New to P&P games and i want to DM, Help!


Advice


Hello, i'm new to this forums and also to Pen and paper games as a whole, so forgive me if my terminology is off. just a couple weeks ago some online friends invited me to play in an online campaign in Pathfinders, i said why not and had a ton of fun the last two meets. i've been reading up on the rules in my spare time for the past few weeks and when i told my Real Life friends about it they were interested in starting a Pen and Paper group, all of us (with the exception of one) are completely new to Pen and paper and being that its going to be an actual sit down thing as opposed to internet we have no idea where to begin. But i volunteered to be the DM (or GM whichever its called in pathfinder).

I personally own the Pathfinders Core rule book as well as a couple sets of dice, but i'm a little too short on cash to buy the dungeon masters guide or beastiary until my next pay check so i decided i would just use online resources until i could get them. All the same- i don't know where to begin and have a couple questions that might really narrow down and could use some help answering.

Firstly, Other than bought maps- What do you use as a map for battles? do you just get one of the large grid boards and draw on them? how much is left up to imagination in most of your games? while playing online we have a great DM who (if we decide to go somewhere he doesn't expect) will take give us a ten minute break to draw up a simple but quick map.

on that note, what do you do when your characters like to hijack your story? especially if its a dangerous place that you have to fill in with monsters. from what i saw it looks like it takes time to actually fill up a challenging map with the correct amount of EXP.

also, how do you successfully START a story? i realize that it depends on the story- but how do characters normally meet if they have never met before? put them in a tavern? let them figure it out themselfs?

Finally, are there any good and cheap premade campaigns for levels 1-5ish that you would recommend? i have some ideas but things i need to hammer out and probably need more DMing experience to do


Don't know what you finances warrant as cheap. To start with, I'm a big fan of the Beginners Box for beginners. I got it for my nephew at Christmas, since then he's run three adventures using it and the PRD (the link to the Pathfinder PRD is on the left of this page under, helpfully, links.) I think there are also some free beginner friendly Pathfinder modules floating around the Paizo site.

Since you're a new DM with new players, use a published adventure your first time. Tell them up front that this is a test run for all of you the point of which is to give you all practice with the rules and the flow of the game. As such, you want to stick to the adventure you've already prepped. In time, you will be a butt kicking DM who can make exciting stuff up on the fly, but realistically you may not ready for that yet. When they go off on some tangent, play along if you're comfortable or say, "Sorry, I don't think we can do that tonight. But that's a great idea I'll look into expanding into an adventure next week."

There's nothing saying the characters have never met before. If you feel comfortable with it, let your players establish relationships between the characters during character creation.


hey thanks! and Cheap would be anything under $50, for me at least. if its for the good of the group we could for sure pool together some more funds its just that they aren't too keen on paying a lot for something they might not be interested in. i'll look around for some of the cheaper adventures.

sooo beginners box, i'll go check it out!


Free Modules:
*Hollows-Last-Hope
*Revenge-of-the-Kobold-King

Master-of-the-Fallen-Fortress
We-Be-Goblins

*Run under 3.5 rules so some updating is needed;
*Part of the DarkMoon Vale series of modules;
Hollows Last Hope -> Crown of the Kobold King -> Revenge of the Kobold King -> Carnival of Tears -> Hungry are the Dead.

All Core book reference sites (bestiary included)
Pathfinder Reference Document

d20pfsrd.com

The Exchange

There are many ways for your party to meet one another. You basically need a way to bind them together. Many times the future party members are in an location (sometimes a tavern) when something happens that requires people to do something (it falls under attack, someone tacks up a bounty poster, someone from a nearby village is begging for aid).

Sometimes I start the adventure and simply state that the party already knows each other. One player is the Count's son and the others are retainers in his household and have known each other for years. Sometimes they all have the same employer.


About bringing characters together and starting the story: taverns are boring and overdone. And what if one of your characters is a teetotaler? The Paizo modules and adventure paths I've looked through / played through have character traits that link the players into the story somehow. They're varied and specific to each story, but provide a lot more flavor (and storytelling hooks for you as a DM) than "so you're in a tavern one night and ...". Avoiding the tavern cliché is probably one of my favorite things about Paizo's adventures. It's a tough thing to do, and they do it well.


DM Azure_Zero wrote:

Free Modules:

*Hollows-Last-Hope
*Revenge-of-the-Kobold-King

Master-of-the-Fallen-Fortress
We-Be-Goblins

*Run under 3.5 rules so some updating is needed;
*Part of the DarkMoon Vale series of modules;
Hollows Last Hope -> Crown of the Kobold King -> Revenge of the Kobold King -> Carnival of Tears -> Hungry are the Dead.

All Core book reference sites (bestiary included)
Pathfinder Reference Document

d20pfsrd.com

d20pfsrd conversions

The good people at the pathfinder srd have done some converting work already for some of these adventures to make them pathfinder compatible.

The Exchange

Chris Nehren wrote:
About bringing characters together and starting the story: taverns are boring and overdone. And what if one of your characters is a teetotaler? The Paizo modules and adventure paths I've looked through / played through have character traits that link the players into the story somehow. They're varied and specific to each story, but provide a lot more flavor (and storytelling hooks for you as a DM) than "so you're in a tavern one night and ...". Avoiding the tavern cliché is probably one of my favorite things about Paizo's adventures. It's a tough thing to do, and they do it well.

It may seem overdone for us blooded veterans, but everything old is new if you've never played before.


If you are just starting out, I second that a published adventure is the way to go. I started DMing for a group of friends about a year and a half ago. We only play about once a month, so we still haven't gone very far. (currently level 4)

Take a look at the modules available from Paizo. Pick a first level one and go with it. I went through Crypt of the Everflame as a player the first time that I played Pathfinder. It's a darn good introduction to the game mechanics. Also, since it's a dungeon crawl, you don't have to worry too much about the players going off on a tangent. Some people will tell you that it has a "railroad plot," meaning that there is not a lot of room for the players to go off and do other stuff. They are correct, and this is VERY helpful for a new GM since you know what is coming up next.

For maps: I use a Chessex 1" grid map and water based markers (mat was about $30). Some people use gaming paper. Office supply stores sell giant 1" grid pads for presentations. I have also used a whiteboard in the past. If you Decide to run Crypt of the Everflame and want to spend more money here, the Dungeon Flip-mat is the map from Crypt of the Everflame. There are lots of other flip mats for sale too.

For minis on a budget. Pennies are medium sized. You can use a marker to put numbers on them and you have monsters! The cap from a Gatorade (or similar) bottle is size large. Anything bigger than that, we cut out a square of construction paper. You could also look at the Bestiary box for $35.


VDZ wrote:

Hello, i'm new to this forums and also to Pen and paper games as a whole, so forgive me if my terminology is off. just a couple weeks ago some online friends invited me to play in an online campaign in Pathfinders, i said why not and had a ton of fun the last two meets. i've been reading up on the rules in my spare time for the past few weeks and when i told my Real Life friends about it they were interested in starting a Pen and Paper group, all of us (with the exception of one) are completely new to Pen and paper and being that its going to be an actual sit down thing as opposed to internet we have no idea where to begin. But i volunteered to be the DM (or GM whichever its called in pathfinder).

Awesome, welcome to the hobby! And dont worry about the DM GM distinction, the community cant agree either. Technically DM is specifically for people playing branded Dungeons and Dragons, but I dont plan on changing what I call the person behind the screen.

Quote:

I personally own the Pathfinders Core rule book as well as a couple sets of dice, but i'm a little too short on cash to buy the dungeon masters guide or beastiary until my next pay check so i decided i would just use online resources until i could get them. All the same- i don't know where to begin and have a couple questions that might really narrow down and could use some help answering.

Firstly, Other than bought maps- What do you use as a map for battles? do you just get one of the large grid boards and draw on them? how much is left up to imagination in most of your games? while playing online we have a great DM who (if we decide to go somewhere he doesn't expect) will take give us a ten minute break to draw up a simple but quick map.

There are a TON of options here. But my personal favorite is a dry erase mat that you can write on with dry erase markers. Something like this

The blank map with the squares marked off means you can turn it into anything you want with a set of dry erase markers.

If you are looking for a really cheap but permanent option, there is gaming paper. Which come in large (12 foot long) rolls of paper that you can make permanent maps on. This also saves the need to stop in the middle of a session to draw the map, you can draw them all out ahead of time (the dry erase board can only have one drawn at a time).

These are the 2 cheapest solutions to dealing with the gaming board.

In terms of detail, I tend to draw a very basic map, and fill in the details with my description. You should experiment with levels of detail in your maps and decide what you like best.

Quote:

on that note, what do you do when your characters like to hijack your story? especially if its a dangerous place that you have to fill in with monsters. from what i saw it looks like it takes time to actually fill up a challenging map with the correct amount of EXP.

First and formost. The players cannot 'hijack' the story. Dont fall into this mindset. They are the main characters of the story. Your job is to set the stage and control the world. Theirs is to drive the story through that world. If the players AREN'T 'hijacking' your story, something is wrong. Roleplaying isnt DM story time. Its a collective effort to tell a story together.

And certainly it is a challenge to create an adventure from scratch if you have no experience with it. Like others said I strongly recommend starting with published adventures, and for your group, the begginner box seams ideal. It was literally made for people like you who are just getting into the hobby. It will explain things that the core rules take for granted, and people like me (who have been playing for years) forgot we ever had to learn in the first place.

Quote:

also, how do you successfully START a story? i realize that it depends on the story- but how do characters normally meet if they have never met before? put them in a tavern? let them figure it out themselfs?

One of the most important thing to do is to establish the Player Characters' relationships to eachother. You need to give them a chance to bind together as a group. They are in for some tough times ahead (constant threat of horrible death and all). A divided or unconnected party can really derail a game.

As a begginner gm one of the best ways to start off is to say, 'You all grew up in village x, you knew eachother as children, now you are grown up, oh and goblins are attacking your town,' and go from there. I did this one myself. And to a brand new group it wont be a painful cliche

Quote:


Finally, are there any good and cheap premade campaigns for levels 1-5ish that you would recommend? i have some ideas but things i need to hammer out and probably need more DMing experience to do

I all kinds of recommend the begginner box. It is bellow your cheap threshold, specifically designed for begginners and is designed for levels 1-5. Get your feet wet with that and then decide how you want to proceed from there. Once you have a better idea of the kind of game you want to play, you can get more specfic help on future adventure creation if thats the route you decide to go. I personally prefer to use published adventures exclusively now, modifying them to my taste.

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