Dungeons and Dragons

So I'm going to be DMing for a big party I'm throwing for some pals. I've DM'd before but it's usually been super casual meme-fests where we didn't really follow the rules all that closely, which is fine, but I want to do something more hardcore.

I want to essentially pull out all the stops and really make a good roleplay/gaming experience and a cool story.

So I want to get some tips on how to DM proper and really craft something fun for my friends to enjoy while at the same time being a more serious roleplay. How do I properly craft a narrative, environments and a world.

Essentially I want to get good at DMing and actually play the game bit more rather than pepe jokes.

>how do a learn the rules
>how do I craft a world
>how do a give that world identity
>how do I make an engaging gaming experience
>how do I make fun dungeons
>how do I make good enemy encounters
>how do I avoid the memes
>how do I make a dark fantasy setting without being an edgelord.
>how do I go about making custom items
>how can I make people care about the characters
>how do I dm?

Think you can help me out TG?

Other urls found in this thread:

thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101
archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/retired
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Read the books all the way through and DM more games. Git gud.

Ever played a good rpg game? Like Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age? Try using it, if not entirely at least the shape of the dungeons and monster placing, or some plot devices. If the players don't know the game you can run it all. I once DMed the entire Arcanum Steamworks and Magic Obscura and it was a success.

I am DM'd for the first time after only playing D&D twice. Currently DMing for a fucking 6 person party. Going pretty hard core on whats going to be a pretty long campaign. 4 out of the six people have played before.
They said its the best campaign they've ever played.

>how do I DM?
Just BEE your self.
also I also based my campaign off of Monster Hunter somewhat.

I think your question is just too large for what can be answered here given the time you seem to be allowing. If we could tell you all of that in one post and have it solid in time for your party...everyone would be a master DM.

Most of that stuff is going to be answered with 'play the game' combined with 'read the books' with a side order of 'try stuff alot'.

A few posts on tg isn't going to do it.

Narrow your question to just one of those bullets and you will get reasonable help.

okay how about two things.
>how do I make the gameplay compelling/combat
>how do I give my world more identity.
(still kinda broad, I know)

BTW my party is may 7th so it's I have some time to prepare

I have been DM'ing for about 3 years now on a weekly basis, so I hope my advice can help you out.

>How do you learn the rules.

First step, the players handbook. Start learning things from basic to rare. What I mean is, begin learning rules that directly impact with gameplay from the most often to the least often. Usually you should learn the basis of combat, then how interacting with NPC's/rolling works, then advanced combat mechanics and how NPC's will use them (such as ready action, VASTLY under used mechanic). Most importantly though, if you ever run into a situation where you are not sure of a rule, which it will happen a lot, just make a decision on the spot as the DM and revisit it later. This helps not break the vibe, not slow down gameplay, and generally help a lot. Remember in the end, rule 0, meaning you're the DM, you make the rules. Especially with 5e, there is A LOT of gray area.
>How do I craft world.

First start with the "age" you want your world to be in. What I mean by this, is your world a vastly explored continent with pre-defined power-player empires (like most mmo settings). Is it still young, wild, and untamed? Is it post-apocalyptic? Did the evil bad guy lose a few years ago but the world is in shambles trying to pick itself back together?
Then decide on the size of the world. Should it take place in a kingdom, a continent, ocean spanning, in a city? My recommendations, make yourself a soft map with some cities, then decide how those cities interact with each other, where trade routes lye, how that implicates bandits, wildlife, diplomacy, est. And of course set out the bioms of the world. Imagine how society would be in the world. that you have now created, and start thinking smaller. Don't go too detailed, because then you'll make this bad ass super prepared town, but then your party will want to go fuck around in a graveyard for 10 sessions then leave. Seriously. Attached is a map of mine that I'm working on now.

>cont

>How do I give that world identity?

I touched on it last post but I'll just add a little more. Like I said, have your "age", have your major society interaction points. Remember that society/civilization usually spans out in a circle away form a major city thining out as you go away from that city. So generally, if its a town, within half of day walk you will find maybe a lumber mill here or there, then nothing much out side of it. But if its a metropolis, it will go metropolis->other cities/holds->farmland/towns->outlying villages->edge of patrolled land. I mean in this situation it could take a solid 3 days of travel to really have no touch of society.

>How wdo I make an engaging gaming experience

Ok, so this is a hard one. Even for me and I've been dming for awhile, what you have to remember is that this is a 2 part game. The dm, and the players. Its also on the players. First step is for you to fucking get, into, role playing. Even if it makes you feel stupid. It will make your players more comfortable and it will allow them to really get in character a lot better. Options. Options. Options. You will have a whole battle set up, but if your bard crit 20's a persuade to talk down the mad-orc bomber, hell, fucking roll with it. It is VERY, VERY, VERY important you make your player's decisions and choices IMPACT to the game, and the environment. DO NOT be afraid to have a guard beat the shit out of someone for doing something illegal. If a player loves just charging through doors, put some fucking crossbow traps behind them. Mold your story setup to your players, they will fucking love it. If a player wants to rip a door off a wall and hit someone with it in the middle of a fight, shit, let them do it and have it do something cool to make it be worth it for them (as long as they get the rolls of course). Main point I'm making, roll play hard, make player decisions matter. Don't get so caught up with what you planned you put them on a train track game

> How do I make fun dungeons

Site the dungeon I made above. First chamber is a puzzle where using a poem they must touch crystals in a certain order to open the door. Next chamber is a small treasure trove, however, there are living armor and weapons in it to defend the treasure of their long-dead masters. Also there is a petrified manticore but thats a different story. Next is a long hallway, trap door closes, slime drops and slowly starts rolling forward, you have to dps it down before it gets to you. Next chamber is basically those eye lasers from legend of zelda. Next chamber is a break-chamber, these can be important. The rest of the dungeon was destroyed by kobalts who moved in, made the place their home. Kill the kobalts, final chamber, kill the kobalt king, get the treasure. Point I'm making, is your dungeon should tell a story. It shouldn't be just a grind through infinite skellies. Whats unique about it, why did its makers design it the way it was. Is it a relatively straight forward dungeon with shit tons of traps designed by ancient dwarves. Is it a wrapping and curving cave system designed by ware-rats? Which brings me to my next point, the dungeons need to have a point for being there. Why is this random ancient thing here in the forst? Just cause, well shit I bet we will find out inside of it! Get where I am going? Players want to explore dungeons not only because of loot, but because of the mystery of it, make sure you quench that thirst. Once you have the setitng the story set up for it, shit just get creative with it.

>How do I make good enemy encounters.

Like I said for dungeons, encounters are also a story device, and that will help you sculpt amazing encounters. You're party runs up against bandits. Bandits are sneaky, they will engage a fight, but half way through the rest of the bandit party will sneak attack out of the tree tops down on top of your foes. Kobalts will take much more striaght on assaults because of their animalistic and simplistic nature. A hill giant will take a much more walky walky smashy smashy approach. Shape-shifting demons will try to blend into the society around the party, earn their trust, and then attack while they're asleep. Skeletons and zombies will attack in hordes (usually), while a death knight will typically be alone. You will have to do a few encounters to see what the parties weak points and strong points are, but mold to it. If someone is playing a paladin with like 19 AC, make enemies hit softer but have much higher attack rolls. If the party has massive single target DPS, attack them with a pack of like 10 kobalts all at once. Etc. Just think, "how would these creatures approach this encounter," and then meta game "and how does my party do combat." And lastly, combat doesn't always have to be a tank and spank. Make interactive objects that npc's AND players can use. Lastly lastly, combat doesn't always have to end in people dying.

>How do I avoid the memes.

You can't, it will happen from time to time. The best way to stop a campaign from going off track is to keep people from meta-gaming and breaking the forth wall. If an enemy is like "ahhhh I'm going to attack" and your party starts being like "hey how should we handle this" forgo their initive rolls and be like "while you're standing there the orc attacks you". That being said, don't be a nazi about it, but I guess what I'm saying is reward roll-playing and punish meta-gaming to the extend that you want your campaign to be serious.

Have dungeons
Have dragons
Have deadly traps
Have something to talk to in the dungeon

It's not caravans and bandits, man

>How do I make a dark fantasy setting without being an edgelord.

I mean, you know in the end it is fantasy and it is an adventure, but fucked up shit does happen sometimes while you're out in the wild. I'll give some examples.

A.) One time my party came across a half-gnome trade caravan that was being held hostage/ransacked by bandits. They stealth-fully took out the guards watching over the hostages. They heard a few woman screaming for the bandits to "get off them" and "not to do this". Which engaged the "OH FUCK NO" int he party, and stealth quickly turned into knock down the fucking door, literally catching the bandits with their pants down, and murdering them. Its edgy, but just don't get too dark with it. Like the party was able to stop the bandits before they actually did anything, but one hostage woman did die in the process.

Another - party came across a powerful dark mage, attempting to reach lichdom. While trying to find a way to weaken the dark-mage (because they found out he was leaching some sort of power from somewhere in the mansion) they found it. Two young souls trapped in a magical seal having their essences tapped into by the dark mage. Turned out they were his children, and he used their sacrifice to grow in power. Shit turned ugly with a few bad pursuasion roll swhile talking to the children and (since they were ghosts / brainwashed) attacked the party, so the party had to put them down once and for all.

>Last good example and this is a simple one. Party came accross a battlefield of dead guards. Why were they dead? Because the party did not complete the quest that the quest giver made very clear was VERY important and president and had a lot of lives at stake. As a result, they had to fight the boss alone, and unaided by the town guard.

Nothing too crazy dark, its result/role play orientated, but it can touch right in the feels.

All of this advice seems super helpful, and I really appreciate the detail of your posts. Incorporating this stuff will really improve my DMing.

>How do I go about making custom items.

I love making custom items. Enchanted, swords made out of bones, cursed items, funny items like never-ending flasks. Make things that work with the characters. As you DM, you will get an extremely good feeling of what is OP and what is not OP. Check out the DM's handbook on custom magical items, that is an EXCELLENT place to start with magic items. And remember, it doesn't always have to be stat increased, if you wanna make a sword that can shoot firebolt 3 times a day, fucking do it, its hilarious and can be very fun for the player. (Or if you wanna make silly enchantment, its always possible. The world of magic is weird, and people make weird stuff when trying to learn.)

>How can I make people care about the characters.

Well, first make people care about the story, then worry about character development. I am assuming you are speaking of NPC's when you say characters. In simple, make the characters relatable. Some of your players won't want to help a certain NPC because their character doesn't relate to that NPC, which is fine! Just be sure you have NPC's do things which relate to what drives your player's characters. Money, fame, good heart, kindness? Then, make a few permanent NPC's which they will be interacting with a lot. A captain of a guard, a leader of a shadow guild, a king or noble, a lowly but mysterious street urchant. Give that NPC a personality, depth, what are they hiding from your players, what is their objectives and how do they intend to use your players to achieve that objective, and then how would they go about it. Depth is whats important, and giving your NPC's personality is the first step to doing that.

>How do I dm

Just fucking do it. Don't worry about making mistakes, just make a story, follow the rules as best you can. And learn them as you go, because your players will be doing the same exact stuff. Be creative, and have fun!

I hope that helped!

Ya of course! Dungeons of dragons is A LOT of fun, and is a lot easier to get into what people think. Just create your story, and just relate everything to a story driven plot (whether big or tiny) and the rest will just fall into place!

OH, and incase anyone is interested in using the table-map I made that I posted earlier, here you go.

Yeah, your advice is super helpful. I'm taking notes on everything you said and am going to apply it to my campaign. Again I appreciate you taking time to give me all of this advice. I'm sure just following what you said I feel like my game is going to be much better than it otherwise would have been.

I love what advice that previous user DM is giving. I'm entirely new to D&D as well, but I believe using pre-existing maps could help kick-start a creative flow. There is a thread around here about 80's maps.
I was planning on creating a timeline myself, creating events that shape what civilizations currently lie and in what areas of a created map I designed that they might occupy. What are their laws and culture? I then hope to build an index of NPC's and monsters with relevance to a separate index of quests and dungeons. I want my world to have an underworld, a sky realm, and extraordinary areas only accessible with the aid of the appropriate character. I want a world of usable and collectible items. Up-gradable armour and weapons. Beginning to advanced, ancient and elder magic.
Basic skills and attributes that can be attributed perfectly to fit the most intricate or lengthy dungeons.
And food, beverages, music, and video games for my guests. Also having Veeky Forums up would be a plus.

Question: Should I contend to first generation D&D guidelines or do all generations just kind of merge as the game progresses? I am fucking clueless yo.

check this shit out

>how do a learn the rules
Read the rulebook. Especially the parts that cover the rules, not just class features.
>how do I craft a world
steal a little bit from everywhere. Depending on your autism, consider what caused IRL civilizations to become what they were.
>how do I make an engaging gaming experience
By not allowing phones or laptops and encouraging people to expand on their actions Instead of "I taunt the guard /roll" ask them what they say. Whether they act out what their character would say with an accent and everything or just say they start talking shit about their mother doesn't matter, just try to get them to be a little more in depth.
>how do I make fun dungeons
By giving them a reason to be there and an architecture that reflects that reason.
>how do I make good enemy encounters
By remembering that enemies aren't run by shitty 90s computer game AIs. If they're smart they should be smart. Even wolves are tricky motherfuckers IRL. If the fight starts to go to shit for them, they should run away, unless they're crazed fanatics or something.
>how do I avoid the memes
Some memes are okay, but if it starts to get out of hand just wait for them to clam down and tell them to bring it down a notch.
>how do I make a dark fantasy setting without being an edgelord.
DnD isn't really great for dark, but a good start is to keep magic-capable NPCs rare. Settings start to feel less dark when there's a friendly priest in every hamlet passing around resurrection spells.
>how do I go about making custom items
There should be a guide/advice in the dungeon master's guide, but generally think of some great hero in the setting and give the item some power related to that hero.
>how can I make people care about the characters
Give them goals and motives of their own. Minor nobles out in the boonies never hand out quests for no reason.
1/2

>how do I dm?
By making more plot hooks than the players can follow, a world that slowly moves when they're not looking, and not entering your magical realm.

2/2

I find most of this guy's stuff pretty well-written but YMMV.
thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101

There also used to be some fantastic articles on the Wizards of the Coast website but god knows I don't remember where they were. Probably somewhere here but they all sorts of cool stuff like how to craft interesting loot and how to mix scifi into your fantasy.
archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/retired

Oh and in terms of my own advice.

Steal as much as you can. I don't care whether it's from history, popular culture/fiction or other rpg sources but not only is the workload far less but it allows you to take advantage of common cultural touchstones you can rely on your players recognizing. Means they're going to have a better understanding of the setting/adventure without you having to drown them in detail AND it's more shocking when you do change something. I don't know if this makes any sense 'cause it's too late for me to explain myself properly but whatever.

Ya, please feel free to touch back when you do the campaign or when you're planning it if you need help.

>how do a learn the rules
Read the rulebook of your choice, taste vary wildly.
>how do I craft a world
You don't, let it emerge in play.
>how do a give that world identity
By letting it emerge in play.
>how do I make an engaging gaming experience
By enjoying yourself and being enthusiastic about it.
>how do I make fun dungeons
Depends on the specific D&D you're using. I'd recommend using some cool shit from the One Page Dungeon or just write something down, do the map and all, and trust your guts. Always trust yourself to do good.
>how do I make good enemy encounters
Again, depends on the version of D&D. in 3E and later, by following the guidelines. Before that, there is no such thing as balance, an encounter isn't necessarily "combat" and it all depends on the players and the dice.
>how do I avoid the memes
What.
>how do I make a dark fantasy setting without being an edgelord.
By not being an edgelord. By properly informing yourself beforehand.
>how do I go about making custom items
Write them up.
>how can I make people care about the characters
You don't. If they start caring, good for them.
>how do I dm?
Describe a situation, ask the players what they do, use your judgment and the rules to deal with some stuff, repeat.

General advice : listen! remember shit! write down shit during the game! trust yourself and the others! don't cheat, and don't lie! act like a grown-up about it! remember you're playing a game!

My edition of choice would be Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) First Print.

Also if that kind of stuff matters (I seen it somewhere else in the thread), I've been DMing for seven years, lots of different games, a hundred players or so, long term campaigns and one shots, etc.)