One of my friends just opened a new gamestore last weekend here in Canberra, and hasn't been able to find someone to run D&D Encounters for the store yet.
While I'm technically free on Wednesdays (apparently Encounters has to be run on Wednesdays, for some reason), it's one of two nights a week I can guarantee I have to myself. Plus I haven't even had an opportunity to read the rules for 5E since early in the playtest. I'm looking at maybe at least getting it running for him while we find someone to run it on a more permanent basis, but my concern is the lack of rules knowledge.
So I was wondering if anyone's running it at the moment, and what their experiences have been? I'm not able to get my hands on a copy of the DMs guide at the moment (he doesn't have a store copy yet), so I'd be relying on whatever resources are available online. Would the online resources be sufficient, or am I going to definitely need a copy of the books?
I can't speak to DM'ing Encounters but as far as your last question regarding the necessity of the DM Guide...you probably don't need it.
Other than the information for magic items, the vast majority of the book falls squarely in the category of "fluff" aimed at new DM's to help them with the basics of creating adventures, a world setting and a thematic campaign.
There ARE some rules on things like disease and poison as well as some variant rules for resting, spell points, flanking, facing, etc. but none of those are really essential for running most games.
Thanks Logan. Will probably still try to find someone else to run it as a preference, but I think I should be able to handle it for a while if needed.