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jobes2007
Skirmisher
24 Posts
    
 | | 07/15/2007 6:17 PM |
| Hey, I thought this would be a relevant place to post my question, so here we go:
I'm a DM with about 2 months worth of experience and recently 3 of my 4 players moved. I know, what bad luck. So now I found a new group, but none of us really know how to play or DM properly. Is there an adventure or site or anything out there that well teach the DM how to DM, the players how to play, and just get our game started?
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ShadowLord XT
Commander
2623 Posts
Plane of Shadow
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 07/15/2007 6:36 PM |
| Closest I can think of is Dungeon Master for Dummies. They also have a site that goes aong with it here . Also check out the DMG II. There is a lot there, especially in the beginning of the book, that took me years to learn through experience.
As for adventures, I haven't seen any specifically for new DMs. The new encounter set ups in the recent WOTC mods I think are great since they describe encounters very well and remove a lot of the guess work that might overwhelm you at first. Stick with low level adventures since the complications are minimal. As your PCs level, you'll be more experienced and more comfortable for the more complex games.
Lastly, if you don't mind a piece of advice, don't worry about being perfect. Even after 20+ years of dming and playing, I still make "elementary" mistakes. Remember it's a game and you'll do fine. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
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zenthrus
Commander
4647 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 07/15/2007 8:22 PM |
| | Scourge of the Howling Horde is written with a mind towards new DMs. | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 07/15/2007 9:45 PM |
| | That's really good to know. Thanks, zenthrus. Have you run it? Do you think it is a good mod for beginners? | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
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zenthrus
Commander
4647 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 07/16/2007 1:18 AM |
| I PCed it (with a first-time DM). It's quite well written and offers more options than you'd expect from a standard dungeon crawl (in terms of RP, tactics, moral dilemmas, etc).
The Shattered Gates of Slaughterguard is another module written for first-time DMs (although it's substantially more comprehensive in scope). We've just started running it so I don't have a lot of feedback (other than our DM forgot to read the adventure hook section so it took two sessions to get things rolling).
The Barrow of the Forgotten King/Sinister Spire/Fortress of the Yuan-ti series can be run by newer DMs. After reading through the first two, however, I'd be cautious running that arc as a first-time DM unless I was prepared to spend quite a bit of time preparing before gaming sessions (since there are some fairly complicated encounters).
As far as classics go, I'd highly recommend the 3.0 Adventure Path (Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, etc) if you can get your hands on them. The first two in particular are very well written, designed for newer DMs (since they launched whn WotC released 3.0) and are large enough to last quite a while. The entire adventure path (through Bastion of Broken Souls) takes players from level 1 to level 20 and contains a varied mixture of dungeon/cavern/forest/city/planar scenarios as well as a wide variety of monster encounters (IIRC there are now enough DDM minis to run the first three mods without any proxies). | |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
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jobes2007
Skirmisher
24 Posts
| | 07/16/2007 7:37 AM |
| | Wow Do you know where I can get a list of all the adventures in that 3rd edition thing you wer talking about? | | | |
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ckissee
Underboss
1428 Posts
KD :)
| | 07/16/2007 9:10 AM |
| Here's the list:
The Sunless Citadel - Level 1
The Forge of Fury - Level 3
The Speaker in Dreams - Level 5
The Standing Stone - Level 7
Heart of Nightfang Spire - Level 10
Deep Horizon - Level 13
Lord of the Iron Fortress - Level 15
Bastion of Broken Souls - Level 18
Hope this helps! | |
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jobes2007
Skirmisher
24 Posts
| | 07/16/2007 10:02 AM |
| | I "bought" PDF versions of all those. Thanks alot. | | | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 07/16/2007 10:23 AM |
| Oh, here's another suggestion. DM for the RPGA in your area. All adventures are short, only lasting 4 or 8 hours, and should contain all the info you need to run them including sections from non-core books. You can get them for free and choose adventures appropriate for the group. Living Greyhawk epsecially has adventures made to introduce people to the world so encounters and combats can get both you and the players up to speed.
The writing is a little sporadic, though. Writing an adventure for them doesn't have the requirements a professional mod would have. However, it is a cool thing to check out. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
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jobes2007
Skirmisher
24 Posts
| | 07/16/2007 10:56 AM |
| | Wait, how do I get RPGA Adventures? | | | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 07/16/2007 11:29 AM |
| Go to the wizards web site, here .
It should have all the information you need on getting started. Look around, there are a couple of campaigns. Again, it doesn't have the polish the other books have, and you can get some great adventures and some truly horrid ones. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
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zenthrus
Commander
4647 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 07/16/2007 2:03 PM |
| RPGA has a number of benefits.
For a newer DM I would recommend the Black Wheel Company or Covenant of Light adventures. They're Eberron, but they're rather well written.
Becoming a DM for the RPGA is somewhat complicated (have to take an online, open-book test) but worth the effort. Signing your players up is relatively easy: just contact the RPGA and ask for membership applications. They'll ship you a packet right away (and another one about every six months or so). RPGA sessions require a minimum of 4 players and a maximum of 6 (plus the judge/DM).
If you sign up for DM rewards you periodically receive GMR promo minis  | |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
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GuJiaXian
Sergeant
641 Posts
Roswell, GA
| | 07/16/2007 2:12 PM |
| Posted By zenthrus on 07/16/2007 2:03 PM RPGA has a number of benefits. For a newer DM I would recommend the Black Wheel Company or Covenant of Light adventures. They're Eberron, but they're rather well written. Becoming a DM for the RPGA is somewhat complicated (have to take an online, open-book test) but worth the effort. Signing your players up is relatively easy: just contact the RPGA and ask for membership applications. They'll ship you a packet right away (and another one about every six months or so). RPGA sessions require a minimum of 4 players and a maximum of 6 (plus the judge/DM). If you sign up for DM rewards you periodically receive GMR promo minis
It is a pain to sign up, especially since signing up for the rewards program is seperate from signing up for the RPGA in general. What a bother.
On a related note, I'm running what's technically (according to the RPGA) a Greyhawk/homebrew campaign (Shackled City Adventure Path), which only nets me 1 point per session. Since we play weekly, this results in some pretty pathetic point totals come the end of each reward period. Without artifically inflating my results, what can I do to get more points, both for myself and my players?
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"Clearly a case of too many hunchbacks and not enough mad scientists..." | |
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jobes2007
Skirmisher
24 Posts
| | 07/16/2007 5:54 PM |
| Hmm.. First off my friends are doing the Shackled City adventure path and I sat in as a fighter during the one thing. It's amazing.
And (just from looking at the site) you have to do RPGA made adventures... you could download them online and just send in the application when you were done.. But that would be illegal so I don't condone it. lol | | | |
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gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 07/16/2007 7:44 PM |
| | There are a lot of Living Greyhawk games, each one giving several points. Regionals give one, Cores give 2, and values are doubled at big conventions like GenCon or D&D Experience. Even semi-regular play can ratchet up the points pretty quickly. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
Champion of Radiant Sevant | |
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zenthrus
Commander
4647 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 07/16/2007 8:12 PM |
| Best way to acrue points is to run WotC published adventures (i.e. fantastic locations, Red Hand of Doom, etc) OR to run the Eberron Adventure (Blackwheel Company/Covenant of Light/etc).
Only way to accrue more points running homebrew is to game twice a week, | |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
Champion of Dwarven Thunderlashers
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realmaster
Underboss
1906 Posts
Home of the 2002 Winter Olympics
| | 07/16/2007 10:34 PM |
| there is the basic game box set for D&D beginners.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/966470000 | |
Thanks, realmaster. Let's split up!!!!!
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