need to know the rest of Lords of Madness to understand it.

3) opening up options this way can potentially let your players express their characters more accurately (and besides core is the most unabalanced subset of DnD so you actually increase balance by allowing things outside it.

That said, subsystems in particular are really hard on a new DM, for two reasons:

1) the subsystem itself (psionics, incarnum, maneuvers, spellcasting) comes with a whole slew of rules to learn before you learn any of the character’s actual capabilities

2) the diversity of options available to even a level 1 character is often extremely wide

For these reasons I strongly recommend restricting subsystems rather than sources. You probably don’t know all there is to know about core — why limit based on source if familiarity is the concern?

All that said, you know yourself and your players better than we do, so take all this advice with a grain of salt. My advice is purely based on the information as presented in this thread and my own experience with new players.

EDIT: I realize the statement “the diversity of options available to a level 1 character is extremely wide” could be read in a way that undermines my larger point, so I’m going to clarify it here:

My larger point is that, at very low levels, each individual character has a pretty small set of things that they, individually, can do. You don’t need to know what they could have chosen (that is, all the material in all the allowed books), only what they actually chose (what’s on their sheet). But when subsystems are in the picture, what’s on their sheet suddenly explodes in complexity. Especially if they’re a divine spellcaster — clerics and druids can have entirely new sets of capabilities from day to day!