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I want to start off with an apology.  I realize that the title I gave this thread might not be the most informative but it's what I came up with.  I've been travelling for a while and will finally be getting back home soon.  I've never played D&D with the friends I grew up with, but a lot of them have migrated back to our hometown over the years and, for the first time in over a decade, we'll all be in the same place.  This, I have decided, is my chance to introduce them to D&D.  They've all played RPGs, but never D&D.

Over the past few months, I have been in contact with each of the players and have walked them through picking a character that would be right for them.  I basically just interviewed them and then began to lay out the various classes and races as we went through the process.  At this point, they are all very excited about getting to play their characters.  One issue, though.  I have forbidden them to discuss their character with anyone else that will be playing in the game.

My thinking was that, as a group of complete newbies, they'd basically get to show off their characters and would have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each class as the game progresses.  I'm interested to see how the players deal with trying to describe their characters and how they will learn to find some synergy with their abilities.

I was really excited about this until I ran into a fellow D&D gamer in Morocco and he berated me for doing things this way.  As the DM, I feel confident that they have a balanced group and I know that I can tailor any encounters, especially in the beginning, to make them challenging enough without mopping the floor with them.  They've got all four roles covered with a bit of overlap in the form of two additional players.  Am I doing my players a disservice by trying this?

There is only one core rule of DMing:  As long as everyone is having fun, you're doing it right.

The player you talked to clearly would not have enjoyed this.  That's his right.  He's also not playing in your campaign, so he's completely irrelevant.  I assume you know your friends, and I assume they'd have complained about it if they had a problem.


It sounds to me like you're doing everything you can to make sure everyone has fun and is excited to play.  That means that you're doing it right.

Aug 6, 2011 -- 2:43PM, Krusk wrote:

Don't worry. DND attracts an element of know it alls. A lot of those know it alls are total jerks who will berate you for "Doing it wrong". (Some know it alls are super nice, and are great teachers who sincerly want to help)
 

Hey, quit stereotyping knowitalls!  Some of us are huge jerks who are terrible teachers but still try to help for some reason