First Time DND Player

[ThisAdamGuy]

I just found out that a game shop near me has weekly DND sessions for people who have never played or are just starting out. I've always wanted to play DND, seeing how it's basically "Storytelling: The Game" but I live in a place where nerdy hobbies are still considered wedgieable offenses. so I've never had the chance. I've listened to The Adventure Zone and Critical Role, though, so I at least have a good idea of how the game works. What I really want is to learn how to be a DM so I can cook up entire storylines that people can play through.

Anything I should know before going to my first DND session next Monday?

 

[Jerynboe]

1. Know your character. If you are not the DM, your primary responsibilities are to know what your character is capable of and what they will do. Improv skills help, as well as knowing everything on your character sheet in at least moderate detail.

2. Be patient, listen, and ask questions if it’s time for you to do something and you’re unsure what’s going on.

3. Keep in mind that Critical Role is the porn of D&D. It is similar to normal D&D, but it’s optimized to be an interesting thing for the listener/viewer. Don’t pin too many expectations on it, and sure as hell don’t compare your DM to someone else. The Matt Mercer effect is a plague upon many a DM, which seems to be one of Matt’s few regrets about doing Critical Role.

4. “Yes and…” is not an ABSOLUTE, but it’s a good guiding principle. If someone seems to have something in mind, try to go along with it and facilitate it. Roll with the punches, build upon the current tone of the scene, and play along. The only major exception is when someone is trying to explicitly dictate how you play, such as telling you on your turn exactly what you should do and getting salty if you do something else. This is poor form if unsolicited and you don’t have to tolerate it.

 

[Anonjohn20]

What I really want is to learn how to be a DM

Are you a masochist? Being a DM is like being a retard wrangler (the players are, in fact, retarded). It's way more fun and a lot less work to be one of the retards.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

The only major exception is when someone is trying to explicitly dictate how you play

That reminds me of something else I've been wondering. How do you handle what the players do or don't know? I remember one episode of CR where two(?) of the players were fighting a vampire when another player burst in. By then the vampire had turned into a cloud of smoke. The one who entered the fight late immediately tried to cast a sunlight spell, but Mercer stopped them because "your character wouldn't know to do that." I can't remember if it was because they weren't supposed to know that sunlight killed vampires, or if they didn't know there was a vampire in the room. Either way, it threw me for a loop. These were supposed to be seasoned adventurers and monster slayers, so what possible excuse is there for them to not know that sunlight kills vampires? That's like going to a doctor who doesn't know that antibiotics can kill bacteria. And the party knew going in that they were going to be dealing with vampires, and that vampires can turn to smoke when they're injured, so if one of the players hears a fight going on, and rushes onto the scene to see a big conspicuous cloud of smoke in the middle of the room, wouldn't it be common sense for them (again, a seasoned adventurer and monster slayer) to realize that cloud of smoke is a vampire and blast with sunlight?

 

[Anonjohn20]

These were supposed to be seasoned adventurers and monster slayers, so what possible excuse is there for them to not know that sunlight kills vampires?

The adventurers did know that sunlight kills vampires, but since he arrived to the fight late, he shouldn't have known that this particular enemy was a vampire until his teammates told him or he passed a perception check.

 

[Jerynboe]

Are you a masochist? Being a DM is like being a retard wrangler (the players are, in fact, retarded). It's way more fun and a lot less work to be one of the retards.

Forever DM here. It’s a different style of play, and a more demanding one, but neither better nor worse. Personally I like DMing more than playing.

AS FOR BECOMING A DM.
Everything I said about being a player is even more true, but with caveats.

1. Your job is no longer to know your character, it is to know the rules in general and make calls to ensure that the game can keep running smoothly. This is similar, but bigger. You don’t need encyclopedic knowledge, but you need enough to be able to adjudicate anything that could reasonably come up.

2. Plan, have an outline, but understand that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Players are deranged monkeys. My beloved wife has wandered around a cultist murder basement alone because she thought she needed more evidence of wrongdoing before telling the rest of the party. You need to figure out how you will respond to such decisions, as well as more outlandish ones.

3. Overplanning is dangerous. It is fun to plan 8 years in advance and know the full statblock of the level 20 BBEG, but if what you need right now is a job for level 1 characters to do, then go find some goblins or rats and figure out how the latter can lead into the former. Worldbuilding is fun but it’s basically a side thing. That said, players are deranged monkeys. I once had a player demand to know the antagonist’s stock portfolio with completely seriousness. He genuinely expected an answer and thought it would be relevant.

4. Keep in mind your players backstories, if you know them, and try to get a feel for what they like. Tie them into the plot if you can, but it’s good if the plot will be able to survive any PC dying or needing to drop out due to IRL problems.

5. Modules are a tool. You are not an inferior DM if you use a published adventure as a road map for your campaign, nor do you have to do a single damn thing in the book you are working from. Hasbro only sends Pinkerton agents after people who leak information prematurely, not people who make massive sweeping edits to their adventures.

6. D&D 5e is fun, but once you are comfortable you should at least consider trying other systems. 5e is very heavily oriented around heroic fantasy, focused on small groups of people solving their problems with violence more than 50% of the time. Other games might be a better fit, if you can find players willing to try them, though this makes suggestion 1 more important if you are dragging them into new territory.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

he shouldn't have known that this particular enemy was a vampire

the party knew going in that they were going to be dealing with vampires, and that vampires can turn to smoke when they're injured

So where is the line drawn? Can I not use context clues to come to a logical conclusion and then act on it? If I walk into a room and see a a headless corpse and a bloody guillotine, do I really have to roll for insight to figure out how the guy died?

 

[Jerynboe]

I can't remember if it was because they weren't supposed to know that sunlight killed vampires, or if they didn't know there was a vampire in the room. Either way, it threw me for a loop. These were supposed to be seasoned adventurers and monster slayers, so what possible excuse is there for them to not know that sunlight kills vampires?

Me personally? I use the honor system. My players know they aren’t supposed to pull esoteric knowledge out of their asses, and so they play dumb most of the time. They call each other out more often than I call them out, and sometimes they go out of their way to take the schmuck bait. If you’ve seen Frieren, her weakness to mimics is an excellent example.

The table culture varies. At my table in particular, we actually have a bit of a running joke to Yes-and even metagaming. In one campaign the Wizard player got an in-game reputation as a deranged maniac with a complex theory of reality no one took seriously because the player kept referring to levels etc in conversation. It’s most important that this is consistently applied within a given campaign; almost anything can work.

 

[Anonjohn20]

So where is the line drawn? Can I not use context clues to come to a logical conclusion and then act on it? If I walk into a room and see a a headless corpse and a bloody guillotine, do I really have to roll for insight to figure out how the guy died?

According to your story above, by the time the player came in, the vampire had already become a cloud of smoke. How does that player know for a fact that its a vampire rather than a polymorphed smoke dragon or an illusion wizard?

 

[Alski]

So where is the line drawn? Can I not use context clues to come to a logical conclusion and then act on it? If I walk into a room and see a a headless corpse and a bloody guillotine, do I really have to roll for insight to figure out how the guy died?

Just remember tht there should be a roll for everything BUT many of the more simple things like walking up and down some stairs or figuring out 1+1 = 2 are handwaved because failing 1 out of 20 from those checks makes no sense.

 

[Bobple]

Outside what people have said.

Have fun, it's still a game in the end.

For DMing, start small. Do one-shots and short modules to begin with, they are a great way to learn how to DM. As Jeryboe said, modules are great. For experience and newbie DMs.

Playing as a player is a good to get a feel for that side of the table. I usually jump between player and DM in my group.

So where is the line drawn? Can I not use context clues to come to a logical conclusion and then act on it?

Depends on group, people and DM.

In the vampire example, the new person did enter after the vampire had vanished. Unless party said something beforehand, not much you can do. A puff of smoke looks like smoke, the room could be dust, a fire could've happened, a smoke monster etc. Depending on the group, the DM could've allowed for someone else in the room to say something, but that is DM and group dependent.

In the guillotine example, you could be asked the roll for it or not.

Again, depending on your DM getting a low roll might mean you don't notice it, but most times in that situation a DM will say you see a headless corpse and the guillotine and you make the obvious assumption. The former example of you not noticing at all would only really happen if you have a funny DM would likes doing that, that would be known by the table beforehand anyway. So in that case, if my players wanted to roll I would let them, if they chose not to, they see the basics, if they fail they still see the basic, but if they succeed I would give some extra details on how recently it seems to have been used.

There is no hard rules for a lot things, is it very much group and DM dependent. You don't need to roll for everything, if characters by whatever metric you use (base stats or whatever, passive checks, etc) would understand something you can just tell them.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

According to your story above, by the time the player came in, the vampire had already become a cloud of smoke. How does that player know for a fact that its a vampire rather than a polymorphed smoke dragon or an illusion wizard?

By that point in the campaign, they knew they were dealing with vampires. They had already fought a vampire once and seen it turned to smoke. They knew there was a vampire hiding out in this house and they went in there specifically to kill it. The party got split up, but they were close enough to hear each other when a fight broke out. The player who had wandered off run to join the fight and found a very conspicuous cloud of fog in the middle of an otherwise normal room, with the other party members standing nearby, clearly having just gotten done fighting something. I feel like, considering what the party had already gone through and the knowledge they had previously been acting on, it should have been fairly obvious what had happened and the player should have been able to put two and two together and attack the vampire fog with sunlight.

 

[Anonjohn20]

By that point in the campaign, they knew they were dealing with vampires. They had already fought a vampire once and seen it turned to smoke. They knew there was a vampire hiding out in this house and they went in there specifically to kill it. The party got split up, but they were close enough to hear each other when a fight broke out. The player who had wandered off run to join the fight and found a very conspicuous cloud of fog in the middle of an otherwise normal room, with the other party members standing nearby, clearly having just gotten done fighting something. I feel like, considering what the party had already gone through and the knowledge they had previously been acting on, it should have been fairly obvious what had happened and the player should have been able to put two and two together and attack the vampire fog with sunlight.

Did the player make this argument to the DM?

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

Did the player make this argument to the DM?

I don't remember. It's been more than a year since I listened to the podcast. I remember that they argued back and forth a little, but in the end the DM stuck with his decision to veto it.

 

[Anonjohn20]

DM stuck with his decision to veto it.

Rule 1. The DM is god in the story/game.

 

[Alski]

Rule 1. The DM is god in the story/game.

Rule 2. Argue with the DM as much as you want but dont push your luck or rocks fall and everyone dies

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

I introduced D&D and TTRPGs to all my friends and have been the forever DM for 4 years now, and I highly advise you to stick as a player at first. If you want to be a DM, play the game and try to join games of different DMs, take mental notes of what things they do to make you enjoy the game, what tricks they use for storytelling, etc.

Also, if you want to tell your stories on a game with no disturbance, I am sorry to say this, but it's doubtful that you will experience what you planned in your head. Players can and will derail the campaign. It's not something bad and is more like a core feature of D&D. One of my player groups' favorite sessions was when they accidentally killed a noble on what was a simple meeting for taking a basic monster hunt quest so they could try their new items and level 3 abilities and spent 3 hours struggling to hide the body while distracting the staff, other customers and local police.

Also also, personal preference but the rule of the cool over core rules every day.

Also, also, also, try to make a system to keep track of players and enemies because 3 level 2 players fighting against some goblins is easy to track, but a party of 5 fighting against a horde of monsters can turn very hard to track very fast.

Also, also, also, also, don't pressure players into doing what you want, but have strict rules. For example, some of mine are:
No murder hoboing unless everyone agrees, and you will bear the consequences.
Don't be an edge lord and accept you are not 'THE' main character but one of the main characters. You will have your moments, but not all the moments.
If you want to betray the party or play a character that will do that, talk with other players first and get their consent.

But if you plan on hosting games in a game shop or a club, you need many more rules than mine and act much stricter on them. I only DM close friends and for reasons. Dming for a group of strangers can be a nightmare, and you must be ready to ban someone for reasons you think you might not need to, like basic hygiene or trying to flirt with another player even though they reject your advances and are uncomfortable with it, or you know, simple unneeded politics and open racism against other players.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

Players can and will derail the campaign.

I know railroading is bad DMing, but how much am I expected to allow the players to derail the campaign before I put my foot down and tell them to stick to the plot? Like, if I'm running a campaign where the players have to hunt down a dragon, and one of the players says "Nah, I attack the king and claim his throne for myself. Now I'm going to invade another kingdom!", do I just have to roll with it even though he's taken the campaign I already had planned and turned it into something I have no notes, encounters, character interactions, or anything else planned?

 

[Anonjohn20]

do I just have to roll with it even though he's taken the campaign I already had planned and turned it into something I have no notes, encounters, character interactions, or anything else planned?

You've found one of the problems of DM'ing. You can plan, but they decide what to do; better be good at improvising.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

I know railroading is bad DMing, but how much am I expected to allow the players to derail the campaign before I put my foot down and tell them to stick to the plot? Like, if I'm running a campaign where the players have to hunt down a dragon, and one of the players says "Nah, I attack the king and claim his throne for myself. Now I'm going to invade another kingdom!", do I just have to roll with it even though he's taken the campaign I already had planned and turned it into something I have no notes, encounters, character interactions, or anything else planned?

It is a hard question, and answer changes between parties, but if they try to do something stupid, or planing something very grand, like your example, talk with them before the game or in a break and try to establish a middle ground. It usually works.

Some players are hard and will try to do what they want no matter what, and will ruin the enjoyment of others. Don't be afraid to show them consequences. Killing a king and taking the throne shouldn't be that easy, so if they attack the king despite your warnings, a level 20 royal guard should beat their ass.

Also, try to get know people before starting a campaign with them and brief them about your plans, so you can avoid major derailing, edge lords, and world revolves around me types.

Tldr: Improvising is important and freedom is one of the main selling points of Ttrpgs but it's a game in the end and everyone should enjoy it including you. Best way to ensure this is communication and showing people consequences like why killing a king is not something they can casually do.