[D&D 5e] Advice for a Level 1 Dungeon Master

After playing my first proper D&D game (as a PC) here for over a year, I've convinced 3 friends to have a go at tabletop D&D in a few weeks. We've all been playing videogames/boardgames for years so we know all the tropes and the D&D setting, how RPGs "work", and they have some level of familiarity with basic tabletop RPG concepts. However, this is my first time DMing, and their first time (AFAIK) playing in an actual tabletop game.

I'm planning on starting with the D&D Starter Set (5e) as that has some pre-gen characters if my friends don't get around to making their own (which I've asked them to do ahead of time) and an adventure for level 1 characters, plus it comes with dice etc and generally seems like good value.

So, I'm looking for advice on how to prep for DMing. For example, something I read elsewhere was "get your PCs to level 2 asap as level 1 guys are pretty fragile". I have a handle on how a game runs with respect to the combat mechanics, skill checks, and the like, but never having played a game in person I imagine there are some differences with how you handle various aspects. What's a good way to sketch maps? Show the layout of the current area?

Any tips, tricks, or links to aforementioned "tips & tricks" would be greatly appreciated.

My biggest piece of advice for new GMs: don't sweat the small stuff. Whether with rookies or veterans, you lead the game; don't let rules get in the way of fun. There'll almost never be a reason to stop the game to dig through the books for an obscure detail/rule. If you're unsure, I always recommend making it up and then looking it up later.

I don't think 5e suffers from the level 1 problem as much as older editions did, but levels are always fun. If you're running the starter kit adventure, just follow it and give XP when it says, and throw in small bonuses when you feel is appropriate. You'll learn over time when is actually appropriate or not.

For stuff like maps, that'll depend on the style you develop. Try one fight where you show a lot of detail. Try another fight with a lot of theater of the mind. See how both work for you and then find your comfort zone.

Over all, don't be afraid to make mistakes, then as GM and god, forget those mistakes and say that's what you intended to do all along!

Thanks. Yeah 2 of the 4 of us are big Adventure Zone fans (and 1 more has just started listening) so I think we're all in favour of goofs and being fast and loose with the rules, versus rules-lawyering and RPGs Are Serious Business.

That's awesome!

I think something that may help is to think of yourself as someone facilitating what the players come up with, rather than a computer executing instructions written in the module. So, feel free to break rules and just skip things if goes with the vibe. Of course, this is a case-by-case kinda thing, and sometimes you'll regret doing that, but that's OK! You make the best call you can in the flow of the game.

As for player death, this depends greatly on the style you and your players like, but it's OK for first level guys to die in a lot of contexts. The first time I killed a group of players, everyone got super depressed and sat out in front of the public library (where we had been playing) and wondered if we should even continue. I felt bad! However, given that you're not 16-year-olds that are used to games where you "lose", I think it should be less of a big deal.

Just for anyone else who's interested, the Stack Exchange RPG forum has some good threads on the Starter Set campaign. Also, here's a nice cheat sheet someone made.

One of the cardinal rules I was given was to "always find a way to say yes (within reason)." If the player wants to do something crazy, let them, and come up with a reasonable way to work it out. They might succeed and it makes for a great story, or they might fail but at least it's on their terms (and still makes for a great story).

That also brings up the point of not setting them up so they fail. Don't just think, "it will never work, so I'll say yes and let them try, but I already know how to end it badly." That's just a roundabout way of saying no.

Obviously there's a fine line between being permissive and restrictive, and you always want to maintain game balance. One of my early learning lessons was during a Star Wars game, when the players tried to ask the Rebellion for a Nebulon-B cruiser to use in their latest mission. I told them no, that was a ridiculous request, let's move on. But from that point on, it was a contentious game and didn't last.

What I should have done was roleplay it out and let the players roll against their Rebel contact/officer. If they fail, the officer says that they cannot afford to give them such a huge ship for their secret mission, and the cruiser would definitely blow their cover. If they succeed, they get the ship and now have to figure out how to crew it, maintain it, and run past Imperial checkpoints.

I find it hard to improvise as a DM on a tabletop setting, personally. But I think with practice and a forgiving group, you can develop these skills.

Many good suggestions and ideas from Cancer Man and others. I want to reiterate that finding a way to "say yes" is important. Say yes a lot more than you say no. When you say 'no' you're frequently boxing the players into /your/ adventure rather than serving as a narrator and enabler of their adventure.

As an example, I've had a droid in a campaign fire up an impromtu birthday party in an Imperial base. This is not something that aligns well with Star Wars canon, but it fit the adventure and it accomplished something with a twist. I could have said "the Imperials don't do birthday parties" and it probably would have fit with how one imagines the Imperial army operates, but.. you know what? It was more fun to say yes. :)

I'd advise you to read and re-read the adventure. Try and be super familiar with the flow of the story and the structure of the environment. This will help you when the players move "off script" and you need to improvise. Think about ways for your characters to Not Do What You Expect in each of the encounters of the adventure. "What if they don't go inside this store and talk o this important NPC? What if Bob insults the NPC and starts a fight and he dies before they get the information they need?" etc. this is the best way to be prepared (with the story/setting and less so with the rules).

I can't stress this bit of advice enough. Your players WILL go off script at some point in the adventure. Sometimes, they go so far off-script that it becomes an entirely new adventure. Being able to improvise and fill in the blanks when your players don't Do What You Expect is a valuable skill in a GM's set...and it makes the game so much more fun than a GM that just railroads the plot home.

And with all that said, I'm gonna say this: as a new GM and with new players, railroading is not a bad idea. You'll always hear about how railroading is too restricting, not creative, w/e else, but who cares? You guys are new, you want to learn, things will go wrong. Of course, you don't want to just go "Sorry, no, you can't do that because the adventure doesn't go that way." Instead, you'll want to learn how to introduce road blocks, NPCs, etc, that guide the characters back in track.

Thanks for all the tips guys, really appreciate it.

Graph paper for maps. Lots of graph paper. And Google up some stock maps of small dungeons, fortresses, temples, etc for when the players wander off-script.

As you know, notinventedhere, the DMing I do these days is pbp, which gives me an awful lot of leeway to structure things on an ad hoc basis, let the players steer the ship, and procedurally generate towns and dungeons as needed. I think for an in-person tabletop setting it's good to have the discrete sessions fairly well blocked out (i.e. "today, we're going to explore the cavern of Fintoozler/raid the tower of Zardoz/investigate the strange village of the Basketheads/etc") but not overplan the overall campaign, so the players can make decisions that steer the story (like, "ok, we killed the centipede wizard, now we can decide either to return the Grobstone to the mushroom people, or we can sell it on the black market of Underfilth, or return to Kingstool and betray our benefactors, etc etc"). And it definitely helps to have some kind of MacGuffin to hang over their heads so when they really get in the weeds you can kind of slap that down on the table like a magnet to reorient everybody in a productive direction ("oh no, word on the street is that the portal to Gehenna is getting bigger, we'd better get back to finding those sealing stones").

5e is pretty forgiving about death and gives level 1 players a lot to work with so I wouldn't worry about early-game squishiness too much.

Thanks PBO. I will definitely pick up graph paper for maps, and am planning on using this for combat.

I might be jumping the gun a little here, but once you get more comfortable as a GM and want to try your hand at a more "custom" adventure, you might want to take a look at this right here. I'm using the Pathfinder version of this generator for my game, and I love it...and there are plenty of other tools to assist GMs on that site. :)

I really like those dungeon generators, but I always have to turn off the dead ends. It's like they think everyone builds their dungeons with massive amounts of pointless corridors that lead nowhere.

Yes, I like that tool (and the site) as more of a guideline to build the basic layout before I step in to customize it to what I think should actually be there. The site itself is also chock full of random generators for worlds, towns, taverns, and treasure. Though like before, as guidelines.

The generators are cool, thanks. I think it'll be a while before we get through the starter set though (from what I've read it's 5 chapters of 3-4 hours each, and we only see each other every couple of months).

Oooooh, I like this. This could be useful for generating some barebones stuff to flesh out more. :)

Some GMs fall into the trap of thinking of the game as "GM vs the Players". Spoiler alert, you win if that's the case. You job is not to kill the players or even win, your job is to FORCE THEM to have fun. My approach is similar to that of CancerMan and others in that I like to make my characters feel powerful. The wizard throws a fireball into a group of goblins that are surrounded by a bunch of flammable objects? Roll extra damage. Reward cleverness, slap the wrists of minmaxers early, and (for your first several games) prohibit inparty fighting (eg do not let the rouge steal from party members and such). Infighting can be fun to handle as a GM, but you really need to get the basics down first (not trying to be condescending just speaking from hard won experience). Finally, for the sake of game flow don't feel bad about saying "screw the rules, this is what happens," if you can't find the rule quickly. It is easy to get bogged down in encumbrance or some such BS that adds very little to the game IMO.

Thanks navyericj, that's definitely the way I want to run the game - having fun and not worrying too much about the rules. I'll hope to take a lot of inspiration from The Adventure Zone - bending the rules a bit here and there if the player wants to do something inventive or funny.
Turns out I'll have 4 PCs in my game which saves me from having to scale down the difficulty or add in an NPC party member. Current characters are an Elf Druid, Tiefling Rogue, and Gnome Warlock. Our game is tomorrow night, and I've got most of the prep done and materials organised. I'll report back on how it went, but I'm really looking forward to it. Will probably post some thoughts as we play on my Twitter.
Thanks to everyone who offered advice!

It went really well!
As well as the characters above we also had a half-orc barbarian (seen here to the left of the floppy-hatted rogue). Everyone really got into it and a lot of laughs were had. Over the course of 3.5 hrs on Saturday evening and 1.5 hours on Sunday they defeated the goblin ambush and killed most of the inhabitants of Cragmaw Cave (including chasing down, rugby-tackling, and beheading a fleeing Klarg).
I had to fudge a couple of rolls to keep them alive - that goblin ambush really is quite lethal (despite them not being surprised they all rolled low initiative so the gobbos all got a turn first) - and spread out the enemy attacks a bit but it wasn't too obvious and I tried to make it "thematic" (Klarg going after the charmed wolf attacking Ripper instead of the PCs for example).
A good running joke emerged about the barbarian being addicted to salted pork which explained all his missed attack rolls (greasy fingers).
Next time I will print out everyone's spells and abilities separate from the PHB for easier reference (although just having photos on our phones of the spell details worked OK). The Pathfinder grid map worked really well with whiteboard markers as did the customisable Lego figures (enemies figures were D&D miniatures which was OK but in future Lego goblins would be nice).
Hopefully they'll all be up for continuing the adventure next time although given we variously live in Birmingham, London, and Brighton, that unfortunately won't be for a couple of months probably.

Thanks to everyone who offered up advice, it was really useful.