New DM here...

Kek , won't say I am a veteran but this is me

That is all literally impossible unless you're going to sell him Dungeon World like some kind of shill.

Ignore this guy, if you want to play 5e then play 5e. There's no crime in being new and choosing a system you're at least familiar with instead of diving into shit to appease a nameless goon on Veeky Forums.

You gotta go with the flow baby. Some of your best writing will be by accident, if something comes to your mind just let it flow and figure out how it works later. Always do what sounds like the most fun.

>Ignore this guy, if you want to play 5e then play 5e. There's no crime in being new and choosing a system you're at least familiar with instead of diving into shit to appease a nameless goon on Veeky Forums.
Take this advice op. 5e is a fine system. I've been playing and dming table top rpgs for a fuck of along time. And it doesn't matter ehat system or edition you play as long as you have fun.

As for quest ideas. I like to make mine a long term goal. An example of one i used once:
>The party all meet at a inn.
>Nightfalls.
>a shooting star flies across the sky.
>it crashes to earth way past the horizon.
>quest insues to be the first to the impact sight to claim the meteor (a value crafting material or a gaint rock with a core of precious gems.)
>other adventures/ monsters try to stop the paty on they way and my be they get into a few side quests along the way.

Dont rail road them. If they dont wanna go to the meteor dont make em. This is just a set up. Try having a plan of what should happen. And then a back up of something you can through in of it doesnt go according to plan. Campaigns very very rarely stay as planned. Usually campaigns are session to session planning.

5e is the superior edition

I usually pick events or beats I would like to happen, or a central premise for a session. What happens from there is off the cuff

Think of all your NPCs and what their top 3 goals are and what they would do to achieve those goals *if the PCs did not exist*. Then, have the NPCs pursue their goals off-camera until the PCs run into them and the NPCs maybe have to adapt.

I find this helps the world feel alive AND makes it easy to improvise action.

"The sheriffs primary goal is to find the killer. Failing that, keep the people from rioting. Failing that, escape town with his family and brother's family." Or whatever. And then come up with the main actions the Sherriff is doing today to reach those goals. Then if the PCs run into him he can maybe hire them, or investigate them, or ignore them, or do some other thing as you see fit.

Minor NPCs will have small plans. Major enemies have big plans. But the idea is the same for both.

5E is hard to prepare for as new GM, it's too specific. But here are some general GM things I learned right away:
-"Yes, but..." or "Yes, and..." is usually a really good response, instead of "No." or "Yes"
-Don't think too far ahead. For me, I only really think up into the upcoming night. The players really influence the game a lot each night, so it's pointless to guess where they'll go next.
-If you think they're going to go East and they go West, just use some of your same prepared material in the West instead. The players create the story.
-Make/use a list of names. Your PCs will talk to randoms and you'll need to give them some character. Similarly, have a few canned characters/encounters to pull out at a moment's notice. Just a few though.
-If something unexpected happens that the players are excited about, let them do it. You will see it as them trying to forge their own path and ignore the ideas you planned out - throw away yourself. This is their game, too. You will have to improvise a bit, but you'll get better at that over time.
-With something like 5E, do not think you need the entire stat block. Appearance, behaviour, rough AC, relevant stat modifer, a couple attacks. Don't use the whole thing. Also, you can just make crap up. Monster Manual is just a guide, not a bible. You can describe a sasquatch monster and just use a Goblin stats or whatever. Describe monsters through narrative, don't just say "You guys see a goblin." instead, describe what they are looking at. If they ask if it's a goblin, say that their character grew up calling them trolls. Another character grew up calling them devils. etc.
-Ramp up rules as you play, if you're all new players. Add something new each night for a while. Start off dead simple.
-How long to prepare? If you only prepare for the next night, you could finish prepping in 15-30 mins. If you're taking longer, you are wasting time, and will hate DMing.

There's no notes. There's just bullshit.

The whole session is ad-libbed. Sometimes i check my (empty) "note"book, furrow the brow meaningfully or roll on (nonexistent) random table.

Players appreciate lots of prep work i put into settings. They still haven't caught on.

At the very least you should probably plan out dungeons. Random dungeons are boring to play, and even more boring to DM.

>make a hook

Start them in medias res kicking in the door to a dungeon.

Start at lvl 20. Go big or go home.

>sucking ass
>not eating ass
OP it’s like you don’t know how to be a faggot or something

Look in the phb and the dmg in so far as learning where the table of contents is so that you can quickly reference then to find the appropriate chart.

If you're in an established setting, it pays to know the fluff a little bit.

Have some monsters identified and their stat blocks either printed out or already pulled up on your phone/computer.

Have an end goal in mind. Apart from that, let your players make their way there. Let them tell their story.

>Start small and build bigger as you go
>Session 0 to ask what the players are looking for
>Session 0 to let them know what you'd like to try
>Build 2-5 likeable NPC's for every dick NPC
>Have dick NPC's that aren't necessarily bad guys
>Leave room for growth - a level 3 isn't likely to be summoned by the King of a great nation - are they Merlin?
>Mimic but don't rip; nothing kills immersion like a direct rip
>Mimic the shit that moves you
>Movies, tv, books, music, etc. Find your muse
>E.g. I have traveling merchant/bards that are crosses between Bill & Ted and Wayne & Garth, but they don't let on but using "dude" or "babe"
>E.g. I have a 20 ft tall giant chick that I adopted from an anime, but she behaves completely differently than from the show
>Prep campaign encounters well in advanced, especially if magic is involved
>Prep and be cognizant of pacing
>Give every player their time, even if they aren't looking at you
>E.g. a player is investigating a thief's bedroom in his house for traps - what are the other players doing to pass the time? Raiding the fridge? Drawing faces on the family portrait?
>Give players what they want when out isn't game breaking
>E.g. "Can I take the orc's heart?" Yes, but it's stanky

You'll get a feel for it as you go along. Just try what you got going on in your head. It'll probably work in none of the ways you expected

Oooh that's very good. Totally using this way of thinking.

nice le 5e sux maymay. it's definitely still a thing, bro.

Write some major NPCs, locations, some events that might happen.
Figure out some adventures that the group would care about.
Then figure out some adventures they have to care about, like someone trying to steal their shit.

DMing in general is very easy. DMing for dnd is even easier.

If you're running 5e just think about a town, a spooky place, and a type of terrain. The town is where you put the npcs they meet at the start. Now the town can be anything from the remains of a fleet of ships smashed into the side of a towering statue, to a cozy hamlet in not-england. It doesn't really matter that much. As for the people in it, just remember to have a bartender like gossip who can provide info, someone in charge, someone or someones who keep the peace, and some interesting figure like a spellcaster of some variety. Add in an artisan if you think they will want to buy particular stuff.

Spooky place is where shit goes down. Usually a cave, graveyard, dark forest, hilltop, whatever. If it's open just think of whatever is living there and causing trouble. If it's an enclosed space, or you just want to have fun or test your skills, draw a simple map of the place and give it 3-5 "rooms" with something interesting in each of them.

The terrain is, in my opinion, the most important part. It's what you actually describe to the players and sets the tone and theme of the game. Do generic fantasy if none of your players have played dnd before, it's fun the first time and feels like home. Plus if you wait too long you'll never get a chance to do it as people want more and more interesting and complicated games. Otherwise just pick a geography, culture, period of history, or all three and use that as a umping off point.

Now while I recommend combing through the rules like an autist and memorizing the likeihoods of outcomes and average damage/dc/ac etc, your players will never know the difference if you don't unless they are as autistic as I am.

This is the correct answer, because it requires you to consider time. The more you think of your world as an endless continuum of causation and not a scripted story the better.

However, this is hard mode if you don't understand human nature.

Filthy casual.

A true master needs neither mnemonic crutches, nor the trappings of training wheels, nor the primitive fetishes of paper and ink.

The true master's mind alone is a universe unto itself, complete and perfect.

The children playing at toys and trinkets presume much and call themselves "mage", learned in the tongue of the superstitious.

We are the ascended, and we inherit the fullness of unbounded potentiality.

My top advice for DMing:
Make extensive use of the 5 Room Dungeon concept.
1. Entrance with a guardian
2. Roleplay or puzzle
3. Setback or twist
4. Climatic battle
5. Reward and reveal

The entrance with a guardian can be the first thing they see when they arrive at the dungeon. A huge gate with a sentinel golem. A waterfall with a camp of snake men. A burning caravan with gnoll raiders slaughtering travelers. A scene that shows a desirable quest objective beyond, but a threatening creature to get past first.

The roleplay or puzzle is the next scene. This is where the players talk among themselves or with an npc to find out what's going on, and what they need to know. Grateful captives freed by the PCs ask them to rescue more people trapped beyond. An old archeologist explains the ruins and needs the PCs to be his bodyguard while creating more drawings for his notes. The ancient gateway portal has been deactivated, but the clever PCs have the clues they need to repair it and proceed.

Setback or twist is where you throw the players a curveball. Its a way to raise the stakes and give the players a sense of threat. The supplies they bought from the shady dealing in town were sabotaged. The carvings on the wall speak of an ancient prophesy of doom the PCs accidentally fulfilled. The rival villain has already enraged the natives and blamed the PCs for the trouble.

Climactic battle is straightforward. Lets the session end with an exciting showdown. A big monster surrounded by minions, furious that the PCs have interrupted its slumber. A hectic chase from the crumbling temple while automated traps go off. The rival makes off with the relic moments before the PCs arrive, leaving behind goons to buy time to escape.

Reward and reveal gives the players a big payoff while hinting or suggesting more in store. The players get a sense of achievement, with a tantalizing cliffhanger to bring them back for next time. Treasure to take back to town and clues about where to go next.

Or play GURPS where there are no levels...

bullet point descriptions of areas and creatures, brief personality words for NPCs, things like "angry, hates elves, drinks" and not "loves potatoes, coffee black" cause those you just bullshit and write when it happens.
Only write scripts for key plot points and exposition, but have it come one paragraph at a time, and not as an order of reading. If the PCs say and do nothing, keep it going, if they make it a 2 way conversation, skip around to relevant points.
If you ever run into them asking you something you didn't bother to think of, make it up and write it down.
>What color is his hair
>Silver, like a dull coin

Have a list of names to give NPCs, but don't assign them at all.
No matter who the first person they bother to ask is, their name is Brago. Followed by Chadwick, followed by a gruff woman who goes by Lemon.

Not OP, but any advice on how to keep this up in a larger setting where the players will move around a lot?

Poseur.

As all true men know
Games we play come from the mouth
Flap gums, not shit brains

I barely use notes at all anymore. I did use them when I was new because I was insecure and thought that planning ahead would make my adventures better. The only thing it really did was slow me down and made it harder for me to improvise when the players threw a curveball my way.

>How much ass will my game suck if I try to improvise 95% of it?
It's likely gonna be ass because you're new and inexperienced, not because your improvising. But everyone's first session is pretty ass and people have fun anyway.

Since you guys are helping new DMs I have a question. How do you handle PCs with high AC? My players have seemingly high AC in the range of 18 to 16 at level one. Most of the low level baddies can't even hope to hit them.
Is there a good way to handle this? Just fudge it?

t. illithid DM

Here's how you handle it: Let the dice fall as they will, and if that means the characters don't get hit much - then GOOD.

That's the entire point of why the players gave them higher AC, to reduce the times the character gets hit.

If you are willing to deal with a dungeon that is ultimately linear, sure. The 5 Room Dungeon is the epitome of the illusion of choice. Really, for meaningful interactivity from the encounter design itself, you really should at least incorporate some sort of branching, or even different options for the order in which they tackle these encounters. This doesn't necessarily mean a physically branching structure, but when you put together the encounters as a directed graph, it should not be a one way line. The problem with the 5 Room Dungeon is that it describes a narrative arc rather than a discrete environment per se, and that confusion I think leads to railroading and otherwise disrespecting player agency.

>Just fudge it

The moment you start fudging, you start lying to your players. Not only does this decrease immersion by creating an illusion of agency instead of actual freedom. It also breaks the implicit trust in the dice as neutral arbitrators.

Start using some bigger baddies
Get them into a situation where they lose some armor
Always present a challenge, not a fight you know they'll win

>enemies use strategies
Gank up on PCs to gain advantage. Use traps or ambushes to disadvantage the PCs. The enemies they're fighting are more well trained or have better gear.

Sorry to ruin the illusion, but every DM fudges as the situation calls for it.

Generally if they are moving around a lot only flesh out faction leaders and people that they will interact with more than once. Everyone else can just be made up on the fly.

Rolling a couple of description lines may be good, too. A character appearance (he has a peg leg) and personality trait (always answers with a question) makes characters more memorable.

So you can write down what their names are and characteristics and remember them yourself too.

100% not true. Bad DMs fudge constantly. Bad DMs never fudge. Good DMs fudge occasionally. The best DMs have no need to fudge, because they actually made balanced encounters.

The party doesn't have to always win.

Why do you want the player to get hit?

Verisimilitude. A group of 10 bandits aren't going to line up and get slaughtered once two or three guys go down. They'll try something new.

What does that have to do with the post you quoted?

Then try something new?

Spells that use saving throws

I'm not wanting to get the player hit, I'm wanting not all bad guys to be morons and only do one thing to attack the heavily armoured guy.
Like what? Grappling? Aid another strikes? Flanking? Luring him into a pit trap then poking him to death with spears? Tripping him prone into a water filled hole?

I don't know what would work! Or if my players would be upset by some of this stuff!

A bandit with +4 to hit is gonna hit a well armored PC about 1/4th of the time. Just throw a lot of bad guys and roll a bunch of dice and the PCs will get hit at some point. Also, having a character with high AC is not bad. The player built his character to be hard to hit, so don't punish him for his choice by cheating.

First post worst post

im a little 'spergy with some aspects of prep/notes (though i blame how spastic my usual group can be). I use a LOT of note cards that i record different stat blocks and variations and such with. lets me keep stocked with encounters of a good range without having to dig though books for somthing that fits where they are right then and there. If i have to ad-lib i can grab one of those, and after being a bit inspired by Kingdom Death i have a few stacks of "behavior" cards that depends on intelligence level of what they are fighting. These let me keep off-the-cuff encounters looking a bit more planned instead of panicking to populate it and figure out how the npc's would act (for instance, for low intelligence i have one that says "beastmaster" so ill have somone with an animal or animals fitting for them. or one that says "trapper" and the main group will try to bait the party into a simple trap on the field. meanwhile higher intelligence ill have "spec ops" where there will be some sort of caster and a bunch of ranged users utilizing cover focusing their attacks smartly) not a perfect system, but keeps pace in the games that go a bit outside of anything i prepped. other than that, biggest time-sink in session that i ALWAYS try to have ready are small lists of appropriate treasure ready or what can be for sale in the market(s). i just pull a page and am ready to go instead of doing all the rolls there (adding or subtracting as warranted).

I've been dming 5e since the beginning, and 4e before that. 5e sucks but it is impossible to find a game with superior systems.

My notes are mostly setting notes. I have a hex grid in OneNote with hyperlinks to pages on every hex. Encounters are made up on the spot using the hex notes for content clues.

>Players attempt to hit enemy
>Enemy has high AC
>Players try different tactics; combat manoeuvres, spells that don't target AC, flanking, buffing attack rolls

Play enemies in the same way. If the enemies have no way of overcoming the PC's defences then it's not a challenging encounter, so if you want a challenging encounter give them the ability to overcome. Just remember that just because you know something doesn't mean an enemy will or should know it until it actually becomes obvious (they try to attack and it just bounces off), and even when designing encounters (or just altering preset encounters) to challenge a PC's defence make sure it's still ultimately up to the dice and that what you're doing makes sense and isn't just blatant fudging (e.g. the bandit wizard utters an incantation and the fighter flexes his muscles and smiles, alluding to a buff; when the fighter attacks he seems more focused and his strikes are more measured, alluding to him not using power attack this time); at the end of it they should be thinking, "Thank god I invested in that AC," rather than, "Well all that AC was a complete waste of time."

What situation calls for fudging?

DM asspain because the players are having hot dice?

Practically nothing calls for fudging. Accept it and move on.

Oh cool, I do this too! (Plus stating out the more complex NPCs/Monsters). I also follow the advice mentioned. Basically I accept that the game will be 90% improv but I still need a map so the player's dont hit a brick wall.

The encounter map is good because while improv is heavy, its good to have an actual goal as GM besides reacting to the players. However you can't treat this map as gospel. If the players find a way to bypass the jungle trek or ignore the ship contact, you just have to try to keep the adventure going naturally. Don't force them to follow your map. You'll find some other way to get that alien ambush in.

Read the situation and act accordingly.

If your players are doing fine, that's usually not something you have to correct.

I see it like this: There's three types of situation where fudging is acceptable. The first is if you want to instill some fear in your players for something upcoming, whether it's a boss battle or the rescue party that smashes in through the door and gets them out of there and their current situation doesn't put them in a very desperate situation. Then it's fine to let the enemies hit them a few extra times or have them miss when they really shouldn't and so on.

The second is when a particular player has had a series of highly unfortunate rolls. He's rolled low the entire night, he doesn't hit anything, and he's gotten beat up constantly. If you notice this happening, then have the monsters miss him when they really didn't. Maybe have him hit when he actually didn't and so on. (The latter is easier in a system that isn't D&D where the players usually aren't rolling their attacks against a static number.)

And thirdly, if one player has faced some very unfortunate rolls and his character crooked because of them, then it's fine to fudge it so that the rest of the party gets out of there safe. Try to play up the fact that his sacrifice made the escape possible.

Otherwise