Learning to DM: suggestions for where to start

[Hiro Quester]

In one of the campaigns I play in, our DM is moving away and won't be able to DM after our next game or two. I think I might like to try to take over DM role (of our group, I'm the more experienced player, and know the rules reasonably well. I have also watched a lot of different live-play D&D with DMs whose styles I admire).

We're currently playing 7th level characters in a campaign in a world the DM has created. He seems keep to hand over the details of the campaign and have someone else run it.

But I'm thinking that rather than continue to home brew a whole world and so on, a pre-made adventure might be easier to manage while I learn to handle the DM role.

Plus starting with lower-level characters might be prudent; to grow with the characters, rather than learning how to appropriately challenge 4-5 7th level characters.

I also rather like D&D Beyond and the way they automate many things that simplify gameplay. But I don't own many 5th edition books (Tashas, Xanathar's). I have relied on shared books from others in campaigns I play in. So I'd have to get some of the core books too to run a campaign.

But I'm also thinking that there are many ways in which the next version of the PH DMG etc looks like it will have many rule clarifications, rebalancing etc. that would be good to use. So it seems that if I'm going to buy books, I should wait and buy the new books, rather than buying books that will be out of date in a few months.

So I think it might be best to try to wrap up the present campaign, if needed, and then perhaps run a short ready-made campaign or a few one shots to get my feet wet, while we wait for the new editions to come out.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Suggestions for how to adapt from player to DM are very welcome.

Can anyone recommend --please and thank you-- a short campaign or one-shots that would be easy for a relatively experienced player to use to begin to grapple with DMing for 4-5 players?

[Ionathus]

Simpler is better for a first time DM. You honestly can't get too simple.

A billion campaigns have started with Lost Mines of Phandelver as a first adventure before putting their own spin on it and moving on to homebrew campaign stuff. It will serve you well.

Even simpler and easier to get started is this five-room dungeon from Matt Colville. You can add more complexity or a few more rooms if you like, but honestly don't bite off more than you can chew in that first session. There is no experience comparable to your first session as a DM, and honestly you should just do something short and easy to get the nerves out before launching into a full campaign.

As a bonus, it will also get you into Matt Colville's "Running The Game" playlist on YouTube, which is a perfect introduction to help you think about how to be a DM. He has a very great "just do it right now, and worry about the details later" approach that I found immensely helpful when I was just starting out. His videos are great at helping you to winnow the "need to prep" from the "nice to prep" instincts for a first time DM.

[Hiro Quester]

Simpler is better for a first time DM. You honestly can't get too simple.
...
As a bonus, it will also get you into Matt Colville's "Running The Game" playlist on YouTube

That does look simple, and immensely helpful. Thanks!!

[Ionathus]

That does look simple, and immensely helpful. Thanks!!

Sure thing, I'm glad it helped! Best of luck with your campaign

I'll be curious to hear your experience as a seasoned player taking the DM seat for the first time. Both I and my other mostly-DM friend both started our campaigns after playing only two or three sessions as players (each of us in a moment of "oh my god, this is amazing, I can't just do this once a month"), so hopefully you'll have less trouble with basic rules understandings and it will feel a little less like juggling a thousand things -- instead, maybe it'll just feel like juggling hundreds!

Oh also because I just noticed this part of your original post: DNDBeyond has been very helpful for most of my players to track their character sheets, but I have never found it all that useful as a DM beyond an easy reference material. I wouldn't recommend trying to build homebrew monsters or magic items in their system -- you don't get nearly the level of customization you need, at least in my experience. Use the virtual books if you have a license for them, but create all of your stuff with pencil and paper or in your own separate word/publisher/3rd party tool files.

[Hiro Quester]

Good point. I have made a few home-brew items and such in D&D beyond. It seems overly complicated, and often requiring some hunting around to find the place to add a feature to an item or subclass, and lots of trial and error to get it to work right. But it is good for automating many features during gameplay, and for managing players and campaign, sharing books, and so on.

But this reminds me, it might be good to know from those who have travelled this path before, what DM tools are really helpful or which ones are not as good as they seem.

Professionally, I know I have several times tried a new tool only to discover after weeks or years of work that a better easier more effective tool existed. But now sunk costs mean I'm reluctant to change.

What tools for tracking notes, building encounters, managing NPCs etc. have you found really useful?

[Ionathus]

What tools for tracking notes, building encounters, managing NPCs etc. have you found really useful?

I'm a big fan of technology but weirdly, I use very little of it for my campaigns.

Most of it is Word/Google docs where I write out the text of my magic items, campaign journal, NPC plans and motivations, etc. I tried a few different mapmakers before realizing that I preferred just drawing on some grid paper (the kind with blue squares in, I think, a quarter of an inch?) that designers and carpenters use. Building encounters is the same thing. I tried numerous tools before realizing that it's easier for me to just write out any homebrew monster's statblock on a piece of notebook paper.

For tracking my notes, I have a small half-sheet "stenographer's" style notebook. These notebook pages are divided in the middle by a red line. Each session is (usually) one page. On the left side, I do a bulleted list of things that could potentially happen -- for instance, I know the cult leader is going to search the town square, and I know the troll will be in a cave the PCs need to visit. So if they wind up in either of those two places, I have the relevant notes I need to run it. On the right side, I write anything relevant that the PCs did to impact the world. Plans they made, or wrenches they threw (wittingly or unwittingly) into the bad guys' schemes. NPC friends they made, and their names and personalities. Any relevant or particularly cool PC quotes.

Then, once the session is done, I open my Campaign Journal google doc and write down everything I remember about the session. Everything I did, everything the players did, their goals, what impact this session has had on bigger picture schemes. How I feel about the session. How I think the players felt about the session. What I'm proud of and what I wish I'd done differently. It's immensely cathartic and has helped me to cement the campaign's history much more clearly in my head.

The only digital tools I use frequently are DNDBeyond's Spells and Monster search functions (the filters are great for finding a specific "vibe" of spell or enemy), DNDBeyond's character tracker (helps me to review most of my players' PCs and remind myself of their capabilities) and FantasyNameGenerator. I usually generate 20 names that could be plausible for the people they're going to meet, and I write those on some post-its that I stick to my DM screen. I pick from that list in the moment, whenever an NPC becomes relevant enough to the party for their name to matter.

[schm0]

What tools for tracking notes, building encounters, managing NPCs etc. have you found really useful?

I would highly recommend Obsidian for keeping track of notes and organizing your adventures. This is especially true if you are running a homebrew campaign, but you can also use it to augment any of the many official and third party adventures out there as well.

I started using it a year or so ago after fumbling around with OneNote and will likely never use another tool again.

For ideas I also keep several notebooks around the house for jotting down ideas, as well as graph paper for drawing up locations and maps. Can't go wrong with pen and paper.

[Hiro Quester]

I would highly recommend Obsidian for keeping track of notes and organizing your adventures.

Ooohhh. That does look good. The fact that they use organizing a philosophy lecture as their example makes it seem especially promising (since I'm a philosophy professor for my day job, and most of the players are also philosophy professors). It's a good omen. Thanks.

[Kessel]

as it's been said, Matt Colville's running the game is solid.

something I wish I'd seen before I started was this article about not prepping plots.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress...ont-prep-plots
in the past I overprepped, this helped in a big way.

[Akal Saris]

Personally, I would accept the materials from the prior DM, and explain to the PCs that you would be happy to pick up the campaign where he left off, but first you'd like to run a short campaign or one shot with low level characters to learn the ropes as a DM.

As for materials, I personally use Word for my DM notes, plus I pull up the monster stats for each creature that I expect to be in combat beforehand. I also like to pre-generate a few random NPCs to have on hand. Even when running a module, I like to have some notes about each PCs' goals/background and possible plot hooks or ways to adapt the module specifically for them.

I find D&D Beyond to be more trouble than its worth. If you're running a game online, then Roll20 is a good online platform, and if you're playing in person, then you probably don't need D&D Beyond.

[Ionathus]

as it's been said, Matt Colville's running the game is solid.

something I wish I'd seen before I started was this article about not prepping plots.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress...ont-prep-plots
in the past I overprepped, this helped in a big way.

Funny enough, your mention of "don't prep plots: prep situations" reminded me of one of my favorite Matt Colville videos! I think this is also one that every first-time DM should watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXMxiAGUWg

Most players do like to feel like the DM has a story to tell. But almost every time, they will be more invested in your story if they feel they have an active hand in it. Don't plan too far ahead: wait and see what resonates with your players and what plot hooks they're excited to follow up on before you commit to a wide-reaching story arc.

[Mastikator]

Run a one-shot. Or one-shot ish since they'll either finish way faster than you thought or spend 3 hours arguing about who opens a door. Basically run a one-shot with another follow up one shot ready.

Also run session 0 where you explain what the one-shot is about and make characters together. Try to get them to make characters that have some built in story hook for going on your one-shot adventure. You can get an unexpectedly huge amount of mileage by asking players "can you give your character a reason to go on this adventure".