DMing for the first time

Posted a few days ago about DMing for the first time ( ) Session happened tonight, posting results below.

"Our adventures began their campaign today in the town of Knox, a fishing village on a small peninsula. Responding to a vague posting in several towns throughout the central and southern provinces of Conti island, the characters unwittingly gathered at the first of several trials of morality, karma, and fortitude. Arriving a day early for the posted contacts briefing, four strangers come across a chance to make some money by tackling a local bounty the night before the big day. The target is a Peryton, a large beast having the tail of a lion, the body wings a claws of a massive buzzard and the rotting head of an elk.

On their way to the suspected beach cave lair of the beast they inspect the abandoned house and barn of the property on which the Peryton has staked a claim. In the barn they find cow and horse carcasses being fed on by skull spiders but the real discovery is an evil doll in the house. It seems the evil doll being possessed by a fiend had drawn in the darkness and driven the fishing family mad before something eat away the livestock. The carrion naturally attracted the Peryton which the nearby village blamed for the whole mess. As the adventurers clear the home and search the property a idea forms on how to dispatch the Peryton.

It is late in the evening as they descend into the cave with items found around the deserted fishers home and barn. The beast is nocturnal and cruises its territory at night, so they find a mostly empty nest, occupied only by a pair of eggs, with piles of gore and bones further into th cave. The tunnel ends in a salt water pool connecting into the ocean. The last pile of rotting meat is as large as a carriage and is oozing fluids into the water. It is here the adventurers lay their trap. Using nets, weights and pulleys from the barn they fashion a drop trap to prevent the Peryton from flying, grounding it and giving them time to kill it low risk.

bump for interest

A pro tip: You're GOD, your word is LAW, whatever you want WILL happen. These three phrases should guide you as a GM.

Literally the worst DM advice ever given

>GMing my first game this weekend
>Have nothing prepared

Look at my prepared shit. Pic related. Stack of reoccurring npcs, one of random encounter npcs, stack of misc items, one of maps for areas near the starting location (they could go any direction for a days travel and find something), some monsters of various lvls posted to the starting town's bulletin board, detailed photos of locals that would be significant, and pages of brainstormed lore like why the deities disappeared 450 years ago and what the gods are actually up to (spoiler alert, one was almost killed by a mortal and they have been incognito as mortals learning trades and trying to experience the world they have reigned over by never lived also burning time for the last of the mortal beings from that era to die of, thus forgetting the gods' vulnerability.)

My tables rules (abridged)
1)I will not railroad.
2) players will not fuck about too much, they would be wasting their fellow players time, not just mine. There's a lot to explore though.
3) Game flow and immersion are paramount. Disputes and rule challenges will be noted and addressed after the event.

This is the first half of the session, I'll type up the other half and post in about an hour or two

The adventurers found the cave, entered and found the nest, with two eggs (which they moved to their trap and placed with skinned cow and horse skulls) and situated themselves in one of the two piles of gore in the cave (to cover their sent).

I'll note here that I try to reward cleverness and had the opportunity so I took it.

As the roll in the gore of the smaller pile on the left, the pile on the right stands up on four legs. It's a gore fiend. It looks at them and pauses.

Someone history checks. The Gore fiend is a challenge rating 7. They are level 2. Nobody moves. It shakes, dislodging the bodies the last group sent to kill the Peryton from its body, spraying the room with gore. Nobody moves. It slinks into the pool and swims away leaving a massive red stain and dying the waters a nearly opaque black red.

My players lose their shit.

"What would have happened if we had hid in that pile?"

"Ask the last adventurers that entered this cave." And point at the bodies on the ground.

Side note, the gore fiend was based on the blood starved beast, but I like the other name more and my players don't play pathfinder. Pic related.

As they collect their bearings, they hear distant cawing echo through the cave. The Peryton is here. It enters, sees the eggs (fails wisdom check for trap) and is ensnared, they kill it without taking any damage. Cue celebration and obliviously hacking away trophies from the kill. Then they hear distant cawing...
everyone freezes.

"There's another one?!"

Where the hell do you think baby Perytons come from?

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit"
"Can we re rig the trap?"
Why are you asking me and not already rolling? Four people roll four times each, if no nat ones, I'll give it to them.

No nat ones. Trap is reset. You have time for one action before the Peryton is insight. They're too far from the gorepile to make it, so they lump together on the now vacant redstain where the gore fiend had lay. Stealth rolls succeed.

Repeat trap sequence. One of the eggs is crushed. The beast nat 20s a strength check to escape, does and deals moderate damage to 2 of my guys.

Go back and collect bounty on two perytons from a elderly cousin of the family who died in the house over the Peryton cave.

Cousin seems more concerned about the doll. Let's slip that getting one of those is incredibly difficult to arrange, he had wanted to study it. Attracting it had been so costly and... oh never mind. The older man cast out his hand and a Wizard Magistrate robe flew to him from somewhere. He absentmindedly threw them their coin and was off in the direction of the house.

Start of full throttle and give them a Deck of Many Things session 1

I lurked the original thread. Do you still plan on the Gnome genocide? I thought that was a neat idea

Still doing that. One PC asked me how he could make the game more challenging and I said he could be a Gnome. Poor guy had to leave early and missed the briefing from the mining industry representative. We wrote it in as he went back to the Inn to rest while the others went to the meeting. Having already had an interaction with the mining rep the day before who told them gnomes are not good company then showing up the next day coved in blood and gore (from the Peryton encounter) but sans the Gnome, the rep rewarded them for taking the initiative so zealously with 2 vampiric bastard swords (1d8+4 with the wielder gaining +2 hp for each successful hit OR 2d4+6 were the weirder get +3 hp for hits but the Mad dwarf king gets a permanent +1 hp buff for everything life taken by the sword, obviously the players have no idea)

And a Wand of Darkness. 2 Charges a day, only devil vision can see through it, and randomized uses cast blinding daylight (which can be controlled after lvl5). The player is entirely unaware if the spell is actually happening because his vision will remain unchanged. Spell lasts 1 minute.

Thin your paints

Nice. I'm interested in hearing how this goes since I plan on running my first campaign in the near future

Have a plethora of npcs on hand, a few moderate to heavy engagements on hand. Could be as simple as a bulletin board saying "will someone PLEASE kill this abomination?" (Pic related) To smoke rising from a house in the woods and cries in the background.

Have a list of 20 names on hand.

Pay attention to the traits you want to reward and deliver.

your main preparation should be being hyped and focused, getting a good feel for your material and having ideas to implement on the go

Run something to start off and gauge expectations, run something simple off of the "Ideas For Adventures" blurbs in your handbook (like in WFRP2) or Dungeon Master Guide, see what the players liked about it, and build off of that.

I've recently decided that my players only provide me a backstory upon the third session we play, because earlier on, backstories are too rigid and we've often had false starts where we would prepare a world and character backstories and then it turns out the backstories don't mesh well (sometimes because the DM himself doesn't yet know all the nuances of his world), and sometimes simply because it's a waste to make a deliberate character arc and then the session peters out in a month because of real life issues.

This is really good information. I wish I had thought of that 3 days ago.

Bump. I'm trying to keep this alive so I can post Sunday night's session.

I actually agree with what he said, if not with the tone. The GM is the guy in charge and he has the ultimate word on everything; it's just that he needs to remember that his purpose is to run an adventure that everybody enjoys. So sure, you rule by divine right, but your rule must be targeted at the ultimate enjoyment of the players in your group, or you will find yourself king of an empty table.