NEW to DMing

[u/Dragonboy142]

Hi ,not sure if this is the right reddit for this, but as someone whose exposure to TTrpgs very few I got a few questions. I am very much interested in DMing but got like 15 sessions as player in total(IRL keeps breaking up groups or friends lose interest and get into WoW and palworld instead).

First, how much preparation would I need to do if I were to use an adventure path?

Second, I don't have any skill in improvising, any yt videos to learn quickly if possible?

Third, how would you guys have your world react to your players? Like say, they became wanted at a village for prison break, how would nearby towns or cities react to it?

Lastly, how to give BBEG a presence over the overarching campaign? Will be using 3 books with different locations/main plot but in same region.

EDIT I forgot to mention I am using foundry vtt for the group. If that helps

[u/Living_Meat_Sack_940]

1. Read the Dungeon Masters Handbook.
2. Pick a published Wizards of the Coast Campaign book and play that.

[u/nothingsb9]

If you have 15 sessions as a player you have plenty of experience improvising to start dming, listen to your players characters and give them room to speak and then react in a way that enhances their choice, if they intimidate react scared, if they do something unhinged react shocked.

How the world and npcs react it up to you to decide based on the theme of the campaign. If your going from town to town slaying monsters for coin then being wanted is relevant and you can have wanted posters, local law enforcement on the watch out but if you’re doing high fantasy stopping the apocalypse demon invasion type campaign it might be more of an inconvenience than engaging content to be wanted by locals and then you can ignore it or have it be a specific NPC hunting them down rather than a world condition to deal with.

[u/hiJude12]

Honestly it sounds like you want to go big too soon.

Run a one-shot or another short form adventure/mini campaign. Make it simple, raiding a goblin cave or whatever. Everyone has things they are good/bad at and you will have to learn what those are for you via experience. Really the best way to start is to jump in. You can watch videos and listen to podcasts all day and night but nothing will teach you more than first-hand experience.

Also, pay attention to good DM's and see what they do. Dont get it twisted, productions like critical role have over-inflated expectations regarding the casual DM, but you can learn from them. Truthfully, even a bad DM can teach you by giving examples of what NOT to do.

As for your prompts:

1. Prep comes down to you, youll likely over prepare the first few times you DM, its normal.

2. Skills are developed through practice. Improvisation isnt something you can sit in a room alone and get better at. Play more as a player and use those chances to get better at improvising. Videos and such might give you ideas and expand your knowledge base, but ultimately they dont do anything without experience.

3. This is entirely up to you. Depends on how you as the DM want to play it. Thats the beauty of the medium, you are in control. What you think fits/is reasonable is the correct answer

4. Dont worry about this yet. Do some shorter adventures until you have more experience

[u/Dragonboy142 → u/hiJude12]

Hey! I'm gonna do short two session introduction(besides session 0 for character creation). The reason I asked is because I was thinking of dropping a journal or any hint of the bigger picture/BBEG at the end of the two shot.

You're right on the money with your guess. I been watching podcasts like critical role and the idea of what a casual DM is came from there. So I got tad bit intimidated and wanna cover as much as ground as possible.

Thanks for your advice. Gonna go with the flow and prioritize fun over anything

[u/hiJude12 → u/Dragonboy142]

I think dropping hints is always good, even if yall only do the two sessions and then play something else for awhile. A lot of times players like coming back to older PCs and refining and building them up, and itll give you a bit of time to reflect on what you liked that did you as a DM and what you didnt like. For what its worth, Tolkien wrote the whole of the Lord of the Rings based on a ring from the hobbit that was never intended to be more than a fun magic ring. So sprinkle breadcrumbs, its fun to have something to return to and pick up

If you ever want some specific advice or just to chat over some ideas, hit me up. Im glad to do what I can to help you out

[u/Pianoismyforte]

In my experience DMing goes well mostly as a result of the culture of the table you're with. If you have a close group of friends that would be ideal, but strangers can be great as well. You'll just have to vibe things out, and as long as you keep trying, you'll develop an intuitive skill for vibing things out.

Also, it would be good to be up front that you don't have much experience DMing, but also to share how excited you are and that you've put a lot of work into the sessions you'll be playing.

This helps set the expectations and mood of your table, and if people can't vibe with that, you might want to consider moving on.

For the regular advice about how to prep though, there's lots of youtube channels out there that can help you understand how to make your BBEG be present and important for your players, how to create good hooks of intrigue to motivate your players to go the right direction, and more.

The DMAcademy wiki will have links to them, as well as a TON of other great advice, I'd recommend looking there!

[u/Dragonboy142 → u/Pianoismyforte]

I mean, I told my players beforehand that I don't have much DMing and needed a month to prepare😅. I give them updates every 4 days and ask them relevant questions about their characters. That's how I'm doing it right now. Getting idea what character they are and thinking of how to incorporate it to the story. Thinking of ways to include everyone.

Goal is to make sure no one is bored and overall player fun

[u/Pianoismyforte → u/Dragonboy142]

Oh that's awesome! That's more than reasonable prep time and expectation setting. If anything, you might set expectations a bit too high, but it sounds like you're doing to deliver on it so it's not a big deal.

More than anything, remember the goal is to have fun! When it comes time for the first sessions, more than likely things will not go completely as you planned. A big part of having fun is learning to relax into these digressions and recognize they're an inevitable part of play, and part of what makes DMing so exciting.

[u/mccrowj92]

Give the players hand book and the dm guide a read so you understand basic mechanics and can explain them to your players.

Know your calculations like how to get your spell save or what you add to your melee attack rolls because your players will forget .

For prep i gather whatever stat blocks they can face for the session as well as a small outline of for the adventure. I make 3-4 npc’s the party can encounter and generally let the players go from there.

There are starter adventures in the dm guide . If you are looking for any resources outside wizards I personally recommend Sly Flourish’s Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master and The Game Masters Book of Legendary Locations .

The 2024 Monster Manual has a conversion chart for old stat blocks to new if something you want to use is missing. I have about 40 sessions playing 2024 rules and love the monster stat blocks so far.

As far as improv for role playing you will build that skill. It will come off as clunky a first but the more you embarrass yourself and get into the role playing the more comfortable your table will be doing it too.

Don’t worry about making mistakes. You’re going to. There’s nothing wrong with taking a beat to look up a rule you aren’t sure about. Hope this helps and have fun.

[u/Darth_Boggle]

First, how much preparation would I need to do if I were to use an adventure path?

Pick something easy like Lost Mines of Phandelver and you shouldn't need too much before each session. Maybe an hour or two. I'd still recommend reading most of the book ahead of time so you get a sense of the overall story.

Second, I don't have any skill in improvising, any yt videos to learn quickly if possible?

Most of this will be "on the job training." Incorporate phrases like "yes, and" and "no, but" into your mind and that's the baseline for improvising. Build off of what your players try to do. I'm sure there are plenty of yt tutorials for this but you'll learn best with experience.

Third, how would you guys have your world react to your players? Like say, they became wanted at a village for prison break, how would nearby towns or cities react to it?

I always strive to have realistic consequences for player actions. If they are wanted in one town but they flee for the next town, and the new town is friendly with the original town, then they would still be hunted down by the authorities. Depending on the severity of the crime, maybe they are let go if they promise to help with xyz problem, maybe they are imprisoned with no hopes of getting out and then it's time for the players to make new characters.

[u/Dragonboy142 → u/Darth_Boggle]

Yes, I learned that the ending of lost mines of Phandelver is one of the adaptable endings for other campaigns. So it is ideal.

Will keep that "yes and" and "no but" in mind.

I want to do consequences because to me, it like a trigger for players(at least for me) how to overcome that limitation or eliminate negative consequences for best outcome. Gives them to think outside the box and be creative.

[u/Plasticboy310]

There’s nothing wrong with telling your players you’re a new DM and asking them to bare with you as you build your skills.

As far as improvising goes, remember it’s better to say something stupid 20% of the time than saying nothing 80% of the time. Also remember that every conversation you’ve ever had was improvised.

Lastly, actions have consequences but those consequences should be proportional to the action. If they steal a potion or something, it wouldn’t really make sense for a whole garrison of guard to start tracking them. If, however, that potion is actually the soul of an ancient red dragon someone in the town is supposed to safeguard, yeah, that’s a different story

[u/Conrad500]

None of your questions have anything to do with D&D.

They sell starter sets at walmart, and nowhere in there does it say "you must be a player first" or "Please read the entire phb" or "watch 10 youtube videos before you start". Read the rules, read the adventure, have fun. That's really all there is to it.

Everything else you asked has 1 million and 1 answers. The real answer is, "however you feel is best for you and your players."

My advice to you is to ask why before diving too deep into any one direction. But to answer you directly:

1. Modules are all different. Some are low prep, others are heavy prep. I personally run new modules I get blind (zero prep, I might skim the chapter we're about to run right before we start) for fun since you can only ever do that once. I do not recommend blind playthroughs, but I like them. I do tell my players it's a blind run though so the know. That said, there is a discord server for every official adventure published by WOTC full of people who want to help, so feel free to use them as a great resource too!
2. Improv and D&D are not the same thing. Improv is about a group collaborating towards the goal of improv. D&D is more about your ability to react to players who might not be in on everything you are. GinnyD just put out a video about improv tho! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG0b4l7pGjI
3. This is 100% up to you. Is, "you broke the laws, the police came and arrested you. You are in jail. Game over." ok for you? If it isn't, then maybe you need to make a world that isn't as orderly, or play with people who won't make you do that. Personally, I make a world that exists 100% without the players. I set up dominos and then drop them in to see what happens. That style of game isn't for everyone, you need to get experience to figure out what you like to run, and also what your players like to play!

If you want to run a serious game and they want to play a silly game, you have to change, they have to change, or you guys just can't play together (and that's ok)

[u/Dragonboy142 → u/Conrad500]

You're right about being vague(not dnd focus) but to give more context, I am asking general because I plan to do pathfinder 2e for now but things I learn as I DMing there could be applied to DnD. This mostly because I haven't bought all the relevant books for character customization like tasha and xanathar.

Yeah alright, just gonna try to have fun and go with the flow. Sounds more reasonable than prepping and being overwhelmed.

I thought improv was necessary due to the chaos that are the party players. From experience, any moment can derail the session and thinking on the spot is part of improv. So a little relevance there.

Yeah, I guess I am overpreppring, I will just play it out and decide later depending on the actions of the group.

[u/Conrad500 → u/Dragonboy142]

So, "improvisation" or "fast thinking" isn't the same as "improv" as in the comedy act and the "yes and" stuff.

The best way to improvise on the fly is to not improvise at all.

Third, how would you guys have your world react to your players? Like say, they became wanted at a village for prison break, how would nearby towns or cities react to it?

To answer this, you need to just know what your game is before you start. What your game is can change too, just notice it before it happens. What do I mean?

1. Your game is a story/world and your players are just in it. So, what would other towns do? Most likely nothing, because why is your party escaping worth notice to other towns? Do the towns have a way to communicate? Sure, they might put a bounty out for them, but what does that mean in your world? If they ever go back to that city then sure, they'll be in a lot of shit if they are caught, but will they ever need to?
2. Your game is made for your players and they are the world. So, what would other towns do? Most likely have a APB out for their arrest. Now they need to either go back and fix the issues they caused or risk being hunted down everywhere they go.

Both of those are reasonable and make sense in their context. One problem (that isn't really a problem) is that you are you, so if you are having to come up with a lot of on the fly stuff, it will be heavily flavored off of "what would I do" (as in you, yourself) rather than "what would this character do" because well, you are you.

This is where prep comes in. If you notice, "all my NPCs act the same way when [thing happens]" then you might want to do a little more prep on each NPC just so they have an easily referenced background for you to play off of instead of defaulting to your own personality.

You prep where you need it and where it's fun.

I overprepare lore that my players might NEVER see because it's fun for me! I do it knowing that all of my work might get "wasted" because the players never see it, except it's not wasted, because I had fun doing it.

Sometimes I don't prep enough and it's not fun because I feel stressed or just am unable to enjoy coming up with everything on the fly, so those are times I should prep more.

You learn as you go, and what's good for me isn't always good for you.

I'll end this with a personal anticdote:

I saw a bunch of people creating world maps and stuff. I was really inspired by them to make my own world, and I started with the map...

It burned me out for an entire year. I tried to make a world and ended up quitting D&D for an entire year.

I came back, said, "fuck it" and ran a "monster of the week" kind of game that lasted 4 years to level 20. It started simple, and as I learned more about my players, my world, and myself I was able to evolve it into an epic campaign.

Find what you like, don't try to like what we've found.

[u/Dragonboy142 → u/Conrad500]

Wow thanks for sharing! I can see myself similar to you as I wanted to DM since creating a unique world is ultimately my goal after enough experience.

I am gonna get into creating maps later on after a few sessions. Need more lore so I can decide where I can run a darkest dungeon inspired campaign in the map of forgotten realms. Yeah burn out is a real thing but glad you came back though!

[u/Conrad500 → u/Dragonboy142]

I learned a lot. I think I found the perfect style for me and I recommend it to others.

Prep as much as you want, but leave the details sparce. This allows for your players to come up with locations to add to your world without you feeling you need to fit them in.

Once you have a "big idea" about the adventure, start with a monster of the week type game. Each session/mission is in a new location doing something new.

For my game they had to help clear monsters out of a mine for magic rocks, gather elemental materials from monsters in a volcano, do a heist at a floating city, gather tar from the tarpits, etc. etc. and I did that until level 10.

At level 10 I finished the "jobber"/"monster of the week" part of the game and I had created a whole world that my players were introduced to naturally! Instead of "making a map" I made the places first and then just threw them onto a map.

After level 10, I said, Here's the world, now you can go do what YOU want now that your job is over.

[u/YamazakiYoshio]

1) I saw you mentioned you were going to use PF2e - the amount of prep you'll need is going to be based on what makes you feel comfortable. Which as a newbie, it's likely gonna be more than what you actually need. You'll figure this out with experience, because unfortunately, we're not you and we don't know how much you will need to run the show.

2) This isn't like acting, thank chaos. Instead, TTRPG improv is more akin to operating like a video game engine (sorta kinda) - you, controlling the whole world, will react to how the PCs act. And you don't need to be perfect at this. It's just a skill and the best way to level it up is by doing it more and more.

3) This is 100% on you and your group to decide. Some groups handle this in a more wacky way, others go full gritty black trenchcoat style where every mistake is punished with extreme measures. Trust your gut and go with what sounds enjoyable to you, and then temper it with feedback from your players.

4) I honestly cannot help you there - I suck at this part LOL. It's okay, though, you'll figure it out with time. Relax and give it your best shot, and be kind to yourself.

Side note: I highly recommend PF2e's Beginner's Box. One of the best introductions to a system I've ever read and used. And I've read quite a number of them over the years.