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Jul 17, 2012 -- 2:17PM, n0ahhh wrote:

Hello all,

So my friends and I are all brand new to D&D and we'd like to learn get our adventures started. However since none of us are experienced, we don't know how to be a DM. Now there are only 4 of us (myself included) for right now, and I just bought a bundle of books off ebay that contain 3 player's handbooks and the dungeon masters guide (all 4E; super convenient given my group's small size).

My question: Should I just try to learn how to DM from the beginning? Or is it better to go out and search for a DM who can help us?

I don't mind being a DM, it's just that because I am just as new as everyone else in my group, it's going to be really difficult/confusing for me to keep up with both creating the adventure and being a part of it (being the DM vs. PC). I also want our first meeting to be smooth and fluid because I'd like to keep my friends interested in the game. 

Has anyone been in this situation before? Can you offer me any advice?

Thanks in advance!
 

welcome to the game. i think you sound the most motivated so typically, that makes you the dm. you will likely see a lot of advice floating around, but ill try to make it as simple as possible

you have good books in your hands, the dungeon masters guide (im assuming 'dmg 1' by james wyatt) has a ton of good advice on running games. for adventures, youre in luck, they give you this puppy free on the site, it is more than enough to keep yall playing for a while

www.wizards.com/dnd/files/H1.pdf

while i enjoy making characters a lot, some dont. if you need some pre-generated characters try here, starting at page 16

www.wizards.com/dnd/files/QuickStartRule...


you can find more "pre-gens" here*

dungeonsmaster.com/pre-generated-charact...

*note that some of these classes are not in your books


there have been a lot of additions and changes since the game came out. best not to worry about that right now. with your books you have everything you really need to play. you might want to buy tiles and a battle mat and some minis or tokens, but you can get by with graph paper and buttons if you have to

if you dont like how skill challenges run, just skip them or roleplay it

good luck, im sure you will have fun. as you learn you can make it as complicated and complex as you want but my advice is keep it simple, go with what i told you until you learn


*also, as you will just have three players, you will want to adjust the difficulty down. the dmg has advice on this. i have run a three person game and its quick and fun but i would encourage at least one player to be a 'leader' (healer type)

Jul 17, 2012 -- 3:45PM, n0ahhh wrote:

 Holy wow! Thanks for taking the time to create a really insightful post! :D

Yeah, I think i am the most motivated to play, since I've been really interested in D&D since I was a young teenager (I'm 24 now). I never had anyone to play with or anyone to guide me in the right direction, so that's why I'd like to make things run as smoothly as possible for my friends, so that they'll stay interested in it.

And thanks for the links ! That pdf is pretty handy! It's funny because the bundle I bought actually includes a hard-copy of Keep on the Shadowfell, as well as a copy of Thunderspire Labyrinth, and a Red Box Starter set. Haha, so I *think* I'll be good on extras (tiles, minis, etc.) for now?

Thanks !

youre welcome. just so you know, there is more than one way to get started with 4e. i didnt realize from your first post that you had the red box. you could always just start with that and the adventure in there; it might be more fun to make your characters that way. either way, it isnt 100% compatible with the rest of the game. not to the point that it is its 'own thing', but there are some fairly significant changes you would need to make if you start with the red box then move on to 4e proper

here is the link to convert red box pcs should you need it, but note they convert to classes that arent in your books. that might be reason enough not to use the characters from it, although the adventure would still be fair game. or you could buy the other book

wizards.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/8096...

wizards.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/...

the adventure in there is pretty good though

sorry if this is confusing, i am trying to keep it simple but the way they released products for this edition was pretty bizarre and sometimes hard for new players to grasp