D&D 5e, starting a game soon, any DM's have tips?

Could be interesting...

My missus is a Catholic terrorist so i like to see how far i can push things. Don't think anyone would get the pagan references but its worth a try.
 
Ok guys my boss and possibly and ex Gamesworkshop employee and avid tabletop gamer are thinking of starting up a D&D game. It's been years 25+ for me and ex GW guy since playing any sort of RP game. Iirc my boss hasn't played it before. Anyway whats the easiest way to start this bad boy? I presume I/we will have to get the rule book and what else?

Also, the world in which the game is set, can this be made up by us/GM. Like design the maps, locations, lore etc? If making your own lore up and maps then I may give it ago. I have played Wow for many years and other games like that and was thinking of making a small world with some lore to play in. Nothing to complex but just enough to get a starting game going? I know you can get premade scenarios etc but making our own seems fun. Ideas, help and thoughts please :)
 
I've gone with my original idea. A bit of farm work involving catching some Spring Chickens (they jump away before anyone can get close), some fire breathing ducks (Crispy Ducks) and some magical lambs that cast silence (much lip reading will happen). The group isn't allowed to kill any of them (they will forget this very quickly like they always do with instructions) and then will have to go hunt a lich (Jesus) who is very cross (heh) that they have killed his undead army on the way in. They will probably die. This is how most of my one shots tend to work. If they win, the reward is insulting.


Droolinggimp said:
Ok guys my boss and possibly and ex Gamesworkshop employee and avid tabletop gamer are thinking of starting up a D&D game. It's been years 25+ for me and ex GW guy since playing any sort of RP game. Iirc my boss hasn't played it before. Anyway whats the easiest way to start this bad boy? I presume I/we will have to get the rule book and what else?

Also, the world in which the game is set, can this be made up by us/GM. Like design the maps, locations, lore etc? If making your own lore up and maps then I may give it ago. I have played Wow for many years and other games like that and was thinking of making a small world with some lore to play in. Nothing to complex but just enough to get a starting game going? I know you can get premade scenarios etc but making our own seems fun. Ideas, help and thoughts please :)
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Yes you can make your own world with lore locations etc.. but its a lot of work and something that you need to control. You can use a lot of resources though that already exist such as god information and campaigns as thats just porting information in and changing names to protect the guilty.
One thing my missus does is remove magic for a while (the world we start on has none) and then its slowly introduced. This limits player options but is less confusing for new players (and less for the GM to deal with).

I'd suggest starting with the system you plan on using and run a small pre-written campaign to get yourself and the players used to the rule set. Once you think they have the hang of it, write your own campaign. You'll learn a lot about the players and techniques. Then go for the new world setting. You should be at that point within 6 months if you play weekly.
 
Droolinggimp said:
Ok guys my boss and possibly and ex Gamesworkshop employee and avid tabletop gamer are thinking of starting up a D&D game. It's been years 25+ for me and ex GW guy since playing any sort of RP game. Iirc my boss hasn't played it before. Anyway whats the easiest way to start this bad boy? I presume I/we will have to get the rule book and what else?

Also, the world in which the game is set, can this be made up by us/GM. Like design the maps, locations, lore etc? If making your own lore up and maps then I may give it ago. I have played Wow for many years and other games like that and was thinking of making a small world with some lore to play in. Nothing to complex but just enough to get a starting game going? I know you can get premade scenarios etc but making our own seems fun. Ideas, help and thoughts please :)
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Creating your own world/campaign whilst fun and extremely rewarding is a huge task and much larger than it first seems, my advice as returning/new gamers would be DnD 5e (quite rules light compared to other RPG's) and maybe use the Lost Mines of Pandelever quest that comes in the starter pack, fun and pretty broad ranging in terms of RP opportunities, choice and combat.

From that point you can branch out.

YOu planning on being DM or do you have one?
 
Well I would give DMing a try. If I can find an experienced one to start us off I will. The world I am currently creating is half way into the first draft, it is very loosely based on WoWs WotLK. Names and locations are new so there are not copied but story is similar. I have started the origin of the world and how it was started and the current situation (as in on the brink of a new war). It's all very exciting creating a new world taking bits from different games etc but time consuming. :)
 
DM'ing isn't too hard it's just knowing the rules, if you go with it get on DMsGuild website there is a DM cheat sheet on there to summarise all rules succinctly on 2 sides of a4 and it helps a lot, also a good group summary sheet for stat tracking and if you know it's going to be an ongoing event I would invest in spell cards and also some card sized blanks you can use as monster stat cards for encounters.

Biggest immersion breaker (IMO as a DM) is when you need to sit and flip back and forth through books trying to find rules/stats. It kills the game flow and really slows things down.

Regards to building the campaign how are you planning on getting the players in? I know I mentioned it before but if you are struggling (world building is easier than pulling together a coherent campaign and building encounters) maybe take LMoP and modify the setting into your world?
 
No1newts said:
Regards to building the campaign how are you planning on getting the players in? I know I mentioned it before but if you are struggling (world building is easier than pulling together a coherent campaign and building encounters) maybe take LMoP and modify the setting into your world?
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This is good advice for a first adventure. The Lost Mine of Phandelver is good fun - for my group, it was the perfect introduction to 5e. It is fairly non-linear in parts, which gives a lot of freedom to the players, and opportunity for the DM to work on manipulating the party :D

Also, the Master's Vault on Roll20 is pretty good at introducing new players to the game - whereas the first encounter in LMoP can be deadly. In fact, until you hit level 3, 5e is a killer.
 
Pookie Bear said:
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Also, the Master's Vault on Roll20 is pretty good at introducing new players to the game - whereas the first encounter in LMoP can be deadly. In fact, until you hit level 3, 5e is a killer.
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I've got my group running Rise of Tiamat now and they got shirty and smart like they notammly do and decided to trump me and march down the Main Street to the keep playing instruments. One ambush later I had a TPK and campaign over :p

I sent them away to get a drink and actually had them "rescued" and dragged to the castle by some roaming guards and had the castletan give the helpful advice "stop trying to be smart ***** or you'll die out there"

It amused me if not them :D what was even better was I was able to punish them entirely within the bounds of the story which made it even more satisfying.
 
Hi all, I've kind of given up hope of ever finding a more regularly meeting group in the North East in which I can actually be a player (thanks for the game with you Pookie, that was great but appreciate you have a full group)

With that in mind before offering it up to the random roll20 community would anyone like to be part of a campaign (I will DM) ran through roll20?

I'll invest in LMoP to get it off the ground and if it has legs I'll maybe pick up Storm King or Curse to keep things going.

Willing to DM for experienced or new players as long as anyone who wants in is willing to commit to a campaign and not just 1 or 2 sessions.

Time/days it could be any night apart from Friday or Saturday and to make it worthwhile I would do 1930-2230 so we can make some progress. Ideally playing weekly but I could let my arm be twisted to bi-weekly if need be.

If anyone is interested let me know, I'll go to the roll30 community and find players but I know some in here are quite keen so thought I would offer the opportunity first.

Cheers

Edit: changed nights I'm not available to Friday/Saturday no idea why I put anything else :p
 
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For those so far showing interest;

- does the time work?

- what night? Thursday is probably best for me but could do Sunday.

If I send you a digital pdf are you all ok creating characters yourself and sending them back or are any of you new and need support?
 
No1newts said:
For those so far showing interest;

- does the time work?
Yes, good for me. Anytime after 17.00 GMT on a weekday (I'm an hour ahead of you all)


- what night? Thursday is probably best for me but could do Sunday.

Thursday is better for me. But Sunday works too.

If I send you a digital pdf are you all ok creating characters yourself and sending them back or are any of you new and need support?

I'm good, this is only my second campaign. But I'll ask if needed. Got my PHB handy. :)
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Will only be me. My friend can't commit.

Minor edit for clarity purposes.
 
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No1newts said:
For those so far showing interest;

- does the time work?

- what night? Thursday is probably best for me but could do Sunday.

If I send you a digital pdf are you all ok creating characters yourself and sending them back or are any of you new and need support?
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Thursday are best for me too, 1930 or later preferable so I can get home from work and have dinner. No issues creating a character here.
 
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